Best Mindedly Poems
Here on the cusp of all things, is where I succumb
Ceding my stuff blindly, toward oblivion and none
Unwilling to persevere, without a modicum of fun
Listing in perpetual stasis, til the spasm’s undone
And yet a god may save me, or a talisman of love
Some prophet of euphoria, quelling ennui thereof
Placing good tidings, into a universal equation
Edifying eternity…..revealing its exact duration…..
Alas he speaks in riddles, and treads a mobius strip
Each cycle forming a twist, convoluting his trip
Determined I follow, my awareness in collapse
Narrow-mindedly stumbling into mortality traps
Now I sense the endgame, but decline to exalt
Its a distortion, an abortion, a cataclysmic fault
Chance meeting with a nihilist, yields positive results
Unable to see past zero, he reveals nothing but cults
Here on the cusp of all things, is where I begun
A contorted brain-f*ck, had no choice but to come
A demon of clarity, with an open ended measure
One who gives to please, but prefers taking pleasure
To believe for one moment, I’d live off a dying spark
Only denies potential, when again life goes dark
With more light to come, my sunglasses prepared
Eternity’s not polarised, just infinitely layered
If a blind man articulates, I’ve seen all this before
Screaming and convinced “I’m a seer at my core”
Could be he’s mistaken, or deluded with Déjà vu
Begs his final question, “do I have a point of view”?
Categories:
mindedly, deep, life, perspective,
Form:
Rhyme
(Base USO club, Zweibrucken, Germany, 1963)
Of a lazy afternoon, I sit
propped up,
Bones aching, sorely tired from
lack of work,
And dutifully read the comic
strips
With bored eyes while my mind
dozes.
I sit enveloped in my peculiar
Grayish pallor, which clings
And will not disappear,
And martyr myself to the gods
of convention.
I smoke acrid-tasting cigarettes and
Loudly chew a cud of gum, popping it
Absent-mindedly, and I turn the
crinkly sounding
Pages, one after one, slowly
and intently,
So as not to disarrange the sheaf.
The dryish smell of printed
comic strips
Irritates my nose, but I don't
sneeze --
Merely wriggle it a bit for some
relief.
My brightly polished shoes are propped
Upon the table and I lean back and tilt
the chair, and my hair
Is closely cropped and combed with care,
no strand
Out of place, pomaded and arranged.
My clothes are neat and clean
and stylish
And I brush away a nonexistent
crumb and
I slowly chew and loudly pop my gum,
Moisten index finger, moisten thumb,
And turn the colored printed page
of comics,
Snicker at the antics pictured
While I glance about.
And wonder.
Categories:
mindedly, absence, angst, anxiety, loneliness,
Form:
Free verse
She sits by herself in the dayroom
absent-mindedly taking her med,
her head is a blank, she knows nothing,
braceleted, brought to her bed.
Sedation has settled her nightmares
and delivered her safe from her fears,
but who are these strangers with clipboards,
where'd she come from, and why is she here?
She's showing no signs of aggression,
as a matter of fact she's serene,
no tantrums, no throwing or spitting,
picture-perfect, a story-book queen.
By day she's the doctors' conundrum,
every measure is tried for a clue,
but the secret is buried inside her,
closed for business, not out for review.
As night falls she's back in her bedroom,
left alone in confusion and tears,
frightened, with nothing to contemplate
but the blood, and the screams in her ears.
Categories:
mindedly, confusion,
Form:
Verse
'...how do I love thee, let me count the ways.'
Shakespeare: Sonnet LX111
He stops to buy her roses and a card
to mark their anniversary.
Strolling absent-mindedly he crosses
to the park and in his reveries he hears
two songbirds singing sweetly in the trees,
a melody that cheers his saddened soul.
He hurries to the nursing home to greet
his darling wife, the half that makes him whole.
He cannot let a day go e'er he sees
her smiling face, that smile of sweet
contentment that illuminates their souls
and redefines their state of grace.
Living on their memories they chatter
like the songbirds, their conversation bright.
He tucks her in and wishes her goodnight,
God bless, sleep tight, (don't let those bedbugs bite!)
Categories:
mindedly, love
Form:
Verse
Parental desperation
is the dreadful flee bidden cause
Children separation
is the inhumane quarantine effect
Trying to cross the sovereign divide
is narrow mindedly viewed, by more than a few,
as a pestilent travel venture
Ill will is the chilling, unhealthy reception
The uncivil solution: Create an insane policy
for poor souls seeking asylum
Man-made designation is an animal control way station,
(also known as) Borderline K-9 Cages
See the perennially sad puppy eyes
laying fetal prone on the morgue cold, concrete floors
Watch the waning wag of the tongues,
their thirst for freedom dying behind iron bar doors
National psychotic behavior is borderline criminal,
keeping children in cages is morally indefensible
Diamondback mutes devolving into what?
Mental worms turning into heartless slugs!
Children developing separation psychosis
is a lonesome doggone shame
K-9 kids were never meant to be raised in cages,
yet no one wants to bear the blame
But many of the kennel keepers
have gotten so inured to the ear-piercing, borderline pain
And the womb-ripped parents
are never told where the aborted-trip children were taken
Categories:
mindedly, child abuse, political, prison,
Form:
Quatrain
She always found her way home before
but this time was different
“Where have you been” he said
“I don’t know” she answered absent mindedly
as if she hadn’t really meant to answer at all
This time her eyes were empty
His heart sank he knew he had lost everything
Categories:
mindedly, feelings, lost love,
Form:
Free verse
I think of how it was ten years ago
just after you departed.
All your close friends spoke
of your "complexity"
and we knew what it meant.
I look far back to childhood when
those small-town midwest Methodists
would call you "Revrund." Well they knew
of turned-on tears
so common in the meeting hall;
but did they know about
the "turned-on" ladies
when you came to call?
I know. You needed time with them.
Two small churches took so much
with little left for us; I still recall
the single three hour evening
when you took me out of town alone
--to still another church!
There came a time for change;
as a chaplain in the army,
far away from mother, there
you quickly found the antidote
for loneliness...and yet again,
and again, again...
And then so late in life,
about to lose your second wife
through age and frailty,
you saw another, caught her
waiting in the wings, you thought.
All through those years you toiled
(if not quite single-mindedly)
in dedicated sacrifice for God
(if not for family).
How you were loved!
Clay footed, to be sure,
yet everything you did
was passion-filled;
you wept and prayed
and laughed and played,
presiding to the end.
Complex, you were, indeed, my father,
the record clear and true
and I for one, will judge you not.
for I am much like you!
~
Categories:
mindedly, tribute, time,
Form:
Free verse
We sat down at the kitchen table
Under an overhead light
And talked about my mother
My wife understood
I was the oldest, she said
Don’t wait for the others.
So I took care of mother
Paid the bills
Spoke to the landlord
Went food shopping
And did what needed to be done.
On a cold winter day
Mother was hospitalized
For the third time
I waited in the hall
Facing two red leatherette lounge chairs
The kind that are
Inexpensive and easy to clean
Vending machine just a few steps away
All designed to make someone
Feel comfortable.
Startled, I turned
T o see a nurse
Coming from nowhere
Her face a masquerade
As if she wanted to stop
And tell me something
But couldn’t
When she walked past me
I listened to her padded footsteps
As she disappeared
Down another beige corridor.
Absent mindedly
I returned to random thoughts
Odds and ends of an old woman’s life
When a heart aches
And memory fails
All is that left
Are promises
And words
Dangling somewhere
“Call us if you ever need anything.”
No one visited
Not the nieces
Not the nephews
She sent Christmas cards to
Stuffed with cash
Written in an old style of writing
Some misspellings
But always signed
“Love Grandma.”
Eager to show their concern
They call me now
And ask how she’s doing
I cradle the phone on my shoulder
And listen to their words
With a blank stare.
Mother has taken a turn for the worse
Cancer has spread
There is pain
But the medication masks it
And she sleeps most of the day
Seemingly in peace.
Occasionally she calls me
By someone’s else name
She’s forgotten a lot of things
After considering
What she’s been through
Perhaps it’s better this way.
Categories:
mindedly, lifeme, old, me, old,
Form:
Narrative
Springtime put a spring in my step
Bluebird brought bright bars of music next
I saw her sip at the faithful fountain; sing soulfully
As I prayed: wishing the world was well, more certain
About the value of various voices: bird, boy, girl, gadfly ...
I threw something out the window, absent-mindedly
What happened next is sad, sadder still, all birds are hurting ...
For you see, what I threw out so absent-mindedly
Was a careless word: "Shush, shush, you sing the same old song!"
Bluebird looked and looked, a long minute without a note -
And as silently as she had surrendered her songs at my abode
She flew off in a fluttery flummox. She has not been seen
Near me. I have been so sorry since, prayed in between -
But my vicinity may welcome the Trinity, but not birds this season
A word - my careless words - have wounded wren and robin
Bluejay and finch, Baltimore Oriole and Barn Owl ...
They stay away ... And the Mockingbird sent word with Guinea Fowl
That I am a moody man, melodramatic, even erratic
(Birds have forgiven; they have fathomed I'm a fettered hummingbird).
Categories:
mindedly, absence, best friend, bible,
Form:
Alliteration
If really I were a gifted painter
And as it were, I was to paint a man
I’d get my draw board, brush, paint and water
I’d work as open mindedly as I can
To bring out the true image of the soul
God created at the very beginning.
I would produce a man strong, bold and whole
One that’d be in his image and liking.
I won’t paint the fragile man with briefcase
In three piece suit with bible and tie.
I would paint a hunter with open face
Returning home from the toil of the night.
-He looks savage hunting for hares and harts
-Yet he’s truly the soul after His heart.
Categories:
mindedly, art, feelings, life, light,
Form:
Sonnet
In my bed, my childhood teddy layers next to me.
Absent mindedly I trace his now tattered seams,
And his matted brown fur from years of tears and hugs.
Even though I'm old and gray, privately we talk.
No, I'm not feeble-minded as some might think.
I talk to Teddy of my thoughts I had that day.
As long as I can speak, my Teddy is my guy.
He's my greatest listener where so many are not.
If he begins to talk, they'll surely take me away.
Categories:
mindedly, humorous, memory, nostalgia,
Form:
Verse
While waiting but not watching for the sun to set, perhaps the bullfrogs are creating the shadows with their croaks, my friend screams out because he has been bitten by a fly. He is not quiet enough so the flies obtain special pleasure from teasing him. Meanwhile bluebirds skirt the lake surface like the most perfectly designed fighter planes in twos or threes and argue rising up on their tails into the air. While insects prey upon and tease the bare flesh and blood of we humans, they fear the silent violence, the sudden huge presences of these family birds.
A larva with a leaf tip for a cocoon descends a white birch by a long thread. We free ourselves from our writings to observe phenomenon. Then thinking about dinner. The flight of J. Krishnamurti, the eagle guru says even artists (after physicists and mathematicians) may penetrate the unknown if not too absorbed in their own emotions and imaginations. We common people too who loving our wives can love everyone.
What eyesight the bluebirds have to swoop the lake from shore for a flying insect or descend from fifty feet on a thin straw grass and return to chew absent-mindedly! Just fun having song sung among men. As for the syntax, a daisy could swing it unthinking and coast. Along the beehive rocks ants crawl on connecting interlacing instructions. All around us and inside too as if stars were unseen but present it's true. So a man desires breakfast with his lady; could it be more amusing, material or smell?
As the eyesun descends below spun clouds, spirit or the eagle or the drum? Round. The dialectic obscure couldn't be more better said. So round and serious. To love everyone with clearer vision than a bluebird or a lake is to transcend the innocence of insect and take flight action and feed the babies of fate. Phew! Dinner outside the cocoon. I brought myself a student upon the hill or mountain and said to myself I said Obo rebop in summer sweater and what less overweight can carry test uphill so slow? Presently, reformed, informed by the bluebird's eagle spirit, clear cleanhead, I return coagulating mightily ideas the bites of insects ow! to breakfast home and everywhere unknown. Hearing bird with clear conscience echo make.
Categories:
mindedly, bird, desire, family, fear,
Form:
Verse
Advent is the first celebration of the Christian church,
Its first calendar event, not in December but in November,
On the last Sunday of November, and is normally, usually,
The first festival/celebration of the church year, remember.
Shops sell advent calendars to excite us into Christmas,
Where you can open small, numbered flaps to reveal,
A Christmas sentiment, thought or event as an icon,
Which lets you broad-mindedly appreciate xmas for real.
The four Sundays of Advent mark four different things:
The first destroys the myth Jesus was a total surprise,
Because it finds ancient predictions in Isaiah and Micah,
As the media were the prophets then, with wide open eyes.
The second Sunday lights a purple candle for hope,
Hope for societal revolution of the poor’s healthcare;
And also secondarily, hope in god who would ramify,
This plight so difficult in Jesus’ time, now a familiarity.
The third emphasises that you will find joy, pleasure,
If you believe that Jesus’ message was valid and required,
At that time in which the rich monopolised medicine,
Such that that his followers had to persevere as inspired.
And the fourth Sunday celebrates the Christian church,
Coining a word, incarnation, for the belief in Jesus as god,
For believing that god’s finger touched the baby’s skin,
Validating that parental obedience, that poverty of the kin.
And Advent candles suggest that truth was secured then,
By Jesus death which stated the worth of liberating,
Disabled and ill people into health and happiness,
Because this societal light shines multiply as pervading.
Categories:
mindedly, baby, birthday, celebration, christmas,
Form:
Rhyme
Gone is your presence,
But forgotten not
Is its place in my heart.
Away from me you flew,
Carried away by the storm
As its troubled winds
Whispered its lies
With its cool and moist breath
Promises of joy and ecstasy
As you spun wildly
In its blissful chaos,
Un-mindedly subverted
By its illusion of power and beauty.
But eternal is my love
And forever shall I wait for your return
From the swirling torment
That has stolen you away.
Resolved is my heart
And hopeful is my demeanor
That you will soon be reborn
Into my calm sky,
As my patient arms
Await your intimate embrace.
Categories:
mindedly, angst, betrayal, devotion, hope,
Form:
An unfinished afternoon lies strewn across my desk
Along with an uneaten breakfast neglected by my left
While I tap-tap-tap my fingers absent-mindedly on the table-top
As I impatiently await for the time
When along comes my long-awaited passer-by
Now here she comes! Here she comes—
Like an Eastern sun rising through the darkened dawn;
She with gaiety a-light on those Oriental eyes
That further gleams with her every greeting and a smile.
Yet I—I could not meet those eyes
For fear that upon that good morning greeting
I would simply die and...
How many seconds passed, or moments did?
I finally to myself did ask,
For when I came to from that spell though fleeting
She was in front of me at last.
Her smile now mine, my gaze was hers
And my wandering mind left me to wonder
How close she was that I could reach for her hand
And it would be as much
Silkenly as I imagined her skin would be at my touch;
Or how exhilarated—enraptured—would I be should her heart
Be confined within the circle of my arms.
The world would be a place less lonely—alas,
If only reveries could last!
Now did I greet in kind, nor even spoke at all?
I finally to myself did ask
For when I came to from that spell though fleeting
She'd been a couple paces past
And there I was left standing, a fool with nothing
But the trailings of her scent
That flowery fragrance she adorns herself with
For a beloved must be meant.
Thus with such small tokens as smiles and scents
I keep myself contented
And feed my endless reveries
Imagining a time and place where her love
May at my mercy be
Though I wake from those daydreams empty
Disheartened by the dawning in my mind that desire
Is a thirst that in my throat dies
Each and every time.
Each and every time.
Yet by this time tomorrow I would still be by my desk
And an unfinished afternoon still strewn across as well
Never reckoning if ‘tis worth my while waiting,
Though I would still be waiting for the time
When along comes my long awaited passer-by.
Categories:
mindedly, love, me, time,
Form:
Free verse