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I miss steak and kisses and red wine,

Cold nights in foreign automobiles

Strangers behind the wheel

The prospects are mine

As we drive through the streets

Wet with rain and Champagne

 

I want to be young.  Really young

But not sixteen – can’t go out with so-and-so

I want to step out with impossibly young parents.

Let me be thirty; they’ll be forty-five.

We’ll inhale the rain and Champagne and back again

As I drive with the man who is mine.

Really mine.

 

Our melancholy Valentine lives on

Beyond a rhyme

And shines on lonely afternoons and alabaster nights

Before the moon slips on satin delights

To shield the pain of tears

Washed wet with rain and the scent of Champagne

Poem by Juliann Budimir, February 13, 2023.  All rights reserved. 

Photos by Juliann Budimir, 2020, 2021.  All rights reserved.

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Lanterns like candlelight on faintly shooting stars

Cast alabaster hues,

Guide memories of you

Softly floating on the strains of guitars

We are poppies in the light of day

Vessels golden in the sun

Our hopes are plenty, brightly ready

For what grace might come

 

We wait upon the whistful wind

And whistle all the while

For half-filled blossoms to enjoy

Sweet nectar ‘cross the miles

 

The gardens of our afternoons are constellation nights

Where far beyond our universe we find our true delights

 

So, pleasure me with song and dance

Our tune is finite fare

In arms refined we’ll drink our wine

And lay our souls so bare

 

poem by Juliann Budimir, June 28, 2022.  All rights reserved.

Silver Lake delights

Photos by Juliann Budimir, 2022. All rights reserved. More on Instagram http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

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Poetry for Peace

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In the memories of our refrain

We hear again on windowpanes

The gentle rains of yesteryear

Feel loving hands and wistful tears

---

I wonder, can you hear the songs

In the darkest wailing hour

When silently we sing along

The beating hearts of broken power

---

Come remember well with me

A time of peace when all were free

Let echoes of those winsome days

Instill your strength and guide your ways

Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, February 26, 2022. All rights reserved.

Photo by Juliann Budimir, 2022. IG: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

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Reflections

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Reflections on Silver Lake

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In golden years, in golden light

Bathes the wisdom tree

With memories, meanderings,

Dreams of you and me

 

We fondly gaze on yesteryear

To Beauty’s far-off climes

The smooth caress, the fond undress

We once held far from Time

 

Through knowing thee, our wisdom tree,

You bring us once a smile

Across the years and falling tears

Our youth across the miles

 


Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, October 5, 2021.  All rights reserved.

I love this tree, especially when touched by the afternoon sun.

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She lives within a dream, the Magnolia Queen

Dressed in candlelight, her ivory petals warmed by the sun

Exhaling one by one the softly-scented afternoons

The luscious mystique of an inspiring bloom

 

 
Her understated delights we inhale

From the pleasures of our room

We know the glorious stretch of branch, of arms,

The aching search for love

On endless summer afternoons

In rooms filled with music and the scent of perfume

 

 
In the late summer days when daylight

Slips away so softly into night

I long for open windowpanes and flowers scented in the rain

But love, like gardens, gone too soon

Becomes a dream, our Magnolia Queen

 

Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, August 11, 2021.  All rights reserved. 

Instagram: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

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Photo by Juliann Budimir, August 2021. All rights reserved.

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When blooms remember spring

In the golden summer light

I see visions of kaleidoscopic days

Awash in floral hues and natural blues alike

 

 

I breathe the scented daydreams of our youth

The verdant promise an expanse of years

Where the horizon floats almost out of sight

And if I close my eyes I think I might

Feel your arm encircling my waist,

A lingering taste as we slowly escape time

 

 

I long to see the flowers lit by luminescent light

Untouched by summer’s burning gaze, the meadow grass delights

If we could live for countless days in such a lovely shire

I would be blessed to call this home until my years expire

 

 

Poem and photos by Juliann Budimir, July 14, 2021.  All rights reserved.

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These lovely blooms inspired my poem. Photo and poem by Juliann Budimir, July 14, 2021. All rights reserved.

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When will you fly, my sweet butterfly

On the petals of a breeze

Do you perceive the humming,

Lilting whispers of a dream?

 

Your cocoon is gone from Babylon

There is no hiding now

Come join me, we can be free

In Eldorado town

 

We take our flight where love alights

Beyond the silver sea

Where fallen sighs sing lullabies

On softly fanning wings

 

Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, June 15, 2021.  All rights reserved.

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Where, in the windswept scent of youth

Did we reach the zenith of our days

Soaring on the faintly fragrant breeze

Awash in summer light and bathed by the alabaster moon

 

We spoke too soon of eternity

The waxen wings falling from our flesh

And we descend to fields of lilacs

Their perfume softening our distress

 

Let us live amongst the flowers

As long as we’re on Earth

Their buds are inspiration

Their blooms are our rebirth

Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, May 26, 2021.  All rights reserved.

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These beautiful matilija poppies inspired my poem. Photo by Juliann Budimir, May 26, 2021.

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See with the center of your soul.

Words and photo by Juliann Budimir, April 15, 2021. All rights reserved.

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Photo by Juliann Budimir, April 2021.

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I close my eyes and see again

The memories of when

On uncovered carousels we glide

Off the pages of a dream

Where youth knows no end –

Or so it seems

We sing the syncopated hymn

Of yesteryear

So fairly near

To all we wished for

Is the star still there?

Or did it fall, shooting past us?

Did we miss our dream?

Or have we not seen it

With the sun shining so brightly in our eyes?

Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, April 13, 2021.  All rights reserved.

Photo by Juliann Budimir, April 2021

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When will the flowers that we see

Become the blossoms we can be

Awash in summer light

In a world that’s always spring

Fragrant with the windswept scent of youth

That tickles the nose like

Grass between our toes on a picnic date

We seek to hold life’s memories in our hands

To touch in visceral delight

The monuments of little things

Desiring no less than eternity for our dreams

Sometimes it seems we might entice

The hand-drawn sunsets of our days

Into earthly delights before

Our petals open to the sun and one by one

With outstretched grace

Reveal our core

Forevermore

Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, March 30, 2021. All rights reserved.

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Photo by Juliann Budimir, March 2021. All rights reserved.

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When can we breathe the sweet perfume
On a delightful afternoon
With an innocence we once knew
Long before Fall came to Spring?

I dream of many things, wondrous meanderings
Until half-punctuated joys
Are pierced by sorrows without reason
Long before their blooms were through

The ache of scented days gone by
Wafting on winds to far away climes
We wait in vain for hopeful news
Instead, the truth and roses are malaligned

Photo and flash poetry for Boulder, Colorado by Juliann Budimir, March 22, 2021.  All rights reserved.

Instagram: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

Photo by Juliann Budimir, March 2021.

Poem & photo by Juliann Budimir, March 2021. All rights reserved.

Spring forward with the sun

Our days outrun the shadowy recesses of time. 

We wean a weary winter long past due

The shriveled earth is born anew

In days outstretched like hands that reach for mine

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I was inspired by photos of Venice to write a bit of flash poetry today. It took me back to a time many years ago.

Venice, Italy. Photo by Juliann Budimir, 1994. All rights reserved.

What if I had stayed there a thousand years ago?

When nights were old and we were young

Younger than the sun ablaze on the piazza

The lilting leitmotif of a violin

Hanging in the humid air

Like the notes of songs unsung

We rest until we run

To other starry skies

Other nights

Where did you take flight?

Or do you remain

A monument to what we thought was love

In the thin moonlight slipping through our fingers

Unspoken prayers to an earthly divine

La Serenissima will always be mine

Where the lonely linger long after we are gone

Poem by Juliann Budimir, February 26, 2021. All rights reserved.

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In the flower of youth

What happens when there is no echo in reply?

When you look to all the lovely things

The brimming hearts, meanderings

Holidays warmed with hearthside chocolate

Hot in Christmas mugs as

Snow angels leave their imprint on our souls

We are touched by the innocent who knows

That loneliness touches even the softest hand

Catches the even the surest foot

In its clutches

Before it goes

And in our solitude we seek

To warm the hands that we once held

To feel the arms that wrapped us in their youth

To live with more than memories

That leave us in a world distorted by loss

We seek a hope we think we’ve lost

Until the glint of sun on a snow angel’s wings

Reminds us that love endures

And as sunlight melts away the shapes of childhood

Our snow angel takes flight

On wings not quite opaque

Through sunlight our son alights

Poem by Juliann Budimir, February 16, 2021. All rights reserved.

My heart goes out to my friends on their monumental loss.

Photo by Juliann Budimir, 2020. All rights reserved.

More poems and photos on Instagram: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

What a lovely Valentine! The Eastsider had asked me to contribute to their Valentine’s Day special on why we love our neighborhoods. Today, they published my ode to Silver Lake, an LA neighborhood that is close to my heart.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Please click this link to read my ode:

https://www.theeastsiderla.com/lifestyle/tienditas-sunsets-lime-trees-why-we-love-our-neighbohoods/article_14df8c16-6d5f-11eb-8e3f-9bd046f28bc6.html

Words and photo by Juliann Budimir, February 2021. All reserved.

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Lovely Silver Lake. Photo by Juliann Budimir, February 2021. All rights reserved.

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Rise up, unfold your petals to the sun
In solace shared we gather one by one

In softly hopeful days, pandemic times
We float upon the promises of rhymes

Rise up and sing your voices to the sun
In solace shared we gather one by one

Inhale the luscious vintage of the vine
The sweet perfume of mystery and rhyme

Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, January 29, 2021.  All rights reserved.

More on IG: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

Sunlight like candlelight

Flickering through the trees

Hanging onto hope

The fragile leaves

Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, February 6, 2021. All rights reserved. Follow on Instagram for more: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

Photo by Juliann Budimir IG: @laphotowriter

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Today, Feb. 5, 2021, we lost the wonderful Christopher Plummer, who will always be The Captain in my heart. I hope you enjoy this blog post I wrote last year about The Sound of Music, Julie Andrews, and Christopher Plummer, and the joy they brought through music and this Oscar-winning film.

Juliann Budimir, Rhyme and Reason

I’m feeling nostalgic that The Sound of Music was released 55 years ago today.  I was inspired to write about its importance in my life and about those who shared in its joy.

Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews on the set of The Sound of Music

Today marks the release, more than half a century ago, of one of my lifelong favorite films, The Sound of Music.  My dearest friends and I used to play the roles of the children (I was always Liesl), and we used to sing and perform the musical numbers until our Gretl scooted up the stairs one by one to “So Long, Farewell.” 

As I grew older, The Captain became more and more dashing to my eyes, and a secret swoon filled my heart.  But above all, it was Julie Andrew’s sparkling Maria that gave the movie its unending life and made it a joy…

View original post 96 more words

Rise up, unfold your petals to the sunIn solace shared we gather one by one

In softly hopeful days, pandemic times
We float upon the promises of rhymes

Rise up and sing your voices to the sun
In solace shared we gather one by one

Inhale the luscious vintage of the vine
The sweet perfume of mystery and rhyme

Poem and photo by Juliann Budimir, January 29, 2021.  All rights reserved.
Please follow me on Instagram for more: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

Photo by Juliann Budimir, January, 2021. All rights reserved.

Please find many more of my photos on Instagram http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

It was a dazzling day at the lake with hopes aloft in the cloud-strewn skies.

Photo and words by Juliann Budimir, January 24, 2021. All rights reserved.

Instagram: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

Photo by Juliann Budimir

Memories of a summer’s day

With sunlight lingering long

After your touch

And rooms filled with the perfume of roses

We remember, we crave so much

Of life in prepandemic times

Like softly-scented moonlight

When we were free and nights would rhyme

Poem and photos by Juliann Budimir, December 2020/January 2021.

Please follow me on Instagram for frequent posts: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

For frequent photos and creative writing, please follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/laphotowriter

Photos and poem by Juliann Budimir, 2020-2021. All rights reserved. Instagram: @laphotowriter