Art therapy class,  the exercise:  cut random words from magazines and create a visual poem from them.   The text reads:  

MEAN ing less 

Wrong.

You’re crazy, dumb, worthless

You don’ know

You can’t

Y… Read full post »

Inside the “Bad Ass Coffee”café

A quiet poet
chooses
from café’s riotous air,
words,
to paint on ruled paper
in strokes and lines of ink, imprisoning this moment.
The grind
of an espresso machine crashes walls
reverberating rude clatter across tables
creating caustic ver… Read full post »

Rhyme of Season

walk the line

walk in rhyme

rhyme the stride

rhyme like a child

child-like play

child inside strays

stray cat scats

stray off path

path well-worn

path of thorns

thorns scrape skin… Read full post »

Not Here

Chemistry of a lukewarm soul
washed with love’s vitriol, not here.

A tepid tempest waits holding
howling hurt for console, not here.

The truth tucked away and hidden
far deep down rabbit hole, not here.

Painted patience, the un-sainted

affixed with aureole, not her… Read full post »

Soggy Cornflake Dreams

 she didn’t sing, she sewed,

and she sowed, and cared for

everyone, and anyone not at all

while he, no one loved him

more, than he himself

and the children never guessed

the why of this pretty house

with its perfunctionary kisses

Stepford-lived… Read full post »

two hands

first the grasp, with fluttered hearts and raspy breath

 then the hold, with a squeeze, a pump, a told pleasure

 next a drop, to lift something else or stop to create personal space

 finally expanse, the distance reveals neither softness… Read full post »

and when against all predictions

a single moment of news arrives

where death hovers amid fact and prophesy

its awakening un-nerves the faithful

and the doubt grows like the cancer

then between the breath and the tears

my response beats resilient

with the… Read full post »

The Secret Life of Fleas

nippy nuisance

of carpet nap

scratchy torture -

where’s the trap?

I seize a Kleenex and sneeze my decision “No, absolutely not, I’m allergic to cats!”

Little… Read full post »

  The ice danced slowly as she twirled her drink glass.

"Sheryl, have you seen the new exhibit at the museum?"  The question brought her back to the conversation.

"No, but I plan to. It's supposed to be an excellent collection of native landscapes.  I was impressed when I met the… Read full post »

the empty and the kite dancer

forgotten forests

of slash and burn lands, sun parched

empty cisterns cry

sand missing the grass

where her bare ankles sink

into driest path

desert wind rustles

her green flowered skirt ruffles

too lush for the void

still on rainless… Read full post »

Irrational numbers


quantifiable
impatience forms expressions
faux love equations

times A adds up B
minus times A multiples self
computes mixed measures

checking on-off-on
binary games
of she loves me? not?

despite radiance
circumference formula
requires two and pi(e)

A and B is true
always, unless A is t… Read full post »

 Dearest Ryan,

Oh my beloved, I have searched for you, scanning the heavens looking for your glow each evening. In my quest of the night sky, I’ve memorized the constellations. I stared so keenly I’ve seen a quiver in Orion’s bow, and watched as the ram and the bear run a/… Read full post »

   Wind 

The wind has an insistent push

Pressing a moment then it abates

Capricious patterns, always in a rush

Tearing modestly while it re-creates.

My hair blown wild by the wind

I watch undulating branches sway

My skin feels its pressure pinned

A dance of movement, sound,… Read full post »

Like pebbles thrown in a still pond, our lives in words and actions ripple out to touch others.  This week, a ripple I created a long time ago has come back as a tsunami tide…   

My daughter a… Read full post »

 Médaillons de Mardi Gras 

Rain drips down through the heavens

and runs like tears down people’s faces

as they pass beneath the pale lamplight

in sweet confusion under the moonlight, couples

howling “Allons danser!” and solitary figures

with those mean old… Read full post »

 the fable of Valentines  

 Once upon a time,

before mass mechanical

confectioneries and affectionate coupons

there flourished Olympic Romance –

of bards, and barons, 

and bastards,

who troubadoured rondeaus

from secret spots in garden bushes

up… Read full post »

   Modern Madonna 

maiden pauses

many reflections

mock emotions

mirrored performance

momentous decision

meticulous composition

makeup expression

movable pose

mask thoughts

metaphor painted

Who dat, behind dat mask?

This week I was reminded how mu… Read full post »

Po.It


Of prose
(the
internalexpanding
&
externalcontracting)
thinks Alfred and

brought allofhis muS
-ings
to a:word

stand-
;Still

ruminating.

(the
clang
& clank
of railway passage
rattles, rocking thoughts
as)

Po.It rides 
toandfrom: life’s Destination.

(then
screech
&
squeal
as train halts
a:bruptl… Read full post »

Manifesto 

In September, I believe in burnt gold and orange nestled with magnolia blossoms, and the music in the crack of a new book spine or in the crackle of bonfires.

On my childhood tire swing I believed the wind could blow laughter, sunshine melted frozen hearts, and that all skinned knees/… Read full post »

pink, wet, luscious

tips spread open like butterfly wings

a carnal paradise

Spent end-tails to a once succulent grilled shrimp dinner and a half eaten potato: the remains of her meal in the caverns of a white Styrofoam container.  Messy left-overs on opposing sides.  She/… Read full post »

   * Sevenlings: Her Story

He loved three things alone:
warm cookies with cold beer,
his sail boat, Reality TV.

He hated children foibles,
reading prose, womanly
thoughts and dreams.

... and he married me.


The Little Things Give You Away…  

Evening Chores&… Read full post »

“OK girls, hang a right at the end

of the drive, it’s just three minutes

up on the left-hand side.”

With an OHV engine jolt they twist tires in the mud

and careen away from the fish camp,

Thelma and Louise archetypes

wave gleefully from inside

a convertible tank… Read full post »