The mountain road is sometimes flat,
but it's not ever straight.
It winds through woods -- so deep and dark --
but where spotlights await.
Mountain Road [Common Meter]
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Category Archives: poem
Mimicry [Senryū]
Hanuman Langur
mimics a lounging housecat;
then paws at nothing.
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Vanish [Haiku]
Second Eyes [Free Verse]
From the dark depths
of a temple,
eyes open & blink
against the sunlight
pouring through
a narrow second set
of eyes.
What shapes form across
the way?
It's the roof of a second --
more ancient -- temple
that stands across
the street.
This monk has opened
eyes on that view a
thousand times before,
and each time has
forgotten the centuries
old neighboring temple
existed.
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Flurry [Haiku]
fine powdery snow
fills ground around grass:
frigid Winter day.
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Fake Snow,Real Cold [Haiku]
fake snow from
fountain spray in wind;
the cold is real.
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Solo? [Haiku]
solo bird flies
over sprawling waters
with upside down mate.
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Gateless [Lyric]
![Photograph of a gate at Kothi Gulistan-i-Eram [कोठी गुलिस्तान-ए-इरम] in Lucknow, Madhya Pradesh, India.](https://berniegourley.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/img_7619.jpg)
A Wall -- one may love or hate.
But picture one without a gate.
It is our ever-present fate
to need to see from either side.
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Soul Deaf [Lyric Poem]
As I've traveled around the globe,
I've felt the music from some souls --
Those who exude, in part or whole,
a secret and sacred rhythm.
And when their tunes did call to me
I felt a yearning to be free
to dance and sing, if out of key,
yet ever so resonantly.
Who could have known that I'd go deaf.
With ear to ground, nothing was left.
It felt like a horrible theft
from all (and yet received by none.)
Tiger Riding for Beginners 