Your beauty never fails in calming me.

I stole this tune from a mockingbird
Where outside my window he was perched
I kept the rhythm added rhyme
And the words, well they're all mine

The song he sang was a happy one
I think he got from another bird in love
When you whistle love it's hard to keep
So much so it inspired me

The tune I kept inside my head
Until there was no whistle in my whistle left
That's when in my mind I did decide
I needed to add a few rhyming lines

But I kept the tune of the mockingbird
Just thought it could use a few good words
Cause words can be a powerful thing
When added to a bird that sings

Mike Hauser had a brilliant idea to “Pass the pen” and see where it got us.  This, Friends, is the result.

I write of the stars
I write of the moon
I write of the things
That I love to do
I write of the lies
While telling the truth
And when I am through
I pass the pen to you

I read the things
that went before
and add my thoughts
for you to write more
of things we love
and things we hate
so here's the pen,
now contemplate!

I wait like a kid
the anticipation
breaks my quiet
like a train in station
with thoughts
pouring out
like the traveling weary
so here's the pen
"now what's my hurry?"

While looking at this
And studying that
As our poetic peruse
Comes up to bat
With much more in store
From the writer's’ knack
I jot down my last line
Then pass the pen back

and now it get's fun
with my lines and yours
at least it keeps me
from doing my chores!
fingers be nimble
brain be quick
I finished this part
now here's the Bic.

With words tattered and torn
I have you here to mend
Don’t know where I’m going
Brain lights on dim
With little or no warning
Here it comes again
All on a whim
I hand you the pen

*so who will care
if we make no sense
“these poets here
must have the bends!”
but all the same
we’ve had our yen
it was a good run
let's retire the pen

With this,
My last Will & Testament
I'm sure you're all here
To see what you get

I know you're excited
To see the treasures I had
Now that I'm gone
Now that I've passed

To split it up evenly
Only seems right
Cuts down on the cussing
Stops all the fights...

I leave behind my disappointments
And all my regrets
Along with the projects
I never finished

Plus all the days
That I never did
With the buckets of tears
I cried over them

You can keep the guilt that I felt
When things would go wrong
Whether or not
It was my fault

Take the attitude
Of what's in it for me
And do as you please
Now that I'm free and no longer in need

Oh and my fits of rage
When things would not go my way
Be careful with that
And watch what you say

Fill free to keep the jealousy
Of why them and not me
But be warned if you do
Happy you'll never be

And my final breath
That I wish I still had
You can toss that away
Now that I'm dead

I'm sure you're now thinking that
You should have hedged all your bets
Since your ears and your eyes
Have heard and seen what is left

I'm so glad you all came
To take this all away
That over the years
I should never have saved

...oh and tonight if you are soundly asleep
And suddenly come awake
The noise you hear is just me
Laughing from beyond the grave

I've walked up and down these city streets
Left my prints along the beach
Searching for that which I need
But seldom is it within reach

Every nook and cranny in my home
Climbed high the mountain top alone
Never sure of where it's gone
The illusive poem

Day and night I will not rest
This poem to find I've made my quest
I've laid it out at my behest
There's nothing needed more than this

I've called up everyone I know
Rang the Vatican in Rome
I will not stop my on the go
Until I find this poem

I've trudged the jungles of the South
More places than I dare to count
And still have yet to figure out
How all this came about

I'll keep on with my keeping on
Never bowing to the loss of hope
Because deep inside one day I know
I will find this poem

I've looked up among the blinking stars
Telescoped Venus and Mars
Held up signs to passing cars
But failed to look deep in the heart

You'd have thought I would have known
The one place I failed to go
That's where it was all along
The illusive poem