The rainbow refracts
A new span of funky hue
Maya Angelou
Tag Archives: poetry
Nov. 7: Two women with great chemistry
Marie Curie born,
Joni Mitchell, too: This day’s
Radio active
Brilliant but modest
Madame Curie coined the term
Radioactive
Won Nobel prizes
Both physics and chemistry
Nobody else has
There was nothing half
About her life, discovered,
Named two elements
Radium research,
Isolating isotopes
Saved lives, cut hers short
Her legacy lives
Her dedication inspires
Google her — you’ll see
Joni Mitchell turns
68 today, complete
Artistic package
Songwriter deluxe
“Both Sides Now,” “Woodstock”
Were hits for others
Her albums scored, too
Overflowing with romance,
Poetry, protest
Lilting melodies
Lyrics playful and painful
Confide and confess
You could do much worse
Than “Blue,” but it’s really hard
To do much better
Joni pushed the sound
Branched into jazz though some folks
Hissed her “Summer Lawns”
Distinct guitar sound
Forged when polio forced her
To chord differently
A fine painter, too
As her album covers show
Yeah, the whole package
Joni says she’s through
Except for painting a bit
Sure, we all decay
Like those isotopes,
Though, her music, influence
Will glow on and on
Raging haiku
I wish I could write
Like Dylan Thomas, verses
Intoxicating
And not just verses
Scripts and short stories, an ear
That never failed him
Though how could he fail
With Welsh place names like “Mumbles”
For inspiration?
But however strong
His work, his body was frail
Whisky his death knell
Rage for him we must
Drink deeply this life, and his
“Griefs of the ages”