* * *
100820
‘TIS! – ‘TISN’T! (for Alan)
Who can see—you or me?
Which is right—day or night?
Which is wrong—short or long?
Who knows true—me or you?
100819
AS A HUMAN
This is my source
of conflict, pain and sorrow:
attachment to opinions
even I will change tomorrow.
100818
NO FRIEND
MORE TRUE
Mate and friend,
you’ve lived with me awhile
and always gone the extra mile.
Life with me can be a trial,
though I don’t mean it to—
to make amends, is there
something I can do?
Yes, you can.
Be you.
100817
THE DEFENSE
NEVER RESTS
You let us down,
they said today.
It hurts so much
what others say.
Sometimes it’s wrong,
sometimes unfair.
Sometimes it’s right;
that’s hard to bear.
It hurts so much
what others say.
I just want
to be okay.
JUST INFORMED
No. Not that!
My heart
went splat.
100816
SELF HEALING
You hurt bad
and don’t know why,
but this will help:
have a good cry.
100815
MAYBE IT IS FUNNY
My nose looks like
a case of rot
with sores that ooze
and will not clot
plus mucous
that I have to blot.
Snot can be
a real hot-shot
at healing sores,
but my snot’s not.
OVERBORED
Do not scout
the deck for me.
I’m lost.
I’m lost.
I’m lost at sea.
[ASIDE: Actually, less bored than challenged,
but still lost.]
100814
WANT ADS
CDL Driver.
No.
Tax Preparer.
No.
Dental Assistant.
No.
Message Therapist.
I’m on it!
100813
ASYLUM
A thought escaped
as I walked the hall:
“I love her.
God, I love her!
I love them all.”
100813
WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE
If penned up as a refugee,
I would have the sky;
if dungeon-locked,
a place to lie.
If the bounty I’ve been handed
were stripped off like a glove.
I would still have memory.
I would still have love.
FLAW IN MY CRAW
My work is good
(far from disaster).
If only I could
master faster.
SNAGGED
Next time you’re with your yogi,
rabbi, priest, or shrink,
ask him for me, will you,
how we’re supposed to think.
Do we stalk each nascent thought
like a hypochondriac a cough?
Do we wring the meaning out
or shut the darned thing off?
* * *
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Pressure, Pleasure, Pain
* * *
SACRED VEHICLE
“Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord, thy God.”
I used to think that meant
don’t beg for Aladdin’s cave,
don't ask that a dead stick
erupt in rose blossoms.
Now I think it means
take care of your body;
you don’t get a replacement
(at least not the same
make and model).
CELESTIAL SODA POP
(was there ever a tune so aptly named?)
(it’s worth a lifetime to hear it)
(wordless ... and also beyond words
(yet the title says it all)
(wrong, the music does)
(hush, everyone… encore!)
ASIDE: When the subject of personal theme songs
came up this week, I was sure mine was Bob Seeger's
about "I'm older now but still runinn' against the wind."
Then I remembered Celestial Soda Pop.
PREMATURELY
INDUCED
Delivery
can go easy
some say—
some, with experience.
(Breathe. Just breathe.)
I am due
to deliver…
or be delivered.
(I’d gladly gestate
on those phrases awhile.)
Pressure
is coming to bear.
(More gestation.)
I have no epidural.
MANAGEMENTAL
I have modes of attention:
One: utter focus.
Two: blocked.
Three: flit-flit-flit.
Four: forget-forget-forget.
When left to my own agenda,
I manage well.
When deferring to another’s,
I manage. Well…
I DARE NOT LAUGH
I have a cold sore rimming my right nostril.
This is August, so call it a heat sore.
Every time I smile, it cracks and weeps and enlarges.
I really think it’s impetigo,
which pleases me by association with babies.
It looks gross, like a squash-bug sized booger,
which pleases me by association with young boys
who know how to revel in grossness.
It is spreading to my upper lip
and I envision wearing a mustache to disguise it,
which pleases me by association with Groucho Marx
and Charlie Chaplin and all my hero comedians.
Now, if it were only funny.
GOOBER
I forgot.
Natural peanut butter
doesn’t stick just to
the roof of my mouth;
it sticks to my throat.
GOBBLEDY SPOOKED
The more
I say things
(especially, the more I exhort),
the more it all sounds like
gobbledygook,
or whatever gobbledygook word
they’re using these days.
INTERNALIZING
I didn’t notice
that the strawberry
in my left hand
was the size
of the heart
of a red-tailed hawk
until I made
a first slice
into its ventrical.
I should have
swallowed it whole.
100811
SHOWER
Ahhhh.
Water on,
balanced cold to hot.
How must it seem
for one,
used most of his life
to be clean,
to not?
INCLUDE HIM IN
Any man
who can take it in stride
when a coworker
incorrectly asks to take a shortcut
by riding his skirttails
is definitely welcome
at our impromptu
gal’s potluck.
Salad, Bill?
A few strawberries?
TOLL
I can’t decide
if this is funny—
When people say,
“I would pay
to do this,”
I think they
just mean money.
CRAZY FOR YOU (for Ethan)
We met, we talked,
we made a pact—
I and you—and you
became my school.
For you, for you,
I would act the fool—
and not even have to act.
MISSION FROM GOD
My daily duty and obsession
is like that “Blues Brothers” thing.
Everything else is
optional or expendable.
100810
HOME, HOME,
HOME, HOME, HOME
refuge
comfort
sanctified zone
launchpad
anchor
heart-and-hearth stone
floors
walls
roof or dome
grace
delight
us
our own
EMPLOYMENT
AGENCY
Exterminator wanted?
I’m here to apply
for the poisition.
Etiquette coach wanted?
I’m here to apply
for the poisition.
[ASIDE: From a typo in a job ad.]
100809
THE CORE
More
seek to seek it
(to explore)
than know it.
Wander more.
Quest
is at the core:
the province
of the poet.
Ponder.
COME AS YOU COME
Would I stuff you in a box
and tie you up with string?
Would I cram you in a mold
or pin your dainty wings?
Would I force you to behave
like a robot or a slave,
or cast you as a victim
while I played the roguish knave?
Would I shove you on the stage
and force you to compete?
Would I make you toe the line?
Would I bind your precious feet?
ASIDE: As I thought of the effrontery of trying to force
a poetic inspiration into a predetermined line-and-meter form,
this one came to me easily and just about complete. It does
not strictly toe the line.
SPECULATION
My body will go on
as long as it does
and I really don’t think
it will mind when it dies.
As for my mind,
it doesn’t mind now.
ABOUT THAT REQUEST…
Saying now,
“Can’t you give me
a few more hours
in this day?”
. . .will that be
much different than
saying, later,
“Can’t you give me
a few more hours
in this life?”
100808
DEAR DIVINE POET,
Given the late hour
and long day,
which of these
would you do:
go to bed and sleep
or edit poems
from earlier scribbles?
Oh, You are so wise!
But that is why
You are You
and I am …not.
FOLLOWING THE CALL
With the dark
that leaves at dawn,
swiftly, corporeally,
he is gone.
All too soon
will come the day
when corporeally only,
he will stay.
WOMAN OF A CERTAIN AGE
People died today.
I wasn’t one of them.
Am not. Yet.
Not quite yet.
But there are intimations:
mortality tables,
losses, lapses.
People died today.
Most, I think, tried not to.
But I can’t be certain.
I wasn’t one of them.
WHAT I’M ABOUT
One: oneness.
Two: diversity.
Three: gratitude.
Oh, forgot poetry!
ENTERPRISE
Thank you kindly,
Captain Kirk,
but my reward
is my work.
100807
OMNIA FUGIT
“Sic transit gloria mundi.”
Need translation? I’m equipped—
“Certain grasps must be ungripped.”
Un exemplum:
My fresh manicure is chipped.
LIFE LONG
Time for play
is playing for time:
being ex-tension
creates extension.
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
I ask, am told,
seem shy, am bold.
And what I have
outvalues gold.
DOUBLING UP
My life’s lopsided.
I like it that way.
I overlap
my work and play.
SMALL COMFORT
When I was little,
I didn’t know what to say
to old ladies either.
FASCINATING
Poems come easier now,
I guess because…
everything
is an opening
into something
fascinating.
CACTUS FLOWER
You asked.
I tell.
To dance my dance
and sing my song
means...
love that well
which must be left
ere long.
100806
WAGON MAKER
I knew a man,
challenged
in fundamental ways,
who stumbled through
his crazy maze
of hazy days
in strangely able ways.
DIVERSITY
IDENTITY
Dearest Sir,
Dearest Ma’am,
Bonnet, helmet,
cap or tam—
how can I
pick a hat style
if I don’t know
who I am?
[ASIDE: Did a diversity exercise that involved
expressing individuality through hat choices.]
MAKES NO SENSE
When things don’t flow
or do your bidding,
you gotta know:
“Life is what happens while
you’re making other plans.”
Oh, is that so:
what you “just know”?
You gotta be kidding!
Who has time for making plans?
WIN! WIN! WIN! —
NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT
Cheerleaders by the dozens,
swirling and twirling about
Then the mascot Razorback;
bristles and tusks and snout.
Roaring crowds
scream and shout
calling for a win, a rout.
Powers that be, have empathy.
Please be Soooie generous.
[ASIDE: I overheard someone enthuse today
about the thrill of attending her first Razorback games.]
BARE, RUINED, MIRED
That time of mind
thou mayst in me behold
when mellow thoughts
are none, or few, or old.
POME RITING
let them come
let them come
let them come
just
let them come
APPARITION
gracefulest mama
delicatest fawn
stilty legs,
swishy tails
lithely, quickly
gone
TOP OF MOUNTAIN?
BOTTOM OF WELL?
We all may ask
where ideas come from,
but none of us can tell.
100805
SHORT
POME
Most times
my thoughts
are short.
This time
I’m short
of thoughts.
CANTABILE
Lifelong, I pondered,
“For what music am I meant?”
then learned, with wonder,
“I am my own instrument.”
100804
THREE HOURS SLEEP
The first half of the night,
I scanned the house
for a lost document, but my
searching turned up nothing.
The second half of the night,
I scanned my mind
for that same lost document,
but memory turned up nothing.
Oh, the document turned up
eventually:
when I turned up the lid
of the scanner.
* * *
SACRED VEHICLE
“Thou shalt not tempt
the Lord, thy God.”
I used to think that meant
don’t beg for Aladdin’s cave,
don't ask that a dead stick
erupt in rose blossoms.
Now I think it means
take care of your body;
you don’t get a replacement
(at least not the same
make and model).
CELESTIAL SODA POP
(was there ever a tune so aptly named?)
(it’s worth a lifetime to hear it)
(wordless ... and also beyond words
(yet the title says it all)
(wrong, the music does)
(hush, everyone… encore!)
ASIDE: When the subject of personal theme songs
came up this week, I was sure mine was Bob Seeger's
about "I'm older now but still runinn' against the wind."
Then I remembered Celestial Soda Pop.
PREMATURELY
INDUCED
Delivery
can go easy
some say—
some, with experience.
(Breathe. Just breathe.)
I am due
to deliver…
or be delivered.
(I’d gladly gestate
on those phrases awhile.)
Pressure
is coming to bear.
(More gestation.)
I have no epidural.
MANAGEMENTAL
I have modes of attention:
One: utter focus.
Two: blocked.
Three: flit-flit-flit.
Four: forget-forget-forget.
When left to my own agenda,
I manage well.
When deferring to another’s,
I manage. Well…
I DARE NOT LAUGH
I have a cold sore rimming my right nostril.
This is August, so call it a heat sore.
Every time I smile, it cracks and weeps and enlarges.
I really think it’s impetigo,
which pleases me by association with babies.
It looks gross, like a squash-bug sized booger,
which pleases me by association with young boys
who know how to revel in grossness.
It is spreading to my upper lip
and I envision wearing a mustache to disguise it,
which pleases me by association with Groucho Marx
and Charlie Chaplin and all my hero comedians.
Now, if it were only funny.
GOOBER
I forgot.
Natural peanut butter
doesn’t stick just to
the roof of my mouth;
it sticks to my throat.
GOBBLEDY SPOOKED
The more
I say things
(especially, the more I exhort),
the more it all sounds like
gobbledygook,
or whatever gobbledygook word
they’re using these days.
INTERNALIZING
I didn’t notice
that the strawberry
in my left hand
was the size
of the heart
of a red-tailed hawk
until I made
a first slice
into its ventrical.
I should have
swallowed it whole.
100811
SHOWER
Ahhhh.
Water on,
balanced cold to hot.
How must it seem
for one,
used most of his life
to be clean,
to not?
INCLUDE HIM IN
Any man
who can take it in stride
when a coworker
incorrectly asks to take a shortcut
by riding his skirttails
is definitely welcome
at our impromptu
gal’s potluck.
Salad, Bill?
A few strawberries?
TOLL
I can’t decide
if this is funny—
When people say,
“I would pay
to do this,”
I think they
just mean money.
CRAZY FOR YOU (for Ethan)
We met, we talked,
we made a pact—
I and you—and you
became my school.
For you, for you,
I would act the fool—
and not even have to act.
MISSION FROM GOD
My daily duty and obsession
is like that “Blues Brothers” thing.
Everything else is
optional or expendable.
100810
HOME, HOME,
HOME, HOME, HOME
refuge
comfort
sanctified zone
launchpad
anchor
heart-and-hearth stone
floors
walls
roof or dome
grace
delight
us
our own
EMPLOYMENT
AGENCY
Exterminator wanted?
I’m here to apply
for the poisition.
Etiquette coach wanted?
I’m here to apply
for the poisition.
[ASIDE: From a typo in a job ad.]
100809
THE CORE
More
seek to seek it
(to explore)
than know it.
Wander more.
Quest
is at the core:
the province
of the poet.
Ponder.
COME AS YOU COME
Would I stuff you in a box
and tie you up with string?
Would I cram you in a mold
or pin your dainty wings?
Would I force you to behave
like a robot or a slave,
or cast you as a victim
while I played the roguish knave?
Would I shove you on the stage
and force you to compete?
Would I make you toe the line?
Would I bind your precious feet?
ASIDE: As I thought of the effrontery of trying to force
a poetic inspiration into a predetermined line-and-meter form,
this one came to me easily and just about complete. It does
not strictly toe the line.
SPECULATION
My body will go on
as long as it does
and I really don’t think
it will mind when it dies.
As for my mind,
it doesn’t mind now.
ABOUT THAT REQUEST…
Saying now,
“Can’t you give me
a few more hours
in this day?”
. . .will that be
much different than
saying, later,
“Can’t you give me
a few more hours
in this life?”
100808
DEAR DIVINE POET,
Given the late hour
and long day,
which of these
would you do:
go to bed and sleep
or edit poems
from earlier scribbles?
Oh, You are so wise!
But that is why
You are You
and I am …not.
FOLLOWING THE CALL
With the dark
that leaves at dawn,
swiftly, corporeally,
he is gone.
All too soon
will come the day
when corporeally only,
he will stay.
WOMAN OF A CERTAIN AGE
People died today.
I wasn’t one of them.
Am not. Yet.
Not quite yet.
But there are intimations:
mortality tables,
losses, lapses.
People died today.
Most, I think, tried not to.
But I can’t be certain.
I wasn’t one of them.
WHAT I’M ABOUT
One: oneness.
Two: diversity.
Three: gratitude.
Oh, forgot poetry!
ENTERPRISE
Thank you kindly,
Captain Kirk,
but my reward
is my work.
100807
OMNIA FUGIT
“Sic transit gloria mundi.”
Need translation? I’m equipped—
“Certain grasps must be ungripped.”
Un exemplum:
My fresh manicure is chipped.
LIFE LONG
Time for play
is playing for time:
being ex-tension
creates extension.
RIGHT LIVELIHOOD
I ask, am told,
seem shy, am bold.
And what I have
outvalues gold.
DOUBLING UP
My life’s lopsided.
I like it that way.
I overlap
my work and play.
SMALL COMFORT
When I was little,
I didn’t know what to say
to old ladies either.
FASCINATING
Poems come easier now,
I guess because…
everything
is an opening
into something
fascinating.
CACTUS FLOWER
You asked.
I tell.
To dance my dance
and sing my song
means...
love that well
which must be left
ere long.
100806
WAGON MAKER
I knew a man,
challenged
in fundamental ways,
who stumbled through
his crazy maze
of hazy days
in strangely able ways.
DIVERSITY
IDENTITY
Dearest Sir,
Dearest Ma’am,
Bonnet, helmet,
cap or tam—
how can I
pick a hat style
if I don’t know
who I am?
[ASIDE: Did a diversity exercise that involved
expressing individuality through hat choices.]
MAKES NO SENSE
When things don’t flow
or do your bidding,
you gotta know:
“Life is what happens while
you’re making other plans.”
Oh, is that so:
what you “just know”?
You gotta be kidding!
Who has time for making plans?
WIN! WIN! WIN! —
NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT
Cheerleaders by the dozens,
swirling and twirling about
Then the mascot Razorback;
bristles and tusks and snout.
Roaring crowds
scream and shout
calling for a win, a rout.
Powers that be, have empathy.
Please be Soooie generous.
[ASIDE: I overheard someone enthuse today
about the thrill of attending her first Razorback games.]
BARE, RUINED, MIRED
That time of mind
thou mayst in me behold
when mellow thoughts
are none, or few, or old.
POME RITING
let them come
let them come
let them come
just
let them come
APPARITION
gracefulest mama
delicatest fawn
stilty legs,
swishy tails
lithely, quickly
gone
TOP OF MOUNTAIN?
BOTTOM OF WELL?
We all may ask
where ideas come from,
but none of us can tell.
100805
SHORT
POME
Most times
my thoughts
are short.
This time
I’m short
of thoughts.
CANTABILE
Lifelong, I pondered,
“For what music am I meant?”
then learned, with wonder,
“I am my own instrument.”
100804
THREE HOURS SLEEP
The first half of the night,
I scanned the house
for a lost document, but my
searching turned up nothing.
The second half of the night,
I scanned my mind
for that same lost document,
but memory turned up nothing.
Oh, the document turned up
eventually:
when I turned up the lid
of the scanner.
* * *
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Work and Play
* * *
100803
CAST
Some of us get the glory.
Some of us do not.
A starring role,
for some of us,
is to advance the plot.
100802
BRAINPOWERLESS
My brain froze up,
and I would not wait
till it thawed out;
so my brain burned up
and I have to wait—
‘cause it’s thought-out.
100801
BACKLOG
UNCLOGGED
Tackled chores
sun to sun.
Tired and proud.
Taxes done.
100731
OPTICAL
DELUSION
I bought a book
on mandalas
and now I sit and stare
with empty mind
at images
I’m not quite sure
are there.
100730
SOMETHING
TO BE DONE
Does something
need a headline or a title?
Here I am. I can! I can!
Does someone
need a slogan or a logo?
Here I be. Let me! Let me!
100729
REPURPOSING
Life and death. Night and day.
Beauty when not seen that way.
Sad-faced clowns and those that smile.
My life’s purpose: reconcile.
(Good grief, good gall, good glory!
My checkbook, if you took a look,
would tell another story.)
100728
PREMONITION
If I should die before I wake
or before I see you again,
I love and loved you, each and all—
my neighbors, friends, and kin.
MORTAL
…because
nothing good
lasts forever.
100727
PEARLS BE FOR SWINE
1
When writers whine,
“me, my, mine,” I scoff.
These gems, so fine,
on which we dine, all come
from the same trough.
2
Are pigs greedy?
No, indeedy!
Pigs would plead
they’re merely needy.
3
Here’s a thought and it’s a dilly—
if a hog became a lily,
that would be so not-so-silly!
(Lily-of-the-field-type lily:
that’s the one I meant. Yes, really.)
WHY WORK?
Work can be an ogre.
Work can be a friend.
I most like the friendly part:
when it meets its end.
EEEEEE!
EOD
EOM
EOY
EOL
FLIP SIDE
Everything ends.
Everyone dies.
Thinking on this,
I’ve become wise.
Death is just life
in other guise.
Nothing can end.
Nobody dies.
How do I know?
I have my spies.
100726
STRAY THOUGHT
Why is it called
mind
when it doesn’t?
100725
POSITIVELY NOT
I kept saying yes
‘cause I wanted to learn.
“Yes, oh yes!”
But what do you think
I eventually learned?
Come on, guess!
I learned how to yearn
to learn to say yes
far, far less!
WORK CAPACITY
For those with experience,
I have a query.
How far does “I love it!”
(applied to work) carry?
Please hurry an answer;
I need to know—
to schedule a time
to “unstring the bow.”
100724
PITHY UNDER PRESSURE
Some write who know. Others, for show.
Some merely bluster and blow.
All may, or may not, have deadlines.
My heroes, though?
Anonymous souls
who flow with the “Go!”
writing subtly ingenious headlines.
100723
YO, YOU!
Ya, you’re the one
I’m talkin’ to.
Who d’ya think—
a kangaroo?
100722
SPEAKING FOR MYSELF
There’s a certain truth
only experience brings:
that inception of fear
is conception of things.
100721
CHALLENGE
It will be hard.
It can be fun.
Best of all,
It will be done.
100720
CONTEMPLATIVE
My ideal, my sublime—
and, yes, I would tend
to my duties and oughts—
is a simple life
with plenty of time
to think my own thoughts.
100719
ROUENS FOR A PEKIN
From home to Gentry to Elkins to home:
one and a fifth hundred miles.
The Rouens are young but large
and don’t yet have the plumage that
will distinguish them as male or female.
Unlike Boodie, they are not pond-bound
and have already made an expedition
up the road, over the hill,
to and around the people house.
Plans are underway for a duck house.
100718
TAKING MULTI-TASKING TO TASK
“Heightened freneticism,”
an author wrote, to say e-communication
doesn’t float his boat—or get his vote—
when mis-prioritized or mis-paced.
I quote:
“Try kissing more and tweeting less.”
More thinking. And more quietness.
100717
WINGING IT
Chores get done, deflected,
or rejected.
Chores get done
and more gets done,
but not what was expected.
100716
SELF-STYMIED
No matter how massive,
longstanding or dense,
there’s always a way
to breach your own fence.
100715
THINGDOM
Is ego the thing
that pines to excel
and weeps
when it doesn’t
measure up?
Is ego the thing
that panics and sulks
after inventing
its own exclusion?
Well, thing, I embrace you.
Let me offer comfort and
help you work this out;
this thing.
100714
ENTRUSTED
Why now?
Because there is
no other when.
Why me?
Because there is
no other who.
* * *
100803
CAST
Some of us get the glory.
Some of us do not.
A starring role,
for some of us,
is to advance the plot.
100802
BRAINPOWERLESS
My brain froze up,
and I would not wait
till it thawed out;
so my brain burned up
and I have to wait—
‘cause it’s thought-out.
100801
BACKLOG
UNCLOGGED
Tackled chores
sun to sun.
Tired and proud.
Taxes done.
100731
OPTICAL
DELUSION
I bought a book
on mandalas
and now I sit and stare
with empty mind
at images
I’m not quite sure
are there.
100730
SOMETHING
TO BE DONE
Does something
need a headline or a title?
Here I am. I can! I can!
Does someone
need a slogan or a logo?
Here I be. Let me! Let me!
100729
REPURPOSING
Life and death. Night and day.
Beauty when not seen that way.
Sad-faced clowns and those that smile.
My life’s purpose: reconcile.
(Good grief, good gall, good glory!
My checkbook, if you took a look,
would tell another story.)
100728
PREMONITION
If I should die before I wake
or before I see you again,
I love and loved you, each and all—
my neighbors, friends, and kin.
MORTAL
…because
nothing good
lasts forever.
100727
PEARLS BE FOR SWINE
1
When writers whine,
“me, my, mine,” I scoff.
These gems, so fine,
on which we dine, all come
from the same trough.
2
Are pigs greedy?
No, indeedy!
Pigs would plead
they’re merely needy.
3
Here’s a thought and it’s a dilly—
if a hog became a lily,
that would be so not-so-silly!
(Lily-of-the-field-type lily:
that’s the one I meant. Yes, really.)
WHY WORK?
Work can be an ogre.
Work can be a friend.
I most like the friendly part:
when it meets its end.
EEEEEE!
EOD
EOM
EOY
EOL
FLIP SIDE
Everything ends.
Everyone dies.
Thinking on this,
I’ve become wise.
Death is just life
in other guise.
Nothing can end.
Nobody dies.
How do I know?
I have my spies.
100726
STRAY THOUGHT
Why is it called
mind
when it doesn’t?
100725
POSITIVELY NOT
I kept saying yes
‘cause I wanted to learn.
“Yes, oh yes!”
But what do you think
I eventually learned?
Come on, guess!
I learned how to yearn
to learn to say yes
far, far less!
WORK CAPACITY
For those with experience,
I have a query.
How far does “I love it!”
(applied to work) carry?
Please hurry an answer;
I need to know—
to schedule a time
to “unstring the bow.”
100724
PITHY UNDER PRESSURE
Some write who know. Others, for show.
Some merely bluster and blow.
All may, or may not, have deadlines.
My heroes, though?
Anonymous souls
who flow with the “Go!”
writing subtly ingenious headlines.
100723
YO, YOU!
Ya, you’re the one
I’m talkin’ to.
Who d’ya think—
a kangaroo?
100722
SPEAKING FOR MYSELF
There’s a certain truth
only experience brings:
that inception of fear
is conception of things.
100721
CHALLENGE
It will be hard.
It can be fun.
Best of all,
It will be done.
100720
CONTEMPLATIVE
My ideal, my sublime—
and, yes, I would tend
to my duties and oughts—
is a simple life
with plenty of time
to think my own thoughts.
100719
ROUENS FOR A PEKIN
From home to Gentry to Elkins to home:
one and a fifth hundred miles.
The Rouens are young but large
and don’t yet have the plumage that
will distinguish them as male or female.
Unlike Boodie, they are not pond-bound
and have already made an expedition
up the road, over the hill,
to and around the people house.
Plans are underway for a duck house.
100718
TAKING MULTI-TASKING TO TASK
“Heightened freneticism,”
an author wrote, to say e-communication
doesn’t float his boat—or get his vote—
when mis-prioritized or mis-paced.
I quote:
“Try kissing more and tweeting less.”
More thinking. And more quietness.
100717
WINGING IT
Chores get done, deflected,
or rejected.
Chores get done
and more gets done,
but not what was expected.
100716
SELF-STYMIED
No matter how massive,
longstanding or dense,
there’s always a way
to breach your own fence.
100715
THINGDOM
Is ego the thing
that pines to excel
and weeps
when it doesn’t
measure up?
Is ego the thing
that panics and sulks
after inventing
its own exclusion?
Well, thing, I embrace you.
Let me offer comfort and
help you work this out;
this thing.
100714
ENTRUSTED
Why now?
Because there is
no other when.
Why me?
Because there is
no other who.
* * *
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