Blackfoot daisies, corydalis grace green pastures
springtime wonders
tiny blossoms of joy winking at an azure sky.
Tupelo Press 30/30
Change
“If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” Spinoza
Christians went to the Holy Land
to claim it back. Crusades.
Moslems fought Moslems
Sunni against Shia
Sufis outcast or revered
Hafiz, Rumi
No middle ground
No compromise
Centuries gone
New technology
the only change.
No one learned
listened to the past
to the humane
voices in the wind.
Pain
She remembers nothing.
Head vibrates,
fingers tremble
heart thumps.
Her brain hangs on
one big thorn on a
mesquite tree.
She cannot cry,
looks at pestules on
dry, blotchy skin.
Her brain hangs on
one big thorn on a
mesquite tree.
She tries to remember.
Feet walk on
broken shards
eyes crimson,
silently cries.
Her brain hangs on
one big thorn on a
mesquite tree.
Sunday Haiku
Sun filters through junipers
wind whispers
mockingbirds sing mating songs.
Listening to a Band
Yesterday my second daughter arrived from Thailand. Biologically she is not my daughter, but rather my first exchange student six years ago. We have kept in touch over the years and she is now here with me for a month. Her best friend from high school here is also with us. Tonight we went to the Palace Coffee in Canyon, Texas, to listen to a trio because the band leader is a friend of the friend. This poem attempts to describe the music.
Long hair flying
except the drummer
Wild strumming
No picking
Guitar and bass
percussion not strings
Three percussion instruments
vibrating sound
until
suddenly
guitar becomes synthesizer
haunting, electronic
other dimensional.
Then
back to
three percussion instruments
vibrating sound
voices lost
The Tupelo Press 30/30 Project
Today, one day late, I discovered this project for National Poetry Month and decided to commit to it by experimenting. It requires writing a poem daily either on your own or following “instructions”. Today’s directions included finding a nearby book, going to page 29, picking twenty words, and using them to write a poem:
crazy think
goofy people
worried together
leave bear
smudges on the glass
bloody floor
huge knives
packed sorrow on
a plastic table
writingontherim 