Tag: poetry

  • A Poem about Poetry

    Poetry sings with joy
    And it dances with sorrow
    Expresses what is in our hearts
    Each day and tomorrow


    Poetry blends our feelings
    Gently in our mind
    Expressing thoughts as things
    Giving meaning to all we find


    Poetry is ours each day
    If it recognizes the moment
    Lifting up our gratitude
    Giving relief in our torment


    Poetry plays with words
    Twisting rhymes and rhythms
    Until the magic just appears
    Bringing forth as words given


    Poetry laughs just right
    Captured hearts rejoice
    When words together
    Become our common voice


    Poetry blooms and sometimes dies
    Beauty in morning when it’s given
    Glory in hearts when it flies
    Eloquent in its vision


    Poetry holds gratitude love and joy
    Mourning sometimes best expressed
    When memories needed telling
    Thus poetry bringing souls to rest

  • I wear socks with my Birkenstocks

    Just saw a lady walk on by
    She looked at me and she had to sigh
    Looking up-and-down down askance
    At my feet she gave a glance
    You know it’s because….

    I wear socks with my Birkenstocks
    I sing songs around-the-clock
    Walking up-and-down along the streets
    Making up songs for all I meet

    Some old guy came ambling by
    He might have been kind of high
    He laughed at me in my attire
    He laughed so hard I had to admire
    You know it’s because…

    I wear socks with my Birkenstocks
    I sing songs around-the-clock
    Walking up-and-down along the streets
    Making up songs for all I meet

    Sometimes children call out with glee
    As children will with their high de he
    Heidi He and Heidi Ho
    Hanging out with them is where I want to go
    You know it’s because…

    I wear socks with my Birkenstocks
    I sing songs around-the-clock
    Walking up-and-down along the streets
    Making up songs for all I meet

    The woman who loves me
    She don’t care
    Of my foibles she’s well aware
    Dressing mode is just one more thing
    Her loving man has got to sing

    I wear socks with my Birkenstocks
    I sing songs around-the-clock
    Walking up-and-down along the streets
    Making up songs for all I meet


    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 8/26/22

  • Here is a poem which took 38 years to write, and it is not finished.

    in this place in this time
    Wisdom, strength, humility, joy.
    If wisdom be your goal, then knowing you know nothing had better be good enough.
    Strength flows on, as time frame is spanned, then forms in space expanded.
    If you pray for humility, you better be prepared to accept it.
    Joy comes to those prepared to accept, and to those who know what they know, manifest as soul expanded.
    Wisdom, strength, humility, joy; all for the glory and honor of the Creator and creation.
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 05/07/16

  • moon and sun – a new day begun

    The sunset and the moon had a conversation
    Why won’t you be with me all night long
    the reflections of my glory shine all night through you
    All night long, I am still missing you though

    The moon shines down in fits and starts
    Sometimes as a sliver sometimes just in parts
    The moon bursts out and lights the land
    in summer nights the day expands
    Lovers walk under her light
    And making the use of all that’s bright

    The sun goes then comes again
    It wakes them as another day is planned
    The sunset and the moon
    In each other’s space will swoon
    Giving back when what they need
    is just what the other sees

    The sunset and the moonlight crossed
    Held together, in each other, never lost
    Balanced by what they finally found
    Each spreads light on the forests’ ground
    The sun now ponders, the moon arises
    Holding hope that darkness prizes
    joy of dreams gives soft renewal
    To lift creation like mystic jewels
    illumination
    flirtation
    conflagration
    Joy of light in night or day
    Until there’s nothing left to say

    The moon at dawn assured again
    The alignment as it had begun
    The sun would shine
    And give light reflected
    All in between again protected
    As light gives glory and hope renewed
    Such are held in morning’s dew.

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 07/18/18

  • Haiku from fire days

    In the hour before
    The mind comes into focus
    Dawn breaches slowly

    Pink clouds of dawn, soft
    Gently melding wisps of thought
    Power bringing change

    Love is like the smoke coming
    fire we don’t control
    The smoke is like love

    They spread everywhere
    in space we didn’t know was there
    A conflagration

    Fire like a giant
    Crow waiting to swoop in and
    Blow away our dreams

    Like a white egret
    Love flies across misty fog
    In all its beauty

    May grace and mercy
    Like mists find us all our lives
    Heaven here on earth

    Will anything find us
    Ever ease the weary soul
    Grace and mercy may

    Ghostly white egret
    Made late twilight passage
    A brief glimpse then gone

    Love or smoke floating
    Through our lives encumbered by
    Nothing we can see

    Felt reality
    More than any substance can
    Worth every moment

    Smoke of our sadness
    Loss we have yet to measure
    Drifts across the hearts

    Fire lingers in the
    Ashes of our dreamscape held
    In vague memory

    Love like smoke held close
    No form or substance revealed
    Is nonetheless real

    Love better than smoke
    Because ambiguity
    Lifts us up in time

    Love and smoke entwined
    Neither has a boundary
    But both impact us

    The moon is waning
    Orion striding along
    Moving to sunrise

    Blow across the sky
    Ever hoping happily
    Love is on the way

    Smoky clouds descend
    Blocking moon or shiny stars
    Wisps in time revealed

    Love or smoke rising
    Ever hoping happily
    Love is on the way

    Smoke near dawn revealed
    In random burning tells all
    That souls need to know

    Holding love like smoke
    Illusion of our power
    Nothing held is lost

    Nothing held is lost
    Turn to learn the simple truth
    Nothing held is gained

    Now hearts hold softly
    Now our hearts abide today
    smoke or love or grace

    Grace abides through time
    ever blowing on its way
    wisps of mystery

    blowing through our life
    Precious love believing
    Smoke or love will stay

    Stay to reach for smoke
    Hold to love ambiguous
    Hearts forever young

    Despite the line of time
    Memory intertwined will
    Be held together

    Smoke and ashes fade
    While love becomes egret’s flight
    Ever glides along

    Hazy smoke of love
    Bringing tears of passion forth
    Better life revealed

    Becoming simple
    Hanging wisps of thought fulfilled
    Into grace revealed

    Grace moving throughout
    A life of giving into
    Forces unforeseen

    In lives revealed somehow
    Ancient intuition here
    Love or smoke brought forth

    Lost to love til now
    Like some smoky memories
    Emerge as a mist

    Of strength in passion
    Helped discover long lost
    Innocence of hope
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 02/23/18

  • Out of fire come Seer’s dreams

    Rest quietly
    let the Spirit guides guide
    rest quietly
    among the flame
    then ash
    rest quietly
    let the Spirit guides guide
    the spirits of trees
    moved on in ash
    just as you
    and I
    will one day be moved on
    as ash

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 10/13/17

    Waiting for David Bowie or an angel to walk in
    Sitting in a chair I would welcome their grin
    A warm greeting can be expected
    In our community where we are protected
    Love is stronger than some
    And all the bureaucrats with whom I spoke
    Were kind and informative
    Sharing anything they had to give
    Emergency services are morphing
    As the options for recovery we are sorting
    Don’t worry be happy playing in the air
    Not quite yet but we’ll get there
    My community
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 10/18/17 at brew

    Bowie comes on singing “under pressure”
    The flames of nature assaulted us like a thresher
    Yet responders and neighbors responded with effort
    And kindness despite transformation brought on by the zephyr
    Homes in ruins as all our stuff is gone
    Transforming life as we knew it to a new dawn
    Mindful of what has been given and what is won
    Take the circumstance so we can act on

    Glory of friends,
    Glory of place,
    Glory to the Creator who gave us space
    To live this life as life allows
    In this our souls will rouse
    To become what we might be
    To act on what we now see
    As fate and circumstances
    In this our life’s brand new dance
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 10/18/17 at brew

    To search the depths of resiliency
    The fog in the Redwoods portends that with which we must contend
    Everything is a test and a lesson to search the depths of resiliency.
    Or expand the heart.
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 12/14/17

    Winter whirls
    Outside the window
    Inside worries and wonders
    Continue
    As they do
    Wishing for joy
    Settling for contentment
    Have to take
    What is there for the taking
    Blessings
    Mixed
    As they often are

    Firestorm
    Still blows
    Cold and harsh now
    Like nothing
    Ever felt before
    Harsh like ashes
    Stuck to a shoe

    Scattering ashes to the wind
    As memories cling
    Like leaves
    To trees.
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 12/26/17

    Love is like smoke
    Smoke is like love
    They come from a fire we don’t control
    They spread everywhere in the space there is

    Fire sits like a giant Crow waiting
    To swoop in and blow away our dreams
    Love flies across the view scape
    In the fog like a white egret
    There in all its beauty
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 01/29/18

    A truck weighed down
    like a soul
    a journey
    filled with stones of memory
    somewhere in California
    a monarch flutters
    like a soul
    the journey against hot winds
    a journey to be completed nonetheless
    despite the possibility of death
    especially because of the possibility of death
    life’s journey is like that
    moving forward
    ever forward
    despite the inevitability of death
    smoke filled skies
    give way to memories
    dusty ashes of our lives
    sifted in mesh nets
    yielding the unburnable
    Memories
    like pebbles through the mesh of our minds
    this is what is left
    except for the love thicker than smoke
    wafting in the air
    ghosts of the buildings
    we once called home
    blow out to sea
    or settle in the vineyard soil
    to grow to be a smoky ghostly vintage
    such is our Redwood lives
    where love is thicker than smoke
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/26/18
    Another Thursday

    From the depths of Sorrow
    or the heights of joy
    all the world can do
    is ask, “Do you want more?”
    On the day we are born
    until the day we die
    all the world can show is,
    “This is it”
    In our deepest thoughts
    and our shouted words
    all the world’s lessons are expressed
    From the dawn’s early light
    to the sunset glow
    the world is always spinning
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 08/23/18

    Another Friday night

    Five days of Orion running
    through smoke passing
    through places of which we spoke
    Paradise and Hidden Valley
    Gone away now
    Under Fire and Ash
    gone away
    gone
    gone in the ashes
    rise up in the air
    to arrive upon another life
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 11/09/18

  • Politics

    Transparency and Trust are the currency of democracy
    In order to gain trust the people involved have to have a fair and equitable opportunity to participate.
    Transparency which is planned and genuine assures each person can know what is going on when they choose to pay attention.
    Most people have neither the time or sustained interest to solve these huge problems.
    That is why we hire politicians of good repute.
    We Trust our leaders to hire competent dedicated professionals.
    An informed appraisal of these conditions shows you are doing the steps necessary to move our community forward.
    Having met that prerequisite, now I ask you to improve the transparency and participation as we move forward
    I invite you to communicate with me if you are committed to the principle I am speaking about.

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 04/25/18

    Not a new revelation that politics sounds a lot like hypocrites
    not a new feeling this indignation
    complex problems given voice
    deflated deferred to a false choice
    searching for hope for all the nation
    words words words dancing absurd
    when will the people’s concerns be heard
    can anyone understand our problems simply
    or actually listen with some intimacy?
    hold them responsible for all we see
    demand our leaders assure transparency
    all our facts based on reality

    Then the answers will emerge
    bursting forth through the people’s words
    democracy triumphs over the absurd
    God help them
    God help us
    as we demand our justice

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 05/04/18

    Sneeze tick cough

    Sneeze tick politics
    you can’t stop any of them
    they just keep going on and on
    they’re mostly unpleasant
    but always needed
    sneeze tick
    sneeze cough
    cough cough
    pick ticks over politics
    politics
    another wasted bloviated sound
    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 11/11/18
    180530 Homeless Action at Rodota Trail_1140

  • Before you can dance again

    I got bit by a spider
    and stung by a bee,
    all in 24 hours
    once again life came along and made a fool out of me

    One thing I’ve learned
    as days go by
    you have to get back on your feet
    before you can dance again

    I got hit by a drunk
    then sprayed by a skunk
    It knocked me for a loop
    and I hacked and gagged and stooped

    One thing I’ve learned
    as days go by
    you have to use
    both hands to clap

    All my stuff got stolen
    while I slept on the ground
    and none of it was golden
    the thief by dreams emboldened

    One thing I’ve learned
    as days go by
    you have to wake up and reach for the sky
    even when you want to cry

    My partner left in a huff
    they’d had enough
    of bickering and snickering
    and other couple’s stuff

    My dog had no leash
    so the god damned police
    took her off to puppy jail
    and left me here to wail.

    One thing I’ve learned
    as days go by
    that a dog will wag her tail
    when one of us gets out of jail

    One thing I’ve learned
    about life on the streets
    it’s filled with defeats
    and life’s simple treats

    like a dogs wagging tail.

  • Cold / Homeless Count 2018


    Cold rain
    Driving down the homeless man
    Doing his best to live as he can
    The world shattering all of his plans

    Cold shoulder
    And hostile stare
    Coming from those
    Who don’t want him there

    Cold heart in the night
    A policeman’s flashlight
    and on the cold morn
    Wishing sometimes to never been born

    Cold numbers
    Do the counting on the counting day
    Give the impression we can stop this someday
    But just to know the need hasn’t assured we’ll succeed.

    Cold here outside
    On the day he died
    Maybe it was different
    If someone really tried

    Existence is a struggle
    the fortitude which humans must muster
    to get out of trouble
    proves a warm heart has a lustre

    Overcoming cold rain
    cold shoulders
    cold nights
    cold numbers
    the cold outside
    the blizzard of life

    Fortitude and kindness
    dumb luck illumine
    the world’s blindness
    to suffering or need
    world driven by greed

    Homeless carry on
    from dusk until dawn
    refusing to behave
    as only a pawn

    refusing to give in
    to bureaucrats’ sin
    of following rules
    set down by fools
    who don’t have to sleep
    in the street again

    Cold rain
    Cold shoulder
    Cold heart in the night
    Cold numbers
    Cold here outside

    Struggle for lustre
    Fortitude and kindness
    Homeless carry on
    in the street
    then it’s dawn,
    night’s behind us

    Poem 2016

    Poem 2015

    The day my parents named me

    I make myself cry

    Goodness in his heart

    At home with the homeless

  • Measure of time

    171023 3521 Brookdale 120

    171211 3521 brookdale (4)

    I used my father’s tape measure
    to measure the distance to the point of departure
    Counting the inches and the feet
    to the place where we found defeat
    I saw the ashes
    I saw the sun on the burnt-out chimney

    49 and a half feet from the curb and 13 feet on the property line
    I saw the inches, the feet,
    The space in between then and now

    The bricks, like memories, all in this place
    This is where family gathered for warmth and comfort
    A firestorm turned all of that into something else

    The fireplace mantel had some mementos;
    so I did something stupid to get up and get them
    The fireplace bricks said, “You have to learn another lesson.”
    And I fell down to sprain my ankle
    I fell down to instantly recognize my vulnerability, once again

    171211 3521 brookdale (15)