Bitter cold today and a
temperature of twelve degrees
(feels like one) sends a thrill
of excitement through me.
So extreme! So grand!
I live in a place where we must
bend to the many moods of Nature
where wild variance is the norm
rather like life with a tempestuous
lover offering up her voluptuous
Self no holds barred no apology
her whole amazing singularity
expressed without qualm
nothing hidden no emotion
repressed tamped down
no wild truths covered with pat
phrase innuendo or artifice.
She says simply Here I am.
Love me or not.
Category: Poems
Resolutions
I resolve the usual improvements
to self and life once again nothing
earth-shattering in my striving:
the desire to be a nicer person,
pay my bills on time, achieve
a lifelong goal never much altered
one year to the next. Not
to give up smoking nor to
take it up nor to stop cursing
go back to church
visit the sick and elderly
eschew the eating of beef.
But I do make a list as
silly as that might seem
and in its dull serious
repetition is written a failure
of sorts that I resolve to accept.
And overcome. Next year.
Signs
It seems a tender little bit of something
to begin a new year on a Sunday
the first day of any week
in any month of any old year
a small symmetry that might
bode well as I like to think
plus my two dogs lie here lovingly
however uncharacteristically
legs over legs entwined suggesting
if I care to read it so (& let me say
right here that I do)
a quantity of forbearance
if not love not to mention that this day
is as sunlit and radiant as any
spring or summer day suggesting
grace and light to come
and in addition the wind does blow
something fierce meaning
(of course) that
ships’ sails will fill and billow
truths will be declared
angels sing in full chorus
as God whispers
recondite secrets to the trees.
Ah yes. This wind that sun
those dogs this Sunday
all signs point
to an extraordinary year.
Twenty Twelve
A year ends another begins
and I am reluctant a bit sad
to see this one go loving odd
numbers as I do and in addition
eleven seeming a magical number
a prime and hinting at infinity.
Twelve, a dozen, I suppose has
merit insofar as being sturdy
ordered common a dozen of
these two dozen of those please
half a dozen of that will do
six of one half a dozen of the other
the clock strikes twelve
noon twelve midnight
twelve apostles twelve months
in a year both this one and the next
oh I’ll learn to love it for itself
Im sure, its reliable balanced
sturdy well-ordered protean self.
Penultimate
I have waited all year long
to name this the penultimate day
of the year for who (not I) can
resist that marvelous word
given the chance to use it
since to be spoken written
down typed used in a phrase
is the be-all end-all of a word
itself otherwise lying flat
on some dictionary page, heart
thrumming in anticipation
someday to be thoughtfully
placed into a sentence not to mention
a poem! and murmuring with profound
incredulity Look! Oh my just look
where I am! and to know in its
bones it is absolutely the most perfect
word for that particular sentence.
Oh the pure joy!
But imagine if you will
the heartless glib erasing
the painful scratching through or
worst of injuries the absolute
cold horror of the delete key backing
over removing one letter at a time
leaving the tiny word pen and finally
nothing at all as some other
clearly inferior word is substituted
when everyone knows there is no
other single word that adequately
fills the shoes of penultimate.
December 29, 2011
I judge myself harshly
for judging others harshly
and round and round it goes
how it stops I cannot know.
December 28, 2011
Deep in the woods a swing hangs fromÂ
a large tree fallen across a deep cut of creek.
This is here for all to use. Please be safe. Be respectful,
written across the board that is its seat.
A mysterious elf’s gone to a lot of trouble
to delight others, walked crawled or capered
to the center of that old tree
risking life at least limbÂ
from falling onto a jumbleÂ
of big mossy rocks below
to do it, to do this for All.
Oh goodhearted Puck, I praise you!
Wonderful hero of mirth,Â
I pile blessings upon your head!
My own concocts nothing marvelousÂ
to keep the karmic balance
but I vow to do so somehowÂ
someplace sometime.
This challenge is too
marvelous to pass up.
December 27, 2011
The luxury of time
the plenitude of momentsÂ
plump, ripe, complete
I blindly believe left to me
even this one this very now
swiftly flowing past and followedÂ
directly by another holdsÂ
the possibility, no
the probabilityÂ
each and everyÂ
as I tend to imagineÂ
of brillianceÂ
not to mention
magic.Â
December 26, 2011
My son and I wandering in the woods
in the cold winter morning observing
the world anticipating the appearance
of an owl a hawk a heron saw
instead a pretty little bluebird above
our shoulders almost as if on them
and zippity doo dah we could have sung
had we thought of it which we didn’t
but even so my oh my it was a wonderful day
and everything was is and has ever since been
satisfactual and I have no reason
to expect that to change anytime soon.
December 25, 2011
Cole and Oliver two sons of three
two June babies now men
here with me for Christmas
and I breathe deeply of the contentmentÂ
that is my grown sons relaxed, easy
merry with me and each other during these
few days that we have together each year.