I
at the pass,
fog stands guardian,
then moves on
II
the chipmunk
freezes at a crack,
sniffing the air
III
a burble rolls
off the paddle as
the boat glides
Quiet Morning Haiku
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Category Archives: Poetry
A Limerick of Zambia
There was a young woman from Zambia
who developed an instant phobia.
She’d suffered a trauma,
finding two Black Mamba
curled up in her corner of Zambia.
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POEM: Adrenaline Spike
a hot spike of adrenaline
sluices into my blood
not a shot, a squirt, or a drip,
but an adamant flood
if you can find someone who gives
you that kind of feeling
without fearing a certain death
but, still, with mind reeling
Hold on!
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POEM: The Cabin Trap [Sonnet]
I snatch a coat from hook on my way out.
The gusting winds are rattling the panes.
The sad line of tracks, when I wheel about,
suggests I’ve made little by way of gains.
The cabin keeps me ever near at hand.
I walk and walk and yet it won’t recede.
The slog is slow as if I’m in quicksand;
I lean to snap my chains, and so be freed.
But chains I cannot see, I cannot break.
My sisyphean lean does me no good.
And through the air there falls just one snowflake,
but there’d be more before I reach the Wood.
The cabin wants me back; I hear it call.
I buckle at the knees. So goes my fall.
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POEM: Cliffside Dwarf Tree
From out a rocky mountainside
juts a sinewy limb.
Its existence appears brutal
and its future ever grim.
It hangs on by roots pinned in rock
dangling over the edge.
It’s splitting up that rocky crag
as if an iron wedge.
It feels the wind that whips around
that abrupt precipice,
and when the clouds envelope all,
it must feel perilous.
But never will that old dwarf tree
bemoan its cliffside fate.
Or curse the addition of a
hawk’s, or raven’s, weight.
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Three Rolling Hill Tanka
I
granite domes
bubble from the flat lands,
earthly zit, or
beauty marks written
in topography
II
the foothills
spread from the mountains
like ripples,
echoing from
the cordillera
III
four horses,
standing on the hilltop,
as if meeting,
but with no common
vision or purpose
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POEM: Information Inflation
What is overproduced & under-desired is cheapened.
We live in a world that does not want for information.
Perhaps, if we had to carve our words into stone —
or press them into clay tablets —
and had to carry said tablets around,
we’d be more careful what we said,
and people would be more eager to read it.
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Limerick of Vietnam
There was a bold florist from Vietnam
who was graced in great measure with aplomb.
There was nothing quite like
how she rode motorbikes
with eight thousand flowers, two kids, and her mom.
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POEM: Poetic License
Poetic License…
a permit to say strange things in strange ways.
It’s not quite Bond’s License to Kill,
but, sometimes — merely by using words —
one can deceive people into thinking
that conveying meaning is one’s principal goal.
It’s not a Double-Oh License to Kill,
but it does let one write in secret ciphers,
with each reader providing their own key.
What mayhem might be unleashed by one operating under such a license?
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POEM: Ideas, Old & New
Ideas are like keys, unlocking new
versions of you. It needn’t be a new thought.
It might take twenty-three exposures to
an idea before it slips and twists
to pop the lock — unleashing a new you.
Why not the first time you read a concept?
Who knows? Maybe, the last time all pins weren’t
aligned. Your mind wasn’t in a receptive
state, or you were missing a vanguard thought.
I only know that spring-loaded mind “pop”
has always come with a sharp exhale, and
the feeling that I’m forever transformed.
