I am home from a fantastic visit to Sweden, the birthplace of my paternal grandmother. I have finished about 95% of a poetic memoir, “One ALS Journey”, a collection of poems.  I am registered for BYU Education Week Aug 20-24.  I’ll be staying with my daughter and her family. The class topics (over 1,000 offerings) look very interesting!  A friend of mine studies there with a group of seniors from Texas, so I decided I would study again too. If any of my family or friends are going, please let me know so we can get together. Anyone can still register for a day, a part, or the full week.

I am still writing poetry and I hope to start posting new poems here on the blog soon!

 

 

Sputters, pops, and groans,
Beat up sagging seats,
Damaged dashboard,
Dented fenders,
New tires,
Dim headlights,
A bed scratched as a hen yard,
A free gift to cheerful student sisters,
Made it from Texas to Utah and back,
Still runs!

Cerita M. Hewett
March 29, 2000

Lullaby

 

Sleep, sleep for the sun has gone,

Sleep, sleep now our play is done,

Sleep, sleep after we pray,

Sleep, sleep at the end of day.

 

Rest, rest little arms and legs,

Rest, rest each strong muscle begs,

Rest, rest tiny ears, sparkling eyes,

Rest, rest as the night time flies.

 

Peace, peace from the day’s fast whirl,

Peace, peace for your tiny world,

Peace, peace in your heart of mirth,

Peace, peace in your home on earth.

Cerita M. Hewett

March 28, 2009                                                          

 

 

                                                     Music

 

                                    The door was opened for a minute,

                                    I could hear the voices of children,

                                    Calling, chasing, jumping, laughing,

                                    Playing in front of the temple,

                                    This was music to my ears!

                                                                                                            Cerita M. Hewett

                                                                                                            Sept. 17, 2010

 

 

                                                         Música

 

                                    La puerta estaba abierta por un minuto,

                                    Podía escuchar las voces de los niños,

                                    Llamando, dando caza, saltando, rizando,

                                    Jugando de frente del templo,

                                    ¡Esta fue música a mis oídos!

                                                                                                                        Cerita M. Hewett

                                                                                                                        Sept. 17, 2010

 

 

                                    Come to me now

                                    While it is dark and

                                    Most of my world

                                    Rests, snores, breaths deeply,

                                    Turns slowly.

 

                                    Come while

                                    Water is quiet,

                                    Air is still.

 

                                    Come now while time ticks mercilessly

                                    Towards dawn and work,

                                    Sleep come now!

                                                                        Cerita M. Hewett

                                                                        March 7, 1997

                                                                        (revised 2014)

                                            Dogs barking,

                                                      Roosters crowing,             

                                                               Hens clucking.

                                             Goats bleating,

                                                      Horses blowing,

                                                               Pigs oinking.

                                             Bees buzzing,

                                                      Birds chirping,

                                                               Cats mewing.

                                             Ducks quacking,

                                                      Brim splashing,

                                                               Frogs croaking.

                                             Old men coughing,

                                                      Old women rocking,

                                                               Babies wailing,

                                             Young men calling,

                                                      Young women singing,

                                                               Children laughing.

                                             All declaring life,

                                                                         L i f e,       

                                                                                  L i f e!

                                                                                                Cerita M. Hewett

                                                                                                February 2014

 

                       

                           I put lipstick on at a red light

                           For the first time today.

                           Always before I’d wondered how a woman,

                           Could drive and apply lipstick.
                           Sitting beside or behind cars,

                           I’d watched women flick

                           Open gold or silver tubes,

                           Gracefully arch their necks

                           To see their reflection

                           In rearview mirrors,

                           Deftly draw red cylinders

                           Across the upper and lower lips,

                           Softly with heads turned slightly to the right,

                           Rub those lips together,

                           Arch again to observe how precisely

                           They had rosied their lips.

                           When the light turned green,

                           Blaring horns declared the need to

                           Move on through the intersection.

 

                           Sometimes I smiled smugly at this ritual,

                           Thinking how this vanity was so embedded,

                           Automatic in some women’s lives,

                           Wondering why they didn’t groom

                           Before leaving home.

 

                           Today at sixty,

                           Late and in a hurry,

                           I put lipstick on at a red light,

                           For the first time,

                           And someone honked.

                                                                                    Cerita M. Hewett

                                                                                    1988

 

                  I slept                  

                  In the black darkness,

                  While the Living Water fell

                  Upon the tired faces

                  Of the many colored pansies,

                  Washing the dust from every flower and

                  Leaving their velvet texture softly glowing

                  In the early morning sunlight.

 

                  I woke to see them

                  Growing beside the sodden pathway,

                  Where iridescent insects come to

                  Drink sweet nectar and

                  Find shelter

                  Beneath outstretched arms.

                                                                                                Cerita M. Hewett

                                                                                                2006

                                             Jumping, jumping, jumping,

                                             On a trampoline,

                                             One, two , three, children

                                             Falling down,

                                             Legs and arms all tangled,

                                             Getting up!

                                             Jumping, falling, laughing,

                                             Getting up!

                                            Jumping, falling, resting

                                             Still and quiet,

                                             Looking at clouds,

                                             Getting up!

                                             Jumping, jumping, jumping,

                                             Me too.    

                                                                                                Cerita M. Hewett

                                                                                                About 1989

        The small black capped Phoebe birds have started

         Feeding their five babies

         On our front porch.

 

         Fly out, guard, fly out, guard, fly out, guard!

         The Mama and the Papa take turns

         Flying out for food far away from the nest many times each day,

         And quietly guarding the babies from the top of the step ladder.

 

         Of course they cannot fly out and guard at the same time,

         Their work in tandem provides both exercise and rest,

         Wisely they accomplish the daunting task of family care giving,

         Without completely exhausting both parents each day.

                                                                                                                                    Cerita M. Hewett

                                                                                                                                    March 2013