Outlived Poems

When I Took the Old Way to Ames

I passed spreads of field
the places where farmers
made livings from soil.
The view enticed
but I couldn’t stop.
I couldn’t stop
but I couldn’t forget
times spent on uncle farms
before I went to college.
The morning sun shone
but memories in college
in Ames shone brighter.
There I learned
the language of love
the concepts of life
that I held in my hand.
Each book of psychology
opened worlds that lived
inside me.
I learned to see
they were always a part of me
as were aspirations and dreams.
A Grant Wood mural on a staircase 
in the university library
said life began with tillage,
and from that stemmed
our crafts and arts we embraced.
Years later 
when on break from work
I walked the steps
to see how the mural
survived the hands of time.
It survived as I
but I never outlived memory.
One less-travelled highway
had lost its name
but I recalled the roads
taken with college friends
as we learned to live our lives.

Remind Me Lord How Blessed I Am

Remind me, Lord, how blessed I am!
I have no disease, from which to fear.

Nor, do I live to be a winning poet!
I am just average, and I do know it.
A family outstanding, fills my heart with joy.
A grandchild, off with honors, to University!
A Varsity-lettered, humbled, grown boy!

Remind me, Lord, how blessed I am!
I outlived a most dreaded, deadly, disease..

Let me live each day, full of gratitude!
Spare me the sin of writing, lazy platitudes.
Above all, like you, teach me how to forgive.
And with compassion, with joy, everyday to fully live!
Not to take, but with a joyous heart, to fully give!

Sparkle

I had a green parakeet and Sparkle was his name.
When he died thirty-five years ago, it was a shame.
On the last day of April, I found him dead in his cage.
I bought him in 1981 and he died of old age.
My one parakeet outlived three blue parakeets that belonged to my mother.
Sparkle was my one and only parakeet, when he died, I did not buy another.
I owned my parakeet for over nine years and he was a great pet.
He died 35 years ago today and he was a bird who I'll never forget.


(Dedicated to Sparkle who died 35 years ago today on April 30, 1990)

This Old Brush

This old brush would once brush cleanly
This old brush once smoothed my hair
This old brush once snagged a single strand
When I was kempt and fair
This old brush began to clog up
With the hair that it had pulled
This old brush was like a fur ball
Can my barnet be refuelled 

Ain’t gonna need this brush no longer
Ain’t gonna need this brush no more
Ain’t got time to rub those creams in
Nor to tap the surgeon’s door
This old brush served through my youthful days
But now lives in a drawer
If this old brush could be bigger
I could use it on the floor

This old brush outlived its uses
This old brush redundant now
This old comb is all I need now
This old brush must take a bow
This old comb ain’t working proper 
Like that old brush always did
There’s a dumb old tufty bit
Of which my comb will not get rid

Ain’t gonna brush this hair no longer
Ain’t gonna sweep it to one side
Cos I’ve got this centre parting
It’s about four inches wide
Ain’t got time to rub those creams in
Nor to tap the surgeon’s door
Ain’t gonna need this brush no longer
Ain’t gonna need this brush no more

One Life

To live one life and die forever 
Is this a matter of belief?
The simpe fact of death can never
Be changed or anyway retrieved
Who’d say that they were born again
From their own ashes, in defence
Of the idea that it's them
The same old them, and no one else?
There must be witnesses who’d say
Oh yes, I saw this guy before
He looks the same and talks the way
He used to, till he was no more
I haven’t heard of such encounters
Solace is comforting, I know
Truth devastates, and sorrow howls
Its howling cry is not a show
Souls recognize themselves, it happens
How does it work, no one can see
But these voice messages, and letters
Will stay until the end with me
For what it's worth, life cannot be
Repeated and outlived again
And that was it, one life for me
And one for you, to understand.

Almost Time

I once had a wish 
But now it's long gone 
I realize now 
That I'd rather move on 
In my life, 
I would try to endeavor 
Things I can do 
To live life forever 
As the years passed by, 
And now that I'm old 
I oft wonder 
'Bout some things I've been told 
Twas told we die 
And go up to heaven 
Well, guess I'll know soon, 
I'm ninety-seven 
I've outlived so many...
Family and friends 
Now what I wish for 
Is that my life ends

Delayed Pulse of a Curse

You never know
you may possess the eternity gene
the one that morphed from mundane into miracle.

It would seem wonderful... at first
you'd become a star
you tube phenom
a best seller
everybody screaming for an autograph
a touch of your polyester robe
the envy of the universe....

delayed pulse of a curse

You've outlived a million wives
10 million houses
100 million friends
chained to a chain of your children's funerals
a million sorrows that never end.
You've outlived your favorite constellation
and no longer look at the darkening sky-
you are blind,,,to the possibility of ever meeting God
you pray for the blessing of a death. never to come
you'd eventually be pitied as a freak
treated as a leper
to be avoided at all costs
chained to life for eternity
a never-ending cosmic flaw.

Metaphor for life

One might say 
they have found a gemstone 
among the ocean 
but it is quite more than that 
weathered 
tattered 
tumbled by the ocean's currents 
it's history speaks 
transformed by nature's hand 
it's brokenness has outlived its usefulness 
as it comes to his final resting place 
up on the beach 
hidden by millions of san granules 
like a diamond in the rough 
so to speak 
-to me 
it represents my love of the ocean 
it's ever-changing tidal conditions 
that have washed the treasures of years gone by 
it takes me back 
to shipwrecks and their treasures 
and the time it has taken 
for this beautiful sea glass to emerge 
in the end 
it's a renewal of their presence
 forgotten but now found 
as my curiosity has gotten the best of me

Knowing I am Beloved

I can rebuild that shed
but the memory of Ollie falling off the roof would be lost if I did.
I see my squirrels chasing each other around my walnut tree.
I outlived both Chip and Dale.

I gaze up into the blue sky
feeling God staring at me,
sending me warmth, comfort, and vitamin D.


Every iris, clover, dandelion, clump of moss has purpose.
I relish in my sliver of nature.
Feeling Him in every teensy flea and bee.

Knowing I am beloved as I create my
own story.

Leave me alone in the Morning

Elegy of the River and the Sea

For life and death are one,

like the river and the sea.

In grief, our tears taste different,

our ways of mourning unique.

You weep; I compose elegies.

My brother, high on marijuana,

the island battered by hurricane Beryl.

As the sea crashes upon the land,

seaweed lashes out like demons.

Are we prepared for this?

To whom it may concern,

do not call me early in the morning.

I am not yet awake for words.

Give me time to sip my coffee,

to savor the warmth of intimacy.

Let me read “Good Morning, Sunshine.”

For life and death are one,

like the river and the sea.

My daily poem whispers:

"Leave me alone in the morning

with my thoughts."

My mother outlived my father.

I aspire to outlive the sparrows.

In God, I entrust my life.

Family Own land

"I remember the land. I remember its people—their ways, the folly of their mentality. I never encountered the term ‘depression’ until later in life. I grappled with hatred and bigotry because they’re diseases akin to cancer and COVID-19.

Do you recall the carefree children of the eighties, their hedonistic pursuit of drugs, sex, and intellectual freedom? It goes like this: I don’t think of labor; I don’t think of work. Labor implies toil, and if it’s not self-employment, it’s slavery with meager wages from the man.

I remember the land and its people—their foolishness weighed on me. I remember the departed, how those trees outlived them. The language of the trees whispers freedom and the sound of human longevity, thanks to a matured land’s kindness.

The waste land we leave behind, even without spoken words, tells a story of abandonment. What you might see as a grassy area, I perceive as a court date—a battleground where families fight for ownership. Illegitimate children vie for their share of the land. Even unspoken, it holds worth.

How do you come to terms with yours?"

Feel free to adjust any part of this revision

Caress divine sublime

As divine energy works upon us,
nodes within form spontaneously whir
and fear patterns of old cease to nonplus;
bliss magnetism within begins to spur.

Kundalini moves in us as She likes
and all that we do is receive God’s grace,
resisting not rapture that in us spikes,
holding us tenderly in warm embrace.

In timeless time our ego falls away,
having now outlived its ordained purpose 
and immune to fate we now cease to sway,
knowing this dream life is but a circus.

Vibrant emptiness and heart’s nonchalance,
gentles our moment to moment response.

rooster with attitude

Rooster with attitude did a high karate kick
His partner flew through the barn so thick
Barely escaping a pitchfork and rake.
Screaming her head off, for sanity’s sake.

The rest of the barnyard animals turned away.
Not wanting to ruin their almost happy Tuesday.
Rooster with attitude tossed a sheep into a door.
Always a meanie said the cow Mrs. Forevermore.

Since he took lessons he has been impossible.
His arrogant head is filled with himself, I mean full.
Rooster’s partner waddled off, an angry old hen.
She’ll get him back, she has outlived three men.

Whats the Big Deal

What’s The Big Deal?
Miracle Man
October 20, 2023

Because with new fangle gadgets I’m out of touch,
so It takes me twice as long to do half as much.
Young sprouts think I’m a used up old fighter,
can they type a letter on my Royal typewriter?

Inventing new things makes the world go round,
most sub standard and didn’t last long I found.
Throughout my years I’ve outlived many a fad,
Usually pitched by women, most scantily clad,

I'M

I'm a disease uncurable
I've seen the unseable
I've outlived the livable


I've danced with a crippled
I'm the unfortunate events
I'm the prosecutor of the prosecutes

I've lived through hell
I danced with sin
I pronce my words
a little thin

I'm only human 
with enough bagged
with a bottle of jin.

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