20210930.0430

He spoke of the standing stones
Foundations upon which he continued to build
As his family had done for generations
Each laborer in lands where
They had been made to labor making
The footing all the firmer
Though there is much yet to do
And I and far away from the stones laid down
By those who bore those who bore me
Blown about again and again by winds that
Sometimes fair
Still have sent me on an uncertain course
A leaf erratic
Or a small seed that still has not found the soil
Into which to grow

20210929.0430

Still amid the clutter of a home
Uprooted and transplanted, I
Struggle to make sense of it all, but
The scattering of things has let me
Struggling to find myself amid the mess and
That means there's not a lot I can do but
Struggle to make sense of it all

20210928.0430

Each time I think the race is run
They show me there's another leg to the relay
And I've got nobody to whom to pass the baton
So I keep hold of that little stick and
Hope someday I'll find someone
To whom I can give it
Maybe with force

20210927.0430

I linger looking at the laurels
Praises from the past once packed away and
Brought again before my bared face to see
What I once did and won in years now gone
Lauds for the late that linger on
And I do not know how to feel

20210926.0430

Forget not that the Stupid God remains
Within the world to give unthinking pains
To those who struggle valiantly and strain
To make the world a better place for all.
That still the Stupid God remains recall,
And work to help them go on, not to fall,
Who press ahead with work done to redeem
The fall to folly that too often seems
To choke out hope. Listen as they scream
Their anger and their anguish at the plight
Of bringing darkness into showing light
And help them; do not hinder them. They fight
To make the world a better place for you;
Do more for them than the least that you can do.

20210925.0430

Ninety days alone remain
And soon will some sound the refrain
At thought of which they often claim
To feel some great oppressive pain
That not all their holidays proclaim
And by not doing show disdain
For words they themselves don't explain
Through the examples of their lives

20210924.0430

The first span finds and end today
And for a time, the students play
While I will toil this next day
And the one that follows
I must see if they've passed the test
I put to them; I may not rest
Until it's done at school's behest
Perhaps it'll be tomorrow

20210923.0430

The Stupid God has ever found a field
Of such sort as a fitting crop will yield
Among those whose potential's not revealed
And sows it with the laziness some praise
While they enjoy the springtime of their days
And youthful voices sullenly upraise
And while things ever have gone on this way
They confront now, not in earlier day
But now, and now is when they will allay
The hopes that generations yet to be
Will be at long last able to be free
From grip of Stupid God, unless it's we
Who work now to redeem the wayward youth
However much they seem content uncouth

20210922.0430

I and all the lands around
Have lost our footing, stable ground
Yet shifting winds can scarce be found
Though darkness more and more surrounds
The balance day is come once more
As it has often come before
The game goes on, but now, the score
Sways as the teams go on tour

20210921.0430

Today
Come quick to see the last performance
On this tour, at least
Of the radiant Aestas
Dancing over limestone hills
Demeter will soon sweep in, and
Braciaca from more northern climes
And if we will miss the one
Is there not delight in the others' attentions?

20210920.0430

Rising in time to see Helios ascend
I rarely take the time do to so because
I follow more after Hephaestus despite
Hearing Muses, but I am no Apollo
Tall and radiant and fair
Prone to wrath and rapine and ruin
For all the praise that is received

20210919.0430

Trying once again this faith thing
Because they seem to benefit from doing so and
I support them in their endeavors
They give enough to me
As I do not for them
And that I struggle to believe is
Another way I fail them

20210918.0430

Gulping down the black brew
Breathing it, almost, its bitterness
Flowing through my body from my inmost outwards
Giving life to every cell it touches and
Helping me to face the day each day
And I need to draw another in

20210917.0430

It'll be okay
I tell myself again and again
It'll be okay
I have to keep believing
It'll be okay
I can't let myself not believe that
It'll be okay
I can't let myself concieve of things other than that
It'll be okay
Even with believing that
It'll be okay
I'm close to panic
It'll be okay
If I don't make me believe that
It'll be okay
I know that I will fail
So
It'll be okay
I have to make it true that
It'll be okay
There's nothing else to do so
It'll be okay
And I'm the one to ensure that
It'll be okay
It'll be okay
It'll be okay
It'll be okay
It'll be okay

20210916.0430

Each day I feel there's
Some observance that I'm missing
Some holiday that I should mark
Some occasion worth attention
And I am not paying that fee
An old cliché
About the gift that is each day
Comes to mind
And that might be it
But I do not think it is
Not really
Unless it is that every gift
Comes at a cost to somebody
And I still wonder who
Still pays the prices for mine

20210915.0430

One of these days, I
Will be able to sit with a pen in my hand again
And not be writing what others will not read

20210914.0430

Running and running and running again and
Finding that my shoes are not as supportive as
They used to be but
Not knowing where I can get another pair
Along the way I'm going

20210913.0430

Set to run the races again
Marathonning despite time away from the track
My wind gives out earlier than I had thought it would
Because I have been exercising
But the tasks are different and
I do not have the endurance that I used to have

20210912.0430

Already
I can hear them warming up
Getting ready to play again a plaintive song
Such as I have heard before
With more players of less experience
And some
I know
I know
I know
Are deliberately out of tune

20210911.0430

Twenty years on
And they still say that the world has changed
That they remember the times before
And think that they were good
And there were good things about those days
For some
Just as there are good things about these days
For some
And maybe there are more for more
Which is as it ought to be
But if it is
Why do they look to former days
Knowing that the times before
Drew toward the one day
And these twenty years after

20210910.0430

So
This is how it is
This is how it has to be
This is what I have to see
When I look out around me
And I don't know what it is anymore

20210909

Thinking ahead
Was obviously
Not a strength
Yesterday
Or before
I must do better

20210908.0430

Tigers once but
Chicken-blooded now, they
Hover, rotors whirring
Looking for a landing zone
Filled with bullets and bile
And I worry that I have
Made a clearing for them
Somehow
Already

20210907.0430

All out of season, I go again
Thinking I might harvest apples
But may have more to do to prune errant branches
Give good soil for deeper rooting
And maybe the fruit will ripen sweetly
Nourish those who follow after
I can hope so
Wish me luck

20210909.0430

So
The one man can
Lay out glowsticks as an invitation to a trap
Set a truck on fire
Flee
Fire on four others
Killing a dog
Killing three
One a babe in arms
Another its mother
Another hers
Try to take a cop's gun
And still walk out alive?
But the other cannot have his truck break down
Without making officers afraid
Signing his own death warrant?
Or another cannot have a quiet night at home
Without execution?
Gee, I wonder why.

20210906.0430

Beside you now, I lift my fist
And even if my wrist is weak
It is stronger not alone
As is the case with yours
As we remember on this day
As we ought on other days
Because we've seen what happens when we do
And when we don't
And one is clearly better

20210905.0430

I listen yet to the years-old refrain
I've heard so often it has become plain
And clear to even me; I do not strain
Untangling threads the harmonies will weave
Or picking out the words that I believe
Still speak good thoughts I delight to receive.
I still, though, see that other still rely
On what they think is one voice to get by
Even if it feeds them on a lie
And tells them so-called thought-control abounds
When it itself divergent thought surrounds
And seeks to have it swallowed by the ground
A fate that waits for all, as must be said
But one to which some are more swiftly led.

20210904.0430

The staring blank pages rebuke me
Wordlessly
And I shudder at their censure
But that quivering is enough to
Break me free from
What holds me back
And I begin again

20210903.0430

Today, of course, is the last day I will be working at the Hill Country Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Inc. After the weekend, I will take up my new position at Burnet High School in Burnet, Texas. Here, as I have done elsewhere, I thank the Council for the good years it has given me, and I wish my erstwhile coworkers all the best as they move forward--and as I do!

No poem for today, as might be thought--but I do have to offer the titular dash of lucid prose every now and again...

20210902.0430

Still the sparrows sing together and the wrens
As one among their number gains a new feather in a brighter hue
Promise of fairer plumage and more valuable to come
And the old staring owl looks to greener fields
Whither it will fly off all too soon
There again to vomit out what it has taken in over years
On fields where bulldogs frolic on the green

20210901.0430

Winding out the last few days
Where I have worked and garnered praise
Not yet a corpse yet still decay
But I recall that rot provides
More nourishment for future lives
And so my lingering helps thrive
Those who will follow after