Erstwhile

“Vanilla Seascape” by Alena Shymchonak

small work is troubling
for fingers who’ve fallen
afflicted with paradox
chronically pained in
the gnarl of the knuckles
while fingertips numbed
lost of all sense of touch

small work is troubling
for eyes who can no longer
find enough light
the dimensions of clarity
stolen by dint of disease
leaving only the large
parts of life to their ken

no more elegant ships
from the grand age of sail
will reach deft re-creation
by hands of a nautical mind
every sailor who comes
at last home to the land
understands the same loss

now holds naught but dry
dreams that remember
those fortunate few
who met poignant demise
with a relevant rapture
for death well and fine
at blest bottoms of seas

Hobby

Model of US Privateer “Rattlesnake”

(originally posted February 2014)

 

I live among ships of an age
ships that once plied the routes
that connected the world
fought the battles that remade
the maps of belligerent kings

ships I built on my fingertips
piece upon piece sewed their
sails tied their rigging of threads
spun from passion for nautical
turns of a landlubber’s mind

yards and masts stand a cruciform
forest across worn oak surfaces
decking my den between leather
bound volumes and chandlery
relics from dead captain’s quarters

I dream of roiled seas ripping under
my feet cut by bows of adventure
foam spraying the freeboard flags
snapping with crisp salty history
made by bold maritime bones

Homemade Wine

Painting by Marlina Vera

 

pressing of the grape
ancestral imperative
yielding hospitality
lifeblood of family
immortal elixir
congenial of body

with the last vivid
personal label affixed
a season of bottles
lay corked in their racks
who will be honored
with first ruby glass

only a priest of the
purple hand brotherhood

 

 

From my book Range of Motion

Birdhousing

“Country Birdhouses” by Martha Kisling

 

 

simple pine planks

sawn and fitted with

amateur joinery

finished in primary colors

slapdash garage homemade workbench technique

they hang high round my forest enclosure

crude rustic designs for my

unfussy visiting friends

those hard-weather creatures

who sing to me

words that I’m learning to translate

with help of a feisty old jay

knows the neighborhood

been here forever

has landed each limb-tip

escaped every squirrel and hawk

many hundred times over

a true kindred spirit

who never once judged

my unskilled outdoorsmanship

never made fun of my

concrete and asphalted roots

it’s him who decides

which bird gets what house

for nobody

not even me

would dare argue the point

 

Pinball Wars

(Another February reblog – originally written some years ago.)

Poesy plus Polemics

Mechanical delirium
intoxicated my youth.
Sensory captivation,
like the audio-visual
brainwave entrainment
to isochron tones
of a mind machine.

Backbox vignettes cast
Vargas-like pin-ups,
long-legged ladies,
bikini-clad beauties,
whom Gottlieb well knew
would tauntingly beckon
my horned adolescence.

Adeptly delivering
plunger-shot balls of
bright chromium steel
would kick off my battle,
in no-holds-barred warfare,
with a merciless foe,
Galilean gravity.

Bursting like bomblets,
cacophonies of color,
clashing and flashing
in sync with shrill bells,
chimes and buzzers, gave
signal of passage down
through tight chicane lanes.

Between thumper bumpers,
I’d trap a ball, nudging its
rat-a-tat ricochet,
racking up points.
The longer the trap, the
higher the score, displayed
on the blonde’s curvy parts.

Urging the box side to side,
carefully short of a “tilt,”
I’d knock down lit targets
and bank into pop-back holes,
using precisely timed raps
of my palm or my knee to
skirt sudden-death outlanes.

When…

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Antiquing

Eagle Antiques, Northwood, NH
Photo from waymarking.com

I can lose myself
in old barns and stable-lofts
storing yesterdays
underneath cobwebs and dust
eager for new memories

Woodwork

Photo from omaleyandstrong.com

I treasure wood things
artifacts coaxed to new forms
flesh of the forest

Philately

Doll Photo at alisasinternationaldollart.com

tiny histories

commemorate communion

of past with present