Pictures & Poems

Happiness by Penny Smith

How do I paint a mood, capture the sun
on a day when grey washed away its gold,
when life has scoured the joy from everyone
and left them shadowed, jaded, feeling old?

I feel the thoughts of others in my mind,
and listen to their sadness. With slow words
that struggle from my pen, I search to find
an answer to those unasked pleas I've heard

for their spirits to be lightened, lifted...
Happiness, never easy to define,
waits to surface once all mists have shifted
from a person’s perception. And as Time

revolves, its turning leads night into day,
when Time, perhaps, will dispel all dismay.

Harvest by Penny Smith

 Golden wheat sways beneath summer skies,
feeding hungry eyes with promise 
of good things remembered,
others still to come.

A wheat field dances;
hungry eyes devour it in expectation
of a time when promises of feasting 
will come to pass.

Stillness by Penny Smith

        

Stillness spreads
over the landscape
as morning
or evening
stands poised on the horizon
of another day.

Instinct by Penny Smith

Swooping low among the forest treetops
a raptor starts his routine, lethal quest,
his widespread wingtips brushing close to branches
where dappled shadows shake, then still, suppressed.

Upon the ground warm blooded rabbits scurry;
they sense the menace hovering overhead.
The bird, aware of each erratic movement,
plummets...and one leveret lies dead.

Back on the nest, his mate sits, incubating.
Her downy warmth enfolds a clutch of eggs
with fragile shells as smooth as river pebbles,
against her taloned feet and feathered legs.

As birds of prey they both are well trained killers,
but parental instincts see them prove their worth,
for slavishly they'll tend their newborn offspring,
until they too may rule the skies of Earth.

Dreamtime by Penny Smith

Lavender dreams
populate my world.
With angels?
With monsters?
Only imagination
can tell the difference.

All pictures and poems are the original work of Penny Smith from the Havant writing group. ©