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873 · Oct 2016
The Death Room
LD Goodwin Oct 2016
Into the death room I was led.

Where nature's last sparks of electricity
pulse through a familiar body,
barely stimulating a heart to pump blood
through frail and ag'ed  mottled skin.

Where light behind once azure eyes
slowly dim to opaque blue.
Eyes open, but not seeing,
ears hearing, but unable to respond.

Dentureless mouth agape,
taking almost mechanical shallow bursts of breath
in marionette fashion,
as if strings pulling bony shoulders sharply up and slowly down
were methodically, dramatically, skillfully manipulated
by a hand unseen.

Sunken face reveals the hidden shape of the skull within.
Smooth, silky flesh
stretched o're an unfamiliar, emotionless, flicking gaze.

No incoherent moaning today,
no unconscious slowly floating arms,
nor grasping of my fingers to let me know
.....I am still here.

The light switch is being turned off.

In the death room the dash between ones all important dates is born. Mary Elizabeth Fields Goodwin .......Born 7/31/18 - Died 9/17/16
…...like a babe, the dash is delivered.

Was it a full life, this dash?
Was it meaningful?
Was it loving, giving, humble?
Did this one get to do all that it wanted?
Did it finally arrive at where it had hoped it would be?

Or was it filled with regret and remorse,
or hatred, pain and sorrow?
The death room puts it all into perspective.

It was a life.....
It was a life lived.......that is all.
Nothing can be added or taken away.
Nothing was ever missing, broken, or damaged.

Who would dispute this in the death room with its finality?
Its silence,
its soul-less body that had never been perfectly still in over 98 years?  

This life that lived exactly the amount of time that it lived.
A leaf in Autumn, spiraling slowly to the ground,
with no parade, no fireworks, no angelic chorus,
just a husband of 79 years, a daughter, a son.......

Draw near and say your goodbyes now......
the death room is almost here....

It's all right Mom, it's alright to go now...... We'll be Okay.......
A stroke of the brow,
a last breath.......

Let go of a lifeless hand.......... and the death room is born.


*This poem is for all of you poets who have encouraged me to keep on writing. You know who you are.
10/5/16 Miamisburg, Ohio
863 · Jan 2013
Topsy Turvy World
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
She calls to say she's working late.
Won't make it home til after eight.
He takes the supper off the stove.
Dinner plans will have to wait.

He sits remembering back when
he'd call to say "I'll be late again".
She use to sit alone and cry.
Now he knows the reasons why.
It's a topsy turvy world.

Hugs her when she walks through the door.
Because that's what "good wives" are for.
Over done dinner by candle light,
like a "good husband" she asks for more.

She falls asleep in the easy chair,
like "good husbands" everywhere.
He does the dishes, sweeps the floor,
says "we don't talk much anymore
in our topsy turvy world".

Being good husbands and wives,
careing for each others lives.
Doing what needs to be done,
getting their loving on the run.
It's a topsy turvy world.
Harrogate, TN  2006
LD Goodwin Apr 2013
Wisdom came in fairy tales
a moonlit wonderland.
So young was I and unaware
of what was in my hand.

What gifts were these I did not know,
till many years had past.
Those childhood rhymes that led me here,
to find my song at last.

Years and tears and caustic words
as parents learned to fight.
I penned my fears and questions down
alone by candlelight.

And heard answers blowin' in the wind
incense, such sweet repast.
Awakened the soul asleep inside,
to find my song at last.

Thinking I was on my way
as young men often do,
I left behind a trail of dreams
forgetting what I knew.

But when she left without a sound,
a hard role had been cast.
Forced to play, I found a way,
to find my song at last.

And now I'm gray and fears are new
and age is in my eyes.
On death and time and dying,
my mind spins it's dark lies.

Remembering the moon light,
a solace from my past.
I can rest, no longer chained,
I've found my song at last.
Harrogate, TN  April  2013
856 · Mar 2016
The Dying Place
LD Goodwin Mar 2016
I look at it with different eyes now,
and see it for what it truly is.
A dying place.

To leave ones house, ones home,
leave a life out there in the living place,
never to return.
To squeeze out a space and settle into dying.

There's the constant stench of stale ***** and constipated excrement.
The unconscious moans of the unfortunate discarded souls,
those “I don't know what else to do with him” bundles of flesh
that lay fetal on their last beds.

The aged, fully cognizant eyes,
staring at too loud plasma screens,
incapable of fulfilling their dreams.
Locked in a body
too decrepit to live,
too alive to die.

Do I say hello? Or rudely say “how are you today?”
I walk the halls and feel so out of place
for I..... can leave,
I can ride my bike with the wind on my face,
I can live free in my living place.
They glance at me as I walk by as if to say,
your day will come,
my dying space here in this dying place
will be yours someday.

I no longer hear the moans now,
they have melded with the disinfectant,
Wheel of Fortune, chicken *** pie,
squeaking wheelchairs in the hall.
I have become a member of this dying place,
I am the free one from the living place,
the one that visits his 97 year old Mother
with the broken hip.....
*Last week my 97 year old Dad placed his wife in a "nursing home".
854 · Oct 2017
Thank You For Listening
LD Goodwin Oct 2017
Do I escape here
To my cave
My therapist
My priest
An ear
Does anyone hear
Listen
Care

Is it just minutia
words that get moved around the page
like dust bunnies swirling in the noonday sun
why do I want you to know what goes on in here
inside this cerebral mass
why do I want you to witness the excising of my existence
the vomiting
purging
lancing of these boils
the expressing of **** glands
emptying the dark places
only to fill them up again

I have always wanted to write down my feelings
what I see......emphasis on “I”
I always have felt that I see it differently than you
Not egotistically speaking,
but that I see it the way this mass of cells called Larry sees it

Hello
It is me in here
The one speaking to you now
And if you are reading this
Thank you for listening
I arose early......this is what you get.
852 · Oct 2017
Dying at Home (a Blitz)
LD Goodwin Oct 2017
Dad is home
Dad is old
Old and living
Old and dying
Dying alone
Dying free
Free to be
Free at peace
Peace is work
Peace is hard
Hard to walk
Hard to hear
Hear the TV
Hear the groans
Groans of pain
Groans of time
Time won't stop
Time speeds up
Up at 6
Up and moving
Moving bowels
Moving chores
Chores don't stop
Chores keep strength
Strength to move
Strength to prove
Prove you can
Prove you're a man
Man must live
Man must die
Die someway
Die someday
Someday will come
Someday Sister calls
Calls about Dad
Calls on the phone
Phone calls me
Phone from Dad
Dad eats oatmeal
Dad plays poker
Poker is fun
Poker is life
Life is fleeting
Life is dying
Dying alone
Dying at home
Home....
Dying....
*My Father will soon be 99 years old. He lives in his home and for the most part takes care of himself. He cooks, cleans, shops, does his chores, and plays poker.*
850 · Feb 2013
The Suchness (an A to Z)
LD Goodwin Feb 2013
A soft snow fell today
burying the Fall,
causing the deer mice to scurry.
Darting, and dashing,
eluding Yoji,
Feline King.
Gone are the dizzy days of Summer,
here are the days of reflection.
Introspection that's Winter's job.
Judging me, preparing me,
"keep up Larry", the Winter says.
"Let us temper ourselves for another year."
My Parents are both 95 now,
95 Winters have they.
Of keeping up, they are Masters.
Planning each hour of the day,
quality time is all they have.
Resistance is futile.
So, like the Seasons, I must change.
Taking off the clothes of one,
understand to die with each breath is to live.
Vowing to accept the suchness,
welcoming the unique events in my life.
Xeroxed, I think not.
Yesteryears' regrets and tomorrow's fears are insane.
Zealous am I about this moment.
Harrogate, TN 2013
My first A to Z poem.  Inspired by my fellow poets here at HP.
846 · Dec 2014
It's Time To Go
LD Goodwin Dec 2014
And now you know the truth
my little one.
Of untold secrets,
on the wind

The omnipresent being
you have become
all too soon,
to begin again.

I do not see the souls
of creatures small
as any less
than you or I,

though my innocence
lost time and time ago,
theirs is sleeping still
'neath the noon day sun

Though they feel the pain,
they know not its name
yet know it's time to go.
Harrogate, TN
834 · Jan 2013
Evolution
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
I may never know the reasons of the storm that passed my way.
Or the multitude of questions that lay at bay.
They await to pounce upon me like jungle cats at night,
while the din of distant drumming tests my might.

Ever now and then I get a glimpse of who I am,
and I feel myself evolving into man.
Amid the single bars and credit cards and reaching for the ring,
I close my eyes and realize I'm here to do one thing........ I'm here to sing.

I'm strung out on evaluation of what my life is worth,
and struggle with the narrow distance between death and birth.
They say love is never wasted, words so easily said,
so why is this empty feeling, still laying in my bed?

Hurry Darwin, hurry. I need a double dose of time.
To quickly re-arrange these chromosomes , to make me more the prime.
Selectors and Breeders are really all we are.
Evolvers;  Some will still be cheaters, and some will still set the bar.
Ft. Walton Beach, FL  1992
784 · Feb 2017
I Get Lost In You
LD Goodwin Feb 2017
I get lost in you
your dreams imbue
my mind
like flower and sun
we become as one
entwined
they ne'er cease to give
in my heart they live
divine
760 · Apr 2013
Spring Haiku #2
LD Goodwin Apr 2013
Spring Honeysuckle
Pink and White Apple Blossoms
Explode in the Sun!
Harrogate, TN  Spring 2013
750 · Apr 2013
for George
LD Goodwin Apr 2013
I'll be drinkin' white lightning tonight,
alone with my guitar.
tryin' to remember all the words.


*For George Jones Born: September 12, 1931, Saratoga
Died: April 26, 2013

The Window Up Above  
Songwriter: George Jones

I've been living a new way
Of life that I love so
But I can see the clouds are gath'ring
And the storm will wreck our home
For last night he held you tightly
And you didn't even shove
This is true for I've been watching
From the window up above

You must have thought that I was sleeping
And I wish that I had been
But I guess it's best to know you
And the way your heart can sin

I thought we belonged together
And our hearts fit like a glove
I was wrong for I've been watching
From the window up above

From my eyes the teardrops started
As I listened on and on
I heard you whisper to him softly
That our marriage was all wrong

But I hope he makes you happy
And you will never lose his love
I was wrong, I was watching
From the window up above

How I wish I could be dreaming
And wake up to an honest love
I was wrong for I was watching
From the window up above...
Harrogate, TN April 26, 2013
726 · Apr 2013
Virgins (a Dodoitsu)
LD Goodwin Apr 2013
Flesh entering other flesh,
is it all about nature?
Hearts need entering as well,
both virgins at birth.
Harrogate, TN  April 2013
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
There's a string of lonely telephone wires stretchin' for a hundred miles or so.
A hawk in a tree, looking down at me, he says that It's time to go.
And each little town that I'd pass through, fighting my way back home,
reminded me of what the cookie read, "Don't let your dreams turn to stone"

Now the waitress has a smile like she's from heaven, but it touches a devil in my soul.
There ain't nothin' you can do at thirty-seven, but keep singin' and hope you never grow old.
Time is a lie; you're here 'till you die. All you own is only on loan.
What else is there to do, but to get yourself through, and don't let your dreams turn to stone.

And if the errors of the past are all that you see when you close your eyes at night,
then hopeless and empty will another day be when you open your eyes come daylight.
And if you look around, and contentment is found amid the seeds you have sown,
then soon you'll find that come harvest time.......... your dreams have turned to stone.

Well, I'm followin' my heart down this long highway,  of gettin' off; I don't stand a chance.
Even if you don't want to face the music, you still gotta learn to dance.
My heart has the power. My soul has the wheel. It's takin' this body back home.
There's a sign up ahead and the words that it read were,  don't let your dreams turn to stone.

*Keokuk, IA   1986
706 · Apr 2013
A Meditation
LD Goodwin Apr 2013
Move the stone, change the universe.
Leave the stone, change the universe.
Witness the universe, change the universe.

*And you thought you weren't important.
Harrogate, TN    April 2013
702 · Aug 2013
The Space Between
LD Goodwin Aug 2013
I walk these streets of pain,
through their darkness, in the rain.
And vow to ne'er again,
let them define me.

As my soles touch the ground,
and I carry what I've found,
and cry without a sound,
"put the behind me".

Listen to the space between,
what is and what has been,
and what I've never seen,
the peace that is me.

I will make mine eyes to gaze,
through the past's lying haze,
into this moments blaze,
the fire within me.
Harrogate, TN 2013
694 · Jun 2014
Bittersweet
LD Goodwin Jun 2014
She was thin and svelte,
And when I held her, a perfect fit.
I’d caressed her face,
and she knew me.
My fingers found her every button…..and I could turn her on.

But alas,
she is like a fragile flower behind glass.
I have locked her in a dungeon,
safe from harm.

She wears armor like a medieval knight.
and has become an urban soldier.
Though still steadfastly by my side,
she has grown cold,
uniform,
vanilla…..
a number.

But sometimes late at night,
when they are not watching,
while the cruel and shattering world sleeps,
I slowly undress her,
take of her skirt of mail,
and in the fully charged glow of togetherness,
we are once again,
one.

*Uninspired after enclosing my new Galaxy s5 in an Otterbox.
Midd;esboro, KY June 2014
678 · Mar 2013
Jazz (Tanka)
LD Goodwin Mar 2013
Blue and green notes play,
while sanguineous poppies
make their milky muse.
Nicotine stained keys tremble,
awaiting to catch a note.
Harrogate, TN March 2013
669 · Jun 2014
Words
LD Goodwin Jun 2014
The caves of childhood dank and gray,
hickory musk linger on their walls.
I hid there..... from words.

Words of a worn out relationship,
too tired to leave,
they wore each other down to a nib of a human.

What hell it must have been
to squeeze out a drop of peace from each day,
knowing there would be more words,
and another attritive tomorrow.

Meaningless rantings echo still,
stinging and bighting at my heart.
Words,  petrified me.

I do not want to follow them.
I want to seal the caves,
dynamite the portholes,
never to return to the words.
How so, these many years,
I find my solace in words?
But my words, are my words.
They do not berate, or demean,
for I watch them like children
crossing a busy road.
I place them on the page
with care and respect,
yet I know not from where they came.
These words that save me,
words that raise me,
words that knead me, into me.
Middlesboro, KY June 2014
LD Goodwin Feb 2017
I write the wind that blows today
wind that chills me to the marrow
It's furry takes my breath away
brings fear of my tomorrow

What power o're this wind to slay
none that I can see
I write the wind that blows today
that's all that's left for me
*Sorry, feeling powerless tonight*
Harrogate, TN
661 · Jan 2013
Fantasies and Fairy Tales
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
She took away the painted ponies from my carousel,
and the stars that shone above.
She took away the fantasies and fairy tales,
she took away the songs of love.

She left me on an island made of memories,
taste and touch and scent and sound.
Four-thousand, six-hundred some odd yesterdays,
to be some lover's hand me down.

Autumn leaves falling on a rainy day.
No marching band, no circus tents.
She took away the joy of spontaneity,
and left behind a lack of confidence.

Four-thousand, six-hundred some odd yesterdays,
sacred words, golden rings.
Girl in white, a man is blue,
because you took too many things.

And if you listen you can hear my heart a healing.
Running, changing, growing, dreaming, spinning, reeling.
Talking to the wind.
Waiting for a friend
to dance with me until the end comes stealing,
comes stealing.
Ft. Walton Beach, FL  1990
659 · Mar 2013
Veins Of A Stone
LD Goodwin Mar 2013
Early in Spring
before Mountain Laurel bloom,
when the greyness of Winter
won't give up Her gloom.
I too can't let go
of our broken tune,
for now I will sing it alone,
now I will sing it alone.

Clouds swirl and open,
niveous rays of light stream down.
Like God's omnipotent vision
upon this unfamiliar ground.
And where on earth
is love lost or found,
or was it ever here at all,
was it ever here at all?

Sitting by the singing stream
that use to laugh, that made me dream.
Now I have the veins of a stone,
and can't unsow the seeds we have sown.

Dusk falls upon me
with no promise of dawn.
Peace fills a fern field with the suckling of a fawn.
But the love that I could touch
is now dead and is gone,
and I have no tears left to cry,
I have no tears left to cry.
Harrogate, TN  March 2013  
*Don't worry my fellow poets...... I just needed to write a dark one today.*
654 · Apr 2013
I Am Now
LD Goodwin Apr 2013
I am not Jesus.
I am not Krishna
I am not Allah
I am not Abraham
I am not Buddha
I am me.

I can try to fit it all into their neat little box,
but try is all I can do.
The words I was told to worship,
twisted to fit the day,
misconstrued to fit all time,
have lost their meaning,
turned to myth.
Archaic ideals hold only some truth in this moment.
For do we not judge our present with the eyes of the past?
And so who am I now if not made up from the tattered cloth of time?
I am not dogma.
I am not that.
I am me.
I am now.
I am this very sacred moment.
Filled up, spilling over and pouring down into my shoes.
Harrogate, TN    April  2013
651 · May 2014
"Ox"
LD Goodwin May 2014
To this world he is an oaf,
an idiot,
a simpleton.
Towering over the crowd,
his clubbed foot shuffling through the mall,
bottom lip drooping,
maybe with a drip of unaware drool.
His clean, and at one time,
neatly pressed attire
now disheveled, unmatched.
It tells us that someone cares for him,
yet they give him his much needed sense of pride.
He greets you,
and though you do not comprehend a word from his oversized head, you understand perfectly that he is humbled in your presence.
There is a smile hidden on that face though.
Not the blank smile of an imbecile,
but the constant grin of a truly happy man.
A man not of this world,
but of a world void of care and worry.
  His feeble mind was not born with the integrated chip of despair,
or infected by someone else’s insanities,
it was and will be until his death,
filled with loving words,
positive and uplifting prayers,
and nonsensical songs of long ago.
For this man is not alone in this cruel world,
this place of daily criticism.
No,
he has a Mother,
and her kind and loving face will be there in the morning,
and she will be the last voice he hears as she tucks him in at nightfall. A Mother that bore him,
and though she took not an oath,
will be the one with him
when he takes his last breath.  

Happy Mother's Day

*Inspired by "Ox" and his Mother I met today at the Mall
Middlesboro, KY May 1, 2014
622 · Apr 2013
For Boston
LD Goodwin Apr 2013
I have no words,
but words are all I have.
I have tears,
but they are not enough.
I have wisdom,
but my timing would be off.
I have a heaviness inside,
and know that others do also.
I don't pray anymore,
but I'll try to tonight.

*Whoever you are that did this, you don't impress me.
Impress me with peace.
Harrogate, TN  4/15/13  11:32pm
617 · Feb 2013
Summer Haiku
LD Goodwin Feb 2013
Summer bicycle
so unaware of the earth
spinning neath it's wheels.
Harrogate, TN    January 2013
LD Goodwin Feb 2017
I will not bend, my heart is true
and I will not kowtow to you
I do not fear your will on me
I am the might of one you see

I'm not alone nor have I been
truth holds us fast from your dark sin
and so wave not your flag at thee
I am the might of one you see

So turn your words around and 'round
till down is up and up is down
mine eye will not its gaze be free
I am the might of one you see

a day will come our voice will roar
your thrown will fall, your voice no more
unmasked and all alone you'll be
I am the might of one you see
*Kyrielle originated from troubadour poetry, and is often religious. (Not this one).
Typically written in quatrains with rhyming couplets... in this pattern... aabB ccbB ddbB eebB etc. Typically written in iambic tetrameter.*
587 · Dec 2015
Vignettes #1
LD Goodwin Dec 2015
1.
I raked my fingers
'cross half slept slits
to peek at yet another rising
Moon gone, stars faded
and proof that I am once again
to live another day.

2.
Trillion year old orb you,
to shed your beams on this dash
the dash that is my life
the dash that separates my birth from my death
I am just a thought
flesh here now, and wind tomorrow

3.
Cold nose greetings
tails a waggin'
eyes a fixed
round yodel of contentment
whole body undulations
pure excitement.
And in a moment
total trust
head in my lap
eyes closed, dreaming of rabbits
paws twitching
running, chasing

4.
And with the sun comes the day
to wash away what went before
although I know I have today
….....how many more, how many more?
Harrogate, TN
December 16, 2015
581 · Jan 2013
There Will Be Spring
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
Come, take my hand.
I know you think this is the end.
My sad, but wiser friend,
love will find you once again..........

You will have heartache, you will have pain.
And think the sun won't rise again.
But flowers bloom from Winter's sting.........There will be Spring.

The sleepless nights, the hazy days.
The emptiness that stays and stays.
One magic moment, your heart will sing.......There will be Spring.

I know these things to be true
for I've lost love much like you.
That is why you can rely on what I say.

There'll come a day when skies are blue,
no longer lost, love will find you.
One magic moment your heart will sing.........There will be Spring.

And when the tulips, are in bloom,
heartaches turn memories, and none too soon.
Maybe there'll be, someone like me.........There will be Spring.
Harrogate, TN  2005
579 · Dec 2015
Atypical
LD Goodwin Dec 2015
These are my eyes
they see only what I see.
My red is my red, blue, blue
My vision of God, my feelings of love.
My thoughts, atypical, unique.
It is not that I wished it this way,
it is as it always has been.
There has never been anyone like me,
and there never will be.
I can't help being me,
I don't do it on purpose.
If you asked me “Do you believe in God?”
I would have to reply, “In order to answer that question honestly,
I would have to know what your rendition of God was, completely, and I don't think that is possible. ”
And so it goes,
one person looking through their own tiny little holes
at their own world, thinking that others see it the same way they do.  
Though we think it is the same, it can not be.
It is in that thought that I find Power.
In the uniqueness of being.
Together we make up a whole.
Some parts at peace and healthy,
some ridden with the cancer of hate and revenge, misled by ancient beliefs,
and yet it is there that I find my purpose for being here.
In the power of just being here.
To witness myself in this fleshy body, and in the collective body as well.
LD Goodwin Jan 2017
Verse I
I am the tired, I am the poor
one among the huddled, yearning
where's the lamp beside your golden door
alas it's made only of gold now

No asylum for me within,
the thunder of walls are forming
I foresee the stench of émigré camps
and gates sadly, slowly closing now

Verse II
once again it's common place,
for a people to live in persecution
driven out, and locked within
these once hallowed halls

you turn your hearts, bury your heads
and call it retribution
your gates will rust and they will cease
by the guise of your ******* up laws

Chorus
Who will be the one
when your judgment day is done
who says yea or nay
who will wield that gavel

Who will turn the key
and darken a land once free
like Jesus to the cross
or Barabbas to the rabble

Verse III
I am the wretched from distant shores
tempest-tossed and dying
now you are locked behind your doors
no longer free and brave

maybe someday when seasons turn
and yours is the soul that's crying
perhaps I'll be the one who'll spurn
and send you to your grave

Chorus
Who will be the one
when your judgment day is done
who says yea or nay
who will wield that gavel

Who will turn the key
and darken a land once free
like Jesus to the cross
or Barabbas to the rabble
Harrogate, Tn 1/30/17
577 · Apr 2014
Going, Going, Gone
LD Goodwin Apr 2014
He never thought that she would leave him,
it never crossed his mind.
He thought forever, meant forever,
until the end of time.

How could love that felt so right,
turn out to be so wrong?
She's like the setting sun, when the day is done,
it's going, going, gone.

He pours another shot of whiskey,
tells himself that he won't cry.
But he knows he's much too sober,
to believe that lie.

Had his last drop of courage,
just before the dawn.
Like the setting sun, when the day is done,
it's going, going, gone.

Now she is nothing but a memory,
he's like an empty shell.
Searching for heaven in a bottle,
slowly dying in his hell.

There are no other verses,
to this sad love song.
Like the setting sun, when the day is done,
it's going, going, gone.
Harrogate, TN June 6, 2012
574 · Jan 2013
The Human Race
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
I have wandered down this lonely path for 13,00 days,
searching 13,000 ways for something divine.
With one eye on the sunrise, the other on sunset,
hoping for the prize they said would be mine.

I have tried to be the singer, when I should have been the song.
I have tried to fight a river full of rage.
Looking for an island in a world I don't belong,
trying just to run the human race.

Running like a fool through fields of dreams,
I trip and fall upon the truth.
Posing as a player in some childish game
I learned of in my youth.

I have challenged Love and Passion, surrendered to It's sword,
while the blood of my soul poured to the ground.
Pledged allegiance to the Father Son and Holy Ghost,
awaiting for It's host to show me around.

I have tried to please the masses, when I should have pleased myself.
Feared a reaper though I'd never seen It's face.
And all the while a voice inside of me kept chanting on,
you must try to win the human race.

I have wandered down this lonely path, for 13,000 days,
searching 13,000 ways for something divine.
Believing that I know the way, I run the human race,
but no one truly knows what they will find.
Garden City, KS  1987
573 · Dec 2014
For Mr. Williams
LD Goodwin Dec 2014
Strike the tents, the circus is over.
The sad clown has put his faces to bed
No more wild and silly laughter,
No more voices in his head.
Robin Williams   7/21/51- 8/11/14
LD Goodwin Feb 2016
She took her dreams to the ocean
to walk among the sand and foam
to rake away the sleep from her eyes
to role away the stone

Shedding clothes that fit no more
the chains they forced to wear
she breathes the freshness freedom brings
she breathes the salty air

No selfishness in this change
no running from, or to
one must surrender to the wind
do what it whispers do

enlightened now, she feels the sun
and worships every rise
needing naught, from dusk til dawn
til time must close her eyes.
For my Sister Wanda.........
570 · Jan 2013
Ain't It About Time?
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
Hungry for love
Starving for truth
Awaiting to be wanted
Searching for proof
Tossing the pebbles, watching the ripples run.

Open my heart
To someone's trust
Trying not to be dazzled
By a last chance for lust
Dispelling the myth that someone always ends up hurting someone.

Ain't it about time we learned how to live together?
Ain't it about time we carried each others heart?
I think that it's a crime not giving each other the gifts we were meant to give.
If love is all we need, ain't it about time we start?

Leaving old baggage
By the side of the road
Streamlining hearts
Lightening our load
Remembering to forget what we did not want to learn.

Looking for signs
Thinking we know
Planting the seeds
Hoping they'll grow
Blindly we watch, impatiently awaiting our turn.
Ft. Walton Beach, FL   1990
566 · Feb 2013
Coffee With Wally
LD Goodwin Feb 2013
Coffee with Wally,
someone who truly gets me.
No cream, no sugar.
Harrogate,TN  February 2013
*For my dear friend Wally*
566 · May 2014
For Maya
LD Goodwin May 2014
Putting the pieces of my life together,
a puzzle unfolds with every breath.
Where am I going to?
Where do I belong?
I belong here,
I belong in this moment.
Here is where I am needed.
With the hells of my past to guide my love filled heart,
I will right the wrongs of this prejudiced world.
No longer silent, I will speak out against the injustices of this society.
I am colorblind, I am statusblind, I am genderblind.
I will dance, and sing, and scrawl the truth on poet's paper.
I will wear the coats of all colors,
and I will be big.
Bigger than the events in my life.


*Maya  Angelou  
Born 4/4/1928  Died 5/28/2014
Poet, civil rights activist, dancer, film producer, television producer, playwright, film director, author, actress, professor
Miamisburg, Ohio May 28, 2014
552 · Feb 2013
Autumn Hiaku
LD Goodwin Feb 2013
Memorie's incense,
the burning of Autumn leaves.
I am home again.
Harrogate,TN   February 2013
541 · Dec 2013
She is Leaving
LD Goodwin Dec 2013
She is leaving,
leaving things behind,
they are just things she says.

                  She is leaving,
                  had enough silence,
                  deafening silence she says.

                                    She is leaving,
                                    and he won't know it,
                                    he doesn't even know she's already gone.

                                                          ­          She is leaving,
                                                        ­             starting over anew,
                                                           ­          to sleep alone, but sleep she will.

                                                          ­                                        She is leaving,
                                                                ­                                  naked to the sun,
                                                                ­                                  to be what she wants to be.

                                                            ­                                                                 ­                       She is gone......

*.........for a friend.........
Harrogate, TN  July 2013
530 · Mar 2013
Footprint (a Senryu )
LD Goodwin Mar 2013
When we are ashes,
it will be too late to learn.
We can't possess earth.
Harrogate, TN   March 2013
Senryu - A three-line unrhymed Japanese poetic form structurally similar to the haiku, but dealing with human rather than physical nature, usually in an ironic or satiric vein.
529 · Jan 2013
Life's Bitter Wine
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
Hard rain's a fallin', chillin' me to my bones.
Heart dark and black as Kentucky coal.
And there's just one sip left, of life's bitter wine

Come up a steep grade, something's on the other side.
All I know is to keep on, all I know to do is ride.
And there's just one sip left, of life's bitter wine

And I've been tryin' to lose me on someone elses highway.
Sneak out the back door, hope to get away
from the chains and the fetters of their misguided world.
Ones that they left me......when Daddy was a boy,
and Momma was a girl.

Woke up a sad day, I was all the way down.
Raked the leaves from my eyes, took a good look around....
at that one sip left,
of life's better wine.

Green lights are burnin', burnin' for me now.
Gonna chew my own troubles with an unwrinkled brow.
and wash it down, down, down,
with life's bitter wine.
Cumberland Gap, TN   2007
502 · Jan 2013
Remembering Eden
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
I've been dreaming of stars to guide new love through the night.
I know she walks this earth, though she's nowhere in sight.
It's so hard to believe when you can't see Loves face,
or remember It's kiss, or feel It's embrace.

Once I thought that I'd found where Love made It's home.
But like seeds never planted, she was destined to roam.
Now that's all in the past and I've started anew.
But I've salvaged the truth that Love is always true.

Trusting so true in something we've never seen,
we faithfully follow our hearts ancient dream.
Tasting it's fruit we find that we’re lost.
Remembering Eden, we venture the cost.

I've been dreaming of stars to guide new love through the night.
I know she's looking for me, I hope she sees their light.
And so a vigil I'll keep till she comes into view.
I'll cling to the truth that Love is always true.

I'll cling to the truth that Love is always true.
Ft. Walton Beach, FL   1990  
Thank you Dan Fogelberg, I miss you.   Born: August 13, 1951     Died: December 16, 2007
LD Goodwin Oct 2015
All the ghosts are here tonight
from underneath the bed.
The ones from closets thought forgotten,
the ones within my head.

Harpies sing from hymns unsung,
shadows one step behind.
Spider crawls along my finger,
inspires my troubled mind.

Of darkness I speak, of darkness and doom,
cold blackness all mine alone.
The bones of all that went before,
they weep and sob and moan.

This is my hell, to sort and find
the passage to some light,
but I'm dinning on my flesh you see,
on this All Hallows' Night
Harrogate, TN October 25, 2015
499 · Jan 2013
Illusory Free
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
Though I've seen better days,
today is all I have.
Tomorrow is not mine
till I walk through that door.

With every breath I take
I must let it go.
Today holds only what you choose,
not what you've chosen before.

I use to be afraid,
to take a path unknown.
Born into their faith,
I worshiped in their yesterways.

I judged with outdated eyes,
now useless, dead and blind.
I see no flawed nor broken now,
all clear of that ancient haze.
Harrogate, TN   2005
497 · Jun 2014
She Kissed A Boy Today
LD Goodwin Jun 2014
She kissed a boy today,
and red birds picked at strawberries in the field.
Soft Summer wind tousled her hair,
as his lips touched hers.
“It is so nice to be wanted, desired”, she thought.
Her heart swelled with an almost forgotten rhythm,
but the swaying of the tall grass sounded like the ocean
and she was free again.
Free to feel again.
She kissed a boy today,
and red birds picked at strawberries in the field.
Harrogate, TN June 2014
494 · Jan 2013
little me epiphany
LD Goodwin Jan 2013
I am bigger than the **** that happens in my life.
I use to think I was only as big as the **** that I could do.
Now I see that I am bigger than I can imagine.
And  the moment I fully realized that wisdom,
how big I was, didn't matter anymore,
and that identifying with anything is a lie.
489 · Dec 2015
Andalus 18.
LD Goodwin Dec 2015
Chip away now
remove what need not be
reveal the vision
the shape
the form
the dream
the vision
my vision
my dream
Find what lay beneath “the mechanized hum of another world” (from Third World Man by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen)
this world
the one that I live in

Chip away and tell the tales
rime the rhymes
Hurrah, a poem, a prose, a tinkered set of words
While bombs go off, and shots **** the innocent
while the replacement hormones surge through my veins
I am finally finding a place in between the titrations.

I am alive again. I am here and now
Chipping away with my Andalus font size 18
*titration
      noun ti·tra·tion \tī-ˈtrā-shən\
Definition of TITRATION

:  a method or process of determining the concentration of a dissolved substance in terms of the smallest amount of reagent of known concentration required to bring about a given effect in reaction with a known volume of the test solution*
485 · Apr 2014
Right Here, Right Now
LD Goodwin Apr 2014
I never though I would get this far,
on a dream and a bag of tricks.
A word whispered in my ear,
and some borrowed licks.

I searched and searched for some lasting peace,
when all the time it was here and now.
Hidden in plain sight,
for me to find somehow.

Then I let go of my tug of war,
no more push or pulling anymore.....

I’ve always been right here, right now.
I’ve always been right here, right now.
And I'll always be right here, right now.

My thoughts always got in the way,
incessant voices from the past,
till I heard the silence,
of peace at last.

"Someday-Oneday" would never come,
though I thought it always would,
so I'd rearrange and rearrange
the best I could.

Then I let go of my tug of war,
no more push or pulling anymore.....

I’ve always been right here, right now.
I’ve always been right here, right now.
And I'll always be right here, right now.

*Haven't been writing poetry much lately......kinda dry. I thought my followers would like these song lyrics.
Harrogate, TN March 15, 2014
475 · Jan 2017
The Darkest Knell
LD Goodwin Jan 2017
Clouds blacken o'er podium's farce
avowal mumbled, besmirched, dishonored
a liar's hand aflame upon a book of truth
as jackals cackle in the wings

Clouds darker still in the noonday gloom
the reciting rabble, “what is to become of us all”
this unreal thing set in motion
why must this albatross to wear

In the distance, the tolling, the darkest knell
piercing the wind and rain
to harp upon our ears like shattered glass
while the schoolyard bully smiles
Harrogate, TN 1/19/17
I tried to write a nice poem for our departing POTUS and our First Lady, but this rolled off my tongue.
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