Mother's Lament

Mother’s Lament

Once upon a time, I lay a-bed and slept.

I slept and slept till could sleep no more… 

Slept till wakened by my lover’s kiss.

To sleep, per chance to dream…

Sleep, glorious sleep, sleep, sleep!

Sleep deprived, to old to nap… 

Oh to revel and lie a bed!

To sleep till slept enough!

To roll over and sleep some more…

Just… just because I can!

Sigh. To sleep through the night…

Not be woken by patter of feet…

Clonk and jangle of the door’s rattle!

To wake to the day’s bright sun…

Oh to sleep past the dayspring…

To lie a bed till well past dawn!

Once, I dreamed of glory and fame.

I dreamt of being a great success.

Dreams of fabulous wealth danced in my head…

Of heroic deeds and wild acclaim.

Now ‘ere night falls, I close my eyes…

And pray and dream… of  SLEEP!

Shariara's Lament

Lyrics sung by a lonely soul along the shore of a stormy sea…

I lift my eyes to see you

Your smile once shone on me

We danced a while as one heart

Now I dance alone

The dance plays on

and alone I weep

for a promise lost

in fading memories

You sailed away

on a stormy day

And sank beneath the briny sea

I lift my eyes to see you

Your smile once shone on me

We danced a while as one heart

Now I dance alone

So now I wait

for your shade’s return

I stalk this shore

dancing here for you

With your faithful hound

trailing by my side

I embrace the foamy brine alone

I lift my eyes to see you

Your smile once shone on me

We danced a while as one heart

Now I dance alone

I composed the lyrics and the tune. I also provided the vocals and the sound mix. The above drawing is also by me.

by D. Denise Dianaty

@ 10 October 2014

Pick up your own copy of my first book of poetry at My Life In Poetry

Shadows of Christmas

Advent is our Hope against the darkness,

Living into the expectation of Christ.

Who is the Light born to dispel shadows

From the hearts of the People of Advent.

At the center of His holy Nativity are

Shadows of pasts, Crucifixion, and Ascension

In dark of night, from the dark of the stable

Emmanuel, the Light was born at Christmas.

In the shadows of all our Christmases

We see shadows of the past behind us,

And live the present in the shadows of Hope.

In shadows of Hope, look to an eternal future.

Jeremiah 29:11-14 -- A poem

NIV Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD

Jeremiah 29:11-14

I’ve been stretched out

Broken on the rack of life

Had the pieces picked up

And put together again

Only to be wrecked once more

I’ve watched my dreams shatter

Seen them ground away

Become sand on the endless shore

Windswept and lonely in the storm

Where broken yesterdays fall

I thought all those yesterdays

Would be my only ever futures

Repeating… repeating… repeating pain

Fire raining ‘pon my dreams 

As I danced on the edge of a volcano

’Til at last the sandy shore

Brought me to this protected harbor

Where the storms cannot batter me

And I have learned that the fires

Are the forge that has made me

I look back ‘pon those yesterdays

Now I know they were creating

A space of endless gratitude

For the joys of my now… my future

I see Your mighty plan writ in the past

I know the promise fulfilled 

Of Your great work for me… for us

I know now You heard my every cry

And used the fires to Your purpose 

To give me hope and to prosper

“And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history – money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery – the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.” –C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: ‘Go down again - I dwell among the people.'” -- John Henry Newman

D. Denise Dianaty
© 04 September 2014

Pick up your own copy of my first book of poetry, entitled My Life In Poetry at D. Denise Dianaty

Empty Soul

An introduction to Greedy-Greedy…

Empty Soul

Plagiarism is the enslavement of someone else's genius.

Greedy Greedy, riddle me this…

Rhyme me a rhyme from the black abyss

You bought it all and you’ll buy more.

There’s never enough ‘cause there’s nothin’ in you.

You’ll take and buy and steal and grasp,

Your greedy, grasping heart never satisfied.

No price, no fame, no infamy, nor glory gained

For you, Greedy Greedy, is never enough.

More and more and more and more

Sucked down into the black abyss…

Used up, discarded and never mourned…

“Cause more and more and more and more 

Is just… can never ever be enough.

Empty hands and empty heart…

And empty life brings empty soul, 

And soulless life gives no gifts.

The soulless stealing another's gifts

Gifts they lack because

They've emptied their souls

In hot pursuit of greed…

Inspiration… just another empty, empty thing…

A thing that can’t be bought by you.

So, Greedy Greedy, you steal it,

You claim it, you take it as your own.

You never give… you only take,

Wondering why… why your life…

Your empty life turned out this way.

Greedy Greedy, you think you have it all,

And have the right to ever and ever more,

Never understanding that all you take,

Draining you out, makes you

Ever and ever more an empty soul.

When I'm Gone…

We all know how short is Life. Some of us know ours will be shorter still. I have often felt that my life will not be long like those who came before me. My Gran lived to 90 and her mother lived to 89. A great, great grandmother (I think on my Gran's father's side) lived to 104. Frankly, I'm surprised to still be here at 51. I didn't try very hard to get here, that's certain. I never felt I had a reason to get here before I met my husband and we had our son. Now, I have so much to live for. But, I don't fret that I still feel I have little time left to me. I'm thankful every morning for another day… another day of seeing my son grow and become the wonderful person I can already see in him. 

I make now,
to all who know me, 
a request 
to remember me 
not with great, snot-gobbery tears, 
blobbing down emptily 
to dry and be forgotten. 

Celebrate me 
when I've passed. 
All I ask 
is that when I'm gone, 
in my name, 
please spend just one day… 
One day a year…
It's not too much to ask…

Spend a day
And think of my heart
Honor me
in some simple way
to make your corner of this world
A better place for others,
by service to those in need. 

Volunteer in a shelter. Lend your strength to a worthy cause, like Habitat for Humanity. Or spend a day helping feed the hungry and/or homeless. Spend a day volunteering in a nursing home. Do something like that in my name and that will be, to me, the best way I could ever be remembered.

Why Do We Give Presents at Christmas?

Why do we give Christmas presents? Is there a point… a deeper meaning to our gift giving? Shouldn't there be?

I don't know if it was always the case, but I find I love the experience of giving. I love picking just the right gift, that, to me, seems to be the perfect something that person would love. I often give gifts I would personally never want, but am convinced the recipient will love. (I wish I could say the same of gifts I've received; but I digress.) I want my son to know that feeling too and hope I’ve done the right things to teach him how to give.

How do we and why should we give? 

We should give selflessly. Gifts should always be about the recipient and never the giver. You simply don’t give gifts expecting something of equal value in return. I think it’s okay to expect equal sentiment, though. Don’t give someone what you’d like to receive; that’s just plain self-centered. And, it’s the height of egoism to presume that because you’d love to have it, so would anyone else. This is a wide and varied world and it’s our differences that paint the truest wonders of this existence — how very dull life would be if everyone had the identical tastes in everything. 

Santa is a lesson is selfless giving — gifts given in generosity and anonymity for all the years of our childhood. Through the magic of Santa we may learn to give selflessly and generously, with no immediate hope of gratitude or accolades. But, why do we give gifts? Why do we continue to uphold the magic of Santa in memory of a bishop who lived so very long ago in a place so far away? 

I uphold the ideal of Santa because St. Nicholas gave selflessly in honor of Christ. Christ is the point. We give gifts in remembrance of the Gifts of the Magi to the infant Christ. And, we give gifts in honor of the great Gift of Christ, our Lord Emmanuel to all the world… we offer gifts to honor the birth of a homeless, Middle Eastern refugee baby, born in a most humble estate…we give to honor the birth of the Gift of Salvation. 

As parents… as Christians… let us not forget to impart the reason, the foundation of our sacred Christmas. Let us remember why the season seems to engender so much of our better natures as human beings. Further, please, don’t forget that the gift of our time, our hospitality, and service to those in need are greater and more necessary gifts than all the worldly trinkets we might purchase. 

Pick up your own copy of my first book of poetry at My Life In Poetry