God, you’re supposed to be
a big bright
problem-solver
not my weak
little partner
scared as I am
here in the dark
Tag Archives: poetry
That accelerator and brake you use for time
Go lightly!
Smooth and easy
loving is what you need.
Twilight of the imperative and other moods
How did it get to be so late so early?
Of all that doesn’t happen, this does.
Why?
Prayers for my dad
Is he warm?
Is he safe?
Is he happy?
Is he free?
From fear-driven to love-driven prayer
It’s like scooping
oil from water hoping
to save the birds
Scraps of paper plucked from the pocket of my robe
Things I meant to write, remnants of dreams,
notes in my wallet, first lines that actually
made it followed by multiple cross-outs,
new starts on new pages, the opening
now gone as well, all of it collapsing
in thudding rhyme echoing
something I wrote a year ago.
Scratch, delete, rip,
crumple, toss, light
the damn basket on fire!
Walk smiling over this paradise
Appeal to the Ranger Rescue Squad
Is poetry a whipping-up
of something special, a
pulled voice
or a kind of trance?
I’ve never known what
a poem is.
My favorites sound like
nothing so much as
someone saying something
interesting.
But that can’t be
enough for a poem.
The worst are about
poetry itself.
Maybe those’re
not even poems.
Maybe they’re just
a baffled boy
seeking a trail.
I saw a sign on a tree
“Don’t pick the plums.”
Till then I’d not noticed
how juicy they look.
Wanting the in-between
Not the nothing or everything
Utrecht Journal 