Aging

I can't do anything

About going bald

But I won't be

A fat, bald guy

My Love

No matter how many dimensions there are

In this infinite unknowable

There's only right now for you and me

It may be selfish

To want to go there with you

But, I don't care

I can't understand everything

And I certainly don't

In fact,

I feel like I've forgotten almost all of it

The past, the future, even this morning

So what?

I just hate to see you feeling bad

Caught in comparison

Crashing into regret

Or denying

All the wonderful truth there is

The Birds

 

The birds that I admire so much

As they fly by

Are harder to appreciate

As they peck their way into the side of my house

Self-Possession

Were you ever a young child?

I can't quite picture it 

I see you held hostage by Indians,

in Wyoming,

And you telling them that you hope

They are aware of the consequences of this

And that you hold them collectively responsible

For anything you might have missed

During this incredibly difficult time of your life

Poetry

This is an intimate business

I'm talking  You're listening

I try to listen

but it's easier talking

Relaxation

  

Relaxation is a cumulative thing

Each day, I drop lower toward the ground

Growing wider, more dense, slower

And, smoother –

A slow-motion lava flow

Of enjoyment and appreciation

Held in the middle of a mound of dough

Rising above and spilling over

Any kind of established container

There’s a breeze here and sunlight

The world is turning

But, because I’m turning at the same speed

I can’t feel it.

The Tang Astronaut Poem

Your hands at 8 and 4
Your two-tones through the floorboards
We're in the middle of Iowa
Going 80 miles per hour
Through fields of corn
Strong as soldiers


Windmills fill both sky
And imagination
Endless moment
In which to live

New petals surround our need

While sun centers the fevered garden

Rocks lie cool and light

In easy shadow

Delirious after a marble winter

Those sad memories are over

Soon we will take ship and

Together

Stream through a thousand mad springs

Playing to some soft breeze

And after loving those holy oceans

Put in at a vast white beach

Watched by the sky

Changed through parting

Yet freshly placed by time

Daddy, How I love ya, How I love ya

Father’s Day is a good idea

To celebrate our manly wisdom and sense of balance

Our steady vision and our strength in age

Kind of like Jack Palance

Movie stars are one thing

And real guys are quite another

It’s odd, but only natural

That all Dads should be brothers

We’ve all endured the hardships

Each Dad must face alone

Sons with a sense of independence

Daughters with minds of their own

We help and hurry and wait and worry

To our families it’s all the same

Dad will take care of everything

That’s how he gets his name

Is it strength by which we qualify

Raking leaves and shoveling snow

Or is it our mechanical genius

I really do not know

Daddy, Dad, and Father

We answer every call

And handle each emergency

As if there were none at all

We pass on our endless wisdom

As a gift, though it’s hard won

And though, at times, our tempers flare

We manage to have fun

Our responsibilities are boundless

Yet we meet each with a smile

It’s aging us prematurely

But we do it all with style

And though, sometimes, we're tempted

To go out for that fabled pack of smokes

This family life has its share and more

Of laughs and inside jokes

When things are rough and rocky

There’s always one who’s level

Look no further, family dear

It’s this talented, handsome devil

This way of living is an adventure

And sometimes full of treasure

And, if, at times, we must complain

There’s less groaning than there’s pleasure

A Father’s job is never done

It never is completed

And, though we’re sometimes on our knees

We never are defeated

And while the job may have no ending

Every now and then we get our due

When one of our sweet, unruly gang

Says, Daddy-0, I love you

You scream at music

But I'll overlook that

 

The last time she laughed

A world more difficult than this

Relaxed its haunted form 

And let passion flash full

Drunk with the night

Made mad with rhythm

A spirit of glorious amusement filled

Each open heart

With sweet song

So ripe and warm

So soft and deep

That every wild rose could imagine its soul

Changed from ancient dream to new symbol

 Is Beauty

Behind this business

of never having perspective

I've been aware

That I get weak

When I see her

But I would not tell her so

What if life was never the drama

You imagined it was

Only life and death and everything in between

Without any villains or monsters

Just an open canvas

There for whatever you want to make

No evil, no hero, no author but you

Day by day

From dust to dust

Always here, always now

 

 I changed my life

by giving up almost

and

willing only always

 

But now

My heart

Is

Full of a future love

It's an enormous ocean

It has eternity

As its vivid language

And has no agenda

But now

The Vows, The Wows, The Here and Nows

 

It’s a confluence of character

That could not have been predicted

The entwining of purpose

The alignment of perspectives

The nourishment of imagination

The cooperation of sensibilities

Brought together by a generous fate

A visitation of harmony

A reorientation of direction

An astonishment of recognition

An expansion of emotion

Unexpected, yet so clearly welcomed

The simplification of distance

The expansion of possibility

The measurement of commitment

The acknowledgment of responsibility

All this and more

A testament to bravery

An annunciation of hope

A confidence declared

A summation of dreams

A pledge to perseverance

A commemoration and celebration

Of a love gone large

Never to be abandoned

Automatic Bank Deduction

Go ahead,

take it all!

April Fools

April fools

Hoping for something

To move this mountain

Determined to see a sign in each

New discovery –

Breeze,

With a breath of green

Birdsong,

Announcing that cheerful hunger for light

Moisture milking its way

Both up and down, in and out of

Creatures and situations

They believe

Only seemingly smaller than themselves

Those fools

Each year making the best of a world

Lost to repair or reparation

Unclouded by the unfairness we all endure

Pretending change can happen

Don’t they know or realize

That this foolishness

Pales before our disappointment

The clouds flow toward us

Borne on the silver river

Of their own bright rain

True Love

She dropped her fork

and said,

"I can't see you anymore."

Later,

he was heard to remark,

"I'll never use a fork again."

To the Author

It's tough to fill those empty pages

With all those inky scratches

Like trying hard to start a fire

Without those stinking matches

First one word and then the next

You're building your libretto

It starts out kind of slow at first

And then moves allegretto

The characters begin to speak

Not knowing what to say

But soon you just can't shut them up

They're in each other's way

The scenery is beautiful

You stop and watch it all

Before you know it, spring is gone

And now it is late fall

The romance needs attention

To make it really right

It's obvious that they're in love

But all they do is fight

The plot is slowly hatching

So slow it makes you weep

You work it over breakfast

You talk it in your sleep

And then it really starts to move

It's living and it's breathing

You just sit back, it writes itself

You arrive home without leaving

That's what you've been waiting for

When eggs turn into birds

But what a lot of work it was

And what a lot of words

But now it's done, it's finished

It's not like any other

It only took a couple years

Hey, why not write another