Posts for June 1, 2020 (page 11)

Category
Poem

A poem a day

 

It breaks my purist process
to dedicate this hour to write,
to set table side and rack my brain
for inspiration.  I am erratic
to my core and that above all else
defines any words that might
form sentences on my tongue.
My rule has been to pen only
that
which screams at me,
and begs it’s way onto the page,
not the subtle nuance that lingers
without warning on the edges
of synaptic clefts.  And so you
ask, why I am here?  If it is,
that I am so opposed to poetry
not spun spontaneously.
Why would I, a carpenter, join
you poets in this poetry parade?
Perhaps I too long to know,
and the answer that I seek
is in fact to throw
my highfalutin notions
to the wind, which is
in itself an erratic act,
and therefore consistent
with the whirling dervish
of this state of being
I call starting June.


Category
Poem

Whitewater Bay PPU11-10M

We cleanse ourselves at Whitewater Bay from everything bad that has found our lives;
Together we let go.
And if the trees are temple dancers, we are the noise that excites them
If the clouds are ghosts, we are the souls that entice them
And on the billowed shore we sit, Indian style
The sun, so saccharine
You are more beautiful than it all and it’s true
I stare at you and I meet your eyes, and I can’t help but see you.
Do you?
Do you see me too?


Category
Poem

Walking in the field of tall timothy

I hold on to your hand
Your sudden wrench away throws me off balance
I watch as you pull a sharpened kama from the sheath
Hanging from your waist and begin to lay waste
To a stand of noxious hemlock

Like an avenging angel your evangelica fervor
Glows with the opaque serenity of your certain
Faith that you are killing the plant that killed 
Socrates


Category
Poem

Happiness

Happiness

A Sunday drive
Sunshine creating freckles on a forearm
Smell of rain in the air
The way our eyes meet
Unexpectedly trying to glimpse at one another
The way your fingerprint feels on my thigh
My heart fluttering
Love?
If this is love
But if it’s not
We still find happiness
In this moment
Not necessarily forever
Not necessarily ever again
It feels right
It feels like how it should
Happiness
In this moment


Category
Poem

MAN PAGES: JOIN COMMAND

MAN PAGES: JOIN COMMAND

join two
on a common field

For each pair
with identical fields,
write a line

The default is the first,
delimited by blanks.

unpairable lines replace
missing fields

with EMPTY

ignore differences
when comparing

obey FORMAT

use,
but suppress

check the input,
even if all lines are pairable

treat each
without trying

display this help
and exit

Note, comparisons honor the rules
If some cannot be joined,
a warning message will be given. 

*a found poem (from Linux Man Pages)


Category
Poem

1.

I wasn’t scared of getting sick 
I've been sick

I wasn’t worried about money
I've been without

I was (I am) worried about when I can be with my family
Who all live far away

I wonder(ed) when we will be on the other side
Or how many mountains we have to climb to get there

I dove into books I haven’t looked at in years
Tripped through old journals
Relived the journeys and the paths
That brought me to this place

I wrote letters I will never send

Just to get the words out of me

I dug my hands into dirt
Watered seeds with my tears
And now I wait and watch and marvel
At my own resilience

Category
Poem

Pine Mountain Cemetery

             Pine Mountain Cemetery  

Precious flat acres needed for crops
Never held our passed on kin. Mountain
Steep climbs to a carved out flat to make
A place for eternal rest or restlessness,
Whichever best fits the departed.  

Stones are catch as catch can.Families
Differ on choice, size. Some are carved,
With doves or angels, some blank. Names
Of Howards, Hensleys and the like number
Most. Just a sprinkling of those fotched
On by spouses ring odd in the ear.  

Over there a fancy black stone traced
With doves, urns and fancy letters. Don’t
See how they ever got it up this here hill.
But his proper, flat country wife was set.
So there it is looking as much out of place
As that pretty, foreign woman always was.    

Come with me and we will climb this hill
Day by day and find more stories than
The rocks and trees have time to tell.
Each stone, each dip tells of a soul
Who made a mark, but most now lost.
Come, remember with me.


Category
Poem

E Pluribus Unum

…and he cannot breathe.


Category
Poem

after it’s over

I loosen my sandal straps.
I didn’t get a chance earlier
and they are tight around my toes.

I gulp the last of my water
and wish I’d brought a snack.

My heartbeat begins to slow
and I soften my breath.

I inhale the night’s brisk air
and it cools my throbbing throat.

The rhythmic sounds of chanting 
fade
as I begin the walk towards home.


Category
Poem

I wanted to believe

Mellifluous chatter from the half spoken moon

Mouth of his, the anonymous man,

formed into a friendly “o” for as long as I have noticed

The distinction between a paused groan and a curiously sculpted “ohhh!”

His eyes sparkle with a stray ray of sun

I wanted to believe

The two were once one

Entangled in each other’s mystery

Braided, as lovers appear to be,

with intimacy and poise

I tried to imagine

what tore through the two

Untwined with furious haste

Pushed apart by worlds of forgotten notions

The pain of apartness, the lonesome dismay

Yet found no trace of malaise

on the round glowing face

What words escaped before his mouth formed that exquisite “o” shape

are not marked with woe

I clung to the idea

that love is love,

Day or Night,

with truth in spirit of bright gaze

and mouthed praise that binds a pair

despite great distance

And, in this instant, I believe