Resolutions

Looking forward

one eye lined with kohl

stelliferous & blinky

to fires planned

bones

to be broken in the new year

A Very Sweet Christmas

Big Pile O' Books

Be Forgot

Moment

not to be forgot

in fact whole worlds

are built

upon its import

Small girl

sits alone

in a church vestibule

while adult women chat

adjacent

Oh just

leave her there

she’s pouting

Leave her alone

she needs to learn

Small girl

alone in a vestibule

to be forgot

as women’s laughter

fades

For Karin’s prompt to the Real Toads: TAKE TWO AND SING

(Using the words “be forgot” from Auld Lang Syne)

Heart Container

Introducing Heart Container

Brand-new from ALL CAPS PUBLISHING

Earnest Poems by Yours Truly

Truly Gorgeous Cover Design by Max Germer

Available now (!) via Amazon 

or order a signed copy from me, 

adorned with hearts + flowers + stuff 

(delivery after Christmas)

I'm so excited I can barely contain myself!

Bathymetry

Energy

welcoming

slack water stillness

easy tide

preceding

gravitational fancy

washing clout to shore

Seven lines for Kerry’s form challenge: IN A GRAIN OF SAND

 
O Come All Ye Poetry Faithful
(and Those of Little Faith)
to the Thirsty Mind in South Hadley!
Hear Ye, Hear Ye! THIS Tuesday 12/15!

Slugabed

Love is

morning chats

while you

are still asleep

but conversant

Plans for the day

when we return again

what’s for dinner

all of which

will be repeated

when you

are actually awake

Love is

not taking advantage

making lists for later

all the mundane shit

repeated

this morning

tomorrow morning

every day

Love is

Quite a pair for Flash 55 Plus in the Imaginary Garden.

Spinning

Ear

   plugs

might help

  to avoid

permanently lost

  auditory functioning

from the never-ending concert

     of bad news cycle

#29 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans!

Mad Poetry

Writing

by the number

in a chaos of kids

and life and news

and of course cats

seems impossible.

Wouldn’t it be great

to poem by number--

metaphor here,

enjambment over there,

or fill-in-the-blank

like Mad Libs

(no adjectives)

and voilà!

Your point is made,

beautifully expressed.
All done, well done, finis.

#28 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans! Running out of steam over here, uh oh.

Swallowing

Swallowing

in the din of inhumanity

about women and doctors and workers

who deserve to be gunned down

families who are turned away

to certain death in plastic boats

because they threaten our way of life

there’s so much to protect here

cheap electronics

plastic shit and freedom fries

the right to be gunned down by cops

or lunatics

each one is somebody’s hero

I’m speechless

powerless

retreating for solace in a book of verse

remembering how naively I thought

our children would enjoy more freedoms

I don’t know what else to write

#27 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans 

Kimono

Passerby

dream-treader

you floated to me

itinerant

free

crouched

Indian-style

the earth at your ear

presented gifts

of yourself

I learned to keep

for myself

with no apology

#26 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans 

Primitive Reflex

They say

when one window shuts

another opens

when one passes

a new soul is born

but we come

crying

into this cold world

alone

as we leave

and it’s too cold

for that open window

after dark

too lonely for tears

For Fireblossom’s prompt in the Imaginary Garden: DREAD

& #25 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans

Rant Ad Nauseam

I feel a rant coming on

about how entitlement

drips and spreads and sullies

everything. Today it’s about guys

who think their stones are so big

that they can say any damn thing

to anybody. Even to a woman

who says I don’t like you

and don’t talk to me and stop

contacting me. Even that woman,

or especially that woman.

Entitled bastards sure know

how to sully up lovely things,

I’ll give you that much. Nice going.

Now fuck off, entitled bastard.

No doubt tomorrow

I’ll have a new subject for ranting.

Whew, that feels better. Sometimes this shit just writes itself. Nonetheless I'm counting this as #24 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans!

Monday Morning Breaks

Morning breaks on crooked arm,

From dreams I resist sun.

(Wake, wake, you slugabed,

Work needs to be done.)

Very greatly, lassitude

Tethers me to bed.

(But without your work-a-day

Children won’t be fed.)

In a slumber well intact

Fortunes visit me.

(To collar me in dream-land

They beg on bended knee.)

Sleep-dismissing day and work,

Spirits drag me down.

(You’ve no use for daylight.

Sink, sink and drown.)

Last-ditch fury, roil the quilts

Of my tender sleep.

(May as well stop fighting.

Laugh, laugh the deep.)

#23 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans, styled after a poem titled "In Arcady" by William Cosmo Monkhouse (1840-1901).

Milkman

Yesterday

our veins ran with it

In an hour

anxiety will stick

like leeches on the brain

Right now

let’s invite the plaque

to settle in

clog our valves

with the milk of our marriage

Constrict

Conserve

Color

#22 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans. For Margaret's Play It Again prompt to the Real Toads featuring Bjorn's TIME TRAVEL

Etiquette for Every Day

What if the proper etiquette

for this

   my denouement,

requires obnoxious pandering

        accepting reprimand

Instead of shuffling

          downturned eyes

the earth to glare upon

I’ll rise in solidarity

         and be already gone

#21 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans! I'm *slightly* behind but will catch up. Eek!

Meowy

Wishes to be

curled up in your lap

arms outstretched

Petted

there there

everything’s all right

Been out alllll dayyyy after a long week so I'm counting this just-before-midnight post as #20 of 30 Poems in November to benefit Center for New Americans. I thought this might be the start of something. Maybe it still is. Meow!