Poem - Roomlight

...band names
children,
recipes, mandolin,
reading and travelstapled and taped

My teenage room
never saw the light
of day, only fir cone
filtered sun right
under deck bones
orange, unkind, and bright.
A basement room?

poem - Peace Party

...band names
children, recipes, guitar,
reading and travel stapled and taped together

Fight fabulously for freedom, or against terror -ism

a soldier said she missed the orange juice

please play politely impassioned parents intoned

she likes orange juice too

too long en-toured soldiers missed

too long lips un-kissed

and upon returning, families finding

mental health un-wound

impassioned freedom against terror fighters

finding mental health and care without

and pittance for pay within

the nation's notices of terror narrated

noisily, unnecessarily,

now unneeded (not unheeded) the place for speech as

“from within. Do not seek it without.”

Famous faces narrate needs for fighting

not re-counting families uniting

worrying about paying the lighting

and having orange juice

when, or if, they are coming home.

The quote is from Sakyamuni Buddha who is speaking about peace.

Written for the 2008 Weekend of Peace

poem - 8 hands

...band names
guitar, children,
recipes, mandolin,
reading and travel stapled and taped

8 hands

I leave eight hands at home, not just six

I do take two with me.

I leave eight eyes at home, not only six

I take two with me.

Eight legs, eight ears, and four hearts

beating softly before dawn

I steal this from my slumber time,

so that I might better play laugh sing,

during the many hours of parenting

relating, and conferring.

I can barely recall, a time

Having ten hands, ten eyes and ears

five hearts beating softly before dawn,

in which these limbs and senses

were not part of my waking thoughts

and also the time from which

I wake.

Eight hands, eight eyes, four hearts,

ten, ten, and five I take along

softly before dawn.

published in Poets Espresso

poem - what the big hill taught 1

...band names
religion, children
reading,
reading and travel stapled and taped

What the Big Hill Taught 1

Running without brakes

rushing over grass and driveways

leaping across bumps

all the way down

is a thrill

and sometimes

you crash...

Ten Words on Democracy

...band names
religion, Godd, children
unchurch, recipes, mandolin,
reading and travelstapled and taped

Ten Words...

(((beat box)))

I say in democracy we

are all about how we

elect, select,

protect, respect, not invect, but in

honesty, our citizenry, got a place to be,

in my country, where everybody sees

me...

(((rhythm track, up the bass)))

poem - Fall II

Grandpa save me tight

she said afterwards...
she mostly listened

“Grandpa save me tight!”
she said afterwards

Mommy had said
Stay back from the edge

She mostly listened
Her sister did

While grandpa and mommy
Pulled and strained and lifted

One three year old up
The other sat

Holding sunglasses for one half hour
Straight

But hands move when seats don’t
And sunglasses didn’t bend that way

Thank Godd only sunglasses broke
When one child listened

poem - flood III

not so lucky
or rebuilt
are those in Louisiana
coursing horsefloods overrunningbanks, homes, schools

Yes, we’ve been here before.
The watery stampede has
Challenged the banks of the slough
The bridge support is rebuilt.
The earth below is fortified.

Not so lucky, or rebuilt
Are those in Louisiana
Coursing horsefloods overrunning
Banks, homes and schools.

I thought perhaps the floods here
Might be love. Not so
There, the destruction of
Love’s homeward trails.

The powerless (the poor) still have
To tame the horses, clean out
The stalls and stalling of
Sad powers too late
Certainly afar from places
Of hurt, from home trials,
Except perhaps re-election
(Or personal reflection).

How can whole cities clean up, clean out,
from tiny and masculine rampages
of stormy horsefloods and the cavalry of
the driving storm?

How can whole countries of people
Be left to fend off nature’s cavalry? To
Clip nature’s ability to reproduce this havoc,
A sterilization process for a herd
Of some yet unseen gathering
Equine teamed torrent…

What nation would do that
to its own people?
Or is that offering too much,
That water flooding both sides meet.


band names: horsefloods

poem - That Baby

...blue sky
disfigured by smog clouds, brown
reflecting city lights, wells of light,
gathered around lamposts strewn in some dot pattern

The baby of the blue sky
Disfigured by smog clouds
Brown reflecting city lights
Wells of light gathered around
Lampposts strewn in some
Dot pattern below revealing curb and
Crosswalk. Those clouds
Flee in windy chase towards
Their brightening morning address.
Capped in brighter tones of
Rising, revealing sun. Rumors
Only that steeple and flag
Receive sun’s glow first.
Risen sun, the Other, showed
First not on our caps, but in
Our need – that baby again.

published April 2008 in Poets Espresso

poem - That Baby

...blue sky
disfigured by smog clouds, brown
reflecting city lights, wells of light,
gathered around lamposts strewnin some dot pattern

The baby of the blue sky
Disfigured by smog clouds
Brown reflecting city lights
Wells of light gathered around
Lampposts strewn in some
Dot pattern below revealing curb and
Crosswalk. Those clouds
Flee in windy chase towards
Their brightening morning address.
Capped in brighter tones of
Rising, revealing sun. Rumors
Only that steeple and flag
Receive sun’s glow first.
Risen sun, the Other, showed
First not on our caps, but in
Our need – that baby again.

poem - I remember you father…

white light of
the stove
standing outside the
spitfire while Ichanged muddy soccer clothes

After George Eliot "I remember you mother"

Dribbling honey on your dry 6:15 am wheaties
Lit by the white light of the stove.
Standing outside the spitfire,
while I changed muddy soccer clothes within.
Listening to the AM radio station play old shows,
when we drove to the post office in the dark early night.
Picking blackberries beyond the fence,
Nibbling some and feeding others to the hanging coffee tin.
Celebrating a birthday at Snoqualmie Falls Lodge,
Where the syrup is dropped from taller than you.

Standing next to me singing Beautiful Savior,
In the church your father founded in Kaizer.
Driving the car through all the back streets,
I do that too.


band names: stereo hearing, boardsun, cleanout

poem - Flood II

waters rise and rush
teamed horses in
nature's cavalry or
wild animals coursingthe millenial canyons

Waiting for mists and fog
Seasons change and spring
Mid-winter storms fall
Waters rise and rush as
Teamed horses in
Nature’s cavalry or
Wild animals coursing
The millennial canyons
Horseflood challenging banks
To escape direction
Flow out, freely roaming
Yet roaming charges apply,
And neither of us have
Insurance against damage
To our homes and
Homeward trails that
Renew our real power…

poem - time 2 (death)

death's
patient advocate
is
time

Death's
patient advocate
leaves us cold
time steps from
a black car and
speaks of this
whole life of
ice cream and
green limes.

Death's patience
advocates life's old
time clefts in
black memories
no longer whole
cream green
cheese goals.

Death's favorite
advocate sees
revolution in
deterioration of
wars in marked
consideration of
time in life
earth's shoals.

Death's
patient advocate
time.

band names: random access, spiral fracture, keypad 6

poem - Easter Week flood

flooding
both sides
water
meetsflood poem 1

Thornton Creek (Flood I)

A creek… it was called Thornton

After a time to play I took

To climb down a steep bank

Only once I walked with dry feet

Years ago through

A tunnel beneath the street

That much water gushed later

I passed on the way to school

Flooding both sides, water meets

band names: corn pull, flat tiger, coalescent

poem - Gone & band names

...band names:
Lavender fur, cascade spring, replide,
untouched, orange cream,
aunt till

I had a thought the other day about driving to work and the people whom I have seen working and getting there. Ther don't seem to be lots of happy smiling faces... [The idea would be to read it in a sort of long stream.]

GONE

steam cleaned bright

shopping carts grim

faced commuters long

gone ceramic browns

steaming now cold

white egrets post

sitting yellow highlights

haloed crops taken

Two Poems - Giants... and Bounce

...to name a company of friends
with the wisdom of a
mythical beast, half human...

The other day when I had seen the newest Harry Potter movie, I was thinking and wrote down some thoughts...

Giants, Ogres, or Faeries
It is not as though we have never seen
giants, ogres, or faeries in our days.
The trouble is we haven’t known
the names for the presence of the moon,
the city, the neighborhood or the stars.

We can’t begin to name a company of
friends with the wisdom of a mythical beast,
half human animal, half majestic presence.
My children, 3 and 5, call out excitedly,
“I see the moon! I see the moon!”

When might I ever call out, “I see…”
the idea, the wisdom of that choice,
the color of your eyes,
the nature of this development,
the hope of revivification in this or any life?

A couple days later I was jumping on a trampoline...

Bounce (Trampolina)

Bounce,
Bounce
Click
Went the key
To the iron gate
Of my heart
Joy
A sandy little
Sparrow flits loose
Free in overcast skies

Bounce,
Bounce

Band name for the day: Cask