***
091020
WITCH-DOCTOR'S ORDERS (for Kate)
Tell you what, my little Munchkin,
when your grades say you are flunkin',
when your life gets stink-stank-stunkin',
go dress up like an Egyptian.
Find a party, drink some punchkin,
plunk your head in apple-dunkin',
carve yourself a happy punkin'—
that's my Halloween prescription.
MYSTERY AT SEA
Am I the sea,
the bottle or the note?
Who is the messenger?
Who’s the message for?
Am I the wind,
the sailor or the boat?
What is the message?
Who wrote the note?
PARTNERS IN THE DANCE
Clouds float in air,
flow on air, with air.
Air floats and flows
on land, on sea.
Sea floats, flows, and glides
upon, against the land
which floats upon its
self-made magma sea.
Storms. Volcanoes. Ice and rain.
All is done by gravity
in a dance with levity.
Clouds and air, air and sea,
sea and land, the magma sea
float and flow, enfold, embrace;
in a dance of majesty.
Waves. Tides. Morning dew.
All is done by levity
in a dance with gravity.
[ASIDE: Well, it sounded okay at 1:00 am.]
IMPLEMENTATION
Pen, you will have to do
the writing tonight;
my basket-brain is empty,
sifted, drained—
except to the extent
of forming letters
and noticing that my implement
is a pencil.
Pencil, you will have to do
the writing tonight.
091019
SCHOOLED
What, my child, did you learn today?
Did you learn your numbers: 1-2-3?
Did you learn your letters: A-B-C?
Tell me what you learned today.
I learned, the same as yesterday,
how mistaken I can be.
MERCY!
When people die
horrible deaths
after, or not after,
horrible lives,
the tendency is to think
there must be
some horrible reason.
That’s horrible.
FRAGILE
Oh, little dew-drop world,
unto yourself enfurled,
soon, I fear, you’ll wink away—
heat and hate won’t let you stay.
RICHER BY THIRDS
A pome! A pome!
My kingdom for a pome!
“Now is the whiner of our discontent
made glorious summer-upper
of your tale, non-victorious.”
There you have your pome, your words.
My pay, like Gaul, divide in thirds.
ESCAPAIDS
One benefit of writing,
I’ve heard many a
published author say,
is linking to like-minded souls
who look at life your way.
Hmm, as I write these very words,
distracting myself
from chores and scares,
I envision a host of kindred souls
distracting themselves from theirs.
EPITAPPED
Empty, still, here I sit;
all my write done writ.
Quiet, still, here I lie:
I done writ, but why?
TIMEBOUND
Change has come;
swift, profound,
bizarre.
Nowadays,
clocks aren't wound—
we are.
STUDYING FOR FINALS
Let the school burn down!
When young, didn’t we wish it?
Lessons were so hard to learn.
Let the darn thing burn.
Let the world blow up!
Now older, don’t we risk it?
Home-and-classroom: let it blow?
Armaggedon? —No!
EVER’DAY POTE
I make a pome ever’day,
sittin’ home or on the roam,
seein’ woes a better way;
turnin’ ever’ gloom to gloam.
I make a pome ever’day.
I make ever’ day a pome.
091018
CRITIQUE
Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
you reflect me not at all.
With the stresses weighed on me,
I should look a hundred three!
AT THE DOOR
Expecting Death
and my demise,
I open to his heavy knock.
“Your time’s not up,”
God’s workman sighs.
“I’ve come to wind your clock.
091017
CRUX
Enemies—
lovingly offer them
your hearth and your heart.
Love may seem a kind of death,
but there’s no survival apart.
091016
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES
Sort the truth?
Let things be?
I wouldn’t care,
particularly—
except for how
the truth may be
particularly bad for me.
091015
NOTICED
Life is partly what I make it,
partly what I allow.
And how I experience my future
is how I experience now.
091014
OUTRAGE
These losses, these changes
(so feared and so hated)
should not occur!
But are we so sure?
Which cosmic laws
have been violated?
SCENE YESTERDAY
One crow
and three buzzards,
in circling flight.
Oddly, the crow
was picking a fight.
091013
AUTUMN EXCURSION
One slight departure
from our daily-duty itinerary
creates a further one—
taking us farther away,
looping us into the next,
and so on—
till we find ourselves lost
in each moment’s timeless speed,
gliding down a curving country road;
slipping into fall.
***
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Eclectic
***
091012
AAAAHMMM...
Make a face—
a smiley face!
Let smiley feelings come.
That’s one way to meditate.
Easy. Simple. Fun.
091011
LETHE
In the pantry of her brain,
the cheese
is her stored memories.
Lately it’s becoming plain;
some mouse
is nibbling at that cheese.
091010
POETRY READING
The chance to read
my pomes out loud
to one person
or a crowd
makes me humble,
glad, scared, proud.
“You want: me?”
When that chance comes,
I am wowed.
“Really? Me?”
091009
A TRUTH TO TRY
Then is just a story
made up by the mind.
Now is always friendly.
Now is always kind.
091008
APPROVAL
The mark
of endorsement
as a friend
is being entrusted
with other friends.
091007
BLESSINGS
When you’re young,
you’re smart
if you learn a thing or two.
There’s so much to see!
When you’re old,
you’re lucky
if you forget a thing or three.
091006
SENIORITY
Look! I made it to old;
not by being smart or bold,
or doing right instead of wrong—
just by being young too long.
091005
ZOMBIE
insomniac nights
maniac days
moonlit, sunlit
grays on grays
one long blur
of dismal haze
091004
IT
What is claimed,
I’ve not yet met—
but it is nearby,
beckoning.
091003
NEAR-FROZEN ASSETS
As talent, ambition,
even body grow cold—
how hold it together;
this life on hold?
091002
AS I AM
born
some several score
ago
born again
daily
a child, a child, a child
a baby
091001
NONEMPLOYED
Where can I find
a place to stay, a way to pay
(or even a reason to live)
when I can find no home
for what I have to give?
090930
"TREASURE"
No matter what it is,
if you like it or want it—
politicians are trying to grab it,
robbers to nab it,
elites to refine it,
gurus to seek it,
geeks to tweak it—
that’s what defines it.
090929
SILENT DRAMA
The picture window—
enormous, high, and therefore rarely washed—
frames a bright but overcast northern sky.
A spiderweb spans its peak.
The spider is enormous, too;
especially compared to the fly
that races up the pane toward it
in small erratic spurts.
This black-and-white melodrama,
absent of piano accompaniment,
is being played out for my private viewing.
This is not film. It is live theater.
There is no opportunity for intervention.
Higher and higher
the fly climbs;
closer and closer
to imminent doom.
All the while,
my witness role
becomes more and more
excruciating.
Just as the perimeter of the web is breached,
there is a shattering! An illusion falls in shards
as two scenes diverge, separated by a pane of glass.
090928
SOUP KITCHEN SOUP KIT
I count nine tomatoes,
three ears of corn, two onions,
and ten mason jars.
Also laid out
on the butcher-block surface
are squash, peppers, green beans,
spices and other soup ingredients.
"The idea," says the cook,
"is to go out into the garden,
pick anything edible,
put it into a big pot,
and cook enough soup
to make it through the winter."
Frankly, I suggest a recalculation;
he obviously hasn't counted
on drop-in guests.
090927
MAY BE BUSY
Today things went the other way
but yesterday was an ease-off day.
Tomorrow, well, who’s to say?
Tomorrow is another day.
090926
ETHICS
It’s so hard to be a person;
much less, a strictly-honest version.
“Daddy, is there a Santa Claus?”
“Not any more, if there ever was.”
BUGS
There’s always a bug
around somewhere,
everywhere you look—
a spider in a corner,
a cricket in a nook,
an ant, a bee, a fly, a flea,
a bookwork in a book.
LIFE-LONG FRIEND (for Kay)
She was that quiet, friendly sort
who smiles and works and pleases—
part Martha, part Mary;
devoted to us and Jesus.
ESCAPE ARTIST
Do you hear my pencil
scrapin’ on the paper?
Well, I’m makin’ me a pome.
I’m avoidin’ what’s annoyin’.
I’m markin’ paper—
scrapin’, scrapin’—takin’ time
to be escapin’ with a pome.
090925
BB&BBQ B&B
Rain threatened to put a “nix” on
this year’s Bikes, Blues & Barbecue.
But clouds parted!
Soon, bikes farted
along College and Dickson
and every available avenue.
My brother’s bed-and-breakfast
is hosting biker-friends this week;
that is, if they made it to Elkins
and if they ever sleep.
OLD HORIZONS
Do you have a thought for me;
to give, or share, or loan?
Do you have a thought for me?
I’m weary of my own!
SAYS WHO?
Before you impose your creed on me,
please confirm its authority.
If I’m required to defer to you—
how do you know you know it’s true?
Around what intangibles does it revolve
and which of these does it involve?
- Intuition
- Inhibition
- Interpretation
- Inquisition
Did an angel appear and tell you so,
or some preacher’s voice on the radio?
Is there a mother ship with you in tow?
How, pray tell, do you know you know?
***
091012
AAAAHMMM...
Make a face—
a smiley face!
Let smiley feelings come.
That’s one way to meditate.
Easy. Simple. Fun.
091011
LETHE
In the pantry of her brain,
the cheese
is her stored memories.
Lately it’s becoming plain;
some mouse
is nibbling at that cheese.
091010
POETRY READING
The chance to read
my pomes out loud
to one person
or a crowd
makes me humble,
glad, scared, proud.
“You want: me?”
When that chance comes,
I am wowed.
“Really? Me?”
091009
A TRUTH TO TRY
Then is just a story
made up by the mind.
Now is always friendly.
Now is always kind.
091008
APPROVAL
The mark
of endorsement
as a friend
is being entrusted
with other friends.
091007
BLESSINGS
When you’re young,
you’re smart
if you learn a thing or two.
There’s so much to see!
When you’re old,
you’re lucky
if you forget a thing or three.
091006
SENIORITY
Look! I made it to old;
not by being smart or bold,
or doing right instead of wrong—
just by being young too long.
091005
ZOMBIE
insomniac nights
maniac days
moonlit, sunlit
grays on grays
one long blur
of dismal haze
091004
IT
What is claimed,
I’ve not yet met—
but it is nearby,
beckoning.
091003
NEAR-FROZEN ASSETS
As talent, ambition,
even body grow cold—
how hold it together;
this life on hold?
091002
AS I AM
born
some several score
ago
born again
daily
a child, a child, a child
a baby
091001
NONEMPLOYED
Where can I find
a place to stay, a way to pay
(or even a reason to live)
when I can find no home
for what I have to give?
090930
"TREASURE"
No matter what it is,
if you like it or want it—
politicians are trying to grab it,
robbers to nab it,
elites to refine it,
gurus to seek it,
geeks to tweak it—
that’s what defines it.
090929
SILENT DRAMA
The picture window—
enormous, high, and therefore rarely washed—
frames a bright but overcast northern sky.
A spiderweb spans its peak.
The spider is enormous, too;
especially compared to the fly
that races up the pane toward it
in small erratic spurts.
This black-and-white melodrama,
absent of piano accompaniment,
is being played out for my private viewing.
This is not film. It is live theater.
There is no opportunity for intervention.
Higher and higher
the fly climbs;
closer and closer
to imminent doom.
All the while,
my witness role
becomes more and more
excruciating.
Just as the perimeter of the web is breached,
there is a shattering! An illusion falls in shards
as two scenes diverge, separated by a pane of glass.
090928
SOUP KITCHEN SOUP KIT
I count nine tomatoes,
three ears of corn, two onions,
and ten mason jars.
Also laid out
on the butcher-block surface
are squash, peppers, green beans,
spices and other soup ingredients.
"The idea," says the cook,
"is to go out into the garden,
pick anything edible,
put it into a big pot,
and cook enough soup
to make it through the winter."
Frankly, I suggest a recalculation;
he obviously hasn't counted
on drop-in guests.
090927
MAY BE BUSY
Today things went the other way
but yesterday was an ease-off day.
Tomorrow, well, who’s to say?
Tomorrow is another day.
090926
ETHICS
It’s so hard to be a person;
much less, a strictly-honest version.
“Daddy, is there a Santa Claus?”
“Not any more, if there ever was.”
BUGS
There’s always a bug
around somewhere,
everywhere you look—
a spider in a corner,
a cricket in a nook,
an ant, a bee, a fly, a flea,
a bookwork in a book.
LIFE-LONG FRIEND (for Kay)
She was that quiet, friendly sort
who smiles and works and pleases—
part Martha, part Mary;
devoted to us and Jesus.
ESCAPE ARTIST
Do you hear my pencil
scrapin’ on the paper?
Well, I’m makin’ me a pome.
I’m avoidin’ what’s annoyin’.
I’m markin’ paper—
scrapin’, scrapin’—takin’ time
to be escapin’ with a pome.
090925
BB&BBQ B&B
Rain threatened to put a “nix” on
this year’s Bikes, Blues & Barbecue.
But clouds parted!
Soon, bikes farted
along College and Dickson
and every available avenue.
My brother’s bed-and-breakfast
is hosting biker-friends this week;
that is, if they made it to Elkins
and if they ever sleep.
OLD HORIZONS
Do you have a thought for me;
to give, or share, or loan?
Do you have a thought for me?
I’m weary of my own!
SAYS WHO?
Before you impose your creed on me,
please confirm its authority.
If I’m required to defer to you—
how do you know you know it’s true?
Around what intangibles does it revolve
and which of these does it involve?
- Intuition
- Inhibition
- Interpretation
- Inquisition
Did an angel appear and tell you so,
or some preacher’s voice on the radio?
Is there a mother ship with you in tow?
How, pray tell, do you know you know?
***
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
