We have a chance each morning…
before we walk out our front door
to be a better person…
than we were the day before…
Right away we notice…
when our feet first hit the floor
that we are a little different
than we were the day before.
Certainly we’re one day older…
but there’s also something more…
more than just our age
that makes us different than before.
Love and loss…victory and defeat…
we never know what’s in store
whatever happened yesterday…good or bad
makes us a little different t
han we were the day before.
Each day brings with it new adventures…
each moment we’re awake
and we hope we learn as much from our successes
as we do from our mistakes.
But on we go…we forge ahead…
out into the world we soar…
hoping today we are a little better
than we were the day before.
Perhaps a little kinder, more compassionate,
more accepting…and what’s more…
perhaps a little wiser t
han we were the day before.
If not…there is one consolation…
tomorrow…
when our feet first hit the floor
we’ll be given another chance
to be a little better
than we were the day before.
A nestbeschmutzer
Someone who craps where they eat
Who steps in feet first
“Say no” co-worker
To someone who asks you out
Condescendingly
Don't make a mess where
You make love, sleep and undress
You might have success
No nepotism
At the family reunion
Leave that one alone
Don’t act badly here
(Proverbial idiom)
Where you live, work, play
Don’t cause trouble here
A place you frequently go
Don’t crap where you eat
Died like old ketchup.
I’m as full as having a heart.
But my heart tissue is scattered as a drained pool.
I’m the body at the bottom of the freezer but everyone’s tossing frozen meals on me.
I’m scrap metal.
I died but death doesn’t tell you that.
The pulses weep energy and I receive such electricity.
My feet died first.
Then my left leg.
Then my right…
Rooted into oblivion
Set feet first in dirt
Lumpy cavities crashing upward
Gnarly outer layer
Barnacles breaking out
Lost in the years of growth
Final storm tips the top
Brushing through cracking limb
Tipping with lost balance
Exposing twisted lines
Broken from the earth
Woman or tree
Still beautiful to me
Say it while you're here. Say it while you're here!
How high they build hospitals!
Towering, chemically distilled alters
that the dead worship away from.
Piling, corpses on corpses on
tumors, on hearses.
Coffins for sale! Coffins for sale!
How lovely they make the mortuary
bells toll! Resonant frequencies that
the living stumble into. Onto, around.
How deeply the gravediggers dig!
Shovel, on glass, on cement, on
brick. Crack! What a hideous sound!
How high the fragments soar! Look
at them go.
How low they go, for such low blows
Insurance cards, rip! Hospital beds. Tip!
There go the patients down the trash chute!
Head first, feet first… drained of blood.
How intelligent the thoughts of mad men be.
Label them! Banish them! Don't let them speak!
It's so easy to dismiss someone when they're
called derogatory things. How hypocrisy weighs
down the silver of their tongues!
How loud! How loud? Too loud.
How long you wait How long you smile
How long you are here doesn't matter to
any of them, any one. But it matters to me.
It matters to me dearly, my love.
We view the hill
down to the valley floor,
we know that we must climb the other side,
we have no map, no guide
yet we travel, hopeful to arrive
a trip that each and every one of us must make
a journey that we take,
moving ever onwards
slow at dawn, and slower still at dusk,
we do not leave because we will
we leave because we must,
driven eels,
who know the great sargasso sea awaits,
we shake the fickle hand of fate
and take whatever circumstance may come to be,
feet first, to swim the ocean of our destiny
We gathered at a spot where the ocean meets the land
to listen to the music of a piano n the sand.
Surrounded by nature’s diversity…so beautiful and grand
we felt the wind against our faces and watched the sun set on the water
to the musical accompaniment of a piano on the sand.
Every now and then birds would fly overhead…
gliding silently through the air…
wondering, I’m sure, how a piano in the sand
could make music as beautiful as theirs.
We didn’t know when we arrived on the beach that evening
when our feet first touched the sand
that all the beauty nature offered us
could be enhanced by a piano in the sand.
But that is exactly what transpired
thanks to the extremely gifted hands
of the man seated at the bench and playing…
his piano in the sand.
We walked the lands our feet first knew
where sun carved stories into stone
where rivers whispered secrets of old
and stars counted the nights we called home.
They came with walls and laws and chains
told us our voices were too small
but the earth remembered our songs
and our hearts refused to fall.
We were shaken by fire and fear
our homes stolen, our names erased
yet in the shadow of every loss
our roots dug deeper into this place.
We rise in clicks and in whispers
in laughter, in dance, in stubborn flame
we were shaken, not beaten
our spirit forever untamed.
If you want
To go out
Have a drink
Shake a leg
Take a bet
Take a chance
Win or lose
Have a dance
I don't really care
I don't care
All that much
Come and go
it - so?
Have a run
Getting fit
I don't really
Give a...
What do you want
Do you know
Please yourself
Let it - go
Take a risk
Feet first
Jump right in
Bubble - burst
If you think about, how you live your life
What do you want to leave behind?
I want to see the world, I want to know that I
Did the very best that I could
I pissed myself
I'm getting old
It was warm
It went - cold
Do you love?
Is that enough?
Are you the one?
I think I'm done.
(This poem is dedicated to sertraline)
Bahsing, banging, bleeding,
Watch the children run,
Away to tuck and hide,
War, danger, fleeting,
A tribal meaning,
Tried and true,
Use your faith,
To guide you through,
Plead, cry, pray,
Let God light the way,
Jump feet first,
Into the smoldering and burning love,
That God feels for you,
Ringing, yelling, screaming,
Let the whole world know,
Don’t push the other way,
Or to war you’ll go,
Just sit back,
Let God pull you in tow.
Angry Choices
You swooned at me, and I fell in feet first.
You made me feel as if I was brilliant.
But it was all a hoax.
My thoughts meant something once.
Now it's nothing but silence from me.
You taped my mouth and made me obey.
We could have been so much together.
You closed the door on, my opinion.
Wished me to tow the line and never fall.
Perfection is what you reach for, but I thought I was perfect before you touched me.
I long for discussion and human contact, but here I sit with no one in site.
I cry alone at night right next to your side, but you never hear my lonely cries.
My ears hurt from the screaming, but you seem to think I am deaf.
I follow behind you with my head down and I think what else could I be.
I have chosen this life, and I live it every day but when will I be allowed to speak.
My heart has broken into a million pieces, and I hold it in my hands looking for the solution.
I wanted love and happiness but here I sit with anger and bitterness.
You had me at hello, but will I ever say goodbye.
Gone digital
begun/beginning
Networking with me-self
Can't find a full-stop
to stop
What yer looking at fish-face???
Yer know
since yesterday
I can't find me thumbs
falling feet first
in-ter sub-monkey skills
I need more,
more white widgets
and black toggles-
got the wobbles, a bit keyed-up
Mind knitting its own computer
flashes of clever clogs,
clumps of soft-drive
in me ear-holes
got no cookies cooking
just a blinking memory
Dot-dash-board doodling,
screening plasma for bugs
and sneezy-bits.
Me lights are ticking
think I'm thinking
Blimey, will you look at that!
I got a virtual nose to pick
feeling sick of it
even though
me lid is plastic
Beep...
Some decades past, perhaps two score
Was when my feet first walked in Dorr.
I give that town my due respect
With humbleness, I genuflect.
Yet when I’m asked where I was raised,
I see their eyes, perplexed and dazed.
As I announce, “Was raised in Dorr,”
Their jaws just drop and hit the floor.
And disbelief they cannot hide:
“I did not think you lived OUTSIDE!”
I do not know what could be worse,
Perchance coerce as I converse.
But now I’ve tailored my response,
(With perfect dose of nonchalance)
“I’ve lived in Dorr; it’s verified;
Just like our calves who lived outside.”
"Full Circle"
...all roads lead home
Blue Sky reaches
like a river inside
the pull magnetised
feet first new life
full circle
opening
light arrives
(LadyLabyrinth / 2023)
Lux Vitae
Arriving for my first visit, not knowing what to expect
Instantly awestruck at the plethora of trampolines
Ready to jump feet first into a new adventure.
Bouncing up, down, in, out, to and fro
Over and over again. I spot the soft foam pit,
Racing towards it, I take a leap of faith
Naturally full of enthusiasm and a youthful
Energy that knows no bounds at the moment.
Eagerly looking around the massive building wanting
X-tras like dodgeball, slam dunk, and the high-flying
Trapeze—where I swing through the air and land safely
Right in the middle of the blue and red squares of foam. I
Enter the battle beams where I was defeated by an older
Male. Nearly two hours later, and all good things must come to an
End. My first experience at a trampoline park was a success.
August 1, 2019
(An Acrostic Poem)
**Side note: I wrote this poem from the point of view of my 12 year old son. This was his first experience at a trampoline park called Airborne Extreme. He had a great time and has enjoyed the amusement center a few times since.
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