More or less
“I hope I die before you”, she worries.
“I don't want to be alone.”
“But you'll have the two dogs and some family.
Besides, I'll need you to host my Celebration of Life,
and read a poem for me. Maybe this one.
And play the music I liked for everyone;
maybe tell a joke or two, so things don’t get too somber.”
“But you won't be there.”
“Yeah, more or less, that...
Thursday 28th March 2024 2:57 pm
Just What We have
Sometimes we talk about death
and all it has taken away. Maybe we'll find religion,
or look deeper into philosophy, or a similar comfort
to help us manage our grief and concern.
For now, we'll settle for what we have
together, among the here and now.
And maybe, just maybe this
will help keep the unknown at bay.
Friday 22nd March 2024 10:11 pm
Fairytale Waltz
"Can we dance on the moon?", she asks.
"We might even be graceful there, low gravity and all,
but the scientists don't recommend it", I reply."
"Well, if we hold on to each other at least
we'll be together if we jump too high
and float away.", her playful remark.
"Well, scientists be damned! I can't think of anyone else
I'd like to be with out there among the stars.", I assure her.
Wednesday 20th March 2024 2:36 pm
A Long Way
She couldn't have been farther away.
Even though we were sleeping
here, next to each other.
Slow on the draw, to be sure,
it just took me some time
to get better at recognizing
what empty looked like.
And I understand now
just how far away far away can be
when it’s there in front of you.
Monday 18th March 2024 2:39 pm
Give and Take
I was no different than anyone else. Not really unique;
in that I was made, in part, from pieces of others I’ve known,
friends and family mostly. Those still here,
and welcome spirits who seem content to stay.
Also, there were a few women I loved at one time or another.
Although, some of them took a few pieces with them.
Saturday 16th March 2024 8:01 pm
Her Way of Flying
If she could, she’d help butterflies
arrange the powder on their wings
just so, and they would thank her
with brightly colored performances in the air.
She envies the exhilaration the young ones must feel
the first time they alight after their first flight.
She wears a colorful dress trimmed with lace.
The butterflies accept this effort to be like them.
...Thursday 14th March 2024 4:07 am
Muse
Sometimes, when I sit down to write,
a blank piece of paper in front of me,
I see beautiful words already there.
But it was always going to be you
who helped me put them on the page.
Monday 11th March 2024 11:08 pm
Consequences
In a very close moment,
I touched the striations near her waist
for the first time and she began to cry.
The marks, from the birth of her son.
She’d given him up before we met.
She had been in some trouble,
and made difficult decisions
that were still exacting a price
she couldn’t stop paying for.
To her, the lines were resentful,
and would never let her forget
the only physical rem...
Saturday 9th March 2024 10:34 pm
Amor Facil
It’s an unhurried and easy love.
The kind that gently wants to help
solve important mysteries;
like where do the missing socks reside now?
Or who took the last cookie in the pantry
that someone hoped no one would notice?
It’s the kind of love that is comfortable
in pajamas at three in the afternoon, reading books together
while the weather outside is restless.
You wouldn't bother wa...
Thursday 7th March 2024 3:52 pm
Cliff House
We drive past the place
where she first said I love you.
Perched on a cliff by the sea.
The location has been closed
for a few years now,
but not in my reflections.
As we drive by, I take her hand
while drifting back to that day.
She smiles at me just then,
as the waves break with commotion
on the shore, and joins me here
in a memory I’ve saved
for all our tomorrows.
Tuesday 5th March 2024 7:15 pm
Satellite
She danced for her friend the moon
most nights. And occasionally during the day,
when its appearance couldn't be subdued.
Sometimes she wished all of her friends
could be here with her. All of them
had spent time under the same moonlight.
The same light knew them all
and shared this connection with her,
inspiring joy in the spectacle of her performances,
rewarding her companion of the...
Sunday 3rd March 2024 6:38 pm
Puppy Trouble
Our little fella, with his prancing gait,
trots down the hall. His feet sounding
a slap, slap, slap on the carpet
he was chewing on a moment ago.
He looks up at me with all the cuteness
the universe could possibly bestow on him
with a brief and curious look – ears at attention!
I smile back at him, to thank him for his youthful joy.
Given to us with no expectation. And certainly,
no g...
Saturday 2nd March 2024 2:30 am
Compliment
I show her the poem
with the noisy words
building to a crescendo.
My scribbled paean, foolishly trying
to say these things to her
better than they’ve been said
by others, in ink on paper.
“Maybe I should tone all of this down some?”, I propose.
She smiles and says, “I like the clamor just the way it is.”
Tuesday 27th February 2024 3:20 pm
Working
"Where are we going?" his young daughter asked.
"To cheer up some of my friends," he replied.
"They seem to be a lot of work for you," she offered with concern.
"Yes," he said, “You’re right. The very best kind of work."
Saturday 24th February 2024 3:44 pm
Treasure Hunt
Sometimes I think poetry is
the time you first learned to skip
a rock across a glassy lake.
It touched the water five, maybe six times
before sinking below the surface.
You looked forever for the perfect one
to toss. Even though forever is where
the stone came from and returned to.
I don’t know for certain
all the places poetry can be found,
but if it l...
Thursday 22nd February 2024 4:13 pm
Target Practice
I was with a woman
some time ago, who wore her love
like a pistol on her hip.
With her suspicious heart for ammunition,
one inevitable wrong move by me
and I was going to be done for.
Pretty soon I stopped
trying to avoid her aim.
She had already put holes
where we needed to breathe.
Tuesday 20th February 2024 2:56 pm
What Flowers Know
My thoughts, difficult sometimes,
compete with the flowers all about me,
offering their hues to the sun above.
The petals seem to understand
small wonders can be anywhere,
and attempt to share their wisdom
in bracing fields, in every shade of bloom.
Sunday 18th February 2024 5:44 pm
Starlight
How long would you miss me if I was gone?”, she wanted to know.
“That’s easy. See that star up there? The really bright one?
Until the last of its light can be seen here.”, my reply.
“That light will take a very long time to get here.”, she said in wonderment.
“Exactly.”
Wednesday 14th February 2024 11:46 pm
To a Flame
It's like, what if moths
aren’t attracted to light,
as they flutter chaotically
around the source.
What if the thing we think
is pulling them closer confuses
which way they should go.
Love has been like that.
Sunday 11th February 2024 4:00 pm
Jeez! Not Another Love Poem!
It was my silliness, I thought.
Or maybe it was the smile.
Turns out it was our laughter too.
Saturday 10th February 2024 7:40 pm
Running Shoes
I'm not much of a runner.
But I've traveled long distances
trying to stay ahead
of the grief in my thoughts.
I don't see it as an adversary anymore.
It's simply trying to keep pace
with how I miss you now.
Thursday 8th February 2024 9:02 pm
Long Enough
I've lived long enough,
but not long enough
not to miss it when it will go.
Seems I am just now
getting the hang of things.
Not all of them, to be sure.
But certainly all of the beautiful things.
Those that began long before me
as dust and dirt from the stars.
Wednesday 7th February 2024 9:11 pm
Reasons
When we would often ask
why we loved each other,
the usual items on my list were there.
Her melancholy for the brevity of shooting stars.
And wandering out to greet the rain at first light
as it begins its release from the night.
But the best explanation, we both agreed,
was that there didn’t need to be
any specific reason at all.
Tuesday 6th February 2024 3:23 pm
Teenage Boys Looking for Religion
Listening to records with my roommate
that summer. We were very young then.
We talked about the girl. The one we met
at the western shore but didn’t get her name.
We watched, furtively, every one
of her eccentric and mystical movements,
and the dueling colors in her eyes.
All of it imperfectly perfect.
Later, while putting on another LP,
he said, “If th...
Sunday 4th February 2024 9:07 pm
Girl from Half Moon Bay
Crazy was never boring.
But it couldn’t be built to last.
Her love had sharp edges.
The cutting kind with no concern.
As if she could mend everything
with all of my pieces.
Thursday 1st February 2024 2:53 pm
True Colors
That’s the kind of girlfriend she was.
After a few dates she had me listening
to a little hip-hop, and some other music
I knew very little about. And going to nightclubs
on Tuesday nights in brightly colored shirts
she bought for me soon after we met.
Ensuring that everyone would see them before they saw me.
It was the same when she looked my way.
Monday 29th January 2024 2:45 pm
Already Old
Over coffee that morning
we both smiled. Remembering
when we first met
we were both already old.
But we were free
from the awkwardness
of first encounters with love.
At the time, we didn't know
we would share in the sun
the rest of our shadows together.
Saturday 27th January 2024 3:25 pm
Moon Dancer
"Can people dance on the moon, Mother?"
"Maybe, but they probably want to avoid the craters there."
"But would the holes on the moon be lonesome?"
"They might be Honey; they’ve been there a very long time."
“Mother, will you be here as long as the holes on the moon?”
“I don’t think so. I suppose you’re right about the holes there.”
Thursday 25th January 2024 3:20 am
Visiting Old Friends at Stoplights
With maybe enough money
to make it to Los Angeles,
I hoped he had enough to stay
ahead of the monsters he knew well.
The ones that had him on the run
somewhere around Bakersfield,
where I last heard from him.
All these years later, with struggles of my own,
I sometimes smile to myself, thinking
I might see him again someday, healed,
while I wait for the corner light to change.
Monday 22nd January 2024 3:29 pm
A Short List of Small Healings
Her smile in the morning when she rises,
sleep still in her eyes, and tells me she slept well.
Her face framed in perfectly disheveled hair.
Pictures in frames, echoing smiles
that stay with me. Even though some are gone,
leaving scars I’ve learned to live with,
with or without the assist of the still images.
And the newest one for this list:
Our puppy, sniff...
Friday 19th January 2024 5:20 pm
An Old Photo of My Parents
I can look at their black and white photo
whenever I want, to take in where they’ve been.
The old wood frame somewhat worn
from years of repeating the memories.
The image within, from long ago, is a little blurred.
But that’s not why I couldn’t understand
where the love, captured in time, might have gone.
Wednesday 17th January 2024 4:00 pm
Falling Down in Your Eighties (for Paula)
And it was in that moment,
after her fall, making sure
nothing but her pride was hurt,
that she understood that time
would always win. As it always had.
But her spirit was not defeated by this.
It was as if the fall had shaken her to her senses,
allowing her to finally accept the nature of things
on a journey that many never get to make.
Saturday 13th January 2024 4:18 pm
Shelter in the Rain
On the phone she tells me
she looks forward to the rain.
She mentions that she forgot her umbrella
again, but she’ll be okay without it.
And would I be kind enough to bring in her book
left outside on the table. Fretting in jest
that the author may not forgive if I don’t hurry,
and refuse her the denouement she hopes for.
I wonder, once more, if it’s forgetfulness.
Does she worry I’ll...
Thursday 11th January 2024 4:02 pm
"Blinkish" Sky
“What color would you call that horizon?” she asked,
as we walked along the waterfront at dusk.
“I really don't know. I'm not good with the names of colors.
Sometimes I think people just make them up.”
“Well, let's make one up for our sky tonight.”, her offer.
“The sky looks mostly blue and pink along the horizon,
but it's changing quickly. How about ‘blinkish’?”
...Monday 8th January 2024 3:00 pm
Reading the Room
She was saying goodbye
in so many muted ways.
But I was somewhere else
in my redoubt of indecision.
Indifference that couldn’t mask
her blue and walk-away eyes,
should have made It clear
she was already gone.
It took me a while to get here.
To get you to fade away.
It was just that my timing was bad.
Wednesday 3rd January 2024 11:46 pm
A Walk with You
We invited the sun to join us.
To come out from behind that sullen cloud
and share with us late in the morning.
With amber light breaking through,
in tow as company for the day,
our hands were together and warmed
but not by the busy sun.
No offense was taken,
our yellow star assured us,
as we walked between the shadows
being painted all around us.
Monday 1st January 2024 5:31 pm
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