Category Archives: Poems

Fruit of the Tree

 

Fruit of the Tree

I saw myself, friends
co-workers many,
Products of nature,
and ivy-walled study.
Influenced too by what
entertains us and
captures attention.
Brief and imperfect
though it may be.
We think freedom
while slaves to needs,
which we are told we
have, or should have.
In business attire,
in our station in a tree.
Stuck like fruit in our places,
the snake weaves around us.
Our view lost to leaves,
unless we venture out
on dangerous limbs.
We are fruit of
this nature,
fond of our comfort,
but not so sweet this
varietal thus confined.

Connections

Connections

I had a dream that wouldn’t end,
of a lost connection, cables, and
signals we could never send.

Through the ruin and rumble
of war or disaster, of hard-won
creation which finally did stumble

Searching for the words, the line
which allows us to connect 
to each other, heart and mind

Could I have presaged this holy mess
and would I’ve been able to prevent it
if I had only said, maybe more or less?

But now awake, I can clearly report
it isn’t about cables, power and signal,
but something of vastly more import.

 

 

A Plan

 

A Plan

What is the plan?
For security, for happiness?
I ask on behalf of those who love you,
who seek the future there is with you.

What happens, happens is not a plan.
It is the antithesis of a plan.
We’ll fix what happens when it does
then, ‘it’ is something that  cannot be helped.

Good plans are happy and safe
Bad plans are neither, and nothing,
and once something precious is lost
it may never be regained.

When we are turned away
then it will happen when it happens
and no one will say this wasn’t the plan
and we’ll clean up as best as we can.

Dreams Untethered

 

Dreams Untethered

Words untethered come at times
without intent or intended rhymes.

They are wisps of subconscious streams
not unlike unruly and interrupted dreams.

Naked to the world, with something to say
at four am, my mind initiates this word play.

Playing catch, I threw you the ball
the leaves underfoot spoke of fall.

It only works if you throw back to me,
for it to be something mutual we see.

Then we have this ball, and dream to share.
Or have I thrown a ball with no one there?

Like a hug it must have two sides
before delusion, of one decides,

dreams are untethered sometimes
without intent or intended rhymes.

Nothing to See Here

Nothing to See Here

Nothing to see here,
which forces us to look.
Move along,
makes us dawdle more.
You’ll soon forget,
which of course we won’t.
The details are not what you think,
but, of course, they are exactly so.
History is in the past,
which means it’s here to last.
The future is now ours,
but what is there to see here?

Hazy

 

Hazy

I slept well,
but went to bed late
on account of staying up late.

This morning is gloomy again,
the weather app calls it hazy.

It is also the way I feel
on account of going to bed late,
because I stayed up late.

Is there more sleep
in that well of dreams,
where hazy is just fine?

I think I’ll go find out.

Sunday Mornings In the Winter of My Youth

 

Sunday Mornings In the Winter of My Youth

On those so very cold Sunday
mornings in the winter of my youth,
we had to look just right.
My colic was twice-pasted down,
only to pop up later, or so I know from
the fingers licked and repasting in the pew.
Ours was chaos of the moment.
For the day, sister’s hair in bows,
I would dress her in stockings and
patent leather shoes too,
as mother chased brother
into his Sunday attire.
And father would escape into the cold
to warm the car… it seemed so thoughtful
and yet we never said thank you.
But I too, wished I could escape,
into that moment of quiet and solitude
just to  welcome the cold.

Give it a Name

 

Give it a Name

Naming everything is a must
without, how would we trust
our dreams to have meaning,
our memories to be seeming
to fade in confusion of twilight’s
gray on gray failing timeless sights.
For we are seeking future’s past
not knowing how long it may last,
challenging the questions of mind
in the greatest of moments we find
ourselves labeling and tagging
our life memories, and nagging
regrets of unrequited dreams
if we could but name it, it seems.

 

Of Nature and Man

man is a part of nature and nature has its reflection in human emotions…

For do we not assign emotion
of the raging storm,
the angry wind,
the hope of sunrise,
the glory of sunset,
the lover’s moon, and
the wonder of the stars
in order to make nature
one with our human emotions?
Nature must care … because we are part
of nature,  and she would be boring without us.

Memories of an Orchard

Memories of an Orchard

We used to be sweet
We used to be neat
in rows carefully tended,
with boughs often mended.
It was our pleasure to yield
fruit by the ton in this field.
A few of us knotted remain
Singing a song with sad refrain
Producing an apple here and there
For only the birds that sing and share
our lonely existence of memories and pride
of the red sweetness that lingers deep inside.