Belated Words

Write On!

Tag: poem

  • poor

    poor:

    The word itself appears dried up,

    too scantily clad to survive,

    too striped of bone, devoid of desire;

    no evident, attendant Bling!

    bling: a none-existent word back then

    all through the slow, long years of youth

    when we said fancy-stuff, as in,

    “Who really wants that fancy stuff?”

    licking our lips in blusterous denial.

    I don’t remember being poor or “pour”

    as I would have said back then….and still do.

    Daddy always worked long, hard hours,

    burnt dark pumping gas…fixing flats.

    We always had a rust-free, used car

    staunchly devoid of Bling! except

    that ’59 Chevy with fender-skirts

    and air and re-upholstered seats!

    We always had a house; tiny but clean,

    clapboarded, rural rentals with,

    in my earliest years, an outhouse,

    but in my room, in the darkest spot,

    a child’s white enameled pot with

    a red-rimed lid was kept for me;

    I did have a pot to piss in.

    I did not feel so different

    because of that….I did not know

    the reason I felt singular.

    I remember first grade school bus

    and being called sunk-eyes; me,

    the poster kid for sickly-child

    with breath pilfering asthma,

    a snot-rag dampening my pocket

    during the glories of Spring and Fall

    and being alone, balled-up,

    in a paint-peeled Adirondack

    built from scrap and hope by dad

    in a rented yard in brilliant sun,

    and wondering if pollen had

    attacked my heart as it had

    my nose and lungs and eyes

    and infected hope, stolen joy

    and would I ever unclasp my knees

    and unfurl my wheezing mind.

  • The Poem is the Poet

    having read Stevens

    It could be about skink and his blue sacrificial tail.

    It could be about bliss of basking in sacred sun.

    It could be about cat’s eyes marking prey.

    ·

    It could be about felinity of stillness.

    It could be about claws pinning a wriggling lure.

    It could be about one image or millions.

    .

    I can see without eyes, frame by frame,

    infinite loops of inimitable holograms:

    The skink losing his tail ceaselessly and never at all.

    ·

    It’s not about skink, cat, deceit or stillness;

    It’s all about me; only me, in the Realm of Thought.

    It’s about me basking in the bliss of possibilities.

  • Vanity Doors

    Vanity Doors

    They are known, the techniques, the rules

    gleaned by trial and error over centuries

    from diverse cultures by millions of craftsmen.

     

    But, this time, I could not mar this flow of grain

    gifted from a giant red oak stricken down;

    could not deface streaks of red hues

    of stomata streams painting the truth

    of ice and fire, abundance and deprivation;  

    of hard times and good of a hundred years. 

     

    I could not chop it up

    into stiles

    and rails

    and panels:

    narrow boards arranged

    in alternating cups

    and glued

    and clamped

    and sanded

    and sealed;

    just to obtain a stillness;

    an entity that could never twist and breathe.

     

    I lay the boards, in their order,

    to picture a whole, a life lived;

    a chance to speak after death.

     

    In summer when I suck the humidity away

    to cool and condition air for my comfort,

    the doors move; warp a bit, opening a crack,

    emitting the dark which whispers tales.

    They cup, creeping to complete the circle

    from which they was sawn,

    seeking the completion every creature knows.

  • Greed

    Perhaps, I am too quick to call it greed;
    this yearning for an accumulation,
    this lust of Mine!, self gratification,
    a trophy case to cram with coin or heads
    or banned ivory trinkets carved of tusk.
    The rich, they give but not without receipts,
    and accolades, and plaques to hang above their names.
    Nature demands a self-interest if we
    are to survive, I know, but studies show:
    the poor are more generous than the rich,
    percentage wise, of course. What does that say?
    One thing to me….. another thing to you.
    What of a heart more soothed by treasures’ lure
    than smiles of thanks of a person in need?
    Perhaps, I am too quick to call it greed;
    one thing to me……another thing to you.

  • My Hallmark Moment

    1998: Middle-aged Love

    Once despairing of loves existence
    I embraced solitude with forlorn persistence.
    But you banished that sadness in me;
    Drew back the curtain that I might see.

    Your smile evoked a peaceful bliss…..
    Morning light through an ethereal mist.
    You are the joy that a found child brings.
    Lost; now found, my heart just sings!

    Your are the garden of my soul
    Where joy surrounds, where delight unfolds,
    Where prism hues in dazzling arrays
    Grace fragrant nights and sun-drenched days.

  • More!

    I glanced you captured there inside your glare;
    your mouth drawn tight, a knurled apple agape,
    with silent shrieks more shrill than one could bear.
    My God! No touch or words or meds could sate
    your frantic mind; unlock, release the glut
    of images that only you could see.
    You spoke a dialogue…narrating, but
    all vague; so jumbled up…a horrid clutch…
    and then… I feared you lost for evermore.
    Your eyes were dead but you pulled near to me
    and grasp my arm and paused to question, “More?”
    For an instant your eyes they lived, begged me
    to understand your plea and I responded, “More!”
    Our silly game remembered, “I love you!”
    Then the other responds, “I love you, more!”
    ………ad infinitum

  • Mourning Dove

    In grass beneath the ravaged feeder,

    accepting rejected seed dropped

    or flung away by purple finch,

    the pair bob thanks that go unseen

    except by me.

     

    Sated, they ascend

    to birdbath rim, meekly chanting,

    seeking permission few could deny.

    In monkish semblance they drink.

    Again, sated…

     

    they lift with

    white-tipped, feather robes trailing

    to sing in calls we’ve name mourning

    but which can only be joyous coos

    of gratitude.

     

    What watcher first

    saw the dove as symbol of peace

    of hope, of love, of a risen god?

    I’ve lived a lifetime and only now

    I ask this question?

  • The Portal

    buddleias 013

    My friend laments her passing years

    As lost, as nothing now.  But wait,

    Dear one, I disagreed, they’re there;

    Just out of sight and sound, secured,

    Waiting behind memories door.

    You probably walked past them this morning

    Admiring your gardens offerings.  Your cheek

    Just graced their hiding place as you sniffed,

    Then snapped malingering blooms.  They’re there,

    Passed buddleias purple cones, above

    Rudbeckias stylized suns, behind

    Hollyhocks rust/blotched leaves.

    Don’t be afraid; slip your slender hand

    Up to your thin, white wrist into the mass

    And turn like a key.

  • Free Will

    This is where I hang: exposed to dry air;

    Filleted in equal pink pieces to parch

    In low, fly/buzzed humidity, to shrink

    to the leathery truth.  Deprived of the

    justification gene, I can make no

    excuse; can’t blame father, mother, a god

    or circumstance or fate.  Am I so blessed or cursed?

  • Dying in the Woods

    The time will come

    when I will walk away:

    a farewell tour escaping bed-

    ridden incarceration

    before the doped dozing;

    the un-tethering.

    I will limp among the pines

    scenting their needles

    and remembrance’s lust,

    which will only soften,

    make more palatable,

    my final meal of leaves

    and tiny creatures;

    my final savorings

    plucked from ample offerings

    .