Follow the Trail

The long

   and wind-

ing road where

  a river runs

    through this Place.

      My nest-my shelter…

        A bough heavy with its

         Burden throwing weight

           under -fractured –arms-bends

          splitting branches and hairs.

         Shedding, peeling, bleeding

        New growth smooth raw

      and glowing in vibrant appearance

     of new buried in the piles, behind the

    Brook, between the pulpy sheets in the

    Pillared fortress of my dark wood. Followed

   by History, taunted under timber, mossy muffled

  movements like the pumas pads, stalking, following

 His instinct upwind of fragile deer quaking in the breeze.

Led innocently but not blind by the familial scent which

Rushes past as white noise……………

The rivers running away in daily rush,

  the commute of clear water swelling

   and surging. Overflows with dripping

    anticipation, a communion-yet lingering

      all ways, touching baptismal branches,

       alone with the alchemy

        tossed in the leafy mix, where lights

         refraction concentrates and showers,

          beaming and bemoaning,

           the straightforward path

             Toward the new season,

              rooted in reason,

               salt over the shoulder,

                tears condense.

                 No turning back!

                  Abandon All Pride!

                    Mists obscure all distinction

                     of form-that is confidence-

                      The kiss of order, standing up 

                       to reason gushing with fortitude

                         in the flow of perspiring possibility.

                          Down long halls lined in

                           mirrored repetition,  rhetorical echoes

                            only bounce; bouncing rhetoric in repetition

                              mirroring echoes  the eagle’s fading scream,

                               A crier over town, sad jays bicker greedily 

                                gathering, stealing and mocking in their way 

                                    out of the thicket of things. Wandering wearily,

                                      coming to corners where speckled rocks

                                          from brooks and granites gain

                                            cowering recluse, a charging cavalier

                                               out of the mist. The berth anew, bewildered

                                                  by this liquid leariness.

                                                     Not a place to sea the source etched

                                                      in deep groves. Matters not of maps;

                                                        forecasted, charted,  re-routing, and

                                                          never doubting.

                                                            Blind faith, la selva obscura,

                                                             branches of beliefs stretching,

                                                               growing isms opening buds,

                                                                revealing tips of truth.

                                                                  From: The Past

                                                                    To: The Present

                                                                     A sacrificial lamb

                                                                      sheared of

                                                                        symbolic strength

                                                                          covering paths of tortuous trails         

                                                                           dead ends trap and pray

                                                                            begging of another way

                                                                              boughs for none bending astray

                                                                               beckoning behind knotty burl

                                                                                snarled in growing, tread softly on shed

                                                                                  skin exposing the elements

                                                                                   Aware of wind, heightened

                                                                                    yet heedless of escape, leave in fear

                                                                                     bursting bold and brazen

                                                                                       The eternal flame

                                                                                         Embers, never forgetting

                                                                                          pulsing vein, rhythmic, infinite

                                                                                            bleeding, gushing forth,

                                                                                              in the current forward motion

                                                                                                breathing the days away

                                                                                                  In the middle of the grove

                                                                                                    downstream and deeper

                                                                                                     drowning in the thick
                                                                                                        Redwood Forest

"There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar; I love not Man the less, but Nature more." -Lord Byron

Feature image (1st) by Ilya Repin (1844-1930) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Second image, Redwood Forest "Fall Creek"

The Confession of an Obsession

Since a poem is a perfect place

             in which to hide a secret

it just so happens to be the case

             that nobody's found it yet

A place in which to utter

             a covert illicit little truth

as discreet as melted butter

             not to be uncouth

but it's later than due time

              to admit to one and all

I am guilty of a crime

              I will confess without stall

I'm enrapt in a torrid love affair

some juicy details I will share

The smell I cannot resist

which may have led to this tryst

I constantly search and obsess

it is a purely pathetic weakness

that saps me dry

but I will always try

Amassing more and more

until I find what I'm looking for

This infatuated relationship

                is a one way street

while there is companionship

                we will never actually meet

I dream of cuddling in bed

                under covers where a little light

is pointing to where I just read

                 and could go on all night

Igniting my mind

                 into a frenzied passion

an addiction of this kind

                 one should try to ration

Time and devotion

with the notion

that you'll never have enough

room for more stuff

if you keep acquiring books

yet still one obsessively looks

since solutions are often found

on pages that are bound

lasciviously labeled as Fiction

which is just a categorical diction

My endless reading is a search

                     to find how much one can know

a library perhaps is my church

                      stretching one's brain to grow

but a book can also be called a spell

                      some are innocent and some evil

by the cover you cannot tell

                       the influence is one's own will

caving under printed pressure

                       but as long as you enjoy the ride

or maybe find a buried treasure

                        I will no longer try to hide

This minor flaw in my character

Just ask the narrator

Where in my own life story

Tells not for glory

But to assert aloud

that I am proud

to admit I am a bibliophile

and my 'To Read' pile

is at least a mile

it should take me a while

to read them all

so I really shouldn't fall

for another book sale

until I finish my latest epic tale.

Image By Burnett, Alexander. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

                   
                 







          

Out of the Blue

When you said you were blue
I never knew
you were just sad and stuck deliberating
about all the bad and not really suffocating.

Well Krishna's skin is blue
so it might just be true
it happened from blowing into the flute
but that assumption is not that astute

That hipster Elvis chose blue for his suede shoe
a sexy single he hoped it would imbue
inciting romance and style
which he donned with a snarled sexy smile

And all poets love using blue
choosing it for anything they want to
it's a flexible, moldable rhyming color or tone
like those windstrewn, pesky violets I bemoan

A misunderstanding just blew
to shreds all you thought you knew
an erroneous translation
but a colorful mutation

(When getting married and your feet are cold
Don't forget that blue thing and something old
and something borrowed which to hold
blindly doing as superstition told)

Painting pictures with words
with the imagery and sound of blue birds
on one's shoulder, singing while in flight
poetically framed on pages once all-white

Most people claim it is their favorite
even Mother Nature decided to split
a blue for the ocean and another blue for the sky
the two largest of Natures Earthly supply

Separated by seas and philosophies
members of fractured colonies
share on their flags the color blue
at least over half of all of them do

Blue is used as a symbol in Psychologically
evoking of trust, confidence and honest authority
A plan needs a blueprint, the architect will say
Even Picasso was obsessed in his own way

Science found a way to make blue light
but now it's toxic and keeps us up at night
possibly harmful to our sight
good or bad who knows what's right?

It makes us calm and often cold
it is also found on some types of mold
Painters mix endlessly to get the proper color of night
Black and blue are the marks of a lost fight

A favorite choice for toothbrushes
your anxiety it supposedly hushes
A color mosquitoes cannot resist
despite being added to the squished list

Designated for both Smurfs and Jeans
but not even a tint of it on Navy Beans
And that Willy Wonka's Violet too
wasn't ever really the color blue

The brilliantine blue of a peacock feather
Or the blue on a butterflies wings or whether
you have blue eyes
all of these are pretty tricks, optical illusions  or lies.

(And I just cannot help but say
even my Russian Blue cat is actually grey,
but that poem was already written another day
and the name is just a name anyway)

Being blue-blooded once meant nobility
now its archaic, a symbol of frivolty
Blue can be seen only in the short wave-length
precisely and only in 470 nanometers of strength

The number of shades in English for blue
did you know totals at least sixty-two?
Not even adding Prussian Blue in the mix
of which there are as many as thirty-six .

And my deepest gratitude for getting through
this entire poem all about blue
I tried not to waste your time
with this elongated rhyme
In fact from this poem you could accrue
a lot of useless knowledge too-
at least about the color blue
so I truly, bluely, sincerely, thank you.


Image of painting via Wikimedia Commons, (Public Domain) by  Franz Marc (1880-1916) "Large Blue Horses".







 

Shoulda, Woulda, and Coulda

Shoulda, Woulda and Coulda*

Shoulda, Woulda and Coulda often complain

             while riding aboard the dinghy named "Fret"

Tangled in knotted refrain and regret

             avoiding the rip current of Change, the rudder is set

"Why not? What could go wrong? What is there to fear?"

             -are not the questions the three dared ask 

Then crewmates, Maybe and Might, forecast the outcome is unclear

             when bravely charting unknown water. And advised, ‘Leave doubt   

             in your wake when what you already knew the right way.’

As a Shoulda,

             Woulda

              or a Coulda, undoubtedly decided against, anyway.

Doubt and Worry pacing swab the deck,

              they claim its always slippery

Advising all to watch their step!

              This soggy pair prefers to predict catastrophes

Neither of these two will ever see past their four soggy feet

              To see some parts are already dry.

              "Not to fear, we've already been here! It's just like deja-vu!"

              "Pirates prosper by fear!"

But these words were gibberishly unclear and did not adhere

               to Shoulda

               Woulda

                and Coulda, trying to avoid their fretted fates.

Shipwrecked again off the Sea of Regret,

                moored in the ebb of murky vacillation

The lull of consistency, and eerie calm of sunset

                 foreseeable outcomes; one man's island destination

Lo’ on the horizon-a glimmer of light, a sparkling sight

                  a beacon, a bright idea, that maybe, might just be

                  up ahead, not so far, where the future is blinding bright,

                  past the buried benthic and what they Coulda not see, turbidity

                  and Shoulda done with what they Woulda had,  passed the possibility...

Shoulda and Woulda just missed a chance-

                  Coulda did nothing but complain

"What good is trying anyway-the path ahead is just happenstance"

                  So these three, bravery thieves, confidence takers,

                  deal breakers,

                  adventurous fakers,

                  remorse makers,

Coulda not comprehend, nor

Woulda they try to even extend

                   a helping hand to assist another

                   while occupied in their druthers,

and Shoulda patched the holes or learn how to swim.

*This poem was inspired by Eugene Field's poem "Wynken, Blynken and Nod". 
*Image of painting (oil) by Maxfield Parrish, 1902, "Wyken, Blynken and Nod"; [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Metallurgy

Forged and tempered
condensed under fire
morphed and reduced
pressurized and pupled
sardonic sap ooze
intense with vision-
nary-a mans' hands
mother of molten invention
Creationist
Industrialist
Building with erect
magnetisms strings
Come and Conquer
with rigid out lines
straight and arrow
piercing certitude
fall in line
blurred beings and things
blending tornadoes
structural heaps
painted windows
look the same
archaic beasts churning
chugging with spent desire
laced with sepia tones
antiquely reminiscent
of times gone by
stories trapped in parallel tracks
stopping at no stations
for souls places
thrown from its determined path
screaming shrieks of fire
boasting in blasts
barrelling nowhere
and everywhere in between
mocking anthropology
and days that shall pass
in concrete jungles
the lions share
essentially barren
scrapped to metal
ore never to remain
one and the same.




Image By Hieronymus Reusner; Franciscus Epimetheus (Chemical Heritage Foundation) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Pandora (1582) 

Deed of Trust

We need tangible evidence
I was Here
Yours and Mine, between a fence
divides-or so it would appear

An apparition of ownership
Show me proof
stamped passports on lifes' trip
permanent shelters roof
squatters in refrain
draping the blind
boxing up pain
folios filed for someone to find

Piled and stacked in the archives
condensed for space-
How many lives
leave just this inky trace?

Illegible orders of Legality
Protecting acts of Perjury
Insuring civilized Morality
(forestalling fatuous worry)
Stained and signed as true
leashed in language, in black or blue

Your Name on the blotted line
as it says right here
(acquired this year)
that's Yours and this is Mine

A house, a car, husband or a wife
credit cards of the indebted life
my interest low, with rates on high

numerically figured dollars with time flies by

Save your wealth
Plan for the future, Learn from the Past
Protect your health, 
a stone is cast...

The stories are the same
Hansel and Gretel of the fairytale
if You and I were instead the name
leaving our moneyed paper trail

These precious paper treasures
acquired or borrowed
temporal needs, passing pleasures
carbon copied or dittoed
verified and proven, seeking restitution
as Possessor of said Property
indebted stay of execution
bartered pages of equality

scrolls through antiquity
long labours of lost legacy
smudges and smears
seen through ink blurred tears

Ancestry evoking ancient history
made from fibers of the family tree
linking lineage
from cleared forests
kinfolk of foliage
cherry picking the best, tossing the rest

Breaking the bow
swinging push and pull
I live Here now
Now void and null

But against me someone makes a claim
(with the wrong name)
This is what you owe!
(Please) Pay the balance before you go...



Image courtesy of Wikimedia, (Public Domain) By Orange County, NC (County Courthouse) 'February 13th, 1804 Marriage certificate'

Fruit Cake

A phenomenon
or so they said
What does that even mean
but surreal
hyper cognizant
carefree and currently
on the Pineapple Express
a subarctic flow
riding a-board
flimsy-flappy metal wings
waving to resistance
strapped in between
that I dutifully volunteer
taking the bumpy path
turbulence cloaked with care
we will get there
jumps jacks and jerks
brace and buckle up
Folks
terrential terrestrial
walking on water
a prevention of petulance
generational circumstance
companions of Will and Able
who facilitate the festivities
with Candy Canes and Christmas Cheer
recycling the seasonal year
a salvation per annum
the shedding of a starry tear
of remembrance
lightening striken resemblance
a resurgence
witnessing the same anew
in glorious saturated pools
reaching shores of home
on board ships of self
who face
into the wind
cut with embrace
on a haphazardly hemispherical
holiday
with fruit cakes
served best
in the Pineapple Express
Remember who you are
when you're no longer the old you
looking back-steadfast
miles between the tips and the roots
reaching tall, trying not to fall
whining against the wind of weary
who pushes too far
and gets carried away
in the Pineapple Express.



This image is of a Norway Spruce branch with three developing 'Pineapple Galls' caused by an aphid. Provided via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain) by Rosser 1954.