Ephemera

“Fall Landscape” by Russ Potak

 

radiant palette

pigments of rain

drip from flames

brilliant fiery

heralds of change

unfolding itself

in tableaus of

texture and time

turning crisply

through colors

that quicken

the heartbeats

of seasons with

sentiments tithed

to the passerine

psalms reverent

music of arson

that titillates ears

as it burns down

the rustic divinities

shading the sins

come to pray in a

pastoral hushed

woodland church

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Legacies (vol. 2)

Coming to Terms

 

“Decision” by Sharon Sieben

 

decisions to make

despite his reluctance

a man gives his word

his only possession

that has any worth

a man makes his mark

to certify change

monumental momentous

one thin sheet of paper

four corners of contract

delimit the sum of the pain

hard elements stoically

formed into cold resignation

a coming to terms

with the fiends of necessity

one hand to heart

with the other to heaven

a man gives his word

to commence with the

shatter of yesterday

gather the pieces of

life as he knew it

deliver them unto

the mercy of fate

with a prayer

she will make of them

some new tomorrow

with aspects at least

of a honeyed contentment

to sweeten the

swallowed regrets

Restless

 

“Shadows in the Trees” by Wendy Wade

 

a pasture serene

light with rain

rich and redolent

soil sustained by

sweet springs

born of snowmelt

and memories

wondering where

are the sheep

generations of goats

where the cow herds

who thrived in this

forest-bound space

in this nature-made

mountainside

theater of seasons

now green and gold

grasses grow tall

swaying fitfully

tousled by drafts of

fleet shadows abroad

flitting aimlessly

caught between

here and hereafter

aware change has come

something busy

and bountiful

brought to its end

without knowing the why

or what shapeshifting wind

will prefigure tomorrow

Alienation

“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

Dislocation

 

“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

Vanishing Point

 

“Figures in Motion” by Assadour Bezdikian

 

 

time exists to effectuate motion
like a shark undeterred ever forward
it cannot survive at a standstill
life is living and living is time
changing aging advancing inexorably
life is carried on currents of moments
in movements of undulant progress
each moment each instant within it
abandoned by consequent waves
become part of the past swirled in
troughs left to travel behind and
beneath rolling crests of the present

time and motion behave in an inverse
relationship causing all life to comport
itself tuned to precarious clocks
youth racing with ass-over-teakettle
carelessness bumping and tripping
for uncertain unreachable futures
while time crawls along at a maddening
slow young impatience-filled pace

time and motion so highly subjective
possessed of no absolute essence
we long-in-the-tooth live our motions
unhurried our fire for speed long since
snuffed by our time the same time who
accompanies aging accelerates cruelly
flies faster and faster approaching
velocities terminal punishing deadly

time exists to effectuate motion
like a shark undeterred ever forward
it cannot survive at a standstill
life is living and living is time
changing aging advancing inexorably
pushing bones in the churn of its waves
bones we fleshed with our too many days
moving dead for the eye of perspective
the center of everything into its cone
till that endpoint acute sweet oblivion
nothingness lives there our motion our
time and ourselves finally cease to exist

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Legacies (vol. 2)

Acceptance

“Inevitability” by Alan Brain

 

submit to the change
accept that the choices
were written in fiction
defiance profits no one

Growth

“Dramatic Lightning Skies” by Toni Grote

 

consider the mayhem
when seasons collide
cracking heads over
rights to the stage

one adamant in its
intent to arrive
another tenacious
unwilling to leave

quarterly clashes
fierce thunderheads
stricken by lightning
contest pride of place

inevitably new is
victor for better or
worse will not fail
regardless its wounds

people also experience
violence of change
collateral computus
joined to our growth

the measure of men
like the seasons is
told by which qualities
outlive the storms

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Kismet

“Fate Tempting” by Jeff Christensen

life patterns
unpredictable
light and dark
speckled hours
days nights
shaping years
arbitrarily
sequenced
now subtle
then lurid like
splotch and spot
chaos of an
ocelot pelt
skin of time
map of feats
broken circlets
stretched taut
for the race
some call journey
whose triumph
though ever a
time and space
accident
moves upon
purposeful bones
supple mind
and an eye
who can see
the big changes
before they arrive

Progress

“Catalyst” by Tara Baden

 

earthquakes tremble

beneath mighty mountains

the landscape evolves

rearranges lives of men

compelled to abide change

 

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“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Riverthink