Category Archives: free verse

lagniappe

1 Reply

Because mornings emerge from misty bayous
and moss that hangs and touches the sky-
a reflection in glass.
Because the thickness in the air wraps
the sunlight and holds it close.
The moments are a drawl, and a legacy of
stillness waits-
it waits between each drawing breath,
lingers between each morning glory
and rain lily-
a sweet kiss from a drowsy boo
and its momentary entanglements.
Even before the first note sounds
the blues, there is beauty conjured in the
slim to none spell-
and it is some kind of wonderful,too.

a foothold in the daisies

Leave a reply

The clouds are just now learning how to speak.
There’s a foothold in the daisies,
and a slow descent of water from the creek
The sun is rising amber, slow and weak.

The melody of morning turns
it’s ear upon the repeat cooing dove
and smells of honeysuckle
wafted in from somewhere down the grove.

A single tuft of flowers out among
the complete scene of hurried traffic,
other places here and in-between-
a foothold in the daisies –
a shared embrace,
devotion to a yellow speck in space.

And safe return to where began this whole mystique,
and I am learning -just now- how to speak.

abandon

Leave a reply

snow melting abandon
stenciled-
meant to carry away
the weep of wintry
bitterness.
drops that melted
from ice gripped
with steadfast assurances.
each drip an escapee
of purpose,
prone to wander
and feel its own
way, with only the sound
of sequent kin
that silence with distance.
winding catacombs
lead to some outcome,
to a gathering of likeness
that feeds the living
and absorbs
the dissolute elements
of the dead.

in a room with over-sized books

1 Reply

In a room with over-sized books
and a dungy wing-back chair,
I am invited to sit
and look at maps of Belize
and Montenegro, tables espousing
cotton production
in the deep south, where is the world’s leading
smelter of tin,
or diagrams of different zoological
families.
Garden paths of azaleas
in a gulf between tall oaks,
Photographs of Lennon on holiday
and Lenin in state,
and the virtues of handmade linen,
all woven and attentive
to my browsing.
Bindings jut and overhang
from the shelves,
like spanish moss speaking,
knowing that I choose the ones
who pronounce themselves
and embrace my turn
of the page.

********
I was spending time in a library this week, when I happened on
the oversized book collection in a quiet room with
a single chair. So much about this collection and this
environment spoke to me.

in-vitro

2 Replies

I am not feeling some in-vivo
loss of love.

I just don’t see how it comes,
to me.
Out of nothingness
-a sudden embrace of pleasure
swathed in joy-
being in your arms.

held in the dark
with warm superlatives
and I am afraid to open
my eyes

Or even in light
where moving sideways
affords discovery –
and yet things are unfazed by my presence.

sometimes, it wells up inside me
that I am lonely,
and the crest that falls
obliges me to ride a flux

to moments like this, when someone
reads what I have felt
and created to make it so.

*************
This is an odd collection of thoughts that I wrote in my writing journal throughout this past week. I’ve assembled it as a poem on loneliness (I think). I’m not sure it is fully coherent as a poem yet, but it is something that I want to leave here for comment.

Contours

3 Replies

I am afraid of
painted wood,
of silence, the absence
of touch-
all empty hearts.

Do not conceal the grain.
an errant
beauty that meanders
repeats patterns,
a sorcery of contrast
that speaks of light and dark,
grown in the embrace of time.

Smoothed in polished hue,
yet textured and aching
for traces
to sound
and hear its voice.

The vibrations that
act upon a contoured soul
and adjoin
with tongues of parity,
a shape that’s shared and sown.

*******************
While sitting at my work table, I noticed the beautiful wood grain that wove through the surface, and this poem emerged.

From

2 Replies

There on,
her window sill blossoms
with planter box flowers
of slow jazz and Stanleys.
Her hand in the sunlight,
its daughter, light and blue.
Of red poppies,
love and forever –
displayed in tune.
And sometimes her crush
of the embraceable gypsy,
-of you
and your charming
pinned notes of heart’s spade
and peonies,
cause her to croon and cascade.
Her fingers lace
through clusters and letters,
still photographs of the
of scarlet fragments her
tears leave in the dirt – along
with the packet
of field daisy seeds
from me.

Untitled

14 Replies

My vista has left.

It got up and walked away,
taking its burgeoning poetry
and florets of blush
just beyond the hill-
where I last see a wrinkle
in the day.

Perhaps, it will sail away
and live at sea, content in knowing
that final curtains are best
without remorse. Every green patch
a relic of what was bewitching for me.

Tossed by storms in darkness,
with no one to notice.
Cowed in heat and sun.
Awoken in grey mists
that cling and impede
their run.

Maybe, one day it will land aground
after years adrift. Someone will see
and write words that begin a scene anew.

The beauty of the vista, adorned
with yearning – causes me to run
with all abandon
to meet the last wrinkle
of the day.

*****************
It is National Poetry Writing Month. I’ve participated in the past, but I don’t think I will this year – time will not allow me a post every day. I’ve been on a bit of a down-turn lately with inspiration for writing and experiencing my own emotional lows. This poem conveys a little of that struggle, the loss of “vision” – though I’m not sure I’m totally happy with it. I share it anyway, as a work in progress, because writing is something I must continue to do.

I don’t know why, I just do. I hope readers will continue to read.

All the best.

scavenge

3 Replies

with little sense
of wont and desire, less
like the flowers
that arose in February’s earnestness
and more in the dim
apathy of March mornings –
poetry lurks.

It seeks neither the fervor
of moments beneath the lilac
tree, nor the sweet aftertaste
of blackberries from yesterday’s
market.

It sneaks between the
goodwill trees, evergreen,
and brings back carcasses and twigs.

Scars, long ignored,
are indelible now. They will not be
mocked to insignificance,
but rather written down
after foraging the bleak and raw,
perfecting each and every flaw.

Supposed

5 Replies

Not proven,

more-so in being,
taking its place within a theorem
of tact and diplomacy.

A region in space
that local weather might clear away
to see, but not believe-
though purpose is reason enough.

It can be filled with sun or cats –
Or emptied of lust and water.

In time, supposing-lovers meet.
There is something curved about the form,
with gentle perceptions
arc and whorled but not touching.
Gaps are infused with
first blush – in dawning fashion.
A silhouette slowly fills to capacity,
their conclusions unite
with no sound-

only an apparition
of what could be true
and the assumption of profession.