PROMPT: Judge of Character

Daily writing prompt
Are you a good judge of character?

While I might flatter myself that I can recognize an asshole when I see one, the truth is that stealth assholes are real.

PROMPT: Animals

Daily writing prompt
Do you ever see wild animals?

Sure, I just saw a bird fly past my window, and I’m fairly certain that it wasn’t domesticated.

Chinatown [Senryū]

through the paifang*,
you leave your city,
but you're not in China.

*A paifang (牌坊) is the gate over a street or road that denotes the bounds of a Chinatown.

PROMPT: Passionate

Daily writing prompt
What are you passionate about?

I’m passionate about being passionate about anything worth doing (and half-ass everything else.)

PROMPT: Good Life

Daily writing prompt
What are the most important things needed to live a good life?

Right mind, healthy body, and good company.

River Vision [Free Verse]

in a flat, wide river:
something juts up
from the water --
far in the distance

for an instant,
i startle:
seeing it as an
extended arm...

like that Stevie Smith
poem, but i discover
it's neither waving,
nor drowning, but
merely protruding...

a dead limb
stuck in the river,
drag & pull balanced,
waiting to be
carried away.

“The Bell” by Ralph Waldo Emerson [w/ Audio]

I love thy music, mellow bell,
I love thine iron chime,
To life or death, to heaven or hell,
Which calls the sons of Time.

Thy voice upon the deep
The home-bound sea-boy hails,
It charms his cares to sleep,
It cheers him as he sails.

To house of God and heavenly joys
Thy summons called our sires,
And good men thought thy sacred voice
Disarmed the thunder's fires.

And soon thy music, sad death-bell,
Shall lift its notes once more,
And mix my requiem with the wind
That sweeps my native shore.

“The earth has many keys” (1775) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

The earth has many keys,
Where melody is not
Is the unknown peninsula.
Beauty is nature's fact.

But witness for her land,
And witness for her sea,
The cricket is her utmost
Of elegy to me.

Night Swimming [Free Verse]

Trudging into lapping waves
On a dim and dusky eve.

Chest deep
One pops up, pressing one's chest
Onto the water,
And swims toward a distant
Silhouetted rock outcrop.

But it doesn't stay silhouetted.

Soon, one is heading into
A grand, black abyss,
There is no shape in this world,
Only the feel of limbs -- pulling & kicking.

Sounds grow ever more feeble --
And ever more rare --
Until the smell of seawater becomes
A bright and vivid sensory experience --
Layered & textured.

Rolling onto one's back, one can see
Patches of sparkling stars
In the cloud gaps.

One lays upon the waves --
Feeling as though one conforms to them
As one floats like a piece of driftwood --
And sees the twinkle of distant stars,
In a world too vast to understand.