Beautiful Bernice


Beautiful Bernice

                           love filled mother

Beautiful Bernice

                          adoring grandmother

Beautiful Bernice

                          treasured friend



Beautiful Hands

                         tickle the ivory

Beautiful Hands

                         caress my face

Beautiful Hands

                         pray for me



Beautiful Face

                      smile for me

Beautiful Face

                     countenance of joy

Beautiful Face

                      let me take your picture




Beautiful Voice

                      sing to me

Beautiful Voice

                      calm my fears

Beautiful Voice

                     whisper hope



Beautiful Heart

                        i miss you so much

Beautiful Heart

                        i remember

Beautiful Heart

                       your love remains

© Ruby Neumann


Poet's Note: Written April 20/21 2022.  For Mama Bernice. 

Love Never Breathed

When Love is all I have left

Will I be okay

When I bury the rest

In a grave today


I can’t kill Love

It doesn’t die

It never breathed 

Like him and I


Love gave the breath 

That gives me the chance

To walk, to sing

To write, to dance


So today I place 

In a dirty hole

That which died 

A long time ago


And Love remains 

Eternally

It doesn’t die

Because it never breathed


© Ruby Neumann






Poet's Note: Written today... April 15, 2022... Good Friday.  Today marks the end of the "Atheism for Lent" course.  Today will be the end of something very significant in my life.  As I ceremoniously bury it beneath the budding lilac bushes, may I find something blooming soon amid in the fresh lavender coloured blossoms.  May I find Love still remaining.  


Already I found Love showing up this morning  in a beautiful white blanket of snow.  It was calm, peaceful and I will be okay.  

The River of the Unknown


"I don't know" doesn't mean that I can't imagine


"I don't know" doesn't mean that I don't have any idea of what might be


"I don't know" doesn't mean that I can't interpret life with understanding


"I don't know" doesn't mean I am clueless 


"I don't know" means I gave up certainty 


"I don't know" means that my love for others is more important than me being right


"I don't know" means I am small, not weak


"I don't know" means there are more important things to do with my time


"I don't know" doesn't mean I can't believe


"I don't know" doesn't mean that I can't trust 


"I don't know" doesn't mean that I can't hope


"I don't know" doesn't mean that I can't wonder


"I don't know" means I am human


"I don't know" means I am limited


"I don't know" means questions are more important than answers


"I don't know"… means "I don't know" 


© Ruby Neumann




Poet's Note: Written April 7, 2022

I am not  a big fan of labels, because most of them don't define me well.  I don't think I can be narrowed down well to label.  Especially a label that needs to encompass a lot more people than just me.  But there is one label, I don't really mind, because of what it means.  Agnostic simply means "I don't know".  But even that needs expounding on, so this is what I mean by these three little words that, for me, explain so much. 

I used to think everyone was Agnostic, just a mix of aware Agnostics and unaware Agnostics.  But I have since learned that certainty is a feeling not a state of existence.  So if some one feels 100% certain, how can I call them Agnostic.  Maybe in reality they don't know, but if they feel certain they know, how can I take that away from them.  So I will let others swim in their ocean of certainty if that is what they want to do, but I will drown in those waters, so I will swim elsewhere.  I will swim in the river of the unknown and in those waters, I will be free.  

Breath and Love


Creator of the Cosmos

 Nameless One

   Breath of the Universe

Somehow the Sun shines

  The Rain comes 

     And the Garden grows 

And I find gratitude 

  in the Core of my Being

Strength on my Journey

   Companion in my Struggles

Present in Wind

In the Birds

   In my Cats 

      In every Molecule of Nature

Not Above or Below

    but Around

       In and Through.

I don't ask that my Pain be removed

I don't ask that my Loss be returned

I don't ask for that which I haven't worked for

I don't ask

I only Breathe and Love and find You.  


© Ruby Neumann




Poet's Note: Written April 1, 2022


Today of all days I write this.  I wonder if I was the fool for understanding less than this.  For understanding a God as only a dude.  For embracing a God as a vending machine.  For thinking that as a human being, I am superior to the other organic lifeforms that contain all the presence of the Creator.


My choice of a bull thistle for this picture is one of an expression of unwanted torturous beauty.