Posts for June 14, 2017 (page 3)

morning gold

stalking yellow finches

with my camera

every day they rise

up like the sun

In dreams I’m scared of dying

and how often I’ve died, too often it seems

only to wake and know that the suspense is what killed me

Gray sky, flowers delight
rain falls, puddles grow
Drops splash, random dance
Streams form then flow
Chickadees sing then splash
A quite glory, a generous gift
To be present under a tree in the June monsoon!

Take me back
back to that place
where you and I 
were the same
concept. 

10 things I learned in my freshman year of college:

1. softness is overrated 
2. you cannot stop sleeping and eating simultaneously, you must choose one
3. seven new ways to identify a human
4. the closest relatives of bats are camels
5. people have to pick you back
6. long term relationships are too easy to hide behind
7. there is camaraderie in collective loss
8. adulthood is the ability to take action when disappointed
9. a 40-day long cough warrants a doctor visit
10. people only listen to what is easy to hear

I put my feet into the water 

just to feel the cool, the swirling

calm ripples, my legs still itching from nettle 

on the bank coming down.  Sunlight marbles

through the trees over-reaching the stream

where water striders skate and bubbles

of fish appear near the surface mouthing

for flies and misquotes.  Red clay glisters

on the opposite river bank.  Debris still caught

in the bend of the river from the last downpour.

All this life, yet comes a time to walk into the river 

and slip away as the river slips away.   

“Mirabeau Bridge” from Alcools, Guillaume Apollinaire. English translation copyright 1995 Donald Revell.   https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/50041 

What do I hope readers find in my work?

I’ve always centered on my perspective of the world
because we, of course, understand our own place in it best.
As writers, we share pieces of ourselves and sometimes
that’s like showing off pictures of kids or pets,
plucking a pretty flower from our garden for the world
or carving out chunks of bloody flesh for display.

I write about my problems because when you break it down
they are the same we all face in every stage of life,
they just look a little different from time to time.
Matters of the heart can sting regardless of age
and a flood or tornado can destroy a business or home,
robbing any comfort of knowing what to expect in the future.

I’m motivated by some sense of morality.
This is my gift that I can redress and give back
to a world of individuals collectively fighting the same wars
and if I’m vague sometimes, it’s because I want “thing,” “you,” or “she”
acting as variables in an algebra problem, so anyone reading
can plug in God, careers, or love involving any John or Jane.

Mostly it’s because I think I’m stronger than most,
but you can see my weakness holding strong in my displays
of hope, bliss, longing, contentment, heartbreak.
I struggle just the same, while understanding there are others
like this high school kid I met one day who just lost a parent
who is one of many just getting his emotional war deployment papers.

I hope readers find reading what I find writing:
feelings of kinship and a sense of belonging to each other
and letting that be the passing of our darkest days.

if you try and convince me
you can’t smell the rain coming
i’m liable to conclude
you’re full of shit. 
or else i’d shake my head
and bless your heart.
what a sad state to exist in,

with your nose stuck in the air
but not a clue
what the wind is trying to tell you. 
listen. the rain crows
are cooing soft warnings
as they pick through the grass
waiting for the worms to wake up. 
look. every little leaf
turns its pale belly skyward. 
there’s a storm coming
and they’re ready to drink it all in. 

Airy alternating asymetrical afterglow
Bringing bright beams beautifully behind
Continually cleansing cushioning clouds
Donning dense dawn/dusk dichotomy
Entering elevated existential ebb
Far, far fanning forseeable flames
Greatly, gainfully, gloriously giving grace
Happily handing heavenly heartfulness
In infinite incandescent inanimity
Justly jarring jaunty joviality
Kissing kookaburra, killing kudzu
Laughingly, liltingly, lullingly liberating
Melancholy moon meaningfully marking
Nautical nightly nova nearing
Ocean of obscurity, overly
Protecting primeval past/present
Quickly, quietly, quizzically quelling
Rushing rapids relentlessly ripping
Sea storm sending stars
To tenuously tie together
Ultimate undertow upsetting upward
Vast voluminous valley, validating
Water’s wondrous wet wild
Xylophonic xenia, xenobiotically xysting
Yammering, yelling, yawning young
Zenith.