My Thoughts

Costa Rica Reflections in Poetry

Larada
Reflections
Reflections

While we prepared for our Costa Rica adventure and during the trip, I wrote a couple poems. I love to reflect on the moment and express it through poetry, so here you go! Enjoy!

Inside of an airplane
A Flight to Discovery

 January 7, 2020

 Air rages through vents
             Above my head
 I’m so tired
             But satisfied
 Everything worked this morning!
  
 A sleepless night haunted me
             Too much to do!
                         Too much energy
                                     Coursed through my body
             My soul wanted to explode!
  
 Anticipation
             Joy
                         Feat
                                     Anxiety
  
 Busyness kept me awake
             Task to do
             A deadline looming
             Life engaged
  
 Now I sit on the brink
             Between going and coming
                         Leaving and arriving
                         My home and our destiny
  
 I await the adventure
             The clouds
             The large world
                         Ahead of me!
  
 I savor the moment
             The gap
 Waiting to take off
             Knowing God’s hand
                         Holds me up.
  
 Anticipating the coming adventure
  
 I take the fun with me
             My joy
                         The enlightment God gives on a regular basis!
  
 I’m ready
             The door closed!
 The stewardess talks the talk
             Cross check
             Ariplane mode
  
 A routine so familiar,
             It’s lost into obscurity.
  
 People settle in
             Bags tucked in
             Devices readied to use
                         It’s here!
  
Quetzal bird taken with my iPhone
The Quetzal Mystery

 January 10, 2020

 Did I see it? Didn’t I?
  
 Forty years I waited
             Not seeing
                         Illusive iridescent
                                     Blue green tail feathers
             Blowing in the breeze
  
 Today I saw!
             I witnessed the magic!
             I saw the flutter of
                         That tail in the breeze!
  
 Once removed
             Is that legitimate?
  
 I envisioned seeing
             The Quetzal up close
                         And personal
  
 Our guide spotted it
             Set up his scope
                         Took pictures with
                                     Our iPhones
                                     My iPhone
  
 And I never saw it
             With the naked eye!
  
 Legit?
  
 I witnessed it second hand
             Is that Okay?
  
 The mystery continues
             The Quetzal
                         In its majesty
                                     Reined supreme!
  
 Gangs of bird lovers
             Waited
                         Watched
                                     Focused
                                                 Re-focused
 All in a communal spirit
             Saw the Quetzal!
  
 A dream come true
             Who cares if it’s
                         Second-hand?
  
 I got up at 4:45 a. m.
             Wrapped in layers
             Trekked the dusty road
             Ran after our guide
                         As he move 
                                     From spot to spot!
             
 It’s here
             The male’s here
                         Eating avocados
             The female’s here
                         She’ll attract him.
  
 Let’s move
             Give me your iPhone
 Pictures, gasps
  
 A rewarding morning 
             Wandering between
                         Two worlds.

For me, poetry captures the essence of the emotions involved!

~Whitey & Gladys Puerling were playful friends of Flippo’s who created a Fan Club. I thought it would be fun to recreate this group. Would you like to join the Marshall Flippo Fan Club Facebook page? Read interesting posts about Flippo’s life. https://www.facebook.com/groups/328325644382769/

~I HAVE 211 PRE-ORDERS FOR THE MARSHALL FLIPPO BIOGRAPHY!  You, too, can pre-order this amazing story? You can select which paper format or e-book format you would like. Go here to order the version you want. Monthly SWAG Giveaways!  https://goo.gl/forms/4D4hwbHdme1fvJc42

~Visit my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft for digital or paper copies of all my books: https://www.etsy.com/shop/LaradasReadingLoft

Published by Larada

Larada Horner-Miller is a poet, essayist and accomplished multi-genre author who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Spanish and a master of education degree in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. She is the accomplished author of six award-winning biographies, historical fiction, memoir, and poetry works plus three self-published cookbooks. Her sixth book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?, is available in paperback and four e-book formats. Larada offers the reader the opportunity to look back at 2020 and the global pandemic through her prose and poetry through reading, then reflecting and responding. She addresses all the emotions she felt during this overwhelming time and leads the reader through to a self-access: bitter or better? Her fifth book is the authorized memoir and biography of world-renown square dance caller Marshall “Flip” Flippo. Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo is available now in hardback, paperback and four e-book formats. Recently Just Another Square Dance Caller won two awards: Book Excellence Awards Finalist and Silver award for eLit. Book Awards. Another recent book of hers, A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter's Grief Memoir has won many awards including being a 2018 Book Excellence Awards Finalist in the Memoir category at the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards and a 2018 Independent Press Distinguished Favorites Award in the Memoir category. Horner-Miller has also been a past national presenter at the Women Writing the West Conference and is currently the creator of Memoir Workshops for others who want to share their family’s legacies through words. Larada and her husband, Lin, enjoy being nestled in the mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the village of Tijeras. When not writing books, this passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic woman loves to spend time kicking up her heels at square dancing gatherings, traveling, knitting, and reading. As co-manager of her family’s southeastern Colorado ranch, she enjoys spending time exploring her family’s historic ranch and reminiscing with her brother and his children about their mom, dad, and granddad.

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