a bow-tied teacher – May 10

5.10.

A bow-tied teacher fills his chair,

with thoughtful remarks

about students now and gone.

 

One by thirty they filled class air

with wild ribbed story arcs

strewing A’s and B’s and tones.

 

Is there something sweeter to

a parent’s ear

than that their child

will be missed

 

Sitting for one final do

we drop a tear

and half stall awhile

to reminisce.

 

thinking back to our own

cold times

missing not at all

the painful and awkward then.

 

Against the now full gift of line

filling full tall

poems and prose of pen.

 

Thank you bow-tied builder of minds

young though they are, your heart

and imagination have given them new homes

in the wilderness cabins of their own.

—————-

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avoid the high calling – May 9

5.9

No-one is innocent, no one at fault.

The mantra of a litigious age. The

actor fell, flew, into a wall and was

injured. And no matter if he bore

some responsibility of his own.

 

Give the victim comfort is the mantra,

avoid the lawsuit, claim the high

calling angels dare not… oops

that is not where we are anymore.

 

Avoid the high costing, and sell any

attempt at truth down the river. I know

because I have practiced it myself.

Avoid the high calling, leave it to the

angels They are the only ones who

can afford it.

——————–

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wood (for Maury)- May 8

5.8

Oak. Flame. Striated, smooth,

the life of wood erupts in my

living room, like Maury, who

breathes and lives and loves

this stuff of his passion and need.

 

One day he decided that he

liked wood. One day wood

emerged from inside him

and came together with his

need to earn a way.

 

Our best vocations come when

when we are least looking, least

intentional. Just in need. Gifts

so close that we do not see them.

 

To know a gift is to know a giver.

Wisdom of the first sort

—————

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old turtle – May 7

5.7

old turtle honu, big fella

uses the battering tide

to find his meal with least

resistance.

 

as if old age could tell us

that, and build us shells

of bone, to ward the rocks

while floating home.

———————–

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eagle prayer – May 6

5.6

An Eagle. Tall, straight, noble

a leader amongst men and boys

focused, the hawk-like profile turned

slightly upward and left, eyeing the sky.

 

An Eagle. Short and stouter, modest

of demeanor. Boy-man, man-boy

rising to some direction he knows not

yet shyly smiling and eyeing the sky.

 

May his path be straight, his eyes clear,

the steps of his character firm. May he

rise to find his true place in a world of

pseudo raptors, where a gentle heart

is not always honored.

 

May he help us all

to eye the sky.

——————————-

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yogurt yummy – May 5

5.5

Yummm Yogurt.  Yummy tum tum.

Tiredness fixed by a lively run

of strawberries, booberries,

blueberries, too. All in my yogurt

Rooty too hoo.

 

I like yogurt, creamy and white

I like yogurt every single night

Mix it and fix it and flip it

just up right, yogurt, yogurt,

it makes my night.

————-

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gifties – May 4

5.4

Home again. Smells to the side

new floors gleam. My best friend

is happy at the sight. Long years

wanted, the best for my friend.

 

To give a gift of vision is a

gift to the giver. I always wanted.

Yes I know. And here it is.

She taught me generosity.

 

So happy to give it back

to open a wall, burnish a

counter, hard up a floor.

Best gifties back, for my best

of all friends.

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rosie cat – May 3

Rosie cat climbs onto the boy’s lap

and snuggles in, her ample flank flexing

rhythmically while she tucks her head

under an arm, safe, warm and contented.

 

It does not matter that he is typing

on the laptop. She rises, turns,

re-establishes pillowing on his

tummy, and squeezes her eyes

together in silent pleasance.

 

Something about family and tribe

and campfire primition is adrift in

her innate gathering to the family.

She has given herself to us, or gathered

us as hers.

 

Either way, there is a complete

acceptance, taken-for-grantedness

in her bodily grace that speaks

of ages and eons

of feline feminine self care.

 

That I could let myself sink so

completely into comfort, so

lasciviously into the stretch and

tawn of musculature is more

than my New England heart can

comprehend.

 

Yet, the sinuous naturalness

speaks to me, sings, of a sheer

joy to physical being. We’ve been

given this gift, after all, of a body.

 

 

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Tir-na-Nog waking dream – May 2

5.2

A white open flash of Other.

Totally separate from this.

Heaven. Utter West. The

world across the seas. Tir-

na-Nog.

 

This life unrolls like a

ribbon of rolling meadow

and green. I see the trees

rivers, flow. And then, as if

a cliff… a black wall where

it all stops. is not there.

 

It does not unroll after my

going, but is simply all stopped

Like a play shadow box that

drops off its edge to the blackest

black.

 

This Other cuts across that. At

an angle, not serenely, but

as a different spatial plane

that intersects, but does not

daily see or is seen in

this one.

 

The vision comes sitting in a pew.

Simple, direct, a waking dream.

As an answer to the black box edge.

We were not here before, and then

we will be there, alive, open

dancing.

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soil work – April 30

4.30

First dig in the Spring soil

the weeds already deep and clinging.

 

The hoe rips and claws beneath

like a therapist at the mental

toil. Uncovering, rooting out

and up, until fresh earth awaits

ready for the new growth.

 

Soul work and soil work

make the same trajectory.

United in their descant of

wooing the rich loam of life

they call out the newness of

old things

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