***
90331
MYRMECOLOGY
How do you sex
an ant?
The usual way.
(Hee-hee!)
If it’s a worker,
it’s a she.
090330
THERE IS A SEASON
Outdoors, winter ice has melted.
Ants are coming in.
Most are in the kitchen, of course.
A few have found the bed.
One, suffocating in the crook
of my arm, bit.
I brushed her off, none too gently.
In childhood,
on more than one summer night,
I pasted my ring-finger
with a firefly’s glowing belly
pinched off.
When was I innocent?
Was I innocent then?
090329
SPRING SNOW
In the Charolais pasture,
white cow-paddies disappear,
along with their mamas.
090328
I THINK I CAN’T
I lie in bed,
tired and mired.
I can’t get up.
What does this
impasse mean?
How can I get
inspired, re-fired—
get up
a head of steam?
090327
WORK-OUT
Oooh, Sweetie,
how comfy you look
on that cushion,
all primed for a belly-rub.
There you go, Kitty.
And how about a scrootch
behind the ears. Yes.
Oooh, stretch, stre-e-e-e-tch,
stretch-em-out.
Mm-humm. Very good!
Don’t you feel all better now;
now that you’ve done
your work for the day?
090326
COLOR CONSTRAST
(for Pam)
Ahead, in two green pastures,
cows are growing fat;
black and white on this side,
black-and-white on that.
090325
CHEERS!
Scouter still, at middle age,
chases tail, pounces on bedclothes,
and riles the other cats.
He’s our stir-leader.
Okie, younger, will engage
but usually prefers to make
a running commentary
about these spats
He’s our chirr-leader.
090324
ORAYSHUN
Potes an’ Asp’rants,
land me on ears!
Heed on this a’vice:
Ya gotta git yore
“i-dee-as” rit out;
an’ do that more’n twice—
them flings an’ flangs
an sturms an’ drangs;
them thangs ‘at crowd yore mind.
An’ when that’s done,
go have some fun
ritin’ ‘bout cats an’ mice,
an’ lazy dogs, an’ sloppin’ hogs:
real thangs ‘at make life nice.
090323
RUNNING ‘ROUND
Habit-bound,
one foot in a fast track,
one foot in a slow—
until I make
a straight attack,
round and round I’ll go.
090322
SPRING ARRIVAL
A neighbor, in kindness,
brought a bouquet;
a cluster of jonquils
with one curved spray
of forsythia; then,
there, at the heart—
for contrast of color
and sweetness of scent—
one lone and glorious
pink hyacinth.
090321
WAY OKAY!
When the neighborhood
orange kitty
became our orange kitty,
we dubbed him “O.K.”
“Okie” seemed appropriate, too,
since one of us hails from Oklahoma.
Lately, as pet names tend to do,
this one got shortened; to “Oak.”
In a world full of red oaks,
black oaks, and white oaks—
what do you suppose
an orange oak is worth?
Some might speculate,
but we already know.
090320
AGE-OLD BATTLES
It is so,
and so is right,
that youth grows old
as day grows night.
Right;
that youth ignores
the plights of age,
which it abhors.
It is so,
and so is right,
that youth may flee
what age must fight.
MARCH TWENTY
Spring came tomorrow
when I was a child—
on the twenty-first.
When and why this changed,
who knows?
Pluto was a planet then,
or not discovered.
In each season,
In escalating cycles,
one discovery
springs from another.
090319
FUN-DAMENT
To do a thing
day after day,
there has to be
some love at play.
090318
SURVEY
Of other people’s poems,
I attune
to one in ninety-nine.
What reader-writer ratio
would apply,
do you suppose, to mine?
090317
ASPIRATIONS
inhalations
exhalations
observed,
reveal expectations
repeal irritations
090316
ALL RESCUES ARE MUTUAL
I held my life pristine,
not wanting to be seen
or heard
or felt;
not wanting to be known.
I might have vanished, too,
had it not been for you
who found
me out
and claimed me for my own.
***
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Ambitions & Frustrations
***
090315
A PASSING FIT
Where am I at home;
where do I fit in?
I’m most at home
away from home;
such is the fit I’m in.
090314
HEADY AMBITION
Oh, I have a brain
without a par!
It knows:
a door’s not a door
when it’s ajar.
It knows:
I’m still a genius
when I’m abed.
Oh, I have a mind
to get ahead!
090313
WHEN’S DAY
Prophecies a-plenty delve
into end-times.
If the Mayan twenty-twelve
really ends time,
let’s stay alive till then.
Let’s share that final when.
090312
THINKING OUTSIDE
THE FLOCKS
How do they know—
those who never go
amok,
keening and careening
through an empty sky—
how do these ever know
the flock?
090311
YOU GO FIRST
Someone needs to share the wealth.
Someone needs to give up steak.
Someone needs to bite their tongue.
Someone needs to take a break.
EXCLUSIVITY
Did you catch that piece
on “Jesus Interrupted”?
The guy says many books
were excluded from the bible.
Oh, yeah—
those agnostic gospels.
Gnostic.
Plus a bunch of others
that were like fairy tales.
They’re all like fairy tales.
INTERROGATORY
Someday
when you are all alone
in your empty house,
go to a mirror
and look into those eyes.
Look deeply. Stare.
Then say aloud:
Hey, you! Are you in there?
090310
SLAMMED UPSIDE THE HEART
You! You! You! You!
I couldn’t have imagined you—
Or foreseen
the heart-hammer impact
of this now-apparent fact:
it isn’t love if it’s abstract.
SO GOES THE NATION
Who can track the brokers,
the moguls, or the feds?
Like you,
I once inhabited the land
of look-you-in-the-eye;
and my children had beds.
090309
OPPORTUNISTS
They clamor for attention;
crowd and interrupt you;
take all you have to give.
Try to understand them.
Words just want to live.
090308
HEART TO HEARTLESS
Each of us
must do some “way.”
So do a way with heart,
even (or especially)
to people who
do away with heart.
090307
WHERE POETRY IS SLAMMED
It’s hard to hide
when you’re young and beautiful,
as I was—but all the young are beautiful.
The old are beautiful.
The shy. The angry. The confused.
Poetry reveals this—
and doing so, is slammed.
It’s hard to hide
when you’re young and beautiful.
It’s hard to withdraw into your own thoughts,
your own view, your own way.
Even when you cannot do otherwise.
It’s hard, too, to unhide
later, when your thoughts and view
and way direct you
to reveal the revelation;
to boldly go
where poetry is slammed.
It’s hard to unhide
when you’re old and beautiful,
as I am.
Hard and easy.
That’s the poetry.
090306
REITERATA
Placidly go,
even if not wanted here.
You have the right,
no less than tree or star.
090305
SHUT-IN SHUT-OUT
Hello.
I’m on a run,
with no time
to hug or kiss you.
Goodbye.
I’ve got to run;
let me go ahead
and miss you.
090304
TRIAL
I feel,
by life,
betrayed.
So
which of us
has strayed?
090303
FORKED
Here I am
at a fork in the road,
with a “mother” load
of hurt.
One sign says,
“Go hungry.”
The other says,
“Eat dirt!”
Here I am
at a fork in the road,
starving,
about to swoon.
All there is
is a fork in the road;
no sign of a knife
or spoon.
090302
TOO ERROUS HUMAN
Your system failed?
No?
You failed it?
Relax, okay?
Find another way.
090301
BRIAR PATCH
What the snare?
How the stun?
Why, again,
this begun?
***
090315
A PASSING FIT
Where am I at home;
where do I fit in?
I’m most at home
away from home;
such is the fit I’m in.
090314
HEADY AMBITION
Oh, I have a brain
without a par!
It knows:
a door’s not a door
when it’s ajar.
It knows:
I’m still a genius
when I’m abed.
Oh, I have a mind
to get ahead!
090313
WHEN’S DAY
Prophecies a-plenty delve
into end-times.
If the Mayan twenty-twelve
really ends time,
let’s stay alive till then.
Let’s share that final when.
090312
THINKING OUTSIDE
THE FLOCKS
How do they know—
those who never go
amok,
keening and careening
through an empty sky—
how do these ever know
the flock?
090311
YOU GO FIRST
Someone needs to share the wealth.
Someone needs to give up steak.
Someone needs to bite their tongue.
Someone needs to take a break.
EXCLUSIVITY
Did you catch that piece
on “Jesus Interrupted”?
The guy says many books
were excluded from the bible.
Oh, yeah—
those agnostic gospels.
Gnostic.
Plus a bunch of others
that were like fairy tales.
They’re all like fairy tales.
INTERROGATORY
Someday
when you are all alone
in your empty house,
go to a mirror
and look into those eyes.
Look deeply. Stare.
Then say aloud:
Hey, you! Are you in there?
090310
SLAMMED UPSIDE THE HEART
You! You! You! You!
I couldn’t have imagined you—
Or foreseen
the heart-hammer impact
of this now-apparent fact:
it isn’t love if it’s abstract.
SO GOES THE NATION
Who can track the brokers,
the moguls, or the feds?
Like you,
I once inhabited the land
of look-you-in-the-eye;
and my children had beds.
090309
OPPORTUNISTS
They clamor for attention;
crowd and interrupt you;
take all you have to give.
Try to understand them.
Words just want to live.
090308
HEART TO HEARTLESS
Each of us
must do some “way.”
So do a way with heart,
even (or especially)
to people who
do away with heart.
090307
WHERE POETRY IS SLAMMED
It’s hard to hide
when you’re young and beautiful,
as I was—but all the young are beautiful.
The old are beautiful.
The shy. The angry. The confused.
Poetry reveals this—
and doing so, is slammed.
It’s hard to hide
when you’re young and beautiful.
It’s hard to withdraw into your own thoughts,
your own view, your own way.
Even when you cannot do otherwise.
It’s hard, too, to unhide
later, when your thoughts and view
and way direct you
to reveal the revelation;
to boldly go
where poetry is slammed.
It’s hard to unhide
when you’re old and beautiful,
as I am.
Hard and easy.
That’s the poetry.
090306
REITERATA
Placidly go,
even if not wanted here.
You have the right,
no less than tree or star.
090305
SHUT-IN SHUT-OUT
Hello.
I’m on a run,
with no time
to hug or kiss you.
Goodbye.
I’ve got to run;
let me go ahead
and miss you.
090304
TRIAL
I feel,
by life,
betrayed.
So
which of us
has strayed?
090303
FORKED
Here I am
at a fork in the road,
with a “mother” load
of hurt.
One sign says,
“Go hungry.”
The other says,
“Eat dirt!”
Here I am
at a fork in the road,
starving,
about to swoon.
All there is
is a fork in the road;
no sign of a knife
or spoon.
090302
TOO ERROUS HUMAN
Your system failed?
No?
You failed it?
Relax, okay?
Find another way.
090301
BRIAR PATCH
What the snare?
How the stun?
Why, again,
this begun?
***
Working Things Out
***
090228
PERILOUS PATH
If you haven’t made
the breakthrough
(said the talk-show guru),
you probably haven’t yet
suffered enough:
enlightenment is tough.
090227
FIFTY WAYS
There must be fifty ways
to make a living.
Be an errand runner.
Walk other peoples’ dogs.
Keep their books
and business logs;
help them with their moolah.
Write and edit resumes.
Be handyman or doula.
Train or coach in what you know
(unless it’s obsolete).
Turn hypnotist or fung shui-ist.
Massage the public’s feet.
Be creative, smart, and thrifty.
Make gift-baskets if you’re “gifty.”
Clowns, consider party-giving.
‘Cause if your age is over fifty,
there must be fifty ways—
oh, all of fifty ways
to make a living.
090226
AIR LAUNCH
Taking the rise
of a lakeside hill at dawn,
I get overflown (barely)
by a squadron of geese
taking the rise
from the opposite side.
Lifted
by sudden wonder,
I soar, too.
090225
SUSPENSE
This sword—
this sword of Damocles—
let it fall!
Let it all
be over, please.
090224
B’CUZ
Why write
words and lines
so short?
Why write
so little
and so slow?
Why write poems
of this sort?
I write about
what I know.
090223
POME
PRODUX
Uh?
Oh!
Ah!
090222
UNACCOMPLISHED
What’s that word?
The word for a good-looking
home interior; the one that means
clean, cared-for, inviting, organized,
welcoming, nurturing, picked-up,
uncluttered or decluttered, aesthetic,
tidy? I keep fumbling toward it;
toward or away.
090221
IN TIME OF TROUBLE
When others sorrowed, did I care?
When they succumbed, was I there?
How then, now, can I plea
for someone to be with me?
090220
PAIN
I’m told it isn’t real,
just the breaking of the shell
of understanding; just part of
life as a dream or play.
That tells me
I am an exceptionally talented
method actor.
090219
FIT, OR SPLIT
Square peg.
Round hole.
You don’t fit the job.
Round hole.
Square peg.
The job; it doesn’t fit.
Some jobs bolster.
Others clobber:
these you have to quit.
090218
I ASK YOU
What earthly use
is a cat—
but heavenly delight?
090217
THE SNEEZIES
Baby, when you get the sneezies,
that can lead to icky queezies
in your chest and in your head.
Please-y, please-y, take it easy.
You don’t want some bad disease-y.
Come, let’s get you into bed!
090216
HE READS ME
I try not to consider
newspapers, internet,
magazines, and books.
Words, words, words;
everywhere he looks.
All of these are fine.
But I, by now, have learned
not to be concerned:
the words he wants are mine.
090215
FEB FIFTEEN
No valentine of poetry
were these words
that came to me:
The ides of February
never got famous,
nor will you, you ignoramus.
***
090228
PERILOUS PATH
If you haven’t made
the breakthrough
(said the talk-show guru),
you probably haven’t yet
suffered enough:
enlightenment is tough.
090227
FIFTY WAYS
There must be fifty ways
to make a living.
Be an errand runner.
Walk other peoples’ dogs.
Keep their books
and business logs;
help them with their moolah.
Write and edit resumes.
Be handyman or doula.
Train or coach in what you know
(unless it’s obsolete).
Turn hypnotist or fung shui-ist.
Massage the public’s feet.
Be creative, smart, and thrifty.
Make gift-baskets if you’re “gifty.”
Clowns, consider party-giving.
‘Cause if your age is over fifty,
there must be fifty ways—
oh, all of fifty ways
to make a living.
090226
AIR LAUNCH
Taking the rise
of a lakeside hill at dawn,
I get overflown (barely)
by a squadron of geese
taking the rise
from the opposite side.
Lifted
by sudden wonder,
I soar, too.
090225
SUSPENSE
This sword—
this sword of Damocles—
let it fall!
Let it all
be over, please.
090224
B’CUZ
Why write
words and lines
so short?
Why write
so little
and so slow?
Why write poems
of this sort?
I write about
what I know.
090223
POME
PRODUX
Uh?
Oh!
Ah!
090222
UNACCOMPLISHED
What’s that word?
The word for a good-looking
home interior; the one that means
clean, cared-for, inviting, organized,
welcoming, nurturing, picked-up,
uncluttered or decluttered, aesthetic,
tidy? I keep fumbling toward it;
toward or away.
090221
IN TIME OF TROUBLE
When others sorrowed, did I care?
When they succumbed, was I there?
How then, now, can I plea
for someone to be with me?
090220
PAIN
I’m told it isn’t real,
just the breaking of the shell
of understanding; just part of
life as a dream or play.
That tells me
I am an exceptionally talented
method actor.
090219
FIT, OR SPLIT
Square peg.
Round hole.
You don’t fit the job.
Round hole.
Square peg.
The job; it doesn’t fit.
Some jobs bolster.
Others clobber:
these you have to quit.
090218
I ASK YOU
What earthly use
is a cat—
but heavenly delight?
090217
THE SNEEZIES
Baby, when you get the sneezies,
that can lead to icky queezies
in your chest and in your head.
Please-y, please-y, take it easy.
You don’t want some bad disease-y.
Come, let’s get you into bed!
090216
HE READS ME
I try not to consider
newspapers, internet,
magazines, and books.
Words, words, words;
everywhere he looks.
All of these are fine.
But I, by now, have learned
not to be concerned:
the words he wants are mine.
090215
FEB FIFTEEN
No valentine of poetry
were these words
that came to me:
The ides of February
never got famous,
nor will you, you ignoramus.
***
Explorations and Discoveries
***
090214
LOVE, DO!
Valentine!
Do be mine.
You and I do fit.
Do not break
the pledge we made
to love, to live.
Do not, ever, quit!
090212
MAKING FUN OF IT
Let me tell you something, Hon.
Work is easy, work is fun,
if only for this silly quirk:
work is, oh-so-fun to shirk!
MAKE BOOK ON IT
This world:
I hold it holds
no better friend
than just about any
librarian.
SILENT SPRING,
FRUITLESS FALL
Humans,
we’re part Pollyanna,
part Svengali.
Who but Nature
can tame our folly?
GARLIC PANCAKES
The meaning of a word
like “feckless” can be learned
by doing something reckless;
using last night’s skillet, say,
for this morning’s breakfast.
ENRICHING THE SOIL
One by one, I ease my thoughts
gently from my brain.
I strew them on the open ground,
wards of sun, wind, rain.
I let them all grow brambly,
let them surge and twine,
then later, plow them under;
all to make this garden mine.
RETICENT
Hello?
Hello.
Hello to
each of you
I’m afraid
to hello to.
REVERBERATING
QUESTION
why why WHY
is IS so SO?
why why WHY
IS is so so?
WORN OUTWARD
You may suffer, but not I.
Of this,
I was convinced—
till misfortune stole that buffer
(told the lie) and,
as I winced,
rubbed away the calluses
of my indifference.
SKEERED
I want m’ mom,
I want m’ dad,
I want the life
I use-ta had.
GETTING, BY NOT-GETTING
I get my news second-hand,
like sunlight from the moon,
and filter out the harmful stuff
by not getting it too soon.
090211
OUT, DISTANCED
Poets of the ages, literary sages—
your esoteric rambles
(raptures, rants, and rages
deemed sublime by fellow minds)
leave common minds a shambles.
Bruised and stunned, we mirror shun—
or grope toward the profound
with those who deign to meet us
on more common ground.
090210
ALL AGLOW
I asked the moon
the secret
of her luminous
complexion.
Graciously
she answered—
after much reflection.
090209
BLUR OF FUR
Besides lounging and scrounging,
a cat has one proclivity—
to turn its ready body
into a furry of activity.
090208
COLLECTED WORKS
Arrogance and errors,
bewilderment, joy, terrors,
riddles you solved in grade school,
punch lines you’ll catch next year,
wheat and chaff, gloss and dross;
all these, here, you’ll come across,
I write for myself, as I see us:
I write to capture and free us.
090207
TRUE? NOT TRUE?
A tsunami
is more significant
than a dew drop.
A Nobel laureate
is more valuable
than an errant child.
A Lippizan
is more interesting
than a horsefly.
The embroilments of nations
are more worthy of attention
than a stubbed toe.
So we think.
090206
RELAX, THIS ISN’T
GOING TO HURT
You, in the corner;
under the bed,
senses shut tight,
fetally curled.
You, in the corner;
near-dead with dread:
You are the one
who must save the world.
STUCK
Crises loom at every turn.
Life has grown unsteady.
I know my world’s about to end.
I know I should get ready.
I know. I know. I know. I know.
(I know I won’t be ready.)
LIKE TO LIKE
I like
to be
around people
who like
to be
around people.
DEEP DUH!
It’s profound,
or else simplistic—
inside each fruitcake
is a mystic.
ONE TO WOW
I like the word “profound.”
It sounds so full and round—
something from a tomb or womb;
something to astound.
FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE
Religion and I parted ways
some time ago…
maybe we are groping toward
a reunion; who knows?
I don’t have enough faith
to operate on faith;
just enough to work on
a working hypothesis.
090205
ONE FAMILY, ONE FUTURE
Mother, father, sister, brother—
from nest of child,
from else or other,
we stole feather after feather.
Brother, sister, father, mother—
let’s bless the child,
all else, and other:
for we are nestlings all together.
090204
CEREAL THRILLERS
Life is bland
(as plain as bran)
without sweetness,
nuttiness, et cet’ra.
So, it’s nice
that we find spice
in each other.
(That’s our raisin d’etra.)
090203
CRAZY WISDUMB
“Enlightenment”
is progressive disillusionment.
I am a master of this state.
For example, I just heard that
“expanded consciousness,”
is a kind of super sensory awareness.
To me, that sounds suspiciously
like multitasking.
090202
ABOUT THINGS
Reading is a good way to discover
things you don’t know about;
and things that you
would never even know
you don’t know about
without reading about them first.
090201
BLUFF DWELLERS
We hold the wild at bay;
one paycheck, one illness,
one frailty away.
One hurricane, one flood,
one earthquake, one day
will strip our bluffs away.
***
090214
LOVE, DO!
Valentine!
Do be mine.
You and I do fit.
Do not break
the pledge we made
to love, to live.
Do not, ever, quit!
090212
MAKING FUN OF IT
Let me tell you something, Hon.
Work is easy, work is fun,
if only for this silly quirk:
work is, oh-so-fun to shirk!
MAKE BOOK ON IT
This world:
I hold it holds
no better friend
than just about any
librarian.
SILENT SPRING,
FRUITLESS FALL
Humans,
we’re part Pollyanna,
part Svengali.
Who but Nature
can tame our folly?
GARLIC PANCAKES
The meaning of a word
like “feckless” can be learned
by doing something reckless;
using last night’s skillet, say,
for this morning’s breakfast.
ENRICHING THE SOIL
One by one, I ease my thoughts
gently from my brain.
I strew them on the open ground,
wards of sun, wind, rain.
I let them all grow brambly,
let them surge and twine,
then later, plow them under;
all to make this garden mine.
RETICENT
Hello?
Hello.
Hello to
each of you
I’m afraid
to hello to.
REVERBERATING
QUESTION
why why WHY
is IS so SO?
why why WHY
IS is so so?
WORN OUTWARD
You may suffer, but not I.
Of this,
I was convinced—
till misfortune stole that buffer
(told the lie) and,
as I winced,
rubbed away the calluses
of my indifference.
SKEERED
I want m’ mom,
I want m’ dad,
I want the life
I use-ta had.
GETTING, BY NOT-GETTING
I get my news second-hand,
like sunlight from the moon,
and filter out the harmful stuff
by not getting it too soon.
090211
OUT, DISTANCED
Poets of the ages, literary sages—
your esoteric rambles
(raptures, rants, and rages
deemed sublime by fellow minds)
leave common minds a shambles.
Bruised and stunned, we mirror shun—
or grope toward the profound
with those who deign to meet us
on more common ground.
090210
ALL AGLOW
I asked the moon
the secret
of her luminous
complexion.
Graciously
she answered—
after much reflection.
090209
BLUR OF FUR
Besides lounging and scrounging,
a cat has one proclivity—
to turn its ready body
into a furry of activity.
090208
COLLECTED WORKS
Arrogance and errors,
bewilderment, joy, terrors,
riddles you solved in grade school,
punch lines you’ll catch next year,
wheat and chaff, gloss and dross;
all these, here, you’ll come across,
I write for myself, as I see us:
I write to capture and free us.
090207
TRUE? NOT TRUE?
A tsunami
is more significant
than a dew drop.
A Nobel laureate
is more valuable
than an errant child.
A Lippizan
is more interesting
than a horsefly.
The embroilments of nations
are more worthy of attention
than a stubbed toe.
So we think.
090206
RELAX, THIS ISN’T
GOING TO HURT
You, in the corner;
under the bed,
senses shut tight,
fetally curled.
You, in the corner;
near-dead with dread:
You are the one
who must save the world.
STUCK
Crises loom at every turn.
Life has grown unsteady.
I know my world’s about to end.
I know I should get ready.
I know. I know. I know. I know.
(I know I won’t be ready.)
LIKE TO LIKE
I like
to be
around people
who like
to be
around people.
DEEP DUH!
It’s profound,
or else simplistic—
inside each fruitcake
is a mystic.
ONE TO WOW
I like the word “profound.”
It sounds so full and round—
something from a tomb or womb;
something to astound.
FAITH-BASED INITIATIVE
Religion and I parted ways
some time ago…
maybe we are groping toward
a reunion; who knows?
I don’t have enough faith
to operate on faith;
just enough to work on
a working hypothesis.
090205
ONE FAMILY, ONE FUTURE
Mother, father, sister, brother—
from nest of child,
from else or other,
we stole feather after feather.
Brother, sister, father, mother—
let’s bless the child,
all else, and other:
for we are nestlings all together.
090204
CEREAL THRILLERS
Life is bland
(as plain as bran)
without sweetness,
nuttiness, et cet’ra.
So, it’s nice
that we find spice
in each other.
(That’s our raisin d’etra.)
090203
CRAZY WISDUMB
“Enlightenment”
is progressive disillusionment.
I am a master of this state.
For example, I just heard that
“expanded consciousness,”
is a kind of super sensory awareness.
To me, that sounds suspiciously
like multitasking.
090202
ABOUT THINGS
Reading is a good way to discover
things you don’t know about;
and things that you
would never even know
you don’t know about
without reading about them first.
090201
BLUFF DWELLERS
We hold the wild at bay;
one paycheck, one illness,
one frailty away.
One hurricane, one flood,
one earthquake, one day
will strip our bluffs away.
***
Cold Days
***
090131
COLD GETS OLD
Is this our third night
in this still-freezing bedroom,
or our fourth?
We lie under fabric strata;
sheets, blankets, quilts,
and fluffy clothing,
each night piled higher.
The cats sleep on top,
each night piled closer together.
090130
ICE COLD
My toes, under the covers,
are frigid. My fingers,
in the frigid air, are not.
I do not understand this,
or why I occupy my mind
with such a puzzle.
090129
ICING CONDITIONS
For light and heat the first few days
(or, rather, nights), we had tea-lights
and bedclothes.
We read books aloud to each other,
under four cats and a quilt.
Days later, at the discount store,
we found plenty of generators,
camp stoves, and chain saws.
There were also a few candles
and something that amused us—
no matches. No matches
at WalMart!
Similarly at the grocery store—
no bread. But plenty of cake.
We loaded up on Hostess snowballs.
0901278
STILL LIFE
Where do little sparrows go?
With ice above
and snow below,
where do little sparrows go?
090127
PRAYER
As above, so below.
May it be.
May we grow:
in willingness to ask,
willingness to do,
willingness to task—
to start and follow through.
090126
WRITTEN WRONG
Be mindful
of mindless mistakes.
Mistakes are like worries;
they proliferate.
They compound with interest.
Shut the door on them
and they break in
through every window.
Mine have invaded my computer—
well, the one on my desk
and the one on my chair
(specifically,
just above my shoulders).
or, drat! have I lost it again?
090125
LAST HURRAHHH
Let’s pretend
this is my end—
a last goodbye
at point of death.
Play-pretend
this is my end—
my final word,
my final breath.
Pray-pretend
this is my end—
Ahhhsome!
090124
LETTING GO
At today’s news
of the imminent sale
of our beloved Ozarks home,
I become unmoored;
relieved of ballast—
a balloonist lifting off—
an old woman
launching another
maiden voyage.
UNTITLED
A day in bed,
but not as an invalid—
unless preoccupation
with disease and
healing counts.
090122
PRE-MED CURRICULUM
Books on health and healing
have erupted on every bedroom surface.
They litter the floor like discarded facial tissues.
In one sense,
they have already done their healing;
they have revealed my spiritual hypochondria:
I have been trying to heal from suffering
that has not yet occurred.
In another sense,
they are cornucopias of consternation;
for it isn’t my own pain I feel called to relieve.
But whose?
***
090131
COLD GETS OLD
Is this our third night
in this still-freezing bedroom,
or our fourth?
We lie under fabric strata;
sheets, blankets, quilts,
and fluffy clothing,
each night piled higher.
The cats sleep on top,
each night piled closer together.
090130
ICE COLD
My toes, under the covers,
are frigid. My fingers,
in the frigid air, are not.
I do not understand this,
or why I occupy my mind
with such a puzzle.
090129
ICING CONDITIONS
For light and heat the first few days
(or, rather, nights), we had tea-lights
and bedclothes.
We read books aloud to each other,
under four cats and a quilt.
Days later, at the discount store,
we found plenty of generators,
camp stoves, and chain saws.
There were also a few candles
and something that amused us—
no matches. No matches
at WalMart!
Similarly at the grocery store—
no bread. But plenty of cake.
We loaded up on Hostess snowballs.
0901278
STILL LIFE
Where do little sparrows go?
With ice above
and snow below,
where do little sparrows go?
090127
PRAYER
As above, so below.
May it be.
May we grow:
in willingness to ask,
willingness to do,
willingness to task—
to start and follow through.
090126
WRITTEN WRONG
Be mindful
of mindless mistakes.
Mistakes are like worries;
they proliferate.
They compound with interest.
Shut the door on them
and they break in
through every window.
Mine have invaded my computer—
well, the one on my desk
and the one on my chair
(specifically,
just above my shoulders).
or, drat! have I lost it again?
090125
LAST HURRAHHH
Let’s pretend
this is my end—
a last goodbye
at point of death.
Play-pretend
this is my end—
my final word,
my final breath.
Pray-pretend
this is my end—
Ahhhsome!
090124
LETTING GO
At today’s news
of the imminent sale
of our beloved Ozarks home,
I become unmoored;
relieved of ballast—
a balloonist lifting off—
an old woman
launching another
maiden voyage.
UNTITLED
A day in bed,
but not as an invalid—
unless preoccupation
with disease and
healing counts.
090122
PRE-MED CURRICULUM
Books on health and healing
have erupted on every bedroom surface.
They litter the floor like discarded facial tissues.
In one sense,
they have already done their healing;
they have revealed my spiritual hypochondria:
I have been trying to heal from suffering
that has not yet occurred.
In another sense,
they are cornucopias of consternation;
for it isn’t my own pain I feel called to relieve.
But whose?
***
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
