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
Bows on presents?
Well – okay, that’s to be expected
Ribbons of taffeta
Satin and shimmering lights
Spill all over house
And yard.
Bows of electric lights
Strung against the night
Hoo, boy!
Bows encircling chimney tops?
Plastic cookies and candy canes
Line drive and porch
Oh, my, oh my, what else?
Colorful streamers
Stiffening with ice,
Threatening to crack
In the winter freezes
Who is this fool?
This Christmas
Decorating fool?
Not me. Huh, uh, not me.
#Christmas, #Christmasdecorations, #decorationcritic
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 the warmth
Of quilt and coverlet.
Morning arrives
With sounds like ice
Shivered
Wind tossed
From frosted trees
The air twitters
Brittle with rude
Coughing mufflers
Newspapers slapping
Onto nearby doorsteps
Chill nips my nose
Sneaks tip toe across my lashes
Teasing me at last
To surface into morning.
#winter, #wintermorning, #waking, #warmth, #otter
Have you listened
To the stories told by the wind?
Have you flown with a breeze
Through the branches of trees
And dancing, played with the leaves?
Have you floated unmoving
Above the wide flat expanse
Thick with grasses
Or cultivated plains?
Have you died as a whisper
Upon a butterfly’s wing
Till stirred to life again
Deep within the wetness
Of a tropic forest?
Have you bounced and leaped
From wave to wave
Across the vastness of blue water,
Or skipped across dunes and sunbaked rock
Trailing bits of the earth behind you
Like a comet’s tail?
Have you been possessed:
The wind entering your every pore
Washing the molecules of your body
Flavoring every atom
Till the sound, the taste
The feel of wind is all you are?
Then in a moment’s shock,
Like a single brief earth tremor,
You are separate once more?
Yet, in the moment of abandonment,
Alone in the silence,
You remain poised as if for flight
Lighter than eider down.
Were it not for the tiniest doubt,
The merest inkling of disbelief–
…..Which surely is all that tethers
…..You to earth–
Do you not believe at such moments
That you might gently melt into the sky?
#wind