Notes Found On The Refrigerator September 2017

     There are three trees in this two-acre yard. The one palm tree in the front yard stands near the sandy part of the lawn, standing alone.  It offers little shade, keeping the sand warm.  I take comfort for its resilience, reaching stunted bright green leaves above brown, in a September Florida sun.

     Awakened with the morning light and heat, at sunrise and sleepless till’ midnight, are the other two; one tall, the other a strapping offspring evergreen. They provide shade throughout the day on an oasis of shade in the back yard.

Everglades ripple

Gator and snake are dancing

Enjoy illusion

*****

     Depression is not the snake that crawls up your leg. It is the caterpillar you kiss, before you turn into a butterfly for a day ending in despair. Or you go flying around the world without reason or care. I wear goggles and always know where I keep my parachute. Smiles.

*****

     Moon through pines needles— shines my path through night.

     Swaying black maple branches along the way— gives light in-between dark shadows.  Without discrimination —and without apology.

****

          Love is not something you look for and find— It is something you discover and keep to yourself—  in the darkness of your heart teaching you, waiting for your understanding…

           To wake up, unable to hold it anymore having to share your discovery —a  spark from existence, so small yet so bright,  mutual hearts  burst from darkness into light.

****

Note:Unfortunately I have very little service to read other’s creative work. I’ve been on a writing retreat in Pine Lakes Florida in the mist of Hurricane Irma. Just got electricity after five days… town won’t take anything but cash all atm(s) are down Sporadic wi-fi— using the generosity of a friends limited hotspot. Trains have canceled my reservation back to the NH mountains 3 times. Send me lawyers, guns, and money. 🙂

ZQ

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Weathered Swing [Shadorma]

~Yesterday~

Course old rope

Worn smooth in child’s hands

Seat of dreams

Grip loosens

Jump gleefully into sand

Falling only twice

 

~Today~

Holding hands

Watching the sun rise

Creaking swing

Swaying smooth

Humming together in time

Our first meeting song

 

~Tomorrow~

Without frown

With our last jump long

Pushing feet

Toes to Toes

Sunset’s breeze tuning our song

Rocking weathered swing

          I want to thank Rall [rallentanda.blogspot.com] for introducing this poetic form to me….The Shadorma is a Spanish poetic form made up of a stanza of six lines. (sestet) with no set rhyme scheme. It is a syllabic poem with a meter of 3/5/3/3/7/5. It can have many stanzas, as long as each follows the meter.

 

A Curriers Blind Date In Manchester NH

*****

 I was invited to an Art show that was painted

long before I was born—

Seven decades ago.

 

Its beauty was impressive.

Yet—  I kept walking along

Smiling at each ornate frame, checking my watch,

flirting with my chaperone—  waiting to go home.

 

History with all its beauty and faults

cannot survive without sharing its thoughts

—as they did on my evening’s drive home.

 

Drowsy with perception’s wine,

its indigestible sandwiches 

sprinkled with beauty and awe

unable to personally imagine or to be explained.

 

 I will see her again.

*****

 

Notes Found On The Refrigerator August 24, 2017

As an intelligent, compassionate person I cover all the bases of the perceived truths— Before I discover my reality without bias of mind or heart but within my soul— Then, I can begin an argument —open for discussion for covering all our bases— with the illusions of what we have seen.

i have sifted through sand

tripped on stones

slipped on pine needles

have lost my balance on occasion

a few times—  falling

—but never has my path

been more appealing

than the steps before

 

i am who I’ve been

I certainly am not

who I was— as dust in the wind

as scent in the pines

as tomorrow is in each day

as yesterday—

 is unable to hold time.

*****

 

Summer Morning’s Prayer Rain

 

I walk mindful

after an early summer’s rain—

trees drip shaking gently dry

warming my broad New Hampshire path

I am accompanied with a mid-August

morning breeze blowing softly through my hair—

feeling accepted—

 taught— within its secret wreath

 

 

Quadrille #38

( write a poem of precisely 44 words, including the word dream.)

Notes found on the refrigerator[8/14/17]

    I was brought up to be a Jesuit Priest, but destined to live the life of a monk. Escaping the nun’s training, because of their aversion to listening to Hank William’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart” playing in the background— I dreamed as the early mystics.

 

 

Notes Found On The Refrigerator July 2017

A Melancholy song

Songs are hidden in the words we speak. —sometimes in harmony

with the background hum of those we did not

know or ever meet.

 

 Our melody can sometimes be disheartening

 as well as our belly aching, vomiting

between the screeching cacophonous dominant notes

we may have perceived.

 

My music repetitively keeps playing yesterday’s Rock & Roll songs,

Rhythm & Blues songs, gospel’s black and white songs

—they are all fine—

 

 But, go to the window and lift the shade

and hum them—

 as you look at the sun and the future of rain.

 

Sing off-key if you must —loud and unalarmed.

Sing the songs that are hidden in the conscience that spoke without a word-

putting you in music unharmed.

 

Hum the song for unity in freedom

that has morally and musically given us;

without disrespect to life in the words

or thoughts written in our songs.

Or, what we sing.

*****

The Banjo Player

    I was talking to an old banjo player, pushing a 103 yrs old the other day. I asked him how his band was doing. “Well,” he said, wiping his face with one hand. “It’s over. There were four of us. One is dead, which left three of us unable to play his part and ours at the same time. Besides that, one is as Cuckoo as a broken string. The other young fella, in his late eighties, besides losing his hair has also, seemingly, lost the beat. Towards the end, we realized we were all playing different tunes insisting the other guy was messing up… and looking at each other with the stare of “each of us had better catch-up”. And, what was worst, when we were all on the same song, forgetting the words, we would automatically pick people out in the audience and break out into “Happy Birthday, to You…”.

We still keep in touch…”’

    There was a moment of silence, thinking he was reminiscing when he suddenly blurted out, “Now where was I? Oh ya! That was quite a box of good cigars”, sitting back in his chair with a great big smile.

*****

Oh sea glass greening

Passing through low and high tides

Speckling at my feet

*****

 The path once well-worn

 Through the passing of my youth

Is now overgrown

****