My poetry covers many different years and subjects. Included in this page are a couple of examples from the late 1990's, a very prolific time period for me. The first poem 'Cat' is a celebration of the emergence of Spring.
Cat
Cat leaps with boundless energy
Up towards the fragrant sky
©2006 Kathryn Turyna
Surrender
I surrender
I surrender all of my pain
I fall down on my knees before the Lord and
Admit that I can’t do this anymore
My will to fight is gone
This crushing burden is too much
The pushing is done
The fighting is done
I let myself rest after seven long years
To lay at the feet of Jesus
And I pray
That He will help me to stand
once again
But, if that is not His will
Then let me lay here a while and rest
With tears flowing freely
And my soul
Resting in the knowledge that
My God
The Lord Almighty
Will never abandon me
3-3-06
©2006 Kathryn Turyna
And the years melt away
like so many winter storms come spring
My heart beats faster as the warrior’s horse flies
Under the luminescence of the moon
High in the nighttime sky
Amidst the endless grains of sand
Racing off to battle such conflicts which are nameless
And without end
So men have struggled in the same way
Since God’s life giving breath touched upon the Earth
and made man flesh and bones
Oh the cries held aloft
In the history of our becoming
The laughter, the birth, the death
In the silence
The memories become real and tangible
Sweet as the most succulent fruit
Beautiful as the most precious love
Bitter as the tartest wine
We too are not so different
from those who came before us
Whose dry feet tread upon this holy ground
Who lifted up their hands and bowed down their heads
Praying, crying, dancing, singing, living,
and dying
Through the movement of the stars
The rising and setting of the sun
The changing of the seasons
It all is one.
I say I can hear you my sister
I say I can hear you my brother
Go back
Go back to the womb
Remember where it is
That you awakened from
God’s breath upon the earth
And the dust in your hand
Remember, oh dear sister, brother
Remember when
12.5.05
©2005 Kathryn Turyna
"There is beauty and there is death
in every grain of sand. "
Tu est...
Mon bonheur
Mon âme
Mon sourire
Pendant le matin
L’après-mid
Le soir
Mon amour
Tu restes dans mon cœur
Toutes les journée
Tous les soir
Je t’aime
10-8-97
©1999 Kathryn Turyna
Translation: You are my happiness, my soul, my smile; during the morning,the afternnon and the evening; My love, you remain in my heart all of the days and all of the nights; I love you.
Another excerpt from the French years is the following peom. It was written
about a statue that I saw in Paris.
Forever The Plea
Who are those eyes staring out at me
Like a blackness waiting for the light
Without soul
Or with too much
Shut away
Kept from the pain
Contemplating where to go
Emptiness
Desolate nature
So many questions
Which will never be asked
Which will never be heard
How long can one sit and wonder
about the fate
of such a soul
Silent
Together
I pause to spend a moment with the gaze whose lips
Held open
Waiting
To give protest
Are stopped
Suddenly
Abandoned by its creator
with the tormented words
Forever frozen in
time
Upon the face
And in the eyes
Of a lost soul
11-17-97
©1999 Kathryn Turyna
The Photograph
The cool jazz melody floats through the air
Mingling with the twisting,
turning
Patterns of smoke
Curling upward
With no particular place to go
In the warm, candlelit room
The old brown and grey stone wall
Is home to brown photographs
Touched with blue and red
A woman in an ankle length
dress
Hands on her hips
Tilting her head as she turns to gaze out at everything
and nothing
Perhaps just a memory
A ghost of days gone by
“Got nothin’ to do
Since I lost you
I just got to be alone”
So sings the jazz musician
Over the brilliant horns
in 12 bar
blues
11-21-96
©1997 Kathryn Turyna
This poem was first
published in 1997
Prayer For Forgiveness of Self-Centeredness
This seems to be
The worst of the worst
But it's not really
so
I am lucky
For all that I have
And I should be thankful
Every day
I am not starving
I am not dying
I'm not out
On the street
I am not desolate
Not down and out
I have a house
And something to eat
I thank you God
For all that I have
And pray for those
Not as lucky as me
10-20-97
Kathryn Turyna