she is: TEARS & TEACUPS ©1979

DEDICATED TO:
My family who support and
encourage me to be myself
and said I could do it ----

TEARS AND TEACUPS

Tears and teacups are the fare

Of the woman, unaware

That her soul can soar.

Her life is so much more

Than the children on the floor

And the chores behind her door.

Summers flowers are to smell

Let the housework go to hell,

Read a book or write a poem

Walk barefoot through the foam.

Hearken to the crying tern

Let the dinner cook and burn.

Walk out, meet the road of life

March to your own drum and fife,

Give the talents of your mind

You are more than womankind

You are female to the core,

Don't let tears and teacups bore.

Dawn E. Rutter

ASPEN

I lay along the river bank

And watched the water flow

The quaking aspens whispered

Telling tales of long ago.

From a tiny seedling

Planted neath the snow

Sparrows in its branches

Watched the aspen grow.

Dawn E. Rutter

The lane looked inviting, cool,

I walked until I found the pool

Then sat so long in reverie

The birds set up sweet symphony.

Dawn E. Rutter

LAUNDRY ON THE LINE

While hanging laundry on the line

I realized there'll come a time

When women growing up today

Will never see their sheets at play

Waving as the breezes blow,

An inside dryer's all they know.

The pleasant scent of sun and air

That we old timers deem so fair

Are treats that they must do without.

I am so glad I was about

To hang my laundry on the line

And dream my dreams that little time.

Dawn E. Rutter

MOCKING BIRD

The mocking bird has come to sing

His songs at eventide.

His trembling notes are heard

He revels in his pride.

The sparrows to their nest have flown

To wait the long night through

But the mocking bird is warbling

With melodic bravado.

I listen as he fills the air

With notes of eager bliss

He showers me with music

Sweeter than a lovers kiss.

Dawn E. Rutter

THE PAINTING

The painting hung upon the wall

Staring straight along the hall

I wondered who lived in that face

Before it took up hanging space.

Dawn E. Rutter

SURPRISE

Hi, small fry,

with your big eyes round the door

watching as I try

my composure to restore.

I was unaware

denture brushing was a treat.

Hope it didn't scare

you as you fled on winged feet.

Dawn E. Rutter

CHANGING SCENE

White violets grew

Beneath the trees

The scent of lilacs

Filled the breeze.

There was always mud

To please bare feet.

Now houses stand

Midst dull concrete.

Dawn E. Rutter

BUTTERFLY

Butterfly, natures flying flag

Flutters onto blossoms that sag

With heavy nectar laden beads

Then fly away among the reeds.

Fragile colored silken wings

Vibrant in a world that sings

With sound of natures life,

Sometimes there too is strife.

So short a time for you to live

Yet so much pleasure that you give

To those who watch you flutter by

Thanks for your visit butterfly.

Dawn E. Rutter

WORDS

Words are the poet's tool

dripping like honey

from sated lips,

Shifting and changing like

language new that

he suddenly grips,

And poems like sparkling

prisms bright

smoothly slips

Away across the mind

Like fleetly sailing

ships.

Dawn E. Rutter

PRINTS

I'll leave my prints on

Window panes of time --

With all I've written

Free or flowing rhyme.

Dawn E. Rutter

MY FLAG

My Flag is up and flying by my door.

My Flag, that never once has touched the floor

It wafts so gently in the breeze.

Anthems sung by birds in all the trees.

The breeze caresses it with gentle fingers.

The sun shines brightly as it lingers

Over colors that are richly blessed,

I salute with hand across my breast.

On July fourth we'd pack a picnic basket.

I remember when it graced a loved ones casket.

I am old now and I can no longer play.

May that Flag fly on forever, every day.

In parades, Old Glory marches forward.

Happy music, tired, feet, all going forward.

The Flag is small or large by choice.

It speaks. It is America's voice.

Dawn E. Rutter

TO MY FRIENDS GONE AWAY

We cannot follow where they go

Beyond the river Jordan's flow,

But when we stand in forests green

And watch the lovely wild birds preen,

We know those loved ones gone away ---

Return in memory everyday.

The tears flow wetly down our cheeks

Leaving salty little streaks.

It is for us alone we weep

While loving vigil still we keep.

The grave is but another door

And life has opened many more.

Sleep, my dears, in sweet repose,

In death I bring you one red rose.

Dawn E. Rutter

BUTTERFLIES

Silky, soft

flying, dipping, sipping

they were ugly worms

butterflies.

Dawn E. Rutter

MOTHERS

Soft, angular

Sighing, crying, smiling

Everybody has had them

Mothers.

Dawn E. Rutter

WINDS OF WINTER

The winds of winter

blow across the bare

branched trees,

Somewhere there are

white capped waves

on tropic seas,

My heart yearns so to

travel in the pathway

of the sun.

But here I am, a soldier,

in charge of this

damned gun.

Dawn E. Rutter

WHERE AM I

My footsteps on the ocean shore

Are swept away forevermore,

My keening wail on wooded slope

Is lost in echoes with no hope.

I reach the top of the mountain high

No one is there to hear my sigh.

In a world full of everything big and small

I find I am nothing, nothing at all.

Dawn E. Rutter

CALICO CAT

Calico cat in the garden

Curled amongst the ferns,

Look how she stretches

And how her body turns

To reach the coolest

Of shady garden places,

Daintily picking her path

Amongst the pansy faces.

Dawn E. Rutter

POETRY

Poetry is an idea

That must be born.

Then like glory

Richly worn.

Dawn E. Rutter

PREJUDICE

Of all the prisons man has built

To hold his body in,

The worst is when he's caged his mind

And won't let freedom in.

No artist lives in that man's soul

No colors mix for him

He lives within his narrow walls

And keeps his garden prim

He will not travel lest he learn

The world is big and wide

And he within his pristine walls

Might have to join the tide.

Dawn E. Rutter

S’s

Seagulls soaring skyward

Seashells sinking sandward.

Silent starry skies.

Seaman softly sighs.

Dawn E. Rutter

Pages

TEARS & TEACUPS ©1979