You’re Not Alone
                      
You’re down.
Unhappy as a clown
With painted mouth and painted eyes:
A main disguise.
Inside you’re isolated, insulated,
Loveproof, heatproof and cocooned,
Marooned.  Then ****,  
The roof falls in, you’re introduced.
From being ‘down’
You’re not alone.
Propped up and bolstered,
Heartened, fortified and reassured;

I need not say what, where or how.
Certainly not even who.
The thing of import is the ‘that’.
‘That’ you, besotted, mad about
A club,  a hobby, a religion. Stuck
On something you can shout out loud about.
You’ve learned, have known
One need not be alone, not great, not clever.
There is always some one thing to focus on:
Aloneness gone.
Forever.

You’re Not Alone 10.15.2020 Love Relationships II; Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover Corwin

Yesterday: your Birth Day!
Not just  'birthday', automatic as a ****,
But Birth Day: Such two words!
Important!  No, essential!
Referential, consequential!
Did not forget.
I hurt my foot, so didn't write,
It hurt all hours, day and night!
But here I am, in bed, inspired,
Caffeinated and un-tired,
Thinking lovingly about
Dear gifted Frederick inside out,
And wishing, hoping for the best:
Rest, blessed and lifelong:
*****, bass & muscles strong,
Knowing that you are among
The  smartest and most seeking of the throng.
With all my loving-est of song,🙏✍️🎹🎼🎤
Arlene (and Kent, of course)

Questions, Insights In the Night

This election: eighty-six:
Next election: I’ll be ninety.
If I’m there, how will it be?
The issues, climes, economy?
Shot to hell each plant and tree?
Arctic icebergs flowing, dry?
Bird-less, fish-less, mammal-free?
Wormy things confirming that
The rings around the trees don’t grow,
No longer show, for as you know,
“The wages of sin is death” for all.

In four years will T have been faithful?
Told the truth, kept promises?
Done what he can?
Not been T promiscuous,
‘Grab the *****’ need all gone?
By ninety will there be a woman
Who will run and who can win?
Will Fun old Grump be loony binned?

Gun old Frump? Nano Cramp? Run old Chimp?
Will any win?
Be seen, be heard November third?

I hope I’ll be here for my duty:
‘Fake news’ outed for its hype,
Typing out my poetry,
Garden snails on my board;
Growing foodstuffs for the good;
Success and progress,
Conquered virus,
Plumbed black holes,
Nature whole;
Ego friendly, free of worry…

Four more years until next vote:
Will I laugh, will I gloat?
Find a way to play out life’s allotted,
Unsought, final day?
These, one giant question/insight
In the middle of last night.

Questions, Insights In The Night 10.12.2020 Circling Round Reality; A Sense Of The Ridiculous II; Arlene Nover Corwin

Day Of The Nobel Prize
             (October 8, 2020)

My poetry: No Nobel Prize,
No metaphors, few images;
Just plain old pragmatism
Made of rhyme and meter,
Themes that speak to those that need them,
Underlying or spotlighting
What is, mostly under-stressed by common folk,
Or spoken in their honoring
A local past or now or
Beauty or complaint or pain, for
Poetry is road; a world
Which is or is not typically unfurled.
Rhythm’s pattern flow its own,
A beat repeated lyrical,
Graceful, elegant, worth hearing,
Moving to, for, from the soul,
Every poem worth Nobel.

Day Of The Nobel Prize 10.8.2020 Our Times, Our Culture II; The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative II; Arlene Nover Corwin

Confession To A Body

Body, you’ve been kind to me.
I’m not sure I’ve been kind back,
Complex the weaknesses which don’t perplex
Because of ignorance and vanity
And all those failings we abhor,
But still ignore.

When skin & bones, the organs, cells
Rebel because they don’t feel well…
Poor body!. While we are busy messing round,
You carry on by blessing all we do and more.
You’ve been a store of energy,
Instinct, tuition in each cell.
And now you do not feel too well:

Pains in the back, the sides, the middle.
Pains a riddle, piddling round, a joke that’s not a joke;
That pokes around in secret parts,
Yokes deficits to circulating heart
Which pumps its longing to survive
Because it knows the price, how nice to live,
The drive primeval.

Partnering with brain, it thinks,
“There’s so much left to do…”
And we, rewarded in abundance,
Know it’s true.

Confessions To A Body 10.7.2020 Pure Nakedness II; Circling Round Ageing; Circling Round Experience;

And When Do You Write?
             (a morning thought)

Assuming that we want to grow,
Each, every one of us with much to say
With wish to make some headway, be successful,
Thoughts, ideas original -
Inspiring for others;
Considering that we’re friends and brothers;

This considered, I’ll begin
By stating that I write in morning,
Topping off between, whenever
Circumstance or whim pops in unasked for.
Breakfast is the draw for me.
A time to munch and watch and see,
For TV’s in the room with me.
Blood sugar raised,
The brain takes in a pregnant phrase
Charged with stimulation,
Even modest revelation.

But you?  
When do you do when you do do?
Just a query,
Interested as I am in creation, creativity,
Body, mind relation; a concern instinctive -
Born of intuition, intellect and love.

And When Do You Write? 10.6.2020
The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative II; Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover Corwin

Self-Doubt

I sometimes wonder, try to picture
Men like Mr Trump, sitting on the ‘loo’ or ‘john’
For really, he is one
                               of us - just human,
Doing what we humans do.
I wonder he’s ever plain unsure,
Plain insecure.
I wonder if he has self-doubt.

Sceptical about ideas that come to mind,
Understanding that the mind can find
The craziest of thoughts to think.
Myself, I waver, do not savour every Corwin blink.

And here we have men of the hour,
Men with power
Postures, faces, hands and fingers
Giving out their unsound signals,
Accusations unconditional, wholesale and total.
Do they never have self-doubt,
When I the lowly writing poet
Try to deepen virtues that I am without?
Analyse and question
Layers, sides unseen?
Look for ways to harmonise the pieces and the one,?
Smooth out the rougher parts
While at the same time being soft at heart,
Broad and kind, well defined
Wise and well-informed in mind?

Self-confidence has bits that disavow self doubt.
To learn to recognise, discern the two
Is good to do,
Of value to
Your future
And by definition,
Everyone’s.

loo, john are English slang for toilet.
Self-Doubt 10.2.2020 Our Times, Our Culture II; Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover Corwin