You don't begin with Guernica
if that's somewhere you're ever
meant to go

chubby baby hands grip the crayon
someday if you're lucky (or not)
they'll draw a thin straight line
in charcoal
just the least perceptible curve
enough to delight the eye
imperfection thrills the masses

then you paint and paint and paint
time and patience
some money
luck again, always luck

you're a master

maybe someone will recognize in your lifetime
most likely no
unless you're a tireless self-promoter

but your work
your work is sublime

These words don't belong to you
or me

They come from down deep
From the low guttural rumblings
Of our sleeping planet

They come on the wind
as it flies into your ears and eyes
forcing you to take that deep breath: inspire

They come, gently, from the trees
whispering the song of the season
as you stroll beneath their branches

They come from the heart
as it pumps blood through us tenuously, with a rhythmic beat

They come from the stardust
of a thousand dreamy worlds
drifting slowly through the universe
and out the tips of our pens

and who am i to argue
are we not fools every one?
there's never truth in every word
only thin glimmers show us light
a poem holds up the mirror
to reflect the dawn a little clearer

I'm trapped in the rhythm of the sonnet
a partnership I chose all by myself
I found the bard's hat and chose to don it
but did not see his shackles on the shelf

of all the paths I've chosen and regretted
I feel this should be easiest to fix
by me this road is only lightly treaded
old mangy dog learning still older tricks

I care no more for forms which close my heart
I'd rather open up and set it free
this stricture doesn't merely stifle art
it's suffocating what's inside of me

even this couplet seems to have a cost
the corset is pulled tight and I am lost

I sprung out of this polka-dotted haze
rose up into a new exotic phase

a spring of fleurs erupted from my fount
forced
bulb March of mother May I's
forget-me-knotted hair
sashaying Miss American me
Ms. Primrose Promise
sprouting a court of daffodilian dandies
defrosting smiles of delight

tip-toe-Tiny-Tim Tambourine man
faerie of frivolity
waves his wand over
my zone 8

I bloom anew

My mind is quiet today
not too much to say
even the rhymes are overly simple
corners of my mouth turning up
just slightly in mild amusement

The day is still as well
fog sits patiently in the dell
and the rhymes stay simple
like my life, not overly exciting
a study in mundanity but balanced
in flavors sweet, bitter, sour, spicy,
pungent, never once worried about
the source of my next meal
Never once.

And poetry of dubious quality
pours and pours from my pen
pours and pours from my pen
filling me with purpose and wonder

He was right about April
callous brutality
washing our sorrows in joy
each sweet breath effortful
eyes reborn to the brightness
unaccustomed to all this blossoming
an embarrassment of beauty

but we go on
year after blistering year
infusing our days with purpose
we'll never come to understand
your lips against mine in
mysterious bliss

put on your internet mittens
'cause, Baby, it's cold out there
in spite of the millions of kittens
there's a definite chill in the air

i may never read what you've written
it's not that i don't love your wares,
i'm only eternally smitten
by outdoors, green trees, and fresh air

so keep writing, Baby, go faster
it's writing that makes writing great
if you stop it would be a disaster
so stick it, you know, it's your fate