Leap Of Faith

It does not do any good for us,
Each other's pleasures to compare,
Or measure what small quantities
Of kindness we hesitated to share,
It does no good to fret over dreams
We can neither retrieve, nor repair,
Rather, let's embrace, and ignore
What lies behind, as much as we dare...

Gathering The Cord

Even though I
Blister and tire
Need to chop
Wood for the fire
Lungs pumping
Full of the cold
Heart pounding
Almost uncontrolled
The falling ax
Blade contriving
To split enough
For my surviving
Ends with ache-sweat
I'm totally spent
Wondering where
The afternoon went
Breath puffing small
Clouds of steam
In the gloaming's
Defracted gleam

Lovers' Promise

Give me your hand
And while we're at
It, if you understand,
Your heart, and we
May get lucky and
Find our way to that
Distant happy land...

Yokosuka, Verny Park, 06:43 AM

They gather in the park,
With dogs on leashes,
Still halfway dark
In the early morning,
The recently retired
Still unused to the
Excess time acquired,
To be consumed
Before they're expired...

Could It Be Gland?

It wells up inside
Pressuring for release
And until it's done
I'll know no peace

Pre-Kinetic

A stand-off emerged,
And thereafter froze
For an instant, before
Coming to blows...

      

When North Korea Strikes

A missile headed our way, and
There's no real point in hiding,
For the impact will kill all who
Remain, unrepentant, but also
Ambivalent, beyond deciding,
The falling, violent, explosion's
Results: permanent, abiding...

Upon Listening

Waiting for the chord sequence to decline,
And, when it does, it makes me realize
There is a place where wizards shine,
A place where boundaries cannot confine
The magic which the music will define...

Declaration

He'd rather be asleep,
Vice awake and aware,
Of a comfort level
That's not quite there,
He'd rather be drunk,
Than wandering in prayer,
Or chasing angels
Through the empty air,
He'd rather be drugged
Instead of seated on a chair
At a table for a feast
The holy ones prepare...

Geek Approach

Not knowing how she feels
Or where best to start
How about trying a
Double-click on her heart
See what that reveals

It's All Relative

It seems clear to me
That one man's success
Is another's mediocrity,
More or less,
Caught between
To be and
Not to be...

Traffic Control

Detour, Do Not Enter,
No Stopping, One Way,
These road signs on the
Face of my wife today...

A Version Of Wisdom

All good things come to them that wait,
Unless you wait too long,
In which case, the saying's wrong...

Ballet Of The Fallen

Leaves, red, yellow, and brown,
Lifted by the breeze climb
Up, spin, twirl, and drop in
A dance both subtle and sublime.

Small Comfort

Cold day, temple ground,
A sparrow basks
In a patch of sunlight.

Miyamoto Musashi

The sword of a samurai
Can cut sharply, decisively,
As steel and physics apply.

Is This All There Is?

Pleasure received, and felt,
For a moment, maybe minutes,
Rarely hours, all of it dealt
Out, randomly, by an invisible
Hand, in uneven measure,
We hanker for the feel good
Fuel of our limited leisure...

Looner, Lunar?

Spectacularly full, mysterious
Bright moon, in a cold night's sky,
Disappearing and dancing with
Ghostly clouds the wind blows by,
That your magic light turns some
Into wolves, I now know why...

Before A Battle On Socotra

Fear not, what deadly comes,
For meet again shall we,
Wounded but alive, under
The Dragon's Blood Tree...

TMI

More books being written than
I will have time to read,
More information being pushed
Than I will ever need,
Ones and zeroes race,
In a mindless, endless, stampede...

Science Fiction

Cursed with being able to imagine
Inter-galactic travel, yet we remain
Utterly unable to do it, still the idea
Lives, as long as dreams sustain...

Skinship

Wrapped in a hug, and holding
Close to the beating heart
Of another ... true peace for
An instant, before we part.

Atmospheric Splendor

The morning clouds
Have no clue about
How beautiful they appear,

Viewed, momentarily,
From down here...

(Photograph by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011)

Survival

Song birds busily gather seed,
On the winter-brown ground,
Each and every one they will need,
To survive the cold, and chills,
Of an arctic wind which kills.

Where The Heart Is

Stepping off the jet, and
Realizing the place I'm in
Is home, but at the same
Time utterly foreign,
A place to hang my hat
As the planets spin...

Letter From Syria

At some point, we realized it was not going to
Happen, despite all efforts, prayers, hoping and
The future somehow got cancelled by the past,
By an energy, dull, dark, and dystopian...

Felis Catus

The cat patrols around the
House, on stealthy paws,
Always watching, it acts
According to its own laws,
Allows itself to be petted,
While hiding its claws.

The cat relaxes, purring,
Sits on the windowsill,
But its eyes always search
For something to kill.

Prime Minister's Hammer

Despite mounds of problems

Yet to be debated, or solved,

The rulers have declared

Their government dissolved...

No matter what those in

The opposition cry, or say,

Power wielded tactically,
Cynically, 
In a parliamentary way...

Hermit Priest 山伏

Meditating on top of a rock,
In the rarefied mountain air,
Silently searching for
A god that's not really there.

Stubbornly and patiently,
The hungry, tired, ascetic
Maintains a lonely vigil,
Hoping to become prophetic.

1914-1918

Armed men, dying in muddy trenches,
Leaving their loved ones in sadness,
All of it caused by imponderable,
Lethal, European political madness,

The Somme, Paschendale, Verdun,
Soaked in the blood of luckless boys,
Torn apart by World War One...

The Power Of The Leaf

Emotional de-escalation
Achieved quietly,
With soft words,
And cups of tea.

Pedal To The Metal

American motor dream,
In the spaces so vast,
Where you can drive it,
Straight, far, and fast...

November

Green turned to yellow,
Then to brown, then lost,
Plants shrivel and adjust
To the falling frost.

Generational

Grandchild, considered for a moment,
Summons an unspoken recognition
Of one's continuance, and at the same
Time, one's gray-haired condition,
New life and old life, passing the baton,
In a never-ending cycle and transition.

Examinations 受験

The Japanese girl studies
So hard to be the best
At memorizing facts to
Regurgerate in a test
To determine her place
Within all of the rest
Of her tribe and race.

Point Of View

Humans are strange and funny,
Looking at the sky, some say "partly
Cloudy", others say "partly sunny"...

Gotcha

The terrorist bomb-maker,
Works in his darkened room,
Until a drone-launched
Missile hits, then, boom!

The bomb-maker bombed,
Like an eye-for-an-eye,
Retribution paid by a
Robot in the sky...

A Good Antidote

Stress and frustration
Dissipate, disintegrate,
Through chemical alteration,
Embarked upon,
By drinking,
Cabernet Sauvignon,
Or, helped along
It's way,
By Chardonnay.

Jenever Freedom

The rich have all the power,
We poor can never win
Against them, or escape
The grubby fix we're in,
So, screw what cannot
Change, start drinking gin.

Towards The End

In the end, we exhaust
Our supply of happy days,
Used up, or simply lost,
Pleasures auctioned
Off at half their cost,
Leaving us simpler,
Souls stark and clean,
Bearing awful wisdom,
Yet strangely serene.

Every Night, Good Or Bad

Serious slumber
Signals creep,
Into my core,
And I sleep.

The murmuring rain
Heard no more,
In the darkness,
Where I shift and snore.

Dragged down by
Exhaustion's undertow,
Into the oblivion, only
It can bestow.

Off Medication

The crow cries at the new day,
And so screams the idiot,
They know no other way...

Before The Androids

I think I was cool, at a certain
Point in time, we called it hip
Back then, those days before
We were in the mental grip
Of being constantly connected
By electricity and micro-chip,
To relatives, friends, and trolls,
Back when thought would outstrip
Technology, and you needed a
Dime to connect to a phone,
To keep from being alone...

Pre-Halloween

A cold north wind urges leaves
To change to yellows and reds,
Autumn color spreads,
Watched over, all the while,
By a carved-up pumpkin's
Crooked smile...

Before The Chaos Of A New Day

In bed, not willing to wake,
Then, from places unseen,
The sounds of her moving about,
Doing her morning routine,
As a new day begins, leave me
Feeling assured, almost serene.

Teenage Wasteland

Overcome by hormones,
Unable to cope with
Too many unknowns...

All builds-up inside,
Emotional overload,
Needs to be released
Ready to explode...

Pressure to mate,
Too much to handle,

Time to sedate...

YOLO

You only live once,
Go ahead, play the fool,
Do something risky,
Something stupid cool,
Your action goes viral,
YouTube, Facebook, fame,
For which you only
Have yourself to blame...

You've Got Mail

Even unopened, causes
Concern and stress,
Unexpected letter
From the IRS.

State Legislature

Liberal or conservative are the labels
We tack onto each other, as if to define
Who you are, and who we are, in terms
Of political views, and, how we align,
On issues we didn't know were ours...
And we bite and bicker over scraps
Thrown from the prevailing powers.

Oil Tribe

Bubba drives a pick-up truck,
His wife drives a big SUV,
And they never walk anywhere,
In the land of the brave and free.

On freeways and parking lots,
They cruise, they have it made,
He in his F-150, and she
In her Escalade.

Vote Republican,
Jesus saves,
All is good, in the land
Of the free, and the braves.

The Creative Process

It will come to me,
Like it always does,
Sometimes suddenly,
Or mysteriously,
From somewhere,
Materializing out
Of a dark night's air,
It will come to me,
Hopefully,
Eventually.

美人

Beauty does not derive
From one's fashion or race,
Rather from the symmetry
Of features on one's face.

That,
And not being
Fat.

Brought To You By Dogma

Religions produce prophets,
Theists, and deists, imbued
With faith in an unseen and
Holy verisimilitude.

The Time Around Sunset

Scurrying, with intent, on sidewalks
Like so many salmon in a river's flow,
The working day done, toward our vast
And varied comfort cubes we go.

Month Of No Gods

The southward drift
Of cooler masses
Of air, which lift
Away the humid
Heat, October's gift.

It Keeps You Running

Hormones surge,
Biological urge,
Drives her
To the verge...

Dating,
Does not necessarily lead to
Mating.

One can be kissed,
In a moment's passion,
Then dismissed.

Lonely,
Sadly searching websites for
"My only."

Emptiness inside her head,
As she lies alone,
In bed.

Dreams of the prize,
The promise of love
In the look of his eyes...

Ebola

In a continuous and pitiless,
Battle between virus and man,
Fought, without respite, or
Mercy, since Earthly time began,

Virions' attacks and advances
Portend the war might be won,
Cells poisoned everywhere,
Humanity sickened, undone...

Pachinko

Small steel balls fall and bounce
On pegs, doing gravity's dance,
Down the face of the machine,
He faces, and plays, in a trance,
Immobile, and held prisoner by
The temptation of chance.

Desolation

Hopes and promises, broken and bent,
Most fading to gray, shifting into
Nothingness, as soon as they're sent,
We're left dumb, luckless, wondering
Where the fun times went...

Farewell, Fiscal Year

Insinuation of coolness, longer shadows
Caused by the lower angle of the sun,
Summer's green fading, tiring, by degrees,
Combine to remind that September's done.

What Makes Me

Overwhelmed with a feeling of things
Passing, slipping away, makes me think,
Makes me want to slow life down and
Simplify, makes we want to drink...

What The Vegetable Reveals

I suppose life is like an onion,
With multiple layers of skin,
Waiting, needing, to be peeled
Away, to reveal the truth within,
Which, in the end, doesn't match
The drama we think we are in...

Want Versus Reality

Nothing in life is guaranteed,
Is a cold hard fact, which we
Know, but don't want to heed,
As if it were some weird, and
Analog, a lost prophet's screed,
About us, the entitled ones,
Who possess more than we need.

Autumnal Equinox

Japanese gather on the hillsides,
And in wooded temple grounds,
Which host their family graves,
Cicadas' cries replaced by sounds
Of bell-crickets, the fine fall day's
Cooling transition surrounds
The families, convening with their
Ancestors, amidst the old mounds,
And burial stones, each reunion of
Souls, a mystery which confounds.

秋分の日

The first yellow leaf, encouraged by
A cold breeze's nudging and shocks,
Detaches, and drops, from a summer's
Branch, on this day of the Equinox.

Meat Puppet Aspiration

Conscious, and self aware,
Yes, I am me, indisputably,
Whether being here or there,
Thoughts and feelings swarm,
Through the hours I'm awake,
Based on how my senses inform,
Everything combining to make
An out-of-body feeling, which
Is later revealed to be a mistake,
As my meat reasserts its control,
Through sleep, pain, and pleasures,
Dispensed in differing measures.

Horse Soldiers Versus Cannon Balls

Proud cavalryman of the Light Brigade,
Astride a powerful horse, chomping at the bit,
Upon hearing "Charge!", he spurs ahead,
Cheered by the sound the bugles emit,
He gallops bravely, colorfully, into the valley,
Then sees the waiting guns ... "Oh, shit."

Darkest At Foot Of The Light House

"There has to be more to life than this"
In the midst of poverty or plenty,
Our happiness remains a hit or miss
Proposition, less to do with wealth,
It seems, and more likely based
On dreams, luck, food, or health.

Atmospheric Hope

A dark cloudy mass descending,
Then interrupted by a burst
Of heavenly colors and light, ending
The gloomy message the rain storm
Was unintentionally sending...

(Photograph by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011)

What Goes Up...

We float and soar for a glorious
Moment, then fall down, of course,
Reminded of limits, and reality,
Uncompromising gravity's force.

Epiphanic Inspiration

It was as if the revelation rode
An electric unicorn into my head,
And made my brain explode...

After Life, After Noon

Growing up, you're informed there
Are places called heaven and hell,
But whether they actually exist,
Or not, you really can't tell,
Then, as years pass, you forget
About it, which is just as well.

The Privilege Of Being Attractive

She sees him looking at her, and accuses
Him of undressing her with his eyes,
Which, of course was true, but is something
He thereafter calmly, steadfastly, denies
Claiming, rather, he simply was stunned
By her new designer dress, and tries
To make it sound normal, and she relents,
Despite knowing it was a pack of lies.

The Creative Process At Middle Age

I relax, and lay back, letting the blood
Flow and pool in the back of my head,
Helps to produce ideas they say,
But I end up going to sleep instead.

Occasionally Futile

Earnest and thorough
Explanations, landing
On un-listening ears, won't
Lead to understanding.

Where There Is Life

Love is not something to be measured out
In spoonfuls, no, it should be poured
Onto your beloved, always making sure
To refill from the heart where it is stored.

Jihadi

What monstrous power lies in hate,
Propelled by religion, which can
Make one feel justified to take,
A knife to the throat of a helpless man.

WTF Sweden?

Americas pronounce it "Aye-Kee-Ah",
And Japanese call it "Ee-Kay-Ah",
IKEA, the same in both nations,
The site of endless shopping trips,
Followed by tool-related frustrations.

Mind As A Quilt

It occurs to me,
Somewhat dimly,
That life is linear,
But also, a tapestry,
Past quilted with present,
Almost equally.

Transition

Sights of sea hawks looping
Under puffy clouds, enthrall,
On a day which can't decide
If it is summer or fall...

Joys Of Harbor Living

Designed and built to penetrate
Fog, and be heard miles away,
The ship's horn moans me
Awake to face the new day,
It repeats a few times as if
To summon me where I lay,
And I arise, guessing I didn't
Need more sleep anyway.

Writers Workshop

Words, disgorged in an urgent stream,
Onto paper, an opaque, abstract, splatter
Of ink, for deciphering by professors,
Poetry, after all, is a serious matter...

After Effect & Memory

A minor disturbance occurs
On the smooth water, after
The frog jumps, the carp stirs,
And concentric ring-ripples
Expand and intersect each other
Across the quiet pool,
Reminding me of a physics
Experiment back in school.

Ceiling Tile Vision

Lying back, staring at the ceiling,
Trying to ignore her illness,
She imagines concentric spheres
Radiating out from the stillness
Of her room, her sickly fears
Temporarily forgotten
By the vision of others, everywhere,
All happy, bored, or misbegotten,
All breathing the same Earthly air,
In various the states of decline,
Or growth, which we all share,
In the portions our fates assign.

Point of View

Flower draws attention
Of man and bee,
Quite differently...

Man sees beauty
To soften his mood,

Bee sees a colorful
Source of food.

The Methods Of Meteorology

The typhoons passed through
And blasted the Pacific high
Into a confusion of clouds
Which now cover the sky
Bringing rain and landslides
Leaving very little dry,
The hot summer cooled
Down and compromised...

In The Graveyard

Stones to remember those
Now gone to the here-afta,
Marked with paeans,
Poems, and some errata.

Practice Makes Perfect

We are so pumped and full of joy,
The smiles on our faces show,
The simple-pure animal pleasure
That only athletes can know.

Kissing One's Sibling

We play so hard,
To win we really try,
But somehow, it
All ends up in a tie.

The Odd Afternoon Moment

Leaning together, she tapping
The screen of her I-phone,
Me, dozing, and thinking
This sure beats being alone...

Unbelievable

Total unbelief and
Shock to be told that,
Hello Kitty is a girl,
Rather than a cat...

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/miranda/la-et-cam-hello-kitty-in-los-angeles-not-a-cat-20140826-column.html#page=1 

Language

Words fly through the air,
Each containing ideas
From here and there,

On modulations of sound
Words launch, then land,
Or don't, on what's around.

Depending on sequence
And combination used,
Words often leave one
Bemused, or confused...

Realization

Too late, I suppose,
It occurs to me,
That I've lived my
Life too frivolously,
The years now locked
Away, without a key...

 

Drones

Inside the anthill, laboring, and unable
To see the open sky, spread-out above,
We repeat our chores, steady and stable,
In the service of a monstrous queen,
We never learn about the color blue,
As we tend to an egg-laying machine,
Oh! To have been born a warrior,
Fighting and dying, out in the green...

Pre-FOMO

I'm thinking of a time when
We were not overly affected,
By the fear and stress of not knowing...

A time we were less connected,
Happily analog, coming and going...

James Foley

My ship has sailed, without me being
On board, and I watch it disappear,
Over the horizon, as I kneel, facing my
Cruel fate, on the desolate, deadly, pier.

葉月

Steadily, towards the cool,
Late-August proceeds,
The pavement cracks
Hosting a glory of weeds.

Existence

Going out, each new day,
Growing up and out in
Seeming disarray,
Our lives, like branches,
In constant interplay
Start, climb, and break, in
A non-stop biological ballet.

Photograph by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011

Perspective

Our lives, a series of emotional blips
Played-out in small drama, between
Armageddon and the apocalypse.

Serve And Protect

The policeman stands guard
At the scene of a crime
He was unable to prevent,
Not having arrived in time...

Fallen Clown

The famous clever comedian,
Gave up on things, and died,
By his own hand, spurred by
Some unfunny demons inside,
Who chased, and corroded, until
He had no place to run or hide.

Thank You Honey

Under sodden black-gray clouds,
The August air weighs heavy, while
I trudge away from a dog's day,
Soaking with bitterness and bile,
I sweat and wilt, verging on despair,  
Only to be uplifted, later, by her smile,
Her affection a zephyr of cooling air...

Mount Sinjar

Trapped and surrounded,
I can't bother asking why,
Anymore, it's too hard to
Fix, so I don't even try,
Thinking about it just
Tends to make me cry...
But we're safe, for now,
On this place, up high.

The Gift

The notes of a haunting melody
My memory somehow sends,
And I'm caught in the embrace
Of a song that never ends...

In God We Trust

We, the declining middle classes,
Increasingly pressured and abused,
By financial forces beyond our control,
Scrimp, save, and buy our cars used,
And the opportunity to abandon the
American dream, is stoutly refused...

We still trust the red, white, and blue,
What else are we supposed to do?

Lush Remembered

Dreamy-aching feeling of joy and sadness,
Pleasure and loneliness, listening to songs
From a long-lost group, kept alive on the
Web, where the past lives, and belongs..?

She sings and he drums, so seemingly
Recent and real, but in fact they're so far...
Ethereal memories, their images, and
Music remain -- like light from a dead star.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2rQRObHc7E

Theory Of Relationships

The secret to marital success
Is to avoid becoming deficient,
Over the passage of time, in the
Value of affection's coefficient.

August Evening Tempest

Thunder, still far away, sounds
Like a monster's grumbles,
Slowly getting louder, as the
Stormy air swirls and tumbles
Over and across the concrete
Urban sprawl, where we hide
In rooms, to avoid the heat,
All electric-powered cool inside,
Protected from the rains, but
Not from the sonic force applied.

Redundancy

Fuchsia and magenta are
Different words for pink,
Just one would suffice,
You would think...

Dear Readers

Stay with me,
All you distant friends,
Because, who knows,
Where this journey ends...

Ethereal

Blue gold light, through
The evening sky I send,
For your waiting eyes,
Arriving well after I end.

So Mistaken

Indigenous people, welcoming where
The European explorers landed
Thinking it was India, couldn't prepare,
Let alone imagine, what lay ahead...
The long process of exploitation
Leaving them weakened or dead,
And their treasures plundered,
Should have killed them instead.

Alarm Clock

Early morning, rise
Up and roll out of
Bed, rub my eyes,
Do some scratching,
And then realize
That I am late for
Work, and after that,
It's frantic out the door,
The peace of sleep
Retained no more...

What We Lost

The mountains, where we used to dwell,
Now abandoned by us gone down
Into the valleys, where fields compel
Conformity and endless labor,
The mountains are now the abode
Of animals and spirits living in the
Deep green the gods bestowed,
The woodland, freed of humans,
Becomes unapproachable because
It can, the once familiar forest
Grows back into the wild it was...

Winged Demon

Making honey, the bee
Is a hard-working thing,
But the wasp only lives
To hunt, kill, and sting.

回転寿司

The plates of sushi go around
And around, endlessly,
Man-apes eating
Voraciously, thoughtlessly,
Until there are no more
Fish in the sea.

 

Judgment At Starbucks

Over coffee and cheese cake,
The women converse about
How things converged to make,
The messy state of affairs
And misfortunes of friends...
Perched on plastic chairs,
Dissecting others, they cut
Their cakes into little squares.

How I Spent August & July

Get up from troubled sleep,
Go out into the summer heat,
Sweat and slog through a
Working day ... then repeat.

Hope

Magically resilient,
Kids at play, in front
Of the refugee tent.

Distant & Galactic

I suppose if I lived in this house,
I would be haunted by the sight,
Of our Earthly insignificance,
Shown by the sky each night.

Transition

The rainy season ends,
With the onset of heat
The summer sends.

Gone are the
Cool cloudy skies,
Now all humidity
And insects' cries.

BOHICA

Despite the lessons we learn
From doing and failing, and
The levels of wisdom we earn
From painful experience, the
Same mistakes always return.

= = = = = = = = = =

BOHICA = Bend Over, Here It Comes Again

Passive Aggressive

Office power politics, being what they are,
A frontal challenge would result in a loss,
So while walking two steps behind, as escort,
You stomp hard on the shadow of the boss.

MH-17

After the blast and the massive shock
Metal screaming as it's ripped and sheared
By the seething air, and the wind without
Oxygen mercifully blots-out what was feared
In the back of my mind every time I board
A jet, and unconscious, for a minute I fall,
Seat belt buckled, at great speed, toward
The ground, then I wake up and it all
Becomes terrifyingly painful and real,
Those last couple of minutes tumbling
Downward, and wondering how it will feel
When I slam into the dirt of the Ukraine,
And end this senseless unlucky ordeal.

AM Null

The morning is as gray
As I feel ... A misty null
Of cool moist silence,
Heavy listless and dull,
Pervades and prevails
On this emerging day,
The damp air inhales
All the energy away,
And motion is left for
This numbness to belay.

Saturday Morning Delight

The pure pleasure
And cold fizzy punch,
Of a big swig of beer,
Drunk before lunch.

Sales

Constantly bombarded, not with bombs,
But rather, with ideas and insinuations
About what we should acquire to
Improve our selves, and situations,
We surrender to the pitch, and splurge
Purchasing things we never would
Have bought, were it not for the urge...

Supporter

A weight settles on top of me,
And it's a burden of necessity,
Which I accept unconditionally,
My being part of a machine,
Designed to convey, I support,
The warm grinding, quiet & unseen.

Number 8 Approaches

Waiting for the typhoon,
The air grows heavy and
Humid, and will soon
Swirl, blow, and gust,
Forcing trees to bend
And break if they must...

The tempest winds will end,
But too late for what was
Broken, what now must mend.

Miracle In The Redhead's Garden

The lustrous, wondrous, gorgeous rose,
Blooms, regardless of who might notice
The spot where it so quietly grows,
The flower, unseen, un-smelled, still retains
The sweet perfume its petals enclose,
Waiting for the visit by a honey bee.
Or, perhaps, the approach of a nose
Belonging to someone stopped by
The blossom's pure beauty, I suppose...

(Photograph By Bryan Moyers) 

Number 7

Tomorrow?
Well... Hello July.
My oh my,
How the times do fly...

Modern Living

My day's routine
Starts with some
Carbos and caffeine,
The rest then spent
Staring at a screen...

Bug Power

A cockroach, appearing suddenly,
At the right moment, in time and space,
Can compel certain kinds of people
To scream and jump all over the place.

How Things Work

You go to work and learn
What they did not teach
You in school, and you earn
Money, and maybe reach
A point where you do not
Have to toil any more,
And take the savings you got,
Back to where you were before,
Without a care or thought
Of what the next day had in store.

Drag Racer

I only feel alive
When I drive,

Motion and speed
Fill my need,

Stay slow and still,
I never will...

Dilemma

Not being able to sleep,
I pour whisky into a cup,
Drink it, and start to snooze,
But then I can't wake up...

Platte River Epiphany

A calming country morning,
And the watery reflection
Is a transient reminder of
Nature's quiet perfection.

Photograph by Geoffrey M. Hamilton, 1955-2011 

 

Metrics

Standing, disappointed, on the scales,
And I know it does not lie,
Still, I move it to a different spot,
And then give it another try.

OMG!

At first, disbelief, quickly followed
By pure panic and distress,
When she discovers, much too late,
She no longer fits in her party dress.

This Won't Hurt

Pain is unambiguous, fundamental,
And usually has something
To do with dental.

Uncatchable

Fantastic, fabulous dreams,
Flicker, evade, and elude
Memory's attempted grasp,
As waking and light intrude
Into the manic-magical dark,
Now turning dreary gray,
With the approach of a day,
Visceral, amazing dreams
Escaping, vaporing away...

Why We Get High

Young adults, desperately
Afraid of being bored,
Assume there's a place
Where pleasure is stored,
And available, on demand,
To sedate and defray,
The nauseous tedium
Of each unexciting day,
To scratch an existential
Itch, which doesn't go away...

Extra-Sensory

The dream woke me up,
By telling me a story,
Which was dramatic,
Downright hallucinatory,
And, now lying awake,
I remain dumbfounded by
The mischief dreams make...

Unfinished Business

It's all coming undone, that which we paid for
In blood in the pitiless dust and heat of Iraq,
Terrorists, fundamentalist, Sunnis and whoever
Are killing and moving south on the attack,
While I'm out of the Army, back in Omaha,
Borderline PTSD, paid to put food in a sack,
At a supermarket full of soft and unknowing
Overweight suburbanite souls who lack
The sense to know I am a weapon, trained to
Kill bad guys in the sand-box ... I need to go back.

夏至 ＧＥＳＨＩ

All the noise, and banal or deadly distractions,
Dissemble, deflect, and obfuscate that it is here,
Arrived to shine on us, bathe us in its light,
Solstice returned, the longest day of the year.

By Mark Harm Niemeyer

The Source Of The Problem

I am a single, desperate, virgin male,
Unsatisfied and angry, I give my soul
To the desert god, and gladly assail
Infidels, and shameless women, who
Must be mercilessly put in their place,
As willed by god, and if they resist,
I will destroy them, by god's grace.

Cogito Ergo Sum

Not matter what you think, or say,
We are products less of free will,
And more of DNA.

Kami 神

Consider it odd, if you may,
But our belief in gods does
Not mean they have a say,
The gods, over the moral
Choices we make every day,
No, the gods just exist,
Like mountains and trees,
Mysterious as a forest mist,
Touching us, as they please.

Spring Fever

I feel giddy, things seem more crisp and real
Than usual, as a fresh breeze tickles the green
All around me, trees and plants all renewed
And dancing to melodies unheard, unseen;
What is this strange energy? -- Caused by
Lower humidity, or a natural caffeine?
I wish I could capture and package it for
Consumption, if you know what I mean...

 

World Cup

Long-contained feelings freed
And going up, up, up,
It's time, my friend,
For the soccer World Cup

Everyone's been waiting
Through the past four years,
For victory's joy,
Or defeat, and tears.

All of it focused on a ball
Kicked up and around,
And into space, and into a
Net, at the end of the ground.

Walk Like A Japanese

Purposeful Japanese people walking,
Perfectionists in navy, black, and gray,
Each carrying the weight of their
Ancient tribe, in a Japanese way.

Diligent Japanese people talking,
In controlled and quiet tones,
All crowded on verdant islands,
Home to gods and ancestors’ bones.

Quiet Japanese people stalking,
In moments short and rare,
Happiness, hidden somewhere deep
In the conformity they share.

Sayonara Misplaced

Caught up completely
In the sequence and flow,
Of the things we started,
Thereafter failing to know,
Before you departed,
That it could not come again,
The chance to say good bye,
Lost, some where and when...

Sad & Wasteful In Afghanistan

Under attack, the foot-soldiers
Called for help from the flier,
To kill the Taliban attackers
Outside the compound wire,
But chaos combined with
Rotten luck to conspire
To destroy the foot-soldiers
Through friendly fire...

Also called "Blue on Blue",
That they were all doomed,
The kids never knew...

Imperfection

Pretty much all about
Him she adores,
Except for the fact
That he snores.

Rainy Season Gems

Arches and bending bows
Formed by the long grass,
Bejeweled with water drops,
As the gray clouds pass.

Interpreter

I take the words you say,
Transform, and then repeat
Them, in a mostly similar way,
And performing this small
Magic, I how I make my pay.

Highly-Trained Bullet Sponges

Young men of the infantry,
Disciplined and dependable
March into bullets, insanely
Brave, ultimately expendable,

Young men of the infantry,
The lucky who survive
Return to distant homes,
Traumatized, but alive,
Each one burdened with
The blood their dreams revive.

Another Saturday Night

The young ones go out,
Out of sheer boredom,
Out they go, into the night,
Moving, not sitting still,
They will drink, dance, fight,
Moving they will meet,
Whatever is in-store for them
On the funky-dark city street...

Godzilla Takes A Break

With the city all destroyed,
And nothing left to crush,
Godzilla takes a break,
Figures "What's the rush?"
And so Godzilla goes into
Monster-Zen for a while,
Reflects on the meaning of
Being a giant nuclear reptile...

Plants' Hidden Message

The tree seems like a
Proud lonely fellow,
Standing, green, in a
Heaven's gift of yellow.

Downward Mobility

Could it be that what ultimately caused
Their decline into squalor and indigence
Was an inability to get-up off of the couch
And go out and do some due diligence
To look for a job, work for minimum wage,
Vice postponing and sitting on the fence,
Mostly drunk and unwilling to turn the page.

Nordic Curse

Scrunched-over, with a screwdriver,
On the kitchen floor, in my socks,
Painfully putting together something
Which arrived in an IKEA box...

Love Market

He and she adjust each day, to each other,
Taking care to adapt and rearrange,
Levels of affection, according to the
Prevailing rate of emotional exchange.

(Re)Listening To Beck

With the quirky rock music playing on,
I am inclined sit back and procrastinate,
And enjoy the moment, in its fuzzy glory,
Before the buzz wears off, before it's too late.

Few things are better than getting
Reacquainted with a good song once
Fallen into the gray-zone of forgetting...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPfmNxKLDG4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxugaMpt1vU&index=4&list=RDaa3rBVb3v4g

Clap Along!

Watching a dance, all prance
And jumps, twist and twirl,
I'm lifted to a better place
By the moves of a happy girl.

Way back in our oldest days
The women would rise,
And and move and sway,
To welcome the guys
Returning with the meat
From the hunt, which
Meant that all could eat,
And then, with bellies full,
Another survival day complete,
All of us would clap and sing,
The women leading us
With their hips' earthy swing.

Headed Back To Our Place

Driving home, the a road stretching way out ahead,
Lines in front of the windshield curving, converging,
And it seems we can't go fast enough to reach
The place of of comfort, found at their merging.

Isn't It So?

"Loaded for bear"
Means you're ready to handle
Almost anything, anywhere.

So does "Loaded for Mouse"
Mean you're better off
Staying around the house?

As opposed to being loaded,
Which suggests a situation
Of being lost in some
Lovely state of inebriation...

Growing Up

What we were taught by those older
Than us, was to respect what is real,
And makes business sense, vice the
Music in hour heads, what we feel,
Urges and mistaken assumptions
All sorted out by what we learn,
Our precious, peculiar childhood
Dreams, banished, never to return.

Life-giving Nights

I suppose what is so refreshing about spring,
Is that threat of freezing is diminished,
As things get green and balmy, and
Will remain so until summer's finished,
Leaving us free to roll and swoon,
On the sweet green grass, under the moon.

Eye Contact

So I stare at you,
And you stare at me,
Patiently I think,
That eventually,
You will blink,
But if you don't,
I guess I will,
Because, you won't.

Us

It exists, despite occasional
Disturbance and fuss,
This miraculous and
Fragile thing called us,
Which is sometimes also
Known to others as we,
This odd combination
Made from you and me,
Proof that opposites
Attract, unwittingly,
And we try, each day,
With a modicum of grace,
Not to stumble as we run
Our three-legged race,
This thing called us,
A most improbable case,
We somehow avoid what
Would end our embrace,
Us, ambling forward together,
At our own, uneven, pace.

I Am Woman. Hear Me Lord...

Peace, the odd comfort and relaxation,
Are all available, are there for the asking,
If she could only unwind into her real
Skin, and mitigate her multi-tasking,
For slowing down at home can reveal
The small miracles of everyday life,
Which are consistently downplayed,
Ignored, in her fight against being a wife,
Grimly, she sticks to the choice that she made
To go out and try to have it all, no matter
The hard cost to herself to be paid.

Plan B

My other Blog, where I take some of my older poems and attempt to do some kaizen.  改善

Link:  http://commonpoemsandrhymes.wordpress.com/

Tango No Sekku 端午の節句

The carp kites swim in the wind,
On a day when boys are treasured,
Still young and lovely, before they
Grow, and then are measured
To wear the implements of war,
And tattered battle flags will wave,
Where the carp kites flew before...

Golden Week

On a day, so cool-sunny pleasant,
People overcome by the urge to go out,
And they do so, in numbers, this Saturday,
All strolling, shopping, and milling about...

A man pushing a dog in a stroller,
Stops, with a lost look on his face,
As if he's waiting for someone to
Prod him, perhaps take his place,

Nearby his woman bends over
A carton of colorful clothing,
At an open-air market where
Hundreds mingle, some of them loathing
The prospect of it all ending,
Too soon, with no way to save
The minutes they're spending...

Others, are simply unaware,
Happy to be strolling, shopping, and
Milling about, in the springtime air.

Not To Be, Or...

If we could-be, as opposed
To what we really are,
Then maybe that could
Be us reaching for a star,
Our might-have-been
Dreams, realized from afar.

Henny Youngman's Senryu

Come home at night to a woman
Who'll give you love, affection,
Tenderness? It means you're
In some sort of deflection
From normal routines...?
You're in the wrong house,  
That's what it means. 

Behind The Season's Shift

The green is all around
Spreading in the rain
Like a some sort of revenge
Against the ice cold pain
Of a winter, now departed,
And the green will never
Retreat, now it's started.

Why Not?

Emotions are temporary,
But they help to mask
The negative, the very
Things which conspire
To bring us down, drag
Us away from the higher
Cloudless altitudes where
Happiness permeates
The cool sky-blue air.

Celestial Candle

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

Do you notice from afar,

Your kin, we humans call the sun,

Which burns, like you, until it’s done,

Grows giant red, then shrinks

Back to what was begun,

As cosmic dust in the dark

Congealing towards a spark…

Twinkle, twinkle, little light,

Burning-out in an empty night.

Carl LaFong Is Happy

Life is movement,

Sometimes fun,

Sometimes chaotic mess,

All forward motion until it’s done…

So, for a moment, I get it,

Get up from the comfy chair,

Flap my arms in a crazy dance,

Sucking in the cool fresh air,

Refreshing, recirculating, forgetting

The TV still playing there…

Life is movement,

Sometimes measured

Sometimes frantic, spontaneous,

Each small dance to be treasured.

What I Did This Afternoon

Mid-afternoon, unable to escape,
Caught in a training meeting's thrall,
A sleep demon pushing down on my
Eyes, as I stare at the clock on the wall,
Hoping for some progress, but it doesn't
Seem to be moving very much at all...

Meanwhile our briefer drones on and on,
Each successive phrase becoming harder to
Hear, until all comprehension is gone,
I'm a tied-up, trapped, and tired mess,
A sad manifestation of a yawn,
Jammed between boredom and emptiness.

Happy (I Just Needed To Post This!)

(A small early-2014 phenomenon/miracle, by Pharrell Williams)

"Happy"

[Verse 1:]
It might seem crazy what I’m about to say
Sunshine she’s here, you can take a break
I’m a hot air balloon that could go to space
With the air, like I don’t care baby by the way

[Chorus:]
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you know what happiness is to you
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do

[Verse 2:]
Here come bad news talking this and that, yeah,
Well, give me all you got, and don’t hold it back, yeah,
Well, I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine, yeah,
No offense to you, don’t waste your time
Here’s why

[Chorus]

Hey, come on

[Bridge:]
(happy)
Bring me down
Can't nothing bring me down
My level's too high
Bring me down
Can't nothing bring me down
I said (let me tell you now)
Bring me down
Can't nothing bring me down
My level's too high
Bring me down
Can't nothing bring me down
I said

[Chorus 2x]

Hey, come on

(happy)
Bring me down… can’t nothing…
Bring me down… my level's too high…
Bring me down… can’t nothing…
Bring me down, I said (let me tell you now)

[Chorus 2x]

Come on

Navy Reunion

I somehow kept my the feelings inside,
As I saw you coming across the pier,
But they all let loose as we embraced,
Back from the sea, you are finally here!

Continuity Of The Forge

Those who used to make swords,
Which are now banned, instead
Make knives for cooks, the same
Steel which was used to behead
Unlucky commoners by samurai,
Now long gone and dead.

Yankees And The Land Of The Gods

When the surging Western wave reached the shores
Of Asia, it broke on the rocky shore of the land
Of the gods, and what followed was much
Different than what was expected or planned
By the Occidental sailors, preachers and traders,
As the the island tribe was able to withstand,
Absorb and adapt the ways of the invaders,
To its eventual advantage, modernizing, and
Playing in the game of capital, until it was won...
And the tables were turned on the West,
By the chosen of the Land of the Rising Sun.

April Rebirth

Spring's green is upon us,
An invasion of leaves,
An explosion of sprouts,
As the earth receives
A make-over, rescuing warmth
From winter's thieves.

Spring's green is taking over,
Life's energy and promise,
Steams verdant in the clover.

The Power Of Facial Muscles

A working day, with all that entails, making
My way through what seems like a mile
Long succession of those little bruises and
Bumps and business-social friction, while
Underneath it all, hoping there's something
Better, happier --- and then I see your smile.

Unintended Effect

To others, it was obvious, to the point
Of almost being a "so what?" event,
But to me it was revelation, an opening,
A call into my tired soul to reinvent,
To retrieve the missing enthusiasm
From the dark boring place it went...

Wake Up Call

Big thanks to you,
For letting me know
It's morning in Yokosuka,
Mr. caw-caw Crow.

Comfort Versus Reality

Searching for certainty, stability,
Amid the change that's all around,
Mucking through a swamp of chaos,
Just looking for some solid ground,
On which to stand, to think, to rest,
"Does it exist?" "Can it be found?"
Chanting questions in a daily quest,
Hopefully hunting for peace, or that
Part of it which can be possessed.

Rural Line Convergence

The country road,
Straight and graveled,
Like the farmers, is
Largely untraveled.

(Photo by Geoffrey Hamilton, 1955-2011)

Nuclear Family Unbound

Siblings, bound together by blood,
Thereafter separated by their lives,
And the needs of random strangers
Who became husbands and wives,
And events, good and bad, which devise
To challenge and weaken family ties…

Siblings, bound together by memories,
Shared during reunions, they recall
The way their family once was before
It was pulled apart, before the fall.

Way East Of Kiev

In the dog-eat-dog world of Eurasian border
Politics, to survive it is essential to retain
Control over the land between you and
Your neighbor, protect your domain
At all costs, and thus we now see Russian
Tanks preparing to invade the Ukraine,
The geopolitics  of the Eurasian continent
Always marked by tension and pain.

Fourth Month

It's April's first day,
And we're a bunch of fools,
But that's O.K.

Transient Sakura 無常の桜

Daffodil stalks, their flowers lately gone,
Are clustered, green, in the shade,
Of a Cherry Tree in full bloom,
Pink-white blossoms fully displayed,
But soon, like the Daffodils,
The tree's beauty will fade
Into the green from which life is made.

"Baby's Good To Me..."

The young ones, constantly texting,
Dumb-walking and always on-line,
Are rediscovering the Beatles,
Which makes me smile, and "I Feel Fine"...

Righty Tightie, Lefty Loosie

When encountering a random screw
Twisted deep into a piece of wood,
Knowing, at first, which way to turn
Your screwdriver, would be a good
Thing to know, lest your hands learn
The lesson of how friction can burn.

The Human Condition

Negotiate and persuade,
Ply with food and spirits,
Is how deals are made.

But fundamentalists
Argue endlessly otherwise,
Blind to the long-term
Blessings of compromise.

I am right and
You are wrong,
And it doesn't matter
If we get along,
For we are the chosen,
And you are not,
So let us take power
And accept your lot.

The extremists carry forth
Unbending, and so it goes,
Until the rocks and bullets
Fly, and the blood flows...

The War Between Men And Women (Part 2)

When women and men work together
Clustered and stressed in the same space,
There are factors that tend complicate
Things occurring in the office place,
Mostly deriving from the urge to mate,
Biology perverting the laws of economics
Professionalism versus the will to procreate,
Rules of conduct, business acumen,
Defeated by testosterone and estrogen.

Small Life Lesson

Running through the rain with a loaf of bread,
Which, while fresh, is now getting mushy & soaked...
I should have bought something in a can instead.

Washington D.C. Function

The hostess strives to please
Her guests, plying them with
Compliments, wine and cheese,
Making love with conversation,
Putting them at all ease,
Pandering the powerful while
Erect, vice down on her knees,
The hostess knows how it all works,
As do the guests, who are
Mostly bores and jerks.

MH370

Do there still float pieces of the Malaysian
Airliner, now perhaps broken and entombed
In an Indian Ocean oblivion,
What awful force of random fate loomed
Over the passengers and crew, all
Disappeared completely, perfectly doomed.

Take A Break

Awake and prepare for the daily grind,
With all its demands and stress,
But be sure to make time for the
Healing of prayers or mindfulness,

Don't let your busy-ness forbid,
The nurturing properties
Of going off the grid...

Position Unknownn

I was meandering, not lost, in thought,
Wandering, mentally, in a set of
Surprises which emotionally ought
To balance what's above
From what's below, all fraught
With potential loss from love,
Selling what had yet to be bought.

Tsukushi

The horsetails, otherwise
Know as joint grass,
Poke up from the dirt
Post-Equinox pass.

Circular

I dreamed I rowed a boat
Across to the other shore,
Disembarked and then found
Myself back where I was before,

So I rowed back across again,
And when I was through,
I was in the same place on the
Bank of the river Deja-Vu.

Draw Of The Cards

That happiness could
Depend on luck or fate,
Is something to consider,
Something to contemplate...

A Wall In The Woods

Deep in the woods, where the winds stop,
And turn into dark quiet air,
Is a man-made wall of stones,
Dividing nothing from nowhere.

The wall is well made, symmetric,
Straight, now calico'd with moss,
I wonder whose sturdy hands built it,
Each stone gathered and carried across
Distance to be carefully put in place,
To organize, to mitigate loss,
The serried stones are a trace
Of old labor, hope, and sweat,
A stubborn, solid monument to someone,
An anonymous appeal, to not forget.

John H. Chafee Nature Preserve

What were once farmers' fields,
Are now shaded by trees,
Rooted deep and grown
Tall, swaying in the breeze,
On land where seeds were sown...

Land, once an immigrant's prize,
Now a feral forest, where an
Abandoned dream lies.

Life Goal

You can't always win
But if you try, you might,
Most of the time,
Be right.

Keepsake

The old worn Teddy-bear, beloved by the daughter,
Is now warmly possessed by another,
As a treasure in an empty nest,
By the mother.

Hunnebedden

What were they thinking, way back when,
Before recorded history, those ancient beings
Who chose and moved big rocks, then
Lifted one upon another, making a formation
With a meaning, now lost, the rock piles
Built through raw strength and cooperation...
Did the rocks bring meaning, pride, or smiles?
Was it full-stomach boredom, or inspiration,
Or the urging of a one who claimed the gods
Should be thanked for the hunter clan's
Continued survival, won against all odds,
Perhaps it proclaimed to an unforgiving land:
"Like the hills and mountains, here we stand."