skies – Colleen Keller Breuning

Paradise Found

Paradise Found

In cornflower skies
amber sun plays hide and seek
with cumulus clouds

the wildlife beckons
from the depths of green forest
hooting of the owl

squirrels scurry up trees
shenanigans in the woods
with frisky chipmunks

bumblebees hover
feasting in sunflower fields
standing tall and proud

dog days of summer
July slides into August
as twilight descends

now night comes calling
as catbirds sing lullabies
crickets harmonize

in my blue heaven
stars twinkle on black velvet
my paradise found

Colleen Keller Breuning @ 2023
July 22, 2023

Happy Saturday! Just a quick write inspired by the writing challenge prompts. All I have to do is look out my window and see the beauty of nature for some inspiration! Also, check out David Darling if you are looking for some soothing and lovely cello music. “Cello Blue” is one of my favorites, as it incorporates peaceful birdsong. The video is posted below, give it a play as you read.

I feel so blessed to live out in the country in northwest Virginia, where we experience the delightful change in seasons. There is also a plethora of wildlife such as deer, birds, chipmunks, squirrels, wild turkey, beavers, owls, eagles, geese, heron and even racoons (yes, we had one here last week)! I used to put out old fruit such as apples and berries for the deer that come through nightly and graze. However, when Dan spotted Rocky Racoon grifting an entire block of suet from the feeder in broad daylight, I had to discontinue that ritual. Hopefully Rocky has moved on, we have not seen him since. Now we have confirmed the identity of the suspect who stole two of our suet feeders in the past few months….

Have a great weekend and enjoy this beautiful summer weather!

Xoxo Colleen

Mood: Serene
Inspiration: “Cello Blue” by David Darling

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 3.15 – Shenanigans!
Hard Bonus: Reference a Rick Moranis movie (The Wild Life & My Blue Heaven)
Easy Bonus: Include a childhood game (Hide and Seek)

Water Lilies

Water Lilies

Late
summer
pale blue skies

Wings
flitting
dragonflies

Dew
gathers
lily blooms

Air
filling
sweet perfume

Pale
yellow
floating free

Frogs
gloating
summer spree

Sun
blazing
crystal sparks

Light
fading
into dark

Moon
beckons
rising high

Stars
twinkling
velvet night

Buds
closing
until morn

Day
ending
hope reborn

Colleen Keller Breuning © 2022
August 13, 2022

This is just a little ditty that I was playing around with that resulted in a simplistic imagery poem. It started with the title “Water Lilies” and morphed from there. The structure was the 3 line stanza composition with syllable of 1-2-3 and a rhyme scheme with the last line of two stanzas matching throughout. I couldn’t find any name for this, maybe I invented it….but I doubt it! If any of you poets out there know a term for this format, please let me know. I love experimenting with the rhyme and structure of the different poetry forms.

As always, I am truly inspired by all things in nature (as well as music)! So much beauty to behold in summer, and it’s hard to believe it is already mid-August. I guess this is my way of trying to hold onto these long, lazy summer days a little longer, or to at least have some memories to revisit during cold winter days. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

xoxo Colleen

“Time Forgotten” by Brian Crain & Rita Chepurchenko

Broken Clouds

Broken Clouds

Ashen gray clouds
hang low to the ground
a thick layer of fog
rising like dense smoke
infusing the atmosphere
with its petulant moods.

All I see is alabaster sky.
The moon has gone missing,
the sun hidden in a sempiternal stretch
of colorless stratus, dull like
a bolt of sparkly silver tulle
that has lost its shine.

And I am walking on broken clouds,
knee deep in ambivalence,
rain falling beneath my sodden feet
to the barren earth far below me.

And I thought I heard
the ocean siren call to me,
with her song of hollow promises
echoing against the crash of waves.

The seas have eluded me.
The skies have betrayed me.
The sun has ignored me.
The moon has shunned me.
The clouds have denounced me.

Where do I go now in this netherworld,
in this endless purgatory?
As twilight beckons, shades of indigo
dissipate the broken clouds.

The crescent moon glides by
with a shy smile and thin hopes,
as a vagabond wind transports me home,
an escalator to waiting distant stars.

Colleen Keller Breuning © 2022
January 13, 2022

This idea for this poem was sparked in the Atlanta airport on a recent trip to Florida. As we were walking through the terminal to make our connection, the current weather board sign caught my eye. It simply stated, “Broken Clouds,” and I immediately knew I would write about it. It stuck with me as I scribble scrabbled some words, listening to mood music on our final flight to Florida. It was very cloudy, foggy with a bit of rain and yes…. broken clouds everywhere.

Then this stayed dormant in my notebook due to work commitments, until I finalized it last night. It morphed into this mood piece, after two rainy, gloomy winter days of editing.

Funny how the writing process can be. It’s been a while since I wrote consistently due to travel, holidays and work. I feel out of practice and intend to get back into my weekly writing routine. It is a form of therapy, and I sure do miss it when I can’t find the time to write! Stay warm, everyone.

xoxo
Colleen

Mood: Cloudy
Inspiration: “River of Rain” by Jami Sieber

Stark Beauty Beckons

Stark Beauty Beckons

Cast off your blindfolds with open eyes,
The golden dawn morphs in blue skies.
Emerald grass with dewdrops pearled…
Stark beauty beckons in this world.

Behold the jewel colors of fall,
Noble maple stands bare and tall.
On the ground, its crimson leaves whirled…
Stark beauty beckons in this world.

Blue jays frolic in pure white snow,
Deer cavort in fields of fallow.
Each day new treasures are unfurled…
Stark beauty beckons in this world.

Cast off your blindfolds with open eyes…
Stark beauty beckons in this world.

Colleen Keller Breuning © 2021
November 14, 2021

This Kyrielle Sonnet was written for the Instagram Group @hergrowthcollective. The topic for 11/11/2021 was “Appreciation.” Appreciation is such a broad term, and there are so many blessings and things that we should appreciate in our lives. I narrowed the focus of my poem to appreciating the beauty of nature all around us in this world.

We get so busy with day to day life and tasks that we often don’t take the time to just look out our window or move away from our computer screens. There is a world of beauty to behold each day, whether it be in our family members, friends, music, food, or nature. Take the time to slow down, breathe deep, open your eyes, observe and appreciate.

Today, I see beauty in the colorful autumn leaves, squirrels burying nuts in the yard, cats gazing out the window, crystal blue skies dotted with puffy clouds. And that makes me grateful and calm. Tell me, what do you see? What things you appreciate in your life?

xoxo Colleen

Mood: Wonderful
Inspiration: “We Played Some Open Chords” by A Winged Victory for the Sullen

Color My World

Color My World

blue
skyline
miles above
Florida greens
floating in white clouds
yellow sun blazes bright
a thought pops into my head
and I wonder, are we there yet
fast descent, rolling down the tarmac
I catch her in the distance, eyes brown dance
she’s the queen of hearts, she colors my world
running to me with arms open wide
in her crown of golden pigtails
I’m mesmerized by her smile
she melts into my arms
enchanting giggles
she is my joy
the essence
of true
love

Colleen Keller Breuning © 2021
April 15, 2021

For my sweet Posie, who actually came running to meet me at the airport yesterday, excited and smiling! It brought tears to my eyes and warmed my heart completely! She is truly a joy…. Posie, you light up my world with a color of rainbows! I love you sweetheart. xoxo Nanny Bee

SECRET BONUS PHRASES:

1. Broken pavers
2. Follow the yellow brick road
3. Oddballs and misfits
4. Just trying to fit in
5. Standing out in a crowd
6. Filling a hole
7. Brick House
8. Broken/breaking the pattern
9. Sticking out like a sore thumb
10. Square peg in a round hole (or vice versa)

Topic: Tyler Pic: Christopher

Grasshoppers, Dolphins and Eagles

Grasshoppers, Dolphins and Eagles

Stay
or go
the question
to be answered
I look to the skies
searching for harmony
but I see clouds of discord
anxiety builds up inside
and suddenly, I want to break free
like grasshoppers jumping in fields of green
like dolphins swimming in the azure sea
I want to soar in crystal blue skies
I want to fly like an eagle
let my spirit carry me
to a place where peace dwells
a place where hope thrives
and we can feel
peace and love
for all
time

Colleen Keller Breuning © 2021
January 8, 2021

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 44.13 Topic: Stay or Go
Hard Bonus (2 points): Use a Lyric from a Song with the name of an Animal in the Title (“I want to fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me” from Fly Like an Eagle by Steve Miller Band)
Easy Bonus (1 Point): Incorporate a Strange Food (Grasshoppers)

Secret Bonus Phrases:

1.  Writer’s block
2.  Old School Computer
3.  Typing School
4.  Vintage Royal Typewriter
5.  The editor’s desk
6.  Journal time
7.  Writer’s choice
8.  Organizational skills
9.  Tools of the writing trade
10.  Starting the new year with a clean slate

Topic: Tyler Pic: Dahlia

Touch the Alabaster Skies

Touch the Alabaster Skies

A distant future waits for me
Beyond the black, turbulent sea
My hopes and fears to be reckoned,
Multiplying by the second.

Clouds break above the bare oak trees;
A distant future waits for me.
Dark thoughts pile in as wave crash down.
Limbs flail as I begin to drown.

I hear the mourning dove’s sad cries
and touch the alabaster skies.
A distant future waits for me;
I cast aside bad memories.

The golden moment has arrived,
Realizing faith and love thrived.
Running wild, feeling oh so free,
A distant future waits for me.

Colleen Keller Breuning @ 2021
January 1, 2021

A quatern for the New Year…. It is time to cast aside our bad memories and experiences of 2020 and have a positive outlook on 2021. I have been pondering 2020, and though it was a challenging year, there were some blessings. (The biggest one for me was the birth of my granddaughter, Posie, of course!) And now a brand new year awaits us like a clean slate, with the opportunity to create love and peace in our own lives. I hope everyone has a Happy and Healthy 2021! xoxo ❤

Ecrits Blogophilia Week 43.13 Topic: A Distant Future
Hard Bonus (2 points): Incorporate a lyric by JJ Grey (“Dark thoughts pile in;” “The golden moment has arrived;” and “Running wild, feeling oh so free”)
Easy Bonus (1 Point): Include a math term or equation (multiply)

SECRET BONUS GUESSES:

1.  Space Oddity
2.  Astronaut Girl
3.  Moonwalk
4.  Space, the final frontier
5.  Star Trek
6.  Life on Mars
7.  Star Wars
8.  Red Planet
9.  Moon rocks
10. Man on the moon

Topic: Dave Coon Pic: Christine

Refrain (A Kyrielle Sonnet)

Refrain

Night echoes in my heavy heart
Painted darkness, my work of art.
Words and anguish mingle with rain,
My soul released with each refrain.

Voices clash, intentions aground
When everyone has his own sound.
Sing out chorus, relieve this pain,
My soul released with each refrain.

Hope abides in blue skies and seas,
The mountain range, the forest breeze.
Harmony restores, peace sustains,
My soul released with each refrain.

Night echoes in my heavy heart,
My soul released with each refrain.

Blood Moon

Crickets harmonize
a rhapsody in August,
sweet background singers

Pregnant clouds hover
in crisis of confidence,
summer rain debate.

Warm wind blows gently,
dissolving clouds to fine mist;
light shines through its haze

Earth casts dark shadows,
aligning with sun and moon
in black velvet skies.

Raging with color,
Luna rises triumphant,
on her throne of blood.

Falling

The sun has gone missing
held hostage by defiant clouds
heavy skies aching, stripped of light
while the dark matter pulls us down…

We are blind to our own blindness
thinking inside narrow boxes
afraid to color outside the lines
hiding within our own shadows…

Falling for fools, falling in love
we fall out of favor with ourselves
trying to pretend time stands still
as the mirror reveals hard truths…

C’est la vie, mon ami
it’s just the way of the world
for the Earth tilts on its axis
hurtling towards tomorrow…

We defy the theory of relativity
stepping into the black hole
free falling to our destiny
faster than the speed of light….

…and gravitation cannot be held responsible.