Author: Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

  • Search For Paradise

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    What Do You See #135
    May 23, 2022
    Prompt by Sadje

    This road I have traveled
    upon these many years
    The twists and turns
    sudden starts and unintended stops

    Have taken me through
    wondrous jungles resplendent
    with cawing parrots and
    cackling long-toothed monkeys

    Up mountains so incredibly high
    to breath the air would freeze
    unprotected vulnerable lungs
    Glistening snow covered peaks

    Standing on the deck of a ship
    riding storm tossed waves up
    to one hundred feet high
    causing most passengers to weep

    Then gliding into a paradise
    full of tall coconut palms
    coffee plantations with white
    men’s mansions dotting the hills

    Back to a home devoid of love
    lacking affection and care
    Reaching for that paradisiacal
    arena dreamed of as a young girl

    Now the road stretches before me
    much shorter than ever before
    Blind curves and an uncertain end
    Does Paradise hide around the bend

  • Hibiscus Delight

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Photograph by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    In response to Monday Poetry prompt GARDEN
    by Bartholomew Barker of Living Poetry

    My sweet hibiscus
    you bloom so beautiful
    so bright

    Brilliant fiery reds
    purest white of whites
    purple delights

    With leaves of darkest green
    to leaves a translucent sheen
    reflecting light

    By dusks fading light
    you close your beauty away
    for the night

    Only to return with
    dawn’s morning rays
    just a few days

    Until your beauty subsides
    you curl your wonder away
    fall and decay

    Making way for another
    to bloom and give wonder
    to this gardener’s delight

  • Mother Earth

    Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Reposting for Earthweal open link weekend #119


    I am Mother Earth
    birthplace of all living
    and non-living things upon me

    Be it animal, plant, water, dirt or sky
    it is I who hold the key
    to their creation or extinction

    Those that are gentle upon myths skin
    may live in peace and prosperity
    such as the lovely butterflies

    Those that rend my skin
    pollute my rivers and seas
    will not see my gentler side

    But the rising tides of my anger
    and the swell of hot magma
    from my very being and my core

    It is I who rules this land of mine
    all these millennium and I who will stay here long after you are gone

  • Word-Weaver

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Photograph by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    In response to Sarah @ Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie’s Photo Challenge #414

    While tending my garden green
    pulling weeds and tending my beans,
    a blue-bird sat upon my shoulder
    Word-Weaver, she said to me,
    Can you please weave some words
    to save all of our trees?

    As I sat upon my garden bench
    contemplating the little birds wish,
    a big old toad jumped up beside me
    Word-weaver, his deep voice croaked
    Can you please weave some words
    to save our swamps and streams?

    Walking along the river bank my mind so full I could barely think
    A loud buzzing filled the air,
    an army of striped bees said to me,
    Word-Weaver can you weave some words to save our flowers, please?

    My mind whirling, I strolled down
    to the seas edge and was amazed
    to see the biggest whale I’d ever seen out in the deep blue waiting for me
    Word-Weaver, he blew to me, please weave some words to save our seas?

    The Earth beneath my feet shuddered, a vine full of luscious purple and white blooms curled around my waist then the blossoms opened and Mother Earth spoke, “Word-Weaver, would you weave some words to save me please?”

  • I Am Not A Man

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Image credit: Amine M’Siouri @ Pexels

    In response to Sadje’s Picture Post above for May 16, 2022 #WDYS – #Whatdoyousee #134

    __________

    I am not a man
    do not try to mold
    me into your image

    You are not a woman
    do not deem to understand
    my mind, my body, my soul

    I am a woman
    I own this body
    I have been gifted with

    Do not dictate to me what
    to do with the seed of your loins released in your pleasure

    Do persecute, arrest and prosecute those who pleasured themselves
    without care or responsibility

  • Across The Sea

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Eugi’s Causerie

    In response to Eugi’s – Weekly Prompt May 10, 2022 Guiding Light

    Across the wide and open sea
    my deepest love waits for me
    A lantern could not guide this night
    Only loves pure and brilliant light

    Leads me to where he will be
    At home again on sacred soil
    Beside the Moors and Cypress trees
    Beneath the moon on bended knee

    Within his palm will be a ring
    a circle of gold with gilded stones
    He’ll ask of me to be his bride
    We’ll mark our vows on aging tomes

    What’s this the Captain does advise
    The seas they’ve angered the tides
    do rise to shake and thrash
    the ship to shreds

    I fear my love I shall never see
    this ship will soon be lost at sea
    As it slides into a watery grave
    That light of love begins to fade

    Farewell my love for it is true
    Another I have never loved like you but now it’s time for me to go – Goodbye my Love
    Goodbye

  • Cee’s FOTD – May 16, 2022

    Cee’s Photo Challenge

    #stinewriting Blog Flower of the Day

    First Gardenia of the Season
    Photographed by: Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris
  • Drumbeat of Insanity

    By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Bass Drum

    The Sunday Whirl Wordle #553
    Hosted by bwarren
    Prompt words are:
    star shelf growl slip open flower crow against prowl beneath beat shot
    _______________

    The drumbeat of insanity
    opens his mind to hate
    to prejudice against the innocent
    Evil leads him to prowl for those
    he believes beneath his star-power

    Not a growl did he offer his prey
    slipping between pots filled
    with the bright flowers of spring
    Black crow flies in warning
    no one sees, no one hears

    Then a shot times three
    brought death thrice over
    Inside a mother pushes her
    child beneath a shelf
    A man standing guard – falls

    The mechanism made by man
    allows a boy to kill six more
    Still we fight for our rights
    our right to buy, carry and kill
    a weapon forged in the bowels of hell

  • Weekend Sky #63

    Posted in response to Hammad Rais Blog

    Sunset over homes on Emerald Isle, NC 2015
    Sunset driving home Wilmington, NC 2021
    Sunset on Oak Island, NC 2022

    All photographs taken by and property of Gypsie-Ami OffenbacherFerris

  • The Little Door

    By Gypsie -Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

    Photograph by KL Caley

    In response to KL Caley’s Write Photo Challenge.

    I found them accidentally, late one afternoon. I wasn’t very old, just starting my teenage journey. I hated it, being a teenager. If I were honest, it wasn’t being a teenager exactly, although the pimples, flat chest and stringy hair I now sported, did not endear me to these years.

    No, it was the other teenagers. Hateful creatures all, or at least most. I had gone from being a happy-go-lucky, out-going, nature-loving tomboy, to an outcast. I don’t know what happened the summer before, but whatever it was didn’t happen to me.

    The girls I had played kickball with and climbed trees with; now had breasts and wore makeup and painted their nails. The boys had grown whiskers and gotten taller, and cuter.

    Anyway, I became the whipping girl for the entire school. Of course, this is fifty years ago, way before anti-bullying rallies were being held.

    There was one girl though. She looked to be my age but she was tiny. I don’t mean little, she was the smallest almost adult I had ever seen. She started talking to me and we became best friends very quickly. Only, she never invited me to her place and never accepted my offer to have her come to mine.

    She got on the bus at the stop right after mine. I figured her mom dropped her off, because I didn’t see any farms or houses anywhere near her stop. That’s why I decided to follow her, curiosity mixed with concern. Mostly curiosity.

    Except, on the bus home that day; the kids were especially vicious. Calling me names, saying I was crazy because I talked to myself all the time. I told them I was not crazy, I was talking to my best friend. One of the girls yelled out that I had an invisible friend and everybody started laughing. I turned to talk to my new best friend, but she was gone. She must’ve gotten off the bus early to get away from the awful teenagers. I felt very sad that I didn’t see her go.

    On impulse, I decided to get off at the stop after mine. My friends bus stop, hoping she would be there. After the bus left, I saw her walking through a field, towards a mound I had never noticed before. As I got closer, I saw there was a door, a little door!

    My friend fit through it perfectly. I waited a few minutes and then knocked lightly on the door. My friend answered wearing the prettiest dress I had ever seen. As she moved, the colors ran together and seemed to glisten.

    I asked if this was where she lived and she said yes, this was where all the little people lived. I peeked inside and what I could see was wondrous. Multicolored flowers everywhere, a bright blue sky dotted with silver- lined clouds. Hills that went on forever, covered in bright green grass slowly moving back and forth in a sweet, warm breeze.

    She started to close the door, but I asked her to please let me see one more time. I asked if I could come in. She shook her head no and said you had to be one of the little people to come in. I said I wished I was a little person. She looked up at me and asked if I really and truly wanted to be. I said that yes, I did, more than anything.

    Anyway, this is my letter to you, Mom and Dad, to let you know I’ve gone to live with the little people in the mound, up the hill and in the field. Don’t worry, I’ll be happy here.