AROMA of BLISS

 

Marks of a good person:

Kindness and courage,

usually performed unconsciously

Revel in those moments

planted in the garden of memory

to blossom unexpectedly,

in a welcome aroma of bliss

 

 

PREDATORS

 

Backyard scene

Bird with broken wings,

fluttering awkwardly,

unable to lift into the air

High above hawk notices

the easy meal

Living room scene

Confused old lady

answers her phone

a predator salivates

anticipating the money

in her bank account

an easy score

 

 

 

FOOL'S GOLD

 

Selling fool’s gold

requires a spellbinding skill

that Trump has down cold

The buyers see only the glow,

hypnotized by the salesman

who could sell Eskimos snow

They love listening to his pitch

He’s such a fascinating

son of a gun

But sadness comes in time

when realizing

glitter does not mean gold

 

 

BALANCE

 V

The groaning board of life

offers so many experiences

Choosing the right balance

between work and pleasure

is a conscious choice

that will shape a family

coming at the cost of time

once spent, gone forever

 

GRACIOUSNESS

 

 

Graciousness is an addictive quality,

likely acquired at the kitchen table

where decency, compassion, and love

are shared in family conversations

 

Graciousness isn’t to be measured

In coin, but in the quality of life

for whoever experiences it

practitioner or witness

 

Graciousness is an antidote

To mindless belligerence

That pollutes the atmosphere

of a room and the entire world

KNEES

 

The hinges of the legs

linking the calf to the thigh

Silently carrying

the weight of the body

up and down stairs

running and climbing

Unnoticed when pain-free

So easily damaged in sports

Wearing achingly in old age

 

CONTINUING to LIVE

 

Continuing to live, while waiting to die

seeing how the world has gone awry

through online versions of news

and the smorgasbord of YouTube views

 

But every day brings me pleasure

via novels and films, I treasure

At dinner every single night

I enjoy a gourmet delight

 

In bed, I sleep sometimes

deep or in waking creep

My dreams are full of rhymes

in waking I am unable to keep

 

ALEX WAS A NURSE, a poem

 

 

Everyone loves a nurse

They are caring

They are kind

They listen

Alex Pretti was a nurse

He has been added       

to the lore of the nurse

as a martyr

Like a nurse rushing to aid

a patient in distress,

he sought to protect

a woman knocked down

by a masked Trump agent

in Minneapolis

Alex stepped between the victim

and her attacker

He was thrown to the ground,

surrounded by Trump thugs,

beaten on the head,

pressed into a helpless position

on his knees, shot in the back,

a prelude to nine more bullets

pumped into his prone body

Alex was a nurse

 

 

 

DESIRE, a poem

 

Desire for romance

and new experiences

brought what was wanted

The romance was lovely

while it lasted

New experiences came

and faded

The pleasures thinned

The memories remained

 

 

CANDY BARS (Heiku)

 

Happy memories

The candy bars of old age

I can’t get enough

 

 

 

 

CONSIDERING DEATH

 

When my body cries out

in endless pain

or thinking begins to fade

from a crumbling brain,

can I plunge into the Styx

or must I wait for God

to provide a terminal fix

 

Thomas More wrote in UTOPIA: (1516) that a person afflicted with disease can "free himself from this bitter life…since by death he will put an end not to enjoyment but to torture… it will be a pious and holy action".

 

 

 

BOUND FOREVER

 

 

Could there have been another

equally as captivating for my life

as you

Perhaps, but I’ll never know

since we were bound together

forever

by an indefinable potion:

Our love

 

 

LINGERING LIFE

 

        Forget the quality of life

          A mere spark

          in a near corpse

          is reason enough

          for some doctors

and relatives

to continue on

          with feeding tubes

          and liquid drips

          because life is precious

          even when there is

          no apparent joy

          in this still living Being

          After all, miracles happen

          After all, Lasarus was raised

 

 

WRITER'S BLOCK

 

 

 

Inspiration, where are you?

Hidden in a recess of my brain

dangling teasingly out of reach?

Just give me an enticing idea

Hopefully, even a tiny spark

will stir me to write again

AT 91

 

At ninety-one,

seventy-year-olds seem so young

because at that wonderful time

my body was strong and graceful

not aching with collapsing legs

So, seventy-year-olds,

who are in good shape,

revel in your youth

           ninety-one is coming 

GHOST

 

I awoke

My dead wife

stood in the doorway

of our bedroom

To see me?

To fetch me?

I wondered

if this were a sign

she missed me

as much as I do her

DESIRE

 

 

Desire for romance

And new experiences

Brought what was wanted

The romance was lovely

While it lasted

New experiences came

And passed

The pleasures thinned

The memories remained

A WELCOME REVIEW OF THE DREAM DANCER

 

 

A reviewer using the name PostScript filed the following review

of THE DREAM DANCER on Kindle:

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Tells it like it is

Superbly well written book that really activates the senses and compassion

for the travails of oppressed people. It also gives deep insight on why the native

American characters are the way they are and why they react and suffer. There's no happy

ending until spirit departs the agony of his condition inflicted on earth. A profoundly

moving book.

                                               

            

RAIN, haiku

 

Rain comes pouring down

Feeding fields and filling streams

Please God, not too much

DARK YEARS AHEAD

 

Four dark years

lie before us

Hopefully, our way

be eased by sparks

heralding democracy

until the ordeal

is over

and Donald Trump

and his minions

are swallowed

into a fading memory