
Senryu The heat of the day Sand feeling like liquid glass Burning under foot Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing All Rights Reserved
Senryu The heat of the day Sand feeling like liquid glass Burning under foot Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing All Rights Reserved
Haiku A willow weeping by the side of a river Yellow teardrops fall Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing All Rights Reserved
Song Lyric Sunday prompts for this week are Amaze, Astonish, Curious, Shock, Surprise and Wonder suggested by Melanie B Cee, aka Sparky of Sparks From A Combustible Mind.
I have picked the Natalie Merchant song, “Wonder” that I have always liked. Hope you like it too!
When she was a teenager, Natalie Merchant worked at a day camp for special needs children, many of whom had been institutionalized since infancy and abandoned by their parents. This song was inspired by that experience.
She explained on a VH1 Storytellers appearance: “When I was 13 years old, we’re talking 1976, I spent my summer working as a volunteer for a bunch of hippies, basically, that got a seed grant from the Carter administration, which had a lot of really wonderful programs for the arts. These people started a day camp for handicapped children, and I worked for them the whole summer. A lot of these children were institutionalized – their parents had left the scene a long time ago. They didn’t function so well in a conventional sense, but it seems that a lot of the children had developed like a private language or new senses so they could navigate through the world, especially the blind and the deaf children that we worked with.
From an early age, I had that contact with children who had special needs. I had lost my fear of intimacy with them – especially with Down syndrome kids, they could be really unpredictable and up to that point I had been a little frightened of them. I maintained some of the friendships with those kids and I was always open to meeting children with special needs. So when I wrote the song ‘Wonder,’ I wrote the song about a woman who was born with handicaps that seemed insurmountable, but she did overcome them, greatly because she had a loving family, especially her adoptive mother – she had been given up to an institution at birth.”
This is a very meaningful song to many people who grew up with special needs and their caretakers. The song views these people as “wonders,” with doctors having no explanation for their condition, but seeing the work of God in the creation.
“I’ve met a lot of people through this song, and they’ve told me that they’ve taken it on as their song, that it describes them,” Merchant said. “It describes their strengths in spite of what others would see as deficiencies.”
Natalie Merchant performed this song, along with “Carnival,” on an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by David Schwimmer in 1995.
Doctors have come from distant cities, just to see me Stand over my bed, disbelieving what they're seeing They say I must be one of the wonders Of God's own creation And as far as they see, they can offer No explanation Newspapers ask intimate questions, want confessions They reach into my head to steal, the glory of my story They say I must be one of the wonders Of God's own creation And as far as they see, they can offer No explanation Ooo, I believe, fate smiled And destiny laughed as you came to my cradle Know this child will be able Laughed as my body she lifted Know this child will be gifted With love, with patience, and with faith She'll make her way, she'll make her way People see me I'm a challenge to your balance I'm over your heads how I confound you And astound you To know I must be one of the wonders God's own creation And as far as they see, they can offer Me no explanation Ooo, I believe, fate smiled And destiny laughed as she came to my cradle Know this child will be able Laughed as she came to my mother Know this child will not suffer Laughed as my body she lifted Know this child will be gifted With love, with patience and with faith She'll make her way, she'll make her way She'll make her way, she'll make her way Writer/s: NATALIE A MERCHANT Publisher: Downtown Music Publishing Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind
The late afternoon air
carried a scent of rainfall
Dried and thirsty grass
finally refreshed
Sunshine cast its spell
in dramatic fashion
reflecting moisture
Impacting the landscape
with a rainbow painted
against the grey clouds
and that magic moment was complete
Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing
All Rights Reserved
Word Prompts
Rainbow - RDP
Impact - FOWC
Scent - Stream of Consciousness
Open link - Earthweal
Haiku Watercolor sky An artist’s working canvas Creating landscape Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing All Rights Reserved
Haiku Silence comes at last The sounds of the day long gone Stillness of the night Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing All Rights Reserved
Haiku The air hangs heavy A storm is brewing tonight The earth begs for rain Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing All Rights Reserved
Oh yes, this has happened to all of us at sometime or the other, hasn’t It? Did any of you ever see the Seinfeld episode where Elaine was in the ladies room and there was no toilet paper. It was hilarious!
Have a great Wednesday!
For Linda G. Hill’s One Liner Wednesday
Senryu A teardrop rolls down Onto cheeks already wet A heart is breaking Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing All Rights Reserved
Senryu Sounds of violins Drifting across the night air Music of my soul Copyright © 2022 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing All Rights Reserved