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316 · Dec 2019
Don’t (10w)
Jim Davis Dec 2019
Don’t form opinions on yourself
Based on opinions of others

©  2019 Jim Davis
Kinda stole the idea... and it doesn’t rhyme... but ... I love it!
313 · Oct 12
Falling
Jim Davis Oct 12
in and out...
within seconds of time...
now... now not... now...
petals falling...
till no more...
hung...
flower...
still seen?

© 2024 Jim Davis
309 · Jul 2017
Leap
Jim Davis Jul 2017
The first step taken
On the other road
Another way
another path
Is difficult

Sure of time's fate
Don't go gingerly
Run as fast as you can
Leap from the edge
Into the abyss

©  2017 Jim Davis

"Don Juan and Don Genaro stepped back and seemed to merge with the darkness. Pablito held my forearm and we said good-by to each other. Then a strange urge, a force, made me run with him to the northern edge of the mesa. I felt his arm holding me as we jumped and then I was alone." ~ Carlos Castaneda, Tales of Power
My son is going through a hard time right now with Love, which is always hard!  Prompted this write!  I've been there before, and leaped!
308 · Aug 2019
Dreaming (10w)
Jim Davis Aug 2019
Touching you softly
to know
my dream lives
as you

©  2019 Jim Davis
Dream Dreaming Touch Touching
Love Loving Live Lving
306 · Mar 2017
A Wish
Jim Davis Mar 2017
Have you ever leaned against
Blowing howling blinding winds
Watched sunsets yellow turning red
Just to get a feeling of a short cry
Howled long at the shining moon
On a bitter cold winter's night
Jumped at the sudden sound
Of a thunder's shaking boom
Hid in the arms of your best love
Danced with happy in pattering rain
Caught a frog by it's jumping legs
Measured time with an inch worm
Blown dandelion fluff to float in
The middle of a forever summer
Chased a pretty drifting butterfly
Wishing you were one too
Only just for a moment or two
Like you did as a young child

©  2017 Jim Davis
In New Mexico, as a kid, I did all this, I know I'm not the only one!
304 · Jul 2019
Plaything
Jim Davis Jul 2019
I spend a good
part of each day
Writing poetry you see
At times in words
Wishing vision to see
Perhaps I've found
A real life calling
Or just a little thing to
Play with all day

©  2017 Jim Davis
303 · Mar 2017
Letter of Love
Jim Davis Mar 2017
Love in words, 
Laid on paper, 
Dying as snared rabbits, 
Struggling and losing life, 
As they fall from the mind.

The truest meaning hidden
Behind a reality, 
Of black and white,
And the starkness of lives,
Facing the mundane.

Searching for truer words,
Each time,
To express a love, 
Greater than earthly words,  
Can convey.  

Searching for fleeting thoughts, 
Like fireflies flashing, 
In an early darkness.
Captured for the jar,
To behold with wonder! 

Searching for words, 
Unique as snowflakes, 
Enough needed, 
For a glacier, 
To fill the valley void.  

Searching for meaning,
In three decades of time,
Lived apart and together.
Like torrents of rivers,
Joined in the sea!

A letter and a love 
that holds fast,
And will last, 
And last, and last,
Until words of heaven come! 

© 2016 Jim Davis
Second poem I wrote for my wife, my life's love, for our 30th anniversary.  The first was The Moonlight Journey
302 · May 2017
Love Is
Jim Davis May 2017
Love is touching me
No
Love is touching you

Love is to be held
No
Love is to hold

Love is kissing me
No
Love is kissing you

Love is taking
No
Love is giving

Love is angry
No
Love is happy

Love needs
No
Love provides

Love waits a minute
No
Love waits an eternity

Love takes away
No
Love gives away

Love holds firm
No
Love gives way

Love argues
No
Love agrees

Love laughs at
No
Love weeps for

Love takes two
No
Love gives all to one

Love is
No
Love is
YES!  

©  2016 Jim Davis
301 · Apr 2017
My Heart
Jim Davis Apr 2017
she left
  and although
    I told her not to
     loudly too in shouting
"DON'T TAKE MY HEART"
     she carried my heart
    taking anyway far
   away with her
without me
...
Ohh,
  where do I
   find another
  such heart,
again?

©  2017 Jim Davis
Thankfully, I did find another heart!
298 · Jun 2017
Go (10w)
Jim Davis Jun 2017
Go
as far
as often
as hard
as you can

©  2017 Jim Davis
My family likes to travel!
#go
297 · Mar 2017
Fleeting
Jim Davis Mar 2017
Her name was Beauty
She was all the rage
Flashing and flaunting
Attracting the deranged
Lasting only a moment
Returned to ashes again

© 2017 Jim Davis
296 · May 2017
Roaming Dog
Jim Davis May 2017
A dog needs to know
His place now, ya hear
Don't need to be wandering
Like them cur, mangy
yellow big dogs
Looking for any piece of meat
Settling for any ***** in heat

Stay at home old Blue, let thee
Not wander, broad unlit streets
Wandering all out, in and through
Those fogged, fading, moonlit nights
Searching for pretty, yet untrue, light

I see thee quite often
With thee fed and bed
more often than me
With me at times, only offered
Just a wee bit of butter on old bread

Stay in your own big little yard
With green grass, as all and me
Know really, in fact, it is not
Greener over there, until we all
Reach the wilder, other side

Water, board, and room are really
Nearly all free, to partially quench,
unquenched thirst, to still roam
Just stay always, with your
Lovely *****, at your sweet home

©  2017 Jim Davis
Don't get offended
I use the word *****
almost everyday
294 · Aug 2019
Youth Fountain (10w)
Jim Davis Aug 2019
Looking to cure my early onset of old age!  Anyone?...

©  2019 Jim Davis
294 · Jul 2018
Untitled
Jim Davis Jul 2018
Asleep or awake

You are in all of my dreams

Nightmares without you

©  2017 Jim Davis
293 · Dec 2017
Leaf Life
Jim Davis Dec 2017
At very first breath only
just a tiny green wee bud
Spreading out a bit bigger
Springing into love of life
Developing strong backbone
Hot sap coursing thru veins
Watching flowers of course
Doing it with bees and such
Growing through radiant sun
Living good should never end
Rustling bright in chilled wind
Sludging sap goes to slow
At those beautiful final moments
Glowing in a radiant splendor
Letting go of known anchor
Before spinning down in air
Joined again to earth’s dust
Waiting upon next to come


©  2017 Jim Davis
293 · Jun 2017
Dream Sack
Jim Davis Jun 2017
Is my greatest nemesis
He or she or they
Or someone
Known all too well
As only me

Me not taking
Dreams to true
As easily could
If not for me
Holding them trapped

Dreams carried
As creatures
In a little sack
Glowing bright
With drawstrings
Pulled tight

Dreams given
only to me
By the one above
Hung round the neck
Carried year after year

Heavy as millstones
Pulling one down
To the depths in despair
If only thrown far and free
Would take flight to reality

Dreams brought to being
Formed to true
In the time left
Minute by minute
From raindrops of do

Tear open the sack
Throw the dreams far
Taking me with them
To those places of happy
Waiting patiently for me

©  2016 Jim Davis
291 · Jun 2017
Fragile
Jim Davis Jun 2017
My heart
She carries
Given to hold
Quite a long time ago
Holding all that I have
With all of it's woes
Hoping she will never trip
Over a thing in life
And spill all, plus
My woe in her hands
Breaking my heart
Into fallen little
shattered pieces
With all it's woes
Yet left to live!  

©  2017 Jim Davis
285 · May 2017
Serpent's Strike
Jim Davis May 2017
Can one stay serpent's toxic poison
Arisen from words in mind's air
Words said in haste or in hate
Seeping through mind's darkest lairs

Entombed in not ever forgotten
Slashing heart or brain crushing
Life as one left out in the rain
Soggy, wet, miserable, cur soul

How much more in life of suffering
Like millstone hung, dropping deep
Drowning thoughts, ******* all air
Only waiting upon a forgiving word

©  2017 Jim Davis
Psalms 52:4.  "You love any words that destroy, you treacherous tongue!"


James 3:8 (NKJV) But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
284 · May 2017
Want to Dance
Jim Davis May 2017
Take a short dance, in my strong arms tonight
Let's move over there, bit more in moonlight
Now think about the days, which we could rhyme
Discussing more, than bad weather or time

Will we live a charmed life, in cottage hence
Garden surrounding, with white picket fence
Bouncing kids with their dogs,  playing all day
Within sun, with sprinkler's yard wide cool spray

Will we grace, our kids in names simple like
Bob or Sue or such, maybe even Mike
Our dogs and cats called, as Spot, or Rover
Or Kitty, to see romping sweet clover

Will we hang our hopes, on the moon's high blue
Take leaps of love, forever as love true
Seeing heaven's path, in each other's eyes
Giving in soul, without living in lies

Will your protecting, soul angels alight
To also watch, and guide my darkest  night
Will they fill with loving grace, my lost heart
Holding it all, as yours, never to part

Will we trust to fall, at sun's fading light
Into each other's arms, to say good night
Will we wake up, to each other's alive
Hoping on hope, the other cannot die

Will we love to forever, in sweet long dreams
Will we escape dark pits, hardly in screams
Will we carry baggage, lighter than mice
Will we soar our world, in bliss, maybe twice

Passing grand beauty views, sights seen by few
None surpassed by sight, of other's sweet view
Eyes as passage, to dreams in each other
Colors of sweet life, lived as none other

If not,
At least,
let us dance,
tonight away

©  2017 Jim Davis
******, Jim! Wrote another one of those decasyllabic quatrain thingies!

Would you believe I said all this to my wife, more than 30 years ago, when I asked her to dance?   Anyway, I must have said something like this, as she kept with me, dancing all our nights away!
283 · Sep 2018
Untitled
Jim Davis Sep 2018
Oh my sweet goodness
Bright sun in Todos Santos
Warm cinnamon rolls

©  2017 Jim Davis
283 · May 2021
Under a Cool Moon
Jim Davis May 2021
How did I finally become
this hideous terrible beast
In the mirror’s reflection I see!  
It’s happened gradually I suppose
Without my realization of change
****** to forever live as a beast
Now it may be too late for me
Howling at the moon’s cool light
Lonely for another’s breath of love

©  2021 Jim Davis
282 · Oct 2019
Hello Goodbye
Jim Davis Oct 2019
Heard that big C word today
Didn’t realize how really big it was
But it is.... big....quite big
And it is what it is
Or as said in Spanish
S O C K S
Spelling it out to say
“That’s what it is”
or simply
it is what it is
Anyway...
life took a careening turn
Today...
observing more of life
Trying...
to be more kind to others
Although there are no others
Just me
And it is what it is
Still tearing at life’s flesh
with teeth and claws
Living what life is left
while it’s left...
while it’s left....
live!  

©  2019 Jim Davis
PSA elevated
-I’ll shut up now - already TMI.
LOL.
I recently wrote “The Rising Sun” perhaps with premonition!  We’ll see what happens... we’ll see!

Questioner: How are we to treat others?

Ramana Maharshi: There are no others.
276 · Mar 2017
Love in Time
Jim Davis Mar 2017
There is a blank space
On my heart's wall
With two nails already hung
Waiting for that
Framed painted picture
Of me and you
although yet to come
Of a love found
really true in time

©  2017 Jim Davis
Sometimes real love takes awhile
276 · Jul 2019
My love
Jim Davis Jul 2019
If I were to write
a poem about you
I know how it would start
And can fill in some middle
But how will it end?

©  2019 Jim Davis
Love you
275 · Aug 2018
My Life (6w)
274 · Jan 2018
Chilled haiku
Jim Davis Jan 2018
chilled in Miami
a most unusual time
do egrets shiver

©  2017 Jim Davis
Brrr!
266 · Jul 2017
Untitled
Jim Davis Jul 2017
Leaves swirling on path
Clouds darkening past noon sky
Must seek safe refuge

©  2017 Jim Davis
256 · May 2017
Sweet
Jim Davis May 2017
As winds blowing through
Unless I am a mind's thought
How can I exist

For where would a flower's sweet beauty be, without me to  see

Of course then, as also I think

Where would sweet me be without
Flower's sweet beauty to see

Could also so easily say

Where would sweet me be without
All your sweet beauty to see

©  2017 Jim Davis
From Wikipedia -   Waka. Waka, Japanese poetry, specifically the court poetry of the 6th to the 14th century, including such forms as the chōka and sedōka, in contrast to such later forms as renga, haikai, and haiku. The term waka also is used, however, as a synonym for tanka (“short poem”), which is the basic form of Japanese poetry.
254 · May 2019
Ouch (10w)
Jim Davis May 2019
Look at that there!  
Wow!  a witticism!
Ouch... it bites!

©  2019 Jim Davis
Or coulda said a “sally”. But who knows what a sally really is?  ,
252 · Jun 2017
Love's Remains
Jim Davis Jun 2017
Spend special moments with anyone
Moments in love, yet not lasting
Always mystery, since so hard to tell
How long the love lasts, till it ends

Like a bleached skeleton with skin
On the beach in the blowing wind
Found and seen again and again
Stumbled over again and again

Like batter left in the mixing bowl
Or crumbs from the buttered toast
Or that juice on the dinner's plate
Left from the very tasty chuck roast

Dregs of love, not worth a save
Clinging to the innocent mind
Yet, unable to clean and start
In a fresh race for new love

The misery still not yet all known
overflowing the soul in dark despair
The awakening in the hated moment
Wishing for more to die than love

©  2017 Jim Davis
248 · Feb 2017
Possibility
Jim Davis Feb 2017
A place on the Blanco
would be his
strawberries and cream
A no worries place
with caretakers
as nature and time

A place with
thicket and tumble
where creatures,
including him
can hide from
this world's ruckus

A place for rest
from endurance
and facing the fear
of a world of crazy
although crazy in a
good way too

A place where he
could watch the
tiniest little birds
learning to name them
other than
tiniest little birds

A place where
he would do
none wrong
yet take no ****
A place with
clear firing lanes

A place where
Love flows like water
and hate infuses none
A place where dogs
and cats never tussle
and children run to laugh

A place of peace and calm
A place of rest and dreams
A place and a thought
to dwell upon
and imagine
all the possibility

© 2017 Jim Davis
244 · Nov 2017
Why a poem
Jim Davis Nov 2017
Why write
A line
A verse
A poem

To live
Another minute
To find
My answers

To
My questions
About why
It is

What it is
And although
May not change
Gives me

Some small
Comfort in
A written
Thought

Not done really
For others
But mostly
for me

©  2017 Jim Davis
242 · Aug 2020
Whispers (5w)
Jim Davis Aug 2020
Listen...to your inside voice

©  2019 Jim Davis
238 · Oct 2023
Hellenistic
Jim Davis Oct 2023
We touched antiquities...
as relics in memories...
in poetically sorrowful times...
gobbling...
Thessaloniki, Kalabaka, Patka, Mykonos, Delos, Santorini climes
Stood whereon Paul preached...
Phillip's Alexander lived to die...
far before Lord Byron romanticized
Ferried blue and white seas...
flapping blues and whites in skies
Prowled upon Holstein grounds...
amongst surreal beings, windmills, cats, drifting sails and olive pounds
Whilst grasping threads of life...
with love's memories...
losing all to time

©  2023 Jim Davis
Continuing my poem "Touching" with a trip to Greece
236 · Jun 2017
Quicksand Haiku
Jim Davis Jun 2017
Flailing in quicksand
As heart sinks, ever since his
bride left, with cold feet

©  2017 Jim Davis
True story!  My daughter changed her mind last year on Friday, about the altar on that Saturday!
Ex-fiancé is OK, flailing on, as us all!
234 · Mar 2017
The Spark of the Soul
Jim Davis Mar 2017
The spark of the soul
The shine of the eye
The twinkle known
The rainbow in the storm

Young and bold
Old and cold
Matters not
All infused
With the nectar
of vital force

Eventually,
at the last
and final end

Quickly
Snuffed as a candle

Or slowly
smoldering as a coal

The breath of life goes

With all gone
Only the spark left to rise

© 2016 Jim Davis
233 · Aug 2019
Believe
Jim Davis Aug 2019
Slake my thirst for you
Allay my fears
Assuage the nightmares
Of you not here
Shatter my reality
Over and over again
With your simple
Presence and touch
To know you are really real

©  2019 Jim Davis
231 · Aug 2018
Bad Poetry
Jim Davis Aug 2018
What do you
Do to live
To live
My dear
I try to
Write
Bad poetry
What do you
Do to live

©  2017 Jim Davis
live poetry write bad
229 · Aug 2019
Slaughterhouse
Jim Davis Aug 2019
Slipping my hand away
from her soft shoulder
with an eviscerating stare
she used her tongue
as she flayed and filleted me
cutting sinew, bone, flesh
all my feelings alike
words slicing through
splitting my dry carcass
bursting open my soft heart
spilling sweet love’s blood
on the cold sawdust floor

©  2019 Jim Davis
229 · Mar 2017
Untitled
Jim Davis Mar 2017
Still all in the fight
Teeth raking at flesh and bone
Vultures soaring wait

© 2017 Jim Davis
My second haiku, all I have for now until, a black swan awakes
226 · Apr 2017
One (3w)
Jim Davis Apr 2017
Can one imagine

....
Prompted by news article today; "Astronomers have now identified 52 potentially habitable planets and more than 3600 planets outside our solar system."  Maybe we are not just one in umpteen gazillion?

©  2017 Jim Davis
Submitted for HP theme today poem for future me  #npmfuture
224 · Oct 2019
Hello There
Jim Davis Oct 2019
Hi
may I
have your heart
you could have mine
if such was so... then we might never part

©  2019 Jim Davis
My first tetractys poem!   Thanks annh for the introduction to this poetry form!  

From Wikipedia:
“In English-language poetry, a tetractys is a syllable-counting form with five lines. The first line has one syllable, the second has two syllables, the third line has three syllables, the fourth line has four syllables, and the fifth line has ten syllables.[13]”

The tetractys was created by Ray Stebbing, who said the following about his newly created form:

"The tetractys could be Britain's answer to the haiku. Its challenge is to express a complete thought, profound or comic, witty or wise, within the narrow compass of twenty syllables.[14]
223 · Sep 2017
Vicious
Jim Davis Sep 2017
Words flung as daggers
Flying through space
Flpping end over end
Stabbing deep in the heart
Wounding to near death
Killing sweet breath of Love

©  2017 Jim Davis
222 · Jan 2020
Heartbeat (5w)
Jim Davis Jan 2020
My heart beats... for you

©  2020 Jim Davis
221 · Apr 2019
Untitled
Jim Davis Apr 2019
That dead to the world feeling
(while still impatiently alive)

Not knowing what terrible beast comes
Slipping out from the ebon blackness

Wandering life, hoping  to find a small light
Only more darkness seen in eager search
Let there be light, Oh, Let there be light,
Please let there be light

©  2019 Jim Davis
My first attempt at a cherita (thanks Leara Nicole Morris-Clark) - yes, I know it is a dark story, but darkness so well captures my feelings right now!  Let there be light! Please!
219 · Jun 2018
Non Sense
Jim Davis Jun 2018
When could I next hear
The bird's quietness
The wind's rolling
The thunder's boom
The rain's drops

When will I ever again see
The dewdrop's glisten
The grass's green
The sunlight's beam
The flower's preen

How much longer until I smell
The rose's aroma
The perfume's bouquet
The forest's dampness
The first day of May

How many more times will I feel
The touch's tenderness
The cold's bitterness
The water's wetness
The dragon's armor

When is my next time to taste
The whiskey's bite
The meat's blood
The kisses' sweetness
The color of blue

When will I again
Sense your love and
Believe it?
As well as I believed
Those other things

©  2017 Jim Davis
214 · Mar 2017
Stop of the Heart
Jim Davis Mar 2017
My heart stops
In my throat
How is this
Possible
I ask
Not believing

The moment
Has struck
The eyes
Give me
A pathway
To my own soul

She stands there
Not perceiving
Only later
Does she confirm
She may have
a stopped heart also.  

© 2016 Jim Davis
Fourth poem for my love of 3 decades!
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