When the poem just won’t come out right, sometimes the best revision is to crumple it up and throw it poetically into the trash.
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Stone-faced
Wailing, bearing flowers
and collapsing to her knees,
her hot tears fall upon me—
But I remain unmoved,
stone-faced, above it all—
her face etched with grief
and mine with the years,
weathered with past life—
Gently she touches my face
and presents me the flowers—
I’ve seen her cry many times
but it is in my nature to be
rough and cold, grounded
in reality I know nothing else—
Still she keeps coming back to me
and though I cannot give her love
I will always guard hers.
They’ll be back
you can shout it to every star
bare your soul up to the moon
cast your problems nightly afar —
but they always flood back by noon
I sew ragged
Poetry is patchwork —
& only the best poets
can hide all the seams.
Ruffled feathers
serene spring morning
calm but for two birds brawling
uh — that’s not fighting
Carrying
pick out your fears
worries, anger, and hate
from the bag of stones you carry
and love, find yourself lifted by
the wings of featherweight faith
Finally a bath!
watching birds splash in
morning-after rain puddles
cleanses my spirit
After all
Life is a perpetual give and take with the universe.
Fast rising east
sunrise glows in carpe-diem pink
aflame with marbled-gold moments
Small things
Small daily events
wrap tendrils about the heart
and keep it floating.
—Cave Outlaw (1900–1996), Autumn Walk, 1974
Counting up
First four decades time’s a hero
Then stops suddenly all the fun
Forty arrives a stranger new
But life is like a grand old tree
Strong yet flexible at the core
Roots ever deepen to stay alive
At this age there’s no real fix
Just patches is all, ’til heaven
Although it still be not too late
So let the autumn soul shine
Breathe and let thy life go zen
Mend it, dear Henry
Flawed past is history; flawed present is opportunity.
The next day
A relationship will eventually turn love inside out. And the test is whether you can love from both sides.