“Kochel Graveyard” by Wassily Kandinsky
push the dream
down the line
it can wait
there’s no rush
look ahead
make a plan
loosely set
time will come
always does
then again
sometimes time
just runs out
Archives
All posts for the month May, 2018
“The Lonely Painting” by Jude Griebel
how to live in a world
no longer your own
where your values
are trashed and your
ethics are gnashed in
the merciless jaws of
effete intellectual
solipsists aiming for
ignorant progress
deluded new dogmas
commissioned intolerance
framing ad hominem
scathing indictments
of any and all
disagreement
how to live in a world
you no longer love
truth be told but
it cannot be done
no choice left but to
turn yourself inward
pursuing the strength
of conviction to foment
a new hearts-and-minds
revolution a strategy
seeking to freshen the
air to enlighten the
dark modern motive
with new suasion of
old timeless truths
From my book Ephemera
Stonewood – Our New Hampshire Home
Dear family, friends and followers,
After thirteen idyllic years of retirement here in rural New Hampshire, my wife and I have now put our beloved Stonewood up for sale. Regrettably, our declining health makes it necessary to seek a more viable living arrangement.
Here is the link to our real estate broker’s listing, for anyone who might be interested:
https://verani.com/nh-real-estate/henniker/602-highland-drive-mls-4696075
– Paul
May, 2018
“Empathy” by Sergio Maestrini
no such thing as
invisible illness
it’s right there
behind unfocused eyes
under fricative
sighs of speech
in detached
helpless gestures
if only you
care to notice
From my books Bohemian Scents and Legacies (vol. 1)
Russian Christmas Card Illustration
snowbanked lanes
rise and dip
winding winter
through woodlands
surrounding colonial
cottages glowing
with firelight warm
scent of woodsmoke
on air crackling crisp
nature’s breath
sweet as maple
sap ready to run
sound carries
remote country
distance soft echoes
find ears with a
gratified peace
as I peer through
my trees I imagine
three canter abreast
muted clops coming
toward me the whoosh
of a sleigh tinkling
bells growing closer
and waving to me
from their bundling
furs two beaming
cold-reddened faces
who hail me in Slavic
Zhivago and Lara
with Pasternak
tucked in behind
this day promises
grand conversation
From my book Bohemian Scents
“The Vagaries of Luck” by Alejandro Montañez
old minds new things
incompatible concepts
change comes on like a train
sound and fury and speed
compose calculus of fear
the terrors of infirmity
facing new regimens
details unknown
unforeseeable therapies
incomplete panoplies
unrecognizable faces
peer out from the shadows
what spaces await
disobedient bones
to accommodate
badly turned plans
no grave will be made
in a north country forest
whose trees will have
since disappeared
like their very own
leaves of a season
the once cherished
rural aesthetic forsaken
by force of the flesh
the unkindness of time
will decide where and when
for new endings
the power to write them
transferred and invested in
vagaries given to chance
Image From Wallpapers.com
swam under the ice
pushed whole lakes with my palms
now my fire has died
From my books Bohemian Scents and Riverthink
“The Kickers” by Victor Gillam
baseball and politics
national obsessions
autumn aromas
From my books Ephemera and Riverthink
“Compassion 2012” by Drea Jensen
by what precept
does innocence suffer
at hands of the guilty
is it simply misfortunate
“wrong place wrong time”
or something more sinister
raw feral
unevolved ethics
survival of fittest
without metaphysics
is cruelty an instinct
organic aggression
the piece of the human
he shares with the beast
are opposable thumbs then
the only
defining distinction
compassion and kindness
mere koans
of mutated spirit
From my book Bohemian Scents
“Bumblebee at Springtime” – Artist Unknown
fuzzy and fat with spring nectar
industrious colonists ruled by a queen
hive intelligence highly evolved
roles strictly prescribed to conform
with a gender-based preordination
enslaved to the purpose of order
a collective community organism
bright yellow blaze warns the world
their intentions are deadly serious
complex unique comb-and-brush legs
fit to gather the gametes freeborn
among gardens and foodcrops
these life-seeding elements
carried like cargo from hither to yon
in precarious flight under unlikely
undersized wings whose exertions
emit pleasant seasonal music
the falsetto hum Rimsky-Korsakov
brought forth with chaotic tempos
these wretchedly wonderful creatures
the stars in this opera of nature
Poesy plus Polemics 