Not forgotten

Dig the classic T.

Peter and Jim, thank you for the kind birthday wishes. You make an old roundhouse man's eyes fill with water. I had a delightful Election Day weekend: Juliana took me to Yosemite National Park, where the schedule was more or less the following: early afternoon, hiking; late afternoon, drinking wine; evening, reading Moby Dick. It could only have been improved by the company of old friends.

Happy Birthday Johny!

I hope you're being treated well
From morning until night
That pleasure and fulfillment tell
The story of your life

I hope your noble spirit soars
Through depths to breathless heights
Encompassing the earth and more
Exulting in its flight

I wish that I could be this day
In your cherished company
To wonder at the way we are
And how we came to be

Though far away, you're in my mind
Your presence I perceive
First Jim, now you, have crossed the line
What next shall we conceive?

Half a Century

At half a century
our thoughts begin to tend
towards how we may support ourselves
when colder days descend

At half a century
through spectacles we look
and must resort to stronger ones
when we would read a book

At half a century
one feels assorted aches
and some of them may have to do
with thoughts of past mistakes

At half a century
new lines on face appear
and what we've made ourselves to be
becomes a bit more clear

At half a century
old questions still remain
they rattle round and round within
a more hard-wired brain

At half a century
a friend is still a friend
and may God grant you many years
before your years shall end


Happy Birthday, Johny!

Sub Mission

Today's Verse: 24 October 2009

There's more to life
There's death
Your wish
Second most dear
Close held
Compressed
A burning coal
Fire

From when you're socialized
Accustomed to your place
A kernel of lust
Passionate kin
Of its creative twin
Is conditioned, constrained, controlled
Within

The ever mounting desire to consume
Purge, annihilate, destroy
Tamed, ignored, caged
Rationalized

It wants out
To express its dark
Nature
To rage

A current may
Forge a channel
To a rising tide
That swells and frees it
To merge, fulfilment
In grand deluge

The tide recedes
Desire contracts
Once more enclosed
Concealed
All 'round
Just under the skin

Today's Verse: 13 October 2009

I'm friends with the door
It won't shut me out
I'm friends with the floor
It won't let me down

I'm friends with the clock
That sits by the bed
Its steady tick tock's
Like a poem I read

Chorus:
I like my friends
I like them there
Whether they know
Whether they care

I like my friends
Like them alot
Whether they're good
Whether they're not

My friendship's a railway
With weeds in between
It bisects the forest
Dark silent unseen

My friendship's a country
Of mountains and plains
It hitchhikes on highways
And wanders back lanes

My friendship's a stranger
Obscure and complete
My friendship's in danger
Exciting and sweet

My friendship's a chain gang
Partners in crime
Entangled in mischief
Imprisoned in time

I'm friends with the losers
Who lose though they cheat
I'm friends with the bruisers
Who battle defeat

I'm friends with the lovers
I'm friends with the bums
I'm friends with the others
Who leave them the crumbs

I'm friends with the nigger
Whose secret I keep
I like the grave digger
Who'll put me to sleep

The soldier the preacher
The tin-hearted whore
We've been friends for years
We'll be many more

Be your own best friend
Psychologists say
Why should I pretend
Why put on a play

I belong to our friendship
It's not part of me
Without it I'm blind
Within it I see

Your room is ready, sir