How beautiful the lilacs grow
How ethereal their scent
Their colors from purple to pink and blue
and white like New England snow.
How beautiful the lilacs grow.
How beautiful they grow.
The breath came in
and then was gone
Just as the beautious visions resonated
with my dna then resolved
Each inspiration
paired with expiration
wonderfully frames
the joy of living
the joy of loving
the day will come
to honor this beautiful life
with one beautiful death
Rippling soil sways in ways
In ways a maestro drunkenly
Displays their baton, Earth in
Perfect fluid Earthen motion
It conducts and plays en tandem
The symphony of syrup season
Rings through Vermont’s silken air
Each movement weaves effortless
In majesty.
Hickory smoke leaves the sap house
The chorus of birch bark harkens
Weaving through the chimney’s maw
A mirror of the lone sugarmaker
His jaw a practiced spile, he is
The arch in the evaporator
With a puff of Cuban Affair kush
He admires the beauty of the
sugarbush
Flannel sheets and hard cider unravel the wound ball of uncertainty that never moves to the rear view window. Must, sparkable fire wood and 9 am coffee breath slithers its arm around my waist, the only part of myself that has never learned to accept what it sees in the mirror. At the breakfast table eggs get tossed to the outskirts and bacon is devoured in a sniff. Eyes meet eyes and regret meets consciousness. The fire gets extinguished along with lust. We tie up vintage skies and pull away in a tornado of air-borne snowflakes.
“To new beginnings”
But what happened to the old beginning?
Bones unearthed so roads may go places
Our people were not permitted to know,
Rise up, open up, open up,
The medicine is in the land,
Is in the mangoes,
Is in the yams,
The ancestors words are on the wind,
The shamanic gifts are in my bones,
Our inheritance, our sense, our skill,
We are blessed by the sharing,
We are blessed with ancestral gifts,
Just you being here is an act of defiance,
I see you
I see you with God’s eye,
I breathe you in with my ancestors breath.
We hold these truths to be self evident that all humans are not created equal,
Some have been created with more
while some have been created with less
Some are rewarded in life while some are barred from success,
We hold these truths to be self evident that all lives matter although some matter less.
We are all entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,
Unless it is determined by majority decision that you are not,
The pursuit of happiness is for all
until the powers that be decide that rules do not apply to everyone,
Yet those rules will apply to everyone in accordance to how they react to the sun.
Life is only fair if you are fair
In all fairness you will fair less if you lack fairness,
So great is the sin to lack fairness of skin
That all rules must be laid by
By show of darkness
You must be prepared to accept less
So be it known that only some were created in the image of God.
And you know who you are
after all why would God create your defective bod?
We hold these truths to be self evident
In God we trust.
If you find my lifeless body hanging from a tree,
Know that I have too much to live for,
I am not a fruit that easily grows on trees,
Yet too many trees have fruit that looks like me,
and too many Mamas sobbing hard on their knees,
Knowing that their baby had so much to live for,
Jemima is not my aunt,
Ben is not my uncle,
If you are too busy fighting to keep your belly full
That you have no time to fight to keep my lungs full
I have to let you go
because I have too much to live for,
There is nothing about my blackness that I need to hide,
So you best believe if I’m hanging it was not suicide,
So hear what I’m saying
cause I say it with pride
I have too much to live for.
You entered this world right on time,
Just what we needed and we did not know it.
You were feisty, and wonderful, and funny.
Many days you tested me,
You challenged my resolve,
You lit up more rooms than you darkened,
The only rooms you darkened where the ones where you hit the switch,
I expected to see your smile until my vision faded,
I anticipated the day when your wisdom would exceed my own,
I never expected the sorrow of missing you would ever….
Strike the past few words I’ve spoken.
I will speak you back into this room
and hopefully mend the fractures of my broken heart,
You entered this world right on time,
You left this world far too soon.
cold, pine scented air
huge draft horses pull maple sap
steaming vats await
An Old Haunt in Vermont
She has been living in an old haunt;
Great artist who is my favorite aunt;
And we knew,
Beautiful view;
While having fun skiing in Vermont.
Jim Horn
Uncertain the journey,
Unsure which way to turn
Jump, dig, swim, burn,
Failure needs no witness,
The audience gathers anyway.
Fight
Fists fly
Frustration
Frightening fury
Flee
The moment I met you I knew,
I would never fall in love again,
When my spirit amplified,
my heart felt at home,
Love lifted me,
I must, from this point forward, always rise in love.
At a right angle to all that is known,
Exists an unknown that remains,
glimpsed through the windows of dreams,
Remaining un-real until one dares to climb out the window.
Reality has flipped upside down,
Fist pounding on glass for release,
What descends is not glitter nor snow,
Fractured fragments of reality,
Tomorrow will be created from these pieces,
Today will be lived amidst the debris.
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