Frost Heaves

“Road to Giverny in Winter” by Claude Monet

 

ice forms in slim wombs

subterranean

temporal passages

crystal with seasons

swell yesterday’s thaw

pushing upthrusting

seriate ripples

embellishing pavements

men laid with a matrix

of dreamstuff

an undulant shapely

cascade leading

either away from

or back to a time and

a place that have

finished themselves

bygone eras completed

now covered by distance

with ribbons of roads

ever lengthening

reaching to span

two opposing horizons

conflicting emotions

of sunrise and sunset

the alpha omega points

true destinations

for traffic compelled

by alternative passions

indifferent to time

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Legacies (vol. 2)

Paint by Number

 

Portrait by Tim Mueller

 

 

pale blue lines
outline blotches
the shapes and
the shadows of
life by the numbers
faint color codes
cover the mass
produced canvas
designed to create
one more mass
produced portrait
with pigments that
daub and dress
mutual features
of character
common to crowds
save for moments
infrequently fresh
here and there
now and then
when a self-minded
painter flips over
the art board and
makes of its sheer
daunting blankness
a brave handed
bold colored vision
a one-of-a-kind
most remarkable life

 

 

From my book Ephemera

Weather

“Storm Warning” by Marjorie Cathcart

 

the storm comes

wind roars in the ears

heart afraid

of itself

we all make our own weather

and suffer the tears

 

 

(my first attempt at shadorma)

Manhattan Reverie

“Abstract Manhattan” by Brian Carter

metropolis sculpted

from granite ambitions

each skyscraping statue

erect in its embrace by

an armature of commerce

deep mercantile canyons

their enterprise shimmers

in swift racing glide on

the grain of two rivers

converged at the battery

southernmost outpost

of free aspirations

here history found him

and gave his sharp mind

clever means to discover

and climb secret paths

from the sun deprived

pall of collective endeavor

attaining a rarefied place

among peaks of the skyline

enlightened and warmed

by his own private sun

DIY

“Self Portrait Abstract” by guyver1

independence a privilege

demands that you

stand on your own two feet

if you have only one

then please lean upon me

if you have none at all

I would happily carry you

knowing that when we arrive

where the choice must be made

where the work must be done

where the living is hard

and the dying is easy

you’ll then face the challenge

to do it yourself

take possession of circumstance

plumb all the powers

the inborn resources

refute every notion of destiny

never mind your beginning

just realize that you alone own

all the methods and means

to define your own end

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

Doggerel

“Overcoming Fear”
Mixed Media Art by Hilary Rice
From mestudios.ca

doom is a fiction
and
fear an affliction

life always scared
is
life never dared

act like a slave
or
channel the brave

overcome fright
to
discover delight

don’t hide or run
just
grow a pair son

Ownership

“Focus and Determination”
Painting by Hasaan Kirkland
From sanjosedecalasanzdeduitama.edu.co

own your life
no one else
has your power
no victim or shill
ever got there
except by assent
to surrender

own your life
choose to use it
mark moments
no matter
small deeds
it’s the doing
looms large

own your life
or give forfeit
to forces
of mayhem
with no love
for you
or your kind

own your life
it’s the key
turns the lock
loosing shackles
on liberty
man in possession
of manhood

********************

“Liberty, according to my metaphysics, is an intellectual quality; an attribute that belongs not to fate nor chance. Neither possesses it, neither is capable of it. There is nothing moral or immoral in the idea of it. The definition of it is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.”

– John Adams

Live Free or Die

New Hampshire
State Motto

piss and vinegar
juices that animate
those with real bark
on their hides

stern stuff of
the northern
New Englander
perish the tender

come and visit
but don’t plan to stay
if you can’t
take the oath

Feisty Old Bastard

 

“Blue Bird” by Sweet

 

 

woodland breathes in the rain

dripping canopy glistening

vividly green against slate-blue skies

the old blue jay sits hunkered

in the crook of a favorite bough

where he ponders his lucky longevity

wondering how in the hell

he alone has escaped all these years

from the red hawk the raven

the horn headed owl those raptors

who rule this perimeter forest

it’s not that he hasn’t had countless

encounters but every attack did he

meet and repel with a counterattack

of his own after all he has always

been fearless if never quite neighborly

small as he is he has arrogance large

with fierce pride not to mention

a devious larcenous heart and this

respite of rainy reflection allows

him to plan his next raids on the

nest-eggs of species more timid

than wise he’s a feisty old bastard

who squawks as he flicks with an

insolent shake of his flamboyant

crested cockade the spring raindrops

an ill-mannered attitude rude to the

gifts of the season and churlish

toward time more than happy to rest

on the cool smug assumption that

all said and done he is simply too damned

fucking mean to be anyone’s prey

when the time comes he’ll drop from

his perch no one’s victim his blue

feathers splayed on the ground

daring God and His creatures to

try and avoid the conclusion

that his was a life self-determined

unburdened by social proprieties

free from all notions of conscience

 

 

From my books Small Noise and Legacies (vol. 2)