These poems are drafts, not final versions, and are not to be shared outside this website.
Selected Poems
130525
EX-PROCRASTINATOR
Doing nothing?
Nothing doing!
* * *
130515
DANG IT ALL
I’m about to die
in the blink of an eye of a fly
and the question isn’t how,
but why;
why is this life
so interesting now?
* * *
130505
CONSIDERING MY OPTIONS
I kill bugs.
In my kitchen, mainly.
Spiders in the bathtub I escort outdoors.
Well, ticks I drown.
No telling, inside my body,
what havoc occurs to other lifeforms.
Are there alternative options?
Can I redesign any of this
with a mutually beneficial outcome?
Or is it possible that it’s already so?
We’re all in this life/death adventure together;
that’s my basic assumption,
even it’s only within my own mind.
But I do mind
killing bugs.
* * *
130504a
ROLE CALL
I heard the critics
squabbling today.
That’s fine;
they have their play.
The artist chooses bliss.
They don’t know what they miss
* * *
130504c
POISED
How do I move
when my soul is so still?
Why should I move
if I haven’t the will?
* * *
130410
KILDEER
Today when the hail
bombarded the lake shore,
where was the mother bird?
If not on her twig-and-gravel nest,
have those three speckled eggs
gone stone cold?
* * *
130409
ODDS AGAINST
If I start a poem, will a poem result?
I wouldn’t expect a giraffe,
or a gnome, or a carafe . . .
though, if one appeared, I’d exult.
* * *
130403
WORK DEMANDS
Do it now:
that’s all I ask.
Hurry! Hurry!
Multitask!
* * *
130314
SLUMBER
Here he is in workday clothes,
breathing softly through the nose;
hands on chest, clasped and closed;
posed as if in death’s repose.
It’s a preview, I suppose.
* * *
[Undated]
WISTFUL
I don’t know why,
she said with a sigh,
but I want to be healthy
the day that I die.
* * *
130221
EXPECTANT
I hear breathing, chirping;
I hear chiming clocks;
I hear subtle tappings;
I hear clicks and knocks.
But all I’m really listening for—
is that one knock upon my door.
* * *
130220
! B@@[\] B!??^/
I been bizzy—
bizzy like a B
when all the
other alphabet
ups and goes to C.
* * *
130219
NO ‘CUZ FOR ALARM
Howdy, friend.
You look glum—
sumthin’ botherin’ you?
Yeah! Nuthin’ matters.
Oh, uh-hum. You might
wanna think that thru.
* * *
130218
SLEEP WALTZING
It only gets better,
this life-death trance.
I am eternal.
This is my dance.
* * *
130213
HAPPY TRUTH
This truth
by wise ones is averred:
you can’t unsay
a done-said word
and you can’t roller skate
in a buffalo herd,
but you can be happy …
if you’ve a “don’t-mind” to.
* * *
130212
ENSURE THIS
Never give up,
even if you never make it.
Never pass the cup
without a chance to taste it.
* * *
130211
THE UNDEAD
Dawn arises,
not from ashes,
but from its own
pooled blood.
* * *
130210
PLEASANCE
Like a happy
hippopotamus
am I—
scant of thought
and slow of pace,
but wallowing
in grace.
* * *
130203
A FRESH VISUAL
Our finches are prolific;
we must take measures.
This morning, Ethan checks
the nest and confirms—
“Time to pluck some eggs.”
* * *
130202
HARD TIMES
16-bean soup,
give or take a bean
* * *
130201
LAMENT
Alas, I’ve failed
at loving you—
but not for want
of wanting to.
* * *
130128
ENOUGH IS PLENTY
It could be fame,
or wealth, or breath, or death—
it doesn’t help to plead;
life doesn’t give me
what I want,
it gives me what I need.
* * *
130125
FINALLY FEARLESS
If God is truly
Love and Good,
He’d never abandon me—
and if He’s not
or if He should,
why would I care to be?
* * *
130123
NOTICE
I declare myself free—
not as a battle cry,
slogan, motto, avowal,
assertion, or affirmation—
as an observation.
* * *
130121
MISFITTED
I weep. I rail. I curse.
What’s wrong?
What’s wrong?
What’s wrong?
Where do I belong?
* * *