JUST ANOTHER CALIFORNIA SUNSET (photo) & FINDING GEMS IN ISLA VISTA (non-dream prose poem) by Roswila

FINDING GEMS IN ISLA VISTA*

Surrounded by college age students
in the midst of "the best years of their lives"
(as the old saying goes) I start to envy
their beauty and easy mobility,
not to mention, youth.
Then I'm hit by the sudden realization
that these years are truly the best years
of my own life, if decades later then theirs.
Even with all the arthritic pain,
the unmet (and not likely to be met) longings,
the losses of friends to dementia or death.
All and much more -- laughter, poetry, learning
(yes, always and still learning), shines
in my own days like a large, lightly crazed
fire opal, circled by faceted gems of all kinds,
in a gold bezel as bright as the summer sun.


[non-dream prose poem written 10-21-16 and worked on a lot today. *Isla Vista is the University of California at Santa Barbara town I walk through several times a week, on my way to the beach overlook and/or to shop. I find it interesting that I was drawn to edit this poem into some sort of presentable shape today, given my mood's in the pits. Guess some other part of me wasn't going to let me over indulge in it. BTW, I chose a fire opal for this poem intuitively. And was rather stunned when I found on googling how much of its lore can be read to apply to my personal issues. Fire Opal info; for the applicable lore scroll to the "The Metaphysics of Fire Opal" paragraph. Photo "Just Another California Sunset" (1-5-15 001) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

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until next time, keep dreaming,

[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's other blog (dedicated to her photos only, i.e. no poetry or other writing; daily post); TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.