Papa Poet

Poem found! I just needed to look farther back in my journal. The poem is not the same as the original, but as close as I could get it. It began in a Victorian B & B in Hot Springs, Arkansas that had previously been used as preschool. Somehow the thought […]

I lost a poem. I thought it was on my laptop. It wasn’t. Memory stick? Not there either. Desktop? Nope. My last hope was my journal. Most of my poems at least start there and perhaps that beloved book still contained its essence. But no. […]

I saw this guy near my old college campus. He was like every other anti-establishment guy you’ve seen peddling his bike down the road: sweaty, hairy, focused only on the road. But this time I saw something else.
Peace Sign
Peddle past old man
on your paperboy-special
with a simple grace and a peace
sign inked on the […]

This is a companion post to Responsibility. Responsibility and creativity are not always mutually exclusive, just often.
Creativity
Creativity fills
compartmented gaps,
a span of two shores
above the deep
pastel portraits
evoke at once calm
and petulance, presence
and escape, an Alcatraz
oasis from afar,
an ill wind aweather.
Oh that one could eternally live
on that ethereal bridge
connecting shore to shore
and soul to soul.

If anyone is reading (and even if they’re not), I haven’t posted in a while due to password problems.  I think that is all fixed (thanks Gordon).  I wrote this a few weeks ago as I was about to start a lengthy training program for my real job, a profession that has provided for my […]

St John Muse
I was on vacation last week with my oldest son and his family at the beach.  We shared lots of splashing and laughter and it was good.  One quiet afternoon, my son and I observed this poem.  All I did was write it down.
One day many days ago she ran and kicked
and sprayed […]

It’s been a while since I last posted.  Life gets like that sometime.  Mostly work changes and pressures.  Just life.  Anyway that led me to one of my old favorites for comfort that I want to share here.  The poet is John Donne, 1572-1631.
Batter my heart, three-person’d God

Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet […]

Christmas is a nexus of faith and family. Intimate faith. Immediate family. About 30 years ago I began the tradition of writing the verse in my wife’s Christmas card. Most are serious. Some are not. Several years ago she was in a leg cast for the entire Christmas […]

In my travels I ride a lot of elevators and observe. It is an interesting dynamic.

Sharing Elevators
today NFL combine
tailored testosterone fumbling
bling-bling raw gems
try to catch a coach’s eye
yesterday Mary Kay
and her conventioneers
high on Midnight Madness
giggled door to floor
tomorrow one lone woman
well dressed hesitates
to join one lone man
going down or
up and down seemingly
not seeing or […]

This poem is for my wife of nearly forty years. We recently visited the city of her difficult childhood for the first time. I stand in awe. I rest in her love.

Champaign
Six, eight, ten years old
all of those, none of those
but no more than ten
blocks to school
under the railroad
through the park (except […]