This California Christmas

I thought there’d be one more Christmas 
Below the foggy redwood line
In the temperate golden sunlight 
Of California’s winter time 

But life had other plans for me
And so the next I knew 
My life was packed in boxes tight
And northward bound I flew

Here the winter skies are gray
The hush of snow abounds 
No California winter sun
Shines down upon this ground 

The life I’d come to know so well
The sea salt and rolling fog
The Bay and golden foothills 
Now grace this monologue 

This Christmas in our new home
Amongst the peaks and pines 
Finds my tiny family brood
Building new and joyful lives 

Those California Christmases
With lit palm trees in lines
Painted purple sunsets
Now only in my mind

Here night descends at 4PM
We tuck in nice and warm
The PNW slows life down
Outside my new front door

More time to talk about our days
New adventures we began
New traditions being created
With new family and friends 

Another California Christmas 
Has rolled around again
I reflect upon it fondly 
As my new chapter begins 

-gws

The Next Chapter

And so comes the end of the heaviest chapter
The plot twisted dramatically 
In the hands of an unreliable narrator 
Linear time fractured
Slowed
Ran backward 
Perspectives shifted
Creating more confusion than clarity

Muted colors of nostalgia dull recollections 
Emotional sharpness blunted
The hollow ache of a long goodbye 
Completed with the deliberate placement 
Of an arch-ending period.

The next act begins with a page turn
“THE NEXT CHAPTER” written atop it

-gws

How the Wind Came and Changed Everything

My curls dance around my face
As the wind kisses my cheeks rosy
These are the winds of change
Smelling of hope and promise
Action and evolution
The wind sings dreams of change to me
It pulls at my skirts
Kisses goosebumps onto my skin
Willing me to move my feet
Daring me to take a chance
Toward unwritten promise
I toss on my sweater
Pick up my notebook
Tamp down my hat
And walk toward the unknown
Wind cheering at my back
Celebrating the changing of everything

-gws

@wordswishesandwisdom
Happy NaPoWriMo! Here’s my Day 16 poem called How the Wind Came and Changed Everything #poetry #wordsmithing #poem #writer #wordswishesandwisdom #poet #poetsoftiktok #poetryTok #NaPoWriMo #NaPoWriMo2024 #poetryreading
♬ Instrumental Piano – Piano Music

The Next Right Choice

All we can do is make the next right choice

Sometimes, that choice is easy

Sometimes it is the hardest thing you can do

What do you do when you get to the end of the map

Where do you go when you can’t go back

And forward is so uncertain

You know there is something beyond

But you don’t know what it looks like

How hard it’s going to be

Because there’s no way it can be easy

The unknown is rarely easy

-gws

@wordswishesandwisdom
The Next Right Choice written and read by GWS #wordswishesandwisdom #poetry #poetrytok #poem #poet #poetsoftiktok #poetryreading #writer #recovery
♬ original sound – GWS