Mid-life Career Change
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I’d like to drive a race car
Earn a living driving fast
Drive fast today and I might
Pay speeding tickets
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I’ve always had a lead foot
Here’s a way to make money
Making a living and I
Don’t have to slow down
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The environmentalist
In me knows this is a waste
But my inner speed demon
Wants to race a car
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(A few Dodoitsu Poems)
The Longest Day
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With desire to view
The shortest night’s debut
We’re on the lake at twilight
From the seats of our boats
Time flying as we float
Sky shifts from washed-out to bright
A rainbow sans the arc
Daylight morphs into dark
We paddle into the night
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(A Balassi Stanza)
First Day of Summer
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Under an umbrella of sunshine, white clover flowers rise above their own heart-shaped foliage amidst a green mat of linear leaves. They shudder in the warm gentle breeze, stopping only momentarily before vibrating again.
Bees visit flowers
Buzzing to bring life before
Mower buzzes through
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(A Haibun Poem)
The View at the Top
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I hike the rain slicked trail, gazing from ground to wood
Afraid to trip on rocks, afraid to miss the good
Torn between what I want to do and what I should
Looking ahead and looking back to where I stood.
*
I don’t do this enough, so I need frequent breaks
To pee behind a tree, to ease my lungs from ache
Slowly I ascend the steep, resting when calves quake
Reaching the summit, I know this was no mistake.
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(An Awit Poem)
Good Morning
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Dark room
Quiet
Alarm
Rolling over
Wake up kisses
Percolation
Kettle whistle
Spoons clink
Screen door creaks
Warm sips
Cool air
Bird song
Quiet conversation
Day brightens
See you later kisses
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(An Aubade Poem)
The wood that warms you twice
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Swing and swing again
*
This log seems to like its shape
Holding onto it tightly
*
Would rather be a home for insects
Or a slow rotting place for plants to grow
Anything but firewood
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Fate or Free Will
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Blazes will guide
Life’s long strides now
Deciding fate
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(A Thanbauk Poem)
Magnolia
Beauty
when in full bloom
appreciated just
for existing beautifully
age comes
admiration diminishes
but to some open minds
beautiful is
always
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Waterfall Tableau
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Around each corner
The din gets louder
The air gets cooler
The mist gets thicker
The plants get greener
The rocks get slicker
*
Finally the last bend
Reveals the cascade
Tumbling frothy
Down the time-worn rocks
Into the deep pool
To trickle downstream
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(A Tableau Poem)
Cascade Trail
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The trail transforms from hard to soft
Looking up the sky is needled
Below my feet a tan carpet
*
Moss covers rocks like a carpet
Ferns make eroded stream bank soft
Pine cones dot a trail that’s needled
*
Shoulders brushed by branches needled
Hiking boots scuff up new carpet
All the green and tan make sounds soft
*
I tread on soft, needled, carpet
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(A Tritina Poem)
A Picture and a Poem 