Love, Like, Life

* * *


110421

DOUBLE-TAKE

“Odd,” he said.
He was the passenger in my car,
so I wanted to know.

“Well, when I was younger,
I used to think of Death
as some entity I would occasionally
glance at in my rear-view mirror
as I zoomed down life’s highway,
so to speak.”

Okay, a little odd.

“Anyway, today it hit me:
‘Objects in mirror may be
closer than they appear.’”

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: second thoughts.]


110420

MESSAGE
IN A BOTTLE

Hello
to a fellow
castaway,
from myself
on this beach.

Today
(who knows why?)
this bottle
dropped
from a hazy
sky.

What can I say?

The gods
must be crazy.

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: message in a bottle.]


110419

LOVE IS KIND

I called to love.

It didn't come.
I haven't known it yet.
Not yet.

Love
doesn't mind.

So if you come to me
for love,
here is what you'll get—

my efforts to be kind.

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: love or anti-love poem.]


THIS IS LOVE?

Why can’t a spouse
be considerate?
Or at least consider it?

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: love or anti-love poem.]


110418

LIKE: A HOW-TO

like like new
under sun—

like like life
just begun—

like like coo
of turtledove—

like like you—
like like love

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: like _____.]


110417

'TIS! 'TISN'T!

nothing
is bigger
than
everything

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: big picture.]


110416

SHOCKING DEVELOPMENTS

Cameras may take snapshots,
but snapshots don’t take cameras.

Case in point:
this abruptly encountered
rural Oklahoma scene—
stoppedvehicles,blueflashinglights,
policecruiser,brokenfence,wanderingbulls,
highbluff,enormouswhitewindturbines.

The shock of any shock
is its snap back to ordinary—
in this case, Oklahoma redefined.

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: snapshot.]


TWO-LANE TRIP

I didn't take a camera
to Oklahoma,
but I got a snapshot:

police car lights, broken fence,
escaped bulls, bluff just beyond
crowned by a row of white wind turbines

Not the Oklahoma I remembered.

[ASIDE: Our trip lasted from 5:30am to 11:30pm. Thankfully,
I got the poem prompt at an OKC Starbucks. The poem has already
morphed but this is the pre-midnight version.]


110415

UN PROFIL “CLASSIQUE”

Nom: Hercule-Savinien
Pseudo: Dartagnan
Date de Naissance: Mars 6
Résidence: Près de l'Hôtel de Bourgogne, Paris
Education: Collège de Beauvais

Profession:
Musicien; écrivain; scientifique; mathematician;
cavalier; et l'auteur de la littérature, la "science-
fiction," et la poésie

Favoris:
- Restaurant: Rageuneau Patisserie
- Alimentation: Raisins, macarons
- Pièces de Théâtre: La Clorise, Roméo et Juliette
- Musique: Les ballads

Je Déteste:
Les mensonges, les préjugés, la lâcheté, la bêtise,
et de compromise

J’Aime:
L'intégrité, l'esprit, l'impétuosité, le courage,
et la gloire (et, bien sûr, Roxane)

Signe Particulier:
Mon nez, ce qui est "Magnifique!"

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: a profile.]


110414

TAKE YOUR MEDICINE

Medical therapies invite controversy—
What works? What doesn’t? Who decides?

Pharmaceutical ads have taken a new tack.
It’s no longer “Take this for your malady,”
but “Take this so your malady will not
disturb others.” On the horizon is
“Have family members take this medicine
so they will not be a disturbance either.”

…Regardless of the rationale,
“Take this medicine.”

This week, a case was battled out in court,
in the press, and in opinion polls.
A financially strapped mom was found guilty
of attempted murder for withholding
chemotherapy drugs from her autistic son
who died at the age of nine of leukemia.
The therapy was too painful, she testified.
All in all, it’s a great case for speculation.

It’s enlightening to discover
how established medicine defines
successful cancer treatment:
a very short-term extension
of a sufferer’s projected demise;
Suzanne Somers mentions this in
“Knockout,” the book about her own
cancer-related tangle with chemotherapists.
It may be a case where she got it all wrong.

Medical therapies invite controversy—
What works? What doesn’t? Who decides?


SHANTYMAN

Oh, my will is weak,
but my swill is strong
and I do love
a silly-sung song.


RUNNING, OUT OF TIME

“What a fiasco!
How will I ever redeem myself
with the committee?
I must have missed something
the client said; I’ll have to
look through my notes tomorrow.
But when? When? Let’s see…
right after the staff meeting
should work, provided—
Huh? Did you say something?”

“Yes, you look a little lost.
When are you?”


WORK? NOT MY BUSINESS

"A Day's Work,"
I named my business,
but didn't work
a single one.

"Grand Poobah"
was my title.
Mission Statement:
"Just Have Fun."

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: none of my business.]


110413

FRIENDSHIP AND CHALLENGE

First, his father died.

When his mother was taken to
a permanent nursing facility,
that left him home alone.
He went through money then
(all of it) and friends.

We did what we could.

He was just enough mentally
un-challenged to hold down
a short series of janitorial jobs.
Then he fell into the safety net
of the homeless.

For him, it worked.

Once, during his home-alone days,
I went with him to visit a sick friend;
he drove.

He drove serenely through the worst parts
of town, oblivious (unlike nervous me)
to littered sidewalks, broken-out windows,
graffiti, and tough-looking residents.

I examined his face, watched his eyes,
noted his easy talking, and realized—
he was as thoroughly in his own world
as I was in mine; further, nothing
prevented me from ease like his
except my own interpretations.

Today,
as doomsday reports come in
and safety nets erode,
I deliberately adopt my friend’s ease
to reinterpret the world.

I say, this earth is my home—
and I am not home alone.

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: remembering an old relationship.]


110412

BUSTED

“Withdraw? Oh, yeah? Well, draw a blank!”
My drive-by teller’s such a crank
(the muse who minds my data bank).
“You never thank! You never thank!”

“You don’t deposit the amount
to prime the pump that fills my fount.
You give me grief I can’t surmount.
You no-account! You no-account!”

[ASIDE: Submitted to Poem-A-Day challenge,
theme: a form or anti-form poem (this is monotetra).]


* * *

Adventure and Speculation

* * *


110222

MIDDAY NAP

Someone wearing white stockings,
petticoats, and a gold silk pinafore
is tumbling down a long, cushiony hill.
Lying in bed and viewing this,
I know it’s me, gently bouncing down
from lush spring-green heights,
skimming over golden tufts
of autumn grasses, and approaching
a long, gentle out-of-view slope
that will end abruptly and culminate
in something wonderful or tragic.


110221

NEWS OF THE DAY

People- and earth-
quakes rumble.
Dictators and buildings tumble.

Thinkers fumble.
Doers stumble.
The world is all a-jumble

[ASIDE: Uprisings in the Middle East,
Earthquake in New Zealand.]


110220

JUST DO IT

Coax bad habits
down the stairs?
Slow-mo tweeze
your nasal hairs?


110219

CAT: A TONIC (for Butterscotch)

What once was merely preferential
now is clearly near-essential:
a daily dose of cat to schmooze
(it hardly matters whose).


110218

"WHY" GENERATION (for Allan)

Why are unanswerable
questions the ones I pose?
Why, why, why
am I obsessed with those?


110217

IN BRIEF

Why use
long words?
Short will do.

Short is better;
four-letter…
three-letter…
look, too, to two.


PLAY, MATES!

To kinder spirits,
it’s one big garten.


THINKING ABOUT
NOT THINKING

I was born.
I talked.
I stopped to think.

Now I think
it may be better
not to talk,
not to think.

Such emptiness
may well be
death’s birth canal.


110216

CLOUDS FORMING

“Such a pretty sunrise—
but enjoy it; this may be
the only sun we see today.”

“What—are there more?”


PEACE BY PEACE

When belief causes grief,
this may make some sense:
seek contrary evidence.


110215

TREAD LIGHTLY

I don’t know what happened
to elicit this—but, dang!

“Don’t insult me, mister!
I’m the quiet type with fangs.”

[ASIDE: Encountered on Twitter.]


A WALK IN THE “PLARK”

That’s when play and work
run together indistiguishably
(walk together; same thing).


GOOD WRITING (for Christopher)

Take a simple story
with characters
you care about.

Tell it well. No doubt,
your readers will care too.

Face your fears.
Accept help, insights,
feedback, and advice.

Join others who
struggle like you.

Get unserious;
make it fun.
Go nuts!

Keep it simple.
Be bold.
Write with guts.

[ASIDE: Comment/synopsis made at:
http://www.fuelyourwriting.com/
power-of-words-the-kings-speech-and-good-writing/]


110214

LOVE IS BLIND

Chocolate candy, pink lace hearts,
red-red roses, cupid darts…
From dollar store to galleria,
valentine excess overflows.
Bows and arrows, ribbons and bows…

Surely, everybody knows...
had it been a fresh idea
(something neither myth-icized,
love-aligned, nor cute-ified)—
cupid would be stupid.


DEAR YOU… LOVE, ME (for Darby)

Beyond this world’s illusion,
we are in collusion...
enacting love’s inclusion.

Love is all we are.
Love is all we do,
even when not meaning to.


LOST IN THE MIDDLE

I like to piddle.
I like to twiddle.
I like to not make up my mind.

Or else, I find,
I like to make it up one way,
then down another,
again and again and again.

I like to piddle
and twiddle and fiddle—
but why? That’s the riddle.


NEW MEMBER (for LeaAnn)

“LeaAnn Van Winkle-Gisler”
…now, THAT name is a whistler!

How many other times
ya think this “LeeAnn” rhymes?


110213

DAY? OH!

Sun.
Him come.
Him wake up
everyone.


110212

RIGHT?

To believe a belief,
one has to believe
all contrary evidence
lies.


LEAD ON

How will You direct my day today;
what will You have me do?

How will You invite, incite;
what will You move me to?


NOT ALL THAT UNEXPECTED

Why do scientists keep discovering
fabulous things like quarks and quasars,
black holes, and distant planets?
Because we keep thinking them up.

[ASIDE: Some posit that the universe is made of thought
and keeps extending outward from our consciousness
as the range of our thought increases.]


DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS

My latest rabbit hole
(a logo design contest)
was a lost cause
from the get-go.
So I got-gone—
or at least
my prospects did
(which means I’m still snagged).

Well, I will submit my superb
(trust me) entry anyway,
sure that it will be disqualified
on a technical technicality—
specifically, my lack of
the specific technology needed
to produce the design
in a specific software format.

But I can hardly call this
a “lost weekend"—
the difficulties were such
a satisfying challenge.

[ASIDE: My determination to do my best, once I’d launched,
resulted in a submission that did meet the design specifications—
thanks to contributions of knowledge and expertise by
some of my artist friends… may they be blessed!]


110211

AS EXPECTED

“What if?”

That’s the most
wonderful wonder.

What if… I’m okay?
What if… it’s okay?

What if it’s okay
if I’m okay
with whatever is?


110210

QUI SUM

Throwing off fear,
shame and sham,
I claim myself.

I say who I am.


PIQUANT

To a poem,
time is spice.
Read it slow.
Read it twice.


DEFLATED

Sixteen inches this morning,
compared to twenty yesterday:
a too-quick collapse of our
wonderful snow soufflé!


COLD, HARD
LIGHT OF DAY

Last night, I placed paper
and pencil by my bed.
In the dark, I wrote a poem.
There was no pencil lead.


NOLA PRIMA DONNA (for Valerie)

Alligator... hurricane...
you'd think she was a bold one.
No, she's mean and vain;
she taunts;
she flaunts good fortune.
She's the cold one!

[ASIDE: Valerie, my niece, contrasted her fine evening
in New Orleans with the circumstances of Arkansas relatives
blanketed under 20” of snow. Why? Because (she said) she is mean.]


* * *

Rough Seas

* * *


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?


* * *

Mother's Day & Oddities

* * *


100509

WHAT’S IN A NAME (for Mary Lee)

Jo is her middle name
and she came to prefer it.

Jo,
chosen by her mother,
when her mother was a girl.

Jo ,
for dear one, beloved,
“John Anderson, my Jo”.

Jo,
the mother-gift of mother-love
to an entire family,
for each person knows, “You are
my dear one, my beloved, my Jo.”

[ASIDE: Mother's Day poem derived from a self-obituary
writing exercise conducted this week by Karen Zacharias,
author of "Will Jesus Buy Me A Double-Wide?:
Cause I Need More Room for My Plasma TV"]


100508

SELF, NON-SELF

One a horse, ranging wide.
One a rider, along for the ride.

Each awake to own.
Each asleep to other.

One will never get out.
One, though it may have tried,
will never get inside.


100507

SHEEPISH

The sheep were sheep.
Some would feed,
some would sleep,
and some would sleep
very deep... counting sheep.

[ASIDE: Wisdom House challenge on Twitter:
Create a work beginning with the words,
“The sheep were… “]


ALARM

The sheep were screaming,
but no one could hear.

The wind was calm.
The day was clear.
The shepherd was absent;
at least, couldn't hear.

The sheep were screaming,
but no one could hear—
no one, that is,
except what drew near.

[ASIDE: Wisdom House challenge on Facebook:
Create a work beginning with the words,
“The sheep were screaming… “ Facebook didn’t
truncate the instructions.]


100506

YOU CALLED? (For Denise)

"Boo-hoo!
Had it. Lost it.
Now I want it back.
Lost my mojo;
lost the knack.
Want my mojo back!"

"Yoo-hoo!
Mo' Jo? Here's Jo,
ready and at hand.
You want mo' Jo?—
that's just grand!
Glad I'm in demand!

[ASIDE: Response to a Facebook comment.]


100505

THOTS

shld i hv bot
what i sot?
what i got
was not so hot—
thats why i fot,
but all i wrot
came 2 not.

[ASIDE: Amused by some
Twitter condensations of words.]


100504

NOW THAT’S A MEDIOCRE POEM

It’s so hard to keep up with a quota;
to resign to the mediocre,
to short-change the more promising.
But without the quota,
without the mediocrity,
no promise would be realized.

[ASIDE: This is how poems often start out,
before editing. I think this one may be beyond hope.]


* * *

Words of Fun

* * *

100218

LEXICONSTRUCTION

Need a word? Just make one
(it’s a democracy).
Then add two or three.

I needed a word,
for example.
I present it as a sample:

Simplicity plus happiness?
That’s “simblissity.”


100217

A HOST OF DAFFY DEALS

I wandered only as The Cloud
that floats on high o’er th' Internet
(that vast e-commerce-dealing crowd).

With virtual virtue I was endowed.
By data streams I roamed, and got not wet.


100216

COACHING SESSION

“Depend upon your higher power,”
my guru/coach suggested.
“Assign one dream-goal upward.
Let your uptight self be rested.”

“Use intuition to set that goal.”
Well, that’s how I got flustered.
My inner whisper told my soul—
“Go, ye. Speak of buzzards.”


100215

RISE ‘N SHINE, YEP!

Hello, Sun, how do?
Liftin’ up them clouds, are ya,
movin’ everthang along?

Guess I best git up, m’self—
ta start my own day strong.


100214

PEAR-TREE

Morning is its blossom.
Noon, its honey-bee.
Evening is its harvest:
the pear called ecstasy.

Night has come,
has come, my love,
drawing you to me.

Come, my love—
come share this night.
Love, come pear with me.


[ASIDE: Shall I come-pear
thee to a summer’s night?]


ANY ART

If you plan to pick it up,
know how to put it down.
Progression can be obsessive.

If you plan to stick with it,
know when to put it down.
Obsession can be progressive.


100213

GUEST, LIST!

This is a private party,
not a banquet or a ball,
and if you want a lecture,
go find a lecture hall.


[ASIDE: Scrapped…

This is a private party,
intimate and small—
open just to kindred souls
(but open to them all).

This is a private party
for the select few
who manage to gain entry.
So, welcome. That is you.]


100212

BEYOND THE PALL

The sheet that skims my skin tonight
requires the moon to make it white—
and more than moon; for, though so bright,
moon but reflects more brilliant light.


100211

CHERUBIM TO CHERUBIMBOS

Wondrous, sonorous signs and symbols!

Words are heaven’s mighty cymbals
sounded by angels at their gambols
to babbling mortals at their rambles.


-------------------------------------------------
[SONG LYRICS FOR LIONS INTERNATIONAL]

LION PRIDE WORLDWIDE

If you know one Lion, you’re bound to know a few.
You find them on savannahs, in the jungle, at the zoo.
You find them in the circus, and other places too.
But can you guess—more or less—what these Lions do?

Lions meet and Lions talk.
Lions work from dawn till dark,
Raising help and hope and funds,
Especially for little ones.
A Lion is a lady. A Lion is a man.
Dogged as a shepherd, gentle as a lamb.
Lion vision helps all see—
The world is one community.

If you know one Lion, you’re bound to know a few.
You find them on savannahs, in the jungle, at the zoo.
You find them in the boardroom and on the factory floor.
They do good in neighborhoods—Hear those Lions roar!

Lions meet and Lions talk.
Lions work from dawn till dark,
Raising help and hope and funds,
Especially for little ones.
A Lion is a tiger, fighting for the right.
A Lion is an eagle, searching with true sight.
Lion vision helps all see—
The world is one community.


[ASIDE: Lyrics for our local club, which LOVES to sing
“Happy Birthday” in as garbled a fashion as possible…

Lions meet and Lions talk.
Lions sing in Rogers , Ark. ,
Raising voices to a screech,
Growling this for all and each—

“Happy Birthday to you…”
or “Hear Those Lions Roar” ]

-------------------------------------------------

100210

HAPPENSTANCE

Whatever happens
happens (in one theory)
to be good, so that
whenever whatever
shouldn’t happen happens,
it just so happens
that it should.


100209

KNOWSEY NEIGHBORS

Love that saying.
Is it your own?

Inquiring minds
want quoted sources known.


100208

SNOW ON SNOW

Overnight snow falls afresh,
slipping from branches
to meld with melting snow below.


* * *