April 26, 2023

Forget-Me-Nots

Ghosted


All night

The rain fell

Producing a fabricated sound

Much like

An out of tune guitar

And yet

It seemed to work

Like some obscure melody

On a far reaching

A.M station

……….

With heads sunken into

soft pillows they

listen to the hard rain

Each silently deciphering

messages in the static

Desperately wanting

to tell each other

the secrets of the sounds

But not wanting

to ruin the moment.

……….

Seamless bodies

Intertwined

Not knowing where one ends

And one begins

Rain gives way

Heart beats

Takeover

Tired lungs

Breathing

In and out

In and out

……….

Now more tuned into each other

Sharing synchronous breaths

And gentle laughs

They remain silent and still

Enjoying every last note

Like a driveway moment when a favorite song comes on the radio

Thunder rattles

Eyes dart

Hearts jump

Hands grasp

Lights out


Inspiration – I’m in the online dating scene and connected with this guy who, when he learned I like to write poetry, suggested we collaborate on a poem together. We did this through texting. He wrote the first and we alternated stanzas. We chatted a bit and met once and you can guess by the title the ultimate result.

December 29, 2022

And I Die…Don’t Cry

If by a bear I’m attacked

On a gorgeous out and back

And I die…Don’t cry

If on the open road practicing skills

On my motorcycle for ultimate thrills

And I die…Don’t cry

If walking on a path through the woods

And an old tree and a breeze do me in good

And I die…Don’t cry

If playing around in a river’s water white

Filled with adrenaline and delight

I die… Don’t cry

If on my snowboard I hit the wrong edge

And careen off a steep ledge

And I die…Don’t cry

If bike, boat, boots or board was a part

of the stopping of my heart

When I Die… Don’t Cry

Take comfort that I was in my happy place

and would’ve chosen no other time and space

So I died? Don’t Cry!

But if while sitting in an office chair

In the foul blue glow of computer glare

I die…then, then you may cry.

December 6, 2022

ROCHAMBEAU

Slowing as the school bus in front of me arrives to a flock of parents and children on the sidewalk. As we come to a stop I wonder why the parents are present. This was not the way of my bus riding days. We were unsupervised flocks. No adults in our brood. Under watchful eyes, children embark, sliding into vinyl seats as parents wave to them from their concrete perches. Children wave back through smears and smudges. As the bus driver releases the brakes and turns off the flashing reds a dad in Adidas sweatpants plays rock-paper-scissors with his son through the smears and smudges. Through my own smudged windshield I see only one side of this game. Dad loses with the biggest smile. Maybe this is the reason why parents wait with their kids.


This is an example of a Prose Poem which acts like a poem but is in a format that looks like a paragraph and is created with sentences rather than lines. Confused?

December 4, 2022

Manah Manah (or Life in 6 Parts)


Unrequited

Sometimes I feel like I don’t have a partner

How I wish, how I wish you were here

Cause I’m in a field of dandelions wishing on every one that you’ll be mine, mine

I’m never alone, I’m alone all the time

It’s better to feel pain, than nothing at all,

            the opposite of love’s indifference so pay attention now,

            I’m standing on your porch screaming out

            and I won’t leave until you come downstairs

Don’t tell me I lost a step, criss-crossed in the wrong direction,      

            found myself in a conversation from a missed connection

Been wondering for days how you felt me slip your mind

            leave behind your wanton ways I want to learn to love in kind

All I need for you to admit

is that you never knew me like you thought you did

Your very first kiss was your first kiss good bye

The silence of a falling star lights up a purple sky

Angry

Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me

Even if I stuttered I would still sh-sh-shit on you

Made a beat and murdered it, Casey Anthony

I’m my brother’s keeper, every chance I can,

            I pay my taxes like any working man,

and I feel I’ve earned my right to choose

            you don’t get to play god man, I do

That’s a fine looking high horse

Buy you a bag of Fritos?
I wouldn’t let you eat the fucking chip on my shoulder

Joke, what a joke you made me

            What’s a queen to a joker tell me?

Life is emotionally abusive

One day I’ll face the hell inside me

Growing

I knew that topless lady had something up her sleeve

I’m a little bit off today, cannot put my finger on it

Another sun sets behind me, another day comes crashing in

Me and my friends are like the drums on Lust for Life

String from your tether unwinds

‘Cause I’m not worried about your state of mind

            ‘Cause you’re not the revolutionary kind

I wish I had a river I could skate away on

It isn’t hard to leave knowing I’ll be getting life on track never looking back

And I don’t want a never-ending life, I just want to be alive while I’m here

You are so beautiful to me

Lessons

The past is beautiful like the darkness between fireflies

Every line on your face tells a story somebody knows

And scars are souvenirs you never lose, the past is never far

Oh but the wonders I have seen, I will see a second time from inside the ages through your eyes

Dick Gregory told me a couple secrets before he laid down in his grave,

            all of us serve the same masters, all of us nothin’ but slaves,

            never forget the story of Jesus, the hero was killed by the state

You’re not the boss of me now

Bitches love me because they know I can rock

I know I’m young, but if I had to choose her or the sun I’d be one nocturnal son of a gun

Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans

Advice

All ya can do is do what you must

Oh Take your time don’t live too fast

You belong among the wildflowers

You’ve got to learn to leave the table, when love is no longer being served

Don’t shake the tree when the fruit ain’t ripe

Now Cinderella don’t you go to sleep, it’s such a bitter form of refuge,

            Ah don’t you know the kingdom’s under siege, and everybody needs you?

Pretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feel like you’re nothing, you’re fuckin’ perfect to me

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds

End

When life has ended and my time has run out,

            my friends and my loved ones I’ll leave there’s no doubt,

            but there’s one thing for certain when it comes my time,

            I’ll leave this old world with a satisfied mind.

I’d trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday

Close my eyes and I slip away

Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky


The Play List

Link to the Play List on You Tube

________________________________________

Title Song

Manah Manah – The Muppet Show (written by Piero Umiliani)

Unrequited

Under the Bridge – Red Hot Chili Peppers

Wish you were here – Pink Floyd (written by Roger Waters)

Dandelions – Ruth B

Glycerine – Bush

Stubborn Love – The Lumineers

Missed Connection – The Head and the Heart

The Wolf – Mumford & Sons

Brando – Lucy Dacus

You Give Love a Bad Name – Bon Jovi

I’m so lonesome I could cry – Hank Williams

__________________________________________

Angry

Killing in the Name – Rage Against the Machine

John Blaze- Fat Joe

Bonfire – Childish Gambino

Play God – Ani DeFranco

Take me to Church – Hozier

That’s All She Wrote – TI featuring Eminem

You So Done – Noga Erez

Snow on the Beach – Taylor Swift

I Apologize – Five Finger Death Punch

__________________________________________

Growing

Spanish Pipedream – John Prine

A Little Bit Off – Five Finger Death Punch

Darkness Settles In – Five Finger Death Punch

Constructive Summer – The Hold Steady

Sweetness – Jimmy Eat World

Revolutionary Kind – Gomez

River – Joni Mitchell

Destination – Nickel Creek

Spirits – The Strumbellas

You are So Beautiful – Joe Cocker

_________________________________________

Lessons

Darkness Between the Fireflies – Mason Jennings

People Get Old – Lori McKenna

Name – Goo Goo Dolls

The Mother – Brandi Carlile

Walking in the Snow – Run the Jewels

Boss of Me – They Might Be Giants

Bitches – Mindless Self Indulgence

Cupid’s Chokehold/Breakfast in America – Gym Class Heroes

Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) – John Lennon

____________________________________________

Advice

Buckets of Rain – Bob Dylan

Simple Man – Lynrd Skynyrd

Wildflowers – Tom Petty

You’ve Got to Learn – Nina Simone

Loose Lucy – Grateful Dead

A Dustland Fairytale – The Killers

Fuckin Perfect – P!nk

Redemption Song – Bob Marley

_________________________________________

End

Satisfied Mind – Porter Wagoner

Me & Bobby McGee – Kris Kristofferson

More than a Feeling – Boston

Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum


About this Poem and the Process

Music has always been an important part of my life. Our family grew up with music playing on the record player and some of my earliest memories are dancing on my dad’s feet to the crooning of a classic country song from the 50s or 60s.

My dad also read poetry with me, and my mom wrote poems and I have been doing both since I could read and write.

Combining the two was only a matter of time.

This poem is based on the Cento poetry form where lines from the poems of various poets are taken directly from the poem and assembled to create a new poem. The poem created from the lines was meant as an homage to the work of the others. The same is true in this case but I have used the lines from songs.

The song lines were crowd-sourced from family and friends. I simply asked people to share their favorite line from a song with me and most did not know I was writing a poem with them.

I did not listen to the songs before putting the poem together, choosing to incorporate them into the poem without the context of the music or the rest of the lyrics, only with the context of the other lines provided to me.

I loved the process of creating this. I learned so much about my family and friends. For some of them this was a tough assignment because they do not really listen to the words, just the music; while others this was a difficult task because it was hard to pick just one line. I learned about new music and was really surprised by some of the choices. I ended up with 50 songs and 50 new insights into my friends and family.

June 26, 2022

All the reproductive parts of Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia humifusa) on full display in this June flower.

Concupiscent

A pragmatic word

Hiding passions, desires in

Four stern syllables


A Haiku Poem – more technically a 5-7-5 poem as traditionally haikus have a cutting word and reference the seasons.

A Vocabulary Poem – I write these poems when I come across words I don’t know to help me remember their definition.

October 26, 2021

My Bedroom Windows Are Never Closed


My bedroom windows are never closed

I won’t miss a moment of nature

Every season full of sights and sounds

My blanket layers always in flux.


Spring brings the early birds’ dawn chorus

April showers and peepers return

Vixens cry for their mates in the dark

My bedroom windows are never closed


Lightning bugs blink against summer screens

Katydids sing from oak tops at night

Cicada buzz loudly fills warm days

I won’t miss a moment of nature


Great horned, barred and screech hoots fill fall nights

Sun rises reveal jewel-toned forest

Southbound Canada geese honk above

Every season full of sights and sounds


Woodpeckers tap winter’s leafless trees

Moon shadows dance from a clear night sky

Woodstove heat meets snowflakes drifting down

My blanket layers always in flux.


A cascade poem