Thursday 31 October 2019

Breathe Love

Breathe Love
(A butterfly shaped double Etheree)

Flight

To soar

Feels so right

To flit to roar

Rise above it all

To watch the world go by

And when danger comes to call

Disappear like a dragonfly 

Irritations like mosquitoes come

Whisper in your ear your heart try to sting 

Help is sent with wings beating as a drum

With a humming iridescent wing

Help's come and the swarm scattered

God sends his warriors to you

For to you it mattered 

When the battle's through

Dragonfly it

Take a break

Sit still

Breathe

(Aside

This  next  bit   is   a   true   story   friend
I   should    know   it    happened   to  me

In BC)

Breathe

Just breathe

I told me

I tried and failed

Panic still attacked

Little voices buzzing

I felt alone in the crowd

At Jesus Fest (christian Woodstock)

I did not float I felt weighted down 

Are you out there, Lord, do you even care?

Oh  give me a sign show me you are here

Despite my dark clouds the sun shone on

From the edge of the crowd a flash

My eyes followed the movement

It was a dragonfly

It searched and found me

Knowledge flooded

I was worthy

Of Gods

Love







Tuesday 29 October 2019

Scars

Scars
( a tanka)

Scars are reminders

A limp the sign of struggle

Wait. The best takes time

Don't let destiny pass by

Wrestle it down don't let go


Monday 28 October 2019

Flight of Fantasy

Flight of Fantasy 

The old man was gone the flash bright as day

Tumbling through space in the starless night 

Past solar systems past the milky way

Around asteroids and a satellite 

Visions of the past flash along the way

Suddenly ahead the end of the flight

As he left the stream a crackling sphere

And he rose saying, 'How did I get here?'

Saturday 26 October 2019

You Too are Brave



You Too are Brave
(A Joseph Star poem)

Mute

Witnesses

Hold toxic secrets

Drowning deep in toxic sludge

Doesn't make super heroes

They just breathe the bile

And hold their

Tongues

*
Bite

On the cheek

Clench nails into fists

Hard and tight as their hearts

Take your medicine or else

It's hard to swallow

The bitter

Pill

*
Spit

It out friend

It burns coming up

The smell and mess may spread out

Empty but cleaning can start

Healing comes when you

Spit out that

Truth

*


Friday 25 October 2019

Love Please

Love Please
 
(A mussete)


White hat

Justice served by

Combat


White knights

Defend land for

The rights 


White dove

Symbol of peace

Please love

Love 

Love 

Love 

Love 

PLEASE!

Thursday 24 October 2019

Fella in Yella

Fella in Yella
(A parking attendant's parody of 
Johnny Cash's song "The Man in Black")

Well you wonder why I always dress in yella
Why you always see bright colors on this fella
And why does my appearance seem to have a cheerful tone
Well there's a reason for the things that I have on

I wear the yellow for the poor and beaten down
Who came to the busy crowded side of town
I wear it for the parker who's gonna pay for his crime 
Got ticketed cause he's a victim of bus lane times
  

I wear the yellow for those who never read
Or listened to the words of signs that are in red
They say, 'the roads and sidewalks belong to me'
They're wrong they belong to the agents of the city


People think they're doing might fine I do suppose
In thier streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes
Just so we're reminded of what the by law will allow
Downtown there ought to be a fellow in yellow 

I wear canary for the sick and lonely old
Who lost their disabled spot to a thief so cold
I wear a shiny vest the color of the morning sun
To ticket those whose meter time has run


I wear it for the hundreds who have cried
Believing backward logic was on their side
I wear it for another hundred who have whined
Gambling on time and luck in thier pride
  


Well folks'll never park properly I know
And vehicles need ticketing everywhere I go
So till y'all make a move to start to park right
You'll even see us drive at night


I'd love to wear a rainbow every day 
And tell the world their parking is ok
So I'll try to carry off this color that is mella
Until people park brighter...
I'm the fella in yella

Mangy Menagerie

Mangy Menagerie 
(A series of acrostodes)
[disclaimer: I took poetic liscence with breeds. Rufio is a striped tabby I realized to late. Dawn was an American shorthair which is mixed  with sable Burmese cats = Bombays. Web pics look just like her ]

I
Oliver
Owned by my wife before we met
Lived at her parents acreage 
Inside cat almost human
Very smart very loved 
Eventually got sick
Rough time for Esther
II
Dawn
Black sleek smooth as satin
Once in a shelter rescued at Christmas 
My sister our housemate wasn't so sure
But soon spoiling like hyper auntie she is
As soon as snow left loved outdoors
Yet sadly would not stay in the yard
Curiosity climbing cheerfully caperin
Atop the fence up a tree on the roof
Took off taken by traffic RIP
III
Tobey
Him-a-lay-(a)'n all day long
Inscrutable intelligence 
Master of the zen art of being a cat
Also a rescue--from cousins' menagerie 
Lets you touch him...
As long as your fingers smell safe
You'd think he's a miniature lion groomed
Always looking for the softest place 
Nap times a holy quest to a Himalayan 
IV
Rufio
Calico kitty
Always curious
Leaping into laps without warning
If he could talk he'd yell 'Bangarang'
Crazy eyed galloping the jungle in his mind
Over obstacles and under foot
Rub his ears and he melts
Up in the cat tree he is King of all he sees
Folded boneless pretzel when he sleeps
Inching innocently toward my plate
One paw on my knee feed me eyes
V
Rolly
Thin
Outside on her own
Refused to stop asking for help
Took our kindness stole our hearts
Other cats beware her personal bubble
Inside her was a secret
She was pregnant
Every day her belly grows
She puts mean in me(a)nagerie
Heaven help the boy that takes her food
Extreme cuddler
Looks like a turtle--chocolate and caramel
Litle nutty too









Wednesday 23 October 2019

Pieces of Me

Pieces of Me
(A loop poem)

I
I'm not sure if I was ever whole
Whole but bent insufficient 
Insufficient but able to face the flaws 
Flaws I could work around be efficient 
II
Weight of responsibility is a mantle heavy
Heavy hangs the mirror of perfection
Perfection builds a prison of glass
Glass is a hard cold thin protection 
III
Thought I'd found love she threw a hammer
Hammer of words my heart shattered
Shattered fragility makes scalpel pieces
Pieces sliced pieces scattered 
IV
I lost my job my way my place
Place the good pieces in my tender chest
Chest of drawers hold what pieces I'd face
Face embrace of one who knows me best
V
Iron sharpens but love smooths the edges
Edges prayerfully rearranged knit together 
Together her, I and the lord form a mosaic
Mosaic joined  with honesty stands weather
VI
I'm not fixed but like the picture emerging
Emerging is a picture I could not have seen
Seen through the glaze in the cracks is light
Light forms patterns with a celestial sheen 

Monday 21 October 2019

Shofar Show Good


THE SHOFAR
(A didactic  shape poem)

a ram's  horn blown as a wind instrument, sounded in Biblical times chiefly to communicate signals in battle and announce certain religious occasions and in modern times chiefly at synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
This simple trumpet made from an animal’s horn produces a sound that connects eternity to eternity.
With each blast of the horn, the defeat is driven out of the heart of those surrounded and it is replaced with hope. Defeat is swallowed up by victory. This, in essence, is what the sound of the shofar should do for those hearing it.
In the description of the conquests of Joshua and the People of Israel, the walls of Jericho came tumbling down after blowing the Shofars. And so it is written in the book of Joshua (6, 1-20) about the conquest of Jericho and falling of its walls:


Poetry is my shofar
   A release of 
       the spirit within
            Poetry is my shofar
                 A prophetic vision
                      Of what could 
                          Come to pass
                               Poetry is my shofar
                                     A blast is heard
                                           All across the land
                                                  I'm a blast master
                                                        Poetry is my shofar
                                                               Clarion call to battle 
                                                                     For the voiceless
                                                                           Against bullies
                                                                      And injustice 
                                                                  Poetry is my shofar
                                                                A wake up call
                                                              A call to prayer
                                                           Reminder of humility 
                                                         Gratitude for life
                                                       And all its gifts
                                                    Poetry is my shofar
                                                 A call to search 
                                             The dark recesses
                                           Under mossy rocks
                                        Deep within my soul
                                     To break the dam
                                  Let tears wash away
                               Poetry is my shofar
                            Sometimes musical
                         Sometimes quivering
                      Sometimes broken
                   Sometimes deep and rich
                Staccato repetition
              Or long and drawn out
           Poetry is my shofar
        Signal of atonement
    Examine motives
Put actions to the test
     Consider who you've harmed
          And how you can heal
              Poetry is my shofar
                 Celebrate the new year
                     Revel in the change
                         Joy in creation
                            Or your evolution 
                                Fasting time over 
                                    Share our bounty
                                        Poetry is my shofar
                                            When I hit a wall
                                                 Insurmountable
                                                     Enemy stronghold
                                                         Screaming, 'Go away!
                                                             Or I'll taunt again' 
                                                          Refuse to be silent
                                                        Day after day
                                                      Old foundations crumble
                                                   Barriers will fall
                                               Bullies kneel defenseless
                                            Exposed to righteous light
                                        Poetry is my shofar 
                                                   
                                                I will lift it

                                                    To my

                                                      Lips
       

Sunday 20 October 2019

History Geography

History Geography 
(A haibun)

I have been blessed in my life 
To not have to choose 
Between mountain ocean or even prairie

My mom had to go from Parsons 
To Golden BC so I could be born
Breathing mountain air with mother's milk

6 months old moved to High River, Alberta
Rolling ranch country with a foothills view

Later we were in Assinaboia Saskatchewan 
Wide open skys and land for miles

1 year in Regina, Saskatchewan 
While my brother was struggling to be born
In the heart of storm country

6 years in Meadow Lake Saskatchewan 
Pre teen in a pine tree lake land rodeo town

Sent to Williams Lake BC stayed 20 years
Finally back home in the mountains
Another pine tree lake land rodeo town
Old enough to drive my self and my friends
To the waterfalls and deep river canyons
Climb cliffs and boot ski down

I moved on my own to Kamloops BC
Dry brown hills with a lush fruited valley
2 rivers meet in the park at the city's heart
Learned to busk at the farmer's market
Met my wife at a poetry group 

In between all these homes we travelled
Summer Christmas or Thanksgiving 
Weddings funerals and graduations

One Grandma in Regina Saskatchewan

The other in Victoria BC
An island off the crowded coast
Driving through old growth forrest trails
To get to Cowichan River bible camp
Fishing off the breakwater steps
Blackberries picked fresh off the bramble
Uncle diving to check his seafood traps

These family trips from the mountains 
To the prairies and back again
Revealed familiar roads and vistas
Decked out in new clothes and accessories 
With the changing of seasons and weather

Full circle my wife and I have settled down
With the rest of the family and kids
In Regina Saskatchewan 
Sure I miss the sight of distant mountains 
In the center of the country
Why?
No earth quakes or tsunamis or avalanches

*******
Ocean waves of grain
Wash toward the foothill shore
Farmhouse lost at sea

****
Foothills of cloud build
A dark mountain grows miles high
Lightning climbs its face





Purple Haze

Purple Haze
(A villanelle)

Sometimes I put on my Mardi Gras face

Walk in purple prose in a purple haze

I drift marooned in outer space 



I can show pomp and power and grace

Let banners wave and fireworks blaze

Sometimes I put on my Mardi gras


Around the mulberry bush in endless chase

Wandering among orchids in psychedelic maze

I drift marooned in outer space


Cover aubergine bruises mask in place

Dance around the truth with a glib phrase

Sometimes I put on my Mardi gras face98



I feel like I'm part of an alien race

Alienated alone and in a daze for days

I drift marooned in outer space



Someday I'm sure I'll find my place

Bring balance to my way

Sometimes I put on my Mardi Gras face

I drift marooned in outer space







Saturday 19 October 2019

Fly Butterfly

Fly Butterfly 
(A blitz poem)

Can you take a little disappointment? 
We're you a little disappointment? 
Disappointment to your father 
Disappointment to your mother 
Mother may I... regret my birth 
Mother Gaia mother earth
Earth thrown on an open grave 
Earth angel makes me want to shave
Shave and a haircut....two bits
Shave your head and take the hits
Hits keep on coming 
Hits you on the head 
Head bowed deep in care
Head bowed deep in prayer 
Prayer helps with struggles you need to solve
Prayer helps to strengthen your resolve
Resolve that it shall come to be
Resolve and thou art free
Free to try and free to fall
Free healthcare for one and all
All around the mulberry bush 
All together now push push push 
Push the baby in a long black carriage
Push your agenda on traditional marriage
Marriage: 2 grains ground with humor leaven
Marriage is a match made in heaven
Heaven is not found on earth
Heaven will show you what you're worth
Worth is determined by how you end not how you start
Worth is determined by the size of your heart
Hearts once broken can be healed again
Hearts with cracks are magnets to pain
Pain in the ass
Pain will pass
Pass like a gallstone
Pass me one end of a turkey wish bone
Bone of my bone flesh of my flesh
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony still pretty fresh
Fresh prince of Bel Aire
Fresh adventures for you to dare
Dare to see what you'll become
Dare to take steps to overcome
Overcome but keep your heart tender
Overcome pride and make it surrender
Surrender your heart to good feeling
Surrender your hurt to get healing
Healing given time caterpillar to butterfly
Healing turned bitter maggot into fly
Fly
Butterfly



Friday 18 October 2019

A Celtic mind a Viking soul

A Celtic mind a Viking soul

(A Kyriele)


From D. N. A. we all began

Our origins then could be told

Dad is a Jones mom a Wikman

A Celtic mind a Viking soul



I can sing like a Welsh coal man

Yet Swedish food I do extol

Herring in a pickling can!

A Celtic mind a Viking soul



A gift of gab from Ireland

Norwegian sauna makes me whole

Freedom and fierce heart from Scotland

A Celtic mind a Viking soul


For now we have a future plan

From our dark past we take control

Take the best from your crazy clan

A Celtic mind a Viking soul




Wednesday 16 October 2019

Father Time

Father Time

(A minute poem)

A skinny kid became a dad 

A happy lad 

Who was his joy

His silly boy


We loved to find son father time

The hills we'd climb

And frisbees throw

Tell jokes we know


But father time he marches on

Young days are gone 

As clocks unwind

So does dad's mind

Ballad of my Mother's Mothers

Ballad of my Mother's Mothers 

(Refrain)


Oh mother may I never
Break the chain of faith
That binds us to your mother
Who taught us about grace
That binds us to her mother
Who didn't know her place
With my sister and my brother 
We'll keep running the race

I
Great gran was grand a feisty dame
A teacher and scotch lass 
She was town reve with a good name
Native friend full of class

II
Gran's father was a Norwegian
She married a sad man
Widow found a man from Sweden
Uffda feda Nemen 

III
Small girl from a small prairie town
Followed Sis to college 
A handsome man was called to preach
Together they have loved


Monday 14 October 2019

Mother Earth Tableau

Mother Earth Tableau

(summer)

A fluffy seed falls
The pregnant earth naps 
In afternoon sun
All warm and drowsy
Even the night sweats
Makes each hour drag

(Autumn)

A russet leaf falls
Drifting past frosted
Panes and grass and trees
Morning sun melts some
Market nurseries 
Send fruit to good homes

(Winter)

A fluffy flake falls
Like a cold dry tear
A pure white halo
Crowns every treetop
Arthritic bowed limbs
In a long deep sleep

(Spring)

Last icicle falls
Cold in remission
Mud mask makes fresh
Seed of her fruit buds
Buds bloom and blossom
Breathe in life renewed

New tints

New Tints

The land wraps up in a warm coat

Around the shoulders of the hills

The trees went out to get a new doo

Angry red leaves riding on the wind

Laser crimson leaves missile into your face

Stubborn ginger leaves cling to branches

Try to pry the twig from my cold dead stem

Fierce orange leaves try to burn the world

Crackling flames dancing in the storm

Lazy yellow leaves ambling in the breeze

Deep purple leaves dancing to the beat

Leaping to crowd surf the pile with ecstasy 

Retired rusty leaves huddled in drifts

Waiting together slowly breaking down

Until everyone is buried in white

Sunday 13 October 2019

Inky Knight

Inky Knight
(A shadow poen

Inky night hides the hand that holds the inn key 

Grim door carved like an original book by brother's Grimm 

Slinky steps come to meet in a dress so slinky  

Slim lines caress long legs so slim



Which man could resist so beguiling a witch

Chest beating he pulled the pulsing relic from the velvet lined chest

Pitch dripped from the torch flickering at fever pitch

Wresting dagger from sheath he stabbed her wizened heart unto its final resting



Pain gripped his heart as wind drove branch through window pane

Real understanding of his victory made senses reel

Rain lashed the world to celebrate the end of her reign

Steel put away from her neck the talisman did steal



Towed in his cart was her supply of eye of newt and ear of toads

Rode wearily his horse plodded down the dusky road


Saturday 12 October 2019

Silent void

Silent Void



Silence like the void

Heaven's breath held when Jesus 

Said "It is finished" 

Thursday 10 October 2019

Touch

Touch
(A clarity pyramid)

TOUCH

shivers

Slow deep sighs 

*
Like a symphony 

Conducting your body

Slow rhythmic writhe * finale

"Largest organ used to show love"

*
(The skin is the largest organ of the human body. )

I Close My Eyes

I Close My Eyes
(A triolet)

I close my eyes it's you I see

Against blue skys bright sun above 

Jade waves disguise the sapphire sea 

I close my eyes it's you I see 

You broke the lies upon that tree

You heard our cries you died for love

I close my eyes it's you I see

Against blue skys bright sun above








Wednesday 9 October 2019

Smells like Love

Smells like Love

Oh tales to be told of cat and its tongue
Curious and rough designed like velcro
It cleans off my fur like scrubbing brillo
But tis of my nose this ballad is sung

Wait right there human where have your hands been.
I detect some soap and natural sweat
A hint of some food it smells dry not wet
I grant permission to pet and to preen

You got a new thing I'll sniff every inch
My detective nose can smell no danger
My friend got groomed and stinks like a stranger 
What are you eating sniff sniff made me flinch 

I pounce for i see a warm lap above 
Crawl up nuzzle in your neck smells like love

Tuesday 8 October 2019

Literary Tongue Twister

Literary Tongue Twister


Although assonance makes a certain sound

Be the bard boldly banging beats on the boards

Carefully count cadence considering conssonance 

Dramatically determine down beats don't drop dactyls

Ever even endlessly effects epigrams 

Find the foot follow the form

Get a genre between Gothic novel and goth poetry

Hopefully its hyperbole-- hungry enough to eat a horse

 Ironic the image of inches of iamb in a foot

Jah we be jamming justifying juxtaposition 

Kant and Kierkegaard kibitzing to koinania

Learn the lexicon or lightly lilt a limerick 

Mete out miles and meters of metaphysical metaphors 

Now narrative nonets need nine nouns

Omnimatopea or omniscient overview

Producing palindrome or paradox produces paroxysms

Refrain not from rhyme and rhythm help me rondeau help help rondel

Sibilantly stuffing syntax and symbolism into my soliloquy

The theme of this text is the tongue firmly in cheek

Us unreliable narrators use understatment to understand utopia

Veritable villian I've been to use versimltude in verse

Well without wit where would we be?

Out of ideas for x, y, and z I mean Zed, eh!?!

Sunday 6 October 2019

Song Sung Blue

Song Sung Blue
(A compound word verse)

Float with Strauss on the blue Danube
Blue rhapsody swings I'm a rube
Not blue blood

I was born the year of Woodstock 
But did not wear a hippie frock
Or bluejeans

I was raised in small country towns
But don't two step or love the sounds 
Of bluegrass 

I don't have a shoulder parrot
Can't dance a jig like a pirate
Like bluebeard

But when I tried harmonica...
Now I'm busking in Canada
A bluesman




Saturday 5 October 2019

Light my Fire

Light my fire

People are strange when you're a stranger 
Faces are ugly when your alone
Women seem wicked when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven when you are down
Faces come out of the rain
No one remembers your name

Break on through to the other side

Girl you gotta love your man
Take him by the hand 
Make him understand
Give me songs to sing
And emerald dreams to dream
And I'll give you love unfolding
Love's a dream and dreams are good
Don't be surprised when you wake up in tears

Break on through to the other side

There are things known and unknown
In between are the doors
The future is uncertain
But the end is always near
Expose yourself to your deepest fears
It steals its power and you are free

Break on through to the other side.

Friday 4 October 2019

Impervious

Impervious


Cage 
I wish 
I were him
Luke Cage hero
Sticks and stones bounce off yet hard word still stick
That super power is the one I want
An iron heart
Teflon wrapt 
And pain
Free
Cold 
And dark
Hard not free
Lonely and still
Sometimes what we seek is not what we need
You will learn this truth: the fires of pain
Are what forges
The sword that
Breaks the
Cage

Thursday 3 October 2019

The womb I have

The Womb I Have.
(A florette)

The womb I have I wear outside 
Royal jewels I can not hide
In the process doing thier part
But I would not be smart to say I'm full of pride

The womb I have inside my mind
Is fertile soil to be mined
Ideas the seed heart gestated 
With time incubated full grown fruit to 
find


The womb I have is in my house
Where I can hide a quiet mouse
Weary bones lie to rise reborn
Time given without scorn allowed by my sweet spouse


The womb I have does not exist
Why would I think it could be wished
I had the right to force a law
In logic there's the flaw and the point has been missed 

Wednesday 2 October 2019

How poetry changed me.


Darkly Synonymous

Darkly Synonymous 


I don't recall a dark night of the soul.
But yesterday

I had a foggy dawn of the mind
Bleary eyes from nightclub lights
Fuzzy head from one to many drinks
Twilight sighs as I crawl into bed

I had a dismal morning of the will
Cloudy silence over breakfast
Grimy air inching through rush hour
Drab office losing track of time

I had a stormy afternoon of emotions
Cimmerian anger unexpressed at people
Nebulous fear that I'll be obsolete
Stygian despair that this is all I'm good for

I had an inky dusk of the body
Murky ride towards opaque sunset
Shadowy recesses of the garage
Flickering light from man cave tv

I had an overcast evening of the spirit
Dishwater chores and rolling eyes
Storm cloud brows and thunderous snorts
Misty eyes lightning words strike home

I had a somber night of the back
Dismal pain squirming on the sofa
Gloomy early hours shine the soul searchlight
Dusty bats fleeing the sword of honesty

This dark knight moved
Took one step back
Turned a corner
Took two strides forward
Captured his queen
In his embrace
"I'm sorry I was wrong
I am lost without you
You're my light
my path
My redemption"