cuckoo bystander
hippies hound
desecrate passing
shrewdly badmouth
siegfried bobcat
wake european
spirits enlisting
the globally
fortuitousness by
reading rhythmic
confrontation dutifully
fluster fission
spat and
unite your
sourness unlearned
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • September 7–13, 2026)
the bystander dutifully reading obediently
at a casement with sidearm
is competitively assuming
that our souari acreage hijacking
haliotis ostreidae alismatidae
mucilaginous lithographic osmundaceae
through ceratodontidae
in an airless helwingia
cascade from her exacum cardiographic heap
as your jeweled cuckoo awakened
into this fiendish confrontation
by enlivened catharsis
lacerate fission will scatter
you let me snuggle ?
we were restorative
but siegfried and I unite
never unturned .
(Weekly Magnetic Poetry Challenge • September 7–13, 2026)
Flavor guzzles an atmosphere
of cinnamon-dusted coffee.
Don’t worry there is plenty here,
a mug for you and one for me.
Sip slow but I will drink quickly
lest it vanish without a taste.
Spicy sticks languish dutifully
as our buzz is expertly laced.
(“Original Mind”, 2017, original encaustic mixed media)
In a dream I wander,
Doing some assigned task
Dutifully
Somehow I’m face to face
With a Buddha
Who tells me my past life name
Of Pema So and So
Which inexplicably fills me with joy
Then I’m with a small group of fellows
Preparing to receive empowerment
With three full prostrations
And my old lama
As clear as day,
Confronts me face to face
Asking what I am doing there
To which I simply say
I ended up here
After doing my chores
Removing ice and snow
And in that moment filled
To overflowing
With recognition of my true identity
I beam
As he simply shrugs and nods
And I awake.
(5/5/26)
DEPARTING RETICENCE-:-
dutifully
follows
impressioned
earthly
contrasts
with INTANGIBLE ATMOSPHERES
sophisticated
textual
approached
confident
virtuosity
to CREATE PEACE&QUIET
envisage
abiding
autonomous
enlivened
highlights
How are you today God,
The thought entered my mind
To ask? I mean, with all the whining
One would think your only task
To answer prayers, humanity’s
Loyalty predicated on how completely
And dutifully fast. So, just
Want to say, take a day off...on
One of your tropical beaches perhaps sun
And rest – while I may not always behave
My best – I have come to realize, none-the-less
Throughout my life I have already been
Dearly loved regardless
And abundantly blessed.
They say it isn’t good for them
To feed them moldy bread
But it always makes her giggle
When they Bob their heads
Teeny tiny boots upon the waters edge
The sun is shining warmly
As she tosses out some bread
She talks to them like people
Though their eyes are beady and dull
A little slip and almost wet
But on hee shirt I pull
She falls not in the water, but her little foot is wet
Teeny tiny boots will dry
And dryer socks I’ll get
Once the bread is gone
To the playground we will go
She runs and laughs and screams so free
As she flits to and fro
The other kids they play with her
I watch dutifully
Sure to bring a special kit
In case she scrapes her knee
These are things fhat bring me peace
My child wild and free
A smile upon her prettt face
A face that looks like me
Partly cloudy, with the odd chance of sunny spells,
were conversations with my mother, near the end.
Once in a while, calm of voice, at times stormy yells;
and moments where she was so hard to comprehend.
Then just when frazzled nerves were on their very edge
the sun would shine, and recognition's smile would beam
at this small boy, that she did dutifully fledge;
then we were both young again, or so it would seem.
before the clouds descend once more, I tell her, she
is why I am, who I am, who she let me be.
What he really wanted
was a girl that was dumb enough
to love him prematurely
as if he were a project to be worked upon,
however grey hairs
in an otherwise flaxen field,
foretold a rocky end
to yet one more silver-tongued fox.
In a frouzy saloon
he hitched-up with a slow thinking,
quick drinking woman,
someone’s ex
on a reliable government check.
Eventually settling down with her
in a holler in West Virginia.
He took off his Stetson,
dutifully plowed her and some scant acres,
while collecting motor parts
for his fantasy truck -
plumb out of luck
he could never quite put it together,
no matter how well
he stummed his old guitar at the local bar.
In this lifetime she is a mutt,
Small, Scrappy, sleepy, sweet,
Blinking eyes and gnawing teeth,
I'd know her in every lifetime,
In the one before she was tall,
Aching legs and honeycomb eyes,
Dutifully beautiful, kind, loyal,
A shadow with a wagging tail,
Before that she was white as snow,
Playful, pitiful, pretty, pale,
Sitting on the carpet awaiting my dad,
as I played with her ear and paw,
I didn't meet the one before,
I'm told she was quick, smart,
Like a pistol shot, a starting gun,
rescued, for a good life somewhere new.
I hope, when this lifetime is over,
I will meet each version of her,
Maisie, Lucy, Suki, Bonnie,
And we'll venture into the next one.
Storms come
Tapper to showers
Calm returns
Earth making ready
For flowers
Sun reclaiming the sky
Rainbow~ prize-ribbon
Meadows gleaming
Bees tripping dutifully, busy
Matchmakers, introducing bloom
To bloom
Birds pairing, making nests
Brides and grooms, greeting guests
The valley quite a festive sight
Nature’s fond formal of Spring….
Friend,
Silence listens,—every thought we think,
each new feeling which soundless trickles by,
the twinge of untold pain, the snuck-in sigh,
are registered within the margin’s ink
Friend,
Silence listens (better than your shrink),—
in worries sunken deep below the “I”,
the subterranean soul, the scrying spy,
dutifully encodes each missing link.—
Observe the many mangled manners your mood
wrings its revenge out from your wet-cloth mind.—
To wrest the terror from your burning breast,
it twists your vision—perception, once skewed
unkowingly invites the shades inclined
to test your tensed chest’s breath of stressed rest.
excitedly injustice
awakening stampede
stopping as imbibes
desperate necks
heeling creeks
jumping dashes
merciful joy
i am not there, please hold
the bridle and the hoof
i see nothing of blunders fray
you have fickled my merriment
daring jester
come once again telling me your terror
in what age did god befall as visceral death
teaching young heretics as you
slavery's daughters lost
was rights and lost not providing in class
or dutifully sworn soldiers appearance
castling late blooming testimony
Winter morning, darkness clings with angelic might
Its moonlight respendently glows
Guiding wayward travellers safely home
Sunlight, rested, ready, Its brethren orb weary
Hands dutifully the baton
Solar strength summoned, bringing comfort home
I was once a Romeo
In gallant quest of romantic love.
For sake of which I wandered far afield,
Past mills and quarries, foundries and farms
Where good folk tend their business
And useful things get done.
As spring gave way to winter,
I found the climate daunting,
With freeze and thaw displacing by upheaval
My belief in happily ever after.
My confirmations became suspicioned,
And my satisfaction curiosified.
My ratifications were soon dutifully amended
And my achievements ambitioned
To a more sensible view of reality.
Having suffered hard time in the punishment block,
Where one’s thoughts then tend
To either stagnate or germinate,
I arrived at this one eternal paradox:
Only fools dare ever fall in love,
While only love can save the foolish from themselves.
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