The Whippoorwill's Call

Evening has really just now begun.
I hear the haunting calls of whippoorwills
boasting that they have found another one
as the setting sun slides behind the hills.

But there's still time to dream before the night.
The whippoorwill will call another time.
Before it takes off on its homeward flight,
there's time still to think of another rhyme.

When the whippoorwill finally calls me
I'll put down my paper and my pen.
I'll grab my hat, lock the door, leave the key
and answer the whippoorwill with amen.

Someday, I will follow the whippoorwill -
when my eyes are closed and my pen is still.

Message Status

i want to say u it's so nice to meet you
u are so nice, dear
What an absoultely HUGE day!

What can you accomplish in the next two years?
Committed relationship
What real men do

Be better than all men!

I hope for reciprocity

She who seeks adventure

(The above is composed entirely of subject lines from emails in my spam folder.  Each line, including the title, is an actual subject line from my inbox. This is what is called untreated "Found Poetry"):

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_poetry

Five Minutes

Why would five minutes do
when I want to spend forever with you?
Why would a passing glance satisfy me
when I want your face to be the last thing I see?

Why should I be satisfied with sips
when I want to drink deeply of your lips?
Why should I be happy with a simple touch
when my heart beats for you so very much?

I want forever, right here, right now,
and one day we will have that somehow.
But if a moment is now all I can get,
if a glimpse is all that time will let
me have of you...

then - for now - that will do.

Five minutes will have to do.

Flight

I sat and watched a butterfly
over the grass, among the blooms
and suddenly I wanted too to fly
over the fears, above the gloom.

Unlike him, I have no wings
just sunburn and rough skin
on my back; no gossamer things
that might lift and bring me in
to that world free of worries
where he delicately floats by.

In his lazy way he never hurries
he just wanders carelessly in the sky.

A Summer Haiku

Wild Summer rains
beat hard on the window panes -
I won't let them in.

The Girl

She moved with grace like Eve among the trees,
in her world without sin, without shame and guilt
before the serpent brought man to his knees
before the first altar had ever been built.

Her face was filled with the purest smile,
a radiant, rapturous sign of joy
without pretense, without thought, without guile -
only her innocence could call it coy.

She closed her eyes as the sun kissed her face
and spread her arms to welcome morning's rays.
She sighed as she felt the world's warm embrace,
seeing at last the folly of man's ways.

Oh, how did we ever come to believe
that there was sin in the nature of Eve?

The Dark Side

There is, I agree, a dark side to me
that likes to come and talk and drink some tea.
We discuss life, love and futility.

He is a wicked whisperer of doubt
usually rushing to let it all out,
speaking at times with a passionate shout.

Then he grabs his hat and is on his way
and knowing he'll be back again some day
leaves me wondering what he didn't say.

What new surprises will he have in store
the next time he shows up at my door?
I'm not sure that I can take many more...

Being human, this is as it should be -
there is and will be a dark side to me.

The Woods in Winter

When a gray cloud of confusion hovers
over the life that I have made for me
I know that a quiet calmness covers
the woods in winter where I long to be.

When my peace of mind's lost and not yet found
and my own company I cannot keep
that is when I know that I should be bound
to the woods in winter where the trees sleep.

When the crumpled paper's piled too high
then I'll push back from my desk and I'll go
to the most quiet place beneath the sky -
the woods in winter, covered deep in snow.

When it's peace and quiet I need to find
the woods in winter calm my troubled mind.

The King of the Land of Regret

I am the king of the land of regret.
I am the seer of all that might have been.
I am the empty promise, the bad debt.
I am the gambler that can never win.

I am the sad ghost of my ambition.
I am the shadow of what I should be.
I am the unrepentant contrition.
I am the painting you will never see.

I am the shriveled seed stored on a shelf.
I am the dream forgotten when waking.
I am the ego in search of a self.
I am the plan always in the making.

I am the telephone that never rings.
I am the letter that was never sent.
I am the song bird that no longer sings.
I am the rose without a pleasant scent.

I am the sum of all I was before.
Given that, shouldn't I be so much more?

The End

There's not anything that you need to say.

Like birds in autumn know they should fly south

I know that soon, maybe even this day

those tired old sad words will fly from your mouth.

It is funny how I could see the end

how I knew that this pretending was done.

Don't even think of calling me your friend -

that's like I'm just some random anyone.

Perhaps that's really all that I could be

after all so many parts of my life

were not ever really left up to me.

It's hard to love in a life full of strife.

So let's just turn away and say goodbye

and fool ourselves that it was a good try.

The Night

Night came to me
robed in moonlight.
Shimmering, silvery, seductively,
she walked to me

...and by a finger she led me
with the promise of delight.

Night said to me,
 Do not listen to the dogs that bark!
 Be not afraid of the deadly dark!
 Stare into the stars that are my eyes!
 Feel the soft breezes that are my sighs!

She threw a wisp of mist about me
and pulled me after her.
I followed her willingly, cautiously,
curiously, warily, wondering where she was leading me
...but not really wanting to see.

Then her veil was pierced by a ray of light
and I saw there was nothing there
no face beneath her veil,
no arms within her mists.

I heard her laugh as she faded away
 Remember all that you heard me say!
 I'll be back at the end of day
 and though you'll resist with all your might
 you will surrender to the night!

What I See

A world of ididots!  A world of fools!
A world of vainglorious capitalist tools!

A world of pain!  A world of hurt!
A world where everyone's rude and curt!

A world of sadness!  A world of sorrow!
A world where everyone fears tomorrow!

Is this the world in which I must now dwell?
Is this the world I have now made for me?
I begin to fear that I cannot tell
between the nightmare and reality.

A world of schemes!  A world of dreams!
A world where nothing is as it seems!

A world of angst!  A world of fear!
A world where the end is so very near!

A world of words!  A world of rhyme!
A world that's finally run out of time!

Am I now living in a private hell?
Did I really make all that I can see?
I'm just waiting here for the final bell
and when it rings then I will be set free!