Fragile word
That vanished
Like blown smoke
From the street scene
Are you lost now
Gone behind the wall?
All the frightened eyes
That turned to see you go
And did not move
One step to stop the going.
The nearest I came
To the wild, wild West
Were the singing cowboys
In a movie screen play
Their lingo and music
Had a certain zest
With a yippie-kay-oh
And a yippee kay-ay
For those movies hours
Of my yesterday
Gene Autry, Bill Boyd
And Roy Rogers, too
Fought the villainous rustlers
And made them pay
For their dastardly deeds
And I’m happy say
They’d win the sweetheart
Of the western range
And ride off with her
Beyond the hill
Into the setting sun
Singing the songs
That echo still
Down through the years
Into our today
With a yippee kay-oh
And a remembered kay-ay
There seem to be not accidents
future or past
but ordered stitches
in life’s tapestry
Strange and beautiful the mystery:
that our paths would cross
according to some time-right plan
and we would meet
in the silver light
of that special hour
when unicorns come out to play
on a moonlit, starlit way.
Pray do not judge us
By our tattered garb
These boots so bruised
These cloaks so worn
The way was long and hard
We are much wearied
And fain would rest.
#unrefugeeday
Too many winds have blown
from out the North
my gentle knights all slain
as they rode forth
The castle stands forlorn
on wasted earth
and every wall is claimed
by icy frost
A winter silence sweeps the land
and dearth
of valiance voiceless
cries the deadly cost:
my gentle knights all slain
as they rode forth
A cold sun seeks in vain
the stalwarts gone
who fought the chilling
North Wind wars and lost
Ah, whence can come again
this kingdom’s worth
of such sweet valor
lying now snow-mossed:
the gentle knights all slain
as they rode forth
Too many winds have blown
from out the North
#globalwindday
I see your star light
Brilliant gift for me
Dewdrop in heaven’s sea
Scientifically we know
You may have burned out
In final flare
Many eons ago
And vanished
But, for me,
Your scintillating light
Still bright time-traveling
Its destined flight
Shines and shimmers
In the starry sea of night.
#repeatday
Was that your voice, dear one,
last night I heard
or bird
from some enchanted world of dream-like
scope
where mysteries, where marvels yet
might be?
Tell me
was that your song
or my heart’s hope
Sometimes in deep unfathomed
realms of sleep
we keep memories of love and loss interred
If songs do wind from reaches
unmetered wide
from tide
of stars that was your song
each lyric word
No dream could ever conjure
such delight:
the night
so strangely still save only
that sweet sound
that woke within the dark
a sunlight glow
a flow
of morning’s healing light
and joy profound
#memorialday
Beyond tomorrow
Make safari, O, my soul
Into the new country
Beyond tomorrow
Darkness falls on pathless lands
Keep vigil, my soul!
Darkness falls on pathless lands
Beyond tomorrow
Each wide and waiting meadow
Each hill and turning river
White, sifted dust
In the far soul country
#NationalRoadTrip
What am I doing
Here in this nether world
Among the Lemures?
This dream grows overlong
And I am sick of fears
And these unheeded tears
This sepulcher
Cannot but be a dream
That’s overlong in breaking,
And so I pray for waking.
I grow too used to gloom
And empty shapes that loom
Within this darkness
Where algid fingers, grasping, find
Mine in comradeship of kind
And sorrow’s voices, when defined,
Are the whispering doom.
#MENTALHEALTHAWARENESSMONTH
The brown-eyed children are at play,
a light-as-air dream symphony.
Before, unnoticed, it slips away
pause and listen to melody:
The dark-eyed children’s laughter sells
marimba clear. Such music spins
a fairy wonder of lilting bells
as sweet as the sound of mandolins.