SALLY'S CASSEROLE
A Poet pg. 4
12/26/1961
I am a child
Who runs in
To babble out the messages
of insight and glee.
My listeners are words and paper -
Will they pass it onto you
As second-hand news?
“Poor child, who stammers
With flashing eyes and a loud voice,
Only to get tangled up in
words and breath.
Child, it may be many years
When you’ve moved on
That you’ll be able to tell
your stories clearly.”
SOMETIMES I AM pg. 43
Sometimes I am a blues writer
Sometimes a blues singer
Sometimes a blue exister
Who can’t do anything but watch.
It is these times
That life is like
A sad and empty stage-
The lighting is good.
The background music
Is slow and lonely.
For life and I are one-
Sad, empty and gray.
Life is simple now-
As only an artist can form.
It’s a single melody
Played on a single instrument.
Thanks to my sorrows
For it is then
That I am a blues writer
A blues singer
And sometimes a blues exister
Who can’t do anything but watch.
My words bring company
MEDICAL TO-DOS pg. 109
8/27/2017
My life so full
of medical to do’s
floss teeth
clean eye glasses
do physical therapy exercises
take meds and vitamins.
Medical to do’s
termites eating
at the fabric of my time.
When is there time
to have plenty of time
to do as choose?
When is there time
plenty of time
to just do nothing?
To splash shining silver minutes
around me
in a refreshing way?
DOCTOR SQUARE DANCE pg. 111
8/26/2019
Round and round
Allemande left and right
I spin to a doctor
He holds my hand
and passes me on
to the next doctor
who bows and
passes me on to another doctor
we hold hands
go in a circle
Then he passes me on
to the next doctor.
Doctor square dance.
QUIET THOUGHTS AND
GENTLE FEELINGS
SOMETIMES
There are five children
in my family of origin.
I have five fingers.
I'm the strongest finger.
Then my sister the ring finger;
so very married.
My big brother the tallest.
Morton the pointer.
And Patsy the thumb;
controlller and supporter
I wouldn't want to lose a finger,
but still I bite and gnaw at my fingernails
Sometimes.
Page 17
EARTHQUAKE
Waiting for the earthquake.
Maybe it will devour me
with big teeth
and swallow me.
Swift and shake
and rattle and roll.
Maybe it will be like
a ride at a amusement park?
Or shake the plates
within my soul?
Page 97
PATCHWORK QUILT
PATCHWORK QUILT DAY
Today is a bits and pieces
sewn together day
All those odd chores
that need to be attended to
are pieces sewn together
with jagged stitches.
Wash hair-
See about shaky washer and dryer-
Buy a Rain coat.
All such disjointed activities.
My cousins made a beautiful
patchwork quilt out of old pieces
of scrap material.
So smoothly connected
Creating an art piece that's hanging
on the wall of an art gallery.
And so my day-
to make it an art piece
of scraps and odds and ends
of activities.
Creating the patchwork quilt
of today.
Page 1
YOU & I
We were carved
out of the same block of wood
you and I.
The lines of the wood
in our being,
loving and forming
one piece of wood
that can always
be fit together perfectly.
The way we came into the world
was a woodchopper
who chopped a piece of wood in half.
Know you are never alone,
because I am your other half
of wood.
We can never
be split apart.
Page 57
WORD PICTURES
WORD PICTURES
Framed in the city window
an all black cat poised in prayer position.
The short punk rock hair
on the passing long-legged teenager
must have been caught
in a pencil sharpener,
the wood shavings from the pencil
still sticking.
Tourists wearing
carefully selected clothes
augmenting their hometown styles,
while those whose homes are the streets
seem more relaxed.
The wind whipping it all
as though an electric mixer
trying to make a bowl of mashed potatoes.
High rise apartment houses;
human honey combs.
Page 1
ON CREATIVITY
Creativity-So ideas
flying around like plentiful butterflies
on the green garden of my mind.
Erect my butterfly net; my pen
Chasing first one idea then another.
So many ideas fly un-captured!
Page 2
A SLOW MOTION DAY
A slow motion day
no cars honking behind me-
Waiting was peaceful,
the sound of summer insects
humming their tunes.
Conclusions weren't forced
today-
Deadlines put aside.
A day to let dreams loose.
Page 101
CANADIAN GEESE IN MILITARY FORM
Canadian geese in military form
fly across the horizon.
Their straight black line
reminds me of a Navajo's
weaving shuttle going
from side to side
leaving a dark pattern
on the loom of the sky.
Page 134
MOROCCO
Clear cut values
Practiced daily-
While a kaleidoscope
of colors
twirl around me-
Color on color
on color
Bright-vibrant.
Does life get dull for them?
Do they find
our getting and spending
Exciting?
Page 114