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Dan McGowan Jun 2015
young run free
within boundaries
if escape seems possible
would fear allow it
fantasy’s the window
you know is not the door
finding that is easy
stop looking for it
don’t leave yet
look around some
scenery is different
seen from outside
once free of youth’s
forced fences
you find some built
on your own
Following the path of the monomyth
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
reject when you're different
try to fit in
the mantra that is spoken
in rooms of our youth

look at life
from outside in
turn from old notions
to your own motions

mirrors show a face
the world does not see
like the soul's reflection is not reality
it’s an image of who you want to be
Following the path of the monomyth
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
that cage you built around yourself... oh you didn't know
always the last to know
Dan McGowan Jul 2015
felt the warmth inside while the cold rain came
No words to describe it till I found you. Word discovered by John Koenig
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
Confucius Says but does he also do as he says
just wondering
Dan McGowan Oct 2015
cold bitter sidewalk wind
duck into chinese place
find a place along the window
hot tea, wonton, fortune please
watching quick and furtive striders
sun rays make it through glass haze
warmth returns to my numb fingers
which pry apart the brittle cookie
the paper inside says “decide”
Dan McGowan Jul 2015
at birth we're sworn to secrecy regarding our previous vacancys
maybe
Dan McGowan Nov 2018
The pull from the tree
That has poison fruit
Drags me in
Makes me eat
Against my will
Until I see
My feet walking
My hand picking
My mouth eating
That fruit again
What is the draw
This gravity tree
Why can’t I think
This animal pull
That drives me
To this fruit
I could ask Eve
I’m sure she knows
Unlike the man
Who just blames
Is that snake a rope
That binds my free will
Or are they fruits
From my labor
The magnetic pull
Of the dark
All that I know
Is please find a way
That takes me away
From the shadow
Of this tree
sometimes i write in first person even if it's not me, sometimes it's me.
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
slanderous silk sac
shaved and crushed
work of olden theways
when metacarpal tightens
look for mandible to snap
strawdawg sippin’ smoothie
******* hithemark
when love is all yousee
war is what youneed
to even keel, your crook’d beam
Sometimes **** happens and we we have to right our own ship.
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
there must be ghosts
its what ive seen
how else do you explain it
all around I look
and all I see
is my old man's legacy

like the look I give
those ******* drivers

the caring stubbornness
my sister's own

quiet honest love of the man
my brother has become

his grandchildren and ours
are etched in his way
he will  live on forever
in our own legacy
Dan McGowan Jul 2015
in one ohh the flightly finister
interjerk’t offorthwith united
unloosed upon the messes
who rains with string
of erring do
believe the ortho doxie

catamount the femail glory
moistens packet interfury
trump-ettes blow
the suction from their barrel oblesk
look slively tortice hand out for brood
scooch the dead **** down
impesh with dis-ire
marakesh the claim to sane
and leak brainoil smartly

for aft andall
whomake it threw
until deadneck cycoil
tweet totell interlie
the diff is how’d it hung
to a peel at the court
for reci-prostate-parity
just looking at the news and up pops this sheet
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
we are not stewards of Earth, she looks after us
Dan McGowan Jul 2015
all white
how to start
from end
than we know
the end
is good
or better yet
the big picture
then the little stuff
takes care of itself
yet
a word
in the beginning
starts the steady stream
hope it doesn’t
end in a
t
r
  i
c
  k
   l
    e
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
calf’s eyes sparkle
it’s mothers are dull
repetition kills joy
If you have been on a farm you know this is true, or if you have lived a life.
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
a wisp of wind
russet castoff swirls
waves then falls
See it write it
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
disclaimer Lune:

these are just studies
not real life
which is more complex

0
sitting on a bench
in the park
people are the show

1
beaten down by life
tired eyes
explain frustration

2
girl sings to herself
almost skips
her path seems so clear

3
headphones on
in another world
this ones fine

4
man who chose
to live his life such
as it is


5
slowly killing him
he continues
a bite at a time
I guess this one could go on forever
Dan McGowan Jul 2015
your glance sees into me, as hearts beat in concert
words that need more than one
Dan McGowan Jul 2015
I felt the cold rain while inside a warm house
No words to describe it till I found you. Word discovered by John Koenig
Dan McGowan Jul 2015
the sun rises in rose fleshed bounty
but it doesn’t cut my ******* lawn
the whispered prose of the wind splashed water
doesn’t pay the bills
tree arches steadily toward the arc of the stars
yet it can’t wash my car
for all the beauty the world revels
what the **** has it done for me lately
poetry is probably the one of the most unnecessary things and that is it's beauty
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
melancholy wind
moans off the hilltop
grass responds in rhythm
clouds wheel across the landscape
leaving figment message
along the ground
bring visions to mind
which aren’t even mine
change unlike time
moves back and forward
the myth of now
shapes history past
fates arise in retrospect
regret is futures toil
chaotic blows the sand
when scene inside the storm
remove yourself
to see yourself
the patterns that are borne
the flow and ebb
that has no care
to minuscule endeavors
yet we knit and purl
at Indra's net
unconscious to
the state of grace
to which we aim
unerring
Strange occurrence when looking at the sky
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
the picture in the paper, all that's left to remember
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
briney merl
incessant swirl
stix tite
smell of salts
yawn a sigh
fear makes you tired
anticipation wired
mind flashes past
appreciate what could not last
a mortal thump
a mental jump
the futures here
enemy near
no time to think, react
you hear the sound of attack
the thing you do without regret
you hope one day to forget
ah to be on a previous page
when youth demanded that i age
This is life sometimes when actions are based on reaction.
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
I meta-haiku
it felt so right between us
till I met senryu
Senryu won this round
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
words are written
with surgic precision
to reveal septic wound
through careful arrangement
infection abated
use rhythm and timbre
to make the pain lessen
after words are all down
the wound is still there
but you see that the healings
begun
Never metapoem I didn't like (not true)
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
she cried to her mother, at those times your unnecessary
truth
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
down by the brum dimwiddy

where we got all giddy

sat the massive planq

with god awful stank



her shimmy playzit soloose

situation diffuse

we beg fumdilly

witout seeming chilly



she unfastened minert

couldi squirt

undoubted nixnot

from within it shot



hrmfff okydoke

andwe smoke
As you can tell it was a situation of emotion that got me writing this.
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
the balance between thought and writing maybe one word too...
This stuff happens all the time
Dan McGowan Oct 2015
cool crisp air
shows only hilltops
clouds roll low
through the valley
fanned by flocks
of silhouette birds
fields slowly emerge
tasseled stalks, orange gourds
ready for the harvest
other colors then the greens
break out in different spots
summers end brings thoughts
of cold which comes too soon
but yet some beauty still awaits
before the still cold white
all the rainbow but the blues
comes crashing to the ground
the smell of russet leaves
an air of reminiscence
the sound a shuffle makes
through knee high brown
all hands at work to rake
and jump and fill past full
find the perfect pumpkin
in a field full of them
yet one stands out
ready for the slaughter
with a jagged smile
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
blades churn
facing the winds
pump nothing
Dan McGowan Feb 2018
I knew a man
He lived near town
Walked all day long
With a bag of snakes
Thrown across his shoulder
They slithered and moved  
With each and every step
You could see their outlines
As the burlap sack shifts
He had a name for everyone
Though he never saw them
Whenever he would feed them  
He would not look directly at them
So they would seem bigger  
More dangerous in his mind
Then they were in real life
One day he came across another guy
Who had a half full bag
And a happy smile
How had he managed
To get his bag like that
The man replied you have to face those reptiles
Then let it go
That made our guy about sick
The fear he had to face those things
Better to carry the load
Yet one day came
The burden was too hard
He thought at what the man had said
And would maybe give it a try
Opening the bag a slight bit
He caught one by the neck
He swore it was King Cobra
And met it face to face
This was the one with the unlikely name
Resentment Towards my Ma
Looking at this aging wonder
In his hands before him
He noticed it was small
And harmless to him now
He  looked at it and thought of the past
And Ma became Mary a scared girl
Who never knew how to be a mom
Mary had tried here best
Her best was never good for him
He dropped the snake and let it go  
A tear fell on his cheek
So it went after the first
One called Jealousy to Neighbor
Slipped through his fingers
Fear of Change
Was hard to go
With each one  
The next got easier
It felt what right must feel like
He saw the man  
He met a while back
He mirrored the grin on his face
I see you let some go
He said as he walked by
I feel lighter everyday
I struggle less now
Then another came by
With a heavy burden
They saw him as a brother
Let it go friend
When the weight is just too much
about me and trying to let go of past demons
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
with cancer
the body outlasts
the patience
This one was when I was sitting through my wife's chemo.
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
lay back and relax
go along with what the stream
will give me
sometimes fast
sometimes slow
a snag or two
to keep me grounded
watch the dappled shadows
the canopy of leaves
through closed eyes
perfect state of being
water drips with weird sound
wakes me from my splendor
turn my head
come face to face
with rutting buck
that snorts across my mug
the startled deer
has startled me
just glad to keep it upright
stag turns and runs
quiet restored
left with vision of his eyes
and the quickly narrowed pupils
Dan McGowan Jul 2015
I long to repeat that thing I never did before
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
summer is the time we all forget our winter promises
but it's a dry heat
Dan McGowan Jul 2015
does it bother that
most of ours efforts now go
to the entertainment of man
not the betterment of man
go ask apple
Dan McGowan Feb 2016
the rain
I used to love the rain
we would lie upon the bed
listen to the rain
close so close
no words
hands touching hands
I used to love the rain
I lay alone listening
the tears they fall
flow from the sky
just before the light
mourning time
has come
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
the untrampled path
once written
is no longer new
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
To a bric brow

sternz to *****

girds for war

battle to battle

move in 1st

real hard

parry duck dive

breath *** breath

exhale exalt

used u used dem

supit silly awkward GO

FORGET remember

what battle next
Fight for lust
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
tree spikes upright
paint the clouds into the sky
from a bed of needles
woods whisper a truth
I’m reluctant to remember
Came to me in the woods
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
when youth thinks it knows wisdom laughs, but also watches
ah youth!
Dan McGowan Jun 2015
the world is upside down, at least half the time
at least

— The End —