I sit upon a moment’s tree
with a gewgaw in my hand
and pluck its reed rhythmically
to ride the distant land
the journ to drift her league to me
upon my tongue, her tongue
caressing sound relentlessly
harmonious lips in song
and while my harp does steer me so
to galaxies afar
many a darkness had me go
traverse the lonesome star
yet all the time a moment’s tree
side on with roots asway
an afternoon belonged to me
that gewgaw had my day
Categories:
asway, dedication, introspection, journey, life,
Form: Quatrain
Some days at sea are nothing but work.
Heave out and trice up. The smoking lamp’s lit.
All one can dream of are stable foundations,
Roots in the soil, and walls made of stone.
Some days at sea are seven nights long.
Stand to at muster and stand tall on watch.
All one regrets is the sin of the Garden,
Exiled from Eden and sworn to the mast.
Some days at sea are lived in the dark,
Crouching below deck past canvas and hemp.
All one can smell is the taint of the wicked
Wafting from hammocks asway in the swell.
Some days at sea are heavy and damp,
No sleep to comfort the ache of fatigue.
All one imagines is Saint Brendan’s mercy,
Tribute for Neptune, and safe passage home.
Some days at sea are absolute calm,
Fair seas that follow with no hint of storm.
All one envisions are distant horizons,
Some looming outward, and others within.
Categories:
asway, adventure, allegory, sea,
Form: Blank verse
Life
armed with the fates
of futility
besieges.
So be it with the rose,
her beauty asway,
pushed around
by breezy happenchance,
powerless to stop
her petals
to wither then to drop
in faithless raw
betrayal,
As her beauty of the moment
dulls to naught
but yet another yesterday
of faded
bloom.
Categories:
asway, beauty, betrayal, death, earth,
Form: Free verse
The mind is a high flyer.
An altitude of any measure
allows it to breathe clearer.
The mind breathes you.
Close out this world
follow the song-cycles
of your land-locked
wind-blown lungs.
Let that singing soar,
let go of all tethers
ride that lighter than air wind
up, up, up.
Hold on to nothing
gravity has no asway upon you,
you can rise forever
dance over any gleaming universe.
Enter that 'cloud of unknowing'
that birthed you; deliver yourself
from all dust of thought
until joy and laugher
boosts you
into that radiant immensity
of inner space, there you arise
as a star that knows no roof, ceiling
nor end.
Categories:
asway, poetry,
Form: Free verse
My heart is on an island
Half a continent away.
It’s not a hot and sunny isle
With palm trees all asway.
The trees are oaks and maples,
The winters cold and raw
The waves pound on the beaches,
And black-winged ravens caw.
However, there’s a warmth inside
The panes and doors alight,
Where musicians, artists, poets
Hold the floor and take the mike.
Everywhere the neighbors join
In churches, homes, and halls
For parties or for pot-lucks
Or attending winter balls.
In fall and spring and summer
The outdoor island shines.
Fields and scrub and marshes
Are dressed up to the nines
With elderberry, roses, and
Feathery waving grasses
And sunny sandy beaches
With sun-tanned lads and lasses.
I miss that lovely island
For a million different reasons.
My heart will always live there
No matter what the seasons.
Categories:
asway, appreciation, beach, change, emotions,
Form: Rhyme
Tom is in heaven chasing mice every day
Leaping with happiness, he is wiggling his rear all asway.
His child Choca is on earth, the image of his dad.
We love having his presence, he makes us feel glad.
Tom comes to visit Choca sometimes in his sleep.
When Choca is snoring, his REMS oh so deep.
He gives him advice, tells him how to win us over for fun.
Does he not realize we are totally in love with his son?
Someday Choca will be on the rainbow bridge too
But we hope that is decades from now and long overdue.
We adore having our Tom still on earth in his son.
He catches mice, and rolls over, and lies in the sun.
Categories:
asway, 2nd grade, 3rd grade,
Form: Rhyme
Like Ken, ever on his last sail -
a soul slipper asway on gales …
Some loves shall lead these ending days
Tapering the winding display ~
High mountain air before lungs crush
Umpteen stars to drink ‘fore eyes hush
Rivers cold to shiver the numb
Rivers bold will quiver to dumb
Away, away, this last hurray
Hie now to float the scented way ~
(8/29/20: '96 Sea Ray Express Cruiser 400; DMS)
Categories:
asway, appreciation,
Form: Lay
She tinkers change someone left on the table
waiting for brunch at the Bluebonnet Bistro,
a hole in the wall with thick on the windows.
Lost deep to thought, this rock ‘n roll liberal
in her mid-twenties and sage satin stole,
pockets a penny that weighs down the satchel
strapped to her shoulder and swung under table,
asway just above cherry red laced stilettos.
From a corner booth table, a sitting man stares
an impertinent stare at her pendulum satchel
and long dangled legs that sway to a torso
wrapped tight in proof of a Wolf Parade show
back in twenty fourteen - unable to go
back down below where he yearns to obey
all known from each of each one of her toes.
12/20/2018
A poem about the diminishing return of memories as they're reduced and bid bare by time using an abbreviated variation of the sestina form.
Categories:
asway, lost love, memory,
Form: Free verse
I AM THE HERON
There is a stoicism to me
silent, self reliant, pensive posturing
suddenness of intent and action.
My aggression is calculated,
measured in response to need,
activated by impending threat.
Stillness is the garb of my determination,
patience in the solitude of calm
spring loaded – a sharpened, piercing, beak.
I still retain my forebears ways,
their ancient chiseled features,
dedication to the rookery’s domain
amid the din of springs cool birthright.
I will cross swords defending nests
asway in natures treetop rocking chairs.
There is a stoicism to me
//Heron – aggressive, self determination,, self reliance//
submitted to – Picture Yourself As a Bird – Poetry Contest
sponsor – Andrea Dietrich
5/16/2015
Categories:
asway, bird,
Form: Personification
I blink, I breath
You listen
The Earth's trees asway
Quiet
In the distance
No thoughts, no sounds
But feelings
Flowing to and fro
Guiding
All through life
You blink, you breath
I listen
To words left unsaid
Cherished
I'm in love
~Reecie
Categories:
asway, nature,
Form: Light Verse
ithway armsway etchedstray outway &
eyesway ideway otay ethay orldway,
ethay aspgray ofway asway uchmay asway oneway ancay isway
oremay eautifulbay, oremay onderfulway
anthay away ousandthay irthdaybay andlescay eingbay
ownblay outway atway ethay amesay imetay,
ecausebay atwhay oodgay areway away ousandthay irthdaysbay
ifway othingnay ashay eenbay earnedlay &
othingnay ashay eenbay etainedray
ilstwhay ivinglay inway isthay astvay ildernessway,
ilstwhay onderingpay itway allway orfay ethay econdssay atthay
akemay upway ethay iefbray ubicpay airhay ofway ourway
existenceway---
aketay itway inway
aketay itway allway inway
allway ethay omentsmay illedfay ithway estionsquay
allway ethay estionsquay illedfay ithway omentsmay &
acceptway orfay oneway iverslay ofway ealityray
eway’evay oneday ourway estbay otay envelopway ourselvesway
ithinway ethay ostmay interestingway artspay ofway
atwhay akemay usway umanhay.
Categories:
asway, life,
Form: Free verse
No, It was not my time
to jaunt & jump about
the Morld with You, to
glowering-green-glows
of Ischia, the privileges
of Mackinac, "...our Paris, Ilsa!"...
Ornamented ataud &
calefacted incinerators are
merely better-funded!, to a last-
notice of proteaned hoar, the
dearth of silk...
So, it was to be
Goa, or Delhi "curry-in-a-hurry" not,
and the touts & shouts
as We passed...
You in those shoes,
toeing-up with heel asway
like a silent, ticking-pendulum,
Me, watching...
Allowing sole specialnesses, but a few
to my inti-mated Life,
why there was You insinuate...
E'er Yours-sporadic, tho'
an extravagance of Soul!, like
incipient Sinatra, or
the piano of Jarrett! But,
No, it was not your time
to jump & jaunt-about
with Me, but for You,
like a junkie afeared of needles,
to be going, & mine
to Write... of It, plecking-off
the pilpuls from
My blanket, & You to
replacing contoured batteries
and
for Now... perhaps as recent
as tomorrows' accident.
H.e.m.
c.5.10.MMvii.
Categories:
asway, introspection, life, lost love,
Form: Free verse