Consider the Dragonfly

Happy New Year! 

In lieu of a Saturday Post, here is a New Years promise, kept and keeping.

You rarely hear dragonflies 

Coming or going

Resting or moving

Not unless they are very close

Intimately close

Their song

Scary as the portents of

a new year
a new choice
a new life

Amazing

And unapologetic

For being

Quiet OR beautiful

They don't talk mess about 

how bam is their glam

No need for marketing

They don't puff up

They just show up

fly

be beautiful 

As they are

Don't need a billboard

to label them

beautiful

Their wings

Don't need

a million

Social media fans

Don't need merch buying followers

to increase their value

or premium

make them relevant

make them stronger

Don't need to be anywhere

Because they are

In front

On the sides

Behind

Beneath

Holding it up

Holding it down

Loud as the truth is scary

With barely any sound at all

They are free

to be heard

or ignored

Have you ever?

Let's do the dang thing. It's 2016.​

2015's Last Few

Looking forward by looking back, Happy Saturday Post to you!

2015 Can Go

This was the hardest year
I've overcome
In my life so far
I learned some things
About myself
I learned some things
About others
I have to own
Mine
I have defend
My own
Soul
Pruning
Training
Shining
So
Sometimes
I have to ask for help
Asking for clarification is ok too
But sometimes
things just won't get clear
Control is for certain
Times and places
my personal space
the peace of my home
the people I let affect my choices
Some things
I will never understand
Some people
Will flip the script
Mid-sentence
It's my job to live
The nobility I claim
And the learning does not stop
Not until
My last breath
Still breathing
Yep

My biggest lesson of this year - 

forgiveness and peace.

Without them, 

I am a fool and lyin' to myself.

With words, song and prayer,
Tiffany V

Hearing the Voice of the Heart

Wishing you all the Happiest of Holidays, here's a Saturday Post!

I hate that man like the very gates of death who says one thing but hides another in his heart. - The Iliad

Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks... - The Bible

The holiday season is a great time to consider the rain and the symbol of cleansing that comes with it. Let's consider expelling the poison that may be within us. Let's consider that we all are fragile in the snow with no cover. Let's consider we often pretend to be Hercules, when really we are Tiny Tim without the crutch.

"...She has them believing that poor old ape with the twisted foot is a satyr. Illusions, deceptions, mirages!" - The Last Unicorn

Considering the idea of authenticity, it makes me wonder how many people don't know what is actually in their own hearts. And because they don't investigate, they act contrary to their own soul on a detrimentally regular basis.

I was that person, I worked for and with that person. I dated that person. Once I punched that person in the gut - but I was nine, and have learned telling someone the truth can be WAY more fulfilling (or devastating) that physical violence.

This morning as I was preparing this post, I received an email from someone in high school. He wasn't my favorite person. But he said he saw in me a beautiful soul. I thought that (at that time in my life) I couldn't be my own self. I had to wear the multi-socks, the cross gear-- be this thing that really couldn't explain me or be explained by me. I, like him, did stupid things in that time, but don't we all?

His regret for who he was makes me think that he, sometime in the not too recent past, saw his heart (or maybe I'm just being an artistic chick about it). Referring to the first two quotes, my point is whether your heart is hidden by your performance of self or worn on your sleeve, it will speak. Will I hear it in the midst of my spinning? Will you listen when it says something? Will we do the work?

Peter Beagle via Schmendrick the magician said, "It is a rare man who is taken for what he truly is." I use to think he said, "It is a rare man mistaken for who he truly is." I don't know whose phrase I like better, haha.

Your cross is not mine to bear. Neither is mine yours. Love, when true, can hurt like the deepest torture dungeon in hell. It can also put gold in your wings and bear you up to the stars. It takes bravery to engage and begin. So (in my best Samuel L. Jackson voice) the question remains -

"What's in your [heart]?

I'm such a goofball.

Merry Christmas,
Tiffany V

Pme and Qme in conversation

P.S. Did you read the latest review for Ugly Drawers, Pretty Panties? If not click here!

Be sure to order your copies before Christmas so your friends can get their gifts on time!

Death & I Are Feuding

Merry Christmas y'all, here's a Saturday Post!


I have to find my way
With fear and trembling
It's hard to walk in the light
There's so much shadow and shade
In the valley of the shadow

Death and I are feuding
It came for me
Tried to shame my body
My life
My home
My love

I have to find my way
Looking to the Light
It's hard to walk in this way
Slivers and scales on my eyes
In the valley of the shadow

Death and I are feuding
It came for me
Tried to take my children
My dreams
My hope
My heart

This is not the desert

This is just the dark

It's hard to look for light

The hands that guide can't find me

Death and I are feuding

Here in a healing heart

But I keep on fighting

For life

For legacy

For glory

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

Thank Rafiki

Hey y'all! Happy Saturday! Here's a post for ya.

How this...

© November 2015 - Thanks Rafiki

turned into this...

© November 2015 - That Turkey is Smokin'

tells me that God is real, and that the Lion King Turkey Blessing works!

Seriously, I thank you all for the amazing support and love throughout the year.

2015 has been a year of reaping. 

Some things bloomed beautiful,

some things passed on,

and many things went

into a new phase.

A word of caution,

and a promise

none of us gets out of this alive

So enjoy the turkey

and run this race to win

With words, song & prayer
Tiffany V

One the Eve of our First Anniversary

Happy Saturday to you! Here's your Saturday Post!

To my other, in honor of his significance
She carries the moon in her womb
And the words in her wrist
And the skin of her mothers on her elbows and knees
She has her dream
Come true
And deferred
And he loves her
In the clouds
And on the ground
And under the ground

She carries the song in her heart
Which is still healing
She carries the sass in her hips
Which are still in pain
She considers her star shining
And fallen
And he loves her
In the sky
And in the resting mist
And in the bog

They don't understand the love
And they understand it all too well
They don't get to dance that way
Not all of them
But we love
For love is stronger
Than the burning heat of the sun
And the reflected light of the moon
And to the place of death

She carries the moon
And he walks with her
And He carries them both sometimes
With blood and gore and tears
With or without footprint
For sometimes
They fly together
And they stand still together
And they rest together

With words, song and prayer
TiMo V

Close to the Air

Happy Saturday Post!

Pushing up
Two centimeters 
Until the air
Not drowning
Is the same
As growing
From underground up
You have to do it
Or you'll die
And it is
Hard to do
But needful
Essential
Vital

Push.

A happy workday beginning -- © 2015 Tiffany V.

A Word with You Press' most current contest authors are anonymous. Try it. Just click here.

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo V

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany V.

Black Poetry Day

On both my little bro's birthday AND Black Poetry Day, here's a Saturday Post!
 
From October-13
My family is an amazing maze of triumphs and failures
Heroic acts and artistic neuroses
I love them
More and more
The more I love
The bigger the family gets
There are some
Still lost
In the wilderness
I want them to know
There is a home hearth
Waiting
In my heart
In my house
No judgments
No past
Just now
Just a big hug
And a
Let's move on
From here
To the legacy

For those of you I haven't met yet, this image is my brother.
He will fly across the country to defend OR correct me,
and after the carnage, he will take me for coffee.
And be sure, he isn't even my fiercest protector... You've been warned.

Criticism

can be

Constructive

Growth can

Often

does

hurt

Petty prides

Cut with malice

Seeking destructive details

Why?

Because

Hurt people hurt people

Proud people

Sad people

Lonely people

Controlling people

Confused people

Normal people

Human people

That's why

Let's go viral

Growing up

Getting up

Pulling up

Pushing up

Why?

Why not?

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

Choosing

On Bonnie and Dan's Wedding Day - Here's a Saturday Post!

For Boba and Darth

I choose to nerd out

Get the word out

And I am not ashamed

I will sing and cry with joy

No plots or ploys

Only love to blame

I choose my friends who love me

Who envelope me

In their gracious arms

And while we sing the Star Wars main theme

She marries the man of her dreams

Right there on the front lawn

Love you, Bonnie - Congratulations!

You found the droid you were looking for!

In transit

From Ugly Drawers, Pretty Panties

On your mark, get set, GO
Where though
A pioneer through life's paths
A journey from here to eternity
A wanderer through the wonder of the simplest moments
I am in transit
I am not easily surprised, but life has a way of shutting me up
The more I learn, the more I see,the more I wish for simple songs and writing
The less I want to talk, the more I want to ask
What do you want to learn from your life?
What do you want to teach through your experiences?
What do you want your legacy to be?
Let's transit together and share the load
Let's converse about our wonder-wanders
And save each other time and trial
Learning to lean, learning to bow, learning to pray
As we travel from death to life
Let's enjoy the story
Show me your battle scars and I'll show you mine
From the past, when we were stupid
Yes, even five seconds ago
I am tired of my ears being tickled
We are moving from ignorance to wisdom
Through trial and text and a multitude of counsel
I want to go hard after life and excellence
So that when I am old my age will speak wisdom
I will tell my younger ones from experiences
And so I go, and I will bring stories in transit

Inspired by the phrase II
From Ugly Drawers, Pretty Panties

"Danger is very real, but fear is a choice." - Will Smith, After Earth
I will say it
I will give no quarter to the lie
The bind
The one that says I must say less
Give less
Be less
Because it scares you
(and by the way, if you ain't "you", then don't take ownership)
I will give it
I will open my heart to the sunshine
The freedom
The joy
Even in a moment
(and by the way, if you've been there with me, cool)
I will feel it
I will wear the full armor
Not apologizing
Not compromising
Accepting everything that I am to you, with you, for you
(All the many "you's" out there)
I will choose
Choose life
Choose me
Choose faith in the promise
I will be the fearless one I once tried not to be because of you
(Though I thank you for the trip)
I will change
I am a shifting rhythm
In the poem of life
In the life of a poem
And I am not written by you
(Though I have been edited by "you" from time to time)

Choosing

On the off chance that you can change for the better

Choose to

On the off chance you can get the spirit and not the letter

Choose to

I sometimes have difficulty

Letting pain back in to hurt me

Forgiving is a daily duty

But I choose to

This one is not finished...

With words, song & prayer
TiMo V

Grafting

It's Saturday! Here's your Saturday Post!

Cut it out to cut it in
For the abundant life
Of both old and new
Two old
Become one
Anew
Renewed
With cuts, deep, and painful
The shoot can not seed
It is not of its own
It is cut out
And then
Cut in
The rootstock is the life source
The scion its sub-part
Under authority
Living off of that authority
There is no such thing
As a independent scion
Inosculation
Asexual generation
Cut out
to be cut in
To produce
Some 30, some 60, some 100-fold
It always hurts
At first
Being cut
And it hurts sometimes after
At the point of joining
But the benefit
Is worth it
Cutting out to cut it in
Cutting it

With words, song and prayer
TiMo V

The Great Duality

Happy Saturday to you! Here's your Saturday Post!

I dreamt this week that I was surrounded by deep water, but my living situation was a high hill with many buildings (think Minas Tirith in the Pacific). My view was sometimes from under the water, and sometimes from a middle place looking down. Family and certain friends were there, and I was teaching. I'm not yet at an age when grandchildren run about my legs, but I feel like it is always going to come down to that balance of duality; not undecided, but with singularity of purpose.

This fountain in me seems full
Grace
Truth
Christian
Pharisee
Family
Business
Pme
Qme

This journey is me feels forked
Heaven
Hell
Acceptance
Rejection
Paul
Peter
Joy
Dejection

I seek purification within and without
Heart
Life
Maturity
Childishness
Wings
Weights
Love
Indifference

I run this race to win
Get up
Go on
Learn
Unlearn
Build up
Take down
Win
Burn

The natural tendency is to choose one side
But I have
Can't you see
Hidden
In plain sight
Complicated
Simplicity
My shadows
Prove a light

When I lived on the East Coast, I told my older brother I was vacillating between staying and moving back to CA. He told me, "once you make the decision you'll have peace". It took about a year before I moved back, but from the point of choice, both options worked toward my goal. I was so scared for so long that people would beat me down for saying out loud the things I say, as if it were about me. I've been told this week, "Do you have any idea how strong you are; and how intimidating that is?" Would it were not so.

I'm human; cuts hurt. I am a phoenix too; only in Christ. I've been given a "talent", and I am duty-bound NOT to bury it, but to make it bear fruit. I was told by a pastor in Virginia, "you have kingdoms in you..." and that is one of the things that have driven me to write poetry, stories, emails, blog posts, dreams... It makes room, like an overfull vessel being emptied (and the relief is sublime).

It is not about me, no matter how I benefit.

With words, song and prayer
TiMo V

Off the Grid

From the island paradise - a Saturday Post!

For Tabby
It takes work - real work
To live in peace
It takes pushing and pulling
Tugging and tagging
Learning
To be healthy
From tent to mansion
From pipe to rain
It takes work - real work
To be free

I find myself in subtler and subtler shackles
This size
This food
This mindset
To cry or laugh
And to get up
Say, "yes, it was my fault"
Say, "yes, I was wrong"
To mispell on purpose
To bad grammar knowingly
It takes work - real work
To love without limitations

How freeing it is
To judge myself
To carry that check-double-check
As I prepare for takeoff
These wings are unfettered
But weighted
Because it takes work - real work
To be responsible
To my heart
To my art
To my journey
To my legacy

I've never seen true sustainable living until I saw what I saw in Kurtistown, HI. I am humbled and inspired by the life of my spiritual sister and home-chic. We laughed like we never met in Kingman, but grew up in each other's houses. Having a deep friendship like that is a greater blessing that any high paying job or fully modernized mansion. I salute you girl... can I have some more stuffed peppers and iron sharpening?

With words, song & prayer,

TiMo

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

Brave Enough to Share

Workin' that work and sharing my Saturday Post! Enjoy!

My friend told me today that she and her husband sat together and read one of my poems. She said they cried together in the reading. I told her I just wanted to tell the truth. That's why I write.

They even made a comment about My Violin of an Armpit. I am going to read it this evening.

I was interviewed by A Word With You Press for the Author Spotlight and I'd like to share that with you today.

My book launch party is in a few hours, and I'm so busy getting ready for it, I can't even be nervous about it. But those feelings will come. And I may write about them. Sometimes it hurts to tell what I'm seeing, doing, learning, or becoming. But that is the work. And I am humbled by the people who are brave enough to share their words with me. They inspire me to do more. So thank you all (song writers, poets, rappers, friends, etc.) for giving me the strength to tell my own story.

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

God in my bed with me

Hello to you! Here is your Saturday Post!

It was the tiny toddler time of morning
I lay there in bed
Not afraid
Peace has stayed
Because God is in my bed with me

I was fidgeting while healing through pain
I lay there in bed
Not quite healed
But my wounds are sealed
And God is in my bed with me

Sleep and I are awkwardly not dating
It's an on and off relationship
I'm not all that worried
And I'm in no hurry
When God is in my bed with me

Contemplating the deeper shadows
They seems strange considerations
This world - in and not of
Cajoling forgiveness without push and shove
As God is in my bed with me

A few more hours until the sun
I lay there in bed
Not taking myself that seriously
Life is viewed more ludicrously
Because God is in my bed with me

Read a tiny story of my childhood here.

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Yours Truly, Summer 2011
© Tiffany Monique

Babysitting

Here is your Saturday post.

It is a sparkling afternoon, with traffic heavy yet moving along. I get the call on the way and before I hear the voice, I know. The day becomes a cracked glass flute...Read the rest here.

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Onward Looking

© Tiffany Monique February 2014

A Royal Daughter

Had she been my own daughter, I couldn't be more proud of the woman she has become. I wish to honor her today.

I have
A good friend V
Standing strong
In the face of sorrow
And conflict
In the same
Situation
-I did not stand so
Bravely
She humbles me

She asked previously
For advice
About her situation
And after referring up
I told her
The best advice I could
"Walk out your royalty"
She did
-In the same situation
Shaped for myself
I did not

Kudos to my friend
Of whom
I am most proud
She is a living epistle
A post-it note
For my soul
A beautiful heart
Showing love
In a
Somewhat
Or Seriously
Unloving situation
I bow.

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Borrowed Children

I am thankful for my borrowed children
As I am thankful for this borrowed time
We no longer stay here for centuries
And none of us gets out alive

We are here
Today
And I am grateful

With words, song & prayer,
TiMo

Onward Looking

© Tiffany Monique February 2014

Two Gold Lines

Hey hey! Here is your Saturday Post!

This is my time, to sit, to sip, to look, to listen
This is my space, for pondering, for dancing, for writing, for singing
This is my joy, loving, giving, hoping, living
And learning
Let's not forget that

***

I am tacitly mindful of the length of my posts, and weight of my words. Someone taught me, I think it was Mom, that words are like toothpaste - once out of the tube, they can't go back in. I've been failing, and succeeding at that whole "keep it in the tube" way. Even the bible talks about it - "The tongue is a “small part of the body” (James 3:5), yet Proverbs 18:21 says it “has the power of life and death.”" There are a great deal of self-help books and gurus who basically say the same thing, "watch what you say...", and I just want to shout out to the writers... WATCH WHAT YOU SAY! Watch it grow, change people, start or stop wars. King David was a psalmist. Solomon was a song writer. I am a griotte! I claim it. I own it. I walk in it. And I share the joy of it. As you may or may not know, my first solo book of poetry has been published, and I can't be more humbled by the hard work that so many people put in. Thornton Sully, CEO of A Word With You Press, saw me at one of his writer's group dinners, and became my friend and mentor, even though he's admitted to lacking weight as a connoisseur of poetry. But for my non-poetry works, he's a beast of an editor (in the best way), and someone whose criticism I truly respect.

A Word With You Press has a contest with a 7.00 entry fee and a 350 word limit. The contest ends this coming Wednesday. Even though my book is now in their catalog (with more to come!), and I will never win because I'm basically staff, I submit a piece every time there's a contest. I will always participate, not just because of the awe-inspiring feedback, but because I believe in the mission of this publishing house - to put gravitas on a low carb diet. As the type of poet I want to be -  well, gravitas comes with the pen and paper. Yes, tech aside, I have journals everywhere...

​I digress.

The following was edited out of my submission, but it's so fun to write, and every time I read it I smile to myself... Enjoy!​

Mama has been harpin’ on Brook to “cover her cooty cat ‘fore the smell of her in heat attracts all the Tom cats from Dana Point”. Maybe if I dressed like that for Kimber, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Yeah right, my sexiness was never an issue. It always came back to the kids.

If you would like to read the full piece Two Gold Lines, please click here...

With words, song & prayer
TiMo

Thorn & Me - The Day He Saw the Book 

P.S.
Blackbird
Bluest Eye
Bone straight hair
Skinny thigh
This is not I
This is part I
This in part I
This impart I
Winged creature fly
Dragon
Fly
Dragonfly
This is I
This is why

Happy Birthday Bro

In lieu of your Saturday Post – here is a post for Andrew:

I heard in an audio book (Proverbs for the People) that there is a traditional calling for one member of the generation to be the griot – historian of that generation (as I am female - I would be the griotte).

They are to learn the histories and tell the stories of the past and present, and feed forward to the next generation’s griot. I have never thought of it that way, but I’ve always known it to be true. I've been telling stories about Andrew since he passed out in Costa Rica.

Another proverb in that same audio book, that like it or not, as sure as the sun goes up and down, you gotta “make your 8”, meaning - “if a man don’t work, he don’t eat.” Andrew was a hard worker. I would venture to say he got it honest. All of the Beard’s did. Once decided, the job was done. It may take a while to get to the decision, but once made, the work is nothing but something to do. He was working hard, up to the moment he was no longer with us on this Earthly plane.

There is a verse in the bible that speaks of us being living epistles, read of all men, and I still read him. He’s a good study, full of intrigue and laughter, horror and joy. I wonder what his index would look like. I wonder how many of his life choices were influenced by the bible, by the people in his life, by the movies he watched. I’m sure Godfather would inform a lot of his non-essential moral questions.

Today is Andrew’s birthday. He would have been 43. He worked harder than a lot (most) of the people I know, and he didn’t do much in the way of complaining to me. He made it up in his mind to be the hero of our family circle, and he made his 8. We all saw him as a man, but I suppose we saw the S on his chest as well.

Andrew Richard Beard Jr.

June 26, 1972 - May 12, 2015

Ever the teacher-mentor. Love you Drew.
© Tiffany Monique 2009

Today the family is getting together and watching as much of the Godfather movie trilogy as we can stand.

Happy birthday, bro.

This may be the last post of mourning. This may not. I am honored to have the desire/drive to write, and I will make my 8. I think it would make Drew proud.

Whatever you do - do it with all you got. None of us gets out of this thing alive.

With word, song & prayer,
TV

Andrew and Yours Truly, 2009

Memory's Renaissance

Hey there! Here is your Saturday Post.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

It is another kind of birthing

Taking place here.

Rebirth

Of an old story.

Reaching back to mark the place

Coiled into one point in time.

A stone of remembered stories

Birthing into a singular story.

A story joining other stones.

Heavy and beautiful.

All these hands trying to help it along.

The healing begins.

Interesting.

We laugh and sigh, rage and cry, about different details.

We celebrate and shame.

The world keeps spinning.

Babies are born and bills are passed.

Breathing times and pushing times.

Economy of motion.

Those with the desire come alongside the process.

Helping progress. 

Some are constructive.

Some only mean to be.

A birthing canal of shared input.

And the story - the myth - the legacy -

The framework for a legend

Begins to move,

On its way to being born.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

It is a bit heavy around the house still, but we try to push through. We keep busy, and try to accept things as they come. Despite our wishes, our world is still in motion ,but the continued prayers, gifts, and quality time (even via written word) are appreciated. On behalf of my family. THANK YOU for your part in this - all of you.

With words, song, and prayer,
TiMo

Light Heart Angel Road
© 2009 Tiffany Monique