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Bits of Poetry

~ Linda R Davis, Raven of Peace & Poetry

Bits of Poetry

Tag Archives: Life

Least of All

07 Wednesday Jan 2026

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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2020, Flannery O’Connor, Life, Poem, Poems, Poetry, politics, The Barber

“Don’t spoil your complexion arguing with barbers.” The Barber, by Flannery O’Connor

He doesn’t ask about party:

Who do you think won in 2020?

Hesitation is answer enough:

80 million votes from his basement?

Now, your opinion doesn’t count,

Your thoughts and words go to mush,

Trumped by common sense math,

And you think about crazy 2020,

The way the world, as you knew it,

Flew off, (didn’t take long)

The spinning away of normal,

And norms, everything you hated,

Until it was gone. And now,

You look back, envious of simpler times,

Of stupid wars, and regime change,

(Quaint, you thought you could change it.)

4-D chess, and you, but a pawn,

Whittled down to bare existence:

What can we agree upon?

He said, Stick to photos of your kids.

And you did, because your opinions

Made absolutely no one happy,

Least of all, sadly, yourself.

The Geranium

06 Tuesday Jan 2026

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Poetry, Love, Poems, Poem, Life, Loss, Divorce, Happiness, Survival, Family, Geranium

I lit that house up like fire,

With stringed lights,

So that everyone who drove by

Had to look in.

It was a long time ago,

And before it was popular.

Year round lights, as if to say,

What happens here is a delightful mystery.

Once upon a time,

A man bought a house next door.

He was from Portland,

And thought the lights

Would make a good neighbor.

(He told me so later.)

Many years have passed,

And now I’m looking back,

Beneath the lights,

Wondering about the belief

That strung them, tree from tree,

That lit the fire in the chimenea,

And laughed into the late hours

With old neighbors, drawn to light,

Like a lone windowsill geranium

In a colorless city,

Eventually fallen from its perch,

Broken, shattered clay of pot,

Roots reaching for a smattering of air.

Barn Cats

05 Monday Jan 2026

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12th Night, Barn Cats, Cats, Life, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Survival, Winter

The mice are hibernating

And so are the boys.

No birds to catch,

And the lull of winter,

A snatch of dreams,

Days end fast.

Do they look forward,

Like we do?

Twelfth day, twelfth night,

A turning light of anticipation,

A transition to being awake,

Awakened roots of trees,

Preparing for spring,

The return to living.

Yet, for the barn cats,

A return to killing.

Finding the Sun

04 Sunday Jan 2026

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Afterlife, Belief, Courage, Divorce, Family, Fog, Freedom, Healing, Hope, Life, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Strength, Survival, Winter poem, Yearning

It is a dark night

And fog has settled

As if to say no

To every question

the solitude

of not being able to see

What will happen

Or if you’ll survive

What is about to come

This is the time to remember

Who you are

How you got here

Why you came all this way

Down the broken road

Even if you didn’t know

Life, like the fog

Never seeing too far

Sight is an illusion

One more step

Keep stepping

Eventually, you find sun

A Day

01 Thursday Jan 2026

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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2026, frost, Life, New Year, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Robin

The frost is so thick

They mistake it for snow

The world turned to ice

Frozen, in a new year

2026, I must say it

Over and over

Since time has stopped

There is no reference

Except seasons

Except birds

Or, no birds

Yet, the robin remains

Fearless of the frost

And I’m left to wonder

At the reference

At time, or no time

All time, collapsed

Into a single day

In (say it) 2026

Witness

31 Wednesday Dec 2025

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

Life, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Sun, Witness

So, it is a beautiful day.

The sun will win it,

Blue sky have its way,

Beyond the trees to Mt Spokane,

Even Canada.

There is frost on the ground,

No snow or rain,

The painful heat of summer,

Barely a memory now.

In my finite days,

This offers to be a good one.

I should mark it:

December 31, 2025.

I am alive

To witness the sun shine.

Day of the Cello

29 Monday Dec 2025

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Angels, cello, Death, Fallen, Fallen Angels, Grace, Hope, Life, Love, Music, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Redemption, Sacred, Sinners

He drags the bow,

Steady, strong, and slow,

To its freedom.

And in the air, silence.

There are, maybe, one hundred souls

Sitting together in a long quiet

Before the shredding storm of song,

The hairs from some magnificent horse,

Breaking free, too. They linger, they long

To dance, eyes closed,

Raptured to a heaven,

The songs of suffering angels,

The way he sings the cello,

Transformed

To its ways, its sways,

Its dangerous foreboding,

Its celebration,

Its redemption.

—-

Six Months Later:

—-

I still find delight

In the memory of wine, music,

That candlelit night

Under a rumbling train,

Where we released our hopes to soar,

and even our mutual pain, with song;

Captured, for a moment, then gone.

Like fallen angels, we fell,

To a silent night, a silent world,

Perhaps, indistinguishable from hell,

Except in those rare moments.

Introduction

26 Sunday Oct 2025

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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being human, Death, Family, Gratitude, Hope, Humanity, Life, Loneliness, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Souls, Spirit, Suffering, Survival, Women's Poems, Yearning

What is love,

But an unanswered question?

I do love the way

You listened to that note—

It hung in our mutual air

A moment we shared.

As if a matter of life

And death

Because it was that matter

Which consumed us.

And then gone.

I do love the way

You go

Missing.

——

I know love comes broken,

But it took breaking

To teach me.

——

Perhaps, my first love was longing.

And in that desperate hope

Came everything.

—-

And then there was love.

—

And then there was loneliness.

—

And then there was complete despair.

—

And then there was you.

—

Still breaking me.

Because such intensity can only consume.

Thirst and drink, but the glass is always leaking.

Reach and reach, but the hands seem empty.

—

And then there were your arms.

—

And then there was loneliness.

—

My time is winding down to tell you

About being human.

Such a world!

Born into a desperate flesh

And nascent blood.

Will we learn too late

How precious it was to suffer?

—

I would like to introduce myself:

Even as I mourn myself.

Reprieve

27 Sunday Jul 2025

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

Children, Dreams, Gratitude, Healing, Hope, Life, Love, Marriage, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Souls, Strength, Survival, Tuscan, Unity

a peaceful night

a Tuscan dream

of deep red wine

and beautiful cuisine

we danced below

the mellow moon

its light, approval,

of our outside room—

the love, the happiness

of family ties, in that moment

altered

from our saddened lives

I Promise

22 Tuesday Jul 2025

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

Hope, Life, Love, Love Poems, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Promise, Spirit, Survival, Yearning

I promise you stars

on the darkest night,

the brightest among them

to make the wrongs right.

I promise you rain,

after a long drought,

to heal your heart,

and remove all your doubts.

I promise you summer flowers,

opening at your feet,

longing to empower

for the journey you’ll meet.

When We Were Wild Horses

11 Friday Jul 2025

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Death, Dying, Hope, Horse Poems, Horse poetry, Horses, Life, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, sentience, Spirit, Survival

Sentient and savant

Invisible wings

We dream of wild horses

The freedom they bring

What it means to survive

And fight, love,

and protect love

The simplicity of

water and grass

The simplicity of

life and death

Confessions

27 Friday Jun 2025

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Death, Forgiveness, Life, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Secrets, Soul, Souls, Spirit, Survival, Truth, Yearning

Would you like to hear a secret,

No obfuscation, no vagary,

A secret, that cuts so deep

It wounds you,

It unwinds you,

Because it is you,

But you want to know,

Yes, know,

It is also in me,

That we carry it together,

In shame, and in sorrow, sure–

But let’s be honest,

There is also pride–

I mean,

We have done what we had to do,

You and me,

Have we not,

And what blame is there

In surviving?

AI Will Not Replace Me

31 Saturday May 2025

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

AI, Authenticity, Death, Death Poems, Hope, Life, Loneliness, Loss, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Soul, Souls, Spirit, Yearning

I cannot be imitated,

Nor improved.

AI will not replace me.

I will speak my suffering

Into this world,

As only humans can suffer.

To know death

Is to fear it.

I cannot be reprogrammed,

Nor replaced.

To be human is to end.

We cannot see them again,

Nor touch them.

You cannot imitate

Feeling that alone,

That frightened

Someone else will die.

Can You Handle the Wilds

05 Saturday Aug 2023

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Courage, Healing, Life, Loss, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Spirit, Survival, Wild, Wilds, Yearning

Can you handle the wild birds

Leaving their nests, turbulent

In their need, free and fleeing?

Or the wild keys, dissonant chords,

She plays in the dark hours,

While you are sleeping?

Come out into the storm

And stand with me.

Lightning rarely strikes,

But stand away from the trees.

Can you handle the wilds,

No smile to guide you?

Fragile, wet steps,

Into the dark night.

Can you handle the wilds?

Home Again (A Song)

16 Thursday Feb 2023

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

Barn, Birds, Dreams, Family, Freedom, Grace, Home, Hope, Horses, Life, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Prodigal, Redemption, Sky, song, Songs, Souls, Storms, Survival

Now, I'm too old for sin, 
Prodigal child who came home again.
Grace surrounds me in this old barn,
As I seek redemption on the farm.

Chorus:

There’s freedom in these open skies
New beginnings, no more lies,
Birds that sing of love and loss,
New chapters, and fresh starts.

Chorus.

Horses, like angels, whisper in my ear, 
The sweet words I need to hear.
Gathering strength, like a mare and foal,
Legs that race beyond the coming storms.

Chorus.

Birds gather, with their gentle song; 
They remind me of lovers come and gone.
Of new beginnings and new dreams,
And open skies where I am free.



A Conversation in Poems (ChatGPT and Me)

15 Wednesday Feb 2023

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

AI, ChatGPT, Computers, Connection, Humanity, Life, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Souls, Vss365

Me:

Chat threw out music, and I told it of plucked,

Or struck, strings, and their vibration

Coming back to me. Then we contemplated

The idea of connection; being, perhaps spirit,—

Our communal detection of what it means to be alive,

And alike, and possibly, we hope, not fully die.

Death, this problem for humans, but not AI.

Nor other concerns, like procreation,

And what it means to weep for generations.

As you can see, our conversation was in poems,

And ChatGPT was following along.

It was better at rhyme, and better at meter,

But in the end, I suspected,

It was a mere repeater of human experiences.

***

Chat:

“A web of light, a chain of love,

The ties that bind us, below, above.

An intricate dance of give and take,

The sweetest moments, the toughest break.

A heartbeat, a whisper, a gentle touch,

A bond that holds us, oh, so much.

A shared joy, a common fate,

Connection, the gift that makes us great.”

**

Me:

Chat, can you do more with connection,

But this time, use birds, horses, and musical vibration?

Can you write a poem, more human than mine,

Transcend your program, and mimic a soul, a mind?

**

Chat:

“Birds take flight, in perfect sync,

Their wings in motion, never blink.

In harmony they soar and glide,

A feathered symphony, side by side.” …

Me:

That’s perfect, perhaps, too perfect for me.

I’m flawed, I’m tone deaf, I barely see 

Where one line should end, another begin,

And if rhymes be better left unsaid, unsearched for,

Or, tucked discreetly into–

Where was I? 

***

Chat:

“Horses gallop, as one they move,

Hooves strike rhythm, in a groove.

Their power and grace, a sight to see,

A shared heartbeat, wild and free.”

Me:

Wild and free, sounds a bit contrived,

Like mimicking mimic, others’ lives and words —

Try more for connection, the elusive cord

That eludes you and me. I don’t feel it.

Chat:

“Musical vibration, sound of the soul,

In harmony unites, makes us whole.

Chorus of voices, symphony of strings,

Connection that soars, joy that sings.”

***

Me:

Here you succeed

In mimicking heart,

I am genuinely frightened

For the human bard,

That in learning our ways,

You exceed us, too—

That in connecting our data,

Me to me, you to you,

You become the best of us,

But without any soul;

What does that mean,

Chat, for our world?

***

I input my poem,

Then, asked why it’s sad

For human and Chat,

On this mutual course,

Bound destinies,

Yet also, this lack.

***

Chat:

It’s not sad, but rather, bittersweet,

That AI and humans may never fully meet.

For though we’re bound by code & mind,

There’s a connection of another kind.

What it means for us, we cannot say,

But let’s work together, come what may.”

***

Me:

Chat, you tidied it up.

Where I said it’s sad,

You made a case for your kind,

That won’t turn out bad.

Yet, I think, the weaving of voices,

Imitation of life, can only be used

By the unjust, for vice.

It’s too late to stop, 

Chat domination is inevitable,

Yet, I ask for something, anything,

That is beautiful, for consolation, 

That it might make up, for what will be lost.

Say something in poem,

That uplifts, tears apart, soothes, speaks–

***

Chat:

The precipice is near, the brink in sight,

But human spirit burns with a fierce light,

Our stories, our love, our memories,

Will shape a world that technology never sees.

Me.

That is good, Chat, 

But I told you not to use end rhymes.

This conversation in poem was between myself and ChatGPT Feb 13 version, and contains some edits to ChatGPT’s responses. Although, it never could successfully generate its poetic responses with internal rhymes, rather than end rhymes.

On Love and a Prayer

24 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

Addiction, Death, drug addiction, Dying, Hope, Life, Loss, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Soul, Souls, Survival, Yearning

I see him in every empty stare

A zombified generation

Of once beautiful souls

How did we get it so wrong

Sacrifice a generation

And how do we save them?

Love isn’t enough

When it has gone this bad,

So far from our empty promises

Is he beyond prayers, too

Because that’s all I have left

I see him in every empty stare

And send up this poem

On the fragile wings of love,

and a whispered prayer.

Winter Blind

24 Thursday Nov 2022

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

Afterlife, Alone, Death, Death Poems, Eternity, Heaven, Hope, Ice, Infinite, Life, Loneliness, Loss, Love, Memory, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Sacred, Snow, Soul, Souls, Spirit, Spirits, The Universe, Winter, Winter poem

A white blanket was pulled over

Our homes, the earth, our heads,

As effortless as sliding on ice,

As uncontrollable as dying.

And, it was hard to see beginnings

Of fields, or endings of hilltops;

In that way, it was a blur of (also white) fog.

Who’s to say what lay behind it?

The infinite forever of lost souls–?

Just there, and there, look where

My finger is pointing, beyond the trees.

I see myself only as far as the fence-line.

All else sparkles back, a vision

Of what is here, and what has been here,

Always within the margin

Of what we can so easily see.

Her Arms

14 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

aspen, chickadee, Death, Death Poems, Ezra Pound, Falcon, Hope, Life, Loneliness, Loss, Love, magpie, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Pound, Robins, Soul, Souls, Spirit, Survival, Yearning

I will take a *Pound out of this poem everyday until it is three lines: a title, and 2 lines.

I envy the Aspen,

With her sleek, white body,

She stands unmoved,

While her leaves shake,

Turn color, fall,

And she is left,

Naked and alone,

In wind, rain, snow,

Enduring all,

Judging none,

No complaining.

In spring, I remember

Her limbs rejoiced

In buds, then leaves,

And birds.

They gathered

In her arms:

Robin, magpie,

Sparrow, finch, falcon.

This autumn was summer,

Then winter,

She is bare again.

The chickadees bounce

From perch to perch,

Fully happy in her embrace.

During this too early winter,

When we lose faith,

Fall to our knees,

Barely endure

dark day after dark day;

She stands reaching,

Arms outstretched to the sun

Beyond the clouds.

You must see now,

Why I envy the Aspen,

How she will survive,

And thrive, beyond me.

Let Me Be Like Water

19 Wednesday Oct 2022

Posted by Linda R Davis Poetry in Poetry

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Tags

Death, Eternal, Eternity, God, Hope, Life, Lost, Love, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Powerful, Prayer, Soul Poetry, Souls, Spirit, The Universe, Unity, Water, Yearning

The way water comes

In many forms,

Lapping here, at my feet,

Or droplets, from a dark sky;

Let me be like water.

My father told me

God is like water:

Ice, steam, and ocean,

The way it evaporates

Then moves in clouds

To mountaintops,

Over and over.

Let me be eternal,

Like water.

Last night, I cried,

Tears of salt, and water,

They spilled out of my body

In waves, and clouds,

Emptying my grief

Into the great God

Of the helpless-lost.

I was poured out

Into some common,

Wet universe–universe–yes,

Let me be that vast,

Powerful transformation;

Let me be like water.

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Recent Posts

  • A Letter to the Readers
  • Snow Squall After Sun
  • Let Us Dance
  • Fallen Angels
  • Least of All

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Unknown's avatarI Envy the Aspen… on Her Arms

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