Jay Licata Haiku 44

Blue Butterfly lands
Upon Spring's first white flower
Small girl in China

Jay Licata Tanka 44

Blue Butterfly lands
Upon Spring's first white flower
Small girl in China

Picks blossoms with happy joy

Little brother runs smiling

Jay Licata Haiku 33

Before morning sun

Last dream from the faraway

She turns warm thoughts sweet

Jay Licata Tanka 33

Before morning sun

Last dream from the faraway

She turns warm thoughts sweet

Deepening breath curling feet

Lilacs under the window

Jay Licata Tanka 33 B

Before morning sun

Last dream from the faraway

She turns warm thoughts sweet

Deepening breath curling feet
Long ago love lace and heat
 

Jay Licata Tanka 33 C

Before morning sun
Last dream from the faraway
She turns warm thoughts sweet
Deepening breath curling feet
Memory's dance Springtime heat

Licata Haiku - 22

Blackberry jelly

On her lips in Sunday's nap

Dreams white horse running

Licata Tanka - 22

Blackberry jelly

On her lips in Sunday's nap

Dreams white horse running

Fingers tracing muscled flank
Heart racing riding rain wet



 

Elegy, Ode and Verse for My Grandfather, William Hopkins Lawton ... by John Jay Anthony Licata

                               William Hopkins Lawton

                   

Gathering years
Upon the face
Youth is swept aside
From time and tide,

And left are silvering mantles
Of patina and pride
Against this shifted wind
Under light's dimming cloud,
With steady eye and tilted chin
Life's last stand be proud,

As long the sculpting heart

hammers hard in tempo
To the drum beats

Of the Nineteen Sixties,

And the songs of freedom's cry
Words of justice still warm the lips
And the American Eagle,
Aloft and still upon the high,
Her wing beats of the Eighteen Sixties
Echoing across the sky

And my mother's grandfathers,
Are standing tall with Lincoln,
His voice ringing like silver
And his horseman in the night
Is galloping, flag unfurled, towards destiny
As banners Americana
Seek Liberty's morning light.