Passion breaks apart
fired in ovens too hot.
Cool love lasts longer.
Category Archives: POETRY
LADY RUBY
Lady Ruby walks with the Ancestors
on paths treacherous and costly;
on paths where the honorable and heroic
stay focused and resolute.
Truth lights her path amidst the darkness
of hate and fear, and the lies and threats
of political bullies and white supremacists.
Her faithfulness is a shield.
Her resoluteness is a sword
which pierces the veil of dangerous actors
in conspiracies of hot, decaying breath
constricting her strength but never defeating it.
Lady Ruby walks with the Ancestors.
They lift her up and show us the story long hidden,
and now threatened to be forbidden,
lest we learn what we need to know
to perfect our union and ring the freedom bell
for all Americans. This is the story Lady Ruby tells.
Lady Ruby walks with the Ancestors.
Let us walk beside her.
Filed under POETRY
THE GLEN
The geese know the way
beyond the pond’s gaze
onto paths which cannot contain them
to stay within its bounds.
In formation they travel
stopping traffic in their wake;
Mom in front, goslings next,
and dad takes up the rear.
We all wait.
Then, wait longer.
No horns blare.
We have learned to live in peace
at the speed of geese,
patient with one another
in this small space,
in this neighborhood of grace.
Filed under POETRY
History
History is not a resume
Listing only accomplishments.
History is a review of conscience
Considering how to avoid mistakes
Past made; a future planned.
History done right breaks hearts
Imparts hard truths
Demands change.
History is our only hope
For a better future
For real pride in holding accountable
Who we were and what we have done
History allows new beginnings
On different paths
To greater success
Than we can imagine.
Without history we lack the power
To get off the merry-go-round
Which circles back in endless
Rounds going nowhere.
Teach me history.
Tell me the truth.
Show me the honest
Thus only safe
Way forward.
The lies make me dizzy.
I trip on the lies.
I fall behind.
I get angry and fearful
Because I cannot keep up
With the resume stating only part
Of who and what I am.
Another part of me is missing
And I cannot feel whole.
Lies break me apart.
I need a history that demands
A way to balance so I can
Stand for something
Something truly grand
A person accountable
Is a person of account.
Teach me full history. Good and bad.
Let me become that man.
Filed under POETRY
TESTIMONY OF HEROES?
Nice of you to stop by for a chat.
Heroes? I think not; although,
you would like us to believe it so.
Your ambition still rules my derision
for the complicit decisions
you made to keep in place
a criminal of such disgrace
he had to be impeached twice.
He is more than simply “not nice.”
And you stayed silent for more than four
years of actions deplored
by anyone with a care for humanity.
Sheer insanity was not his alone.
This is something you, too, own.
What if you had gone to the news
with all the facts you knew ?
Would there have even been a coup?
The blame is not his alone.
It also falls on non-heroic you.
FAHRENHEIT 100
Another day stowed away
behind blinds and shades.
Temperatures soar in humid waves
as power grids fail day after day.
Brave crews I toast,
working hard as they roast,
laboring on lines to restore
the comfort we take for granted.
For granted, no more
as climate alters patterns of yore.
Excessive heat drenched in storms
with wild winds galore
bearing Earth’s pain on each blow.
Too cold in Winter.Too hot in Summer.
Spring and Autumn lie low.
Earth may be restored;
but, will we remain?
Feel earth’s pain.
It is now our own.
COLD ANGER
There is a stubbornness
which chills the soul;
no blanket heavy enough
to warm a heart
when words freeze love
dropped by tears into puddles
of remorse and fear
now frozen and slippery
enough to drop lovers
to hard earth and hard truths
which shatter hearts
like frozen glass
hit by rocks of heated rage.
Stubborn hearts,
stubborn thoughts
in need of greater warmth to thaw.
Heated passion has its place.
Filed under POETRY
HAIKU School Shootings
Pitbulls running free
unleashed among the children
chained to safety.
Filed under POETRY
THE ROAD UP
Why do words constrict the flow
of words in the mouths of a few
with money to burn.
How are those without cash to learn
what they need to know?
Such lies do burn
and cut
and turn
the truth around,
stomp it to the ground
hide truth in a burial mound
bathed in silence
except for the shouts
of those now on fire
with a true desire
to tell the truth
to follow the truth
wherever it leads.
Such a path may be difficult
but, it always leads up.
Filed under POETRY
