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  Sep 2016 SE Reimer
Austin Bauer
When you're young,
You may write to
Your latest infatuation.
Or, maybe out of
Teenage angst, you'll
Write to yourself -
Catharsis for your built up
Anger and frustration.

When you're a little older,
You might write about your
Wedding day,
The vows to your bride.
Or maybe when you bring
Children into this world,
You'll write about
The fear that comes
From becoming a father.

In your thirties
Disappointment may come,
And you may find
Yourself writing to
The man you were 10 years ago -
Wishing you had taken the
Other path in that yellow-leafed forest.

When you hit your midlife crisis
You might write about the things
You have or have not done...
Or maybe you'll write about
Your newly found passion:
Harley Davidson Motorcycles,
The rumble between your toes.

Retirement brings the turn of the line
As "every season has its sign".

In your older age,
You may cease to write
For the muse of your youth.
More and more,
Your poems will end
With the words,
"In memory of..."

Each one reminding you
To be thankful
For the sock that helped you
Find the book that was loaned
To you months ago,

And you will notice things like
Those naked-spring-branches
So harmoniously intertwined -  
A piece of art that
No painter would be able to emulate
With a thousand brushstrokes.

And as you sit down to reflect
On the typed documents
Of your life's work,
You have a friendly conversation
With a long-distance friend,
Reflecting on it all.
This poem came out of reading Carl Dennis's "Practical Gods".  He writes a lot of poems in memory of those he cares about.  It just made me think of how our poetry changes over the years.  

The quotation in line 29 is from the Jason Upton song "God's got a Reason for Everything". There are also allusions to "The Road Not Taken" by Frost, and "Laundry Day" by Carl Dennis.  Lastly, the last stanza refers to a video I saw where Bono and Eugene Peterson discuss the Message translation of the Psalms.
  Sep 2016 SE Reimer
Traveler
He hugged me
Tears running down his face
I felt him shudder
For the whole human race

Just who condemned him
Has always been clear
The righteous
The believers
The possessors
Of fear

Yet sympathy
I felt
For the Devil
Himself
Because forgiveness
   Runs through my veins...
Traveler Tim

We pay our debt sometimes.
  Sep 2016 SE Reimer
harlon rivers
The Violin’s azure strings wept softly,
from inside of a mind made cell;
musical echoes lamenting,
a poignant abyss too vast to fill
each and all silenced reverie,
leaving the philosopher’s stone
                                          unthrown

Blue guitar minor chord changes,
bent notes phrasing sharps and flats;
memories ―      gently weeping confirmation
as a repressed flow of soul
pensively leaks out

The spirit's currents eddy
suffused within written verve;
silently purging the soul's fountains ―

                                    musical rivulets swell
                                     quietly overflowing
                              an alchemist’s soul unfurled
...


        © harlon rivers ... all rights reserved
September sojourn ...9/15/2016
... journal entry: an unexpected perfect storm, casting ashes into the ocean
& bluebirds

A musician with a wounded wing ...
trying to find the strength to fly.  
Nothing fills the chasm left behind
when we lose an invisible,
indivisible, irreplaceable thread
that binds the tapestry of our lives...

http://hellopoetry.com/poem/1750888/a-lonely-bird-without-a-song/
...you never know what you've got until it's gone.

https://youtu.be/I5raMzavYgE
Amos Lee - "Violin"
You will not see my shadow pass
the gate of mournings eerie dark
Nor hear my voice among the reeds
that grow above my silenced heart
No fondest kiss to furrowed brow
to quell the torment of your making
for you have left me here alone
to sleep the sleep that knows no waking.
The last line was pilfered from a Victorian grave stone. It was too beautiful to leave there.
  Sep 2016 SE Reimer
harlon rivers
The quieter he became ...
the more he could feel
only a single lit candle
moved the stillness ,
gripping the void between
lucency and obscure darkness

longing eyes slipped slowly closed
as the flicker faded ,
inner quietude dimming all light
the darker it got ...
the more vividly he could see

a nearly silent exhaled sigh
let the memories flood ;
leaning into the bereft
where there once was light ,
he became a timeless silence
                              without form
                     only shaped by retracing
                        re-remembered words


yearning to understand
some of the greater things life unfolds
experiencing the unknown
                             without fear ,
                      for to clinch and feel
that which seems indefinable

     for here ,
in this formless
manifest dimension ,
all layers of essence
are peeled back
to the bared aurora
of a soul's spirit light ;

at the core of inner stillness
      nothing is impossible
...



© H A Rivers all rights reserved
. daybreak meditation

"There is a hidden meaning behind all events,
and this hidden meaning is serving your own evolution"

"In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you."    ...unknown
  Sep 2016 SE Reimer
Autumn Rose
Come sail with
me, far out into
the rolling
waves of
Aquamarine.
Peacefully
between the
endless black sea
and
the shimmering
skies.
Further and further...
Drifting away from
where
we want to be,
who
we want to be.
Come sail with
me and dream
of blue velvet dreams
under the
moon and stars.
Until we get
carried away
by a Moonlight shadow
as the heart of the sea
breathes us,
We slowly sink in the
haunted remains
of the Universe
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