元日

New Year's sun warms
The peony tree
Its blossoms a pink lunch
For a wintering bee

Appreciate The Moment

Happiness is knowing luck
Kept things from getting bad,
Awareness of avoided pain
And not being sad,
Realize it's not often
To be had...

Ship Horns & Fireworks

Suddenly awoken,
Surprised and confused,
By New Years noise,

Back to sleep, bemused...

Maybe Better

Old year
One to forget
New year
Chance to reset

Revolutionary Event

Our orbit
Around the Sun,
This cold gray day,
Is almost done,
Ticking down
To when,
It all starts
Over again...

2000 Remembered

Seventeen years past Y2K
And if you don’t know what
That means, it’s OK
It was just another game
The computers chose to play...

Foreign But Good

Yokohama Hard Rock Cafe,
Music and burgers,
Costing premium pay,
Japanese invest,
And eat fried
Pop culture from the West...

Zen

The temple monk makes
Worries disappear,
Empties consciousness:
Nothing there, nothing here,
Float on a lake of null,
Quiet, empty, and clear...

New Reality

Squeezed out of the womb,
Into light, noise, and air,
Newborn bundled on a tray,
Blinking a bewildered stare...

Transition

Each Yule-time night
A miniscule  shift
Of darkness into light
A Solstice gift...

Breaktime

When it gets
Quiet and still,
A mind will unwind...
It always will.

買い物

In IKEA the crowd
Moves like a river
No sitting allowed

Shopping for a rug
Toddler clings on Daddy
Like a tree bug

Mommy is inspired
On the hunt
But he's just tired

大晦日の焚き火

Votives and charms, last year’s luck,
Are burned at the shrine,
In an old metal drum,
Fortune’s smoke wafts and curls
Up into what will become...

鳶

Seahawk circling up above,
I hold up something to eat,
There follows an unreal
Moment where our eyes meet,
Raptor-human contract made,
Seahawk dives to get its treat...

Seahawk soaring overhead,
Looking, hunting,
If I were a mouse, I’d be dead...

Natural Order

Man, plant, animal,
Nights and days dissolve,
Into the process:
Live, die, evolve...

Jedi

A long time ago,
In a galaxy far away,
The force performs
A shadow play,
Fight against the dark side
As the stars decay...

Pensioner’s Pleasure

The alarm clock gives a warning,
While I’m half awake in bed,
That it’s a cold Monday morning,
But I just go back to sleep instead,
And it’s here, under the blankets,
Where I will quietly abide,
While commuters deal with
The relentless rat-race outside...

What The Bottle Will Show

A stranger’s appearance can
Fool what you feel or think,
For reality  is not revealed
Until after the fifth drink...

Water, Earth, Sky

When the surface of
The lake is a sheet of glass,
And the V-shaped ripples
Made by the swans which pass,
Tremble the mirrored clouds
Billowed above autumn grass...

Numb But Safe

Unable to escape,
Instead she hid,
Dropped her emotions
Off the grid...

The Human Condition

Geo-political spat,
Couldn’t get solved
By the diplomat,
And things then
Tumble into war,
The same one they
Fought many years before...

Post-Event Posturing

After the crime, the police
Strut, all serious and armed,
Meaningless, since the victims
Have already been harmed...

Happy Time

The magical afternoon
Hour of four
Offices start to empty
Beers begin to pour

Shinagawa Shiodome

Resting my feet,
A form of meditation,
In a canyon of steel, concrete,
All echoes and reverberation...

Finessing The Issue

A bad day, where less was received,
As compared to what they gave,
Is best handled like a boat
Surfing over a passing wave...

Autumn Gloaming

A late-November afternoon,
Sunlight, intense, low-angled,
Shining on a day gone too soon,
It's heat, dissipated in shadows
Which presage the moon...

Hurt

A case of verbal decimation,
Leaving burnt flowers,
Emotional desolation...

Free And Lonely

My shopping mall can be
An existential place,
Solitary oldsters sit, and
Stare off into space...

Morning Patrol

Above the garbage bin
The crow flies laps
Flying food
Reconnaissance perhaps

Knee Jerk

The order from above
Was meaningless, manic,
A result of loss of nerve,
Bureaucratic panic,
And amounted to rearranging
Deck chairs on the Titanic...

Minority View

We may get overruled,
But that does not mean
We’ve been fooled,
For we see the lies
Being launched & spooled...

Pre-Coffee

Another anonymous morning,
Staring ahead, sorting the pills,
Which delay the inevitable
End, of my geriatric ills...

Military Loss In Peacetime

In the line of duty
They have died...

It is a tough thing,
Relentlessly applied,
Duty's "line"...

It is unforgiving,
And will assign
What must be carried out,
No way to avoid what
It will bring about...

Duty's hard-ass line,
Grinding meat
As the fates incline...

Autumn Dementia

The clouds are streak-blown white,
Same winds muss-up the hair,
Also white, of a lost old woman,
Who seems to have forgotten where
She was going, and when and why,
Windswept, she wanders in circles
Under a cold November sky...

Church Life

Faith and doubt come in waves
Sermons bray, the frightened pray,
Pay your tithes, Jesus saves...

My Japanese Apartment

I live in a box, within a box, within a box,
Made mostly of steel and concrete,
Along with other multi-storied boxes
Lining a typical Japanese city street,
Here and there hostage trees stand,
Reminders of nature’s retreat
From the box invasion, and now
It’s the weeds which live and compete...

Temporary

Our days are
Evanescent,
Gone before we
Know where they went...

Navy Life

Wake up, get on your feet,
Dress, eat,
Stand watch,
Sleep, and repeat...

Public Discourse 2017

Fake news,
The product of
Opposing views,
Less able to agree
Than accuse,
The results for
Reporters to use...

Sartre Would Be Proud

Another day in front of me
Full of potential
Absolutely empty & free...

Dawn Cries

Quiet cool transition to a
November's morning light
Crows' calling farewell
To the fade-way night...

After Losing

When disappointment
Casts a pall
Better to go to sleep
And feel nothing at all

Halloween II

Candles’ light
From carved pumpkins
Glows orange in the night
Candies ransom
Forstalling fright

Halloween

Arriving from somewhere
Ghosts and spirits swirl
In the cool October air...

Small And Alien-Looking

Mantis, mantis,
For what do you pray?
It stares up at me,
But will not say...

While Others Are At Work

Mid-morning at the grocery store
And it’s a geriatric shopping spree
Hunting and gathering nutrients
Old folks as far as the eye can see
All quiet and determined
Grandpa, grandma, retiree...

Memory Of Shade Tree

Where the old tree used to be,
Is now a circle of brown,
And it's easy enough to see
There in the middle of the green,
The lawn now absent of shade,
Birds lost the sanctuary
The leaves and branches made...

Where the old tree stood
The grasses do not grow,
But the breeze flows freely,
And I wonder if they know,
The birds, who wing across,
Above where the tree used to be,
About its absence, about our loss...

Insect Destiny

Ants and humans, respectively,
Have similarities, when
Looked at perspectively,
But ants, working mostly unseen,
Will inherit the Earth, as long
As they have their queen...

Need To Know

The security clerk asks if
I have a "need to know,"
I wonder which "need"
She refers to though,
The curious one which wants to feed,
Or just for admin apropos...   

Tiny Courage

The sparrow hops on tiny legs,
Bouncing near, it stops and begs,
Braving human contact in
Support of nest and eggs...

Governance

Politicians pander
To their base
Spewing propagander

But real leaders
Few and wise
Hammer out
A compromise

Mount Fuji Dialogue

I am flying over to Tokyo,
To join in a conference
With some others I know,
Who are deemed experts,
And therefore get paid, for
Business class seats,
And after arrival in Japan,
It's all sake and sushi eats,
According to the plan
Made by Japanese, who
Know better, but they can
Rationalize the follow-through
For a foreign experts caravan...

Chance Occurence

Sometimes you just have to wait,
What will happen, will happen,
All according to karma, fate...

Nebraska Clouds

East Coast city dude, and
West Coast suburbanite,
Have no clue about the
Big nothing, the sight
Of a god-like sky,
Viewed from a flat place 
Where ancient cranes fly...

(Photograph by Geoffrey Hamilton, 1955-2011)

Toward The End

The days of her golden years:
Basically a deposition
Of actions and fears
Experienced in repetition,
Moments like waves
Undulating forward to reach,
And then crash on,
Some future empty beach...

Ancient Instincts

Modern men at desks and stuck
In traffic, more and more,
Wish they were back in a
Forest, chasing wild boar,
Hunting like they did
Many centuries before...

濡れ落ち葉

He gazes at the leaves
Some yellow, some brown
They fall in confusion
The tired leaves come down
And they eventually settle
On the cold wet ground
He thinks about those leaves
And does not make a sound...

Big Winds In The Afternoon

When the typhoon arrives,
And all gets blown and wet,
All you can do is hunker
Down on the Internet,
Click, type, through all
The weather has beset...

Our Life Force

Create, create,
Write it, make it,
Before it's too late...

神の国

A key to being a creditable
Member of the Japanese tribe.
Is knowing, instinctively,
What to circumscribe...

   

Somewhere In The Middle East

His religion will dictate
Who to love
And who to hate,
Kill quickly for god
Before it's too late,
The non-believers
Deserve their bloody fate...

Before The Storm

The room is quiet and still,
Outside the wind blows
Which ever way it will,
Along the pressure lines it goes,
Here inside, all dishabille...

臨海公園

Sunday at the seaside park
Vegetables, meat, on the grill,
Circling seahawks calls
Are plaintive and shrill,
Floating above in the Autumn
Breeze, as seahawks will...

Angry Old Man

One-way conversation
Yelling his views
At the commentators
On the television news

Not There Yet

Unwritten and unread
The words remain
Hidden inside my head

山神社

Around the shrine
There is no sound,
Muted ancient
Holy ground,
Silence soothing,
And profound...

感激

A song I loved
But forgot,
Plays over a
Half-empty parking lot,
From a time back
So long and far,
It makes me cry
As I sit in the car...

From The North

When the Vikings got bored,
They'd sail to distant villages
And put them to the sword...

Sustenance

Roadkill,
Crows get to
Eat their fill...

Muted Roar

Bit by bit,
I become awake,
Listen to the sounds
Motor vehicles make...

地蔵様

On the roadside
The jizo stands alone
Kindness and sympathy
Carved in stone

Public Service

A politician
Wants to gather,
The most votes,
The rest is blather...

Ohayo Gozaimasu

Pink-gray light,
Just before sunrise,
Wipe the sleep
From my eyes,
Guess it's time
To mobilize...

Experience

Getting old means,
More and more,
Of having seen
Things before,
Knowing
The score...

Comedy

Funny thoughts
Convoke
To become
A joke

Perks Of Retirement

The rain today
Is torrential,
My staying in bed,
Prudential,
Happily
Nonessential...

Consequence

After the truth
Was revealed
He ran away screaming
Through the field
Not catching in the rye
Or stopping to wonder why

Being Held

Young child hugs the shoulder
Of her father, who carries her,
And maybe, when she older,
She will remember...

On The Keikyu Bus

Suddenly it
Became real clear,
I'm just happy
Being here,
Breathe, and be,
And persevere...

御彼岸

Autumn skies
Bell crickets
And dragon flies
Harvest Moon
As summer dies...

Unchanged

The instinct to hunt
And kill
Is alive in us
Still...

What Day Is It?

Sometimes things tend to
Blur and move too fast
Present pleasures
Vanish into the past

Millennial Mall

Lunch time in the food court
Inside the upscale shopping mall
And retail employees consort
At faux-antique tables, and on high
Chairs, they carefully comport
Over gossip and banalities, all
Millennial cool, they posture, disport...

Looks Can Deceive

The house wren is small,
Looks cute and without sin,
But it is not nice at all,
The house wren is an assassin...

Lost Afternoon

In a familiar room, alone,
Lock the doors,
Unplug the phone,
Several hours of peace ahead,
Spent silently in bed...

Unsmelt Flowers

Understanding of it all based

On view through winshield,

Omahan drives SUV over 

What was once a prairie field,

Too hurried to notice, the day's

Small miracles remain concealed...

A Leopard's Spots

He tried to fake
Sincerity, empathy...
Big mistake.

Hooter

Screech owl sits on a branch,
Motionless, quiet and nice,
Suddenly swoops, with bloody
Intent, toward some mice...

Hello Pyongyang

Summer of 2017 and
Becoming aware of the idea
That death might rain down in
The form of a missile from Korea...

On The Rez

Displaced Native Americans,
Living in poverty and fear,
Some seek the old ways,
While others drink beer,
Eking things out on land
They used to revere...

Backyard Moment

Daybreak, and wild
Turkeys peck in the grass,
While overhead, dawn-pink
Clouds quietly pass...

To Do Or Not To Do

Important to
To decide, resolve,
Act before time
Makes things evolve
And opportunity
Will darken and dissolve...

Partial Recall

The moments, the happenings,

Be they of happiness or pain,

Get caught by a net of cells

Somewhere deep in the brain,

And there, as fragments and

Jewels, the memories remain,

Images preserved by processes

Too complex to explain...

Staying Sane

Reality is a steamroller
Inevitable and enacted
Relentlessly and happiness
Is when we're distracted

Individuality

Despite your Facebook
Friends and phone
At the end
You're all alone

Unearned

Wealth
Is fungible
Unlike health

Unread & Unnoticed

There are more books
Than one could ever read
So many songs unheard
Shows unwatched, indeed
The enormity is blurred
By a day's flow and grind
An overwhelming mass
Unseen by the blind...

Life Pattern

Go to work and
Do as you're told
Repeat and continue
Until you are old

Inevitability

Things spiral into change
Time seems out of joint
I feel I should complain
But what's the point...

Charlottesville

An act of passion
Committed in hate
Cannot be undone
Too bad, too late...

Japanese Summer

Humans tend towards
Sweat and stupidity
While plants quietly thrive
In eighty-percent humidity

Hangover

Nightmare
Last night
Still remains
In the morning light
Cannot forget
Try as I might

MRJ

He only feels alive
When he can drive,
Which fills his need
For freedom and speed,
Movement, control,
And his empty soul...

Spartan Effect

It was a mistake
That was clear to see
Things were stuck
Like the Persians
At Thermopylae

Pressure

Move or wait
Either will
Affect your fate
Choose before
It is too late...

納涼

Yukata-clad Japanese
Bursting fire-flowers
Evening breeze...

Preflight

Nor quite ready to wake
And face the day ahead
I drift back into the
Mist of dreams instead

Inari Jinja

Ancient shrine on a hilltop,
Holy spot, as quiet as can be,
A cicada alights on my chest,
Must think that I'm a tree...

A Guy I See In The Park

Bird-man comes to the
Park, early, every day,
Same shirt and same hat,
Always the same way,
He swings a golf club,
Walks, repeats his routine
Each day, feeding the birds,
I think he's a machine...

問題解決

If money is distributed
To all involved
The usual result is
"Problem solved"

More Smiles Please

Our limited time
On planet Earth
Is best to be filled
With laughter an mirth

There It Is

A day spent ignoring
Internet news
Is a day well used

Noise

Listening to cicadas
In full voice
Summer is here
I have no choice

Dead Cat In A Public Park

There's no way to tell how
The cat came to be lying
Lifeless on the walkway
The method of its dying
So unlike a cat, even a stray
Would find a private place
And cat-like disappear
Without leaving a trace

Potential Relief

Another hot day in the concrete hive
Where parched workers wait
For the typhoon to arrive...

お疲れ様

Night train from Tokyo, after

Work hours have expired,

Catatonic commuters 

Sit, oblivious and tired...

Strong Spark Of Life

The frail old lady is shrivelled and weak
Yet she continues to hang on tight
To the immobile shrunken thing that
Is her life, and it is a losing fight
I suppose she must know,
Having outlived all her friends,
She strives, alone, to draw each
Breath, before the whole thing ends...

Prescience

Maybe it's a form of wisdom or just
A sixth sense from getting old
But she can detect how things
Will end, without being told...

OJT

Folks do things the hard way
Their experience is earned
Same lessons in their history
Books unread and unlearned

Caused By Friction

Sometimes, persistence
Wanes, with time
And distance

River City Independence Day, 1976

July the 4th in Omaha,
Just around noon,
The sign tells me
It's not too soon,
Get off the street
And out of the heat,
Howl at the moon...
For today is the day
That we became free,
To think, and drink,
Independently...

Angry Hangover

A crazy man screaming,
In a gray morning's light,
I listen, lying in bed,
He is losing a fight
With something in his head,
I think, as his cries
Fade in the sunrise...

We Don't Talk Anymore

He and she send texts
To emote, argue, confess,
A telephone call would
Incur too much stress...

Sasquatch

Bigfoot sneaks around
In the green,
Likes to lurk,
Unsubstantiated,
Unseen...

Voices In The Gloaming

As a day dies
Into dangerous darkness
A bird bravely cries

Close To The End

The tattered feral cat
Has chosen to lie
In a busy parking lot
Doesn't move or cry
Apparently
Waiting to die...

夏至 (２)

Summer
Solstice,
Easy
To miss...

The year's
Longest day
Just kinda
Slipped away...

夏至

Sun shines but does not appear,
Blocked by the rainy atmosphere,
Its light makes the gray clouds
Glow, on the longest day of the year...

Diminished Returns

Some hours have passed
And cups have flowed
I've drunk myself sober
Buzz levels implode
Beer losing its ability
To inspire and erode...

Existential Mall

Sitting on the old men's bench
At the home appliance store
Watching things from the same
Spot I was at a week before
Things move around without
Me, I don't worry any more...

Justice

Regardless of how I
Hide it and hurry,
She sees it, she
Is my judge and jury...

Bluster

A blown breath of warm spring wind
Conspires to rip
The bent-broke umbrella
From my sodden grip

日本の女

The Japanese woman kneels,
And turns over the rice,
Her bent posture reveals
Nothing, more or less,
To a foreign observer,
Her quiet earnestness,
Displayed in each gesture,
Matriarchal power
Entwined in her vesture,
Japanese woman's pride
In her kimono, and the
Strength its layers hide...

Balance Sheet

A wise, sad, smile,
Expressed in verse,
Leaves some hope,

Might reimburse
What was lost,

Helps you cope,

It could be worse...

Impermanence

She knew it couldn't last
But had no clue that
It would fall apart so fast

She Knows

The meaning of life?
Don't ask me,
Ask my wife:

It's a chase
After wealth,
While minding
Your health,

And your body fat,

Simple as that...

After Midnight

Deep into the city night
Drinks are poured in
Places out of sight
Dim rooms which keep
The day alive for
Those who do not sleep

South Chicago

At the wrong time
In the wrong place
Nothing will stop
The shot to your face
By a bullet fired
At a target
Mistakenly acquired

Hey Jude

The forgotten feeling
Comes back strong
During the chorus of
A Beatles song
Its power is real
But it won't last long

Interstellar

Launched, with hope,
On a mission to Mars...

Thereafter, forgotten
And lost in the stars...

Humans hurtling
Through space
And disappear
Without a trace...

Resignation

Knowing why, is better
Than nothing at all,
Aware of the wind
In my face, as I fall...

3:33

Three thirty three,
A.M.,
And it's just me.

And the clock,
Goes
Tick-tock, tick-tock...

Early AM Convection

Thunder rumbles heard
Before dawn's arrival
Awakes a sleeping bird
Which then sings
A warning of
What morning brings

Comfort Medicine

When your day was too long
And not much went right
Have some fried chicken
And cold beer that night

Manchester

Too dull, too high,
To see through the
Manipulative lie,
That could
Somehow justify
The shrapnel
He let fly,
Too brainwashed
To understand why,
His act was as
Empty as desert sky,
His legacy will
Only horrify...

Rural Blight

Small town losers, too bored to farm,
Drive down dirt roads to convene
At the gas station and mini-mart,
Where they posture and preen,
Full of opioid bluster and
Country meth-amphetamine...

Eggs And Hops

A dull day's mood
And atmosphere
Fundamentally changed
By breakfast beer

Road Median Maintenance

The weeds are decimated
By the road-crew's attack,
Later on, the roots make
Their plan to come back,
The power of the green,
Continues underneath
The chopped stalks, unseen...

Can't Make A Horse Drink

As far as I can discern,
Life is unfair, and wisdom
Is something you earn,
Yet there be the morons
Who live, but never learn...

Mars Mission

A probe crawls across the surface of Mars,
Gathering  data for a cursed race, which
Hopes to survive by colonizing stars,
But such hopes, and scientific plans,
May not come to fruition,
May be dropped by harried hands
Too busy with politics, and things
Which only, a human, understands...

A 1970's Thing

Madman across the water
Was a song by Elton John
The meaning of it all
Was lost before it was gone...

Our Curse

Things start falling apart when
The peace is inherited
By angry young men

我慢

She suddenly attacks, and I dive
To low-altitude and evade
The whirring blows and blasts
For I've learned survival is made
By hiding one's indignation
And anger best left undisplayed

Entomological Mission

From its base
Beneath the drain,
Using a tiny
Efficient brain,
The cockroach,
Plans its
Quiet approach,
To the place where
Some crumbs remain...

Shopping Therapy

If other ways to
Lift her spirit fail,
She'll find solace
In retail,
Her negative pall
Dissipates during
A day at the mall...

Undeciphered

The unsolved question
Nags itself into
An obsession,
A cancer
In search of
An answer...

Emergence

First green day of heat
Time to sound the alert
As the insects are
Emerging from the dirt
And some will resume
Their attempts to
Infiltrate my room...

Terminal

Each day
I spend,
Knowing
It will end...

High Advice

Don't answer it
Because
It will kill
The buzz...

人身事故

Perhaps it was the emptiness,
Rather than the pain,
Which caused the old woman,
To jump in front of the train...

Whatever may be the facts,
All that's left,
Is blood on the tracks...

暴走族

Rough rebel boys,
Swarm through the night
In a cloud of noise...

Their two-wheeled swarm,
Cut-mufflers roaring:
"We will not conform!"

Oh That Lovely Feeling

The best situation
A body can know,
No time to be there,
And no place to go...

All In A Flash

This is the time, the twilight
Minutes moving the mood,
Wherein feelings become
The motive force, the food,
On which a poem feeds,
And sequent words appear,
As a hard day's sun recedes...

Inevitability

Centuries hence,
At the end of the trail,
After the human
Parasites fail,
Plants and insects
Will prevail...

Breath Of Spring

Hair wildly askew
Surprised, nonplussed,
An old man chases his
Hat in an April gust...

Life

Despite what gods,
Are said to enact,
A human is simply
A sentient digestive tract...

Sunday Morning

Well past dawn
Peacefully this
Bed I lie upon
Wait till something
Turns my brain-switch on

Juniper's Gift

Well-made gin,
Lifts, and liberates,
From within...

Old Time Photography

When photographs were a brand new thing
There was a sense of time being stopped,
A moment frozen, which could bring,
Thereafter, a permanence which
Had never existed before, and while
Those being pictured, were happy
To pose, they would not smile...

Brain Power

Imagination and ideas fly,
At light-like speeds,
They entice and mystify,
They summon images
Fantastic, Kafkaesque,
And, all of this, while
I'm sitting at my desk...

みどりの日

A public holiday to
Commemorate green
And decompress
Within a vernal scene
In the land of Wa
Where they eat
Their tuna raw

Gabfest

Clashing views
Inform less
Than confuse
On cable news

Break A Leg

The secret is not
To lose your nerve
While performing
For those you serve

Creativity

Can't help but
Wondering why,
The well never
Runs dry...

Lost Legions

Marching forward, into the haze,
Legions of things unsaid, but
Recorded, in a million ways,
In blogs, poems, and essays,
The ranks of what must be
Written from our random days...

日曜日の午後

Burnt wick of the weekend
A tired Sunday afternoon,
And the happy minutes
Have all flown-by too soon...

Infinite Letters

A poem uses words to save
Something special from
Dissolving into the grave
Where memories decompose...

A poem preserves it,
Prevents it from being dead,
Even if the poem is never read...

Gone Fishing

Trying to tempt a hungry
Fish to eat a dirty trick
Food, plastic, or steel,
Move your bait quick,
Give it a delicious look,
All the while hiding the
Sharp traitorous hook...

April Parking Lot

Cherry blossom petals
Are a white-pink snow
Whirlpooling with the
Gentle vernal blow,
Dancing on the asphalt
In a swirling adagio...

Sick House

Ambiguous is how
A hospital feels
It houses the dying
But also heals

Second Life

After so many years of working,
Serving the cause, being used,
Comes a time called transition,
Which really means "confused"
Move on into a freer day, all
Bewildered and bemused...

Blogger

Word by word,
Thought by thought,
Better to write
It down, than not,
For words are
Really all I've got,
And time cannot
Be bought...

ある日の花見

Bottle of Kubota sits
Among the petals pink,
No one there to drink...

Syria

There came a day when the
War was over and done,
But it never became clear
Who had actually won...

Nirvana Instant

Now and then
Arrives a
Moment when
The static stops
And all is Zen...

Like A Cloud

The problem, left alone,
Dissipated away to
A place unknown,
And I am left relieved,
Peacefully prone...

All About The Bottom Line

It is a desiccated dinosaur, lying, looming
Hugely, in the concrete suburban sprawl,
Weeds now growing in the cracks of the
Parking lot around the shopping mall,
Bankrupt and abandoned, sad proof of
Change, and how hard things can fall...

春休み

Spring break, and the mall is overrun
With children being escorted and chased
By parents, who are not having fun...

Can't Be Helped

The wrong person, or event,
At an undesirable time, will,
Cause an immediate change
Called "buzz-kill"...

In The Greenhouse

Hard science, and smart engineers,
Joined to create the rubber room
We've played in, all these years...

Outage

Temporarily disconnected,
iPhone useless pocket weight,
Her angst is greater than expected,
Each passing moment off-the-grid
Leaves her lonelier, dejected...

According To The Map

Life's road is not always straight,
It tends to be twisted and curved,
And what will happen, will happen,
Whether it is random, or deserved...

Japanese Baseball Tournament

Young men marching onto
The field to play a game,
Are not armed with bayonets,
But the formation is the same...

Sermon Dreaming

I remember sitting on Sunday
Being subjected to a boring
Speech, and there was no way
To escape except to get lost
In games my mind could play

Murphy's Law

Things which happen, may
Destroy the best laid plan,
Simply because they can...

Warning System

Somehow they know, the
Things which live at night,
When to call it quits before
The dangerous morning light...

High School Daze

Hooked on getting high
Lost in a video game
As the hours go by
Can't get off of the
Couch, don't even try...

Dealing With It

Living with uncertainty
We do the best we can
Snake-charming fate
And sticking to a plan
Which might mitigate
But can not prevent
What will be sent...

Bare Trees

Winter's last cold blast,
Unblossomed pinks
Hide, until it's  passed...

Poetry

Words collected to decorate
Describe an impression
Which feelings elevate
Into what must be written

Lives Of The Rich & Famous

Lonely ones
Relentlessly
Worship, pursue
Celebrity
Talk to the faces
On T.V.

The Unseen

High altitude snow flakes float
Down and don't make a sound,
Heavenly white, they melt away
Before reaching the ground,
Never seen, they are not missed,
Did they even exist...

Early March

The equinox, still a few
Weeks away, and winter
Has yet to bid adieu
Cold and lurking about
Not quite gone and
I am left in doubt
But all this the plants know
And they push up
Green and start to grow

Sign Of The Times

Apparently the new norm
Is for news to entertain
Vice report and inform...

Short Comfort

Life seems temporarily fine
To the feral cat basking
In a spot of soft sun's shine

Weird Alliance

The court jester joined forces
With the village idiot, and,
The ensuing madness went
Pretty much as planned...

Fratricidal

Cursed to be a sibling,
To a psychotic youth,
Who became the king,
Who eats too much and
Tends to kill everything...

Rumsfeld's Wisdom

There is what you know,
And what you don't know,
Then there is what you do
Not know you don't know...

Try as you might to learn,
The unknown may confuse
What you strive to discern...

Sonic Sense

Suppose they can hear
The sermon you bring,
But do they listen?
Now that's the thing,
Can't be deceived
That what you transmitted
Is what they received...

Receptionist

The passive aggressive
Spider waits to meet
The random visitor
Who she can eat...

Politics

The realization that
One can be dumb,
Yet be in charge,
Leaves me numb...

The Human Condition

Corner bar, could be almost anywhere,
A hunter, denied the natural chance
To chase, and kill, and provide meat,
Hunts for money he put in his pants...

Somewhere Near Mosul

To eliminate the evil terrorists,
A fuel-air-explosive was employed,
Resulting in justice, flying body
Parts, and schadenfreude...

Bars

The feel of a cage
Is all about,
Whether you are
In it, or out...

Aesthetics

The samurai gazes up toward
A beautiful moonlit sky as he
Wipes the blood from his sword...

Feeding Time

Morning at the garbage placement
Spot, where crows eviscerate
The plastic bags, and feed on
What they don't obliterate,
The sidewalk soon a scene of
Chaos: detritus, bones, wait
For the Mama-san with her
Broom to set things straight...

There, Not Here

Stuck at his desk
Wishing
He was on a lake
Fishing

必殺仕事人

A victim of injustice, or evil
Acts of bad men, can pay
To get revenge, get justice,
Through a darkened way,
Shigoto-nin assassins will,
Carry out a vigilante task,
Using technique and skill,
On the villains they kill...

Toddler's Payback

Even thick athletic socks
Don't help when you
Tread on Lego blocks,
Which were ordered to
Be put back in their box,
But weren't, and now
It's all about dealing,
With the pain your
Poor feet are feeling...

Ambush Ready

Lying quiet in the jungle heat,
Crocodile on the river bank,
Waiting to attack and eat...

School Of Life

Some of us studied hard to learn
About history, science, and math,
Others didn't, and now spend their
Time drinking in the Jacuzzi bath...

Before The Mast

A powerful man is the ship's
Commander and master,
Yet he cannot order the wind
To make his vessel go faster...

Running On Empty

Years already lived, now number
Many more than those ahead,
What remains being actuarial,
Numbers of hope and dread,
Remaining years to be insured,
Or better left to chance instead...

春一番

Blown, brown leaves scatter,
February's wind sweeping,
Clean, one's teeth left to chatter,
Shivering glimpses of sunlight's
Warming not enough to matter...

The Big Cold

January sunshine fails
To warm, or unfreeze,
The recipients
Of an arctic breeze,
Only the daffodils
Seem at ease....

八咫烏

In ancient times, an Emperor fought
To establish the country of Yamato,
-- Which eons later became Japan --
Using the power of a 3-legged crow...

介護施設

Old Japanese man,
In a home for the decayed,
Muses about green mountains,
Sunshine in a verdant glade,
As he has his bedding changed
By a Southeast Asian maid,
He strives so hard to go away
To where dreams might convey...

Breitbart?

Tune in to the daily news
Can't seem to do otherwise
The battle of opposing views
Alternative facts and lies
Which, together, truth abscise...

Carpe Diem

A brand new day to seize,
Quest for fame and cash,
I am ready for adventure,
But first, take out the trash...

The Show Must Go On

In a foreign land, separated by
Time and space, from home,
But it plays out under the same sky,
Language, costumes, different
But the same rules of theatre apply...

Roll Of The Dice

Expect the unexpected,
And if nothing special happens,
Best to leave it undetected...

Nebraska

The American Desert, not sand, but grass,
Stretches out to the horizon, before me,
The progeny of North Europe refugees,
Fishermen at that, who sailed to be free
From the chains of indentured tyranny,
They traveled to this flat fertile land,
A place, with no fish, in a prairie sea,
And those who could survive the winter
And a lethal boredom, live successfully...

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

3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment

Sometime the watch is hard,
But regardless, it is always
Stood, by the Old Guard...

Mirror Image

After the nighttime rains and storm,
Stars gleam, like reflected jewels, on
The surface of the puddles they form...

27 JAN x 61

Out the door I go, propelled by a less than
Enthusiastic send-off from my wife,
Into a January twenty-seventh, and the
Reality of what has come to be my life:
Sixteen hours until my next sleep,
Full of banal errands, and micro-risks,
And I pray the gods my soul to keep...

Arboreal Passing

Was it the January wind,
Which made the old friend
Fall, or roots giving in to
Wet rottenness, in the end,
All gone now, the branches
In which nests were made,
And, come the warmer times
Same thing for the shade,
An old friend of a tree,
Quietly provided for me...

WW-I Soldiers Were Screwed

We bought a bunch of red wine,
In the French village, and then
Went back to the trench line,
Where we guzzled rum, and went
Over the top, all feeling fine,
And sedated, to dull the fear of
The death, the bullets assign...

Millennial Revolutionary

He wanted to make a statement about
His angst towards the new president
So he pushed over a trash can, and
Then away from the scene he went,
But not before making sure
Cameras recorded the heroic event...

Fishing Explained

The lure is tied to the line,
And dropped into the drink,
To fool fish, who take a look,
As if the fish could think,
Before swallowing the hook...

Figure It Out

How many brain cells can I offer,
To be consumed, serially, per
The dictates of those who would
Suck up all my DNA, vice err,
About what we consume, and shit,
More than I can ever defer
To another time, another place,
Brain cells, and warm wondrous
Memories, abandoned in space...

- - - - - - - - - -

Revised version:

https://commonpoemsandrhymes.wordpress.com/2017/01/17/figure-it-out/

2017 -- Happy New Year!

Politics, red or blue,
Wash all over me
Through and through,
Electronic yells and lies
All delivered, via
I-Phone, to my eyes,
And I am sucked into
The BS before I realize...

Chimay

Belgian monks brewed
A wonderful beer,
Drink it, and believe
In what's not here...

The sweet bitter
Taste, the subtle fizz,
Forget where, what,
The monastery is...

Do You Matter

It is a form of common sense
To know that your life's meaning
Is different than its relevance...

Reflection

All the days of my life,
Spent through time and space
And chaos, have brought
Me to this moment and place,
Where I pause as memories
Unravel and discase...

To Be A Warrior

The aging warrior strikes a pose,
Clad in his burnished bloodied bronze,
His face both fierce and comatose...

He holds in his hand a lethal sword,
The blade which cut and killed so long,
Back in the fabled days with the Horde...

The warrior's body is scarred and lean,
His smile, though, disappeared years ago,
Only a grimace remains to be seen...

In battle he grips the heavy sword,
His gritty muscles straining,
He raises the blade for a killing stroke,
To cleave the foes remaining...

He brings the steel edge crashing down,
In a moment of visceral splendor,
And sanity, like the crushed skull bleeds,
By the bloody boots of death's vendor...

In a much different place, a pale youth waits,
Reading, in the silo's control room,
Armed and waiting for the order to push,
The red bottom marked "Big Boom",
In the dim light the warrior officer sits,
She wears no armor, carries no sword,
And tries not to cry when the missile hits...

A Verse From Back In The 1970s

Look out for the hawk perched up on the door,
Try to ignore that talons might tear
The flesh from the back of your naked neck,
Walk on for a while, Hey, what the heck...

Watch out for the beggar who asks for more,
Try not to look at the scum in his hair,
He already knows how his alms will be spent,
His eyes are sharp, but his spirit bent...

Beware pf the blue-painted sailors' whore,
Watch her hips sway, but try not to stare,
She'll lick and kiss you, and boil your blood,
Then drag your soul through the city mud...

Keep track of the worms that feed in the sore
That rots the dark neighborhoods everywhere,
Keep hold of your wallet, your ass, and your heart,
Don't fool with your fate, you're not that smart...