found poem

Across
"And ___ bed"
Personification of desire

life's daily mess
invites me to jump in
and get dirty

your name passes before my heart
bidden by the clouds
both illuminated and ominous

everyday sustenance allows you to bypass
expenses, lessons and stats
in favor of happy and excited and tired

mysterious gurgling to the left
patience to the right
you at the center

another attempt at cleanliness
side by side
we scrub

instead of waiting to be fed
smell the grass or nap
in the delicious sun

your heart beats the skins
through the open door
I hear your beautiful cacophony

You Shall Further Instruct: Epigram

“An Epigram is a short, witty poem or saying that is easy to remember and is written to be remembered. …Epigrams have no particular form except their brevity (two, four or six lines) and their way of getting right to the point.”
-Handbook of Poetic Forms, 67


My Lord, I thank you for the honor
of anointing me and my sons
but we’d rather not smear warm blood
on our ears, toes and thumbs
 

Sent Away: Couplet

“The couplet is a couple, or pair, of lines of poetry, usually rhymed. Basically, by having two equal parts, the couplet is a simple and fundamental structure that reflects so many other basic structures in and around us, such as the human body’s two eyes, two ears, two hands, and so on, as well as our thought patterns of yes/no, up/down, and good/bad.”
-Handbook of Poetic Forms, 57,58


The Lord hurled the Pharoah into the sea
Both to gain glory and so I could be free

In thanks, I sing praises and work as I’m called.
True glory for God: joyful freedom for all

good news in the night
energizes and calms
like steaming green tea

Mild Dysplasia

Belly full of gratitude held tightly
to your chest, you will be brought, strapped to a board,
to an expectant place by an as yet unknown wind.
Toothless, you poke at my heart
every three hours in a dreamstate, your lips
pursed to kiss the cherubim that are an unshared secret;
I fancy myself a secret-sharer though I am, in truth,
simply a receptacle akin to a plastic bottle or a casket.
(You too will become a simple light bulb, abandoning
these days of neon waves without understanding. It is a fruit-bearing cycle.)
You live in a fortified moment
while I, joyfully, pump myself dry.

Renewing Poetry

This first true tear in a page
is my freedom to be more brutal and more liberal.
Bitter flow, foaming shouts, flowers on a darkening street.

The way words work between chubby fingers,
the work words do in the world,

words work on the world like lipstick,
chicken soup, nausea, and unexplained explosions,
often all at once.

I imagine myself dancing in black hot pants and boots,
wild and uninhibited. I also imagine myself as aloof
as everyone else. Somewhere in between is my song.

Time is a dwarf, a cut flower.
I will lose myself in the matching and choosing.

I will enter and be entered, and my face
will glow. Sweet smells will rise
from my fingers because it is no sin to uncover nakedness
before the beloved and I am here
to love you.

too tired to work late
too old to caffeinate
or else I'll sleep late

in the balance of give and receive
the truest gift
is the balance

Haiku for Tucson

original whirl among dirt & dead
bullets fly from our mouths
as we debate whether bullets are deadly

another haiku lost
next time
pull over

Sarah's Life: A Ballade

"The ballade is a fairly complicated verse form with a heavy stress on rhyme. It is an old form. French in origin,...of three stanzas, followed by an envoi (a short final stanza) that addresses an important person and sums up the point of the poem."
--Handbook of Poetic Forms, 21


Sarah died brokenhearted
for the sake of a beloved son
and while Abraham bartered
strange souls of God, a choice cave of Ephron,
Sarah was, at heart, alone.
In her dreams, a bloody knife,
a reckless king, a child's bone --
the span of Sarah's life.

Chosen -- forced -- a life apart
mercy rarely shown
in exchange, a bed too hard --
too beautiful -- unreal conditions
and far from home.
Adrift in tidal winds of strife
so much unknown --
the span of Sarah's life.

While new gold bands adorn her arms,
Rebekah, though also chosen,
chooses. Though offered her part
in God's story, though driven,
she goes, willingly, to Canaan
to become a rich young wife.
She is drawn and she responds.
The span of Sarah's life.

Daughter, reap what our mother has sown --
new mistress of the tent, strive
to surf God's wild stormwinds blown
-- the span of Sarah's life.

need to add to the ballad of Abraham
stuck in the mud of rhyme
and time

Go Yourself Forth Allegory

"An allegory is a story whose characters, things, and happenings have another meaning. Allegories are written to explain ideas about good and evil, or about moral or religious principles."
--Handbook of Poetic Forms, 7

A person was chosen to journey to an unknown home or maybe chose himself (he happened to be a man). It was said he would be blessed and of great name. On that day it was said and only he heard but time would prove the promise true. The person traveled with others whom he loved, among them his beautiful wife. She was chosen to journey (or maybe chose herself) and she endured many hardships. Were they happy? Unknown. They sojourned with some, separated from others. Together they were as barren as dust and warfare filled their tents. And though victorious against kings, their mouths were dry. They split their sacrifices. He congregated in an aisle of blood that he himself spilled. She sat in the mouth of her tent, counting stars. At her insistence, he betrayed her; she chose and her heart turned cold. Their journey seemed to go amiss but in truth it did not. Their names were changed to confuse the demons that plagued their hearts, and they added quiet breath to the letters they claimed. Was it enough? Unknown. He spilled more blood, this time his own, and surely she cried out. A chosen journey gives birth to stars, breathes life into names. A journey chosen reveals the unknown home of the heart and a legacy of dust.

struggling with the allegory of going forth
unsure of the lesson of the command
within us to journey home

Noah Acrostic

"...the basic acrostic is a poem in which the first letters of the lines, read downwards, form a word, phrase, or sentence."
--Handbook of Poetic Forms, 5


Now this is the line
Of all that lives, of all flesh
And the floodgates of the sky burst open
He was blameless in his age
Never again will I doom the earth
Of all that lives, of all flesh
And the floodgates of the sky burst open
He drank of the wine and became drunk
An altar to the Name
Require a reckoning, I will require it
I will see it and remember
God caused a wind to blow
He was blameless in his age
Two each of all flesh
Earth was filled with lawlessness
Of all that lives, of all flesh
Upon the Earth, increase
Some are guilty; all are responsible
Make an opening for daylight in the ark
And the floodgates of the sky burst open
Now this is the line

Beginning Abstract II

(to be spoken aloud)

began create being sweeping said was saw separated. called called was was. said let separate made separated was so. called was was. said let gathered appear was called called saw. said sprout was so brought saw was was. said let separate serve serve shine was. made dominate dominate set dominate separate saw was was said. bring created fly brought saw blessed saying be fill let was was. said bring was. made saw said make rule. created created created blessed said be fill master rule said see give be saw found was was. were finished doing. ceased done blessed declared ceased. done is created.

Beginning Abstract I

"...words are removed from sentences and meaning...words become secondary to their sound..."
--Handbook of Poetic Forms, 1


braised sheet bra Elohim ate hush um my yam vet ha! arrest veer ha! ah! rest hai! ta tofu and vote who and ho! shekel penny to home very ach! Elohim merry hat trick I'll play ha! my hymn

Further - 9/21/10

risers sway underfoot
and yes, it does matter,
but not tonight

tonight we open the door
to the future of confusion
in pursuit of clarity

we pass our songs
to our sleeping children
and cherish our own youthful days

we spread tonight
the veil of hope over our eyes
and play notes of love in the air

A Song for Elul: Grateful Dead - 4-17-72 - I Know You Rider

it was you, and I name you
my god, you happened
and I am amazed

what a gift, a saddle,
to cushion the bumpy ride
into the daily sunset

salt and pepper on a hard-cooked egg
childhood tone poem
a good day's work