Category Archives: poem

Soulless Voyager [Free Verse]

Posted on by
1 
I am the soulless voyager
cut loose from the dock
in a rudderless craft

Kicked this way and that
by angry winds that greet
all flat surfaces, and --
having met a surface --
pushes it away with maximum effort

Where will my ghost ship take to land?

After all,
every voyage must end -- 
be it purposeless or purposeful

A craft can only circle 
(having been caught in the currents)
for so long before it's whipped
off into sand or rock or 
some unlikely port

That's the great mystery,
the mystery by which life
is made worthy of living
 
one never knows whether 
one will be tossed to a port or a rocky shoal,
a shoal whose rocks will rip open the ship,
like a deer dressed by a poor hunter,
being torn at jagged angles
so as to be unworthy
to be called a ship or boat or even 
"thing that floats,"
becoming a rusty structure,
resting at an odd angle
near the shore

but maybe this ghost ship 
will be tossed roughly against 
the rubber bumpers of a dock,
coming to rest 
such that what remains
can be offloaded

The Thoreau Life [Common Meter]

Posted on by
2 
What a way to live one's life, in
a cabin made of wood;
never to be governed by: "I
have to! I must! I should!"

To set one's sights on the day's needs
as one's only master,
and not be told, "you move too slow,
you must live life faster." 

To start the day by a cue from
rays of the rising sun.
To end the day when the day ends,
not only just've begun.

Lantana [Tanka]

Posted on by
2 
two flaming umbels
of yellow-orange lantana;
but my eye
moves to the bud cluster
that sits in the background

Wheel of Watching [Haiku]

Posted on by
3 
watching monkeys 
watch humans, watching monkeys;
ad infinitum

Foul Winds [Free Verse]

Posted on by
3 
As a boy, I remember reading about 
the horse latitudes.
Those were the places in the ocean
where - at times - the winds didn't blow
for long periods at a time. 

Drifting in the middle of the Atlantic,
sailors would cut loose anything that
wouldn't keep them alive
& which might weigh them down,
that sometimes meant shoving horses
overboard to tread water 'til
they died from exhaustion.

People used to live or die by the winds.
Today, we only die by them.

That's what occurred to me as we sit
closer to nuclear annihilation than we've been
since I was a teenager,
and as I reflect upon
the prevailing winds.

Sneaky Monkey [Haiku]

Posted on by
1 
one monkey minds
its own business; the other
has mischief in mind

Labyrinth [Free Verse]

Posted on by
Reply 
the vaulted corridor is
lined with portals to places unknown
and linked to other hallways
in an infinite labyrinth

one can go from "here"
to anywhere,
but there's no map 
yours will be a stochastic journey;
one might prefer to systematically
 duck one's head into portals,
getting a feel about whether 
a given route seems favorable --
but we all know that one must often
travel through unfavorable territory
to get where one wants to be

and so it's like being thirsty in a life raft --
as per Coleridge's Mariner:
"Water, water, everywhere, 
Nor any drop to drink"

in this case,
 it's a free ticket to anywhere,
if you can only find your way,

but what're the odds?

The Flood [Senryū]

Posted on by
5 
a farmer surveys
his new stretch of sea,
mulling careers

June Rains [Haiku]

Posted on by
5 
house & garden
glisten from a soaking
of June rains

Quiet Moments of Buddha Time [Poem]

Posted on by
2 
in quiet moments
of Buddha time
i watch the world
like a man who's blind

i sing my songs 
like a drunken sage
and offer curses
as though free of rage