Koff Pages Sample

Sand, Pebbles,
Fossils, and Rocks
JoAnn Lord Koff
A lyrical ambrosia of poetic writings
and captivating photographs

For more information, or to order,
please visit SapphoPublishing.com.

Sand, Pebbles, Fossils, and Rocks
JoAnn Lord Koff
Sappho Publishing
Manassas, Virginia

Sand, Pebbles, Fossils, and Rocks by JoAnn Lord Koff
Poems and Photographs Copyright © 2018 by JoAnn Lord Koff
All rights reserved.
Published by Sappho Publishing in 2018
Manassas, Virginia
sapphopublishing.com
ISBN 978-1-7321705-0-6 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-7321705-1-3 (Paperback)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018903962
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in
any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of my poetry
complemented by my photography.
Book Layout and production assistance by Adam Robinson
for GoodBookDevelopers.com
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my dad, who always said, “You owe me a book.”
And to Tara, who helped make my dream a reality.
A very special thanks to:
Lou’s suggestion to use my photography,
Leija and my mom for critiquing, and
Sierra for helping with whatever I required.

CONTENTS
1 Iris Dancing
2 Charny-sur-Meuse
3 Candy Corn Calligraphy
4 Santorini Dreaming
6 Skipping Rocks
7 Eloquence Within Scales
9 The Embers Breathing
10 What’s Normal Now
12 The Gatekeeper
13 Mrs.
14 Verdun, 1958
17 Winter’s Thaw
18 The Lovers
19 Tarnished Conversations
20 Extra Sharp
21 In Going Home
22 Positano
25 Concertgoers
27 Illuminations on Ocracoke Ferry
28 Pandora’s Smile
29 Lavender Wisps
30 Hieroglyphics
31 I’m Drawing a Line in the Sand
32 Cotton Confederacy
34 Cruising Highway 101
35 Taking Flight
36 The Same Three Ivory Keys
37 Broken Branches
38 The Charioteers
39 Hold On, I Know Your Name

CONTENTS
40 Bull Run Battlefield
42 Skyline Tears
43 Hello There
44 Fashioned by the Cross
45 Geppetto’s Strings
46 Walking to Abilene
47 Word Association
48 Spit, Spat
49 In the Commonwealth
50 In the Mirror
51 You Make Me Want to Dance
52 Requiem for Gerhard
53 Bishop’s Hotel
54 Lamentations
55 Awaiting Rain
56 Dead at Living
58 I Have Camera Eyes
59 A Good Dusting
60 Cosmetics
61 The Beech Forests
62 Olive Branch
63 Adolescence
64 Silence Shields
65 When Nothing Goes Your Way
66 In Slower Motion
68 The Last Roar
69 Living in a Fishbowl
70 RaT-A-TaT
72 Playing in the Swimming Pool
73 Empty Pathos

CONTENTS
74 The Last Gift
75 The Lecture
77 Barrier Island Escape
78 Blue Mystic
79 Humanities
80 Bag of Twelve
81 Passage Creek
82 In the Pursuit of Magic
83 Jack Daniels
84 Refracted Light
85 Jeremie, July 5, 1949
87 Honu, Sea Green Sea Turtle
88 Too Coast-to-Coast
89 Riding Invisible
90 The Red Cardinal Came and Went
91 The Last Goodbye
92 Sierra’s Bedtime Short
93 Superboy
94 NiGHT CRaSH
95 The Old Ones
96 Sea Glass
97 It’s Carpe Diem, Babe
98 Glaring at Brontosaurus
99 Like a Centaur
100 Sunday’s Premonitions
101 Sitting on the Quarterdeck
102 A Metallic Print
103 Waking Up in Rome
104 My Friends Remind Me

Sand, Pebbles, Fossils, and Rocks

SAND, PEBBLES, FOSSILS, AND ROCKS 1
IRIS DANCING
I want you to stay the summer,
Here, upon my windowsill, as my favorite bloom.
You sprouted in springtime, filled with sunbeams,
Acting like a riddle, hardly understood.
Now the irises, dancing in my heart, are you,
And I rejoice in their kaleidoscope of color.
I arrange a garland to hang upon my front door,
Setting its sweetness to greet visitors.
It reigns as my purple masterpiece
By which I learn to paint love’s majesty.

2 JOANN LORD KOFF
CHARNY-SUR-MEUSE
Magnificent tall oaks billow in spring regality.
Like the river, they salute the mid-morning sun.
Mirroring reflection, heralding my return to your landscape.
I have a long time yet to live.
Pastoral elegance shines in the Meuse currents,
Signaling my way to go, from Verdun, along which road,
To find her playing in her front yard at No. 29 in Charny.
I have a long time yet to live.
The medieval church tower chimes noon’s arrival,
Silent streets echo in this city, ravaged by World War I,
Announcing my time to say hello again, now in peace.
I have a long time yet to live.
Driving through France’s gentle rolling countryside
Beside lavender fields lined in tints of green, each visage,
Whispering, zigzagging the river until I discover you.
I have a long time yet to live.
Like a ladybug, spreading good fortune, I see you signaling.
I’ve come to a crossroad in my life, a parcel of my past.
A village carved in identical architecture, Charny-sur-Meuse.
I have a long time yet to live.
Familiarity breeds the prize I have been searching for.
As if you’ve been waiting for me, nothing here has changed.
Wanting this moment, this reacquainting has sustained me.
I have a long time yet to live.
Walking your two streets, I realize I am finally home again.
No yearning; only serenity as forty years have passed unnoticed.
Locking into the beating of my heart, I have found you.
I have a long time yet to live.
Here, upon your riverbanks, I see the townspeople picnicking.
In the shade, I see a five-year-old girl catching her first fish.
And I see you standing beside me holding my hand still.
I have a long time yet to live.
Charny-sur-Meuse, I thank you for remembering who I am.
I have a long time yet to love.

SAND, PEBBLES, FOSSILS, AND ROCKS 3
CANDY CORN CALLIGRAPHY
Bold color drips, like confetti, covering vistas
Like candy corn calligraphy in fall’s maze,
Dazzling sensibilities to exceptional values,
Like Buddhist prayer flags aglow in silk auras.
Sun-spotted pines tower, like Matisse cutouts,
Golden glazes silhouette citrine poplars,
Clusters of orange veneers dab sugar maples.
A swift frost arouses bedazzling purples.
Oaks, like giant Titans, in burning reds embrace.
Choreographed in the grandest of gestures,
Glistening like baroque stained glass,
The giant armada of leafy saucers set sail,
As if in a ticker tape parade, swirling, twirling,
Somersaulting throughout the forest tapestry,
Tumbling to the ground in a seamless quilt.

4 JOANN LORD KOFF
SANTORINI DREAMING
At dawn, through the morning mist,
Ancient muses tiptoe in olive groves.
Helios, like a Herculean myth, arises,
Sprinkling garlands of yellow rays,
On the azure Aegean Sea to tease us.
At noon, soaring directly overhead,
The Sun God, like a Chihuly chandelier,
Is afire in vibrating, scorching heat.
I hike down steep volcanic cliffs
To sit beside Poseidon at the Red Beach.
As the hush of evening encroaches,
Turquoise waters, like silk, cradle ships.
In a taverna, Aphrodite plays the lute,
Atop the caldera, Sappho and I sip ouzo.
In dusks’ falling shadows, Plato joins in.
At sunset, cooling soft west winds awaken,
As an accent to His cosmic undressing;
Helios, on winged horse-drawn chariot,
Tantalizes, as He soars across the blueness,
Shedding His purple cloak to sheer delight.
As if finger painting, He colors the sky
With honey shades of orange marmalade;
Magnifying His blushing, soulful serenity.
A soothing golden halo engulfs Him.
Genuflecting, Helios flickers, ‘Adieu.’
Waning beneath horizon’s faint ledge,
Cobalt seas and lilac heavens converge.
Glistening emerald waves bathe shorelines,
A deepening amethyst vapor saturates.
Above Santorini, the heavens burn.
Spontaneously, enthralled travelers applaud;
Moon, His sister, rouses bewitching Night,
Billions of bright, luminous stars awaken.
Orion aligns the constellations to greet,
As we dance in the streets, speechless.

SAND, PEBBLES, FOSSILS, AND ROCKS 5

6 JOANN LORD KOFF
Sappho Press
sapphopublishing.com