The Poetry Marathon

Out in the country I hear the birds
chirping before the dawn’s first light
waking me up with their songs.
So many melodies
I wonder in awe
and mystery
the lyrics
to their
songs.

Where the skyscraper meets
the periwinkle sky
and hawks glide by
on currents
The city heats
with concrete beats
upon the weary eye.

Electric fields like webs entangle
wrapping us cocoon like in their signal
Storefronts bustle
in their hustle
bleeding night
from day.

I see a cloud
above the fray
white and fluffy true
reminding me
of sourdough
biscuits in the blue.

Deep within the oceans depths
(blue and back and green)
bubbles speak
with day glow streaks
in muted mystery.

I dare not venture down
there, beneath the rolling waves
Where I can not touch the ground….

We think so much
it complicates
so much simplicity
The ocean depths
reveal themself
in liquid blacks
and green.

Float beneath
the salty waves
splendor in the sea
Revel in
the silent grace
of dark
simplicity.

“It takes two to Tango”
My mother would say
(and her mother before her, I know)
When I was a kid,
whatever I did,
that blame was not easy to lay.

Now I am grown
and I’ve learned to bestow
that phrase on a few of my own
But really it seems
my side of the street
must be swept clean to see
what part I have played in the show.

I learned something new on the radio
about a hot air balloon
Apparently they can not rise on a day
when it’s hotter outside then the room
above it’s flame.

Today in my town
its expected to reach
a high of one hundred and two
My car may still run
but I’m grounded in sun
like a tired deflated balloon.

Normal as a metaphor
beguiling and loose
swaying with the demographic
trailing the caboose.

12 steps call them “normies”
those people who we think
are free from all the consequence
addiction and the drink
can bring.

Normal as a metaphor
a programming, a box….
Oiling the squeaky wheels,
sneaky, like a fox.

Swirling heat
behind the beat
of sun and golden ray
We gather on the hillside
Along the banks we play
lingering a moment
beneath the heat
of day.

Swim sweet songs of beauty
ripples in the stream
Breathe beneath the water
Mermaids in a dream.

I will sleep beneath the trees
as soft a wind to sway
Awakening to birdsong
There is magic
in this day.

Message in a bottle
from another space and time
beeswax seal, the fairies steal
away to catch a ride.

Written on the paper
in disappearing ink
the secrets of the universe
beyond the missing link.

Monkey wrench the matrix
ghost in the machine
blockchain broke down palace
lucid as a dream.

As in sand words do dissolve
as waves sweep them away
the poem I wrote remembers not
posterity, a play.

“But this I can say with certainty: the mind is vaster,
& the world ever so much more alive,
then I knew when I began”.
Opening to the universe
the magic of it all
Sifting through the imagery
Creating, to recall.

Each molecule enchanting
a biome rich and dense
breathing electricity
dramatic and intense.

Sifting through the alchemy
desire in our breath
Slowing down we listen
to the music notes and death.

“But this I can say with certainty:
the mind is vaster, & the world ever so much more alive,
then I knew when I began.”

Michael Pollan
“How to Change Your Mind”

I lost my home I can’t go back
Pearl Buck was right to say
The land, the land
I hear repeatedly.

I lost my home I can’t go back
the storage unit claims
what used to make me cozy
in boxes stacked like chains.

I lost my home I can’t go back
I seek to find a space
Running rabbit competition cash
Home plate in a race.

My heart is held divinely
I’ll land in feathered nest
I believe in love and faith
and hope I will be blessed.