Thursday, October 10, 2024

Poem: Poetry in Darkness


Poetry in Darkness

You wouldn’t think there would be 
Any poetry in darkness.
It has an isolating affect,
Yet loneliness can be shared 
In the darkness.
Perhaps you light a fire
And still see no flame
But the intensity of burning
Sears deep, so deep
The pain makes you writhe
And cry out soundlessly
To that other one
With whom your misery 
Might penetrate
With just a silent scream
That no one hears
Yet somehow they feel.
Sensations like that
Glide seamlessly into our being
With the rhythm of poetry.
Lonely, dissatisfying, painful
Poetry.

October 2016

About This Poem
I cannot honestly speak to what prompted me to write this poem. I'm not typically depressed in any way during October, but perhaps something inspired me with the demonic things that sometimes surround Halloween and Day of the Dead. At any rate, I've always been fascinated by our sensations and the possibility of having them in the absence of any real thing to cause them, such as burning without heat. My only note to this poem is that I thought this was a descriptor of hell. The photo is taken during a show of the northern lights, but this one had little to show beyond a slight glow. Seemed to fit the poem.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Poem: I Saw Your Photograph Today

I Saw Your Photograph Today
Villanelle

I saw your photograph today
And looked longingly at you there.
It was lovely, what can I say?

I know upon me you would prey
But the image was, oh, so fair.
I saw your photograph today.

I was glad you were far away; 
I had control when you were there.
It was lovely, what can I say?

To be with you I wish this day,
To feel your touch and smell your hair.
I saw you photograph today.

I hope it’s not too much to say
I’d lose control if I were there.
It was lovely, what can I say?

So I will be here every way
Desiring you as you are fair
For I saw you photo today.
It was lovely. What can I say?

February 2023

About This Poem
This poem is a Villanelle that I wrote about the webs we weave in toxic relationships. It's mostly fictional because I haven't really had any prolonged toxic relationships, but there have been some where there is some attraction, yet I can't help but know it is not healthy. This poem is about that.

 

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Poem: Kuai'an Lay


Kaui’an Lay

Hibiscus flowers around their necks
Fill the air with scents of vanilla 
And orange. Chocolate grows on the backs
Of little trees a bit larger than me.
More rain than anywhere else on this deck
Yet I come away with burns on my feet.
Too warm for frost but they make ice to shuck
And shave with coconut, coffee, pineapple…
So I eat it while I watch Nene ducks
Or pesky parakeets in the sunset
Of Poipu. This is where I will muck
About with a snorkel and watch turtles
Of the sea—swim with one—see exotic
Fish that I’ve only seen at the pet store
Then sit out and burn my feet and my neck
Because sunscreen was missed by my own hand—
Still, burns turn to tans, and rum is schucks
For an evening dinner on the beach
With a fruity drink I drink to my luck
That I’m here where it will never freeze
Instead of home where it seems to stick
To frozen most of the year. No passion 
Fruit, Longon, oranges, coffees an—heck
Paradise doesn’t barter in degrees 
But in February when it’s all muck
I don’t mind a little warm red and red
Dirt, feeling some warm flowers round my neck.
Mahala, Kaua’I, land of chocolate,
Coffee, pineapple, honey, mountain treks
To passionfruit waterfalls and hula
Luau’s in a land where chicken necks
Are regularly risked in crossing roads
And wild boars roam making golf course wrecks.
Perfection isn’t made in tropical breezes
Or arctic freezes but combined in smacks
Of shaved ice flavored however you want.
So we bring home macadamia snacks,
Coffee, chocolate, and rum to recall
Barking Sand beaches, Na Pali trail treks, 
Waterfalls, rainbows, dragons on the bay 
Of Hana lei, and the Lihue back
Puffing the magic of a dragon on
A no-smoking bench, because what the heck?
Everyone needs a getaway to 
Come home and know there is a world to trek,
Beaches and seas to snorkel or just see
While wearing scented flowers ‘round the neck.

February 2023

About This Poem

A Lay is an old French love poem and this is my love poem for Kauai, Hawaii. I play with the idea of a lay, using rhyme like the old French poems did. I also include events and places from Kauai, including Puff the Magic Dragon.

 

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Poem: Real or Fake?

 

Real or Fake?

These days you well may wonder what you see,
What you hear, if any of it is real.
Did a student write that paper for me?

Perhaps it was artificial for free.
Or that art hanging up there on the wall,
Was it a person who painted to see?

Have a conversation while in the hall
And who it is you talked to may not be
A person but a computer and all.

We’ve done such a great job of it, you see
That much of what is is artificial
And perhaps there’s no need for you and me

Now that business can be done for free
And no one knows the difference, do you see?

Terza Rima Sonnet
February 2023

About This Poem
The advent of AI (artificial intelligence) is upon us and this is a traditional poem about something that is fairly new in our world. It adds to all the post modern sort of feeling of "What is Truth?" and I wrote a poem about that.

Friday, September 13, 2024

Poem: Kitty Reigns in Full

Kitty Reigns in Full

Napping of an afternoon on the couch
Recovering from a night of mousing
A yawn emitted from that haughty mouth
Breath of rodent, content from carousing
Through the night enjoying sun from the south—
Just a stretch, a movement now returning
To the daytime snooze of full contentment
Of mice populations having made a dent.

Sure, she sharpens claws on the armchair there
And makes it look a sight not fit for house
But we never worry about chewed holes
In the flour sacks or mice droppings where
We don’t want them, because there is no mouse
Anywhere here where kitty reigns in full.

January 2023

About This Poem
I was inspired to write this sonnet because I had read another sonnet about a cat. I don't have a cat anymore, but I have had mice in the house. This poem is just an homage to cats and the relationships people have with their cats. I am definitely a cat person.


 

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Poem: Shadow Box with Emily Dickinson's "Banish Air from Air"


Shadow Box with Emily Dickinson’s “Banish Air from Air”

I was just sitting at the counter there
When—Banish Air from Air—he came upon
Me—Divide Light if you dare—But I saw
Fate, oh yes—They’ll meet—it said there to me.
And I knew—While Cubes in a Drop—like sparks
Glinting—Or pellets of Shape—Stop floating
And just then they—Fit—like in a movie
Yet—Films cannot annul—reality
Entire—Odors return whole—when He
I smelled—Force Flame—into my ignition
So felt—And with a Blonde push—felt his voice.
It rushed—Over your impotence—and mine
So that head—Flits steam.—In a rush of strength
I took Him, for that moment, He was mine.

January 2020

About This Poem
This is a shadow box poem using Emily Dickinson’s “Banish Air from Air.” I think it’s both an example of how a poet can influence you and how you can absorb that poem. Of course, this one may be a bit forced, but it seems a little more organic to do that with one of her poems that escapes my full understanding. I was able to force a meaning onto it in almost an act of violence. That certainly is not my style at all, but with this it seemed to work. The pronouns can be switched into an even more forceful meaning that would seem to consume the poem—almost desecrating it, even as it stays completely in tact within my exoskeleton of my own doing. So in the end it maintains, even gains strength for me.


 

Monday, September 2, 2024

Poem: and then what happened


and then what happened
was-
and then 
what happened-

an' then I 
was thinkin' 
that it was
feelin' better.

I was 
feelin' better.

I was just
let alone.

So my mother 
bought me an ice cream

an' I bought myself
an ice cream

and I ate that.

I thought that
would make me
feel better.

I was all
shuup, shuup, shuup, 
you know,
and then,
you know,
just all of a sudden-
an' then
I started feelin'
real
sick.

I just got
this 
terrible feelin'
after I stopped 
eatin'
ice cream,
and what not,
like

Oh shoot!

Oh God!

About This Poem
I wrote this poem in the mid 80s, so it's old. I was given a story to read and I took some of the dialogue and reworked it into this poem. I guess what I'm saying is that ice cream doesn't always make you feel better...  The picture is from Faneuil Hall in Boston (one of the oldest markets in the country) in November of 23.