“Paso Fino Friends” by Marcia Baldwin
giving acceptance
trusting character enough
to banish its ghosts
From my books Ephemera and Riverthink
Character
All posts tagged Character
“Unfinished Rocks” by Karen Jacobs
stone upon stone
marks my presence
my promise to pass
what I’ve learned
of the land that its
posture embodies a
welcoming gesture
an offer to settle
one’s peace build a
home upon ground
virgin fertile receptive
to dignified seed firm
foundation for nutrient
footsteps down arable
furrows who give up
these stones to an
ethical plow one by one
over time of my journey
each facet each jag
a reflection my virtues
my vices my fortunes
and forfeits distinctly
positioned to stimulate
cool contemplation by
those who may follow
From my book Ephemera
“Raging River” by Becky Chappell
thoughts race in a crisis
mad rushing electrical river
hot whitewater rapids
ideas churn and tumble
words crash into stones
break apart in alternatives
urgent and desperate for
answers instructing the
right thing to do before
drowning in overthink
blest are adroit minds
informed by a personal
confident trust that no
tragedy looms who is
tragic enough to defeat
psychic fortitude only the
truth can react of an instant
and then from neat coils of
virtue can turn on a dime
nimbly spoiling all threats
From my book Ephemera
“Winter Chaos, Blizzard” by Marsden Hartley
fierce turning winds
born of violent helix
whip oceans with
spirals of face-slapping
haymaker force
severe snowmaker
lashing at coasts
bringing blizzards
to bury the land
fill the valleys and
fatten the mountains
a roaring assertion
of dominance stirring
in flesh and blood
frailty real fear of
cold counterclock
cycles whose cosmic
proportions of power
give fury to weather
in vortex of winter
oh stoic New England
it’s you who must hold
against mad season
rampage and rage
hunkered down in
the warmth of your
plainspoken principles
flannel and fleece
and a fortified hearth
keep your values
alive instrumental in
teachable moments
of terrible trial
with shovel and plow
and a tipple of whiskey
you summon your
ancestral fortitude
rugged and rustic
full fit to withstand
the assaults of Borrhás
“From Different Viewpoints” by Layne Cook
It’s all in the underhand fingered release
A matter of reflex and instinctive math
That perfect drawn arc of a kilogram ball
Will it play to a point or roll too wide and miss
Will it grab ground and bowl a line straight as a crease
Or kneel into english and bite a curved path
Will momentum concede to reverse backspin thrall
Will it stop at the instant it gives jack a kiss
Teaching metaphors hide in this legionnaire’s game
True mastery comes through the practice of forms
Finesse wields more power than naked brute force
Velocity will not assure you arrive
The unfoolish target wants careful laid aim
Respect acquiesces to disciplined norms
Advantage belongs with the tactical course
Competitive friendships can bring one alive
It’s a simple game humbly equipped for plain hands
Rich with nuance that measures how character stands
(originally posted April 2013)
“Duality of Man” by Care Vaughan
the quantum exists
as a conflict of natures
warm oscillant wave
versus
cold static particle
either or both or
some something of each
then or now then
perhaps then again
man as well
lives a conflict
a body and mind
he’s the thing and the
thought of the thing
either or both or
some something of each
then or now then
perhaps then again
metaphysical
self-contradiction
conspicuous tenants
inhabit bicameral
structures of soul
either or both or
some something of each
then or now then
perhaps then again
good and evil
propensities
vying for dominance
craving the spirit and spine
of alacrity
either or both or
some something of each
then or now then
perhaps then again
ever changeable
products of choice
making one or another
assertion of will
independently tandem
either or both or
some something of each
then or now then
perhaps then again
decisions made
moment by moment
from womb to the tomb
moving character
constant in flux
either or both or
some something of each
then or now then
perhaps then again
just one man
solid flesh and blood
binary entity
thinking his way into
virtue or vice
either or both or
some something of each
then or now then
perhaps then again
is he sinner or saint
which poor simplified cert
will outlast him
define him in
pale incorporeal words
either or both or
some something of each
then or now then
perhaps then again
the monstrosity
sleeps behind
beautiful eyes
the brute in closed palm
of the tendermost hand
either or both or
some something of each
then or now then
perhaps then again
all that’s loved and most feared
by all men in each man
an abstract dichotomy
pressing dilemma
on those who would judge
* * *
“The battleline between good and evil runs through the heart of every man.”
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Architectural Abstract” by Debra Hurd
build it up
tear it down
build again
swing the
hammer
the maul
light and dark
in recursive
exchange
timing
soundless
bright beats
of circadian
rhythms
each day a
new construct
a castle
of courage
each night
reveals
structural
failures in
cracks of
innate
indefeasible
fears who
demand
demolition
the blueprint
for bravery
raising a
tower erect
of conviction
continues
to hide
holding secrets
from citizens
here on this
pitiless street
in this
merciless
city of time
“Untitled (Hitchcock)” by Robert Natkin
folded colors
paint layers of lyrics
soft to the touch of the eye
sundry haberdash textures
acutely arranged
like articulate works of a clock
tailored vestments of time
clothe the days of a life
a disciplined set of beliefs
on well-ordered display
a mind given to tidiness
evident shapes of emotion
beneath philosophical raiment
a visual cognitive character
lending depiction of mind
ethos pathos and logos
in notional portraiture
somehow made tangible
dressed in the discourse
of memory
lingering artfully
long past the grave
Rowell’s Bridge – Contoocook, New Hampshire
Rowell’s Bridge over the Contoocook River
timber trussed
thoroughfare
easement for
cattle and sheep
in respect of the
cold rushing river
colonial enterprise
rural existence
an era long gone
yet the woodwork
persists in its
purpose the well
crafted joinery
still at its service
alive with each
subtly perceptible
movement
conduced by the
water-swept wind
exclamations of
creaking fatigue
and deep rumbling
groans giving voice
to a dogged
New Englander
character leaving
no question
but that it is
ably determined
to keep keeping on
to accommodate
even the wandering
passage of history
carried by ghosts
who seek rest
somewhere over
the river beyond
the unknown
other side
of tomorrow
(I cross this bridge each time I leave my house)
“Evening Sun” by Lucinda Parker
I can wait for the moon
a lifetime in coming
the end of this
long day of living
the lowering sun
remains generous
wealthy with moments
allowing me yet
its good leave to
acquire the character
I would admire
still time to become
that much better man
who would now and then
animate turns
of my conscience
that man of the mist
content in his dreams
sound and safe
through the imminent
infinite night
Poesy plus Polemics 