From an Upper Floor

Life Balances Everything. . .

They were shadowing a century when they came to visit my in law mother and I had them all over for dinner. I had married into a U.K. background, the satellite being Scotland.

Seated at a comfort meal, even the aged, ailing uncle pleaded for a taste of real food of roast beef and mashed potatoes. He happily ate.

Rrrronnie. . . .Aunt May rolled her r’s as she started with another helping. What do you think of a mother who capped her daughter in summer because she had dark hair? Startled , I said, I thought someone had issues not resolved.

I listened carefully to facts from this cousin hoping for light on my not understood difficulties with this Anglo Saxon Protestant family I could never please. I researched and found Scotland had been invaded several times in their history by nomads looking for delta land to feed the growing tribes on the move. Their early history of course revolved about the break from the Romans.

But recently I read an article that new evidence shows that Africa was once green and easy to cross with many waters easy to navigate. African tribes these hundreds of thousands of years ago left their mainland in droves, swooping countries with devastation in its wake.

We see today the ravages of war across too many places to count. Generations will find that whatever their much toted pristine origins will be taken aback when the grandchild arrives with features outside their familiar culture. Like the in law mother who as a child was made to wear a hat in summer by a severely prejudicial grandmother intent on appearances.

And unsuspecting but eager to be loved younger I marrying into an unknown family wondered why I fell short. They only saw features from an Eastern European heritage labeled rural and did not know the educated ancestors with a grandmother who spoke seven languages.

In the farm country of my home state settled by Germans where I spent my formative years, a grandfather announced a grandson to his friends with a sidebar of he has black curly hair and brown skin but he’s mine. Of course he was and I look upon extended family and see unfamiliar features and even tight, black curls of one of ours (from the Scottish line) and so far no blue eyes but who knows?

The sense of soil exhibited by some family members has made me look closely at investing some fantasy monies if they came to me in household bleach of any kind. Watching these members scrub a genetic history of hundreds of thousands of years ago of what they consider stain on their pristine hides leaves me with a desire to shout as my Mentor did, ye are brothers!

You are your brothers’ keeper. You are, we are, I Am. . . . .

May 21, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
Otche Nash. . .Our Father. . .potential. . . .

The two of them trusted me with what they were seeing. My mother, transiting said I could not live in your world and she cried. Stick with it as long as you can though, she said. There is a reward. And David transiting asked how did you know to do it? How could you go on living knowing what you know? And I did not know that I did anything except what I had done before, in a previous time. And I had three sons who were more than reason enough to go on living.

I listened to people and read what bodies were saying and what they were saying did not match what was coming out of their mouths. Everything seemed a coverup. One learns what the silence is shouting. One learns the love by the strength of the arms around one. It is a sign that is hard to hide. And by the evenness of the voice that sings in the air and the throat that does not gargle its sounds.

A favorite poet whose God quotes quietly the things of comfort , I envy. And mine who thunders and rolls heavily the boulders down the grade to make roads, allowing what? Allowing what, Veronica?

Otche Nash. . .potential. . .becoming. .

In deference to one
who mines the doxology,
I am in awe of his soft acceptance,
his protestant soft ways
as he whispers his way
to the altar,

accepting as
the silent snow falling and
his God quietly speaking.
And I in my army boots thundering
and falling on my knees
in my approach to my god
rolling and thundering in my head.

The Great God moves
toward a no ultimate anything.
In motion always finding its way,
his way, her way, our way is
what a Great God does.

I, in my hard soles and
muddy high boots and
overly large coat lumber with him
toward an unknown potential.
Is that why I cry?

Otche Nash. . .
of undergirding intelligence.
I mimic the noisy business
of attempting to find the
Potential you chose. . .
to be undisclosed, a yet to be
discovered arrival

at perhaps another Star.

photo by John Holmes

May 16, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
The Heart Knows Its Own Amen. . . .

In The Quiet of This Night. . .

In the quiet of this night,
come to me and we will hold hands
and talk and I will show you
from how high up you jumped.

The night will love you
and envelop you
and you will find
that in the cold moon
there is a heat that sustains
to show you where your home is.

Within the skirts of who you are,
you will gather
the children around you
and we will love each other.

The heart knows its own Amen. . . . .

. .

May 14, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
A Mother’s Dictum—Eternity Is A Long Time. . . .

Not often do I go back in time to relive something so intensely fierce that it can undo my mental health. Yet I was driven to remember when I found our ten month son missing. We were living in Tokyo at the time; my husband in the military.

Our lodging was in an apartment near the University with a landlady who was a mistress of a Japanese businessman. It was a new apartment, sparse though close to the base, in a Japanese neighborhood.

We were on good terms with the landlady whom we called Oksan. She loved our baby son and yearning to have a child of her own, sat and rocked the carriage in the secluded garden while he slept. She asked to babysit for short periods. I was uneasy with her yearning for a child but relented.

I went to the commissary one day and when I returned Oksan was gone with our son in his carriage. She had not said she was going anywhere only that she would sit. I put away the groceries and waited.

I soon became frantic and went looking for them. I ran like a crazy lady from stall to stall on our street asking everyone if they saw them. They could see I was panicky but why, no one understood.

The students on break at the University understood somewhat though they did not understand the panic. I called my husband at the base and because he was an officer, could come home and brought a man who spoke Japanese. Not understood was my fear. This was after all Oksan and why the panic?

The fact that my baby was gone, in a foreign place, with a someone who wanted him to be hers, did not register. Overreaction they thought.

Sometime later she did return of course. Our son was asleep in his carriage and she had gone visiting. Fortunately, soon after we returned to the U.S. so I did not face the issue again. What brought this memory forward?

One of this week’s immigration policies would be to separate the child from the parent at the border. I am horrified at the thought of the panic in the child and the fear ridden parent seeing the young children taken.

My heart will stop if I linger with this now.

I cannot believe such insensitivity would exist in anyone’s belief system. I cannot fathom a government policy stating this.

I was just 20 years old when this episode happened. For 9 months this child grew beneath my heart and 10 months in my arms. The intensity of my fear and panic I can taste again. I would only say don’t mess with me guys. Eternity is a long time.

Beneath My Heart. . .

How could I not love them?
They grew beneath my heart,
waiting for my heart to beat
so that their’s would continue beating.

Did you not think
I would not know that?
And they would be reason enough
for me to keep breathing?

You did not know me. . .
Like a bear
I would fight for my cubs.
I made them. . . .

They wear my name
and one day they
will remember. . .

who taught them about love.

painting by a local
Japanese artist 1953

May 12, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
The Earth Gods Know. . .

I scribe. The teacher speaks. . . Nature expounds her presence with all. She ventures to shout her presence. She sends storms and pestilence and calm days and sunny skies to announce her presence. She grants to all the balm of her existence. But she angers and cries . And in frustration teaches what no other thing or method can. She is a great lady but given to little patience. The earth is in dire straits, she says. She hurts and I cannot let her bleed to death. So she rages and fumes and she tires. Will she give up? The earth gods know. The earth gods know.

It is a good world. You had a dream, once. We watched and talked amongst ourselves whether it was worth it. And how could you be so intense when none about you were. They took it but did not see from where they supped. They drank and they did not see who poured. The warm milk, the bread, the shot of dry whiskey that burned the fire in their belly. . .

(I say, fire them up. Teach them all. The elders their responsibilities as well as their rights. And the adolescents who have the fire in the belly, to quarter it and contain it and put it all to constructive use. And to the babies, these who have memories that will not quit, do not let us disappoint them. For we will have a generation of vipers on hand and we will have done it. We will have terrorists of the first order and we will have no one else to blame but us . . . .again, all time is simultaneous. From a journal of December 6, ’92, valid then and certainly NOW.

For Now. . .

Let your mind answer
your heart’s murmuring,
for in the sanctity of self,
you will see your divinity.

In the august crucible
that is Earth, latticed by clouds
hovering the trees,
you gain your peace.

In the musing of the grass growing
to reach its height and to color
the bare earth with a carpet
you feel the hallowed crest. . .

In all, gently tend
the heart’s rending and choose
the teachers who match
the performance. . . .

of your innate goodness. . . .

poem written
August 9, 1985

photo by
Kathy Rybacki Qualiana

May 10, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
Depends On How High Up You Reach. . . .

Hardest Lesson. . .

They don’t know yet,
the ones closest to me. . .
friends and all. . .
why I do things the way I do.

It is because I know
the good in the work
and the beauty in the body
doing what mind tells it to do.

It is a dance,
a mind and body ballet.
It has taken centuries of many lives
to learn and it was no simple matter.

The hardest thing to purge
was thinking I was above
doing such menial work.
While all the time I had to learn

how to be god-enough to do it.

No longer is the excuse ‘I’m only human’ valid. Lest we forget how much depends on us. There is no refuge in that cliche anymore. Think seriously on it. VRH

May 8, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
Emma E . . .the best of blends. . . .

She said wait and I will get my hat on and be ready to go! And her hat is on and she has her bag and is ready for fun! For our little one who is the best of blends. . . like good coffee or fine wine, she is a sparkler. Weighing in early last Thanksgiving time at one pound 12 ounces, she is holding her own bottle and her grandfather said that driver training is next!

I am fortunate to be her grandmother great though I have not seen her in this world. I need escorts to the car in the driveway because my legs are as wobbly as Emma E.’s are yet. Her legs will grow sturdier and mine not, to be sure. Her life will be filled with awe, as mine continues to be. Her complaints will loom large in irritation to restriction, as surely mine do. Both of our heads know what we desire to accomplish, though the surroundings differ. We both will do what we need to do for the greater good.

Thank you all for your good wishes, thoughts and prayers. Good has no boundaries and we have been grateful to see our Emma E. responding magnificently. Your wishes have been a salve for our hearts.

photo by Merideth, mom
of Emma E.

May 5, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
To Savor The Minute. . . .

Sometimes it is necessary to be reminded to unglue ourselves from what is inundating the Ethers, to look upon each other as the most important for the moment. Take this as a gentle reminder. All we have is this moment.

To Savor The Minute. . . .

Could we take the time
to savor this minute?
Hold it close?

There will be more minutes,
but none more special
than this one.

It tells me that you
treasure our friendship
to show our true feelings

that connect us,
one to the other.
I will remember the marks

on my life you put there
when you took time to rescue
the self I thought I lost.

Today I am whole. Forever drawn
as a heart beating steadily as if
with an inserted pacemaker

but with gratitude transcending its beat.

May 3, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
When The Plough Seems Too Heavy. . . . .

Gleanings . . .

If you do not intend to look back, remember to lift the plough. And sometimes the plough seems too heavy to lift but we push on anyway to find it is a joy and a privilege.

*****

Always state the condition of the heart in preference to appearance. You will then see with eyes destined for immortality while you walk.

*****

Sometimes doing nothing at all helps a someone to mature faster than times which are hard on the heart. Or doing nothing at all ruins a person more quickly by hardening the heart than times which are hard on the pocket book.

*****

Listen carefully to my heartbeat for you will hear your own.

*****

The greatest gift is that of the thinking mind.

*****

With the shrug of the shoulders, no work is ever completed. It is with the footwork involved that we see what the work has meant.

*****

Do not expect what cannot be delivered.

*****

When you lament where is the end and in what universe is it all and then to conclude it is all universally good is not valid. For then when you see where it is you are, the last chapter would be writ. There is no last chapter. Life is everlasting.

*****

With aging the blanks in memory are embarrassing and the pressures of the fast moving society makes them appear more frequently. It has always been thus.

*****

Everything becomes a moral decision if one holds the long view. Yet the long view is the only one and demands it lest there be no tomorrow for those whose propensity is for instant gratification.

*****

To suffer is to be aware of the damage you do to the ones you care about.

photo by
Kathy Rybacki Qualiana

April 30, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.
Where The Real Money is Counted. . . .

Now, tell me what you think. . . .

Now talk to me,
and tell me what you think.
I want to know the conclusions
you have reached.
Tell me what you know,
not what others have said.

I can read what they have said
about any number of topics.
I want to hear your thoughts,
and how you come by them.
What does this say to you
about how you arrive at this place
in time?

I tire of hearing what the talking heads
have read and tire of hearing variances
of the same story.
I want no quotes. I want your thought.
You have lived long enough
to have a say, to know your gut feeling.

No time is right anymore for talk.
The devices tell with a click what is
the current thinking. Of everyone.
I want to know why your heart keeps beating
and you keep on keeping on
when our country totters amidst
constitutional crisis. And morality changes.
And the Earth’s countries are slugging it out.

But most of all why you think
it is worth a tinker’s damn to care about.
I realize I am only an audience of one,
but I want to know what you know.
I want to burglarize your mental house.

So tell me. Your thoughts will be original to me
and I will be the richer for them.
I will happily walk to the Memory Bank with them.

It is there I have an open account.

April 27, 2018

Veronica Hallissey has been writing since the 1960s, with her poetry published in a variety of small press magazines. Born into a farm family in Lockport, NY, and educated at the University of Buffalo and other midwest institutions, she brings and unusual point-of-view to her poetry, combining strong natural images with a deep spiritual language. She lives in Ramona, CA.