Aspiration

“Himalayas” by Grażyna Smalej

 

striving for the summit

the capstone who laughs

granite bleached by the sound

rumbling confident tumbling

through temples of glaciers

leaving humans disabused

of their impudent dreams

grandeur belongs to this

rarefied realm where no

purpose runs shallow where

pride is reserved to deep

eons of unsullied motives

though now and then men

may ascend their adventure

their destiny rarely will rise

much above the repichnia

marking the burrows of worms

 

 

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

I Remember the Night

“Meteor” by Maurice Sapiro

a meteor slashed

a brief gash

in the black

waxy skin

of the heavens

soft moon-silvered

droplets bled sweet

from the wound

dripping slowly

through starbreath

down onto my tongue

thus I tasted you

even before

you existed

 

 

From my books Pieces of Wine and Legacies (vol. 2)

Prizefight

“Prize Fight” by Albert Bloch

 

ego strides right on in
all Dan Post ostrich skin
tree-trunk legs and cleft chin

packing serious heat
hands rough as concrete
it yanks fate to its feet

now fate is no mark
it’s developed the dark
deadly skills of a shark

so fate doesn’t flinch
doesn’t back off an inch
and they clash in grim clinch

rain down mighty hard blows
toe-to-toe, nose-to-nose
fury builds as blood flows

after vicious long hours
fatigue overpowers
these broken-down towers

nodding cagey assent
they retreat this event
bearing deep discontent

I’m the one left to tend
them and see to their mend
though neither’s my friend

still I’ll wait for the rise
of new fight in their eyes
to learn who claims me prize

 

 

(originally posted March 2013)

Aztec Weather

 

Tlaloc – Aztec Deity

 

 

rain is mine
to command
to call down with
benevolent flourish
or halt with a
brandish of temper

either way
I am Tlaloc
the giver of glory
through abundance
of prosperous yields
or through famine
of punishing drought

either way
will your story
be written
forever on stones
of the pyramids
praised upon altars
or damned in the runnels

either way
it is you whose
behavior will choose
from my gifts
but as son of the war gods
I may nonetheless
move to destroy you

 

 

(originally posted November 2013)

Desiderata

 

“Cosmic Destiny” by Megan Duncanson

 

 

patient destiny
waits like an unused grave
watching your choices

 

 

(originally posted December 2013)

Vicissitudes

“Vicissitudes” by Delia Dante

was a time
youthful calculus
plotted the changes
of infinitesimals
bent to the influent
arcs of trajectory
functional points
differentially aimed
at a future
some semblance of
personal
private success

was a time
before octadic bits
became bytes
of electrons
when slide-rules
were moved
by an analog mind
with derivative
notions of
how to conduce
a pragmatic
perfectible life

was a time
of naïve disposition
unwary that life
has its own
independent volition
it moves along
unforeseen paths
unexpected directions
unknown destinations
its integral quotients
converging in
arrant surprise

was a time
many miles many years
of organic mathematics
divide the incipient
dream from its destiny
tangent adventures
oblique with
vicissitudes exercised
muscles of character
standing a man
the boy never
could know

now is time
for brash inverse
of theorem
for certainty summed
by survival of scars
earned contentment
despite analytics
a fortune of memories
bittersweet beautiful
triumph of change
unpredicted by genius
yet nonetheless real

Destiny

X-Ray Telescope Photo by NASA

(Originally posted February 2014)

 

 

I remember when pain
was an athletic choice
not a sanguinary sentence
imposed by a starburst
whose bleeding mass
fell from its immanence
water weight crusted
jagged energy piercing
the bones that protected
failed centers of me

Riverman

“River Abstract” by Karen Mathison Schmidt

I could not bear to be a river
moved by forces outside my control
by impetuous thrust of my source
by the down-drag and draw of dead gravity

I would flow at my own chosen pace
through landscapes that I alone judge
worth my life-giving pure irrigation
wash only those stones that I love

I would alter direction to save my identity
keep from dissolving in brine of the sea
hold my dignity keeping my memories
handy to those with a freshwater thirst

but no river can ever run sentient
no soul overcome depredations of flesh
there can only be half-heart concessions
to unleavened destinies lacking design

Drinking Destiny

“Whiskey with Cigar”
Painting by Hal Groat II
From dailypainters.com

all that is possible

swirls in my glass

I have only to drink

this immanent liquor

these distillate dreams

to sample the future

bitter gentian notes

hint at doubts under

honeyed excitement

for sweet opportunity

soured by fear of

a finish concocted

by external hands by

some trickster distiller

who favors a random

tomorrow who blends

smoke-charred tannins

achieving sharp flavors

of chance and surprise

so that heaven forfend

my best aftertaste

choices should matter

in least or at all