Pensive for days
Pens and needles
Procedure behind
Pain averted
Medicine high
Just we two
Stay-at-home hope
Sleep-in opportunity
Life of the fortunate
Those with good news
Mindful of others
Facing cold reality
Deserving…
We think
A few hours
Of…
Freedom…
Drifting off…
Into…
Churchill’s sleep of the saved
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Walking Mom's Dog
The dog is little even for a dog
Too light
Intensity in fur
Absorber of fears
Reflector of purpose
I take the leash
My brother follows
We leave the warm apartment
Behind our mom’s current baby
Outside…
Squats, hikes and scratches
We joke
Too human for such instinct
My brother chuckles behind me
His eyes on my movement
Remembering decades, I bet
Of being together and then not
Of hard times dreaming
Of someday having enough
For endless Ale-8s and bags of cashews
One short late fall day we have together
Out with our canine sibling
Mom’s current recipient of
Coo coos and there theres
He laughs too loud at anything I say
Any way I turn
That’s how brothers say I love you
More than two men
And a tiny friend
We both knew
You just do
Too light
Intensity in fur
Absorber of fears
Reflector of purpose
I take the leash
My brother follows
We leave the warm apartment
Behind our mom’s current baby
Outside…
Squats, hikes and scratches
We joke
Too human for such instinct
My brother chuckles behind me
His eyes on my movement
Remembering decades, I bet
Of being together and then not
Of hard times dreaming
Of someday having enough
For endless Ale-8s and bags of cashews
One short late fall day we have together
Out with our canine sibling
Mom’s current recipient of
Coo coos and there theres
He laughs too loud at anything I say
Any way I turn
That’s how brothers say I love you
More than two men
And a tiny friend
We both knew
You just do
A 28th Birthday Sonnet with a French Twist
These lines are to you my daughter of two score years and eight
As we balance the state of Tennessee like orbs on a dumbbell
This Wednesday reminds me of the one you today commemorate
I am so sorry not to be there but will call later to wish you well
You are still young, some say in the prime of your physical life
As loved as you were the day your mother bit my finger in pain
How glorious to tell the world you are my daughter and she my wife
Each holiday season the thrill waxes for me when for others it may wane
I hope today is as special or as ordinary as you would like it to be
May your memories and dreams be warm and exciting, respectively
Serious thoughts on a year-ending birthday must be hard to flee
But after so much practice you probably do it instinctively
Revel in your physical prime with joy de vie, or if you wish, just plain joy
Dance with the other angels to the purpose of how do you say je ne sais quois
As we balance the state of Tennessee like orbs on a dumbbell
This Wednesday reminds me of the one you today commemorate
I am so sorry not to be there but will call later to wish you well
You are still young, some say in the prime of your physical life
As loved as you were the day your mother bit my finger in pain
How glorious to tell the world you are my daughter and she my wife
Each holiday season the thrill waxes for me when for others it may wane
I hope today is as special or as ordinary as you would like it to be
May your memories and dreams be warm and exciting, respectively
Serious thoughts on a year-ending birthday must be hard to flee
But after so much practice you probably do it instinctively
Revel in your physical prime with joy de vie, or if you wish, just plain joy
Dance with the other angels to the purpose of how do you say je ne sais quois
I'll Run For Joy
Before we all head for the kiss-proof world
A few things need saying
I have loved me some late nights
And mornings with friends
Does anything else but such love
Last forever?
I have run for those who could not
Mary Nelle crumpled in a car near Lexington, TN
My father in the hospital in Lexington, KY
Margrethe off a Nebraska roof
Terry Fox ran with one leg
I struggle with two
Bannister: the human spirit is indomitable
Me: time is the runner behind us
Joy: named by a prophet, and although pain follows Joy
Remember please: The greatest Joy follows pain
You smile and teach us more
Joy ten, Sadness four
You can be the breeze at my back
You can be the wind this time
The kiss-proof world will wait
We’ll huddle just this side the gate
And as eager friends linger
Till the sun breaks through
Then with the light another chance
And this time, I’ll run for Joy
A few things need saying
I have loved me some late nights
And mornings with friends
Does anything else but such love
Last forever?
I have run for those who could not
Mary Nelle crumpled in a car near Lexington, TN
My father in the hospital in Lexington, KY
Margrethe off a Nebraska roof
Terry Fox ran with one leg
I struggle with two
Bannister: the human spirit is indomitable
Me: time is the runner behind us
Joy: named by a prophet, and although pain follows Joy
Remember please: The greatest Joy follows pain
You smile and teach us more
Joy ten, Sadness four
You can be the breeze at my back
You can be the wind this time
The kiss-proof world will wait
We’ll huddle just this side the gate
And as eager friends linger
Till the sun breaks through
Then with the light another chance
And this time, I’ll run for Joy
Grendel's Mother
If anxiety is Grendel,
death is Grendel’s mother
the great anxiety,
that shows the way…
Suppose you had no TV, radio or magazines
to bring news of slaughters around the globe
or even of someone falling from a horse in the next county.
Explore nature, drink from creeks, imitate birds,
bleed or break a bone, things can get worse.
Like first love, sex, or kindergarten,
one becomes aware of death for the first time
only once.
It is a greater mystery than rainbows,
Than the color of the sky,
Than the Bermuda Triangle.
And the source of the life urge.
Wren, the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral
and other great buildings of London
exhorted the city to destroy
much built prior to the fire of 1666.
He was never suspected to have burnt the city,
but he would help it start anew,
to do better.
Death and destruction lay all around
where he thought and worked.
He lived to be 91, not that longevity is the best test
but he survived the fire, the Great Plague
and the religious psychosis that pervaded the era
(leading to witch-hunting, crusades, inquisitions).
Wren said, “If you want to know my legacy, look around you.”
It is not a requirement of living to seek greatness
nobility or a lasting legacy.
Most who have achieved
have done so not out of ambition
but from the fear of death
choked into a love of life
to serve as a generator
of electricity to power deeds.
Existential individualism can leave you lonely
too dopamine-deprived to make good
on skills inherited, tricks learned.
You rush to the arms of lovers, to a community,
seek solace in the bottle
Still, the best chemical is the wedding of death to life.
Fritz Perls said:
“Lose your mind and come to your senses.”
Commune with ideas
And mix this interaction with the real.
When the notion of death comes to mind,
And links with your authentic person…
Then you can feel
Then you can live.
death is Grendel’s mother
the great anxiety,
that shows the way…
Suppose you had no TV, radio or magazines
to bring news of slaughters around the globe
or even of someone falling from a horse in the next county.
Explore nature, drink from creeks, imitate birds,
bleed or break a bone, things can get worse.
Like first love, sex, or kindergarten,
one becomes aware of death for the first time
only once.
It is a greater mystery than rainbows,
Than the color of the sky,
Than the Bermuda Triangle.
And the source of the life urge.
Wren, the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral
and other great buildings of London
exhorted the city to destroy
much built prior to the fire of 1666.
He was never suspected to have burnt the city,
but he would help it start anew,
to do better.
Death and destruction lay all around
where he thought and worked.
He lived to be 91, not that longevity is the best test
but he survived the fire, the Great Plague
and the religious psychosis that pervaded the era
(leading to witch-hunting, crusades, inquisitions).
Wren said, “If you want to know my legacy, look around you.”
It is not a requirement of living to seek greatness
nobility or a lasting legacy.
Most who have achieved
have done so not out of ambition
but from the fear of death
choked into a love of life
to serve as a generator
of electricity to power deeds.
Existential individualism can leave you lonely
too dopamine-deprived to make good
on skills inherited, tricks learned.
You rush to the arms of lovers, to a community,
seek solace in the bottle
Still, the best chemical is the wedding of death to life.
Fritz Perls said:
“Lose your mind and come to your senses.”
Commune with ideas
And mix this interaction with the real.
When the notion of death comes to mind,
And links with your authentic person…
Then you can feel
Then you can live.
Love The Poem
Love - the substitute of the 20th century
A song of commitment?
Call it love…
Friendship?
Same
Devotion?
Ditto
Deep emotion?
Ibid.
Rock and Roll
In search of a reason to be
--rescued by love
Country music may twang
But it speaks of misery
Loss
Drinking
Trains
And not just love…
You can fall in love with yourself
And never recover
Or love can be your job
Your career
A form of artistic expression
It can help you move beyond
Love unites mind, body and emotion
But it can fool like false gold
As a young man I cruised the street
Stomach rolling to see certain cars
Oh the proxies for love…
It can mean nothing
It can be a 24-hour virus
It can be over abundant
Or like a currency
That buys less and less
A form of inflation
With a rich history
sublime manifestations (agape)
friendship (philia)
corporeal (eros)
Two wrapped-up people
Are said to “make love”
As if love came from
Sweat and gyration
For it sounds bad
To say they: “make pleasure”
No word is euphemized more than love
Aristotle spoke of friendship
Of the utilitarian, using the other
To the selfless,
Each seeking the best for the other
Which brings us to trust
The biggest thorn
In the side of love…
It comes down to one
Risking all for the other
With no certainty of reaction
Love, the great gamble
Which at its freest
Throws self to the wind
Past better judgment
A dive into the deep
The story of Romeo and Juliet
Is more defiance than love…
Since love is not pathetic
But of clear purpose, strength of will
Under its influence the two
Are attracted, yes,
But even more,
They are enthralled
By the thought of living
The impulse of love is life
The impulse of loyalty is fear
A clash between words and worlds
A lover will die to protect the loved
But not to possess
Romeo and Juliet remind us
Love can be ruled by madness
Yet love is the highest emotion
And at its Zenith is pure passion
And though the two sleep poorly together
Passion is affirming, not debilitating
And mindful love?
Life itself
A song of commitment?
Call it love…
Friendship?
Same
Devotion?
Ditto
Deep emotion?
Ibid.
Rock and Roll
In search of a reason to be
--rescued by love
Country music may twang
But it speaks of misery
Loss
Drinking
Trains
And not just love…
You can fall in love with yourself
And never recover
Or love can be your job
Your career
A form of artistic expression
It can help you move beyond
Love unites mind, body and emotion
But it can fool like false gold
As a young man I cruised the street
Stomach rolling to see certain cars
Oh the proxies for love…
It can mean nothing
It can be a 24-hour virus
It can be over abundant
Or like a currency
That buys less and less
A form of inflation
With a rich history
sublime manifestations (agape)
friendship (philia)
corporeal (eros)
Two wrapped-up people
Are said to “make love”
As if love came from
Sweat and gyration
For it sounds bad
To say they: “make pleasure”
No word is euphemized more than love
Aristotle spoke of friendship
Of the utilitarian, using the other
To the selfless,
Each seeking the best for the other
Which brings us to trust
The biggest thorn
In the side of love…
It comes down to one
Risking all for the other
With no certainty of reaction
Love, the great gamble
Which at its freest
Throws self to the wind
Past better judgment
A dive into the deep
The story of Romeo and Juliet
Is more defiance than love…
Since love is not pathetic
But of clear purpose, strength of will
Under its influence the two
Are attracted, yes,
But even more,
They are enthralled
By the thought of living
The impulse of love is life
The impulse of loyalty is fear
A clash between words and worlds
A lover will die to protect the loved
But not to possess
Romeo and Juliet remind us
Love can be ruled by madness
Yet love is the highest emotion
And at its Zenith is pure passion
And though the two sleep poorly together
Passion is affirming, not debilitating
And mindful love?
Life itself
Friday, August 14, 2009
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Gloamtoglimmer by Mike McCullough is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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