Friday, November 13, 2015

What's Coming

 Some are braver than others
Those who desire improvement
And then realize it 

But early mistakes can grow
Into hideous monsters
Euthenasia, Euthenasia
 
This particular night
Has more than a thousand eyes
And poking will make them multiply
 
Some are kindly and benign
The ones who
Save your spirit in the long run
 
Some are bloodshot and sad
Looking for your demise
On cold days of fog

Get to a prayer closet and make it your own
What's coming will require your strength
Test your mettle, carve you a new one
 
This was not a good choice
If you were looking for rest 
This is where they cry for salvation

Learn to weep deep
Find a way to cry high
Slide the hope slope

Keep faith alive
Specifics you need you will get 

Oh and, forget the ides of March

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Our legal obligation

Whereas the universe is benefactor

Whereas we are beneficiaries

Whereas joy is fleeting

Whereas hope is elusive 

Whereas our days are numbered

We are hereby obliged

To rock steady



We need an app for that

I try to write everyday,
Today is a day; so,
I am trying to write
Why do I try to write every day?
I feel compelled
Why do I feel compelled?
I think it’s because
This life is flying by me
There is no brake to pump
This will all be over
In a few more heartbeats
That does not seem fair to me

There ought to be
What the Christians declare there to be
A place of ecstasy
Where the good of us go
After this life
Or at least a way
To stay in touch
With this lovely planet
Once you’ve been forced to leave
There ought to be a balcony
Where you can sit and watch everything
With amplified audio
Maybe someone could create an app for that

The dead could use the app
To check on a tailored version
Of life on earth
Tailored to earth’s action
Of which she had been part
It could be called
The Curious Ghost App
For those curious
As to what happened at the party
After they were called away

Once I am gone for good
People won't remember me
And if they do
What difference will it make?
They could write great volumes about me
They could declare me the greatest human ever
And I will be just as oblivious
As if they were saying nasty things

The dead I’ve known
Many outstanding people
Get precious little time in my memory
And when I do recall them
It does them no good
No record is made of it
Of me having thought of them

I’ve known thousands of people
And a few hundred of those
I've interacted with
At least casually
Several score of those
I have come to know well
We've become quite involved
They’ve learned about me
And I about them
We have told of desires
For this life
And begun to pull for one another

Some I’ve spent time with
Have no doubt died
Unbeknownst to me
And someday I will die
And many who’ve known me
Will never get the news
Of my death

And these are only the people
I’ve come to know
Consider all those
Who’ve lived
I never came to know
Many of them great people
Full of life
Admirable
With good traits

There were millions before me
Who left before I got here
There will be many born
After I’m gone
I will then be
One of the ones they will not know
But may wonder about

We live as if none of this were true
As if this life will last forever
We say to one another
I will love you forever
We think of the things we buy
As ours forever
Our property alone
Never to belong to another
But someday
It will go to a landfill
Be disassembled for recycling or reuse
Or become someone else’s property

I have almost nothing I can think of
That will be of value to someone else
Maybe most notably, the things I write
I realize most of what I have written
Will never be read by another living soul
And those things that are read
May only make the reader think
How pitiful that life must have been to live?

These snow days have been nice
Because it is as if Tanga and I
Really have connected a few times
I will reach out and touch her arm
And it might feel cold to my touch
She might say, your hand is warm
And I might say, your arm is cold
Those feelings are real
Those words are out of our mouths
Vibrating forever

I’m not saying someone or some being
Is recording what we are say or what we feel
But our movement
Among the molecules of air around us
Was caused by previous movement
And will be causing molecules to move
A million years from now
I cannot do anything
Not related to all that comes after

People really should have a way
Of looking back down on this earth
When their life is over
A way to keep in touch
To see how it all turns out
Someone needs to work on that app
ASAP
I would
But I’m too busy living


Wednesday, August 5, 2015

The cunning, winding weed

Ivy crawls up the shrubs
It’s summer and hot
Remember the cold winter?
Me neither
We’re still married
Desire is in the world
Like that vine
Searching for a higher place
We might be holly bushes
By the house
Where the vine
Hunts the roof
And order in the human realm
Fastidious gardener
Trims and prunes
Shaping things up
But…
The cunning, winding weed
Finds the top again

In a few days time

Monday, July 27, 2015

Don't fret it... place another notch on the facing of the door

My piece of mind takes me back
to a younger set of years
Your mom notched your growth
on the facing of the door
the more you grew
the more she knew
you were saying goodbye
an inch at a time
don't fret it...

her love was unconditional from the start

A ball as round and orange
as the light in the sky
from day light to dark
we played like fireflies
frenetic and paceless
Only stopping at the cry for food
and back to the cracked court
we dug with our pink hands
we didn't fret it...

all in a day's work

We don't easily forget
remember "Billy Goats Gruff"
it's in my heart
like an anvil in a baggie
the days before and since
point to that one
"best man" is stretching the
garment to fit the wearer
don't fret it...

I will

To the great future we strode
without a shadow of a doubt
and by the time the doubts came
we were far enough apart
to not see the other cringe
"You can start anywhere
once you find the right game"
the search is the real find
but don't fret it...

there isn't time

A practical nine years ago
I took a trusting wife
in a motley crew of witnesses
shortly you will as well
at least as well
My family hopes to witness
with yours an ending
of one search
and beginning of another
don't fret it...

place another notch on the facing of the door

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Mountains

Mountains fascinate and inspire

A flatlander notes the difference 

A hill dweller sees how a hill does not compare well

Contrasts get our attention

The magic of mountains
Compares to the spirit of the sea

Mountains evoke challenge
To climb, sure

But also to conquer in other ways
literally and figuratively

I've seen mountain goats and big-horn sheep walking the rocky cliffs of mountainsides

A feat far from human 

It reminds me of our advantages over other species, but in areas of our choosing

We do not compare our climbing with that of goats and sheep

Or our flying with soaring eagles

We are wise this way

We look at a tall mountain and it reminds us of climbing and flying limitations

It's good for us to be humbled by a giant mountain

Reminded we are in and of nature

Not owner or manager

The ocean scares me the way tall mountains do

I can't swim or remain underwater like a fish

Swimming pools and climbing walls return a sense of security

Our relationship with mountains is themed by fear and thoughts of inadequacy

The mountain reminds me of struggle, of conquest, of obstacles, of success

Looking at a mountain in a time of struggle

Evokes thoughts of difficulty

But when I exult

The mountain speaks of how I overcame

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

I, in a fit of madness...

I have been away
I mean just the other day
I left a Granny Smith apple
In the car to bake
In the hot sun
In a cry for help
A man should not do that
A good man has his mind
A way to stay on track
Fit for the light of day
Fit for others to love
Fit for himself to love
Of all the things I might do
Of all the sins to commit
Of all the ways to act
Madness I am certain
Madness enough to enrage
Madness with a tinge of sadness
Nearly forgot my vision of you
Nearly got lost in the jungle
Nearly went out to pasture
Threw it all in your face
Threw in the towel
Threw up on me
It was you who said
It was long hair you loved
It made it hard to cut
All in the way I sang you said
All in the way I talked
All in the way I was good
Away from all that
Away out here in the big chill
Away from our friends
For the way you are
For the sake of us
For the love of God
What you are doing is rescue
What you are saving is my life
What you are is a beacon

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Roll Away The Stone

Love sits between we recently challenged
And long unchurched souls
Whispering in our ears
For us to pay attention when we nod off
That the end of our days will be before
It gets up to so much as take a leak
Relentless as it is, in its way
Foreshadowing now in our wedding vows
As have the years of handwringing

And walks with us in the park
Suggesting we talk nicely, taking our time
Noticing the trees, flowers and breeze
Tracing our shadows on the concrete walk
And letting our souls flaunt these bodies
Above the grass for a while
Rather than below it
Catering to our best whims
Coordinates pinpointed by stars

And though our fate be bedraggled
By issues, events and occurrences
Letting us feel the thorns
Of embarrassing revelations
Buried beneath rolling down rocks
As from mountainsides
Or as from castles crumbled
During the erection phase
Entombing our once-waving limbs

And our names be besmirched
What is appearing will betoken
What cannot yet be spoken
For nothing thus begotten
Can long be kept at bay
Or always be abridged
Or rival the atonement
Or match our aplomb
At the rolling away of the stone