Shifting

I tried to walk and fell flat like a babe without balance.
Scales of blind justice gave me a shove in an unknown direction.

I was tangled in a triangular disaster.
Webs of misfortune because unfortunately my home was unpleasant.

But I was fortunate to have a hey sugar mixed with butter and milk.
Give me some sugar up on the rotund belly of grandpa I climbed.

Summer hugs and watermelon kisses on the front swing.
Swinging and singing in the summer rain.

Summers passed and storms did too.
I passed through the years with blurred vision from salty tears.

My eyes were a brick wall of my cold, stone heart.
Frozen in time, still in a surrogate love that belonged to others.

I did not know how to obtain happiness for myself.
No self-confidence or positive thoughts of a life that boxed me in.

A square, mundane lifestyle the same on every side.
Matching corners and perfect calculations of the same thing each time.

Glad was the day I found out lines no longer needed to be straight.
Everything ceased to exist and negativity perished in the sights of new hope.

Anger and repressed emotions died to self love and forgiveness.
Doubt and fears of failure and lack were driven out by faith.

All of the old vanished from memory and I could only see the present.



7/28/14

Poem cry

If my eyes could cry, a river would form in this desert.
It would flow over the dunes and down through Bedouin camps.

My footprints in the sand create a labyrinth of lost thoughts.
But if I could cry a river in this desert I would drift away.
Perhaps down to the mouth and out into the ocean.

Somehow I find myself standing in the wind as it whispers to me.
Deafened to discernment, it tells me no tales.
Blinded by the bold rays of sunshine, I cannot see.

Closed eyes lifted to the sky blue and no tears from my face.
If I could open my eyes and let them cry, a river would come gushing forth.
But I refuse to shed a tear, instead, I'll let this poem cry.

Lighten up

And God said, “Let there be light.”

Now I stand here enlightened by the daylight

That has grown dim into an evening,

But nevertheless shining brightly on my soul.

Overlooking a city of twinkling lights,

I reflect over the last seventeen hours of my life.  

The first sixteen hours I was ill and distressed

With body and mind congested with earthly matter.

The seventeenth hour has brought great joy.

Fresh brewed chamomile in hand and poetry on my mind,

I feel light on my feet.

While the tea warms my body, the quiet lightens the mood

And the poetic flow lifts my spirit to higher levels.

All sixteen hours are forgotten; just the here and now.

And I say, “Let there be light,” and so it is.

The water did come

I stood from a distance watching the water flow.

A beautiful turquoise, salted water that wrapped the edge of the land

Began to swell and lift the earth.

It raised the trees from the ground and they touched the clouds.

My eyes were filled with astonishment as I gazed from up high.

Unthreatened, I watched the water well and pass through the city.

When the turquoise blues rose to a level that approached my window,

I was afraid.

Fear gripped my belly as I hoisted my body from the seat to get a better view.

Yes, the water was coming for me.

I attempted to take refuge from the window,

But my feet were planted firm as an iron pillar.

Drenched in terror with heart racing, I heard a calm voice say,

“Don’t run.”

 

9/11/14 10:10pm EDT

9/12/14 6:10am GST +4

 

Reflections - 2

It is five o'clock in the morning and I am up watching the sunrise and ready to complete a week of work in this one day. Pareto's Principle says that I should be able to do it with no problem. Perhaps I am using it a little out of context, but surely I can complete 80% of the work I have left to do with 20% of the time and effort. In examining the situation, I should have started my graduate assignments, script, and work projects as of six days ago. In two days, today and tomorrow, I will finish seven days of work. That means using 20% of my work week to complete all of my tasks. Voila!

In all of my exhaustion after work, I came home each day and crashed on the couch. When I awoke there was not a bone in my body that wanted to do anything else. I stretched out my tasks for the week and wrote down every assignment I was to do on a certain day. None of it was executed with precision and I even turned in my first grad assignment late. That hurt my heart, but what could I say? I was on the telephone gabbing and having social hour with my roomy. Too many distractions.

Now the sun is rising some days later and I refuse to spend a sunny Saturday slumped over the computer and headed in to work for hours. My mind refuses to let me sleep and I am up on a Saturday morning, just before sunrise, doing laundry, a journal entry, reading textbooks, choosing a research topic, listening to online lectures, brewing Chinese black tea and lesson planning for my kids. Cheers to the Pareto Principle and diligence.

Charlie

Tsunami Haiku

Enormous wave
rising in the deep blue sea,
casting the land from the earth.

Rumbles from the core
send the raging water forth
and my world afloat.

Horrifying surf;
the overwhelming ocean
has come to claim war.

Above and up high,
unstoppable scorn was sent
from Neptune afar.

Slowly swelling up
a tsunami came to thrash
and wreck the city.


Exploding cosmos;
a tidal wave ascended
engulfing my dream.