trump better watch out
he better not cry
Better not shout
Impeachment is nigh
More indictments coming-no doubt!

Conspiracy lists
Repeating them thrice
Gonna tweet out
What’s naughty, not nice…
donald trump’s Impeachment’s in town!

We see you when you’re tweeting
We know that you’re up late
We see that you’re a shameless hood
Can’t be good for goodness sake!

Oh! trump’s Treason’s come out
he’s starting to cry
he already shouts
Calls putin his guy…
donald trump-on Airforce One-leaves town!

He crows about his crowd size
For “winning” an election
While most of us experience
Democracy’s defection

donald knows no boundaries
His pants always on fire
Now numbers past 12 thousand
Show he’s a constant liar

Praising evil dictators
He thinks that we won’t notice
While kow-towing to putin
Our crazy shady potus

Earth’s life-supporting systems
Are collapsing day by day
Showing scorched Earth strategies
Daily through his EPA

Rolling regulations back
For Mother Earth’s protections
Defiling our National Parks
Drilling toxic injections

The Amazon is burning
Is any country helping?
The Earth is getting hotter
Too many glaciers melting

trump’s polluting our sandbox
Distracting us from the greed
In the frenzy of rollbacks…
his relentless Twitter feed

Maligning our Free Press
It’s clear for whom he’s rootin’
Eliminating sanctions
Against vladimir putin

I sit satisfied
Smiling smugly
Ha!  I think.
Go ahead,
Just ask me anything you want to know
Go ahead.
I defy you!
Huh?
Whaddaya mean
Is it dark
Inside of
Snowballs?

We’re in this together
Share the world’s seeming insanity
Look at yourself when you
Study the whole of humanity

Observe the universe
We’re all in this together
A connection made of tears
Flows as rivers forever

Why ever go it alone
Lonely cuts like a knife
We’re all in this together
Connected to all life

So easily I slide
Into an old chenille robe
Slouching to accept defeat
Feeling each past failure’s probe

My isolation morphs
Into alienation
I slip into a winter
Of my discontent again

Familiar imprint there
Tattooed backside on the couch
A negative reminder
Under dark shrouds of self-doubt

Passively sinking
Wallowing in all things bleak
Difficulties must precede
Enlightenment that I seek

Can’t hardly lift my feet
Both beneath my tree-log legs
I shuffle with some coffee
Time to empty out the dregs

After the longest day
I kick takeout boxes aside
I ricochet off balance still
No fall comes without any pride

The first thinkers were poets
Naming Mother Earth
Beginning symbolic thinking
Of nature, death and birth

Though themes are often repeated
Love, Beauty and God
Poetry in the guise of Religion
A prophet or a fraud

The poet resurrects the Primitive
Through allegory and similes
Disarming the unknown like explorers
Sublime Prophets and Visionaries

They must lay bare those treasured images
That must be expressed
Unraveling and revealing the sounds
At each soul’s behest

Encompassing the entire Cosmos
So lyrical the beat
The poet’s excitement flows outward
Laid at the Reader’s feet

So original, individual
She won’t examine or explain
Letting go the festering feelings
Disturbances in her brain

He exposes his dark, wounded psyche
Just to release and express
Such capacity to see and compare
Hyperbole at its best

I love, I hate, I suffer
A special dance in rhythm and rhyme
The poet as a buffer
Lessening the pain and sting of time

Laden with symbol and feeling
She gives you sweet relief
From something urgent, revealing
Confusion to belief

Through a cinematic kind of seeing
The poet purges to transform
By leaping through Alice’s looking glass
She never was one to conform

Quite intolerant of convention
Just like that ole Mad Hatter
His passions immune to all logic
In syncopated patter

Jamming up the poet’s mind
Struggling for expression
Seeking order out of chaos
An infantile regression

Cleaving to his imaginary world
The poet breaks out into words
Creating sound paintings to be unfurled
So his own agony is blurred

She succumbs to storms of passion
With instinctive technique
Rhymes and rhythm still in fashion
Out of hand flows mystique

The poet mines from his unconscious
The Reader is not blind
For every single line and symbol
Means something to the mind

Causing an inner liberation
Enlightenment or flight
It is a matter of life and death
When darkness turns to light.

Jordy does her yoga
Greets me smiling
Taking flight
Legs and arms akimbo
Picks the music
That she'd like
Yes she can be picky
She’s a Princess
No disguise
Keeps her posse jumping
When she flashes
Big brown eyes
Jordy, little sister
Halfway woman
Halfway child
Can be temperamental
Has a hissy
When she’s riled
She likes watching Ninjas
Leaping so high
Just like them
She has us all beguiled
Jordy Nicole
Never mild
She saw Ziggy Marley
At Sunfest
What a mob
Yet she prefers his father
The first Marley
She loves Bob

Extend a hand to yourself
Helpful, tender and warm
Giving yourself a high-five
Doing yourself no harm

Raise both hands, disarm yourself
Feel peace from hands to heart
Show some enthusiasm
Before your day can start

Hug both shoulders give a squeeze
Close your eyes with a sigh
Feeling your love with each breath
Even if you cry

Entwine your fingers, press palms
In gratitude for
Having come this far
While still wanting more

Give yourself a round of applause
Feel the joy indeed
Perhaps a pat on your shoulder
May be all you need

Christmas is Love

It can’t be bought or sold
It never grows too old
It’s hearing an old song
A friend who’s long since gone
A clear star in the sky
A baby’s first shrill cry
It’s never losing hope
Though in the dark you *****
It comes just to remind us
Of all that is behind us
It’s all we see and feel
Christmas is very real

Dear Eliot, I wonder why
When members post their rhymes
You gave us all those choices how
To give some feedback every time

Like it, love it, leave a comment, too
Even click on “thumbs down”
The best is when a reader is moved
To send it all around…

Or when it’s picked “The Daily”
It feels like quite a treat  
when someone shines a “Sun” that
Feels marvelously sweet!

We poets see who likes our writes
Who sends them all around
But just what is the purpose for
Those mean, faceless “thumbs down”?

Language is the raw material
Transformation into art
Leaping through Alice’s looking glass
Breaking metaphors apart

Is it dark inside a poem
From whence it first sprang
Deeply repressed panic
Without judgment rang

Bringing pressured speech to light
Images of love and pain
Through clearly heightened senses
Uninhibited refrain

Where verbal acrobats spiral
Words on a poet’s page
That remind us and disturb us
In desperate outrage

With the pathos of a clown
On a winding rocky path
Reminders of death’s nearness
Terror spinning with a laugh

Pictures painted with premonitions
An atmosphere heavy in despair
Remnants of previous poets
Are blinding the reader in its glare

Quatrains moving merrily
Using images and tone
Making shapes with language
Shaping irony unknown

With tones bright and beautiful
Its matrix darkly savage
Through visual impressions
The reader’s heart is ravaged

Freedom of imagination
From whimsy to terror can bring
Surprising facetious word-play
Delivering irony’s sting

A psychological awakening
The tenderest love infused with dread
Blazing pathways joyous and dangerous
Irrevocable loss lies ahead

A telling detail without warning
Takes us to disturbing turns
The risky business of being born
Poets’ authority burns

It brings you to your senses
Through supernatural realms
Exploding realization
Its resonance overwhelms

Allusiveness to brutal honesty
It may sometimes misconstrue
In an abyss of isolation cries,
“What else can a poem do?”

It feels good first
That punch you throw
Powered with adrenalin
Triumph!  you crow

Losing control
Each threat you shout
Driving Emotion prevails
Anger has clout

Primal howling
I  cannot speak
A volatile Damnation
Beneath my feet

A fiend unleashed
A dark winged thing
Wrenching the curtain aside
Madness is king

You’ve crossed the line
There is no doubt
Dimensions of cruelty
Madness wins out

No forgiveness
The devil cheers
Waylaid in selfish desires
Demonic fears

Fear holds its breath
Sardonic gloom
Too turbulent to control
Foreboding doom

Peace is exiled
No looking back
Thrusts of heartless violence
Repression hacked

Paradise lost
Cherished hatred
Surging over boundaries
Nothing sacred

Stuff of nightmares
Robs me of sleep
Letting go with a vengeance
Monster’s relief

I cannot bear
This heavy weight
Id’s inner realm
Desolate hate

Transcendence shows
All states of thought
Each a world unto itself
Not shaken off

Silence that grudge
Revenge aint sweet
It turns back on you like a
Missile seeks heat

I used to have 4 brothers
And loved them all the same
The eldest used us siblings
For where to lay the blame

Hoping reincarnation
Proves true after a while
Dan said his fondest wish was
Return an only child

Soon I arrived, his sister
Right after Dan turned 2
He fed me peanut butter
Until my face turned blue

Dan denied that he loved me
As kids did, once or twice
But he jumped in to save me
When I fell through the ice

Surviving eighteen months then
My baby crib moved on
I moved to the bottom bunk
My next brother was born

Named for our dad’s Commander
World War II not fearing
Ted was sent to Vietnam
Where he would lose his hearing

Neighbors once thought we were twins
Blond hair and Dad’s blue eyes
Family strife split us apart
Though close in age and size

He can’t hear but does read lips
That bomb, it took its toll
Seems no single moment’s joy
PTSD took hold

Next came Bill when I was 6
AKA “Sweet William”
Boundless joy and endless love
His broad smiles worth millions

When I loved chocolate ice-cream
That was his favorite, too
He is my son’s Godfather
His wise words helped me through

I have no clue what ended
Brotherly affection
Before 2 brothers died he
Cut off real connection

Sam was born prematurely
When I was twelve years old
Spent 5 months incubating
Before we took him home

Our father’s disappointment
Sam never went to college
Didn’t want to play football
Was seeking other knowledge

Sam learned how engines functioned
By disassembling cars
Made candles in the basement
An Eagle Scout-golf star

A heart of gold he suffered
Much doggerel and strife
Alcohol’s what dogged him till
Tragically took his life

Divided family members
I’m actor and spectator
Seeking to forge connections
Reunion instigator

Some gather for funerals
A wedding now and then
I mourn, alone, Dan and Sam
Lament what might have been

Hadn’t been able to finish this piece until I took a long vacation. I still have 2 living brothers, but neither responds to my overtures. One can't hear me, and the other is not speaking.  New Englanders are known for denial and take-it- to-the-grave-grudges.  I guess I really don't want to know why.

I change my shoes and attitude
Some say I hate surprises
Desiring things to stay the same
Anxiety arises

Change a job, a change in age
Change your view or change your tone
The Age of Aquarius turned the page
To change your tune-you’re not alone

Do I fight the change, ignite the change
The change I fear, so hard so cruel
You can win a war yet take the blame
When Yin and Yang begin to duel

Like loose change dropped in a jar
Changing partners, changing clothes
Change my house and buy that car
Bless the highs but curse the lows

Pain and Joy, so intertwined
A change of heart, a change of flight
Accepting wisdom, change my mind
A shift to the left, the change feels right

The change I see, or don’t see comin’
I move in a different direction
Confidently whistling and hummin’  
Too late upon closer inspection

Change for the better or change can ****
Lead in the water has been unfurled
Change means growth-you cannot stand still
Change your position and change the world

I miss Vicki
Poetess sublime
Nature is her nurse
She wrote her essence every time

I don’t know why she left
Like Aretha, made me cry
Whatever drove her off
I just want to say good-bye

Her comments-wise, encouraging
With love she shared her best
You’re sorely missed, Dear Vicki
Farewell Dear Poetess

Happy Retirement, Bill
The countdown now is done
After 35 years working for Milner
Your new life has begun...

That’s cause for celebration
Despite what you have said
We’ll sing “He’s a jolly good fellow!”
Raise a glass-break some bread!

I know how hard you’ve worked while
Those copy machines kept breaking
Those customers kept on *******’
Despite the best effort you’re making

So punctual!  Dependable!
So clever at fixing things, too
You’ve worked hard all your adult life
“Hardly working” is new for you

Thousands of machines you fixed
Often while crawling on the floor
Looking for that wayward *****
On your 6th call-and then 2 more!

Now’s your time to put those feet up
With our cat upon your lap
Dreaming of surfing and traveling…
You’ll have time to take a nap

Instead you took your surf board down
Since you’re feeling quite inspired
To be a dedicated beach ***
Surfing ev’ry day you’re retired

However I wasted my younger days
Wherever I wiled away precious hours
Whenever I gazed at the moon and stars
Whatever games that we played and pondered
Whichever adventure we went on then
Is exactly where my mind still wanders

Whoever I kissed and then held hands with
Whatever the spell from the sounds and smells
Whenever my heart was soundly broken
However I try silencing this hell
Wherever that loss is newly spoken
Whichever place causes the freshest pain

Whenever I think of the time in flight
By mistake flew into forbidden space
When 2 jets flanking me motioned us down
How they saw us as Eco-Terrorists
Flying to LosAlamos Power Plant
Where it is strictly restricted airspace

Whenever dad left-once on Christmas eve
However it unfolded felt tragic
Whatever Christmas comes around again
Whoever toasts to the joy of the day
Whatever the chance, gone was the magic
Whichever way we celebrate today

Whichever day Mother's Day comes around
Whoever I'm with matters not a bit
However I remember that morning
While feeding our son, “I love you”, you said
Then later, “I don't want to be married...
Anymore.”  That pain floods like tsunamis

However I try to stay in the now
Whenever the calendar reminds me
How my favorite youngest brother died
Whatever the details I sorely pine
Thinking of Sam this 4th of July
When he would have been turning 59

However my days have been wiled away
How often revealing one simple truth
*Where your treasure is, will your heart be, too  (Matthew 6:21)

Time speeds by doing
What we hold most sacred
While crawling slowly
Feeling pain and hatred

Time is on my side
Believing ****’s words were true
Time after time there's
Time for every matter, too

Once upon a time
Barrels recklessly ahead
Time’s up never comes
There is no time left to dread

Make time or waste time
No time to ask how
Take all the time you need
If time will allow

Being in the Now
Deserves a fighting chance
Now was once the Future
Without a backward glance

Now’s the time-Time’s up!
The truth comes out in time
Time always changes things
Revealing every crime

Once upon a time
‘Time is Money’ ran scared
“There’d be Peace for our Time”
Chamberlain declared

Now turns to the Future
Soon to be the Past
Over eons of time
Time stands still at last

Give it time, they say
Only time will tell
Now will be the future
For then tolls the bell

She knows exactly how the world works
Shares her well-read cynical voice
She wishes for miracles coming
Not believing our leader’s choice

She’s longing for Swords into Ploughshares
All words of war she cannot bear
Doesn’t trust The United Nations
Declares we haven’t got a prayer

The world’s Toolbox of Diplomacy
Lets foxes design the henhouse
She knows the top 3 richest people
Have more than HALF of everyone else

She shows how to make her life richer
Not relying on someone else
Has no sentimental view of life
Fully acquainted with herself

Challenging ANYONE’S opinion
Firing people up with the facts
She predicts trump’ll be on Mount Rushmore
His Nobel Peace Prize on his back

Each day she came to volunteer
In my classroom-10115
Was the day that always ran smoother
Lifting our spirits when she arrived

She pitched in wherever the need was
Above and beyond-no less
From “circle” to water play to puppet shows
Even reaching the bottom pile on my desk

Remember our wonderful yoga class
Showing kids how to do spinal twist
While checking off all she accomplished
From all the many tasks on my list

She videotaped kids doing yoga
Decorated kid art on the wall
She needed a nap after all this
But then off to shop Costcos-our mall

I hope she can hear these accolades
She’s terrific, the greatest, a dear
So thoughtful, dependable and loving-
Please remember to come back next year!

I see the universe expanding
Has been for 13 billion years
While stardust breeding planets arose
And that Dark Energy I fear

Can’t understand Dark Energy or
700 trillion miles to bear
To reach Andromeda Galaxy
When water was discovered there

Believing acceleration slowed
For 200 billion galaxies
Science proved that hypothesis wrong
Questioning even more fallacies

Each newborn star illuminated
4 billion times stronger than our eyes
Their galaxies currently revealed
Expansion’s not slowing- surprise!

Brilliantly more supernovas flew
Among 100 billion stars
For all we know this still is true
No water or air- can’t live on Mars

Her hands of seventy years
Teach without saying a word
All those baby’s heads cradled
All of her recipes stirred
Delighting in gardens she’s planted
Her hands bring deliverance
Pure fluidity like a young child
Textured by experience
All the stitches embroidered
All the cake flour sifted
So intricate, seasoned, lovely those
Hands creatively gifted
Precisely she chooses vegetables
So tenderly and knowing
Arranging flowers from her garden
All those seeds she’s still sowing
With hands of seventy years
Assured intention without guessing
That teach me without speaking
Is why I can’t forget the lesson

trump is lurching like a loose cannon
Denying evidence and logic

he separates language from meaning
When Bait and Switch is his chief project

Those xenophobic fires he’s fannin’
Spatters his word salad recklessly

Like a loose cannon

This conman sold some a bill of goods
With gibberish worse than Tinnitus

Propaganda by steve bannon
An alternate universe naked

Like a loose cannon

However I tried to hide, to flee
He taunted, "You’ll never escape from me”
Once tried to go yet stayed on flailing
Adjusting to the barbs he’s nailing  
Cooperating with my own impaling                                  
Gave up the dream of our smooth sailing
Nothing here is worth regaling
Late at night I keep on wailing
Deciding the step to take by bailing
Staying here means just keep failing

Judas is in the White House
Putin put him in
trump says our White House is a dump
The job’s too much for him

The Arms Industry bankrolled
To help elect trump
The nra buys congress
Tells them how to jump

Charlottesville a turning point
One death you don’t mind?
Chanting with tiki torches
trump declared they’re fine!

trump never mentions weapons
Military grade
Hidden guns-arm the teachers!
Hopes debate will fade…

Weapons of war on our streets
The gun culture rampant
More important than our kids?
THE 2ND AMENDMENT

Very near the she-bear lumbers
Past the sharp palmettos
Paw prints on the garbage can
Under star-filled skies
She walks silently
Obscured by the raucous night
Leaving scant paw prints on the path
While we slumber
Crickets serenade us
Three manatees see
Bright moon, darting gar
Cold springs empty of visitors
I walk in the dark dreamworld
And move without sight
Surrounded by sure feet and wings
Stillness finds darkness throbs and sings

If I always seek other’s approval
I’ll make myself a slave
Believing life’s a struggle always brings
Obstacles in my way

If I never surrender my ego
No security or peace
If I keep trying to control others
Enlightenment can’t be reached

Refusing to turn over a new leaf
I’ll never stretch to new heights
Only feeling my separateness prevents
My connection with all types

If I never face things that are difficult
I’ll never see easy times
If I always project blame on others
I’ll live to deny my crimes

If I cannot acknowledge my mistakes
I’ll never feel forgiven
If I am governed by intolerance
I’ll always be fear-driven

If I always must make the first move then
I won’t learn to wait or stay
If I always compete just to win then
I won’t feel the joy of play

If I act like I know all the answers
I won’t know questions to ask
If I pretend to be somebody else
I won’t know myself at last

If I always insist on the last word
To prove the points I defend
I’ll never be someone’s beloved or
Ever earn respect from friends

If I love clinging to my possessions
I’ll never learn how to lose
I hold fast to inflexibility
With only my way to choose

If I never laugh spontaneously
I’ll miss out on how freeing
A good belly laugh is great medicine
Re-charging my whole being

If I can’t feel life’s pain and sorrow then I
Won’t feel comforted or soothed
If I hold back feeling vulnerable
I’ll never feel deeply moved

If I don’t expect my voice to be heard
I’ll never know true expression
If I never define who I am then
Who will plot my direction?

If I never speak up and go along
Always swayed by a stronger voice
Losing a piece of myself one by one
And making no choice is a choice

I’ll be sold down the river easily
Without values life’s a waste
Avoiding all struggles I’ll never know
There’s no problem that can’t be faced

Always charging through life at breakneck speed
Living like push comes to shove
Staying a slave to accolades I will
Confuse approval with love

Off balance, I avoid helping others
Never jump in with both feet
If I never embrace this life wholly
I won’t know when times are sweet

I refuse to cultivate tenderness
I hide my feelings with lies
I’ll never learn the blessings of failure
Being so brittle, I’ll die

Words will love time
Family soul looked dead
Mother night, Brother fear
Best dark, crooked dog
Hears invisible moment
Stay, bear, speak easy space language
Remember hard space days
Language spaces cry
Christmas music power
Beauty seeking kiss turns to Irish evening news
Sun met snow going to watch miles
Die waiting, making clever men strong
Cat lives learn pure poetry
Wide storm a false friend
Morning feels close, feet pain weaving peace
Help poets let eternity cut fruit apart
Blue depression wins, full darkness leaves
Seasons retire watching river
Sea sorrow sold joy
Feeling deep sound things
Abandoned blame returns
Blind hearing grace checks wild mistake
Running, driven-spent moments
Sorrow creating joy
Hold hands, find play
Lost lake born a pale moon
Fresh dance worth breathing
A breathing garden paradise
Cool quicksand reaching a slow wait
Bless living fires' straight rain
Forgive driving, thriving resentments
Listen wisdom, tomorrow care needed
Glory course closer, savor ordinary beach comfort
Search, child, higher purpose tune
Human blood hearts rose, amazed
Alpha lessons support warhead, cruel promises cease
Remind denying Miami
Doppelgänger prophets flash resistance
Mourn cruising, drinking, washing tears
Women aware, believing Today broke
Fly locked room, pulling neglected history
Leaving social standing, familiar village wedding
Revealing cursed leaping boy
Gambling high Democracy

I’d never met Mr. Campbell
Or heard of Mr. Stone,
But now I’ve ceased to ramble,
They’ve provided me a home.
A place for old and older,
Not poor or broke nor rich.
For meek and mild and bolder,
It runs without a hitch.

A bus to take us shopping
Or cruising to the mall,
And even island hopping
There’s something for us all.
Pat Pepper keeps us busy,
Not anchored to a chair
Al Widener’s in a tizzy
If we’re not happy there.

The staff is neat and clever
At Bradshaw’s restaurant
I plan to stay forever,
‘Cause it’s my favorite haunt.
No need to roam or gamble
For we are not alone,
God bless you Mr. Campbell
God keep you Mr. Stone

The wind blows wherever it pleases.
Gale-force winds to balmy breezes
Facing into whirlwind’s roar
Continuum of torture teases

Hurricane forces forging its wrath
Her name portends hysteria’s lash
Warnings on the evening news
Nowhere around her ferocious path

Brisk winds blow till unsafe outside
Exposing the truth in all false pride
Unsettled blustery feel
Every strong wind we keep inside

That long, low sound up against a wall
Each cutting wind or gusty squall
The wind-chill factor causes
Temperatures to quickly fall

Just when I felt the storm might clear
New winds arise that sharply veer
Whip apart my well-laid plan
The odyssey I held so dear

Like freedom felt the day we were born
Despite all the pain for those who mourn
Survivors have come to find
The pathway to "Shelter from the Storm" (Bob Dylan)

I let go this moment
A bird lets go a branch to fly
No fear or need to cling
Despite free-falling through the sky

I stop having birthdays
Giving birth to something broader
Falling through my fingers
As ungraspable as water

I let go gravity
An astronaut bounce on the moon
A cosmic letting go
Meditate to Pachabel’s tune

I release attachments
To savor the moment sweetly
I get out of my way
Casting my shadow completely

I let go everything
When I let go my mother’s hand
Feeling new connections
With strangers in strange lands

I release resistance
From things I once just ran
Bucking up with courage
Acting as if I really can

I let go the future
No fear of how I have to die
Breathing in this moment
Tick tock, time flies past in reply

When I retire in Ireland
I'll be fit and sixty-five
Then I'll ride the DART for free
and explore the country-side

I'll rent an old thatched cottage
Buy a bicycle with gears
Tool along Connor Pass Road
Out to ******, drink some beers

Eating the Irish breakfasts
Drinking too much Guinness to mention
Uncle Sam sends my Social Security
I'll collect my teacher's pension

Mornings I'll write a novel
About my Irish sojourn
A boat to Blasket Islands
Some Gaelic I'll be learnin'

I'll check my geneology
The DART to Cork and I go
Fitzpatrick's, a talented family,
Doctors, fighters, writers in the know

Always an ear to the music
Familiar faces all around
Perhaps some long lost relatives
Still in Cork who could be found

Yes, I'm in love with Ireland
The Cliffs of Moher call to me
I'll go hiking west of Doolin
Rent an apartment in Dun Laoghaire (dun leary)

Whose woods these are I think I know.  
His house is in the village though;  
He will not see me stopping here  
To watch his woods fill up with snow.  

My little horse must think it queer  
To stop without a farmhouse near  
Between the woods and frozen lake  
The darkest evening of the year.  

He gives his harness bells a shake  
To ask if there is some mistake.  
The only other sound’s the sweep  
Of easy wind and downy flake.  

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,  
But I have promises to keep,  
And miles to go before I sleep,  
And miles to go before I sleep.

It happened fifty years ago
It’s yesterday to you
Holding onto dreams that seem
Never to come true

Seasons of Past so plague you
A long-playing Revival
Gathering an audience
Is key to your survival

A pattern of yesterdays
Mired in fear and shame
Staying insignificant
While projecting all the blame

Letting go is good for you
A cellular release
Down comes that wall Resentment
A chance to find some peace

An embryonic valve released
To play a different song
Soften your face, creating space
Held hard in your heart so long.

Give me life in easy doses
Pieces I can swallow
I could bear the contradiction
Living without sorrow

Mixing grit with poignancy
Keeping me wrought up inside
Not without a grain of salt
Repress what can be denied

Reframing to simplicity
Complexity loses clout
Reconstruction reaps benefits
Eliminating all doubt

Feeling my poetic license
I stopped correcting mistakes
Seeing no ambiguity
Nor courage to hit the brakes

Cleaving to Imagination
In denial I wallow
I can’t bear that contradiction
No joy without the sorrow

I know what a crash dummy feels
While pouring down rain was humming
Bracing myself with nerves of steel
Eyes wide won’t stop trouble coming

Driving cautiously in the storm
So many cars speeding on past
I’m thinking easy, slow, steady
Not fight or flight before a crash

I know how a crash dummy copes
Eyes wide open with teeth revealed
Safety first face forward bravely
Ever expecting he will yield

Disbelief that it’s barreling
Faster and faster, I lean in vain
No place to go but the shoulder
That whizzing missile blurs in the rain

I saw it coming without the squeals
Pathfinder’s barrel fully loaded
No skidding tires or screeching wheels
Slow motion shards of glass imploded

My little red car lurches forward
In a bang she begins to swerve
That SUV slammed into me
Before dropping back at the curve

I feel what a crash dummy feels
Releasing the damage inside
To let go the past and its sorrows
Straight ahead, there’s nowhere to hide

I want to write a poem
Like a yogi’s meditation
Every minute of the day

Through blackness of my sadness
Red is glory close to heart while
White arises pale and cold

I tried to write a poem
All about the triumph of love
That took me 10 years to write

Despite my fierce suppression
That passion in all its hunger
Realized like turtle doves

I wrote my heartfelt poem
In a trance of deep rem sleep
Feeling the ruthlessness of truth

I must complete this poem
Awake to writing its wonder
Instead remembered this one

Be open to the present
Don’t milk the daily grind
Life’s the gift that’s given
In one moment at a time

Flow with the dualities
The mystery goes on
Each storm defines the gift
That we’re given in the calm

Everything’s so dangerous,
The wise Gertrude Stein said
That nothing is frightening
So let go all fear and dread

The pain of love we yearn for
Like willows in the wind
We bend but will not break
While we’ve lied and loved and sinned

It’s the journey that matters
I know you’ve heard it said
Tomorrow never comes
To this second we are led

Don’t hang on to those moments
You’ve lived it now it’s gone
Being here in the now
Is our best hope for the Dawn

At a gypsy’s stall in Soria, Spain
It was a beautiful market day
His tables were filled with French made shoes
Recommended by our friend Renaye

A cute pair of shoes caught Bernadette’s eye
They were ******* with 2 brocade bows
All covered with pink and orange flowers
With low heels and gold-tipped pointed toes

“No mas”, said he, there was no size forty
Only Bern found those shoes in her size
Then we happily tried on so many
Buying 6 pair we thought were great buys

Counting our shoes 2 by 2 into bags
The gypsy’s crooked smile seemed funny
We both grinned, too, with all our swell new shoes
Purchased with sixty euros of our money

Strolling we stopped at the York seeking churros
Too late, we had fresh croissants instead
I decided to try on my new sandals there
That led right to the trouble, Bern said

While awaiting the bus to the village
We both carefully held all our shoes
And watched a man with a rose in his teeth
I asked why, but not given a clue

Once arriving back home to the village
Feeling quite tired from walking around
Bern showed her shoes to Jose at the bar
Sad to learn one shoe couldn’t be found!

Yes, we retraced our steps in search of it
And twice-to check at the York- someone ran
Jose searched the bus, but right from the start
She thought she’d been scammed by the gypsy man

We had to go back, only on Thursday
A leisurely pace, eating churros
Yes we did get the shoe but discovered
We were over-charged by 20 euros

70 trillion options
For one human to be born
Birth and grief so intertwined
So surprised when left to mourn

How many yearn for heaven
Taking comfort they’ll no longer grieve
I’m in love with Earth’s delights
Finding Paradise among the trees

Breathing night-blooming jasmine
Painted skies crimson and gold
I take a deep breath to inhale Peace
Letting go of what’s got hold

Just a splendid accident?
86 billion neurons firing
Exploring the mysteries
While we’re creating and inspiring

70 trillion choices
How one's specific DNA moves
I wonder how all that’s determined
Is it you God who gets to choose?

I speak to trees and animals
Inspired by passion joy and pain
The Seasons and the Stars
Vibrate as words that fall like rain

Still striving for Deliverance
A wish for ‘Once upon a time'
Then a happy ending
Denying all war, fear and crime

Anthropomorphic expression
Uninhibited Truth unfurled
Language follows a path
The Reader lured into that world

I love the trees and animals
Their mysterious connections
Primitive and ripened
Nature’s animized perfection

Ecstasy carries a poet
The similes, metaphors start
All of nature vibrates
Brought closer to the human heart

I can’t take Sam off speed dial
I’m expecting his call
Especially Sunday mornings
Warming up, stretching tall

That’s when he always calls me
Though sometimes I call him
Now twenty Sundays have passed
My chances getting slim

I can’t delete my brother
I’m still yearning for his call
He owes me one, even though
He died one Sunday last fall

I’m coming apart at the seams
No longer sprint like a deer
Except in occasional dreams
I struggle in my yoga class
Since getting titanium hips
The lotus and pigeon I pass
It’s so difficult to apply
Mascara to my lashes
I look in the mirror and sigh…
I can’t see without my glasses
But it’s difficult to ignore
Those itchy, mystery rashes
It’s over, now, wearing short skirts
Got to keep knobby knees hidden
While I try exercise in spurts
Joints in my ankles hips and knees
Are letting me down so fast
That climbing stairs is no breeze
I’m shrinking, less one inch this year
My hands crawling with blue veins
Spelling out, “THE END IS NEAR"

Stop.  March!  Won’t America stand?
We’re listening.  Try pulling open
Hear source device
Pain pleasure journey inherited
Life lesson posse, turn away edge
Maybe rage offering dashed despair
Meek crashed.  Face aware.
Forced push depending
Strive.  weep.  stride.  Laugh.
Sure, seek.  pass highs.
What’s truth?  
Slice fired investigators
Suspicious, merciless House
****** time gathering law
Easy used evening clues
Taste Democracy news
POTUS does past reckoning
Keeps tweeting…beating…******…drop
Checks chanting window
Collusion breathing lies!
Enemy jaw pulse come-uppance…
Trump’s troubles, Hope coming
Sweet feel

Open the window in my heart to
Epic pleasure, pain, despair
Those highs pass away, same as the lows
I’m in this journey aware

The Truth when lies are all the rage
That sweet slice of life we seek
Something for sure to depend on
Inherited by the meek

Perhaps I try to get used to it
Those troubles we’re forced to face
Be still, listen, turn off the device
Hear what’s missing, have a taste

I digress from offering Hope
Maybe Hope already dashed
Pulling us all back from the edge
Defending a life that crashed

I strive to take it all in stride
Troubles push me off course
I weep and laugh-loud as I can
The lesson is the source

Those angry words you’ve spoken
There’s no way to take them back
Unleashed the chain is broken
A wild dog gone on attack

Once unshackled, they live on
Like a cancer they swirled
Unrepentant never gone
Repeated to the World

Once calmed down and quieted
(Darth Vader’s voice you used)
Strongly your words rioted
The argument unglued

Apologies may follow
You hope (s)he hears you out
Remembering to swallow
Those words from your own mouth

Negativity fleeing
A Disarmament for two
Be a peaceful human being
Why is that so hard to do?

Tell me how much time has passed
Gathering the clues
Suspicious, that collusion
On the evening news

Ivanka, check his breathing
Is he in the House?
Is his heart even beating
Can you feel his pulse

Democracy keeps chanting
trump’s tweeting so ******!
Stand up, march America
We won’t go down easy!

No person as our POTUS
Can stop The Rule of Law
3 investigators fired
Does that not drop your jaw!

The posse is coming
So merciless its ******
A Reckoning, Come-uppance
trump’s enemy is US