Beginning/End PAD 30-3

 

Grab your camera

Type away

The beginning comes

But doesn’t stay

Beginning/end PAD 30-2

 End

 

End, finish, conclusion, finale

Not entirely ended, memories live on

Delight and sorrow mixed together

beginning/end PAD 30-1

 Beginning

 

B eginning, start, opening, launch

E ntering a new phase of life

G rabbing on to opportunity

I nitiating possibilities

N ew adventures around the corner

N ew people to meet, goals to reach

I nspiration, imagination, creation

N ew beginnings every day

G od, please have Your will and Your way!

Until PAD 29-2

 Success!

 

Until my muse comes back,

my goal is to write a bad poem;

so if I do, it will be a success.

Until PAD 29-1

 The Gate

 

Until I meet

Uncle Bill

at the gate,

I’ll aim

to love God

 and others.

70s slang PB

 Boyfriend of the Seventies

 

My boyfriend booked in his MGB.

He was bummed out when he couldn’t be with me.

He burnt rubber that was just his way.

I didn’t have bread, so he had to pay.

He was no dweeb. He was cool.

He was a hunk in our small high school.

We went together four years of our past.

We had fun making out, but we didn’t last.

dead PAD 28-3

 Mostly Dead

 

Sometimes I feel like Westley

of Princess Bride.

Mostly dead.

 

And the giant Fezzik praises him,

“You just wiggled your fingers!

That’s wonderful!”

 

While Westley and Inigo converse,

Fezzik says, “You just shook your head.

That doesn’t make you happy?”

 

Westley sums up all they’re up against.

“And you think a little head jiggle

is supposed to make me happy? Hmm?”

 

When feeling mostly dead,

it helps to appreciate the fingers moving

and the head jiggles.

 

And to remember like Westley says,

“Death cannot stop true love.

All it can do is delay it for a while.”

 

 

 

Dead PAD 28-2

 Eternal Trip

 

I get so excited to go on a trip.

All the planning, ticket buying

rolling up my clothes in tight balls.

Imagining the adventures.

The marvels I’ll see.

The fun things I’ll do.

The people I’ll meet.

I believe death is like that.  

Dead PAD 28-1

 Spring Suspense

 

Every spring I eye that tree with trepidation.

Is it dead?

Will I have to pay a high price for removal?

Will I stare at a tree stump and grieve its loss?

Two trees stood at the front of this property.

They were part of the reason why we chose it.

One died.

Every spring, I watch while other trees green up.

Then finally a couple months in,

this late bloomer joins the land of the living.

Will it this spring?

Remix PAD 27-3

 From April 20

 

Meeting a Bear in the Woods

 

Ten children with four teachers there

On forest trails for a long hike

They all would soon meet a black bear

But soft and stuffed as children like

 

Adults removed the bright red bow

And placed her there by a tall tree

And as the kids came marching by

There was the bear for all to see

 

We said to make a lot of noise

They raised their arms, shouted and yelled

With someone’s help the bear ran off

The children lived to tell the tale

 

 

Remix PAD 27-2

 

From April 2

 

A Place Called Happy

 

At a loss

It’s good to be sad

Feeling pain

Not too long

There is room for wounded souls

A place called happy

Remix PAD 27-1

 From April 23

 

The heart

of the writer

searches for truth,

even if they express it

in the most creative fantasy.

Persona PAD 26-3

 Loren

 

My wife, Connie, and I eat meals together three times a day, but mostly in silence. I can’t talk when I’m eating or I’ll choke. I listen to her talk about her day. As she tells me her long list of things to do, I wish I could help her. I used to do about half of the things she has on her list these past six and a half years. I do what I can from my wheelchair. I spend a lot of time keeping track of finances down to the finest minutia. I make phone calls and order medicine, make appointments and figure out health insurance. But sometimes it gets frustrating due to my garbled speech. It takes effort to speak clearly and I’m exhausted after a phone call. I get exercise shuffling with my walker to the bathroom, the living room, the kitchen, the sun room and out on the back porch when it’s nice. I like to sit in the sun. I go to church on Sundays. That’s my outing for the week. It’s hard to watch my wife fling the fifty-pound motorized chair in the hatchback with an umph. This situation gets depressing, but I know if I fall into a pity party, I’ll make things worse. I take it a day at a time, pray, and get the most joy I can out of life as is and be thankful for the wonderful things I do have, like the Lord, my wife, and the ability to think.

 

Almost seven years

Two pontine strokes (at brain stem)

Making best of it

Persona PAD 26-2

 Jake

 

It’s been like this all my life.

Surrounded by people

who chatter like ducks.

My words are in my head,

but I can’t get them out.

They say I have autism.

 

They talk to me,

but only a few of my words

have come out

in nearly thirty years.

So I express myself with my IPAD.

But I can also get my message across without it.

 

I have signs for yes and no.

I have sounds when I’m not happy.

I have humming and buzzy sounds

as I run up and down the hallway

telling myself stories.

I listen and do what they say.

 

I stroke a person’s face if I like them.

I ignore them if I don’t.

Some call me “little Jake” like I’m a baby.

Some shout as if I can’t hear.

Some treat me like I’m 29, my age.

I like them the best.

 

Someday, my words might unstick,

but until that miracle happens,

I’ll be content watching my movies at home

and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”

when I’m at Connie’s house,

five minutes at a time, over and over.

 

 

 

 

persona PAD 26-1

 Chisholm

 

O boy! Here they come!

There are ten of them.

They run to my fence

and reach their little hands through.

“Chisholm!”

 

I don’t know which way to run!

I go up and down the fence

getting their love pats.

I’m so glad

when the human pups come!

 

But just as fast as they come,

they’re gone to explore the forest

and do whatever they do

here at the nature center.

I can hear them shouting and laughing.

 

I guess I’ll go back

to guarding the alpacas.

That’s what Anatolian shepherds

are born to do.

But I do like it when the pups come.

 

 

Homonym PAD 25-3

 A Childhood Tale

 

We children liked to play up in an old abandoned park.

The old bridge tilted, and groaned with a loud creak

over the cold, creek water as it babbled over rocks.

One winter, I slid on the icy bridge, but before I fell in,

the older neighbor girl caught me and set me upright.

She saved my tail, so I had a tale to tell, but I didn’t.

When we got into scrapes, we kept them to ourselves.

 

Homonym PAD 25-2

 Sis and I, we two

Went to France, England, and Wales

Ireland, Northern, too.

homonym PAD 25-1

 Vedauwoo

 

I have been to all fifty states

And many countries I’ve been through

Of the great places I have been

My favorite is Vedauwoo

 

I like to climb the boulders there

And take along a friend or two

Of adventures that I have had

My favorite is Vedauwoo

 

The summer that I spent with Sis

In Wyoming, a lot to do

We grew bolder as we both climbed

My favorite place, Vedauwoo

 

Sis and I, we two

Maximum PAD 24-3

 Early to Rise

 

Morning folks

Seldom sleep past eight

Clear headed

Energy

Up at five or six, the best

Bedtime, midnight max

Maximum PAD 24-2

 Strength of the Morning

 

It would be

Nice to maximize

Potential

Of the day

Alas! Energy is low!

Live mornings wisely

Maximum PAD 24-1

 Colorado Spring

 

Violets

And dandelions

Trees budding

Nest building

Yay! Maximum signs of spring!

More snow expected

Heart of the Blank or Blank of the Heart PAD 23-3

 The Heart of the Nature Center

 

The animals, the flowers, and the trees

The pinecones scattered on the forest floor

The alpacas, goats, dogs, chickens and geese

The heart of the nature center is kids

 

The weaving studio, and ninja line

The playground, the library, and the forts

The crafts, the stories, the music online

The heart of the nature center is kids

 

Learning about flora and fauna there

Hiking the trails, flying kites, playing games

Of nature’s value they become aware

The heart of the nature center is kids

Heart of the blank or blank of the heart PAD 23-2

 

The Song of My Heart

 

The Lord’s love

Hope, grace and mercy

Faithfulness

Forgiveness

He is the song of my heart

Now and forever

Heart of the Blank or Blank of the Heart PAD 23-1

 The heart of the writer

searches for truth,

even if they express it

in the most creative fantasy.

Earth PAD 22-3

 Tilling the Earth

 

I remember

Dad tilling the earth

in the hot sun.

 

He turned bright red.

Never tanned.

Irish ancestry.

 

He used to have red hair.

It turned dark brown.

Then white, mostly missing.

 

Red hair showed up

in one of my sisters,

and some in me.

 

Just enough streaks

that people asked me

if I used hair dye.

 

Funny thing to think of

when thinking about Dad

tilling the earth.

Earth PAD 22-2

 Earth

 

E arth, a dirt clod compared to space,

A nd we’re minute compared to it.

R ealizing God made this place

T o be a gift to human race.

H ow wonderful! Just think of it!

earth PAD 22-1

 “I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on the list.” Tee-shirt

 

It’s On the List

 

Though I have not been everywhere,

Be aware, it is on the list.

I’m not sure why I think like this,

Often going from here to there.

 

I leap hurdles, like high airfare,

But traveling, I can’t resist.

Though I have not been everywhere,

Be aware, it is on the list.

 

We have this gorgeous earth to share,

Fantastic places—writer’s grist,

And folks with whom we coexist.

It is a way to show I care.

Though I have not been everywhere…

Trope PAD 21-3

 Too Stupid to Live

 

Frequent murders.

Someone’s after the heroine.

She hears a noise in the basement.

Of course, she goes down there.

Somehow, she survives.

Trop PAD 21-2

 

Romantic hero

Boasts a six-pack

Fun to watch

But I’m tired of Jack.

Trope PAD 21-1

 Deceased Parents

 

In a Romance, all parents will not be alive,

Perhaps to add sympathy to the lovers.

I’d like to read one where they all survive.

In a Romance, all parents will not be alive.

Why can’t all four be involved and thrive?

A Romance parent needs to run for cover.

In a Romance, all parents will not be alive,

Perhaps to add sympathy to the lovers.