Long Sharps Poems

Your time worn hand rests on my shoulder
A gentle firm touch
Ancient fingers stretching awake
And for that moment in time, I receive you
My body marinates in your history,
Delicacies, trauma, and wisdom

I sense you riding within my...

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[Capitalized words are titles of some delightful poems by Sam
Kauffman, each followed by a line from that poem]


How Can This Be - a thousand pieces of brokenness, fit perfectly again
Agapanthus - the season's sweet love...

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Tom: Well, do tell? But like I said, I’m not a stranger. I’m a businessman; and more than that. Why, I could be just like a brother to you if you’d let me. Besides, I...

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Don Heller owned an impressive spread,
Not that far from Lindholme town,
Below the tall peaks of Idaho,
Down the road from Ed McGowan.

Ed McGowan owned half the ville,
And had two-dozen hanger-son.
Ike Raeburn owned the other half,
But had...

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Try as I might....I could not get it right
Small fingers that stretched over the chipped ivory whites
While scrunching her face, with that crabapple frown
She would tap out the beat, with her eyes looking down
"One, two,...

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Voices

by June Ellen Smith

Tiny voices in the nighttime rhyming with
Tiny hands, expanding into bigger ones,
Sucking thumbs and fingers. Ringers on
A pole - horseshoes. Tie shoes for tiny feet.
Defeat the tiny voices in my head when
I...

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II.
It was several days before trouble came,
the quiet seemed at odds with all the news,
the papers told of a nation enraged,
with loud cries for the Sioux to meet their doom.

Myron was out feeding hay to...

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III.
It was the next day the sheriff rode out,
three bodies had been found in a dry gulch.
The sheriff saw Paul meet him at the door,
heard raves from the back, where his brother sulked.

The sheriff frowned....

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I sit down in my cold, stone seat and shuffle sheets of music,
Arranging them in different ways from fast-paced to acoustic.
Spanning collective scales, bars and notes and lines,
I've read through them all before at least...

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1.

A red helium balloon
                               ...

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Baby birds, it's said, are born not knowing 
their notes. They learn them from their mother's 
throats in the way children learn their ABCs 
at parental knees, muh muh muh becoming mother, 
da da da,...

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Try as I might,...I could not get it right
My small fingers that fumbled over the ivory whites
While scowling her face with that crabapple frown
One, two, three, four...one, two, three four...., her eyes looking down
"Try once...

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I hear a chord
It resounds so deep in my ears 
It feels like the secrete chord
That David played to please the lord

This chord resounds ding dong in my head like slow-bells
A harmony more resounding than...

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Layers upon layers 
Batter after batter 

Larger than life creatures 
live
Beneath my bed. 

My pillow whispers lie.
There are times 
when I flip it over. 

I prefer my lies served cold
shaken and stirring... 
foul breath smelly...

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As my closed eyes open and the dream of my calves playing among the corals curtail,
I realize that my body is contiguiting the earth,
perhaps the shore,
because I can feel the sharps rays of the blazing...

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Spirited knights from a long ago age
Were transported to this century
Seeing as they had no foe to engage
They moped around aimlessly

Before their doldrums turned to rage
They sought out a job agency
That would strive to find...

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"I don't see myself..." he began.
     That's quite OK.
You can feeeel yourself.
We can see you.
We do see you.
(and we are trying to feel you.)

Let us in?

"...making it through the next few...

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MUSIC

The rythme progresses through me
Reaching to depths unknown
Leading me to another realm
Only I have ever gone

A place of solitude
Where I can be free
For my soul is the melody
To which I shall dance alone
And the beat...

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Tiny eyelids flutter ...
The orbs beneath, busy with their magical meanderings,
Monochromatic piano keys gently holding up your cherub cheeks.
I wonder, Squeaker, so close to the instrument ...

Do you dream of melody and metre?
Are your tiny...

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Something Seemingly Insignificant and Unexpected Changed My Life Poetry Contest

I was gratefully raised in a talented musical family,
Chords and B-sharps were heard many times,
Such beautiful memories full of sweet melodies,
While I sat in my room...

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NATURE'S PSALMS

Is Beethoven's ensemble fairer than nature's psalms?
Amidst a crowning sun: ears and eyes are drugged,
drenched with tender notes, orchestrated by greens,
inhale deep, the aromatic blossoms from the vine

with their lilting swell, brushed shades of...

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Faberette
is the name of my wild
and incorrigible cat...
down the stairs she scurries
to keep intruders off my door; 
and she, with her sharps claws,
challenges the most vicious dogs,
who would like a match
on my newly carpeted floor...
without...

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I hear the music calling me
From the smooth and shiny rows of keys
The ebony and ivory
And all the melodies between
‘Come!’ it says, ‘And play a song
Upon your fingertips I’ll canter along.
Befriend the scales—arpeggios
Follow the tune...

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"Deep Duet"



When I write I feel my fingers tapping keys

In my mind they are stroking black notes and ivory

You are sitting with me 

Place your warm hands on mine

“Metronome”, you whisper 

Warm breath on my...

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Foolish boy
Can’t you see?
So caught up in her game
You won’t be leaving all the same

I stand by the sidelines
Feeling your world light up
As you see the witch you call “your love”
I can see you stepping...

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