Dr. Fauci Speaks
At the podium
his small stature
looms over all others,
even above their
national status and
government titles
because he is the voice
of gentle reason,
a voice of experience
and expertise.
We only trust the soft
spoken Doctor
who tells it like it is.
Thank you Dr. Fauci.
published by Highland Park Poetry January 9, 2021
Too Short
smashing gold
of maples strikes
me from the blue
as I ride slowly
through woods
these dates in October
but the time is
too short
the time for paint
in the trees
is fleeting
a time I grab
with both hands
mostly a camera
possibly paintbrushes
quickly snapping
this glaring palette
before it flees
White Poinsettia
Aztecs surely knew
what glory they might
bring to hopeful eyes,
cultivating the brilliant
flor de Nochebuena,
delicate broad plant
mostly seen in season
of Christ’s Celebration,
wide green leaves with
snowy bracts fluttering,
gracefully curving to points,
so like wings of angels.
Angels’ Wings – Watercolor by Marilyn Peretti
Spring Blue
In the heart of the nation
no ocean
so I carve time to indulge
in the widest blue I know:
bluebells blooming
in the woods,
only for a short time
since branches above
show tiny yellow-green
petals-of-leaves
which in this overdue
warmth will enlarge quickly
masking sunlight feeding
this sea of blue,
stealing my ocean,
leaving me once again
on dry land.
May, 2018, Morton Arboretum, Lisle, IL
Spring Blue is May prize winner at Wilda Morris Poetry Challenge; photograph by Marilyn Peretti.
Writing poetry since 1993 Marilyn Peretti has attended the Iowa Summer Writers’ Festival, a poetry workshop in Galway, Ireland, and other workshops, submitting poems and seeing publication in the places listed below. In the Chicago area she has been a part of The Arbor Hill Poets, The Arlington Poetry Project, the Illinois State Poetry Society, and Upper Crust writing group.
Past poems published in: California Quarterly, Christian Science Monitor, Black Bear Review, Rockford Review, Urban Spaghetti, Seeding the Snow, The Bugle (Int’l Crane Foundation), Our Developing World’s Voices, Luke Lookout, Prairie Light Review, Parnassus Literary Journal, CURRENT of Ann Arbor, The Leaflet, (Nature Artists’ Guild of The Morton Arboretum), http://www.poetrysky.com (Chinese translations), Talking River Review, Arts Beat magazine, http://www.seastories.org by Blue Ocean Institute, 2005 anthology Beyond Katrina, the 2006 anthology on endangered species, The Dire Elegies, program of Breast Cancer Connections (Palo Alto, CA), CRAM 2, CRAM 3, CRAM 4, CRAM 6, CRAM 8, CRAM 10 (Chicagopoetry.com Press; name changed 2012 to Jrnl of Modern Poetry), Journal of Modern Poetry, 2013; Kane County Chronicle’s Poetry Pages, 2008; Talking River, 2009; The Deronda Review, 2010; posted in Highland Park/Evanston busses, January, 2010; online 2013, 2016; Fox Cry Review (U.Wis), 2012; seven poems in The Ultimate Chicago Poetry Anthology, 2012; Kyoto Journal #77, 2012 (pgs 102 & 105); Tipton Poetry Review, Fall, 2014; Fukishima: Words Fly Away, 2014; Wilda Morris’ Poetry Challenge, online, 2015, 2018; New Verse News – http://www.newversenews.com (8 poems), 2015, 2016; Li Poetry, Chinese bi-monthly poetry journal, Winter 2016; Grey Sparrow Journal (online), 2017; Snowy Egret, Spring/Autumn 2017 (Issued in 2018).
Various prizes; and nomination for Pushcart Poetry Prize, 2010. Poetry books in the “bookstore” at http://www.blurb.com: To Remember, To Hope (Japan and Haiti tragedies); Lichen, poems of nature; Angel’s Wings (poems on various fungi, with her ink drawings). Crane poems (2 books) with her ink drawings and other small books available from the poet. For other credits, see http://www.pagesbyperetti.com
Once Again
Not yet March
and the bright pink trumpets
are playing again!
They’ve come to impress me
and even though they bend
and droop
I hear high pitched tones
from the Christmas cactus,
tooting and roaring
a goodbye
to winter.
Bear Care
With all the turmoil
in the news each morn,
I turn to a bear
who doesn’t care.
Many in Europe
now lean to the right,
North Korea may do
blah, blah, blah,
lots in DC are falling
from great heights,
but I turn to a silly bear
who doesn’t care.
Every morning
I check the zoo cam
to find my panda friend
leading his life,
trotting about
and climbing there,
thankfully,
I can turn to this bear
who doesn’t care.
October 25 in Morton Arboretum East Woods
October’s Colors
Yellow and green
and orange buttons
and more green
in paddles of fungi
red of sumac
and red of maple
and red in my heart
burning with autumn
look at the colors
flying like flags
blazing a sky
before ice grays it
Green “paddle” fungi
Little white umbrella!
Tiny (3/8″) orange buttons with sister moss
Fragrance
sweet tart orange—
tinges of this taste
embed a fragrance
the old mock orange
vines over a fence
in gentle greeting
At old house in Lombard, IL
flowers made of air
petals dense in color
colors beyond palettes
sky bluer than ever
blue I can breathe
spring surging
beyond expectations
fulfilling hopes seeded
in coldest times
Morton Arboretum April 23
perettipoems 