Sunday, November 14, 2010

Aging


I can't do anything
About going bald
But I won't be
A fat, bald guy

Sunday, October 17, 2010

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


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Poetry

This is an intimate business
I'm talking  You're listening
I try to listen
but it's easier talking

Sunday, September 5, 2010

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.



Friday, August 13, 2010

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

Wednesday, July 7, 2010


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

Saturday, June 19, 2010

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

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

You scream at music
But I'll overlook that

Wednesday, May 26, 2010


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

Saturday, May 22, 2010

 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


Wednesday, May 19, 2010


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

 

Tuesday, May 18, 2010


 I changed my life
by giving up almost
and
willing only always

Saturday, May 15, 2010


 
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

Thursday, April 15, 2010

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

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Automatic Bank Deduction


Go ahead,
take it all!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

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

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

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."

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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