Saturday, December 19, 2015

Grammar Life

I’m the contraction that I write
You are the pronoun
We reach for the verb
It is all I can do to make these words appear
To wonder at my exhaustion
Feeling the tired fingers that want to sleep
As my mind gets fuzzier
Mists of a brain surround each thought
And through the eternal night of my heart
I slumber into the next line
Which is this one
Never confused
Always the definite answer of maybe
The incomplete thought
Past participles have ended
And the continuous is still going
My grammar life is nigh

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Candidate

Go great grating voice and trouble me no more
You foul the air with your jabberings
As I, who long for clarity, wonder at you
For those meandering musings and nonsensical jibes
Aim them elsewhere and take your foggy mind away
There is peace and justice where you are absent
Sanity reigns in your absence
We covet the times that you are silent
So few yet so precious
Take your death talk and hate and depart
Find a universe for your ego and ramblings
Pain inflicting vitriol unbecoming of this place
Sorrow in your wake and angry confusion
You are a blight and multiply ignorance
Would that there were a universal mute button
Just for you

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Kitchen

One can of soup in a cupboard
Still so much hate
A lot of love
Empty drawer
Complex questions
Difficult answers
Soggy bottom bag
Unreasonable demands
Hopeful questions
Limp and lonely celery stalk
Angry outbursts
Tender kisses
Dirty saucepan
Painful truths
Wonderful advancements
A new refrigerator
And therein lies
The rub

Monday, October 12, 2015

Unbound

I poured myself into her life
We blended
Love and grace and
Intertwined souls of angelic joy and
Blessed sanctity
Embracing hearts and reckless kisses
Enveloped in our oneness
Impervious to pain
Immune from suffering
Sealed securely in orgasmic splendor
Pure passion unbounded
Bliss 

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

The Sigh Does Not Satisfy

The sad hot day in the drought and dry and the dead
No wind or breeze or motion and the sickly silence is crawling
I feel heavy and soft and listless and wait for the wife who will not come
There is no motion anywhere and my knee is pulsing with pain
My heart races and the kitchen is full of dirty dishes
There is nothing in the air but still warmth
An ugly mood begins to envelop me but I am too lethargic to cry or even feel
I stare out the window at he barely moving leaves
I want but cannot have so much else than what is now
In this wistful evening of saffron sorrow and death
Someone walks by talking in a nasal voice perfect for my mood
I conjure images of snow and beaches and fog
And redwood trees and art galleries and football stadiums
And rock concerts and pastel perfection and still my wife is not home and so
The sigh does not satisfy
It is shallow and like this evening bereft or relief and I then
At last I hear it
My wife’s voice
She is home
Hallelujah!

Friday, August 21, 2015

Needing Cozy

Want to be home
On sofa
Wrapped in blanket
Rain outside (where else)
Sipping tea
Glow of TV
Cat curled up at my feet
Dog curled up on the floor
Fire roaring
Books everywhere
Family in house
Dinner cooking
Aromas
Happiness and contentment
Comfort and coziness
But I'm at work
Headaches
So much to do
Scowling
Toiling
Long time till home
Need the cozy

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Porn Hop

Pretty lady
Porn hop
In a bookstore leggy Italian beauty
Walking downtown crazy lady sweeping
Idiots on bikes on sidewalks
Porn hop
Dashing to catch light
Homeless smoking cigarettes glowering
Teens soaking up late Summer
Porn hop
Another bike idiot ignores stop sign
Grocery store hustle bustle
Frozen pineapples for smoothie
Porn hop
Earth Mother frowns at avocados
Check out line short
Walk down warm streets of warm day
Porn hop
Homeward bound past mom and stroller
Cacophony of crows
House in distance
Porn hop
Internet:
Instagram twitter email
But resist it
No porn hop

Monday, August 3, 2015

This Day This Place This Time

Cursing pound ennui
The relentless tedium
Boring a hole into my head
Endless and relentless and

So the bird sings
I ignore it
The bus roars
I curse it
You smile
But I frown
The coffee perks me up
The jerking fleeting
Madness of a grasping eternally persistent societal demand to conform and not to question and this drives you toward cynicism which you should flee at all costs running running running seeking the relief of belief the dope of hope the contentment of no resentment joy unbridled and love stories untitled — happens
I am the end of my days
I am the joy I seek in you
I am the love that wraps myself around you
We are the people we were meant to be
That we cannot escape
Together
I thank you for believing
And relieving
Me of the pain of living
The horrible rending of my twisted mind
As the grind grinds my bones
Or at least my hope
But I delight in us
There is always hope
Just ignore the reality
And believe in the madness
Acceptance 101

Sunday, August 2, 2015

Mom

Oh damned
Oh hated
Oh benighted and sad
Your lonely travails mock sanity
Yet you rage
Angry ravings directed nowhere
I am invisible to you
Your only audience
Torment so great in your soul
Torment so awful in my heart
Why do you tear the structure of the universe
Why do you curse the precious life you have
How damaged you must be
How awful the pain that rends your being
So softly hurting
So aggressively angry
You who do this
You who scream
You who scar me
You
My mother

Friday, July 31, 2015

If Loving is Essential

Leaping flying
Cascading
Tip toeing
Exploding into darkness
Wondering why the light
Dancing with the dark
Happy just to be
If loving is essential
The reeling careening continues
And
I laugh uproariously
The race is on
See me melt
What a wondrous duo my minds are
As if there is no end
Leaping flying
Cascading
Tip toeing
Ever present in nowhere
Because of all
Kisses
Yes to loving
Which is essential

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Living

Heavy sighs
Whispered cries
The longing for your happy lies
Streaming tears
Betraying fears
All the pain of my lost years
Constant pain
Life's stain
Wishing for something perhaps to gain
Always go
Never slow
Living life is all I know 

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Waiting

Settling in the sadness
Leaving reason behind
On the urine scented subway platform
Knowing of no regrets
But feeling life's heaviness
The eternal questions plaguing
Wisps of sorrow taunting
Painful till the morning
When it would start again
If only the night kisses me

Monday, June 1, 2015

For Her For Me

Lateral love
I spring forward menacing
Hoping at last that you
You
You will respond
And the killer’s kiss
Will with everyday and every way
Play upon my heart strings
For you are the golden chariot ride
To eternal love
That plays upon my lips
And dances in my heart
While the wit the soul of brevity
Does claim my innocent lust
Forgive me love me be with me
You are all

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

The Promise of Maybes


The gentle regret of love's late afternoon
The purposeful cries of couples interlocking
The wan sunlight under crisply ironed curtains
The uncertain hopes of the desperate egoist
And all this with joy unbound and answered longings
Destiny can mean happiness and fulfillment
If
If only for the intervention of happy fate
Dance and it may embrace you
Sit and you will perish
Options
I was young once
Fun once
Dreaming once
And I enveloped myself in joyous hopeful dreams
The promise of maybes
I rocked it
It took me on twists and turns
But lo the reward
Came eventually
The searing psychic pains sometimes suffered
The senses dulled first by booze then medication
All the idle time wasted at the trivial and trite
But I have emerged a worthy man
Capable of being in this world
And proud of it and of those long ago wonderous days
Time wraps around itself


Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Dusk in the Suburbs

Dusk
Winter
Wednesday
Cold overcast
Suburban home
Up a knoll
Bike laying in driveway
Inside lights are on
Mom cooking
One child in front of the TV
The other doing homework
Dad on his way
It is cozy in the house
It is warm in the house
There is a sadness in the house
Children sigh at the middle of a school year
There are pressures to being young and expected to do well
Too soon
Mom is bored with being a housewife with so many little things to do
All day
Everyday
Chores that bore her
The trivia of living and only fun on weekends
If then
Not like when her and husband were young
They have responsibilities now
Also known as children
She loves/resents her children and all the love they give and all the love they demand
Dad pulls into driveway curses at the bike sprawled there
He is overworked and underpaid and has to worry about bills and making his wife happy
And the children
He has to be a good role model and a loving father and tend to their needs and care
He has to care about so much now so much of it isn't him caring for others is hard
He misses college and fun and parties and booze and different girls and buddies
Oh the freedom is gone now
Mom pecks dad on the cheek it is nothing and everything
He loosens his tie as mom checks the roast in the oven
Twenty minutes until dinner is ready
Sister wants to watch one more show dad says okay but that's it
Brother is nearly done with his homework -- already!
Later he'll start to watch the basketball game with dad before nodding off
Everyone is healthy
Today
Tomorrow who knows
It starts to rain so dad calls the dog and lets it in the kitchen and the cat hisses
Dinner conversation is pleasant
Barely
They are inching along in their lives the children are content enough but the adults are dying
Very slowly
Bed time awaits
A reprieve for everyone

Monday, April 20, 2015

No Wear Man

Mystic mindless
On roads not paved
Careening towards emotional
Brake lights out
Crash inevitable
Ride still so wonderful
Complete with psychedelic kisses
And
The desperate drippings
Of loves promise
Hallelujah all the way
Swerve swerve drop and bucket
I hit the guardrail
And am tempted to revel in this fantasy
Of a long forgotten journey
To no where (know where)

Thursday, April 16, 2015

The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round

I ride the bus
Bowels in a bunch
No relief
Someone yakking on cell phone
Elderly with toddlers
High school kids too loud
Driver grumpy
Backpacks swinging in the aisle
Passengers staring at their phones
Angry man in back cusses
Bus jerks driver barks
My intestines howl
Finally my stop
File off walk to subway
Will be different but same
The daily grind

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

I Call the Name Ecstatic

Life is the pain of my doubt
It is the agony of my awkward timing
Life is the raging anger of my weariness
I am afflicted by the twists of revolving symptoms
Masochistic tremblings of confusion
Solutions abound and perplex and confound
The vagaries of pernicious loneliness competes with trauma unrevealed
And I am taking stock of illusions unknown and destinies unsettled
I call the name ecstatic as I wonder what is to be done
Words never fail they persist and so I struggle
But happily 

Sunday, April 5, 2015

Whispers

I feel that cold December morning and see its clouds
I bask in the watery clouds of a March late afternoon
I simmer in the hot August afternoon
I dance in the warm May breeze
I listen to the leaves flutter in October
And still I am melancholy
Because all these days live in my memory
Crowded and alone among the detritus of ugly thoughts
Sighs and cries and whispered beginnings vie for my time
As I wish for relief from purloined anxiety
There is nothing from nothing
But everything alive
Somewhere there is a chilly November night
Somewhere else a rainy April at noon
There is water and beer and tea and milk
And always the flow of mud
How does it happen that minds grasp so desperately
And find so much more than they bargain for?
Like snow and rain and heat and wind and
People long dead
Rough seas

Monday, March 30, 2015

Depression

Staring into the maw of the beast
Brain feels black and blue
Battered by misery
The sorrowful ghosts of mental anguish
Visit my soul and creep
Up and up and through and through
Into my mind
I mind
I don't like this wrenching
Happiness sublimated by woe betide me
Oh black inky depths swarming
Encircling my light
Leaving me bereft of reason
A twitching aching sobbing man
Eyes narrow
Looking into the vast eternity
Where my fate lies
As I wander through the valley
Of my dying days
No fight in me
Despair wins this round

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Subway Wait

I hate to say: fuck you to the subway train
But I must
Eight minutes until you arrive
I have to stand on this urine soaked platform among grumpy commuters
Waiting
My back hurts
My feet ache
Some of the people around me are strange
I hear the same monotonous announcements
Over and over
Waiting is such torturous ennui
It's a spiritless void of ugly
It is time draining away from my day
From my life
Still two more minutes
Two more minutes of trying not to inhale through my nose
And smell that goddamned urine
Ahh the train at last and still I say: fuck you for the wait

Monday, March 23, 2015

Off to Work

Subway zips zooms zaps underground
I sit with book read read read
Subway announcements interrupt annoy bother
I sit with book read read read
Subway stops people off people on
I sit with book read read read
Subway gets to my destination I shuffle off
Up the escalator I go go go
Walk walk walk to trolley
Wait wait wait for trolley
Ride ride ride on trolley
While again I sit with book and read read read
End of line I'm off again to
Walk walk walk to work
But first stop for coffee
Need the caffeine fix to be
On
Up the stairs at work I go go go
Work time
Sublime

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Perchance to Dream

I want to sleep to be in my dreams
Where I can swim across oceans
And fly across continents
In my dreams I can see my father
My best friend
My big brother
All of whom are dead
But alive in my dreams
I can be famous in my dreams -- if I want
I can have lovers galore
Guilt free
I can dance on clouds with angels
In my dreams I battle Satan and win
In my dreams I visit old haunts and am young again
In my dreams the future shines brightly
Even though it rains
In my dreams I have amazing adventures
And in my dreams if there is trouble
If there is fear or pain or discomfort
All I have to do is wake up
Then I can go back to sleep and
Dream again

Saturday, March 21, 2015

You Missed Out

You tell me about your weekend
But don't ask about mine
You tell me about your vacation
But don't ask about mine
You tell me about holiday
But don't ask about mine
You tell me about your family
But don't ask about mine
You're not only rude but missing out
I have stories to tell
Adventures to relate
Experiences to share
I saw amazing sights
And did astounding things
Great feats and accomplishments
Are mine to boast of
Celebrities were met
Achievements were achieved
Skills were perfected
Wrongs were righted
Injustices exposed
Mistakes corrected
Derring do and thrills
Great excitement and chills
I traveled far and wide
And so much some never before seen
You missed out
Cause you told me about Cousin Leonard's hernia operation
And about your trip to the mall
And about your foot fungus
And about the crock pot you received
And about the TV show you watched
Ho hum
You missed out

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Just Asking

What if there are puppies in hell
And snakes in heaven?
What if hell gives you answers
And heaven asks you questions?
What if reason is irrational
And madness is sane?
What if good is wrong
And bad is right?
What if I am you
And you are me?
But what if up is up
And down is down?
But what is that is there
And this is here?
And peace is violent
And war serene?
I do not know any answers
But am brave enough to ask the questions
Or am I?

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Out For a Walk

I walk down crusty streets alone
Looking for shadows in the shade
My mind frying the possibilities
Of another grateful day
I try to make sense of what I think
I try to sort through the purple
And only fall into a rainbow
Children chirping on bikes pass
Where are the cherries pie of my own youth?
A stranger smiles
The feet ache
The somber latitude of gratitude
Of hearing you running past me in the hallways
And I'm in high school again
Wondering at the majesty of the brain
And still I walk today
Always in this moment
Because it is mine

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

In the News

Trouble between Russia and the Ukraine
All this strife can drive you insane
Still haven't found that missing plane
All this trouble gets to your brain
Conservatives still trying to screw the poor
What do they need even more money for
Corporations and the rich keep getting more
And yet for lower taxes they do implore
Still more shootings everyday
The NRA keeps getting its way
The gun lobby is all powerful and does hold sway
There has got to be a better way
The change in climate is quite severe
So bad it seems the end times are near
Some fight against full rights for gays
Their minds me thinks in a bigoted haze
At least technology still does advance
Perhaps this world still has a chance
Now if our minds and hearts could grow
There's no limit to how far we'd go



Monday, March 16, 2015

My Life For What its Worth

I wandered through the valleys of my mind
And ended up at the brink of this
Another outsized day of wonder
And gasping at all sensations derived from thought.
So I sit overwhelmed by it all and nod contentedly
What else am I to do on the mad road to illusions
I am nothing if not overly dramatic
I eschew the term drama queen
Because it suggests my histrionics are done
While attired in dress pumps and wig
Simply not my thing
My wife is indulgent having known me a
And my peccadilloes for several decades now
She is more than I deserve I know
So here I am humble at last

Sunday, March 15, 2015

What I Am

I am a decaying old man
I am not the middle aged father/poet of my fantasies
I never was
I was a school teacher
I still am
I am healthy
Not wealthy
Maybe wise
My body is fine
My mind is fine
My soul is fine
But they are each nearer
The end
Than the beginning
Much
So I go
Towards the end
Still wistfully enjoying the ride
Though I may still wish
That I was
The middle aged father/poet of my fantasies

Saturday, March 14, 2015

I Wish

I want it to be
Dusk on a cold
November Wednesday
Of a foggy day
And I'm alone in my
Dimly lit apartment
Groggy from a nap
TV flickering sound off
A hardcover book of poems on my lap
A quilt at my side
The cold seeping in
Through a kitchen window
Waiting for my wife
And a warm dinner
And soft talk
And the comforter
And love making
And a deep sleep

Friday, March 13, 2015

Country Rag

Lederhosen Germany
Sauna Finland
Sushi Japan
Curry India
Shakespeare England
Carnival Brazil
Moose Canada
Baguette France
Tea China
Andes Chile
Cossack Russia
Da Vinci Italy
Cigar Cuba
Kangaroo Australia
Sphinx Egypt
Aristotle Greece
Windmill Holland
Kilimanjaro Tanzania
Kilts Scotland
Aztec Mexico
Fjord Norway

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Ducks on the Bay Raise Questions

There are ducks sitting on the bay
So many questions
Aren't they cold?
Are they happy?
Sad?
Have they ever, even once, even just one of them
Heard 'Combination of the Two'
by Big Brother and the Holding Company
Featuring Janis Joplin
What do they hear?
Do they just eat
And poop
And sense danger
And fly?
Flying would be good
I envy the duck's their flight
Why do they hang out together?
Safety in numbers?
Or are they friends and family?
One duck is a few feet from the main cluster
A loner?
Ostracized?
Maybe a scout or a leader
Anyway....I like ducks
Of that there is no question

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

What I'd Like

I'd like to be a poet laureate
I'd be really good at it I bet
I'd read my poems at events and stuff
I wouldn't be rich but I'd have enough
I'd meet the president and say hello
I'd get paid a lot and have plenty of dough
My dreams will have all come true
And I'd never again feel blue
I'd like to be a poet laureate
When it happens my life will be set

Monday, March 2, 2015

We are the Incandescent Rays of Hope and Glee

Radio avocado nights of glistening pillows
The dance of pencils reckoning our future
Morbid leanings presupposing inherit peaches
The weathered look of an existential torpedo
We are all thus wondering with effervescent minds
Creating imaginings and imagining creations
Long afternoons of pleasant meanderings
Trees and glades and the sharp smell of flowers
Blossoming excitement as we explore endless spaces
Happy and strong and healthy and wise
We are eternal despite our passing
We are everywhere despite our limitations
Look at us from above so small
Look at us from below so large
Look at us from everywhere at once so wild
We are the incandescent rays of hope and glee
The bouncing dashes of everyday and the promise
Of all your tomorrows
Without end

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

I invincible

I was like a rock star
So full of my accomplishments
Rich with my youth
Believing in myself
I invincible
Watch my long beautiful blond hair
Hear my charming wit
Read my words by me
The writer
Buy me a drink
Laugh with me
Seduce me
You beautiful person
You've no idea what I am
You've latched on to
A raging bundle of neurosis
A tenuous psyche fragile and weak
But oh I can entertain
I can dazzle bedazzle
All my razzle all my personal pomp
(Such circumstance)
I bequeathed onto myself the mystic
Power of super self
And imbued it with psychosis
I invincible
Watch now
Watch me spin on the dance floor
Pretty cool stuff, eh?

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Requiem

The days melted into wine colored rust that flowed through my veins like pouring rain down the gutter which was what I was and I felt in fibers of my being that I did not even know that I had and the pain in the form of mental anguish was too great to differentiate from the screaming bowels of hell so I dropped it all and caressed the moon

Then there was nothing but the hard hearted aching of my soul as I realized that death’s grip would truly be my release from the devastating reality of the horrible pain that awaited in a mind gone wild that angels feared and demons lusted for

I was pain

I was the holy endings of the wretched snaking willowy cauldron of vaporous hauntings that chill the bones of the insane in locked away places that dare not be revealed to simple minds

I existed only to suffer and seemed to want to feel the burning of an unkept mind was I not so blind that I could not not see the sadness in wrinkled foreskin and decaying nails and stretched elongated hairs twisting in hot winds of the inferno

Never meant to smile only being deluded enough to look at others and pretend that I was someone too and not the empty shell that wondered among them unable to make human contact I was the true waking walking even breathing death that serves as warning to unsettled minds

Blow me away and never let my like come your way again for I have nothing

Saturday, January 24, 2015

The Forever Jealousy

I died so many times when I first knew you
And you were with other men and I
Had to imagine them touching you
Loving you
You danced with them and kissed them
And of course you….
It ate me alive swallowing me in great
Chunks
Did you think them handsome?
Smart and sexy?
Interesting and funny?
While I drank and simmered and moped
And stared at emptiness
My life a wreck
What secrets did you tell them?
How earnestly did you listen to them?
Did your tongue tickle their ears?
Did your hand hold their….?
And after
How long did you think of them after?
Could you still feel them inside you?
Did they call the next day and did you
Flirt some more?
The torture deep into my bowels
Swirling around my heavy heart
Down to my sphincter
I raged I cried I sunk into my sad self
Wailing angry impotence as I tried to talk to you
You just so polite and considerate
But me diffident and you bursting confidence
The ache eternal
Because still today with you here beside me
It comes back in great waves
Leaving me emotionally sick and pale
The forever jealousy

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Commuting Misery

Oh damn you accursed fate
That makes me wait these six minutes
On the subway platform
Curses to you for promising only a six car train
So that I may have to squeeze on to a small standing space
Among the foul and fetid masses who soil our public conveyances
The horrible indignity of standing here
Queued behind others weary from the days labor
Desperate to return to home and hearth
And a hearty meal
Damnation ten fold for so sporadically sending trains
And then ones that are so small
Here my tax money is wasted
Give me this day my daily reprieve
From commuting misery
At last the train

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Bartering With Angels

And the blood of love welled up in my heart with a slow pain. - Sylvia Path

Do you move between different worlds in your daily life? The interview asked Ingmar Bergman. His answer meandered a bit but you could tell the short version of it was: yes.

I live in the present
And the past
I live in my dreams
I live in my silence and the loud crash of the world bearing in on me
I live in conflict and serenity
I live with you and I live alone
I live
Yet my dying never stops
Nor does wrenching pain of reality and the inevitability of endings
The mad wonder of revelations and surprises and miracles

(I am constantly confused by the contented soul
Who accepts everything and challenges nothing and
Never stops to ask anything of life
Let alone to demand
Their metaphorical bellies protrude
As they bask in the warm glow of their televisions
And stare steely eyed at flickering images
And listen unquestioningly to repeated slogans
How resolute in their own ignorance)

Dancing with poets is the life for me
The deadly frightening awe inspiring gripping insanity
Of pure elation mixed with searing psychological torment
Tip toeing on knife edges
Bartering with angels
Careening over the abyss and rising above the clouds
Never caring which

I don’t remember yesterday as well as I do 200 years ago
I can better plan my afterlife than tomorrow
I suck on the marrow of metaphor
As I defy this very moment and live in between other times

Crowns of glory I wear
While wallowing in self pity and melancholia
And spitting at the celestial messengers
You and I are the same
Atoms
We are part of the stars
And they are part of us
And the universe lives within our blood flow
And we are god

Monday, January 12, 2015

The Weight of Living

The weight of living
Yet the freedom of feeling unmoored
Floating heavily
Sinking up towards angels
While ghosts promenade
Sorrowful nights and melancholy days
All words failing yet flailing
Buttressed by significance
And never caring that meaning is lost
Dustings of happiness
Made bleak by the overwhelming pain
And still I wonder as I wander
Through the maze of curiosity
That wrenches my soul
And calls asunder
Significance in all that lies ahead
Meaningless moments that tear away
Is the preponderance of cries
Echo through my heart
And I tumble into another deep dark void
Careless again
Such pain

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Making Angels out of Houseflies

Awesome
Cool
Amazing
Over used adjectives
The world totters and teeters
And when everything is grand
Nothing is
I do not accept your hyperbole
Fantastic
Super
That was great
No
It was doing
It was being
It was life
Finding the incredible in the ordinary
Is living out of reality
Making angels out of houseflies
People come and people go
People do and people slow
There is beauty in the act
Not in the overblown description
It was a crazy week
No we were busy
That's all
This poem was not wonderful
It was just it

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Some Things

Tea kettle
Afternoon ritual
Daily commute
Dancing alone in the house
Bergman films
Relaxing
Museum closed
Basketball team warming up
Tape recorder
Neurosis instead of facing reality
Crab salad
Cat dashing from street to driveway
A novel in your hands
Child giggling
Sweating after a run
Finishing cleaning
Rhythm section
Cloud bank over the bay
Scratching
Oranges
Smiles from strangers
Warm sweatshirts
The door opening wife walks in

Monday, January 5, 2015

Poetry 101

Quickly dashed off poem about daily mundane inanities
Too obvious references to people who are caricatures
Desperate attempts at wit
All is smugness
Descriptions of weather with the word redolent
Or slate gray sky
Cute lines about kisses or pets or children
Sentimental hogwash about lovers in parks
Detailed descriptions of kitchens
Flights of fancy about dreams or angels
Forced rhymes
Political simplicities masked as righteousness
Philosophical musings befitting a middle schooler
Rants raves and critiques about the long forgotten
Similes and metaphors and half parables
Geez I wish I could write all that stuff


Sunday, January 4, 2015

As the Devil Sighs

The devil sighs
As lives are fragmented
The tearing rendering of souls
Lost to plights unknown
The sad deaths of happy folk
As the devil sighs
Pain deep and hard
The trembling of angels
As dark clouds pour emptiness
There is no rain
As the devil sighs
Wonder of wonder in the deep
Wretch reap plead and cry
Where there are no answers
There is no life
As the devil sighs
We look ever onward
Seeing nothing
Feeling everything
Understanding only bits
Deciding on the rest
There is no love
As the devil sighs

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Desire and Lust of Course

Loving someone and not sure why
Maybe the late Saturday afternoon wind knows
We are young she is beautiful there is
Lust of course
It feels like it could go on forever
Like it should go on forever
Overwhelmed by feelings
The awful wonderful hurt of longing and loving
And wanting and needing and
Lust of course
There have been others
For her not many
Me too many and I have gotten high too often
For her though
Maybe I can be another better version of me
Maybe I can be what she wants
Coursing through my body is the wonder of it all
Stuck in the dusk melancholy
Tasting her breath touching her hand lightly
Lust of course
She is a serious person
I seem frivolous but I do make her laugh
I do entertain and delight and intrigue
And evoke
Lust of course
But can she see a future with me
I can’t think of anything but
A future with her
There is no vision of this being
Anything but perfect
Am I just a diversion
The wind is stronger outside now
The dark air is cold
People are coming into houses
Preparing for dinners
Dressing for evenings out
I coo in her ear
Will she even give me tonight
When I want her forever
My body trembles at the thought of loss
My imagination tears at me
With the thought of her with another
But she is mine for now
I get a kiss and feel
Lust of course
This drama will go on
I will ache in my soul
Desire