Tuesday, August 31, 2021

20210831.0430

The most noble span will end all too soon
Following the sun and not the moon
And I cry out, a forelorn loon
Because I have missed my chance

Monday, August 30, 2021

20210830.0430

Sandpaper stares out
Scraping against itself less and less
And I really ought to put it away
But I have to keep it out
Even though I
Do
Not
Want
To

Sunday, August 29, 2021

20210829.0430

I heard it on the radio
When she opened her store
There was a line down the street
Standing in the mist
And I thought of Dian Fossey
But I am not sure the subjects are so noble
And I am not sure Sigourney Weaver will take a role
In such a production as could be made from this

Saturday, August 28, 2021

20210828.0430

Riding along
She spoke of a squishy cranberry
And my face soon matched its hue
In part at surprise and chagrin that she
Spoke so of a bog-borne fruit
In part because I didn't think of it
Though the metaphor is sensible enough
And maybe someday I will speak of it with her
When she asks me questions she hesitates to ask her mother
Or which her mother refers to me
There are some things I know more about
Few though they are
But it is more likely she will recall
Steel trap mind not rusted shut
And kept from the rain so it will not likley be

Friday, August 27, 2021

20210827.0430

A final day with the love goddess awaits
As I linger in this place where I have spent years
And though I feel the lack of a celebration I had once enjoyed
Surrounded by thousands screaming in delight
Moaning together as faces find turf
Still I look ahead to other days
And the love goddess embraces me now
As she will when I go on to greener fields

Thursday, August 26, 2021

20210826.0430

Connected to the world
I once again
Breathe in deeply
Breathe out fully
Empty myself into the world for all to see
Breathe in again
And if there is some stink upon the air
There is also the smell of flowers
Of brewing coffee
Of a crackling fire
And that
At least
Is good

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

20210825.0430

Only four more months remain
Until the time comes back again
When all the shopping must be done
And many have not yet begun
Though displays now start to appear
Though the day does not draw near
As yet. The early salvos fall
In what all too many call
A war. It only has one side
Though its hawks won't be denied
And call for muster even now--
I'll not buy gifts yet, anyhow.

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

20210824.0430

The lilting young voices call
Singing songs that need an undergirding harmony
A root over which to build the chord
How hard it is not to run away
Join them in that verse
Base them in a baritone
Yet that cannot yet be

Monday, August 23, 2021

20210823.0430

Clay dug out from among the cypress knees
Hardened bark kneeling beside the virgin's flow
Beside which bushes grow and white hills rise
Taken to a bank
Whether hands will work upon it
Shape it into some new thing
Or simply change it out for money
Uncertain
But possible

Sunday, August 22, 2021

20210822.04130

I once again stand
Where the road diverges
Not in a wood despite the trees around
But amid the rolling limestone hills
And one way is clear and open to me
Familiar from many times walking along it
Hurt is at the end of it
Its pavement is only pain
I do not want to take that road this time
But I fear to go another way

Saturday, August 21, 2021

20210821.0430

The words are said
The deeds are done
The waiting is not over
But has instead begun
An asymptotic wearing-out
Until all is complete
A process suffered some before
That I again repeat

Friday, August 20, 2021

20210820.0430

I sing a song not of a tree
So no tree has grown anew
And I sing not of winds right now
That in the branches blew
Nor do I sing of ships this day
As none will carry me
No ship will ever bear me back across the sprawling sea
But all on land I make my way
To where I'm meant to be
A greener field that now awaits
My working awaits me

Thursday, August 19, 2021

20210819.0430

A hope long looked for
Mourned as lost after years away
Should have returned
It has not
And life goes plodding on
Because it has to
At least for now
At least for a little bit longer

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

20210818.0430

The slender-stalked yellow flower
Staring in the back of the eye
Blowing in the wind and
Howling against the unfairness of it all
Its own voice drowning out what
Others have been trying to say
Complaining of being plucked and cast away
Such nectar as it might have had
Long spent

Tuesday, August 17, 2021

20210817.0430

Laocoön before the gates of Troy
Disbelieving the gift that had been left
An offered end to strife long borne
While those around him cheered
Strangled by serpents for skeptical views
Killed for the truth that killed Troy after
In whose sandals do I stand now
And those who stand beside me?

Monday, August 16, 2021

20210816.0430

She might have thought to
Swim again with dolphins
And she would have done today
Did we remain on the old shores
Where beside the flowing water
Four-point bucks bound
But we do not
And instead she will soar with eagles
Where the baptist's child dwells
In the coming days

Sunday, August 15, 2021

20210815.0430

I have been made an Icarus before
Though I thought I had heeded Dædalus well
And it is summer even now
The hot sun pulling close as
Æstas dances across the
Swelling limsetone hills
And the winds blow to buoy me up
Higher although I am dragging an
Anchor of heavy steel long rusted from
Being sunk in salty waters
And I dare not let it go
Yet

Saturday, August 14, 2021

20210814.0430

Yes
It is a Saturday
And I might well be in a park
But this is not the Fourth of July
And the ice-cream sellers do not sing
And I am lactose-intolerant
And still too much overweight

Friday, August 13, 2021

20210813.0430

Payday has come once again
But the pay marks out no end
To bills' onrushing as they send
Them out whose pockets they defend
And never mine

Thursday, August 12, 2021

20210812.0430

The longer forms of verse
Escape me
The epic Muse will not sing in my ears
And the lyric will dance only a short dance before me
And that is perhaps as it should be
For I know I do not last long or
Thrust in deep
Nor have I the breadth to make a shallow treatment worthwhile
And certainly not a swift one
Of course they move on
Knowing that I do not satisfy
Yet I strive to do better every time
And even those whose stamina is
Stuff of legends
Sometimes come up short

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

20210811.0430

Despite
The delight
Of the bitter black brew
Only so much
Does its touch
Ever do
To quaff
The pure stuff
Has long pulled many through
Their days
And its praise
Many join without rue
For me
It must be
Much of what I once knew
But I
Am passed by
And I need something new

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

20210810.0430

No longer where the deer will leap
Warriors fight or pirates creep
Across the limestone seas grown steep
But now where eagles scream and fly
I think about my days gone by
And hope that she un time will try
And better fare than e'er did I

Monday, August 9, 2021

20210809.0430

Of course
She did not mean to show
All that she displayed
But I still looked
And saw the float
That was out on parade

Sunday, August 8, 2021

20210808.0430

Fear is not wisdom
Nor yet bravery
Despite an old adage about
Discretion and valor
Because fear is indiscrete
Even when it does not show
It gibbers and raves
Gnawing at the cage that holds it
Ready to leave its leg in the trap so long as it can
Get away

Saturday, August 7, 2021

20210807.0430

Little gifts and big ones
Spread all around
Taking up the space on shelves
Lying on the ground
Not wrapped up to hide themselves
From any prying eyes
But still when opened greedily
They yield good surprise

Friday, August 6, 2021

20210806.0430

Once again remembering
Words were spoken in measured rhyme
That had good sense and fell in time
Yet the words have fled away
Leaves in the warm and humid breeze
Dropped unthinking from the trees
Although they are still green

Thursday, August 5, 2021

20210805.0430

At least some of the work is done
And I find I have begun
To rest a bit and find some ease
And me my mind begins to tease
With thoughts that strife is yet to come
Rising from depths I don't plumb
Because I know what flows beneath
The sword to Freudian ego's sheath
But if the blade is dull or keen
I do not know; I have not seen

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

20210804.0430

The carpet is in patches now
And the dust that puffs with every step is not
Because of what was tracked in by
Tired feet plodding along
Daring no bareness for the
Nails sticking up and out from it
Few relish such piercings

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

20210803.0430

I did not think to sit again
In that space where I'd worked my pen
Before the time came to an end
That I would live at home
But I again find myself here
A place that had grown strangely dear
Where I once wrote throughout the year
Though, soon enough, I'll roam

Monday, August 2, 2021

20210802.0430

Looking at walls made barren
Where once they had been
Not abundant
But full
I ache while I write
Squatting again where
I had been at home

Sunday, August 1, 2021

20210801.0430

Today
Once again
They will gather
Who are separated by generations
If less now in area than before
Stand beside the first ranch road
Numbered fittingly
And communing once again in joy
Before it is too late