Lessening Poems

Rain or Shine

The walking tour said “Rain or Shine;”
We booked it nonetheless,
Although in pouring rain, I won’t 
Be happy, I confess.

The sky looks quite foreboding,
Plus there’s thunder and we heard
On TV, tornado warnings,
Not the weather I’d preferred.

Right now the rain’s still falling,
But it’s lessening a bit.
In my younger days, I’d head on out,
Not caring but a whit.

But my spouse and I both feel the same -
If it’s more than a drizzle,
We’ll catch the tour group later
Or we’ll let the plans just fizzle.

Black holes stop their pull in fear

Hate hangs from me like a disintegrating cloak
It’s sickly oil tendrils trailing from me
It never gives passes
Eloquent in its misuse
Scratching its way through the sheerness. of the
slivers
Feeling so black that blue isn’t quite enough

Love drapes from me like a sculpted marble toga
It’s twirling twines exploding into fluff
It lives in the past and futures
Incoherently overused
It coddles in lessening touches of soft
Feeling the light before it lands

the unforgiven

The Unforgiven 

In a town where even the law rests
and thieves do not break out of prison
Oh, this bonny night washing my feet
in the pool in the square where
fish die for lack of oxygen
This is the moment when the unseen
the population appears,
banished as they are to the sewers
eternal darkness.
Ah, the plaza bathed in white moonlight
and they dance so tender, fur to fur
noses to noses.
Inhaling the perfumed air of their existence
The sacrifice of living underground
makes sense when,
on a night like this, nature greets them
in their heroic effort
to keep lessening the waste humans
have left behind.

Standing

I fell and I stood up, I am still standing
I faced many crisis and traumatic things,
I fought it all and I am still standing
I changed directions many times
I re-located quickly and often as well
Some things were from the past
Some things were new and unexpected
But, one thing stayed steady on solid ground
Never faltering, lessening or falling
My beliefs, my creativity and my purpose
I will fall many more times in rocky days
In a life with unexpected bumps and ravines
I will stand on cliffs I reach and admire beauty
Life is a mixture of all these turns and things
I will always rise and stand, seeking light upon them

Heidi Sands

10/10/24

(C)opyright

Underneath

Sometimes i wish 
That i could crawl out of my skin
Bare all my sins
Flay myself open
And watch as i bleed
Maybe then i might feel
Some sense of release
A lessening of the weight
That suffocates me as i try to breathe
Maybe if i could breathe and i could see
I might not feel so dirty
But if i bare all my sins
And let everything out in the air
People would really see
The pathetic being i am underneath

Zen mode

warm embrace of love does not calculate 
for it frolics about carefree in bubbling mirth
ever joyous, blissful, vibrant bliss effervescence 
exuding uninhibitedly its sublime elixirous radiance
effortlessly and seamlessly dipping in and out of life
pouring itself into the existence without lessening itself
pulsating thus in renewal within the space-time continuum

Senior Adjustments

Suffocation, is that the word
For this lessening strength within?
This discomfort needing fresh air
Gently stirring, encouraging
How can I pack treasures to move?
"Stuff" to go, and then, begin.
                                         -EvelynPearl Anderson

A Night Like No Other

A night like no other...

Oh, for the holy night alone in a town where even
the law rests, and thieves do not break out of prison
Oh, this bonny night washing my feet in the pool
in the square where fish die for lack of oxygen
This is the moment when the unseen population appears, banished as they are to the sewers' eternal darkness
Ah, the plaza bathed in white moonlight, and they
dance so tender, fur to fur, noses to noses inhaling, the perfumed air of their existence.
The sacrifice of living underground makes sense
when on a night like this, nature greets them in a heroic effort to keep lessening the waste the humans have left behind.

Doubt and Belief

Dark and dismal
Offering the spirit
Unending fear
Broken hearts, fading
Trust – D O U B T

Brilliant and bold
Elevating hope
Lessening hurt
Illuminating grace
Endless peace, prayer
Forever – B E L I E F

Listen to the wisdom of faith – and always pray!

Just Thinking

Just thinking of places and times
I had laid my heavy head
So far removed from silk sheets
And a warm comfortable bed

Just thinking, on dreams i had  
In raging storms kaleidoscope like
Behind fluttering shut eyes with tears
Spearing through, grounding a paper kite  

Just thinking,of an expressions seen
From above or below distant and far  
The colour of eyes, lost in that moment
Brewing the droop propped up on a bar   

Just thinking, just thought remembered
Forgotten just slipped away from my head
Curtains now closing, lessening light
That time and thought we constantly dread.

What If the Journey Ends Before It's Over

What if the journey ends before it’s over
a lessening of purpose with each stride
slowing as the burdens slowly shift
fading in the distance growing close.

When will the trails no longer beckon
soft dusty boots remain beside the door
old hats hang limply in the shadows
inertly beckoning an old man’s gait.

What is the treason of this aging
this slow erosion of a once proud state
perhaps it bids me slowly to acceptance
that every season has its resting place.

Wisdom, you have been a long sought quarry,
a slippery elm impossible to climb
as if the troubled trails that I have traveled
were more about your quest than mine.

Come, rest with me upon a fleeting moment
tell me of your journey’s lessons taught
and I will in comparison inform you
of what I think life is, and what it’s not.

John G. Lawless
©1/27/2022

Meant For Dee Im Sure

Just thinking, of places and times
I had laid my heavy head
So far removed from silk sheets
And a warm comfortable bed

Just thinking, on dreams i had  
In raging storms kaleidoscope like
Behind fluttering shut eyes with tears
Spearing through, grounding a paper kite  

Just thinking, of expressions seen
From above or below distant and far  
The colour of eyes, lost in that moment
Brewing the droop propped up on a bar   

Just thinking, just thought remembered
Forgotten just slipped away from my head
Curtains now closing, lessening light
That time and thought we constantly dread.

Fall Comes,With Quiet Changes

Fall Comes, With Quiet Changes

The dying-time of Summer things has come;
Leaves burn with color, fall with lessening light.
The cadence of change beats on my heart's hollow drum,
The Spirit of Fall descends with the cold of night.

Youth's fire burns quietly now,
No longer leaps from highs to lows,
Feeds my wisdom's tree, now stronger, firmer fruit upon the bough
As now the passion does not burn, but glows.

Turning towards twilight, day spun out to its final thread
A somehow colder, brighter sun
Touches the last of summer's green, softening red
Lighting a landscape of life undone.

Again let the passion that ruled my soul,
Inspiration showing forth with voiceless shout 
Kindle the fire within the coal
To escape the grey sting of the storm without.

Youth's mad energy is nearly spent
But not the strength that lies below.
The depth of meaning this Autumn's falling sent
Will color my world to the dim time of the snows.

Grand Pa Falling Again-

I heard a weakened, hap tumbling
I had fell, I am falling
Someone here please catch me
I’m brittle boned can’t hardly see
Don’t quite know what’s wrong wit me
Got dizzy

When I thought of the fallen
Thinking of me falling
Much I marveled the lapsed hit
As my nose, face arms and upper torso hits
The ground, sidewalk, the bricks
I’m brittle boned can’t hardly see
Don’t quite know what’s wrong wit me
Got dizzy

I heard a weakened, happy tumbling
Then I heard a fierce snap, crackle a pop!
When I thought of me fallen
Much I marveled the lapsed hit
Once I sat engaged and slumping
Then I juz got myself, jest got up

The spiked slide slowing
the dead drop dying
the depressed deceased drooping
the sputtering sag stumbling
Yeah, you know I just keep falling
I have fallen and I can git up

I was a fall and you a hit
And the plummets never hanging just watch this
the lower, lower lessening
Spurring and spurring with my slump stirring
Ah! distinctly I was landing, ever so just kept falling
I was a fell and you a tumble
This is how I got this knot on my head I don’t remember

6/12/21
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2021©

Posthumous Award

The dead can still be warmly applauded
Who on us in some field had lorded
And his overripe honours remembered
Which he himself must’ve numbered.

A piece of provocation
When earnestly it had been waited for,
A never lessening expectation
From every supposed worshipping knock on his door;
Body movements of the dismayed at a delay,
Disappointed reflections on the sun being overhead and no hay.

On the palms of next of kin dropped
Who would his appreciation voice unstopped
But Alas not first mystically consulting the winner,
By this omission making himself some sort of sinner.

Arrives at a time
Winner’s earthly clock has ceased to chime
And he had off zoomed for a court business
That brooks no human witness.

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