I once asked a stream:
Won’t you love river to be?
No, never my dream.
Growth is not to greet
If it turns me salty sea,
I love to stay sweet.
And it moved forward
Flowing with fast gait in glee,
Singing sweet like bird.
___________________
Haiku |18.11.2025 | river, sea, stream
Note: Alas, the world is so much after growth, all the countries, all their people. Few are interested in the quality of growth.
fifth grade in Peoria
I stand alone
on a quiet street
in front
of my grandmother’s
apartment building
where my mother
and I are staying
until the summer
and my young eyes
on a Sunday morning
watch
a stream of water
near the curb
it is a river
I take snow
divert its flow
before it reaches
a drain
all is taken
to the Illinois River
just down the hill
where workers tend barges
as they have for ages
a quiet morning to savor
as the luminescent sun
glows through clouds
and winter reaches
toward spring
and the sky
o the sky
it is an ocean
blood red fire-moon
pervades the water surface ~
maple leaves boat-ride
26 Oct 2025
3:49 Pm
A stream flows down from 1966.
Memories made vivid as years pass and age is fixed.
Barely out of diapers sitting on the back porch posing for a picture with sis.
Playing with cousins in the leaves and autumn mist
Turning the bend a new age begins
Starting school and making friends
The stream then turns to river and the rapids start to rage
20 years deep the and rushing so fast upon rocks smashed my cage
Now captain of my river boat fine
Filled with sounds some joyful some sublime
Onward I continue to fast to notice
First one new mountain and then two their own streams and motives
With damaged hull and well worn decks
Age takes it toll not sparing a speck
Now time rewinds and lets me review what went by in a hurry
Time spent well and time spent in worry
The ocean is nearer every day
Soon into the sunset I will sail and stay
I must maintain I much prefer poems
which do amuse yet elucidate
with alliteration plus a fun pun
to enlighten and or educate
double meaning yes indeed
metaphorically speaking
a clever endeavour is all I need
for word-play tweaking
and no quibbling I refrain from reading
stream of consciousness scribbling
with neither rhyme nor reason
a smattering of words dribbling
altho' meaningless all the rage
scattering in wobbly lines
Pollock-like across the page
rill’s wild swerve
sun-induced silk froth
eyes transfixed
Dream
Life is an uphill battle to be waged with steam .
Trickling water in the brook,
Smiling faces take a look.
Little fish are everywhere,
Bare feet giving them a scare.
Splashing water on each other,
Standing near my smiling mother.
It’s such fun here in the stream,
Just like in my springtime dream.
Mother’s happy standing there,
Sunlight showing through her hair.
If she’d join us as we play,
It would be a perfect day.
A croaking echo, dark and deep,
A princess shivers in her sleep.
She lost her golden ball of light,
To a monstrous, endless night.
The moon hangs, a violet stain,
As the bog begins to rain.
A frog, with skin of slimy green,
Leaps from a shadow, rarely seen.
"I'll find your ball," it rasps and sighs,
with golden flecks within its eyes.
But as it speaks, the sound turns dread,
A monstrous voice, not what it said.
Its body swells, a horrid sight,
Engulfing all the fading light.
The frog is gone, the monster's here,
And the princess screams in primal fear.
The violet sky starts to decay,
As the monster grins and starts to play.
The golden ball, a final gleam,
Sinks with the girl into the stream.
A stream, searching its limits, laps the bank.
Water falls gently over a small dam.
Fish nip at flotsam in usual prank,
And find protein at weight less than a gram.
All's well and calm in this country setting
A whiff of wind shuffles a nearby tree,
Yet the shallow banks soon will be letting
Gallons of overflow to be set free.
Soft water's whispers now shriek in a scream.
A precipice grips the liquid off-guard.
It spills its mass in a powerful stream
Down to twirling whirlpool's cold disregard.
i t r d; mallard ducks g--l--i--d--i--n--g ~
~moments ago, still...nature's mirror d s o e
Minor signs of anxiety
Sunk in the glass of lemon water
In the panic of the present time
Life flows in a calm stream
Along the damp walls of low storey buildings
My boat floats to nowhere
Under the arches of old bridges
Voices distorted by echoes ring out
What they say, what they are silent about
Is unimportant for I can't hear
I float along the quiet current
Through the cloudy waters.
long tree limbs stretching
over gurgling brook flowing
minnows are dashing
I sit on the bank
observing nature’s beauty
a calming moment
Another morning,
Stormy gray lies,
Verification code 062480,
Method of payment,
Onerous office,
Kingdom of the Orange,
Planet of the Dogs,
Forgotten/depressed/suppressed,
Collision warning!
Erring & errands,
Trembling triads,
Solo infotainment,
Revised & deleted,
143,000+ miles,
275+ poems,
Life, films, anti-humans,
Geeks inherit the earth,
Texting mockery,
Dust, dirt, remote work,
Deported to Mars,
Arriving dead,
Appointment, agencies, locations,
Unremarkably dressed,
Will do,
Barely alive @ 5:15 AM,
Squealing grocery cart,
Monday miasma,
Pausing, freezing, crashing,
Bureaucratic blasphemy,
Problem: garbage,
The End begins,
Sunday gloom,
Check Engine Light,
No refills,
Pitted windshield,
Obsessive recycled cyclones,
MacBook weeps,
Fiasco at night,
Digital snake oil,
Smitten spreadsheet,
Ignoble typos,
Nightmares in Midtown,
Select 0,
Lying biopics,
Naughty neologisms,
Flying, falling, exploding,
Cancelled lives,
Done.
When angels took my love in dawn's white light,
I wallowed in the wake of fate gone wrong;
too weak to fight my demons in the night,
too numb to know the gift that was her song.
Like brittle leaves left dying in a field
I longed to rise on autumn's gusty breeze.
Without the gift of wisdom's words to wield
I searched for hope beneath unbending trees.
But soon I heard the rippling of a stream;
along its banks, I shed my deep dismay.
Enchanting verses smoothed the cracks and seams
and soothed my soul with sounds of words at play.
I never thought the gift of poetry
would bring the joy and peace that lives in me.
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