Tag: poems in 2025

Categories
Creativity Poetry

The Least I Could Do

What you do for the least of these…

God whispers from a corner

of the forest where I walk,

and there, beneath my feet

a convocation of earthworms

crossing the path,

etching their prayers in dirt

…you did for me

so I lift them gently

one at a time

one at a time

one at a time

to the safe green haven

trailside

thinking…

how simple this task

how easy to take care

of those under foot

how bending down

to lift others up

is a sacred act,

a blessing

in this wicked, wicked world.

Earthworm tracks photo and poem ©2025, Jen Payne. If you like this poem, you’ll love my new book SLEEPING WITH GHOSTS, on sale now!

Categories
Creativity Poetry

18-Peace in the Age of Monsters

Sleep has been merciful
these past three months,
arriving early from exhaustion
staying late in fellowship
with the dreams that wax nostalgic
for simpler nightmares and harmless ghosts.

But this morning, I’m awake at 3,
my familiar and I like old friends
sharing space beneath the spring moon,
waning in its sixth phase,
while one lone peeper keeps time
as sharp as the second hand on a clock.

We have not been together in this way —
the moon and morning and me —
since the monsters took over,
since their cacophony of destruction,
the sinister palpitation of days,
and all of us wondering what or who will be next.

This morning is a gift of quiet comfort,
the marsh frog a beacon which seems to say
Here! Here! Here!
over and over and over,
it reminds that even in the age of monsters,
once can find solace in the soft, dark edges,
calm in the promise of cycles and phases,
of spring and worlds ever spinning.

Poem ©2025 Jen Payne. NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Categories
Creativity Poetry

10-Meanwhile…

There have been serendipities
and celebrations,
people at round tables
making plans,
and friends finding joy!

We have shared meals
and memories,
secrets,
and epiphanies!

We have danced
and chanted
and sung songs,
beaten drums,
created community.

We have made art,
read books,
written poems,
baked bread,
and feasted
on ice cream
three scoops high!

We have laughed,
cried,
prayed,
and sighed
so many times
we can no longer count.

We have
resisted,
persisted,
persevered,
survived,
and thrived.

We have hoped

and will continue
to do so…

meanwhile.

Poem ©2025, Jen Payne. NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Categories
Creativity Poetry

9-Roadside Attraction

There’s a ghost
standing on
Mountain Park Road
I spy her from the highway
as I scream past
at seventy
She might have waved
but had no need to
I saw her
knew her
remembered
all of the layers
of time, there
on the overpass
at Mountain Park Road
and I wondered
briefly
if she knew me
here now
this apparition
this shadow of who
she used to be
in a blur of recognition
a moment frozen in time
the all of us in overlap
here, there, then, now
on Mountain Park Road

Poem ©2025, Jen Payne. NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Categories
Creativity Poetry

8-April 6, 2025

This morning
I stayed in bed
squeezed my eyes shut
and begged for more
more sleep
more dreams
more anything than what waits:
that 21st century
disappointment
and the cold blank stare
of what comes next

It was already hard enough
to live with the
stark comparison of
hopes and dreams
versus real world,
the daily effort of
just keep swimming
just keep swimming

Now there is just this
THIS
every day
THIS
good lord
THIS

Once, I told a therapist
that I was considering a
long slow drift
in ice floe silence,
and she sat aghast
asked if she should be concerned
so I dialed it back
and laughed
like I was joking

Concerned is
such a funny word —
To Whom It May Concern
we have concerns
but
it is of little concern

Yesterday, at a protest,
I danced with strangers
and felt free in a way
I haven’t since my best friend died
seven years ago
and I thought:
she is better for it
dead before THIS
all of this
with no concerns
no need for persistence
or resistance
or a clever exit strategy
disguised in a poem.

Poem & Photo ©2025, Jen Payne. NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month. If you like this poem, you can read similar in my books and zines, available from Three Chairs Publishing on my ETSY SHOP. They come autographed, with gratitude and a small gift.

Categories
Creativity

It’s Ok. It’s Ok. It’s OK.


I whisper, in hushed tones,
that she is safe,
stroke her soft furred body
as she lies in my lap,
promise the wolves
won’t get her,
hope she was sleeping
when they came last night
and ripped fur and flesh
from our friend the rabbit
who visited the yard all winter,
but I know she heard the screams,
I can see it in her eyes
when I make my false promises
I make a lot of them these days —
to this cat who needs to be close more often now
and to myself that everything will be OK.

Poem + Photo ©2025, Jen Payne