14 September 2021

When things don't make any sense anymore,
Scream!
Don't sweat the noise.
Not one is listening.

17 September 2021

11111

His numbers sadly spun
“I wanted 2”, he said.
“I wanted only one”.
He spun till he was dead.

2022  
In cold morning. on broken  deck, lies a child. Alone.
Dove near her heart, reminder of family,  peace she once knew.  
It  cries her pain.

Soon all will be lost, to love once again.
Close in deepest sleep, an angel missing.

How can this child lie among all the stars ?
How she sparkled, played, fingers spread!  
Unfulfilled.
Heart still.  

Heaven and earth soaked in her spill.

B. T. W.  2016
In the morning on the deck lies a man. He's alone.
There's a dove near his heart, a gramophone .
Most days more gentle, he senses the pain.
Soon he will be lost to love once again.
Somewhere close in her deep late sweet sleep,
One angel’s, missing this sheep.
How can it be he’s hidden among all the stars.
Where he sparkles, fingers spread, unfulfilled.
Heart full till heaven and earth soaked in it’s spill?
B. Whittaker
(As first writ in 2016 mourning my first wife lost in 2014)

5
September 25 2022

What - A peaceful joyous mind.

Why - Stress of every day.

When- As soon as possible

Who- Every person

How- Get a dog.

5 in the morning
4 July 2021

She’s still in bed, sleeping hard night,
On her computer, straining her sight.
Shopping internet for a port side mirror.
Sleeping peaceful, I won’t stir her.

I have music blaring, saucy and bright.
Tango, salsa, waltzing light.
Love my mornings, sunrise in sight.

Redecorated my room, like la fishing boat.
Picture bathroom wall, anxious to float.
Years held its wooden side, bright colors short and wide.
Cod and salmon, no place to hide.

Would love to see him, dripping raincoat and hat,
Net in hand, firm, like a baseball bat.
Wonder how long each day he sat.
Would love to see him, just like that.

Whisker and glasses on his chin and nose,
Overalls, boots, plaid shirt clothed.
Found this gem in the garden store,
Long way from that Maritime shore.

Decorating missed a spot or two,
Lights still hanging, love it, will do.
Threw out the brushes, rollers too.
Toilet leaked, but now it’s fixed,
Ready for that old man’s trick.

Shelves ready to fill with my junk,
Tools back in the garage, big thump.
Looking for a light over the tub.
Broke the one was most night’s hub.
Soap, warm water, there I lazed,
Loved those nights, and simple days.
“Rub a dub rub”, poem says.

This morning, awake and vigored,
No hangover from last night’s liquor.
Guitar strumming on my mobile phone.
5 in the morning, dancing at home.
Rowing my boat like a sailor, alone.

19 March 2021

".....ations" stress,
All of your mind and body.
Some worth waiting for.

Absence
20 January 2022

Empty hedge you bear no fruit,

Richest soil, no *****.  

Leave worthless suit,

Stilled endless bloom,

Held short by thoughtless root.

Again
30 October 2033


My heart breaks with pain.
Here we at war again.
Kids all sides, slain or deep pain.
Here we are at war again.

Thousands taken from this life.
Often cannot tell their wife.
Pieces without legs or face.
On streets without a place.

Home and hearth just bone sore.
Blood and gore the only score.
Old man sleeping in the street.
Dog whimpers as he weeps.

Tomorrow, he knows he’ll die.
Joining so many that he knew.
Day will come and some win.
Wearing Poppy red, blue.

Age
25 July 2021

Heavy airs abating.
Disease of diseases gating.
Sounds of sounds fading.
Light of lights evading.
Ridicule invading.
Use of use more less.
Shaking now our test.
Moving very slow,
Nowhere left to go.

Darwin’s poem said,
Inevitable you be dead.
Heaven or hell presumed,
As the fires consume.

Others still have chores.
Zero is our score.
Love, our fire escape.
Blessed if that’s your fate.

Living life full long,
Loving keeps me strong.
Forgive who long life live.
They their best still give.
Remember to forgive.

Age (Haiku)
8 May 2022

I pick you up,
Kiss your little lips,
To soon goodbye.

Age
25 July 2021

Age, the weights of time waiting,
Heavier than air pressing reality to the gates,
Time brings the unnatural, disease of diseases.
When there are few easing of eases.

21 July 2022

Aging, the inverse relationship
Between capability and need.

A = N / C

23 August 2021

Days of summer heated, change to a darkening crisper fall.
Life hardens, coils, preparing for the resting-rusting, of winter.
Uncertain. a chick-a-dee flutters nearby, astride berry-laden branches.
Winter snows, will soon burden it's call.

One lone black squirrel, stands squatting on it's edge.
Nose buried in an oddly brown fur tail, it's own.
Remnants of scaled snake skin, hold drops of this morning's rain.
A few old dry brown twigs, hang broken, thorny-brown leafed hedges.

Hints of dampness twist in the mild winds from the south,
Truth of illusion marks a yellow, uneven, fading, distant, horizon.
Somewhere, a tenor beagle howls, mournfully, to emptiness.
Young girls, moving together, striate their celebrations of youth.

There is an ache in my hips and neck this morning.
Heart wane filled, wistful.
Melancholy of dog days on unhealed roads twisting,
Memory of times, long past, fistfuls,
I never can restart, mourning.

I stand beside that long open road, neverland of lost dreams.
Fruit-bare search for meaning. Nature's transitions and streams.

Ancient Patience
31 March 2023

Ancient trees, limbs outstretched,
Reach up. Seasoned, greet evening falling sun.
Each leaf alight, nature’s warmth fetched.
Hunger, now strong, early spring won.

Beneath canopies, awake azure green.
I am along a nascent forest bridge,
Dappled. Slow dance, bud keen.
Gentle breeze, stirs my every step, every edge.

A living choir plays. Praise to the light.
Holy embraced, their arts sketch line-shadow-blurred.
Canvas renews fond memories past,
Grounds hurt forgotten, trumpet safe interred.

Thirsty root dig deep, inspire.
Tomorrow’s promise, quenching beadles,
Necklace of puddled pearls, preparing fire.
Bracelet sun goldened wrist lit, life beget.

My steps turn homeward.
This day cedes eternal to fading light.
My heart, sated silence forward,
Guides my coming night.

Through trees towered high,
Ancient, paitience love,
Fills my heart with grace.
Fruitful life nigh.

Written by
BTW

25 August 2021

And so he looks,
As if holy book,
At his own,
A truth looking for home.
All he found,
Around and around,
A man on his knees.
Always trying to ease,
Aggravations of life.
Accentuated strife,
Addled man with his knife.
Alone as could be.
Aeons in need.
Along edges he freed,
Always no seed,
Aeons indeed.
Awaiting since youth,
As if there was truth.
Alas he roams,
Amidst his poems.

A Piece of Me
11 August 2021

You have the biggest chunk,
I've kept the trash and junk.
Best parts, my heart and soul,
Held for you, kept them whole.
Seems not all the worst is gone,
Tried so hard for very long.
I need your hand to keep me strong.
My heart and soul to you belong.
Every day I do my best, loving you.
Soon the worst will be at rest.
A piece of me failed the test.
(I forgive you)

Are we guilty?
26 September 2021

Walking alone an immigrant boy,
Noticed two apples, wanted a toy.
Poor and hungry , he followed the road.
In the gutter saw one fat old toad.
Behind the farm fence, a mangy horse.
It was not cared for, also hungry of course.
The boy’s  eyes sparkled, chance for good deed.
That poor wasted animal was given a feed.
Next door the colt bolted, fell down, and died.
Choked on the seeds, never could cry.

The Rich Baron started to dance.
Sure no apples fell from his ranch.
Passed the boy in the market by chance.
Thought him strange, bulge in his pants.
Saw he was hungry, walked on his own.
Would never take such a child home.

Judge he said “My poor pony is dead”.
“This young lad stole my apple so red”.
“I lost money, nothing comes free”
“Took that  apple from my tall tree”.
Told the boy quiet “Fell on the road”
“Almost squashed that fat old toad”.
Too young to be held there in jail,
His parents found guilty, no money for bail.
Thought this an interesting tale.

Awe

15 January 2024

How can I taste the sweetness of life.
I come to you

2 October 2021

You came from the dark side, stilled alive.
Disorderly, drunk, broken, with child.
This was not who I knew,  you cried.
This was not what I knew, crazy, wild.

You are my guardian, with the magic #'s.
Why would my dreams reshape, plunder?
Wolves, and demons bring their thunger,
Running I tried to help you, you went under.

Bad dreams stay when I am awake.
Good things happen through who you were.
Swim afire through that flaming lake.
Play, bad dreams when I am awake.

Bad is Bad. (Haiku)
28 September 2021.

Bad is Bad.
Wasting too much talk.
Bad is bad.

Bad night’s sleep poem
30 July 2021

Night fine, sleeping pill wine.
Night ongoing, glowing.
Night done, muddy caff numb.
Don’t worry, driving hurry.
Rhyme, be there in time.
Sign I need head, feet to align.

Straw Doll
18 December 2022

Edges tattered, shirt torn,
Worn Gray paper hat, eyes scorn,
Empty cob.

Gray border guard Oh Hoy
Was his favourite man toy.
Popsicle stick stuck.

Shelved right side library chair.
Silver belted bald hair.
Knee patch.

Two twisted legs dangle,
At an impossible angle.
One medal.

Jacket stained city brown,
Wrong side of town.
Scot’s tape.

Dated DEC 2022 orange tab.
Smell of stale food had.
Broken  gun.

Love by one in fun.
Straw doll “hon”.
Dog shook.

Forgotten.
Bad year for heroes

Baseball
1 Sept 2021.

From one base to another,
We seek to win.
Like a ball game. Luck and skill,
Decide one above the cover.
Who gets the thrill.
  
Hard as I try to play.
It is still a game, not life.

30 September 2021

Nothing stirred, nothing shaken.
Skylight held stars in weighted grasp.
On the back of quiet trees eaves,
Stilled in an oasis moon cast.

A black cat lay on board fenced sleeping.
White sound wind longer opened the night.
A neighborhood pond mirrored as glinting,
Empty windows on a dying world.

Perhaps the end had long ago begun.
A banjo lay in the corner hall unstrung.
Two broken Skelton tennis raquets,
Sat statuettes on marble brackets.

All that moved was a mote of dust,
Leaving the trail of century aged rust.
Who would come to page this whole?
Life unwashed, once holding  fervored souls.

Be Gentle
11 April 2021

Be gentle, the day has just begun.

Behind the camera

To my beautiful daughter now celebrating her birthday,
Love comes from behind the camera.
Mother's have their special place,
Always have that loving grace.
Behind the camera, my place.
Love you dear as father's do.
Spend too much time missing you.
Time to sing that special song.
Been away far too long.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU.

Beyond
8 October 2021

Old memories, images of other times.
Move them in your dreams to a new life.
Reality in a place beyond possible today.

Future, past, combined in spaces of infinite care.
Old transforming to your new.
Living beyond our imagination.

Lost, or finding your way home?

Bittersweet
13 September 2021

Awake from a dream, aching.
Deep memories lingering.
Nugget of sweet bitter, mouth fingered.
Sweetest flavour.
Impossible savour.
Passion spokes, pierce, broken.
Young, too ready, token.
Precious moment’s perfection,
Painful reflection.
How do I speak phantom glass?
How do I leave your past?
Old photo back wall, kissed again!
Kissed again!!
Wish I had kept it all.
Wish I could let it fall.

28 February 2022

How did we  let them make us old?
Tiger leaders have us cold.
Years gone by their tales we told.
Now the future, they sold.

Follow us they dare to say.
Watch us spoil the lights of day.
**** the children while they play..
Tigers like the world that way.

Most of us hear that song.
Let go on, right or wrong.
Suddenly the are too strong.
Tigers write our death song.

Courage now will be our cost.
Being faithful to our cause.
Freedoms we have lost.
Bold to be, blood be tossed.

Part, Past, Our book.
29 March 2021

Call up leather of books.
Skins thrown past each curtain.
Your soul doeth me sustain.
Meet on this stage. Look.

Surround of poem and lace,
Songs writ deep rhythm time.
Sing sweet Angel, cry “passion mine”.
We meet each day, too few.
Grace found renews our place.

Hold myths of rebirth.
Shared trust be earned.
Our parts all will learn,
Never return to earth.

12 February 2024

When you can’t get 1 foot in front of the other,
No one really feels like your brother,
no point hiding under the covers,
Life is never that kind of bother.

Wake up my friend and live it well,
We did all in every spell,
Long way down to the bottom of the wall,
Still time, give it hell.

Breaking Away

17 December 2021.

Feeling winds of time, change,
Four seasons, each unique,
Growing the previous.
When a mountain is climbed,
Both are lamed.

Old ease offers less solace,
Uncertain new promise.
Worlds broken, earthquake, storm.

Your freedom, your choice.
Breaking away.
Is there a way home?

By I am as you were
13 January 2023

Shaken by the possibility you would,
I will be,

To foreclose you.

I am not yet.

To become,  you come, expecting my birth.

I cannot be born. I would be as you are.

Do not mourn the pain you will not bear.

We were never.,

Here!

Hounds of hell tear bars,
Holding devils imprisoned.
Slabs of concrete, steel, start falling,
Ripping apart souls of stars.
Dreams laid broken tokens.
Scarred.

Time, salt of earth, sand, unbound,
Crushing streams of broken sound.
Cacophony of neglect.
Year of regret.

Can It Be
18 July 2021

Now I know impossible possible.
Space and time crossable.
Love transcends reality.
What cannot, should not, could not be,
Has come from you to me
You are that infinity.

Can there be a time?
(Rebirth)
2 August 2021

Can there be a time more poignant?
I face in my mirror’s brow,
Faces left behind, unending time.
Shoulders bare, borne bending of rhythm and rhyme.
Shadowed in cornered reflection, lost perfection.
Hidden swirls of words and music directed.
Leave me in this moment. I have found myself.

CFM.  (Adult)
5 January 2022

Hunger-wearing-black-booted-
Midnight-shadow-street-corner-­blue-
Bartender-bassoon-smooth-wailing-horn,
Tonight pull me while I'm burner-raw-torn.
Desiccate-night-thirst wake me. Tease.
Moon CFM drown me, break me.
Roaming-desert-music, seize me.
Viola-tight-throat-hum-love, sting!
Tonight no hope, I need to sing.

Challenge
12 June 2021.

Days when walls too tall,
Times when you hear the call,
Challenge to live is overall,
One alone can’t do it all.

Resource thin. you want to win,
Noise, confusion, lose the din,
Time for all to step right in,
Calm the seas, tame the wind.

Some man the sails, others hale,
Gather pails, patch the wails.
When together challenge spins,
Only joined, will you win.

Trust and love weapons need,
Set aside fears and greed.
Build that team, face the truths.
Together you will never lose.

If any treasure left behind,
Is seen solely yours,
No one is at the oars.
Read the board, check the score.

This is the game of life,
Courage wise giant size,
Win as one, share the prize.
Team together old and new,
More to life, than bad weather.

Change
27 July 2022

Never expected, as selected.
Life rearranged, even deranged.

New default, not my fault.
Fate painted, future tainted.

Mad and angry, feeling mangy
Wonder known, time has flown.

New doors open, groping.
Always hoping, wet and soaking.

When I’m ready, feet are steady.
New change comes, still not done.
Used to lope, now it’s run.

Change II

Leave a little on the table,
Bad karma, you're not able.
Times are tough, to  be fabled,
Saga written every gable.

World has left kindness short.
Take all you can, the old sport.
Many now throw keen sharp darts,
None behind, our fine art.

War and hunger everywhere.
Children crying, pain, despair.
Depending on your cutting back,
Are  they  ever back on track.

Never some for everyone.
Need exceeds each daily run.
Not a time for fame and glory,
Time to write  a better story.

Wish I had more to give,
Disappoint my own two kids.
Spoiled them when they were little.
Now no strings on my old fiddle.

The Christmas Tree
25 November 2023

He saw a spark of golden color,
Under the trash of unending war.
Seven years old, he was taller,
Than his coat of cloth and tar.

Cold rain turning to hail and snow,
Clung to a leather hat taken.
Frozen remains in a plane unknown,
Debris of battles poorly lost, forsaken.

He had hidden there from the trucks.
Travelling the rutted mud farm road.
Each wore the scars, bent luck,
Assaults by past rifle fire lode.  

Crawling to the piece of brass strip,
Now loosed from the stony gravel.
A small tag was tied with jagged rip.
Scrawled red and green “Merry ….”

Closing
28 August 2023
August closes long days of summer,
Inviting fall, “bring your rainbow through gated thunder.”.
Bachata rythmn-flash.
Naked noisy nights.

Geese V across fading afternoons.
Horn-echos , sky-crisp southern moon.
Shadows write on scripted alto flights.

Our garden leaf, months golden blossom.
Petals taste orange sweet morning dew.
Rose laden clouds bassoon.
Life and love, soon rise, renewed.
Natural intelligence held eternal, right.

10 August 2022

Your fingers run down my soul,
Kissing the sun.

Community, Immutability.
4 Dec 2022

Power common community.
Money, survival, impunity.
To have another, reality.

Respect, reliability.
Hunger, viability.
Freedom, liability.
Trust, possibility.

Privacy, brotherhood.
Immunity, motherhood.

Family for kingdom.
Hunger for freedom.

Ruthful, truthful.

Life choices by the hours,
Power all those of ours.
.

Compassion
10 September 2021.

Lying broken on a old farm road,
A gray eyed beagle licked her hand.

They cried their tears to the tires.

Condition
18 August 2021

Lighting strikes tear your world,
Pieces shatter, abyss hurled.
Gut your clothes, naked on edge.  
Careless God back into eternity, darkness.
“Push”  chant shoulder phantoms.
Yet you smile.  No one you grant,
Your peace.

Facing a Crisis
1 December 2021

Not always advice a best answer.

Devil princess dances with panthers.
Living outside all man-mapped bound.
Rhythm of nature shapes her soft sound.

Love leaves old pain lost in the wake.
Manage your life for your life's sake.
Road risky will certain ride truth.

A loving soul need bide it's own way.
Soft, hard shoulders edging your day.
Only time travelled, answers love’s call.

Holding to show how fate truly run.
Way ahead clearing, silvered sun.
Traveling truth will crisis be won.

DAWN   2021-03-20

The mornings lie quiet, barely awake,
Cool calm air slides in over my deck.
A dove struts across bragging her break,
Of gray-white breaths welcome here.
A squirrel visits chewing full neck,
Sweet cones no cream sparkles left,
On rime holding taste of pine speck.
Gentle beams caress the yawn of dawn.
She stirs to kiss me and drape across
Velvet still hanging over the edge of her calm.
Morning in my soul pulling away the moss.
Rise gentle she wisps whispers my quaking brow.
Tomorrow again and again you will know,
Me. Ever new, ever old, ever on your soul.

B. T. Whittaker

Deja Vue
25 November 2021

I have been here when I was young.
Dead bears, wolves howling, wooden stairs, wooden legs.

Nights alone.

At my heels slavering death.
Gasping, failing breath.
Trembling, remembering their eyes.

Falling into the abyss.
This time will I awake?