While Driving Home

The first time I drove these fast, multi-lane interstate highways connecting Chicago and northern Indiana I was alone and I thought I was going to die or get my butt kicked since I wasn’t supposed to be on them. I was driving a cheap, used car I bought from a classmate without asking my father’s advice because I didn’t have a brain in my head. A week later, after the car and I survived I-94, that car suddenly lost oil and brought me, safely, to its final stop on a country road. Driving back to my childhood town these memories take advantage of the opportunity to hold my attention. My sister is still there with her family. There is also my former teacher. His children, who have children now, I remember as children whom I baby sat while their youngest sibling was being born. My parents are both there, side by side, but where they really are, and perhaps who they really are, I will find out in the not too distant future. One by one, they joined my youngest brother whose misfortune with automobiles was worse than mine. I can still see my father opening the door for me as we gathered that day. How he cried! I hear Omar Alfanno’s “Un Hombre de Verdad” playing from my phone over the car’s speakers. My heart tells my mind that enough is enough and they give me a chance to listen. I touch repeat.

APRIL’S EYES HAVE CLEARED
EARTH WAITS WARM AND PATIENTLY
BLOOMS SMILE EVERYWHERE

Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday hosted by Toni with the prompt to write a haibun about singing to a song while driving.

Online Vanishing

Since my mind isn’t frightfully clear,
And I listen to less than I hear,
And this limerick’s got
Nary reason nor plot,
If I post it will it disappear?

Linked to dVerse where I am hosting today and the prompt is to write a limerick.

Photo: “I Wish My Mind Were Clear Like That” by the author

The Superiority of Altruistic Cooperation

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” John Donne

Alone within the neighborhood
Nothing feels quite right,
But nothing’s wrong with wind or Sun.
The flowers bloom and Spring’s begun.
Life moves past shades of night.

We’re not quite individuals here.
We’re more or less the same.
That “less” adds interest little more,
Ephemeral, a challenge for
New dreams we could attain.

I heard about the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt this past week and started reading the “The Righteous Mind” about “social intuitionism”. He has a Ted Talk praising cooperation for its evolutionary advantages. My quote of John Donne comes at the end this talk. Being about cooperation, it seems to fit our present community prompt.

Linked to dVerse Poetics hosted by Paul with the prompt “community”.
Linked to NaPoWriMo2017 Day Twenty-Six.

Liberty’s New Day

Although liberty dies
There’s a Moon that will rise
Casting moonlight below.
Oldish dreams fail to grow.
Patient stars ever will
Turn around but look still.
Evening Sun creeps to set.
We’ll eventually get
Some new day some may see
Although maybe not me.

Linked to dVerse Quadrille hosted by Grace with prompt “still”.
Linked to NaPoWriMo2017 Day Twenty-Four.
Photo: “Still and Patient” by the author

The Holy Is What’s Really Real

They’re commonplace, lovers’ eyes,
And take us deep where rhythms rise
To sanity, a holy place,
Re-syncing hearts to true surprise.

Odd theories claim the human race
Has selfish eyes and lacks all grace.
Such idols have no depth to see
Beyond the surface of a face.

But everywhere there’s mystery
Much deeper than it needs to be
And deeper than a smallish brain
Since love does not move mindlessly.

Those in love should not complain.
The Lover’s backing all love’s pain
And joy as every lover tries
To hold what’s real without the lies.

 

Linked to Poets United hosted by Susan asking the question “What is holiness?”
Linked to dVerse Open Link Night hosted by Grace.
Linked to NaPoWriMo2017 Day Twenty.
Photo: “Daffodils” by the author

Postcard From Some Destination

These words are silly shadows.
Wonders disappear
When darkened ground forgets bright sky
And hints but it does not know why.
There’s something missing here.

Linked to dVerse Poetics hosted by De aka WhimsyGizmo asking us to write a postcard poem.
Linked to NaPoWriMo2017 Day Eighteen.
Photo: “Shadows of Reality” by the author.

Chicken Problem

They live free from lust and fear and anger.¹

I waste resources taking precautions against what I fear and nothing happens. It is what I don’t anticipate that messes me up. For example, while walking Fred that half mile we usually take through the forest I stay within view of the path so I won’t get lost. I don’t think about the problems Fred has been having with those chickens whom I allow to range freely near the cabin and who torment him chained to his doghouse. So when I unchain Fred, out of kindness, because we are buddies and all, and I see him turn back up the path briefly looking at me with scorn, I realize that I’m an idiot.

By the time I get back, Fred’s anger resolved his chicken problem. He is gnawing on one of them when he sees me and begins part two of his plan for domination. He rushes into the cabin defending his castle growling and baring his teeth. At this point I guess I felt fear, but mainly it was anger which is what fear turns into when it doesn’t care any more. I kneel down bracing for his charge with the chain in one hand and the forefinger of my other hand touching the floor beside me, “Get your ass over here.”

Fred is smarter than most animals I’ve met including myself. He bowed his head and submissively accepted the chain.

follow forrest trail
trees prepare for new spring growth
winter dying’s past

Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday hosted by Toni Spencer with the topic fear.
¹A quote about fear is required. Mine comes from the Bhagavad Gita, Eknath Easwaran translator.
Linked to NaPoWriMo2017 Day Seventeen.
Photo: “V” by the author

One Rose

This simple story that is theirs to tell
Is older than the darkness of the night
And truer than the Sun’s new morning light
And deeper than the deepest magic spell.

Between them stood tall mountains none would cross,
A river that ran rapids through their dreams,
A forest that lay dense where one rose beamed
And warned them they could suffer every loss.

They followed Love no matter how they’d fall.
Then mountains bowed to open up the sky.
The river calmed. The forest lifted high.
What fear they felt they now could not recall.

Their tears took root, went deep. They understood
That darkness charmed by light transforms to good.

Linked to dVerse Meeting the Bar: Pop Sonnets hosted by Kim of Writing in North Norfolk with the prompt to convert a pop song into a sonnet.  I am not supposed to tell you which pop song I selected.
Linked to NaPoWriMo2017 Day Thirteen.

Photo: “Watching the Light” by the author

Yum Yum

There are so many monsters dancing everywhere.
Some are purple like those peacocks bopping over there.
Some are people like those penguins who do not dance right.
Every eater will get hungry so stay out of sight.

Linked to dVerse Poetics hosted by Lillian with a prompt to pick a song that hit number one on the year you were born, or five to ten years after you were born, and incorporate that song title into a poem. The song I picked was Sheb Wooley’s number one hit from the summer of 1958, “Purple People Eater”. I was eight seven at the time this hit number one, so you can do the math.
I also linked this to NaPoWriMo2017 Day Eleven.

Here is a recent version of the song since the lyrics are clearer.

Last Draft

A little rain, a little wet
A little sun we won’t forget
A drizzle, drazzle, druzzle there
A frazzle frizzled up somewhere
Mushy, splushy, gushy kiss
Happy dragging worlds through bliss
A liftoff love crash lands with pain
Healing hearts light dance in rain

Linked to dVerse Quadrille #30 hosted by Mish with the prompt word “drizzle”.
Linked to NaPoWriMo2017 Day Ten although I realize actually writing one poem a day is beyond me.
Photo: “First Draft” by the author.  This was my starting point.  That whitish background is the desk I made myself out of a sheet of plywood decades ago and still use.