1985+_ColorPencil_Drawing4 by Carol Hershey

 7/22/08_ Poem by Betina Hershey

In this outer space desert
The heart is a landing pad
With bridges to all sorts of places:
Star & heart trails,
Giant floating squids,
A velvety red moon,
Giant antenna Ts,
And dusty yellow mountains.

I think we’ve all been to this place,
Alone in the vastness of floating,
With so many possibilities touching us
We are unsure of what to follow.

Look!  The fireworks!  Amazing!

All of us crowd that one orange bridge,
Necks craning upward,
So close together we become the cells
Of this fabulous land.

It may be a bit dusty, a bit hot, a bit empty,
But never boring for the soul,
And never truly alone.

1978_Pencil_Drawing9 by Carol Hershey

7/23/08_1978_Pencil_Drawing9_ Poem by Betina Hershey

The universe is a strange creature
Winking its one sly eye,
The other looking so candidly and youthfully Straight into the heart of the matter.
“How is it that the universe is this old
And still expects joy and greatness,
When I am so young and expect nothing?” says she.
We can only shake our heads in wonder,
And try to open at least one eye
As wide.

7/23/08_1978_Pencil_Drawing9_Poem2 by Betina Hershey

I am a slug
A happy slug
Lifting my squishy head up
To test the wind and peek
At you.
Your foot is looming,
Such a bold foot, swooshing through the air.
I hear tales of impending doom - your arrival
But oh, happy day,
The sun is shining and the air is moist.
I am a slug
A happy slug

1979_Pencil_Drawing4 by Carol Hershey

7/24/08_1979_Pencil_Drawing4_Poem by Betina Hershey

Oh, how joyous, the earth rises up -
A symbolic egg
Full of water, and spheres
And mini-eggs nestled together.
The feathers, the waves, the creative energies
Leap into the cloudless sky,
Four long fingers
Greeting today’s life cycle cheerfully,
Soon to wrap everything up -
A new shade of imagination,
A variation on reality.

 

 

1987_ColorPencil_Drawing3 by Carol Hershey

7/25/08_ColorPencil_Drawing3 _Poem by Betina Hershey

If only satellites were like this
And outer space a friendly little nub
For flowers and satellites to mingle,
Share a few clean jokes,
Talk about the atmosphere and impending doom
Cheerfully.

Will so many bridges, so many bursts
Of color, and the one bright blue
Eye.

I feel quite watched, gazing back at it.
It watches back, unblinking, no lid in sight.

Unless those big orange arms are like windshield wipers for it.

Swish, blink.  Gaze. Gaze.  Stare.

Swish, blink.  Gaze. Stare.  Gaze.

 

1988_WaterColor5 by Carol Hershey

7/26/08+1988_WaterColor5_Poem by Betina Hershey

One soul:  A red circle with a sword stuck inside.
Two bodies:  A lima bean and a fingertip.
Three waves of color: Orange, maroon, blue.

You and I, we often miss
The point.
We race around with our passionate careers
And our dust rags, our grocery bags, coffee mugs, music folders, palm pilots, and our futures
All hitting our knees as we balance it all
On our heads, shoulders, wrists
So that we might not have to put anything down,
Miss out.
Glamorous bag-lives, we lead.

With me writing this poem, and you holding
Your warm woman (me) while you sleep,
We almost can be sure
The point finally found us.

In my experience the point only stays
For one pint, or a doze,
Before trundling off leaving us alone with
The sense we finally know what to do with the

Orange, the maroon, the blue, and the sword.

1974_Odds&Ends1 by Carol Hershey

1974_Odds&Ends1_Poem by Betina Hershey

Serenely, she looks out from her very own eyes.

Behind her durable skin, there are colorful streams, racing beams of light, and particles dancing through the expansive space.

She is delighted to know there is something stirring within her, even if she can't turn her eyes inside out to see the whole truth.

 

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