Post New Year's Eve

Have a drink of the hair of the dog
Wipe the sleep from my eyes
Face to the east as the darkness
Fades with the sun's slow rise
Make a toast, if you can summon
The words, gone before you realize...

Out And In

It's OK to think outside the box
But still sleep within its walls
Make sure the doors have locks

Rediscovery

A millennial hipster kid,
Breathlessly stops by,
Says a new band called the Beatles,
Is streaming on Spotify...

Only In Your Heart

I just heard a dear forgotten song,
Listened to it all until the end,
Can't help smiling, so happy,
Like finding a long lost friend...

365th Evening

As the year comes to an end,
Before transforming into after,
Best to forget the negatives,
Instead remember the laughter...

Morning Commute

The cold Siberian wind,
Sweeping across Tokyo Bay,
Blows against my grim walk
To work, on a winter's day,

Warmth, the Solstice Sun too
Low and weak to convey...

What School Doesn't Teach

In high school I learned to
Chuckle at others frequently,

In college I learned to
Laugh and satirize mercilessly,

Thereafter, I've come to find,
The joke is usually on me...

O-Sho-Gatsu お正月

Japanese people, lost in a zen
Of preparation and cleaning,
As a new year approaches again...

Yule Time In The Ginza

Christmas is practiced in Tokyo,
But people don't know why,
No turkeys in the land of the gods,
And ovens in short supply,
So Kentucky Fried Chicken
Is what Santa Claus brings,
Along with cake, and colored lights,
And strange foreign things,
Like murdered fir trees and
What a Herald Angel sings...

Where's The Tissue

A virus causes a "cold",
But cold it is not,
Rather, its an issue of
Way too much snot...

On The Way To Shimbashi

Crowded commuter train window
Glass clouded by a human smear,
From someone's morning face or hair,
Outside the sky is cool and clear,
I stand in the stuffy air, wishing I
Was any other place else than here...

Yes I Do -- (Not)

Diamond and platinum wedding rings,
Lined up in rows, shiny, sparkling,
Symbols of joy and hopeful things,

Now each jewel tells of happiness
Which never came to pass,
From broken vows, they now lie
Under the pawnshop counter glass...

Helmand Province

War erupts again in Afghanistan,
Just because it can,
Just because it must,
Tribal machismo, revenge,
Mountains, blood, and dust...

冬至 Month of Running Priests

The Shiwasu Sky is
Deep blue and clear
Hot bath with citrons
Shortest day of the year

Lost Memorial

The war is remembered
But still not understood
The boys who fought it
All now gone for good
Their names carved into
A cold granite wall
Did their sacrifices
Mean anything at all...

Solstice Scene

Leaves fallen, soon to become mulch,
The dead brown grass is melancholy,
Under holiday lights on the tree
Which blink a season to be jolly,
We scheme to summon happiness,
Through presents, Poinsettias, and holly...

One's Choice

You can go out and deal with
Meteorological force,
Its cold and cutting winds,
Or just stay in, of course...

Neolithic

Beckoned by our Druid priest,
We gather by the big stones,
On a morning, facing to the east,
We sense things immense,
Lights, and god signs, released...

Innocence

School is out, and with not a care,
In the world, we dance along with
Tumbling leaves, in the Autumn air,
Our sidewalk journey full of a
Happiness we don't even know is there...

Relativity

Truth and reality
Can be either
Black or white
Or neither...

Social Security

What a scary funky thrill is life
It can offer you scarlet sunsets
Or come at your throat with a knife

Weekend Consumed

Sunday afternoon slides into
Night with little warning,
The next thing you know,
It's a Monday morning,
A Happy Friday's hope
Quickly disbursed and spent
Over a lost weekend,
Who knows where it went...

What, Me Worry?

What can't be controlled,
Is OK for one to ignore,
Go to sleep, it will keep,
Hug your pillow and snore...

Lost Frontier

There was a time before pop-up ads
When Internet websites were free,
Before corporate fence lines were
Erected on the electronic prairie,
Gradually, mercilessly, inexorably,
Business models and bottom lines
Validating our collective hunch,
That control would prevail and stifle,
There's no such thing as a free lunch...

Rodent Precedence

The squirrels descend, in numbers,
From thicket and tree to feed,
On store-bought sunflower seed,
And in the bush, off to the side,
The hungry displaced sparrows
Watch from where they hide...

NFL Is Entertainment

Let us celebrate harvest,
The American way,
Feast on dumb-bird meat,
Then watch football all day...

Fire Pit

On a cold night, under an autumn moon,
Old friends, gathered around a fire,
Warm their hands and memories,
Linger, laugh, until the coals expire...

Sentient

Existential nausea,
As things fall apart,
Condemned to be free,
By Jean Paul Sartre,
Understanding,
More or less,
Life is being,
Amidst nothingness...

A Mind's Keyboard

A poet paints a picture with words,
Letters and sounds revealing,
What he's feeling...

Basement View

Seen from below, the wooden planks
Holding up the floor of the room
Where we eat, argue, give thanks,
Make me think of the green tall trees
They once were, alive in the breeze,
Before being felled, thereafter cut
Planed and processed into lumber,
And then nailed into a place of
Static tree bones slumber.

A Matter Of Taste

Sharp-shinned hawk, on the branch,
Scanning for something to eat,
Ignoring the fat squirrel feeding
Below, opts for different meat...

Pilgrims' Legacy

Family relations as cool
As the living room is warm
Hostages to cooked turkey
On a day of gray winter storm

Morpheus

The old cat pads with measured steps,
Slowly, smoothly, climbs onto my lap,
Pauses, thinking old cat thoughts, then
Purring, circles, curls up for a nap...

Gobble Gobble

A turkey's fate,
Eat, strut, grow fat,
Then served-up on a plate.

Pre-Black Friday

Shopping for Thanksgiving, back to the market,
A second time, buying the things I missed,
When I ventured to the market initially,
With good intention, but without the list...

The Queen

Behold! I am Mantis,
I hunt, and copulate,
Then I eat my mate...

Life

Get up out of bed
Shit, shower, and eat,
Work, come home,
Sleep, then repeat...

No Exit

Before stopping, and
Trying to go back,
The moment passes,
As he loses track,
While trying to cope,
Amidst the grind
He holds onto hope...

Bataclan Theater

What goes through the mind of one
Wearing a suicide bomb on his chest,
Must the random killing really be done
In order to avenge and be blessed,
Self annihilation, everything gone,
Promises of eternity with virgins
Blasted into an empty denouement...

Maternity Ward

Women gathered around the birthing bed,
Glowing in some common uterine power,
Urge the emergence of the baby's head...

Then the rest, pushed out of the womb
In a moment of pain and amniotic slime,
A new life cries, confused, betrayed,
Sucking in oxygen for the very first time...

Gone To Kindling

Unable to protest, or defend,
Against the ax and jagged saw
The tree's life comes to an end...

Common Law

Experience,
Constantly applied,
Results in lessons
True and tried.

Rugrat

The toddler's eyes
Proclaim "I am 2"
"There is nothing
You can do,
No escape,
Until I'm through.

紅葉

A season passing, in the life of a tree,
Is displayed in orange, red, and gold,
Colors announcing change, quietly...

Our last Glimpse

It happened quickly,
They descended
Quietly from the sky,
And everything ended...

Missed Opportunity

A nugget of happiness,
Was waiting right there,
But you walked right
By it, totally unaware,

Small comfort not
Knowing what you lose,
Based on the direction
Of attention you choose...

Impermanence

Words, are sounds attempting to
Capture pieces of the fleeting,
The flowing we cannot hold,
Passing by, but never meeting,
Ideas and impressions paused,
But gone before completing...

Digestive Gas

The ladies' book club meeting
Ended before it really started
When the proper hostess
Lost control and farted...

It's Just Another Day

Gifts of conscious comfort
Days and nights will send,
Moments of relaxation
And joyous boredom blend,
Into something approaching
Happiness, in the end...

Conscious Of It All

The realization that summer
Has disappeared too soon,
Hits me hard, as I count the
Lost days, under a harvest moon

白虎隊

16 years old, white band wrapped on my head,
Fighting for the Shogun in the Aizu hills,
Eventually defeated, we choose to be dead...

Morning Coffee Shot

Part of it is psychological,
Part of it is mythological,
But the real power of the bean,
Resides in smell, and caffeine...

Dark Side Of Bushido 武士道の無

A samurai slashes a random
Vagrant, in Shinagawa Ward,
On the Tokaido Road, in order
To test the sharpness of his sword...

Displaced In Croatia

Somewhere, in what used to be Syria,
Some people who could take no more
Of the chaos, hate, and pain, paid cash
To strangers to escape from the war,
By sailing across a sea, in leaky boats,
All hoping to reach a distant safer shore,
The people cast their fate on the kindness
Of Europeans, they'd never met before...

The result is confusion, and a shamble,
People from what used to be Syria,
Trapped and spinning in their gamble...

Millard Sunrise

My friend, who took this picture of a morning's
Small and quiet wakening, is no longer around,
But yet, I can feel it, I am there at the moment
He looked up at the pastel sky, from the ground...

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

Socrates

Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher
Who knew how to reason, parse, and think,
Yet he wasn't politically adept enough
To keep the hemlock out of the drink
He was coerced to finally consume,
By order of those above, afraid of the truth,
His morals and honesty sealed his doom...

Payback

Some push through life, waiting to be
Paid, what they believe they are owed,
But the more likely outcome is that they
Will simply reap what they have sowed...

Echoes

Say hey to the plant
Greetings to the chair
Joking with the
Furniture everywhere
Talk back to the TV
In the rarified air
Of a place with
No one there...

Epiphany On A Mountain

Above the rocks, almost floating,
Are yellow, pink, and mystic green,
Miraculous colors, mixing and
Urging to be felt, vice seen...

Primordial Ballgame

I follow sports because
The drama on the field
Releases emotions,
Otherwise concealed,
The joy and the thrill
Of victory summons
Feelings of the kill...

Advice

Too hard to deal
With, let it pass,
Before you feel...

Teambuilders

Women, gathered in groups,
Communicate and chatter,
Soothed by each other's sounds,
The rest doesn't really matter.

Fall Flier

On patrol, gliding
In the autumn skies,
Looking for my
Meal of flies...

 

Purring & Claws

The cat arches it's back,
Stretching and lolling,
On the table's edge
Without ever falling,
Supple and strong,
The napping cat will
Not linger very long,
For soon its mood
Will sneaky-shift to
Hunting for food...

Fast And Furious

For a magic moment,
Driving my car, at speed,
At one with the engine
Is all the meaning I need
Racing down a highway
As light and distance recede...

Murphy's Law Restated

No matter how thoroughly you plan,
Events can, and will, conspire towards
Chaos and confusion, because they can...

The Good Things Of Life

Going horizontal, often,
Relaxing and napping,
Eating things delicious,
Then satisfactory crapping,
Meditate to the sound of
One hand clapping...

Mundane As Insane

Mesmerized by the seeming sameness
Of it all, all the moments we spend
Wondering, waiting, repeating things,
Habits assuming it will  never end...

Promontory

One gets a sense of perspective,
Being down here, looking up there,
Feeling small, in the long grass,
Alone, in the magic morning air...

Election Time

Politicians are the most egotistical
People you are ever likely to meet,
Some inspire, while others make you
Want to hit the button marked delete,
They surf the waves of influence
And favor, never missing a beat
In their endless quests to make their
Networks of power complete...

家のお化け

Solitude means there is no sound,
Unless you make it, your chance to
Perform, with no one else around,

Solitude means stifling your urge
To run away, and instead accept,
Commune, with the ghosts who emerge...

Overhyped, Overfed

Too much information, fed ceaselessly,
In small colorful chunks, seems to me
To lead to cases of mental obesity...

Life On The Grid

Always connected,
Touch screen, left click,
Need my information,
Need it quick,
Otherwise, I'm lost,
Lonely, sick...

白露

Bell crickets softly sing, as the day
Darkens into night, and the long
Tired grasses bend and sway,
Bowing to the coming cold,
Knowing summer has faded away...

Minute Manager

When action begins to swirl, and
Things aren't going too great,
Sometimes it's best to sit back,
And just let matters percolate...

Counterculture's Failure

Back when my hair was long,
And we were all so sure
The establishment was wrong,
Sending young men, based on
A lottery, against their will,
Into Southeast Asian jungles
To sweat, fight, and kill,
Now, our wars are fought by
Those who want the thrill,
Of releasing unimaginable
Firepower, boom away until,
In a moment of bloody elation
The enemy is destroyed,
Blasted into obliteration...

The Inevitable

When someone leaves, is gone,
One scrambles to fill the void
With photos, clothes, things to
Save what time has destroyed,
Things which continue to exist,
Like a small quiet rebellion,
These ordinary things resist,
Time's unforgiving tyranny
Finding safe places it missed,
Or so it seems, as I hold
On to her robe, smelling her,
Feeling safer, feeling old...

Brain Misfunction

A flicker of a good idea
Followed by a big yawn
Next thing I know
The good idea's gone...

My Ride

"Dust-to-dust", or something like that
Vaguely recalled, from some holy book,
I suppose, human vanity is incurable,
But all so futile, I think, as I look
At the rusted carriage of my youth,
Adolescence in a gas-fed machine,
Back seat life-lessons, seemed so vital,
Memory lingers, all lost in the green...

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

Fat Shaming

You are what you eat,
End of story,
Argument complete.

Pre-Dawn

The magic time between day and night,
An hour-or-so, not dark, not light,
Images, colors emerge and float,
A quiet apex of peace, rising
From dreams now fading, remote,
A pause before the inevitable
Transition, remorselessly gliding,
Up into the glaring unquiet day,
Where god-knows-what is hiding...

Really Tired

Home at last
Into the shower
Go unconscious
Within an hour

Undeniable

The impact of beauty is unambiguous
Cannot be faked or falsely displayed
You know it when you see it, always
True to the magic way it's made...

Tokyo Commuter 満員電車

On a rush hour train,
Trapped in the crowd,
Stifling a scream
I can't say aloud,
Stunned with stress,
On the Limited Express...

Classroom Clock

Tick tock, tick tock,
Minutes from
A watched clock,
Crawling by,
Away they
Slowly fly...

Fast But Not Furious

The sports car,
Powerful and sleek,
Driven, symbolically,
By a geek,
Porsche empowering
The needful meek...

Learn To Read

Memory is a picture book,
Pages filled with wonders,
If you remember to look.

Ozymandias Meets ISIS

A pagan shrine in Syria
Which stood for centuries
Now crumbled into dust
Stirred by a desert breeze
The shrine destroyed as
An offering to please
A god whose servants
Kill and maim with ease
Ancient rock blown-up into sand
In a sun burnt merciless holy land...

Yes I Do

It's romance, sex, contention,
Call it whatever you wish,
But when all is said and done,
Marriage is a covered dish.

A Typhoon's Gift

Unusual, cool winds in August, break the

Sweaty Grip of a long hot humid spell

But, I suppose, if bugs could talk,

They'd all be saying "What the hell?"

Past Present

What occurred before
Just happened again now
Inexplicably replayed
I know not why or how
Some sort of déjà vu
An answer to a riddle
I'm wishing I knew

Once Upon A Time

Walking in the olden woods,
I came upon a magic space,
Where surely dwell spirits,
A forest fairies' holy place...

Law Of The Small Jungle

Grasshopper on a green leaf,
Well-colored to conceal
Itself, but failing, thereby
Becomes a Sparrow's meal...

Troubled Sleep

Panicked clouds,
Scud by the moon,
Smoke-like, escaping,
The coming typhoon.

Past, Forgotten

August heat, and apologies made,
For things which which occurred
Seventy years ago, all good except
That no one recalls what was erred...

Some Sort Of Hurt

The unexamined words,
Of an unrepentant fool,
Remain, remembered as
Unnecessary, and cruel...

Stretched Thin

Compartmentalize,
Thereafter multi-task,
Complicated.
No need to ask...
Choices made,
Flex time flies,
Pain only visible
In my eyes.

Fight For Life

The awesome green life force
Of a random summer weed,
Flourishing in a place where
Flowers would never succeed...

Small Peace Of Mind

The goodness of life, which
One occasionally savors,
Often results from a
Layering of small favors,
Received unexpectedly,
Simple acts of kindness,
Provided interest-free...

Reptilian

My lame approach
To problem fixing
Is to deflect things,
Never ever mixing
And/or exploring
Feelings, now pouring
Like a rain of guilt,
On what I have built...

Brief Respite

She stops, on the sidewalk,
Enjoys the momentary shade
From a blazing sun, which
The clouds above have made...

 

Unresolved

It can not be provided, that
For which has neither been
Sought, nor perceived, it will
Fester, until the time when
Common sense prevails, and
A realization finally sinks in
To ask for it, and that's
When the healing can begin.

American Story

Routine traffic stop,
Young man and cop...
A failure to relate
Or communicate,
Effectively seals
The young man's fate,
Shots fired in panic,
Blood thereafter spilled,
Over misread signals,
Needlessly killed...

Opinions Are Like Assholes

Some folks develop political views,
Base on the partisan bullshit
They ingest from the TV news,
All unaware of being victims
Of the con the media spews.

Kanagawa August お盆の直前

Japanese hold hand towels and fans
In the humid eighth-month heat
Stringing up lanterns for when
Those alive and dead will meet

Raptor's Repast

A misplaced sandwich
Of luncheon meat,
Becomes a dive-bombing
Seahawk's breakfast treat,

Always scanning below,
The Seahawk swoops
Down before the crow,
Food snatched away
Before you know...

Wild Pitch

Life throws curve balls at you,
Your peace, what you believe,
Then the inning changes and
You suddenly get a reprieve,
Rolled dice duly determine
The fortune you shall receive.

Superstition

So far, so good,
So good, so far,
Led by the light
Of a lucky star,
Or so we're told,
And there you are,
Place your bets
And sell the farm,
Put your trust
In the lucky charm.

End Of July

Cicada's vibrant
Desperate cry
Under a sultry
White-gray sky

Memory

Yes, I suppose if an apology is
Offered, I shall be able to forgive,
But I will continue to remember
It for all the days I will live,
Memory is stubborn, and time
Can sometimes erode and erase
The hurt which currents deep,
Adding lines to my face...

Disappointment

Hopes and dreams
Abandoned, unpossessed,
Leave him looking back,
Empty and depressed,
Alternative plans and
Proposals left unexpressed...

Eruption Beauty

The mountain exploded,
The ash cloud's flow,
Kissing a rain shower,
To make a rainbow...

On The Cusp Of 60

So, I ask you, do my words get
Better, more poignant, with age?
Well, I'm here to tell you it's
Camouflage for irony and rage.

When you finally get to be
Old enough to know better,
It's all right there for you to see...

Post-EURO Hellenica

Big debts, owed by Greece,
Leave little prospect
Of pay back, or peace...

In The End, A Stranger

Who are you?
You, who we
Thought we knew,
Yet, we now know
We didn't have a clue.

What seemed so warm,
Was found to be cold,
And heartless, if the
Truth be told...

Avian Wisdom

Swallows always know best,
But how, I do not know,
To cleverly build their nest,
Under eaves, away from the crow.

Dogma's Fiscal Reality

Priest, Iman, Rabbi, Minister,
All consider unbelievers
As lost, even sinister,
Places of worship cost
Money, there's bills to pay,
Religions go broke if
Their customers stay way...

Holy men and shamans,
In dark ancient days,
Learned to apply the
Magic of nature's ways,
Now their descendants
Have learned how to sell
Subservience through
Fear of "others" and Hell...

What's So Funny?

The thing which made them laugh out loud
Was "funny" -- fear and relief melded into
Hilarity, safe in the snickering crowd,
Hoots and giggles born from the part of
The brain where thought is not allowed...

Listen carefully, if you please,
Humans laughing sounds
Like monkeys in the trees...

Spinning Wheels

It became apparent to me,
Sometime between the ages
Of 52 and 53,
That return on investment
Decreases steadily,
And I will fade into a
Tired type of liminality,
Until the pension kicks
In and I'm finally free.

Prophesy

Humans, who are are in the process of
Killing Earth, will, instead be destroyed,
Before the atmosphere turns toxic
By a random, plummeting, asteroid,
Consumer life, as we know it, disappears,
Due to a rock, falling out of the void...

Gay Marriage? Welcome To The War

You say this,
And I say that,
Husband and wife,
Tit-for-tat...

You say no,
And I say why?
Friction, no matter
How hard we try,

The combat rules
Of marriage apply...

お茶とコーヒ

Japanese have turned into an art,
The making of a cup of tea,
Americans drink coffee with
Donuts, less ceremoniously...

Till Death Do Us Part

Marriage is love, sex, friendship,
But also a struggle for power,
Bargaining and deal-making,
Every week, day, and hour...

Biological Burden

A tendency toward melancholy,
Anxiousness, even a sense of doom,
Unknown to men, the burden
Of women, who carry a womb...

Power Of The Like Button

Their relationship began to shrivel,
And eventually ended,
After her Facebook was
Unfollowed and unfriended...

Insomnia

Thoughts and images rebounding
Randomly inside my head,
Questioning and beckoning,
When I should be asleep instead.

The Judges' Gift

Gone are the days when
The old scared rules applied,
Liberated by a rainbow,
You now can walk with pride,
Gone are the times when
You evaded, joked, or lied,
Liberated by a rainbow,
There's no more need to hide.

Launched, Impact Unknown

OK, excuse me, I guess
I'm supposed to look
At the rules written in
Your famous holy book,

As if that was a solution,
Something to simplify
The extant convolution,
Which is our reality,

You hope Donald Trump,
Will answer your prayer
For justice, but, take it from
Me, he's too rich to care,

So, what is left is knowing
That hugs are good and OK,
But diapers also need to be
Changed, by the end of the day...

梅雨

Moist and cloying cool,
The greens and grays
Dampen and mute these
Rainy season days,
A momentary beauty
The Hydrangea displays...

  

You, And The Horse You Rode In On...

When it all falls down
And buries you,
Cutting off the light,
What will you do?

Here, we flattened,
Chastened, ones lie,
Ask for no quarter,
We grudgingly comply
Thinking: "Kiss my ass"
Until we dwindle and die.

Unknown Origins

Whistling quietly,
The wind blows through
Ancient stones, stood-
Up by god knows who...

 

The Hand You Are Dealt

Words, like cards in a game,
Are slowly, carefully, played,
The negotiation hanging
On heart, diamond, spade,
Or club, implied, inferred,
Until the point is finally made...

Chance

Random meeting, with
Love left as a gift,
For the taking, then
Off they drift...

Never To Be Read

Buried in a blog,
Like the rings
Of an uncut tree,
A thousand things...

The Green 緑の秘密

Earthly mysteries,
Surrounding us still,
There must be meaning,
Believe what you will,
In reality, it's a gift
From chlorophyll,
Received each time
Your tired lungs fill...

Anti-Inconceivable

"No way, it'll never occur,"
"If pigs had wings..."

But then it happens!
Just one of those things...

And a Chester White
Goes gliding by,
Flapping up into
A puzzled sky...

 

Gone Past The Crossroad

Those powerful blues
He would stand and sing,
The notes that his guitar,
Lucille, would bring,
The Thrill Is Gone,
And so is BB King.

The Single Life

Just between you and me,
I converse with,
My flat-screen T.V.,
But only do it
Occasionally,
It doesn't answer back,
Understandably...

He Who Would Become A Crater

Too young, too ignorant, too angry,
Brainwashed, filled with hate,
Spurred by a desire for revenge,
Resigned to a religious fate,
Any, or some, or all, of these
Enable me to self-detonate...

Pre-Summer 立夏

The hardest thing is knowing
That what's good, here and now,
Will too soon be going
From now into the past,
The cool days never last...

Passion

Self control's collapse,
Complete obliteration,
And surrender to
Love's inebriation...

Return To Ramadi

Frustration and anger burns slow,
As the times seem out of joint,
The bad guys have taken Ramadi...
And so what was the fucking point
Of us fighting so desperately
In 2006, and eventually we won,
Or so we thought, sent home
Before the war was really done,
Makes us want to reenlist, resume
The man-hunt war games, once
Again dealing firepower and doom...

  

   

 

My Love For You

My love for you is a rare jewel,
Formed by a mystic lapidary,
Using elements which spool
Diamond-incandescent from dreams,
Feverish dreams caused by your
Kiss, eyes, face, it all seems
So miraculous and magical,
My love for you, which gleams,
Like a rare gem, finest jade,
A precious thing our hearts have made.

Sahara Moonlight

Abandoned by the caravan,
I wake up in a desert night,
And look at some desolate
Dune scenery, which might
As well be Mars, so void
Of life, all silicon blight,
The Sun, all else, destroyed...

    

Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen

Caipirinha and Mojito, purchased
Easily, at a "convenience" store,
Consumed to alter consciousness,
Because that's what they're for,
The government-approved way
To get high, tied to ancient lore
Of cave-men making moonshine,
Alcohol dulling the angst and
Ennui, leaving all warm and fine...

How It Happens

Creative juices flowing, I suppose that's one
Way to describe what happens late at night,
The surge of ideas, perhaps spurred by an
Atmosphere of shadows, an absence of light,
Which allows pale subtleties to emerge,
And converge, into the verses I write...

Astronaut

I rely on a moment's thought
Or maybe it's a feeling,
Floating like an astronaut,
In an emotional space,
All ethereal and fraught
With fear, and I admit,
Hiding is the last resort,
I know, I know, until my
Feelings calm, perhaps assort...

Dylan Thomas

Dylan Thomas, Welshman and poet,
Died because of too much drinking,
The force that through the green fuse
Drove, then caused, his liver's sinking,
Gone, too soon, the beautiful voice,
Shouting, singing, vice thinking...

= = = = = = = = = =

-- THE FORCE THAT THROUGH THE GREEN FUSE DRIVES THE FLOWER

(By Dylan Thomas, 1914 - 1953)

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

The force that drives the water through the rocks
Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams
Turns mine to wax.
And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins
How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks.

The hand that whirls the water in the pool
Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind
Hauls my shroud sail.
And I am dumb to tell the hanging man
How of my clay is made the hangman’s lime.

The lips of time leech to the fountain head;
Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood
Shall calm her sores.
And I am dumb to tell a weather’s wind
How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.

And I am dumb to tell the lover’s tomb
How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm.

No Thanks

I'm an atheist, not so much because
I don't believe in god, but rather
That I don't believe in god-people
And all their religious rants & blather.

The worst are those who seem gentle,
But if you don't buy what they sell,
Or put in hours at their social club,
You're told about burning in Hell...

Product Placement

Humans share an odd reality
Watching the same things,
But differently, on T.V.,
Colors, pixels making gods
Worshiped incidentally,
As part of their video
Culture, humans seem free,
As they gaze, open-mouthed,
At reruns, yet unable to see,
It was produced to sell
Products for you, and me...

Somewhere South Of Camp Leatherneck

We go outside the wire, step by step,
Head on a swivel, we carry out a plan,
In the gray-brown mountains, we will
Search, discover, and kill the Taliban,
Before they kill us, young dudes, in
Way over our heads in Afghanistan,
Veterans of suburban Malls, we play
This killing game, the best we can...

Divine, And All Is Fine

The gods decide to play, have some fun,
And below on Earth, thereafter things
Complicate, and become a bit undone,
The gods' intent sort of misconstrued
By those who couldn't know anyway,
They pray, as things become unglued...

Pilgrim's Progress

Growing up, does not happen
In a straight and narrow line,
Life is curves, and despite the
Time & detours, all is fine...

  
  

Atmospherics

Bedazzled, on a beach,
Where I stand and view,
A good day's end, in
Orange, pink, and blue...

The Edge Of Deep Sleep, Number 7

So tired, that I find myself
On the edge of the known,
Under the star dust which
Cosmic winds have blown
I wait for sleep to arrive
In the dark blue twilight,
But it's so hard to surrender
To slumber, try as I might...

To Nurture

Women fix and remake
The myriad things that
Men bruise and break

Adrenaline Cowboys

Each new generation
Must have its war,
Never mind the pain
Which happened before,
Each new generation
Of bored young men,
Will seek the thrill of
Combat hunting again,
Killing for religion,
Revenge, or victory,
They relearn old lessons,
The heartbreak and PTSD...

Freedom

Grown up and out through
The ornamental hedge,
From some random seed,
Sprouts a lush and leafy
Magnificent weed,
Standing tall, unnamed,
Green quiet evidence
Of Nature untamed...

Omaha, 1971, Mowing The Lawn

Push, push, cut the blades that stick-up,
Sticking-up being some sort of violation
Of an unwritten suburban expectation
That all will be blue-green and flat,
So, I'm out, under a hot Nebraska sun,
Mowing grass, there's no guarantee that
This act of gas-fed cutting, once begun,
Will ever deliver the result desired,
An end-state of green lawn perfection,
Which only leaves me burnt and tired.

OMG TMI LOL

Millennial attention spans,
Always changing, never dwell,

That's just as well.

Always There, Your Choice

One way to be totally free,
Is to go straight, at speed.
When you come a "T"

What follows, will follow,
Momentarily...

First Love At Summer Camp

Half awake, I lay by a dying camp fire,
Trying to remember her face, her name,
Her touch, fading into illusion as I tire,
The taste of her kiss all gone too soon,
Quietly, under the light of the moon...

Quick, Before It's Lost...

My thoughts outrace
My fingers' tapping
Man-machine interface
Inspiration lapping
Letters in a dream race

Drifters ドリフト族

It's amazing how busily
We strive to get from
Point A to Point B

How hard we fight
Racing each other just
To stop at the red light

And at the intersection
Ignoring where we've been
We avoid eye contact
Then start speeding again...

Sunflower Sunset

A little simple happiness and peace,
Is sometimes the best you can get,
All good, lying back on the grass,
Looking out on a sunflower sunset...

(By Mark Harm Niemeyer)

 

Busy At The Monastery

Belgian monks brew a strong beer,
Alcohol content about 9 percent,
Drink its smooth bitter gift, soon
You don't know were you went...

Be This The Verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.  
They may not mean to, but they do.  
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,  
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

(By Philip Larkin, April 1971)

.... My muse ....

Convection Rejection

The storm approaches, rumbling,
And she, and I, are on the porch,
Tension rising, as I'm fumbling
With her bra-strap, not aware
Of the thunder clap, sudden boom!
Then pow! She's no longer there...

 
 

Woods, Would...

I had a dream, walking through
A forest, all silence and peace,
Spreading about, afoot, all blue...

1962 Nelson's Kanji Dictionary

I keep my father's book, like a secret prize,
On the shelf, sometimes under my pillow,
Fingered pages known only to my eyes
The book, one the few physical things
Linking me to Papa, now so long gone,
Taken away to soon on angels' wings...

A Hippie's Advice

Tomorrow's wind will blow,
Whichever way it will,
Gone by before you know,
So make sure to enjoy it
All, and go with the flow...  

Spring's Deception

Spring puts on a cool masquerade,
A green show of a new beginning,
But a deal's already been made
'Tween winter and summer, soon
We'll be sweating in the shade...

Morning Message

Still dark, just before dawn,
A bird sings, another answers,
Assuring each other upon
The new day's arrival, they
Survived the night now gone...    

The Final Toast

He, and the three others, still alive,
Heroes and survivors, 70 years
After the famous raid on Tokyo...
With courage bigger than their fears,
They flew toward death, most
Surviving, returning to the cheers
Of a wounded nation, all of it
Now history, the last four have
Come to together to open and split,
In a final toast, a 117-year-old
Cognac, to drink and to remit
A portion of the debt to their
Buddies who died, but did not quit.