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The Journey to the West

Though we journey to the West We pray to the East More or less that's the way Each day begins and ends It’s a tale everyone ...

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Everywhere I Look


Everything I touch

Falls apart just as it should

In the compost pile

I’m at that stage in life

Where decay is

Everywhere I look

And that’s okay because

Creation is too

Thursday, August 24, 2023

Summer Overspent

 Summer has overspent

All the long stem grasses

Have gone to seed

The Queen Anne’s lace has proliferated

And the afternoon shadows

Overtaken the lawn

About the fall there’s

Little room for doubt

Nor is there need for further effort

Henceforth everything shall

Proceed by grace


Wednesday, August 23, 2023

I am the River


I am the river
Never one or the same

Time flows through my veins

Rocks are the sort of thing

I simply choose to go around

Yes, I'm persistent

And impetuous

Single minded

But multidirectional

On occasion I've been known 

To reverse myself 

At times I think on a monumental scale

And am perfectly comfortable

Playing the long game

Carving up continents

With the ease of a knife

Passing through butter 

You can follow me upstream

To my native source

Where you'll find

I'm hyper articulate

Though fond of digression 

And forever changing course

Like language itself

I am the river

Never one or the same

Time flows through my veins

Every second another drop

Sunday, August 20, 2023

The High Holy Days of Summer

The high holy days

Of summer - the zinnia

Beds in full glory 


The butterflies with

Their anthers full - the humming birds

Incessantly humming


The bucket of cherry tomatoes

Overflowing - the sun drenched

Kiss of hypertrophic growth

Everywhere on display yet

Indolence abounds


And even the red hibiscus

Singing its arias can’t keep me

From succumbing to the 

Swinging cadence of a nap in

The backyard hammock






Monday, July 10, 2023

A Voyage of Discovery


Tonight around twilight

I stood in the garden

And imagined 

I saw the admiral

Garden hose in hand

Addressing the fleet

Tomorrow we set sail

On a voyage of discovery 

He said


The Swiss chard leaves·

Billowed on the breeze 

And the spray of the hose

Spattered across the prow

Of the raised bed

With its semi precious cargo 

Of sugar beets


And altogether there were

Four rows of potatoes

Safely stowed away

Down below

And enough cherry tomatoes

To feed the entire crew

No matter how long

The voyage might 

Turn out to be
















Sunday, June 18, 2023

The Birds Seemed Emboldened

The birds seemed emboldened
When humanity's downfall
Became a foregone conclusion
It was avians' turn to rule






Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Send sssssss sssssss

Send sssssss sssssss 
Is what I butt dialed to
Myself today
Now celebrated
As a poet who 
Is both neurodiverse and
Well enabled to generate
Poems in such 
Diverse ways


Sunday, May 14, 2023

Life Perennial

What I love most about
Gardening is that every year
One gets a little more proficient
And likewise willing to undertake
A little more work

Last year the Joe Pie weed
And milkweed took root
Increasing this spring’s bounty

That’s what it means 
To live and think perennially
To suppress and encourage
As needed yet remain
Open to happy accident

To be constantly raising 
The flower bed stakes
And vegetables too







Tuesday, May 9, 2023

The Iris

Before it opens
The iris is flat
And pointy as a stiletto
But when it opens
Oh my god
Suddenly it falls
Extremely agape
Almost shameless
The way it drapes
Itself - which is typical
Blue flower deportment
In point of fact from
Upward striving
In first position
To utter collapse

 

 

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Spring Never Gets Old

 
Spring never gets old
As we do
Now that I celebrate its lyric 

With a limp all my own

It’s better than ever

More perennials than ever

To adorn my front lawn


If April makes such
Great showing who needs
May or June
Each moment of Spring
So full of promise
Is a lifetime entire
Complete unto itself








Saturday, April 1, 2023

Life is All About Triangles

for my brother Hank


There’s one big difference
Between me and my brother

Whereas he has a prodigious memory

And has learned by heart 

To recite pi to 

More than 3,000 digits

I can barely remember

What year it is sometimes


Yet still I manage

To comfort myself thinking

Who needs pi really

Life is all about triangles

For most of us humans

Knowing how to progress

From here to there 

By making comparisons

Like me and my brother

All day long in disregard

Of the need for absolutes


Who needs one or the other 

When you can be both in turn

Friday, March 3, 2023

Poem written at the Kanas Center

Lately life has acquired
A beneficent hum 
Friday nights at hospice
Compost Monday or Tuesday
Back and forth from
Science to art
Just like life itself
True of Mr. Apology too
Far too deep in the weeds 
To know what was happening
Wednesday night
We watched a movie
By Thursday feeling blue






Saturday, February 18, 2023

The Best and the Worst

This poem illustrates what happens when you fail to properly heed Rabbi Bunim’s advice about the importance of keeping a coat with two pockets. In each pocket, the Rabbi says, you should put a slip of paper, on one of which has be written “For my sake was the world created”  while on the other it says “I am only ashes and dust.”  The Rabbi stresses each slip being better suited to different occasions, the two of them are therefore better held apart in separate pockets.

This poem illustrates the peril and insight that result from resort to a single pocket.

*******


Yesterday around sunset
While walking my dogs

I put a bag of dog poop

In the pocket of my fleece

Along with another bag

Of doggie treats


And when I got

To the garbage can in town

I threw away the wrong bag

And continued home

With a pocket full of poop


The best and the worst

Become interchangeable, it seems

That’s sometimes how life works