Tag Archives: life

The Gift – A Tanka

What we forge in life

Only lives on when we share

Like gifts at Christmas

The joy is in the giving

Expecting naught in return

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Full Life – A Haiku

A life lived fully

Is spent learning and growing

Only to pass on

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Eternal Night

The question eternal,

What lay beyond the infinite night?

I peer Heavenward for the answer,

Pleading for an omnipotent retort,

Never to be realized.

~~

On bended knee,

With hands grasped in prayer,

I have asked for absolution.

Hoping that there is life for me,

Beyond this earthly Hell.

~~

Surely there must be more,

How cruel the joke,

Were Heaven the fodder of fairytales.

This must not be,

I refuse to succumb to disbelief!

~~

This night I will read the Book,

Comforting myself in it’s inspiration,

Denouncing the wickedness of my sins.

By immersion in the prose of Psalm 51,

Praying for the cleansing of my soul.

~~

I will not surrender faith,

To the folly of Satan’s game,

Committing myself to his depths of despair.

Surely this mustn’t be my destiny,

If I am to be a child of the everlasting God.

 

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

The Finer Things – A Tanka

merlot

A walk on the beach

Sand, wind and sun renew

Like a fine Merlot

Warming one’s heart and one’s soul

While pleasing to the palate

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Rebirth – A Tanka

This place I stand now

The pinnacle of my life

Like the beginning

Everyday is a new day

Another chance for rebirth

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Greener Grass

This gravel road,

A path oft traveled,

Lane you strode,

As your life unraveled.

~~

Yon horizon so far distant,

Where a better life must lay,

Hurry on forth right this instant,

For the sun will rise on a brighter day.

~~

On yonder side the grass must surely be greener,

As the old time saying goes,

This too passes as ones life becomes leaner,

With far too little to show.

~~

Much too often we chase exaggerated expectations,

When they seem right within our grasp,

‘Til euphoria fades to urgent consternation,

And your prospects they dwindle and lapse.

~~

Life lessons learned are the hardest its true,

As the scars and bruises do prove,

Out of the rubble and ash will rise a new you,

In spirit and nature behoove.

~~

We greet you back home as a most beloved son,

For you needed to find your own way,

This is only the beginning of the journey you’ve begun,

Welcome home for as long as you will stay.

 

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

No Time for Regret

Peering through the haze of a looking glass,

Scrutinizing the life I watch rush past.

~

Questioning choices is easy in hindsight,

Without benefit of knowing what’s wrong or what’s right.

~

The consequence of actions whether good or bad,

Must be accepted since thats all that we had.

~

Shy of vision to see into the future,

We’re left to chance of nature and nurture.

~

Through failure and success our horizons expand,

Experience alone not parlor tricks or slight-of-hand.

~

Moulds who we are for better or worse,

In this life that we live that at best is quite terse.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Life in Time

Time, is it something we are given or something we keep?

We can not hold it,

We can not prolong it no matter how hard we try.

So many have tried and failed.

Kings in the belief they were gods,

Destined to live forever,

Believing they were divinely chosen,

But to no avail life slipped away from them.

The sands of time drizzled from between their gold adorned fingers,

Leaving their hearts empty and their hands cold,

This is as it always has been and always will be.

Our science can only sustain the life left in us,

When we are called to pass no method of man can save us.

Should we not then cherish the hours we spend in this world,

Accepting them as a gift to be received gratefully?

Nothing on this earth is forever.

We cannot keep time,

It was not given to us to be kept.

It was given instead to be enjoyed,

Lived to the fullest in harmony with our fellow transients.

Who like us will run out of the gift of time, some day, some hour,

Only to join our ancestors in eternity.

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Ravaged By Nature

Sullied winds chatter chimes lashed to greyed beams

Warped and splitting with age, appear none too long for this world

With each ring an angel must surely get their wings

As remuneration for a melody so heavenly revealed

~~

Steps crippled, squeal as mice in traps are bound to do

Bowing under the burden of the weary traveler

Fortitude ingrained, revives the weakened conscripts

Whose preparation has made them cordial adversaries

~~

Tawny hinges weathered by sun, beaten by the wind cry in pain

Remorse etched into their hammered finish confesses their age

Chagrined by subjugation, the door slams

Announcing defeat to it’s audience of none

~~

Dark but for dust pirouetting through muted shafts of light

Stirred by shuffling boots, tattered and worn thin by extended employ

Creaking under foot, floorboards rebel in unison with their owner

Shrunken and contorted from the weight of existence

~~

Ping of coils break the stagnant silence of the vessel

Sagging lumpy seat replaces a once firm cushion

A quiet ah, escapes from the lungs in expiration

Sense of relief but for the strain of fabric

~~

Cracking joints echo of broken glass in freefall

Legs wobble by exhausted mortise and tenon

Laden with rings, table balances precariously in an uncomfortable dance

Unsteady and unsure, time has reaped it’s revenge

~~

Tired well beyond youth, mortality returns from holiday

Waiting to reveal what lay interred beyond these walls

Neither refinish nor repair prolong to eternity

Only temporary and finite are the workings of men

~~

Man conspires with the dwelling in cosmic ways

Each subject to the ravages of the lifetime moment

Materially morphing into a shell of the original creation

Inevitably conceding to nature’s crowing fate

~~ D. R. DiFrancesco ~~

Another Years Pass

By D. R. DiFrancesco

~~~~~~

Another page in a life has turned

To look back on what might have been

For hopes and dreams we fought and yearned

Have passed us by sight unseen.

~~

Resolutions born to steer our path

Put forth with the best and greatest intention

Champagne and music and social laugh

In hopes of better days we’ve mentioned.

~~

To morph our heart and soul required

Without we waste our solemn vows

A change of course to which we’ve aspired

Time grows shorter when failures allow.

~~

Renew the mind and the body will follow

Our spirit thrives when visions align

Life will fill and no longer be hollow

When sadness and regrets fade and resign

~~

Look toward the new year as an offer to grow

In spite of what you’ve let dissuade you

Strength and determination must be what you show

To face those that would trample imagination held true

~~

Trust your heart and your dreams will flower

No new years pass or resolution will save them

Endowed at birth with the universal power

To design your future while burying failures condemned.

~~

This strength you’ve had all this life that you’ve lived

Wound and ingrained into your very soul

Have courage to pursue all your passions not passive

For these are the things that make living life whole.