Tag Archives: anxiety

LEAD WITH THE HEART

Lead with the heart

and the mind will follow

a path of peace and hope,

strong enough to carry

dreams and generosity

for all those you meet.

No matter how difficult

the journey it will not be taken

alone, silently, fearfully.

The heart knows best what matters.

The heart knows the best path.

The heart unites us joyfully.

The heart beats life determinedly.

The heart overcomes strife.

Lead with the heart and do your part

to create a world worth living.

Some paths are famous and large.

Some paths are unrecognized and small.

Every path matters to those

who walk it and make it their own.

Every path converges as we move

into the great unknown.

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Filed under POETRY

INSOMNIA

Sleep catches me unaware

Reading in my chair.

A loud noise as a commercial airs

Awakens me from nightmares.

No, it is the news that intrudes

On waking dreams sharp and crude.

I have been awake more than I knew

Unable to tell what is untrue or true.

And so, I read some more

Of an entire reality to explore.

I try hard to understand and accept

A new reality in a democracy kept

Captive without due process of law

Which exposes all of our flaws.

Racism breathes deep and still

With a long-ignored strong will.

We too easily pretend

it has nothing to do with us, my friend.

Lie once and it becomes then

easier to lie again and again.

And we have lied for centuries now.

Shame beads sweat on every brow.

Cognitive dissonance

Makes us create distance

From truth, facts and connection.

Shamelessness offers protection.

Too many are willing to deny

What is clear to the clear-eyed.

I see no end in sight

And remain sleepless night after night.

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Filed under POETRY

MY FELLOW AMERICANS

MY FELLOW AMERICANS

I hold my tongue.

It takes strength I do not have.

Whimpers escape

On shattered breaths,

In silent screams.

The fight worries my soul,

Battle weary and choking,

On words held tight inside.

Once the scream begins

I doubt I could stop.

I wait for your speech.

I yearn for your promise

To stop the authoritarian

Who has taken over our house,

Emptied its vaults,

Stolen its wealth,

Sold its power

To the highest bidders.

So, I write. That I can do

While I wait for you.

To me, this nothing new.

Do you believe me now?

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

DECONSTRUCTION

Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025

The streets were lined for blocks on end.

Signs reminded all who rejoiced to attend

Why they walked and talked and smiled and waved

At passing cars who braved delays

While drivers honked horns and shouted out

“Vote him out and make it a rout!”

Costumed critters danced to our delight

Knowing their freedom would give him a fright.

Deconstruct the lies we have been told.

Deconstruct the narrative being sold.

Deconstruct the bullie’s hold.

Deconstruct institutional mold.

Gather in peace the young and the old.

Stronger are you, more wise, more bold.

Deconstruct so we can rebuild

What he has destroyed with his minions’ lack of skill.

We know how to do this, and more.

We have done it many times before.

Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025
Columbus, Ohio 10-18-2025

My thanks to my friends in Clintonville area of Columbus who helped me attend this moment of patriots’ challenge to the con men robbing the USA of its power, wealth, ideals and humanity. The lack of media coverage was appalling. The misrepresentation of attendance numbers cannot be challenged when media fails to provide images of the gatherings. A local station covered it AFTER it was over and crowds had dispersed. Another stated hundreds attended when it was actually thousands. We are here. We are resisting. We are going nowhere until the despotism and kidnapping of people and the Supreme Court, universities, news organizations, social media outlets, medical and public health Institutions… even our very language and the meaning of words and phrases has been brought to an end and freedom restored.

We shall not be silenced.

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Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY, POLITICS

BY THE WAYSIDE

Photo by Regina Jane on Pexels.com

Yesterday I fell

by the wayside

where hopelessness dwells.

The journey upward felt

like a forced retreat,

no longer a climb

on confident feet

to reach the summit

where love presides,

where ego lives above false pride.

Instead, the slope had become slippery

and I,

and I, 

and I

fell to my knees

my hopes subsided.

There is no time for this

I have decided.

I may slip again

and all my hopes fail 

but, I will stay on freedom’s trail.

The climb ahead 

becomes more rugged.

And I become stronger

the longer 

I climb.

And I,

And I,

and I

will always go up

where skies are blue,

to reach others

willing to climb

up 

from the other side.

This I promise myself

and I promise you.

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

VOTE BLUE

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

This blue earth,

this place of our birth,

grounds us against flight

from this tiny iron rock

hurtling through the dark.

And so, we hold on tight,

bathed in blue light,

sun reflected off ocean’s face,

keeping us in place.

We are cleansed by earth’s air,

a clear and free atmosphere.

We breathe in and then out,

Each breath removes any doubt

that we are of this world, in this place.

We hurtle through darkest space

on this earth, this hard rock

with all its hard knocks.

It is not our imagination.

The gravity of our situation

keeps us awake at night.

We are blue light 

against a dark sky.

Help earth and its people survive. 

Help keep freedom alive.

VOTE BLUE! 

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Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

FUTURE WAITS

Photo by Cleyton Ewerton on Pexels.com

Future refuses to talk.

She holds her cards close.

No expression crosses her face.

Her fierce calm holds us in place.

We gamble our fortunes, our lives,

within her unfathomable space.

Withholding breath we wait

to discover our curious fate.

“Play the cards you have,” 

she says,“before it is too late.”

The game here now will last until

each card has been played.

Holding onto cards 

means new presents are delayed.

The young know this better

than their elders do.

The young play with greater abandon,

unconscious of the heavy stakes

that keep my eyes open all night through, 

awake, until light from a new day

through the closed blinds seeps through.

A new day.

A new game.

Time to play.

Future cuts the cards.

No time to waste.

Vote!

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Filed under POETRY

DOLDRUMS

Photo by Ju00c9SHOOTS on Pexels.com

The in-between times

seem wanting but never bore,

filled with dread galore.

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Filed under POETRY

THE WAY TO PEACE

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Even if I could

give you peace

I am not certain I would.

Struggle breaks apart

and shreds the comfortable ways

we hold in our hearts.

Discomfort makes us let go

of ideas held taut by thick skins.

It make us eager to run to and fro

to shake off the pain and instead

become free to fly beyond

the old ideas lodged in our heads.

I would not have you wait for permission

to embrace the battle inside.

I would have you take over the mission

to set fear and pride aside.

True peace only arrives

when our hearts are torn asunder,

and we discover

what makes us truly alive.

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TIRED AND RETIRED

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Nights are too long

for those who cannot sleep;

too short for those who labor

longer than is wise to keep a roof overhead.

Each needing to secure 

what is needed to survive

and avoid their demise.

Retirement brings no respite

from feeling desperate.

It is not a lock against the clock

clicking through anxieties that bind

sleep deprived prisoners to their comfy chairs

to sit and simply stare until they can awake

and shake off lost hours abed;

too weary to take a walk 

or pick up the phone to talk,

or create anything worth the time to wait

for applause, faint praise or commendation;

too tired not to expect condemnation.

Why should their be applause

for simply living long enough to retire,

as if gaining years allowed

some reason to feel proud?

Perhaps some lives, like some nights, can be too long.

Time to get up and dance through the dawn.

No life is ever too long

once we learn to dance to our own song.

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Filed under POETRY