Searing soul and body
The burning acid churns
Seeking out corners of the mind
To scald, inflame and scar,
And yet the remedy is so plain,
So simple, so obvious.
Why do we resist?
Why hug this pain to our chest
Refusing to let it go?
Why nurture this ugly ulcer within?
Let it go. Let it go. Let it go.
#nationaloldstuffday
With the light kiss
And stealth of an ocean fog
Silence takes possession of my house
Buries the noise of day.
The heavy quiet crouches
Down for the length
Of this night.
Loneliness—completely at ease,
Lounges against the stairs,
My childhood friend
Waiting to walk with me again
Hand in hand into the familiarity
Of meeting old friends…and enemies.
In this empty time thoughts wander
Backward
Toward a spiral of sounds—
Voices
From a distance so far
They can only be an echo
Of what was.
And the hunger awakes.
Still the silence
Lays its quiet all around.
While undirected anger
Whips wildly at random.
Sorrow, anger and pity
Circle, spinning
In a cyclone-like vortex
With silence at its core
Creating the void
Where the unclosing eye
Captures, sums and scatters
All the unconscious reveals.
And though the unprotected heart
Flinches as from rope burn stings,
The miraculous balm
Of uncaged, unbounded joy
Spills its liquidity
Of unspecific love over all.
#wordlquietday
One odd you-shaped piece of perfection
Isn’t that the dream –
To catch the perfect
To hold it long enough for others to know
The hope of a truth nearly within our reach?
Oh, yes, I think we agree it just might be enough
To justify a lonely, dissected life
The broken heart.
Go for that bit of immortality
For just that one odd
You-shaped
Piece of perfection.
#singleawarenessday
Standing deep within
Zion’s canyons
The air whispers
Like words I heard
In a poem
I feel the sunset heat
Radiate from red stone
In walls rising up before me
Like words I heard
In a poem
Skin flayed and enraged
I huddle before
Cyclone winds whirling
Like words I heard
In a poem
Stilled, I stand
at the edge
As dawn gifts
The untouched to my eyes
Like words I heard
In a poem
#worldreadaloudday
I can be a shadow
When I want to be
Barely noticed in a crowded room
But otherwise
You better watch out
‘Cause you won’t know what’s coming
And you won’t know when
So you better watch out
Yes, you better watch out
‘Cause I’m more than you think
And I’ve got real power
So, you better watch out
Yes, you better watch out
Don’t get lazy
Don’t trust the shadows
Listen to my warning
You better watch out
Oh, I can be a shadow
When I want to be
Barely noticed in a crowded room
But otherwise,
You better watch
Yeah, you better watch out
You better watch out
You better watch out
You better watch
(whispered) out.
#CurmudgeonsDay
#January29
A hummingbird flits about
In my head.
The whirr of its flight disturbs
My lazy thoughts.
Get going. The day is already waning.
Says the bird.
The breeze from its busy wings
Tries in vain to shuffle
My riff-raff out,
Cleaning house, as it were.
I open my eye to see the sun
just beginning
Its rise in the east.
Hurry, hurry, there’s no time to waste.
The day is already waning.
“Quiet, little bird,” I answer in return.
“There is nothing that needs doing
That I want to do.
Be quiet, little bird.”
Rush, rush. There’s so little time.
Get going.
The day is already waning.
There will be no quieting
This fervent worker
Busy from dawn to night,
No relief from its urgency.
Get going.
The day is already waning.
With lumbering limbs, I rise,
Beginning my list of things to do.
“Quiet, little bird.
Sing your song somewhere else.
Let me do my work
Without your noise.”
Get going.
The day is already waning.
#JustDoItDay
#January24
Like an otter
Slipping so easily
So naturally
Beneath the water surface
To slither amid summer
Warmed river deeps,
I slide into sleep
Couched in warmth
Of quilt and coverlet.
Then waking to the day
Sounds–ice shivered
Wind tosses
From frosted trees
The air twitters
Brittle with rude
Coughing mufflers
Newspaper slapping onto
Nearby doorstep
Chill nipping my nose
Sneaks tip toe across my lashes
Teasing me at last
To surface into morning
#WorldBlueMonday
#January15
gurgle, squeak, splutter
the metal strapped downspout thrums
January rain
#NationalStepInThePuddleAndSplashYourFriends
#January11
Death’s steel blade struck once upon the flint.
Eclipsed and hush-stilled, the universe watched
A single sparkler flung across the blue-black drape of night.
#Science-Fictionday
One odd you-shaped piece of perfection
Isn’t that the dream–
To catch the perfect
To hold it long enough for others to know
The hope of a truth nearly within our reach?
Oh, yes, I think we agree it just might be enough
To justify the lonely
Dissected life
The broken heart.
So go for that bit of immortality
For just that one odd you-shaped
Piece of perfection.
#immortality, #perfection, #striving, #dreaming