Canaigre a leafy buckwheat
right here in the high desert!
Drive an hour, hike an hour,
find some shade, sit in dirt.
Identify plants, photograph rocks.
Raven and scrub jay.
Coleogyne and cercocarpus,
single-leaf ash and squawbush.
What else have I seen?
Juniper, the source of all penumbra.
The rift that took the river eons to carve,
caves for cougar and Anasazi.
The sand and soil are Mars red,
iron oxides deposited by ocean
200 to 20 million years ago.
That’s nuthin compared to the wind in my head!
Meanwhile it’s Spring back east,
geopolitical and existential dramas
perdure without surcease,
our quince has blossomed and slumbered.
Joint-fir, ephedra, arid
sagebrush and rabbitbrush.
But juniper berries stay
nuclear blue-green!
Summer heat swelters.
The first cool dip in the pool
brings lovely surcease.
Spells in our lives
When things done for money
Bring less delight
We had enough motives
But struggle to keep living up
Necessity makes us so keen
Like it is all to us
Tours in our ways
When little done for love
Born memory ever green
We had much fright
Yet we never gave up
Stress for what seems nothing
Leaving assurance most time
In chase of precious gem
To tie ourselves to the prime
Wonders if good not mixed bad
That wrong not brewed right to blend
The wight of loss and gross pulse
We shall hardly believe logically, reason mortals surcease
And question the paper for the pen's drive
Two thousand and twenty-six,
is the sixty-ninth year I'll have seen,
but the crystal ball predicts
I still won't know what it all means.
While I wonder what it's about,
I'll still be living by the water,
hoping that my health holds out,
wishing for a granddaughter.
I'll continue that eternal quest,
for fulfillment, truth and peace,
beauty, relief and all the rest,
as I will till my days surcease.
While I engage in this pursuit
a laugh, a smile, a sunshine ray,
a musical note, a bite of fruit,
will make my life from day to day.
Tympani, beat tremendous!
Like thunder roll above!
Dark matter a-tenebrous;
Knowest thou of love?
Ah, young master. In good time!
Riddles, rivers, rhyme!
Griddle, fiddle, sugar, slime.
Covert cold cut chime.
All right, sir, but in earnest;
Full, brass bull, trull, wool?
Summertime, hot clime, addressed!
Roundabout red rule!
Well, it's you two! Black and Blue!
So, what else is new?
Eggs a-light, serpents a-few?
Kittens blind that mew?
Knights of the nebula pond!
Elders strong and wise...
Mighty warlocks, wave thy wand!
Prize? Between the eyes.
Adepts of tomorrow!
Always? Skies and greys.
Surcease, students, all sorrow.
Living for todays!
Miles are marked for travelers?
Yes, and reason thus:
Reality whirs, then blurs.
Black and Blunderbuss.
Rain, pour poems on prophets.
Nerves heal as they warp.
O floodwaters, try Tophet's.
Sailors, tamp the tarp...
Raw? Depends on what you saw.
Disaster? From jaw.
Who's the master? Real or raw?
Melee, mighty, maw...
Peoples of the ocean blue?
Vehicles to ride?
What exactly do we do?
Heaven and Hell, hide?
Tide of all tomorrows!
I requite you each!
Surcease of our sorrows?
It must be in our reach!
Peaches grow in gardens?
An orchard is the place.
Wolverines dwell deep in dens!
Rage lurks on the face!
Tyrant of the desert storm?
He's been keeping warm?
Hornets, scorpions, on swarm!
Foment, O my form!
Charm around the ruler's neck?
This will keep safe lords?
Sullen summertime, thy speck.
Light of Sin, fill gourds.
Judgement? For a prophet?
By what right, sir, and when?
Now? Well, this is, Tophet.
O dragons, from thy den...
Dun days? Clouds above in greys?
Sapphire? Purple haze?
Deterrence, dessicate, cays.
Buildings on the raze.
World around in twilight.
Months ahead a-grim.
Heart within me, burn with fight!
Crater, have thy rim...
Ocean, boil. Intestines, roil.
Ignite, O my soil.
Lightning, fry. My music, broil.
Serpents, time to coil.
Torment, grip each human life.
Quest, on edge of knife.
Fate and Fortune, seethe with strife.
Demon-sultan, fife.
Tyrant of tomorrow?
Of him I never heard.
Surcease sorrow, I borrow!
Tower dark, thy third.
Wind, tear down. Abhor, my crown.
Demolish the town!
Carnival chaos, thy clown.
Hope, see self as flown.
Flickering flame, explode. Death, come.
Doom, hover o'er all.
Chord suffering, play for some.
Family, how ye gall.
Terror, strike. O Panic, lurch.
Bake and flay, O life.
Silver were the trees of birch!
Wisdom, thou art rife!
We bide our time upon the cusp
Twixt what may be and surely must
From evenings hush till morning hours
Begging chase through moon lit bowers
Where gleans the will in blissful trance
And leads the way in halting dance
To just beyond what grasp may reach
Where barely recalled memories teach
Tween what is now and might have been
To tease the eye with promised gleam
With silent whispers barely heard
That nary leash the fleeting word
But call to mind the long lost plight
That dreams and hopes in lofty flight
Might grant surcease on windswept wings
With unbought time and unsought things
Here Death strode and left its trace
Where laid its hand to mark the place
Bade stony pages stand in waiting
To offer up in silent greeting
Final words for those distressed
Written out on granite stones
Under which in Deaths caress
Lie sedentary bones
Whose dreaming now is not besot
In earthly tasks nor woes begot
For Death to those in quiet repose
Bequeathed lifes last refrain
And eyes and lips forever closed
For evermore abstain
Yet with a dreamers certainty
Now ponder for eternity
The meaning spake in timeless odes
Upon which Deaths surcease bestowed
Nectarous taste would not surcease
in torture now that’s my showpiece;
I sit in a hard chair pallid,
there’s solace in something solid;
Give fine obeisance to the madness,
decayed memories savor sadness;
Such enmity in your answer,
the pinnacle of gross grandeur;
Your lotion now my nepenthe,
letting me drown so easily;
Rocking on this rickety porch,
that scent hits me like a blowtorch;
Alone, I want to be swaddled
in each moment that we bottled;
I’m locked in a living tomb
rusted with such a stale gloom;
Filthy stench, can you smell it?
Perfume for some to covet;
In a cataleptic state
circumvention seen too late;
Doppelgänger could not withdraw,
prose signed ‘Edgar Ravenclaw’.
Fall's levitating leaves,
wafting on gentle breeze.
Each one vainly believes
it can fly high with ease.
Colors beg hearts to cease!
Kaleidoscopic trees
wave wild without surcease,
flailing sleeveless chemise,
bringing one to one's knees.
Radiant days to please!
Passion with a Pen
Birth of a Critic
8/2/2023
So excited was I, to gain a position.
Something so dishonest was going on!
I was so driven to right an evil wrong.
My college paper, had me on a mission!
Decades danced away,I forgot what it was.
The Editor, with spine, would not remove my piece!
Faculty grumbled, red-faced, without surcease.
It went to press, entire campus alive and abuzz!
That’s when my desire to write was born.
The Muse to write blew clearly her horn..
Call me, “The Ethical Vigilante!”
I will go after any lies or propaganda, that is fake and scanty.
Summer’s Surcease Senryu
8/1/2023
?
lawn chairs stored away,
bathing suits, no sun will see,
birds’ songs, are no more,
Here lies before you a plate.
With my tasty birthday cake.
To share with special you!
So grateful to still be alive!
With friends who give me no jive.
Just joy and soulful peace.
Still, much to learn
Gardenia-scented, midnight oil to burn.
My soul speaks, with no surcease.
Enjoy the cake!
Panagiota
3/13/2023
While the world awaits a single day of peace
The tyrant delivers only turmoil and scorn,
Seeking wealth and pleasure’s release
While causing our better angels to mourn
Self-serving and arrogant, bathing in lies
While the world awaits a single day of peace,
He rants about what a vote for him buys
We know he is a rabid wolf wearing fleece.
Wondering why his blathering doesn’t cease
His lack of concern for anything but his pelf,
[While the world awaits a single day of peace]
Should be enough alone to put him on a shelf,
Still, in delusion, he clamors for more attention
Reveling in the news cycles, never a surcease,
When many of us think he belongs in detention,
While the world awaits a single day of peace.
Written November 11, 2022
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