Memorial Day, 2016

A presentation by Rose Marie Raccioppi, Poet Laureate, Orangetown, New York at the Memorial Day Community Event, Lion’s Park, Blauvelt, New York, Monday, May 30th 2016 at the noon hour.

Memorial Day,  2016

Today, Memorial Day, gives special meaning to the words THANK YOU ... for it is life given and freedoms won that we hold in gratitude. What is endured by our Veterans can only be known by them. We are to embrace and honor their needs. Yes, we are to provide the ultimate of understanding and support for their return home, be it to heaven’s door or earth’s abode,  we ever in expression of our abiding love.

Abiding LOVE ... heart to heart…. 

heart prayer, an inner light, a flame

passion, faith and truth in glory name

this sounding PRESENCE be it in PRAISE

for the treasure of time and blessed days

a body, a mind, a spirit, a soul

a life in pursuit of purpose, a vision, a goal

hold to the light of souls in heavens above

live the majesty of PRESENCE and abiding LOVE.

Heartfelt be these words and remembrances. Heartfelt be the sacrifices, the loss, the vision, the victory, the freedoms to prevail.

So this be known…

And they who for country and freedom in battle perish

We to weep and in loving memory with gratitude cherish

For each life that was lives in God's embrace sublime

Ever blessed be their souls in soaring grace divine

The pulsing, sounding, recording within our heart

From which memory and sentiment have their start

Of dearly loved ones who once filled our day

Their souls taken to another path, to the eternal way

We share gestures and words that lovingly hold to grace

And within our BEING it is tenderness we place

All in reflection of sacrifice and noble deed

The cry of Freedom, ever our living creed

The gifts of LIFE with vision blessed and bold

This the giving within each Veteran's story told

Loyalty, dedication, ascending care be they known

This in valor by our sons and daughters shown

Courage to hold to freedom's call and light

In perseverance the challenge be it day or night

Fortitude, strength, imbued with heart's noble call

Sacrifices of body, limb, in this a growing toll

To hold resolve and endure all claim

To fire the passion beyond the pain

For those given to liberation and freedom's call

Blessed Be they who have given their All 

It is resolve that humanity calls to be known

Within the grasps of faith, love and TRUTH be shown

This day, the NOW of yesterday we devotedly share

For timeless be each heart's deeply felt care

Life with God's blessings shall ever prevail

'Tis the vision of freedom and valor within souls we hail

Symbols of spirit, our flag, a wreath, an eagle in flight

This in reflection of faith and God’s gift of loving light

Declaration of Independence, Constitutional Rights ever to preserve

And so the glory of those who devotedly and honorably serve

The dream yet dreamed shall unfold

And PEACE to be the story told

This gift of knowing to mark the rising way

And we in tribute give honor this Memorial Day.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

Afar a Black Bird

The songbird song heard

So sweet be this touch of sound

The clear blue sky with whispers of grace

Bright, clear, warming sun

Felt be these rays of love from source

Fresh fragrance of bloom, trees in floral array

The caress of the calm wind upon my face

Ambrosial quietude

The shimmering dance of light upon leaves 

Afar a black bird perched on a high wire

Such be the savor of time, distance and PRESENCE.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

At the noon hour of BEING

How welcomed is this sky, so clear, so brilliantly blue

Felt is the bounty of grace

The love that is

The unity of purpose

The eternal  expressed

The sun in its  enfold of all

The touch of the gentle wind

The soaring of wings in flight

How welcomed is this sky, so clear, so brilliantly blue

This at the noon hour of BEING.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

EARTH DAY 2016... just B E C A U S E ...

                               EARTH DAY 2016 ... just B E C A U S E ...

                                                                          there is Beauty 
                                                                          there is Earth 
                                                                          there is Creation 
                                                                          there is Ascension 
                                                                          there is Unity 
                                                                          there is Spirit 
                                                                          there is Eternity

... there is the hand, the heart, the soul, the vision of BEING...

 Rose Marie Raccioppi 

Our Earth ~ Our Celebration ~ EARTH DAY, 2016

Our Earth ~ Our Celebration ~ EARTH DAY

May our awareness, our discernment, our knowing wise, as a community of people from all parts of this Earth, bring a renewed reverence to Mother Nature and her Divine intelligence. Let us rise above the corporate greed and impeding control... of those who ravage Mother Earth by pesticides, toxins, poisons, manipulation and GMO domination. We are more in numbers, more with endowed power, more with right intention, and must appreciate WE ARE THE CHANGE that is to BE!!! WE and Mother Earth deserve no less... all with blessings and love... Rose Marie Raccioppi

Mother Earth ~ Ravage Not

Inspired Spirit and Blessings shall prevail

There is Love beyond travail

That knowing faith within heart

From which a questing peace has its start

A vision beyond the perceived despair

So be our wondrous destiny in God's care

Light and TRUTH be they the resounding plea

Over our lands from sea to sea

Gather our thoughts and a new vision clear

Beyond all illusions beyond all fear.

Ravage not the land nor sea

Heed the echoed cry and plea

Heard in the crashing wave and thunderous sky

In valleys, plains and mountains high

Hold this Earth in reverent care

Protect our gifts of water and air

Take not in abuse a mineral or gem

Behold the wonder of each bloom, leaf and stem

Trees to flourish, 'tis bounty's call

The knowing grace of Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall

Earth, animals, a you, a me

Nurture wise and abundance be.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

A Feather at My Door

a hawk's message I now to heed

life as ascension be the living creed

rise aove the trial, the travail

in soaring spirit your love to prevail.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

April, National Poetry Month 2016

Aprii is National Poetry Month,  A Tribute to Leodardo da Vinci, 

Artistry in Poetic Dialogue, by Rose Marie Raccioppi, Poet Laureate, 

is now on exhibit at the Orangeburg Library, 

20 S. Greenish Rd. Orangeburg,  NY

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci

In Celebration of his birth April 15, 1452

his genius

his gifts eternal

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art."

Leonardo Da Vinci

In His Hand

In his hand 

A pencil he to hold

Lines, shadows, delicate 

Purposeful and bold

Portrays he grace

A beauty sublime

And gifted we be

By artistry divine.

Rose Marie Raccioppi

Poet Laureate

Orangetown, New York

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, April 15, 1452 ~ May 2, 1519, an Italian polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer. Leonardo is known as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. Indeed one of the greatest artists of all time and perhaps the most diversely gifted person ever to have lived.

Self-portrait in red chalk, circa 1512 to 1515

Royal Library of Turin.