Category Archives: POETRY

April 2, 2026 · 11:11 am

A NEW DAY IS COMING

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Morning must wait awhile

for the sun to cross the stile.

We wait in darkness,

shadows their starkest;

unable to see our way,

knowing the sun will rise,

always, on a new day.

But, I am awake for hours;

no years, no decades now.

I have pushed away darkened skies,

I have struggled to plant seeds

in hardened soil stomped on

by supremacist feet of clay.

I have listened to hateful words

until my soul shouts and sways.

Always, always, I wait for the sky

to lighten on a new day.

I listen for the first notes

of morning-birds’ first songs

carried on morning-breath’s first breezes

stirred by sun’s rising heat

overturning the cold of night;

up-ending threatening nightmares

and tossing them away.

Soon, soon, I promise you.

There will come a new day.

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March 28, 2026 · 3:08 pm

MARCH 28, 2026

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The place where I write may have to change.

A soft couch for a hard chair I must exchange.

Age hardens the bone more than the sight.

Age does not dull the urge to set things right.

Except…

Age questions all sense of reality.

It doubts what right seems to be.

Age moves faster the longer it goes.

It upsets the cart full of all we know.

Age unsettles from head to toe.

We see higher up and deeper below.

Age quickens and shakes our stability.

It makes us question who we will be

in an uncertain future coming so fast

we wonder how much longer we shall last.

Age keeps reminding us we cannot fall;

not our selves, nor our country, no one at all.

So we march for a future, a future unclear and unsure.

Bravely, because we have done this many times before.

Are we wisely foolish, or foolishly wise ?

The fact we don’t know is no surprise.

So, I get up off the soft couch, and drop the pen.

Time to go march, one by one step, together again.

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March 20, 2026 · 1:05 pm

WIND

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The wind can be both friend and foe.

Harnessing his power 

to make him my own

can never be, I know.

He may clear the air

of any disputes yet leave me

to struggle to breathe, 

inhaling what make me sneeze.

He cleans out the cobwebs,

the garden beds, and gutters.

He leaves me breathless

at his show of strength.

He is a lover like no other.

I stand stronger within his embrace.

My body feels lighter,

my countenance tighter,

my body lifted up off my feet.

Wind is my lover, sight unseen,

except for what he brings 

and takes from me.

I see his caress of every shrub and tree.

I yearn for his heavy touch on me.

I love the wind. 

I am sad to see him die low,

knowing he, too soon, will leave me.

I do not want wind to go.

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March 15, 2026 · 12:37 pm

DANCE LIKE YOU MEAN IT

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He has no spleen.

He has no fight.

A childhood chant,

If I remember that right.

Switchblades once ruled

where guns now alight.

Bullies without spleens,

those I remember alright.

Social media makes bullies

to our left and our right.

Social media fakes spleens

for those scared of others’ might.

We could make our peace

and not need a spleen.

We could face our fears

and let others draw near.

We could dance and sing

through winter and spring,

through summer and fall.

We need not fight at all.

We could simply share

all that we know and love,

all that we have to spare.

This is my chanted prayer.

Spineless, spleenless bullies

may take over the stage

and every airwave

with shouted outrage.

Turn them off. Tune them out.

Life is too short to listen to their shouts.

Life is too precious to waste and spin

into useless promises to win.

To win what? I ask of life.

What is worth such strife?

Much better friendship is sought

whether I like you or not.

Just turn up the music and dance.

Give life’s joys a chance.

Feed the hungry, house the poor

that we may all dance forevermore.

Seek connection with fearless affection.

Dance. Just Dance.

Now,

dance some more.

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March 14, 2026 · 12:46 pm

POWER OUTAGE

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How lucky are we who have electricity

and solid roofs over our heads

while facing the fiercest storms.

When the cradle rocks and trees fall down

we worry a bit and put on a frown.

Yet, we know we only need to wait,

turn the lanterns up, so bright,

we power on batteries to light the night.

Workmen climb poles

amid cold winds grown bold

to make things right.

No billowing tents for us

with open fire to heat the cold

We simply open a book to read by flashlight.

I wonder why I was born 

in this time and in this space;

why I am blessed with American grace.

I wonder why others have not been so placed.

I do not wonder why they seek their way

through jungles, across rivers,

in deadening heat and torrential rain.

I do not wonder why they face such pain

to carry their children to a safer place.

I only wonder at their courage  to dare

while we so spoiled are unable to face

what we fear to be true.

Those who come on bare feet,

those not so blessed, deserve the same grace

as me, and as you.

Electric power outages can be fixed

by brave service workers and much ado.

Moral power outages are much harder to fix

and need a bigger, even braver, crew.

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March 13, 2026 · 1:36 pm

OUR GIRL, SPRING

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Everyone loves Spring.

I have a strongly-mixed feeling.

She is the kind of person I find

unaware that she can be unkind.

She is fickle as the winds blowing

from north and south and twisting

into storms of frozen heat and heated cold.

Spring laughs and dances so very bold

across garden landscapes and downed trees

she spreads dead tree buds on every breeze

to litter yards and and parking lots and streets,

with detritus that crunches beneath our feet.

Plants  struggle to figure her out.

Do we stay hidden inside or come out?

We are never sure what Spring is about.

Weatherman are never sure what to say

except that it is a weather-warning day.

I tolerate her insistent hold on all forums,

her indecisive lack of decorum,

her frozen demeanor and winsome smiles.

We wonder what is next, all the while.

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March 12, 2026 · 11:38 am

ACTIVISTS

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To catch the sunrise

it is necessary to open the blinds

while still in the dark;

in that fearful time and space

our earliest ancestors faced,

before fire made a place

where even in darkness

we feel safe.

Even now, we close our eyes,

awaiting a new sunrise;

one where bombs and hate

stop falling from the skies

in our streets and across our screens

until we quake and scream.

We cannot simply sit in the dark.

Its prospects are too stark;

all blunt, clean-edged lies 

that shadow every truth

which fear denies, 

finally laid bare,

once sunlight fills the air.

We must open the blinds

while skies and lies are yet dark.

We cannot miss the moment.

We must not be caught by surprise.

Be ready for the sunrise.

I wait in the dark and open the blinds.

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March 9, 2026 · 11:50 am

BAD KNEES GARDENER

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Packets of seeds are starting to arrive,

which may never grow,

in the mail from companies

with greater gardening skills than I.

Buying seeds is a hopeful sign

that my pained leg might soon be fine.

Perhaps one day my knee can bend again

to plant my treasured seeds in fertile soil

and I can return to lovingly toil

among plants that are my dearest friends.

For now, they sit untended on my kitchen counter.

They sit and they wait, then wait some more

for longer, warmer days filled with sunlight;

and, for a leg which can stretch and move

painlessly and endlessly to plant more seeds

than this world may ever need

to make peace and beauty thrive,

among earthlings happy to be alive.

The seeds sit and wait for better days.

As do I. As do I. As do I.

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March 8, 2026 · 2:19 pm

ELECTIONS

The tree must come down.

It’s stump must be ground.

Know this,though.

Its roots continue to grow.

The lines we rely upon

To stay safe and strong

Will remain under threat

If we rejoice and forget

The threat those roots make

If we do not stay awake.

The tree may be gone.

But the threat still goes on.

We can take down the tree.

But, stay by me.

We must stay alert and fight,

the tree’s shadows alight.

It takes time for roots to die.

It takes time for truth to replace a lie.

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March 6, 2026 · 1:28 pm

EULOGY

God-speed dear Jesse

on your latest journey

where you may take your rest.

You always did your best.

You always helped us see

racism has no place in a democracy.

You mentored us along our way

on separate paths that lay

alongside your own by right,

allies in a long, broad fight

to make America, finally, act right.

You encouraged us to face the foes

who would take us all down,

with fisticuffs and handcuffs, to the ground.

You showed us that peaceful means

are more than enough

to overcome those who act so tough.

God speed, dear Jesse,

Good riddance, Kristi, and all your kind.

Jesse’s spirit will survive those of your mind.

Jesse’s peaceful rainbow coalition 

is far more able, resolute and tough.

Sure enough. Sure enough.

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