"broadening" poems
Hello, Waitress in the sky
So long her fear to fly
She throws the world a smile
bats her eyes in a wink she's gone
hurling through the clouds
calming others through turbulence
**** the corporate scene
Type A personalities acting mean
humiliating her in a board meeting
so she trades blue for green
Goodbye Waitress in the sky
trade her wings for a diamond ring
So long her need for speed
racing on the runway
She was flying with the birds but now
she's swimming with the fishes
Deflated dreams of broadening horizons
a-popped balloon and a rolling stone
nowhere to go but everywhere
Oh Lord, she won't get the answer tonight
Oh sky, give her the strength to fly
Oh Queen, find her a smart place to run
and that's why she took US 66 for a drive
Aug 19, 2018
Aug 19, 2018 at 3:17 PM UTC
complexity
is your beauty
simplicity
your mystery
interdependence
sustains you
once upon a time
we dipped bowls
into your waters
and brought up
draughts of life
now
Skipjacks go
fathoms deep
into endless
depletion
charting
entangled
dead zones
broadening
into a sea of
inertness
your delicate
eco-essence tips
toward oblivion
effluvia farmers
layer mechanized
blankets of
nitrates on your
sunset shores
weaving
green tendrils
of algae blooms
strangling the
entanglements
of all links in
your miraculous
food chain
the EPA
proscribes
a Jenny Craig
pollution diet
to halt the
slaughter in
oxygen
challenged
dead zones
where rockfish
are garroted,
oysters get drilled
by screwworms
and azure tinted
soft shell *****
dance soft
shoe taps
lifting a tinny
chorus of sad
Piedmont Blues
the flat-lining
watersheds
voiceless
warnings
tremble
rocking the
purged nests of
screaming ospreys
in vocal protest
of a sinking
Tangier Isle
anointing it’s
tombstones
of unvisited
cemeteries with
multicolored
guano
fitting
alkaline
tributes
to the lost
inhabitants
and forgotten
languages
sinking into the
brine of gray
brackish tides
Delmarva’s fine
intra-continental
balance skewed
by the oozing
industrial swill
of Frank Perdue
chicken farms
ruling the roost of
sanctioned sustainability
tinging clear watersheds
of finger lakes
set in splints to
repair dislocations
and complex
compound fractures
that may never heal
again
Music Selection:
Taj Mahal: Fishin Blues
jbm
Oakland
6/7/12
Feb 19, 2013
Feb 19, 2013 at 8:36 AM UTC
¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯ ¯
perched atop a muddy graze
amongst the reefing centipede
does lady jade a’ponder days
from whence the eldest had decreed.
*"what's this a'fuss upon the breeze
that sings a song of fallen trees?"
**a burnin' Birgham urn, aburn!
a'crack—a'whack—a'wish..***
was broadening—a shiver, swift—
bespoken of her crown to rest?
what way whereby these spirits lift
that hide should (of the head) contest?
*"what, unbeknownst, should overwhelm
this silv'ry shoat, what's felling elm?"
**a burnin' Birgham urn, aburn!
a'crack—a'whack—a'wish..***
amidst a cruel cacophony,
the lady seed, she must concede
the razing of her progeny
beholden to appease a need.
*"what's this in want of dire good
that preys upon upholding wood?"
**a burnin' Birgham urn, aburn!
a'crack—a'whack—a'wish..***
on arbor brawn does ardor dine
does earthen daughter march to meet
as tireless as the vile design
divesting mother's gen'rous teat.
*"what subtleties uproot the heart
as bodies from their souls depart?"
**a burnin' Birgham urn, aburn!
a'crack—a'whack—a'wish..***
Aug 27, 2015
Aug 27, 2015 at 8:19 AM UTC
I can see myself now,
Shouting "farewell" to this place
And the lonely souls who occupy it;
Floating around in oblivious, liquid states.
I've felt the tug of roots from the trees,
Grasping my ankles, begging me to join them,
But the promise of concrete skies and neon greetings have gnawed their way
Through my skull.
I won't apologize for giving in to my desires,
For broadening my knowledge
And making use of my short existence.
I am not limited
To this simplistic, little rock.
Sep 15, 2014
Sep 15, 2014 at 8:48 AM UTC
Once in a dream (for once I dreamed of you)
We stood together in an open field;
Above our heads two swift-winged pigeons wheeled,
Sporting at ease and courting full in view.
When loftier still a broadening darkness flew,
Down-swooping, and a ravenous hawk revealed;
Too weak to fight, too fond to fly, they yield;
So farewell life and love and pleasures new.
Then, as their plumes fell fluttering to the ground,
Their snow-white plumage flecked with crimson drops,
I wept, and thought I turned towards you to weep:
But you were gone; while rustling hedgerow tops
Bent in a wind which bore to me a sound
Of far-off piteous bleat of lambs and sheep.
3k
Under this canopy
of dark
gleaming stars
I now sit
allow my body
to take residence
in the aura
of my own
glowing
let thoughts
of reason
slowly unravel
until they
become
one
long
thread
connecting my
mind but
releasing it
to the air
Molecules, like
the tiniest of crystals,
gently whir
energetically
about me
in almost
invisible stirrings
letting the power
of energy centers
take over:
Red,
for my root
for I am
tethered
to this earth
Orange, for
the passion
so strong
and truly knowing
my own worth
Yellow, for
my gut,
instincts open
and a-light
expanding into
universes, broadening
my sight
Then my heart
washed through and through
in shades of green
its own incandescence
filled with verdant,
fiery sheens
It beats a lantern
of vitality
in this ocean of pain
sending a beacon in
the darkness
helping to break old,
patterns
prompt them to
snap like rusty chains
Here it pumps in growth of
leafy, budding light
Guiding my spirit
in ripeness full and bright
I rise up
into the
indigo-turquoise
of my throat
as words burst forth
in surges,
in the salty froth
of ocean spirals
they float,
get pulled by
mysterious urges
Like waterfall mist
just kissing
the tips of eyelash
flickers
these words that
have the power
to calm
or make my blood
run quicker
And then:
the deep purple
of my crown
that tapers into
a shimmering white
and I know
I can now
receive myself,
calm, in queenly
presence of mind
of spirit
in my highest
form of
light
Jul 5, 2016
Jul 5, 2016 at 3:39 AM UTC
A subtle carol echoes of the evening
Upon bended knee I am arrested
Betwixt strange refrains
Shaking the floorboards of Teicu
The evocative moans amplify
The foolish peacemaker of astrologists
The English dream of poetry
Those I coaxed by death
Were the witnesses of the tragedy
And were familiar with its ballad
Crafted the design ‘tis conceptual ***********
Eradicated their honor for vanilla threads
As they shimmy and shimmy
They defile elongated hankering
And retreated in the greenhouse of Woodstock
Its language made iconic by efficacious character
Having often been labeled an experiment
Broadening its brilliance along death’s boulevard
‘tis she who was the stunning one
Her language made sacred by her iconic fame
A long time controversial reference
An automaton, an origin of extraterrestrial etiology
The evocative moans ensnares the tourist
Sep 7, 2012
Sep 7, 2012 at 10:48 PM UTC
It cannot put pen to paper
But all a flower has to do
Is open up its delicate petals
Unfolding like a noble lady's fan
Broadening to blossom into a lovely jewel
Poetry without any word
A spider weaves its web
Like an author spins tales
It's intentions upon its survival, but
Its intricate home of threads and strings
Like a gossamer harp
Is enchanting to perceive
A make and design of fragile strength
The oceans and seas
Mighty and commanding
They roar and display their majesty
With crashing waves and splashy bravado
They spare few prisoners
And graveyards of sunken ships
Whisper of stories untold
Birds chirp and warble
With songs that humans long to know
For they travel through the air
In simplistic freedom
Their chorus of communication
Is a poetic symphony just as entertaining
As any band of musicians or artists
The winds blow and whistle
Though they have no mouths
If you listen close enough
You can hear their secrets
Their breath of life in the
Ever flowing
Breezes that enfold us
You'd swear the mountains
Were painted that way
Brawny and broad, peaked high above
Against the grand canvas we call the sky
Yes, paintings are poems, too
For a picture speaks a thousand words
But no mere man can make a mountain
You see
We are merely students
Taught by God's natural, creative genius
We are merely imitators
Of what nature displays
We are not originals
For we are not the first poets
Nor the first storytellers
Jan 12, 2014
Jan 12, 2014 at 1:31 AM UTC
kurukshetra grey
but iridescent with the glory of all dreams combined
some omphalos of lusciousness still pumps
an umbilicus of sates
to broadening skies,
parhelion whims
Apr 2, 2013
Apr 2, 2013 at 11:41 PM UTC
and i can feel you in my nerves and i can see you in my skin and i can't look away from your
your soul is so promising just a hatchling of a chicken i am with my head cut off running loose in the barnyard
barnyard lazy days are what i had and then i saw you and colors everywhere sprockets and gadgets and loose-runnings and shoes
shoes without feet only energy only anticipation exhilaration in our eyes looking feeling touching
touching toes with no shoes on cold toe warm toe is a good sensation a broadening horizon a war zone in my belly
my belly rises and falls in time with yours the sun is up and stars are hiding we slept soundly fingers crossed between the others and then we knew it was
it was everything we read about from old men's minds in starched collars with big dollars who dreamt these things couldn't have them sat in foyers with long pipes smoke filling lungs tears filling eyes
tears filling eyes because i can feel you and
and i can feel you in my nerves and i can see you in my skin and i can't look away from your soul.
Mar 21, 2013
Mar 21, 2013 at 10:47 PM UTC
It’s crazy,
Looking back on the time
Before you and me,
I was really happy then
But you changed me.
I was happy,
But I needed you.
Life would’ve looked different without you
I’m not sure if I would’ve made a good future wife without you
Happier ain’t always better
If it means you’re stuck in your ways
And not broadening your horizons,
I needed you.
To change my strong-willed ways
I was happy,
But I needed you.
Life would’ve looked different without you
I’m not sure if I would’ve made a good future wife without you.
I cried, a lot.
But what’s life without the hard stuff too,
You touched my heart,
That fact is true
It turns out, I needed you.
Happier ain’t always better
If it means you’re stuck in your ways
And not broadening your horizons.
I needed you.
To change my strong-willed ways.
Dec 11, 2020
Dec 11, 2020 at 5:24 PM UTC
Devils and mercenaries
Dislocated shoulders
Second hand panic
Static cling
Visions broadening perception
Decrepit linoleum houses
Men in the front yard, *****
Crawling in search of a fix and some pants
Viles of junk, baggies of powder
An unexpected destiny of agony
Forced to dress up to please a higher society
They won’t let me go
With all the information I know
The despicable disciple’s pillars of animosity and distain toward the rebellious over flow
Never a hunter always a prisoner
The bounty is huge for this lone survivor
Two lunatics in a rubber room
One claims to be captain of a magic carpet
The other believes his skin is on inside out
Both sunburned and daffy
Her armada of refusal of failure goes unmatched
Even my resistance is unparalleled to hers
Electric shocks, water torture, brands, beatings, lashings and floggings
My beard is torn from my face
We will not surrender our splendid fascinations of the galaxy for you provincial ideals of pain and suffering to teach the divine path to enlightenment
How sadistic
We both lay silent and prepared
****** and bruised
Devising the slaughter of their brutal oppressive cult
Dec 19, 2013
Dec 19, 2013 at 1:09 PM UTC
The Quiet Time
Setting on the evening tide in the silent void you will hear more than you did in the volumes’ day more
Truth untainted without deluded aspects just pure raw gorgeous plain knowing words wingless with out
Guile they speak of there own content no more or nothing less be barraged by this contagion regal
Unadulterated without vile tampering you feel exhilaration the sweetness the fragrance that innocence
Gives behold the garden and the flowers speaking the night air is one of the greatest calls you can hear
As the tear speaks of sorrow and its need of silence then but let the heart rest and peaceful knowing and
Rich stirring will reach you with tenderness the same as a baby’s touch you fall inward to blessings that
Are flowing by you streams that cradle dreams delight a voyager who seeks a passage and finds it and
It surpasses their expectation and nestles in the heart as honey when it touches your tongue what
Pleasure a thrill that rolls smoothly onward restful you touch peaks and valleys that lie in the depths of
The soul a broadening occurs enlargement of conciseness it is imperceptible in many ways but the sigh
Might be mysterious but it waits for visitors then it flashes through a brilliant smile it divides and
Conquers in a world of division harmony closes tensions gates the still prevails like the silent wind
Made heavy by moisture on this the harvest of thoughts and words march to instill in your world
You have been by yourself and at length you have unknowingly decreased so as to make room for
Wisdom that seeks stillness always its intent is to evade the world fraught with ignorance build
Bridges that crosses divides making connections drawing forth alliances that cheer you and others to
New heights of achievement just as this writing has tried to do God bless you
Mar 25, 2012
Mar 25, 2012 at 2:22 AM UTC
“We read to know we’re not alone.”
C.S. Lewis says, as a character in the film Shadowland
~~~
my lovers mumble when they leer and clear the
assorted sordid, livres with dust jackets, spines,
and notable ideas, POV’s that dare to offend; me
thinking seeing they’re uneasily resting uneasy, for
there appears to be some scales, mountains that need
mounting before they can successful scale my
heights, a big BE WARY atmospheric global warning
signs prior to enter my magic kingdom,
quizzes they are unassuaged they will pass
with any color schema,
let alone flying ones…
that amuses me, ah well, a sign of my changes, when
those days when a merely handsome man turned this
now skeptical-woman agog, and flushes of heat made
a breast beat, a flesh and blood chin, *** eyes, rock me
like a movie poster definition of movie poster handsome
they are smarter and when they cautiously inquire re my
diversity, a broadening array of fiction, philosophical disput-
ations, that lay and lie with me, they, and I bare skinned,
open to the ah ha! of titillating notions of human endeavor,
or British ****** mysteries, and lots and lots of history…
this commends and cerifies
my screening choices for,
when alone, I read
to know I am are not alone,
for my thoughts need hot
company, and my caress
of divers words diverges,
in so many directions, I need
assurance, insurance that the
men who wish to bed me are
capable of making love to my
mind, where stimulus and that
they can feed me endlessly a
variety of bouchées amusantes,
that wet my appetite for their
entirety
should they fail,
to for want of trying,
I comfort them obliquely,
informing them that
”We need to read to know we are not alone!”
Mar 3, 2024
Mar 3, 2024 at 8:33 PM UTC
This is for a friend.
Some one I believe in.
Some one who holds my secrets.
Yet may not know he does...
Some one who understands words written.
And the sorrows in doing so...
Some one who thinks he hides in the darkness,
But I know walks in the light...
I just want to say thank you.
To a friend...
Thank you for broadening my horizons.
AC/11/16/09
Nov 29, 2009
Nov 29, 2009 at 7:14 AM UTC
Life changes so very fast
The future- time to make-up for the past
But what do I want anymore?
I see no light at the end of the tunnel
or various open doors
Instead, I witness
The most magnificent periwinkle-blue sky
in front of me.
Jul 4, 2014
Jul 4, 2014 at 8:54 AM UTC
Words swimming, words swimming
Where are you going
How could you leave me
I thought you were my friend
Drowsy, Drowsy
Eyelids have surrendered
Then suddenly you've vanished into nothingness
I can practically feel your excitement
of not being captivating enough for me
Did you ever even care?
For so long you have been my strength
Now as I find my horizons broadening
You shrink in comparison
And I can't help but wonder
How much did I actually rely on you?
The isolation of me and you
created an illusion of need
But worry not
Despite these differences
I will never leave you
Even as the words swim
May 14, 2013
May 14, 2013 at 12:28 AM UTC
names faces traces places
the laces of shoes she said I couldn't walk a mile in
but my feet are fins that should slice tides like skin
but they're rocks chipping
ticking clocks documenting inception
redemption and the vain conclusions you beat to and beyond the grave
from ivory frames crushed in the dark room they rise
as flies bursting into the focus of the microscope's lens broadening past
the horizon of a single winged back
Aug 12, 2014
Aug 12, 2014 at 4:51 AM UTC
have you seen the sun today?
rising over the horizon..
slowly rejuvenating the earth..
from the cold and dark night!
have you felt the sun today?
coloring the skin with bright hue..
broadening the lips with grin..
slowly warming up the skin!
sleepless night gone past..
a new day to gather up pieces..
whatever is left behind..
after the towering inferno!
some may rise, some may fall...
hopes keep afloat ..
to the mornings galore..
can you hear the hearse?
May 14, 2012
May 14, 2012 at 4:01 PM UTC
A periwinkle snap of the fingers
A glazed-over, ungazed-at afterthought of a dimwitted maker
Allowing only specks of atmosphere to puncture through for gasps of air
An assassination without capacity for reflection or modesty.
Broadening my horizons, my eyes adjusting to the sun's sheddings,
I notice the satin ribbons of the west, trotting over the hills, blood-lusting,
Roaring in anticipation of the persecution of the dry, dusty chandelier to the north
Forcing the lumination,
Breaking open the porous night-covering threatening to its final breath
The self-mutilation to bring it and its 3 navigational acquaintances to the bone-encrusted, sadistic
Hell of the humans, modern-day Terra, the disease-laced, frayed blanket of Gaea.
And as I viciously avert my eyes as the first blow finds a weak exposed abdomen,
I pray to God that I might participate in this brawl,
And I curse high heaven that it is so fateful a dusk.
Jul 15, 2014
Jul 15, 2014 at 1:39 AM UTC
...With much ancestral barking, and
loaded quieting, the ghosts sat down
to paint.
Color renounced the spectrum...
blanching their translucent shrouds
as the firmament flailed maniacally,
bludgeoning the telltale signs of lives
painted by number.
A fractal engorged upon itself...the
ghosts foisted their vision.
As refracted tunnel lights upon the
cyclopic eye of a subway train...from
front to rear.
Went through both ends of The Tunnel,
broad daylight...broadening, and
broadening--till the ghosts sat down to
paint...tethered color snapped loose.
Oct 28, 2013
Oct 28, 2013 at 2:06 PM UTC
It drizzled,
ever so lightly,
coldness seeping in
and warmth radiated.
Droplets of water streaming
down my cheeks, wetting my dimples.
My lips curved up
broadening into smile
and eyes filled with hope
It drizzled
ever so lovingly,
wind blowing off
and droplets sinking in.
The grains of sand dancing
under my foot, playing in joy.
My heart widened
filling itself with satisfaction
and my mind filled with love.
It drizzled
and hope soared into my life,
when wind blew and clouds moved
Once again I hoped to live,
be 'Green' and youthful again....
Dec 2, 2016
Dec 2, 2016 at 9:48 AM UTC
Straggler whose self-edifying whip
signs the energy of strandedness...
padlocked to the cold ******* of earth,
whose blood flecks gold in a rain of
rays...ready to consume wholes in
that broadening light of upturned eyes.
Its scales, scaling scales that seem to
equalize as open arms...legless, armless--
that belly's bloated deformity.
Fluxing fat off the land, swiveling exclamation
point tapping its head to outer reaches.
Honorary guest ex nihilo,
whose hiss is silence in reverse.
Mar 10, 2017
Mar 10, 2017 at 12:16 PM UTC
Sometimes I just wonder
Wonder about everything and anything
Wonder about the past, the present, and the future
The possibilities, chances, wishes, dreams
And sometimes thinking about all this
Makes me petrified
Scared for what is to come
Worrisome of my choices
Indecisive of my path
Hesitant of my actions
Unsure, wavering, uncertain
And at other times
I am excited
Ready for the world
Broadening my horizons
Prepared to spread my wings
And soar
Ability to be
Anyone I want to be
To decide however I want to decide
And then sometimes I just wonder
Wonder about everything and anything
Wonder about the past, the present, and the future
The possibilities, chances, wishes, dreams
And then I stop
I stop wondering and question
I marvel at my conflictions
I embrace the opportunities
Laid out before me
Sometimes I just wonder
If wondering is a waste of my time
If thinking too much
Can cause you to walk in circles
In a never-ending cycle
Within this immeasurable infinity
Of such an inexhaustible vastness
Which we call our world
I wonder again
Maybe this is what makes me human
Jul 23, 2014
Jul 23, 2014 at 4:45 PM UTC