The Fairy Garden Poems

Devotion

2011-07-10T09:41:00.004-04:00

Devotion is twenty some years
of marriage day by day learning to love
the best of him with the best of me
shaping the I Ching of us.

Two decades of sharing and daring
to know when to argue
when to back down.

Learning trust and being trustworthy.

Remembering to remember what is worth remembering

(and forgetting most of the bad, except
as a cautionary clue)

Figuring out what to say- and what not to say.

Creating and keeping a comfortable home and a world
where we are King and Queen-
noble partners mixing spheres
and making the most of life
what ever might be, as we are humble citizens
as well as mighty rulers here
here in our world...
the I Ching of us.

Hollywood can manipulate emotions BUT
Hollywood can not capture
real happiness- nor can it depict
a healthy heavenly marriage in full.
Hollywood can only offer up
entertaining stereotypes and symbols.

The best role models
are real people
with real time and experience proving
their integrity...

"Birds of a feather flock together"
my grandmother used to say.

She too lived a happily ever after
happily honoring her husband
and their heirs
and their ancestry
and life itself
day by day
and the beauty of a garden...

The Fairy Garden Poems # 56

Clematis & Coral Bells

2011-05-29T08:10:00.004-04:00

Clematis & Coral Bells
and three fat robins fledged-
my Fairy Garden blooms

For now at least- this spring

The Fairy Garden Poems # 55

Azalea Sunsets

2011-03-25T07:01:00.003-04:00

Suburban woods
where SPRING means
our Snow drops, Crocuses
& Daff-a-down-dillies announce
that soon enough
these expansive Azalea sunsets
all all all all a-round
will subside:
The full spectrum of heavenly color
to be carefully blended and stirred into
a bright series of garden blooms
one by one on the way to being
as the maples' red buds overhead
burgeon accidentally into the necessity
of Summer's shade- and bird watching
is circumscribed to only the closest twig
and bit of lawn.

The Fairy Garden Poems # 54

Find a Nook

2010-05-03T11:46:00.004-04:00

In May

write poems
on what might be

flavored
by spring

each bloom
and blossom
a baptism
into community

and exile

In May
write poems

find a nook- hide
and dream

make lavender sachets
or elixirs of honeysuckle

The Fairy Garden Poems # 53

An Eastre Story... a visual poem celebrating Spring by Anne Selden Annab

2010-04-01T09:09:00.008-04:00

The Fairy Garden Poems # 52

...Fairy Doors

2009-12-15T16:26:00.003-05:00

Our own academic freedom
is hugely real in a vast
marketplace of ideas...
doors and windows everywhere
and long meandering corridors
in a palace of thought.

Ballrooms and balconies
and cupboards of every type

Some prefer dungeons- others like
tall towers & turrets...

Libraries and media rooms
and keyboards of every type

Fields and forests
and rambles of every kind

What might be true here
is contradicted there
for there is no final authority
no end to the process
of thought
as every one owns
both right and wrong and the power
to move away- or towards...

to step up- or back

to know what to bother with-
and what to abandon

and where to find
fairy doors.

The Fairy Garden Poems # 51

...One

2009-08-22T12:02:00.004-04:00

If I might touch you
glitter in your thoughts
for a micro second

sparkle in your dreams
as if I am alive forever
fused through your neurons

alive with your own energy
To be of your breath-
and pulse in your heartbeat

To be your thought
and your desire
To be who you are with
when you are alone

The Fairy Garden Poems # 50

...On Our Wind Chimes

2009-08-10T16:06:00.004-04:00

One Goldfinch
gently wind sails
on our wind chimes

His legs so like
the string
pulled taunt

He tightly holds his grip
while shifting his bit of weight
on the pendulum-

I think the first Arias
will startle him
but he stays...
looking up

he knows... he knows... he knows...

The Fairy Garden Poems # 49

... Welcome Home

2009-07-06T11:07:00.005-04:00

At the threshold
by the burgeoning
honeysuckle
vine

A vibrant
ruby throated
humming bird
flitttttttted up-
to hover

forever
it seemed
eye to eye
.... so close...
to me....

Did he think me bloom?

or did he simply want to convey
welcome home.

The Fairy Garden Poems # 48

...Up Out of the Mud

2009-03-07T08:16:00.002-05:00

Rivers of paint
run through my blood

Rivers of unequivocal color
up out of the mud

huts to palaces
every home

where ever tint can roam

every floor
every wall
every tile
every hall

every costume
every dance
every embroidery
every glance

huts to palaces
every home

every garden
every wood
every field
every could

huts to palaces
every home

where ever ever ever
an I might roam

The Fairy Garden Poems # 47

...You Are

2009-02-18T19:46:00.002-05:00

You are

You are

You are
my perfection

a polished gem
thoughts tumbling

You are my secret
my language of flowers
blooming in every bouquet

You are
my strength

a polished gem
thoughts tumbling

Surreptitious surrender...

My favored port

My ocean

and land

My mountains and clouds
My four leaf clover

My delight

My treasure

My good mood
on a dismal day

The Fairy Garden Poems # 46

...Anthropologies

2009-02-15T09:54:00.002-05:00

Birds watching
as we prune
and preen our trees
preparing
for spring

bundles of branches
and bags of twigs

we bend and break
and hoard our haul

brush from the garden
and broom from the hill

Do they imagine our nest
our herbal brews

with ornithosmorphic
empathies...?

The Fairy Garden Poems # 45

February's Fairy

2009-02-15T09:47:00.001-05:00

Come cold
melt

emerge
in metal blades
carving space
time... thought

fairies caught

in the culling

in the balance between
air and there

The Fairy Garden Poems # 44

...The Universe Speaks.

2008-12-07T11:17:00.002-05:00

"The universe
speaks..."
as they say

and I flow with it
but one drop

tributaries into creeks into rivers into bays into
ocean
evaporating

into clouds

Castles
where i might find
true love

Castles
where i might be
true love

The universe speaks

signs and symbols

yes or no

come here go there...

be bloom or not

blush
and feel the flush of life

breath
and feel the dream
of day after day
simply being

Three billion heart beats
in one human life

The Universe speaks...
allows us to know

leaves hints

The Fairy Garden Poems # 43

...Fairies Twinkle

2008-12-07T07:34:00.004-05:00

Fairies twinkle
in new fallen snow

each glance and glimmer

of shifting
prismatic
shimmer

as all the world turns white

each glance and glimmer

of shifting
prismatic
shimmer

might be one
with rainbow wings
flickering

here there and everywhere
while you might try to capture her spirit
try to save her clues
try to count her community
try to

but never quite come close enough
to catch her

never quite close enough
to know her

to understand her

to define her

to defend her

beyond
your own wildest imaginings

The Fairy Garden Poems # 42

...The Last Leaf

2008-12-07T05:27:00.003-05:00

The last leaf
darkens with dawn

spins on autumn winds
and nestles momentarily
into bird shape

Up and fly little leaf
with all my hopes

Make real my dreams

Flit away little leaf
into light

The Fairy Garden Poems # 41

...Wishing Well

2008-11-23T04:11:00.003-05:00

Wishes weave into dreams
dreams into thoughts
ideas

work

String by string
new songs stir

ideas
work

Blending always blending
then with now

ideas work

Entire worlds wished into being
one by one

agree

ideas work

Practiced into place
tweaked and twittered

and rearranged

to be memorized anew...

"..Lhude sing cuccu!
Groweþ sed and bloweþ med
And springþ þe wde nu,
Sing cuccu!"

The Fairy Garden Poems # 40

Visual Poem

2008-10-23T08:32:00.000-04:00

Visual Poem
copyright 2008 Anne Selden Annab

Autumn leaves

2008-10-14T20:02:00.003-04:00

Autumn reaches

into brilliance
proving age
has its passions
and every phase
its prime

every leaf
every love
every day

And you and I
might flutter up like moths
in that vortical dance
they do

And you and I
might be the blooms
and bounty
of the garden

And you and I
might be the zephyr
that lifts the leaves

one by one
summer ends

one by one
autumn rustlings
as I look up
gazing

And then you and I
might be the breeze

that carries each leaf down
crumbling
and crackling
into earth again

its the me and you
growing old together

watching the fairies gather
twigs

to make a raft

The Fairy Garden Poems # 39

...Sunrise

2008-09-21T06:17:00.000-04:00

Sunrise
stir my sleepy thoughts

pull me up
into a stretch

of day
with even strides

paced... in a lineal world

Your own view always of light
& always tightly focused on noon
where ever that might be

while mine is of shadows

and all those many minutes
& tinctures
& tones
in between

The Fairy Garden Poems # 38

...Glowing

2008-09-19T08:17:00.001-04:00

Its a full moon
that holds me

keeps me
returning

round
and
round

spin dizzy

splashed
with lightness
in my step

round
and
round

thinking
of you

round
and
round

and me

for that moon
forever

round
and
round

as we...

The Fairy Garden Poems # 37

Into Gold

2008-09-07T08:02:00.000-04:00

Summer's deep lush dripping green

dries
into gold

pocket change at first
small coins

as if a fortune might be found
if we can save this day of brink

tuck it into forever
with a gentle tug

brighten the gold
with good memories

The Fairy Garden Poems # 36

Bound to Be

2008-09-06T21:13:00.000-04:00

It startled me- autumn
in one batch of leaves
brewing fall

Startled me-
drew me in

School pencils
and graphite gray skies

Seasons blending
and bending time

papyrus scratched
with symbols

...the scrape of a new shoe
on an old sidewalk

and the brightness of berries
some bound to be
bound to be tree

The Fairy Garden Poems # 35

As Heaven Touches Earth

2008-08-28T09:49:00.000-04:00

.

The little birds
lift my spirit

and my mood

their songs
their flight
their lightness
and perfect beauty

transport me

our garden
blooms with birds
and dreams...
as heaven touches earth

our home

The Fairy Garden Poems # 34

Whispering Promises

2008-08-27T09:38:00.001-04:00

New moon
new morning-
a Ramadan feast
for my eyes
before dawn...

New moon
in a blink

new morning:

Out of darkness
an uplifting breeze

a zephyr...

and then a blazing bloom
of amaranth all around

into amber
and gold

blending into the blues & greens
in our gardens

here and there
east meets west

whispering promises
and prayers...

in a blink
the beloved loves

and being is now
and forever

in the blue sky
and the rocks
that we can hold in our hands

The Fairy Garden Poems # 33

Timbre

2008-08-27T06:53:00.000-04:00

Each day's bouquet
blooms differently

moody moody me
in every flower
and weed

watching
always watching

to find echoes
of what was
and will be

how will it twine
into my own self

to find tremble
and trumpet

... does it drink of my veins
as I breathe in rooted here

does it know of my dreams...

The Fairy Garden Poems # 32

Summer Vines

2008-08-16T21:21:00.000-04:00

Summer vines
take earth & sun & water
& the bluest bits of sky
..... the purest
prettiest
elements of all
and blend them
into vivid green
.... almost burgeoning

Tentatively

Tentatively

Tentatively

at first touch

always reaching

find anchor

and the ecstasy of seduction

The Fairy Garden Poems # 31

Morning Glories

2008-08-03T08:07:00.000-04:00

Step out into the dew
the new light dawning now

A scattering of stars briefly slip
into flower shapes
as bird songs
infuse bloom
with galactic power
briefly
Begin again

Pinwheels
unfurl

as if to parachute
into sky blue

but bluer
truer

trumpeting

The Fairy Garden Poems # 30

Twilight

2008-08-03T07:03:00.000-04:00

If I could melt into you
I would

become the air
in your feathers

and the loft
in your wing

If I could melt into you
and the warmth of my own hand

holding you

lending you branch
little twig

and lilac dreams...

The Fairy Garden Poems # 29

In our Ivy Tower

2008-07-31T09:25:00.000-04:00

In our Ivy Tower
under the bower
of tree shade

wobbly wooden steps crumble
dissolve into earth

In our Ivy Tower
Barbara reads and reads and reads
while I wander

and the fairies laugh
for they catch her glance

they catch her eyes blinking
at my back

they see her shake her head
and her silly thoughts

They know her library
and how to turn the page

they know our sorrows too
and how to turn the page

In our Ivy Tower
Barbara reads and reads and reads
as the ivy grows and grows and grows...

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 28

....Golden Days

2008-07-30T10:51:00.001-04:00

Golden Days
With a golden dog

And I tried to catch the light
Making you a lion
Tried to catch the moment
We shift into beyond

That heart beat
where myth ignites
into synthesis

And I hold my breath to be
As time curls into me

Every golden charm- all wealth
Unearthed- pours into a pause

Every glimmer in the kingdom
And every scratch on the cave wall
Every stone shaped to be something more
than mere mass

We breed thoughts
Build roads
Make museums
Name names
and claim sovereignty

But we only own our own hearts and minds
Our own imaginative ability to see and feel
And believe in something-
Or someone

Our own ability to love
Or not

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 27

Come to the quiet

2008-07-19T07:27:00.000-04:00

Come to the quiet
of our garden

the delight
of our love

(& labor)

Come to the quiet
where fantasy might call

trumpeting unexpectedly

the umbra steed unbridled

every sound might be song

.... every leaf a wing....

Every color a reminder
of what we have known

good times and bad blurred
into one glorious gallop

from one hue to another
each in turn
an eternity

to explore
inside out
and bloom

blending and bending every rule
as the breeze plays thoughts

and sunshine shimmers- glows
in greens and golds

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 26

Our American Goldfinch

2008-07-19T05:49:00.000-04:00

His bold bright being
plunges past
swoops up
veers
swoops down
every which way...

A to B involves
all the rest of the alphabet
in the way they fly

Flickering

and the way they feed
upside down

Twittering

A thistle fed twinkle
doing all that Sun
and Stars can't do

Every orbit
a reason to reinvent
direction

and a way to polish sparkle
as another bright glint
lightly lands

drinks in glimmerings
and shimmerings
and song

every echo
of what might be

Our American Goldfinch

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 25

A Small White Song Bird

2008-07-19T05:45:00.000-04:00

I dreamed of a bird
a small white song bird
Flittering through the trees
and while I watched entranced...

Flittering all through the forest
and then Flittering out of the forest...
...through the gardens...
Flittering eventually right to me
slipstreaming in through
a small, just barely open window-

A square window
my portal
What is this house
this place of creaking boards and books
This construction where sand becomes glass
and cotton becomes clothing...

Fluttering right inside
Fluttering down
to land on my
instinctively
upturned hand
like water cupped

The small white song bird
stood still on my open palm
connected to my flesh
and all my feelings

momentarily

his delicate twig feet
lightly rooted in my hand
his voice and wings at rest
weightless and white
unlike any song bird I have ever seen
or heard
he looked up into me
beseeching
or searching
or simply seeing
I do not know

but i felt blessed
looking back

for one perfect moment

And then the small white song bird
fluttered up
and away
slipstreaming
out the open window
back from where he came...

His flight and song resumed
Flittering all through the trees

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 24

Quiver and trill

2008-07-17T09:10:00.000-04:00

Bird song
and stirrings...

tree top branches
reaching as far as earth
can go

Perch
where my eye lifts
in our garden

Quiver and trill

Tell
a story-
red apples ripening
in the orchard
on a summer's day

Tell
a story-
snap dragons blooming

Tell a
Tell a story-
and off he flies....

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 23

Water Rills

2008-07-17T07:59:00.001-04:00

The castle keep
fills with flowerings

water rills
and falls

cupped by sea shells
to splash

in dreams
splurge
in imaginings

stirred
by the slightest touch

the smallest hint
the gentlest voice

the serendipity
of our time
our touch
our being

disclosed

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 22

A Fairy Garden Grows

2008-07-14T13:03:00.000-04:00

Once upon a time
when the Admiral's
granddaughter
was a little girl
the Admiral's widow
took her to visit
an elderly friend.

In a room full
of frail antiques
the elderly friend
brought forth
a box filled with
precious treasure
and one by one
told stories
of where each
treasure was found

All around the world
(with no children)
she roamed various beaches-
each day a careful search
happily collecting
intriguing sea shells
(and with no children)
and her own death near
the shells now had no where to go

The Admiral's granddaughter listened
rapt- enchanted- and stunned
when bequeathed right there and then
... the entire bounty

Decades later in what
was once forest
then field
then lawn
a fairy garden grows

and now an arc of random sea shells
tumbles- oceans of memories
warm and cold
intermingle
making new stories
out of old.

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 21

Our Hydrangea

2008-07-14T12:40:00.000-04:00

Our Hydrangea
decides for itself

which blue to be
or not

reaching through pinks
into purples

one growing season
bringing many hues
and moods, pinks
into purples
and purples
into pink

each year the one shrub
getting wider and wilder

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 20

Cucumber Vines

2008-07-14T06:51:00.001-04:00

He makes stars sparkle
from nothingness
takes bare earth
scratches it
seeds it

imagines what might be
and weeds out what shouldn't.

He lures cucumber vines up lattices
and carefully crafted ladders
of wood and string
counts blooms
and thanks the bees he sees

thanks the be's for pollination.

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 19

Yesterday's storms

2008-07-14T06:40:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's storms
brought the red tailed hawk
to our trees

Swooping in low
right over head

Gusting in
on the winds

of a thundercloud

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 18

The Conodoquinet Creek

2008-07-13T06:51:00.000-04:00

The Conodoquinet Creek
"winding stream"
"for a long way nothing but bends"

cradles the land
where we live

defines the edge
of our neighboorhood
on all three sides

brings birds up
from the Susquehanna
where egrets nest

Osprey and eagles
come too

gracing the creek
feathering the view

poem & picture copyright ©2008 Anne Selden Annab
The Fairy Garden Poems # 17

Tightly looping meanders of Conodoguinet Creek in eastern Cumberland County.

Orr's Covered Bridge spanned Conodoguinet Creek for many years

Poem in a poem

2008-07-12T21:48:00.000-04:00

A little brown wren
has come to warble
nesting
by my window

becoming my view

taking a fancy
to our fancy bird house
dangling from the eave.

A little brown wren
has come to catch my eye
as she darts in
flits out

and about

Two of them take turns
entertaining me

Poem in a poem:

....Scissors

Don't try
To lip read birds

For the songs twittered
are tied to air
not beak

the composition heard
of heaven
Not earth

Tiger Lily

2008-07-12T20:15:00.000-04:00

The Tiger Lilies
stand guard

roaring
bright
bold

Each as if a dragon
left his breath

to bloom with warning
as summer turns hot

....What is Time (from a fairy garden)

2008-07-12T08:16:00.000-04:00

What is time
but a way
to define
what might be

Free choice in every twitch
and every twine

Free choice in where to hid
and what to watch

Where to turn ones head
or open one's heart

Free choice in perceiving gold
in yellow flowers

and a wealth of possibility
in every shape
twinkling

every pattern plotting
a celestial course
as heaven comes down in the everyday

and we drink the rain
in a cucumber
drink the cloud shapes dreamed last week
as heaven comes down in the everyday

A Fairy Harp

2008-07-11T11:15:00.003-04:00

The Spider Web

A fairy harp
strung through the herbs
and summer blooms
out front

a fairy harp
shimmering

plucked
string by string
weaving song

fairies know
the music of the night

Viewed from the Fairy Garden

2008-07-11T08:33:00.000-04:00

Viewed from the Fairy Garden

The Morning Glories have begun!

Lattices of light
reach down
absorbing leaf green

blending

lending hues and height

infusing the bluest of blue
the purest of pure
the deepest of dew
into

early morning bloom

with the promise of more and more and more...

The Garden Fairies

2008-07-10T06:04:00.000-04:00

They are everywhere you know-
the Garden Fairies

Bits of dreams snagged
shaped
given wings and nice faces
blinking eyes
and pretty dresses

to go with the garden and woods

to charm and beguile
to hold onto hope knowing
that beauty is in every bloom
and breeze....
right now
bringing flavors of gardens
to brew

to charm and beguile

& they simply can't be contained.

The Garden Fairies frolic
slip past every wall
elude every boundary
flit through every barricade

they own air and space and time
and even punctuation

making moments longer
when we want to pause

Welcome is Home

2008-07-10T05:36:00.000-04:00

Welcome
is home

where one may sit
sip tea

welcome is home
where years of love

built sanctuary
years of love

arranged every chair
years of love

shaped me.

The Gardener

2008-07-09T11:18:00.000-04:00

The Fairies
watch Him work

He knows knots
and earth
and sky
and seedlings
and exactly how to help a vine climb
with a trellis made of twine

He knows that Morning Glories like full sun

....and that his wife likes Morning Glories

One White Egret

2008-07-09T10:51:00.000-04:00

Occasionally
a White Egret
graces our yard

swoops in all shadow
and prehistoric form

never ever landing
near the Fairy Garden

In May... Clematis

2008-07-09T10:43:00.000-04:00

In May, Climatis helps cloak the Fairy Garden

...Maybe

2008-07-09T08:12:00.000-04:00

Dogs can not be trained
not to pester fairies

And fairies can not be trained
not to pester dogs

But an airy fence
can define a fairy haven

the way "quotes"
define who says what where.

Garden Rock: "Love is found where it is shown"

2008-07-09T07:40:00.000-04:00

Garden Rock: "Love is found where it is shown"

They like to hid
behind things

and to have hints

of what they want us
to remember most

words are their whim
the way they dance

through thoughts
how they find warmth and glow

and places to pose
places to pirouette

places to tuck secrets
places to be safe

places to simply be

Our Rose of Sharon

2008-07-09T07:01:00.000-04:00

Our Rose of Sharon
trumpets summer fairies in

Come hither
All you things of the air

Come hither
We have new bloom

Come hither
To hear bird song

Come hither- here
Where a poet dreams...

Sand Castle by the Fairy Garden

2008-07-08T22:17:00.000-04:00

Sand Castle by the Fairy Garden

Never ever in all my years
Has the human me built more
than a meticulously lumpy mound
of fussed over wet sand
sinking into
moat

But each attempt
is a day at the beach

Salt air and breeze
Freeing the spirit me

The playful me
The winsome me
Searching for shells
& believing in the treasures
at hand

The Fairy Garden Poems ...Beginnings

2008-07-08T21:29:00.000-04:00

In April a borrowed dog tentatively explores our garden

The Fairy Garden
started with a stump.

The Mulberry Bush
became a tree
became a tangle
became too big...

Its intrusive roots reaching
into our house foundations

The Mulberry Bush
came down.

What to do with the stump?

The stage- the podium
the perfect time & place
for a flower fairy.

1. The Fairy Garden Poems

2008-07-08T15:46:00.000-04:00

My Fairy Garden, seen from afar

and seen up close, the statue of the fairy who accidentally started it all

We use our words here
And dream
Beautiful dreams

Whim is welcome
And kindness

As for time
Even the briefest pause
Is long enough for a universe to unfold