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  1. TopTop #2281
    gardenmaniac's Avatar
    gardenmaniac
     

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    as the days grow longer
    my spirit soars
    I look forward to
    a/nother year filled with
    these goods:

    - family
    - food
    - friends
    - health
    - times

    add a dash of prosperity
    sprinkle liberally with love

    share with all who wish to partake
    Last edited by Barry; 12-31-2014 at 04:00 PM.
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  2. Gratitude expressed by 2 members:

  3. TopTop #2282
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Preparing for the Sacrament of Holy Unity


    I will need a birch tree, a maple, a redwood, a white pine, a sequoia, a
    cedar, a palm tree.

    I want soil from Nigeria, Palestine, the Himalayas, Mississippi,
    Auschwitz, Newtown, Alcatraz.

    I want water from the Ganges River, Glacier Bay, the Sea of Galilee, the
    Tigris and Euphrates, the Pacific and the Atlantic, the River Jordan,
    the Dead Sea, Lake Bonaparte.

    I want air from Kathmandu, Calcutta, Cairo, Nazareth, Athens, the Arctic
    Circle,
    Mexico City, Port-au-Prince, Baghdad, Kabul.

    I want near me a bison, a wolf, an eagle, a silverback gorilla, a
    giraffe, a kitten, a
    fawn, a black bear, a polar bear, a golden retriever.

    From the waters, I want a humpback whale, a porpoise, a sea turtle, a
    manta ray, a
    flounder, a harp seal.

    From the heavens I want a comet, a rainbow, a lightning bolt, a blue
    moon, a summer
    storm, a snowy night, a mauve and golden sunrise.

    I want fire from my morning candle, the farthest star in the Milky Way,
    a campfire
    in the Adirondacks, the altar at St. Joseph's Provincial House, the
    funeral pyres in
    Varanasi, the Buddhist temples in Kyoto.

    I want a vestment made of materials from Gujarat, India; Lhasa, Tibet;
    Cape Town,
    South Africa; St. John's, Newfoundland; Oslo, Norway; northern Ireland;
    central
    Australia; East Germany; and South Central Los Angeles.

    I want co-celebrants from an Ethiopian village, a Harlem tenement, a
    nursing home in Selma, a prisoner in Guantanamo, a Harvard Law class,
    the Smokey Mountain garbage dump in Manila, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

    I want bread kneaded and pressed by the hands of millionaires,
    chambermaids,
    sherpas, Bolivian tin workers, emigrants and immigrants from a hundred
    countries,
    three Fortune 500 CEOs, nine Exxon board members, 14 Chicago gang
    members,
    and seven out of work shrimpers from the Gulf of Mexico.

    I want a choir of Chinese peasants, Israeli kindergartners, Japanese
    Bonsai masters,
    Navajo weavers, Zuni potters, Tlingit totem pole makers, and African
    diamond miners.

    Once assembled, we will celebrate the sacrament that contains them all.
    We will sing till the earth wobbles in her orbit, give praise and thanks
    till wine runs from the sugar maple. We will bow to the holiness we see
    in each other forgiving the past, blessing the present, committing to a
    future that is good for everyone.
    And this will be the sacrament of Holy Unity
    a welcome to the dawning of an Uncommon Era.

    - Jan Phillips
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  4. TopTop #2283

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    A perfect New Year's Blessing. Thank you, Larry!

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Larry Robinson: View Post
    Preparing for the Sacrament of Holy Unity
    ...

    And this will be the sacrament of Holy Unity
    a welcome to the dawning of an Uncommon Era.

    - Jan Phillips
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  5. Gratitude expressed by 2 members:

  6. TopTop #2284
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    You and Art


    Your exact errors make a music
    that nobody hears.
    Your straying feet find the great dance,
    walking alone.
    And you live on a world where stumbling
    always leads home.
    Year after year fits over your face -
    when there was youth, your talent
    was youth;
    later, you find your way by touch
    where moss redeems the stone;
    and you discover where music begins
    before it makes any sound,
    far in the mountains where canyons go
    still as the always-falling, ever-new flakes of snow.


    - William Stafford




    Rumi’s Caravan returns to the Glaser Center in Santa Rosa on Saturday, February 7. Good seats still remain for both the matinee and evening performances. Tickets make great gifts for you and anyone who enjoys the beauty and wisdom of mystic poetry performed in the ecstatic tradition. Please join us.

    Get more info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1585583911671679/
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  7. Gratitude expressed by 2 members:

  8. TopTop #2285
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    All Her Life, She was Old


    All my life, my Nana was old.
    She was born old, quiet and thoughtful.
    She always had false teeth, that
    Clicked when she talked.


    She always wore glasses with thick
    Yellowed lenses.
    A corona of white hair
    Always framed her wizened, wrinkled face.


    My Nana, born old,
    Always gathered with other
    Old women, my aunts, or neighbors
    Or neighbors who were my aunts—


    Women she’d known
    All my life—born old, too.
    They sat on couches
    Or stoops and gossiped


    About the weather, each other or
    Old men and grandchildren.
    If they worried,
    I was unaware.


    Life was lived, nothing more,
    Which is all that is necessary
    If one is born old.


    - Rebecca del Rio




    Rumi’s Caravan returns to the Glaser Center in Santa Rosa on Saturday, February 7. Good seats still remain for both the matinee and evening performances. Tickets make great gifts for you and anyone who enjoys the beauty and wisdom of mystic poetry performed in the ecstatic tradition. Please join us.

    Get more info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1585583911671679/
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  9. Gratitude expressed by 5 members:

  10. TopTop #2286

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    This is how I always saw my Nana.

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Larry Robinson: View Post
    All Her Life, She was Old


    All my life, my Nana was old.
    She was born old, quiet and thoughtful.
    She always had false teeth, that
    Clicked when she talked.
    ...
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  11. TopTop #2287
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    A Note to the Alien on Earth


    Here, in the interest of time, some words to work with,
    assuming you’re pretending to be a man
    or woman and understand English. If this should find you,
    know that I’m glad to help any way I can.

    A letter beginning “Dear Friend” is not from a friend.
    A “free gift” is redundant and not free.
    A teenager is sex with skin around it.
    The one word used as much as “I” is “me.”

    People who are politically correct,
    which means never offending by what they say,
    will lie about other things, too. Be careful with them.
    And people insulting groups of people may

    look in the mirror too much or not enough.
    What you say is not what anyone hears.
    Be wary of one who is always or never sad.
    And try to be patient with us. It looks bad,
    but we’ve only had a few hundred thousand years.


    - Miller Williams
    (1930-2014)
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  12. Gratitude expressed by 5 members:

  13. TopTop #2288
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Nothing is Forever
    and
    Everything is Forever.

    They are the same in memory
    like hopes that never arrive
    beaming at my door
    or do
    and stay far into evening’s shadows.

    Letting go of having
    and not-having
    allows a wonderful freedom
    as my tight-bound heart discovers
    it has been trapped by the long muscles of its own wings
    and there is nowhere to go
    but free.


    - Karl Frederick




    Rumi’s Caravan returns to the Glaser Center in Santa Rosa on Saturday, February 7. Good seats still remain for both the matinee and evening performances. Tickets make great gifts for you and anyone who enjoys the beauty and wisdom of mystic poetry performed in the ecstatic tradition. Please join us.
    https://www.facebook.com/Rumi.Caravan
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  14. Gratitude expressed by 4 members:

  15. TopTop #2289
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    “So…what are you?”
    Lot’s of people ask when they first meet me.
    “I mean, you got hair like sheepskin
    eyes that could terrorize
    skin like a supremacist
    and a ghetto booty
    sooo….what are you?”
    And I tell them:
    I am a breathing math equation
    SUBTRACTION
    I am the difference
    between a cornered woman
    and her right to consent
    I am what is left
    After forced penetration
    into fertile motherland
    I am sweet yams dug from their beds
    and replanted in a foreign climate
    MULTIPLICATION
    I am the product
    of variable factors
    Algebraic solution
    A substitution of cultures
    I am teepee burned to the ground,
    and log cabin built in its place
    DIVISION
    I am a mixed
    number, a percentage
    of a people, I am a fraction
    of a stereotype
    My blood is a canal
    running between two cities
    and I am the bridge
    that few from either side
    dare to cross
    ADDITION
    I am the sum of two positive integers
    unshackled from a negative history
    Their hands outstretched
    from opposite sides of a chasm
    split by burning crosses and swastikas
    I am born from the embrace
    of two horizontal bodies
    who believe fear is the only problem
    worth solving
    You ask, what am I?
    I am one plus one equals one
    I am both sides of a full moon
    A human equinox
    The changing of seasons
    My home is the quiet moment
    between dusk and dawn–
    the end of one day.
    The beginning of the next.


    - Kristine Hadeed
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  16. Gratitude expressed by 7 members:

  17. TopTop #2290
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Clear Silhouettes


    Let go the torments of your mind
    beside a tree
    your aches and pains
    embrace it as a friend who gives
    you ease

    suddenly double wings flit
    into the canopy
    its silhouetted leaves
    leap out
    clear as your soul itself

    with each breath the day meets
    you afresh


    - Raphael Block
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  18. Gratitude expressed by 5 members:

  19. TopTop #2291
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Drake in the Southern Sea
    For Rafael Heliodoro Valle
    I set out from the Port of Acapulco on the twenty-third of March
    And kept a steady course until Saturday, the fourth of April, when
    A half hour before dawn, we saw by the light of the moon
    That a ship had come alongside
    With sails and a bow that seemed to be of silver.
    Our helmsman cried out to them to stand off
    But no one answered, as though they were all asleep.
    Again we called out: “WHERE DID THEIR SHIP COME FROM?”
    And they said: Peru!
    After which we heard trumpets, and muskets firing,
    And they ordered me to come down into their longboat
    To cross over to where their Captain was.
    I found him walking the deck,
    Went up to him, kissed his hands and he asked me:
    “What silver or gold had I aboard that ship?”
    I said, “None at all,
    None at all, My Lord, only my dishes and cups.”
    So then he asked me if I knew the Viceroy.
    I said I did. And I asked the Captain,
    “If he were Captain Drake himself and no other?”
    The Captain replied that
    “He was the very Drake I spoke of.”
    We spoke together a long time, until the hour of dinner,
    And he commanded that I sit by his side.
    His dishes and cups are of silver, bordered with gold
    With his crest upon them.
    He has with him many perfumes and scented waters in crystal vials
    Which, he said, the Queen had given him.
    He dines and sups always with music of violins
    And also takes with him everywhere painters who keep painting
    All the coast for him.
    He is a man of some twenty-four years, small, with a reddish beard.
    He is a nephew of Juan Aquinas,* the pirate.
    And is one of the greatest mariners there are upon the sea.
    The day after, which was Sunday, he clothed himself in splendid garments
    And had them hoist all their flags
    With pennants of divers colors at the mastheads,
    The bronze rings, and chains, and the railings and
    The lights on the Alcazar shining like gold.
    His ship was like a gold dragon among the dolphins.
    And we went, with his page, to my ship to look at the coffers.
    All day long until night he spent looking at what I had.
    What he took from me was not much,
    A few trifles of my own,
    And he gave me a cutlass and a silver brassart for them,
    Asking me to forgive him
    Since it was for his lady that he was taking them:
    He would let me go, he said, the next morning, as soon as there was a breeze;
    For this I thanked him, and kissed his hands.
    He is carrying, in his galleon, three thousand bars of silver
    Three coffers full of gold
    Twelve great coffers of pieces of eight:
    And he says he is heading for China
    Following the charts and steered by a Chinese pilot whom he captured ...


    - Ernesto Cardenal
    (Translated by Thomas Merton)
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  20. Gratitude expressed by 5 members:

  21. TopTop #2292
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    When You Dance


    When you dance the whole universe dances.
    All the realms spun around you in endless celebration.
    Your soul loses its grip.
    Your body sheds its fatigue.
    Hearing my hands clap and my drum beat,
    You begin to whirl.


    - Jellaludin Rumi (translated by Shahram Shiva)



    Rumi's Caravan is delighted to welcome Sufi dancer Chelsea Rose who will perform the sublime turn of the whirling dervish at the 7 p.m. performance on Saturday, Feb. 7.

    Chelsea is a student of Zen and Sufism. She teaches salsa dancing in Santa Rosa and endeavors to merge movement with passion, prayer, and a healthy dose of fun. She is honored to collaborate with the talented performers of Rumi's Caravan and share the gift of the turn.

    TICKETS are available now and make great gifts.
    rumiscaravan2015.brownpapertickets.com

    LEARN MORE: www.facebook.com/events/1585583911671679/
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  22. Gratitude expressed by 3 members:

  23. TopTop #2293
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Night


    how vast
    how enormous
    how great
    this empire
    of darkness

    and yet
    disarmed
    by one
    needle
    of light


    - Francisco Alarcon
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  24. Gratitude expressed by 5 members:

  25. TopTop #2294
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    To A Friend Whose Work Has Come To Nothing


    Now all the truth is out,
    Be secret and take defeat
    From any brazen throat,
    For how can you compete,
    Being honor bred, with one
    Who were it proved he lies
    Were neither shamed in his own
    Nor in his neighbors' eyes;
    Bred to a harder thing
    Than Triumph, turn away
    And like a laughing string
    Whereon mad fingers play
    Amid a place of stone,
    Be secret and exult,
    Because of all things known
    That is most difficult.


    - William Butler Yeats
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  26. Gratitude expressed by 4 members:

  27. TopTop #2295
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Each Moment a White Bull Steps Shining into the World
    If the gods bring to you
    a strange and frightening creature,
    accept the gift
    as if it were one you had chosen.
    Say the accustomed prayers,
    oil the hooves well,
    caress the small ears with praise.
    Have the new halter of woven silver
    embedded with jewels.
    Spare no expense, pay what is asked,
    when a gift arrives from the sea.
    Treat it as you yourself
    would be treated, brought speechless and naked
    into the court of a king.
    And when the request finally comes,
    do not hesitate even an instant----
    stroke the white throat,
    the heavy trembling dewlaps
    you'd come to believe were yours,
    and plunge in the knife.
    Not once
    did you enter the pasture
    without pause,
    without yourself trembling,
    that you came to love it, that was the gift.
    Let the envious gods take back what they can.


    - Jane Hirshfield
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  28. Gratitude expressed by 2 members:

  29. TopTop #2296
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Song of a Man Who Has Come Through


    Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me!
    A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time.
    If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me!
    If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift!
    If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am borrowed
    By the fine, fine wind that takes its course through the chaos of the world
    Like a fine, an exquisite chisel, a wedge-blade inserted;
    If only I am keen and hard like the sheer tip of a wedge
    Driven by invisible blows,
    The rock will split, we shall come at the wonder, we shall find the Hesperides.

    Oh, for the wonder that bubbles into my soul,
    I would be a good fountain, a good well-head,
    Would blur no whisper, spoil no expression.

    What is the knocking?
    What is the knocking at the door in the night?
    It is somebody wants to do us harm.

    No, no, it is the three strange angels.
    Admit them, admit them


    - D.H. Lawrence
    Last edited by Barry; 01-13-2015 at 02:21 PM.
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  31. TopTop #2297
    Roland Jacopetti's Avatar
    Roland Jacopetti
     

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Thank you so much, Larry. One of my favorites.
    Roland

    Quote Posted in reply to the post by Larry Robinson: View Post
    Song of a Man Who Has Come Through
    ...
    - D.H. Lawrence
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  33. TopTop #2298
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Love Letter from Baghdad


    Call me Rabia. I was
    named for the Sufi Saint.
    Blood pumps through the four
    chambers of my heart,
    swift and scarlet with joy or slow
    and bruised black with sorrow.
    We are the same.

    This morning, as I pin up wash
    in my rubbled court yard,
    the long fingers of the sun reach
    over the desert and sting my sleepless
    eyes like dust, like diesel fumes.
    There’s an explosion.
    Did you hear it?

    My neighbor sinks to the ground
    in the folds of her burka,
    a dark flower, rocking and keening,
    her bloodied grandchild in her arms.
    The earth trembles with
    the terrible sound of her grief.
    We are the same.

    I want to share sweet memories
    with you, of date palm and pomegranate,
    the hay fragrance of saffron, the song
    of the nightingale. I invite you
    to share yours with me.
    We are the same.

    Come sister, let’s raise our arms
    and begin. We’ll spin
    and dance like the Sufis.
    It will take as many turns
    as there are stars
    to make this right.
    We do not yet know the steps.


    - Gail Barker
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  34. Gratitude expressed by 5 members:

  35. TopTop #2299
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Doha

    “Life is an impossible dare”
    With eyes fixed on the top of the mountain
    Dare to rest in not knowing and gaze instead
    On the blank page
    the lump of clay
    the empty stage
    the still fountain
    They await only your remembering…..
    How you once followed your own curiosity
    When each act was an exploration
    Back before a thought was an idea
    before an urge became a plan
    When you were free to doodle, peering
    Into the expanse of expression
    No hesitating, no fearing
    It didn’t matter then how you looked
    in other people’s eyes
    And it doesn’t matter now….
    After all our work, perhaps we can just show up,
    honestly and without expectation.

    So, with a light touch and much tenderness
    Let us proceed, one sound at a time,
    Stepping inside the world of each song,
    Holding it all so gently,
    Grateful for an audience.

    - Fran Carbonaro
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  36. Gratitude expressed by 6 members:

  37. TopTop #2300
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Hold Out


    Don't squander your precious longing
    On what could never fulfill you.
    Hold out!
    Hold out for the great heart's desire.
    And then spend everything you've got;
    Like a drunken sailor in port at last;
    Like the river leaping wantonly into the arms of the sea!


    - Larry Robinson






    Rumi’s Caravan returns to the Glaser Center in Santa Rosa on Saturday, February 7. Good seats still remain for both the matinee and evening performances. Tickets make great gifts for you and anyone who enjoys the beauty and wisdom of mystic poetry performed in the ecstatic tradition. Please join us.

    Get more info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1585583911671679/
    | Login or Register (free) to reply publicly or privately   Email

  38. TopTop #2301
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Blue Worlds Surround Me



    through twisted alleys in the labyrinth he led me
    we were locked in our skin and lost there together
    son of a famous father, who else could I turn to?
    but dark was his mirror, as dark as the maze—

    our shadows long and sudden on new discovered walls
    revealed by morning sun a prison, vast but roofless
    in one direction alone the hope of freedom was held
    above us stretched an alluring, crisp sheet of sky

    from his fertile mind, full-blown, the idea emerged
    a brief, bright flare in the forge of his famous cunning
    delicate and difficult were the means of our egress
    feathers and wax he found by the faith he had fostered

    neither too high nor too low he constantly cautioned
    moisture at one end, heat at the other threatened
    the fastening and weight of the wings he had fashioned
    with slow, prudent purpose; yet mine fluttered impatient

    the thrill and the glory of it, the feathered ease
    as I sailed higher than ever, higher even than he
    blue worlds surround me, ocean, heaven, weave and whirl
    I beat my exultant wings... higher, they say, higher

    a dripping of the loosened wax, a scattering of feathers
    headlong flung, furious falling, wings and limbs atangle
    no ears to hear the swift spiral splash of my plucked ball of body
    no eyes to see the carpet of seaweed close and congeal as waters swallow me

    - Hari Meyers
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  39. Gratitude expressed by:

  40. TopTop #2302
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Last Adam on 14th St

    On the way to the optometrist inadvertently
    I cut in front of a woman hurrying
    towards a subway turnstile —
    Jesus Fucking Christ
    she mutters; immediately, I see
    The King of Kings on the platform,
    chaste in desert schmered schmatta,
    head covered in the world’s greatest hoodie.

    He jukes around the station as if manifesting
    survival of the stylish—
    pushing the masses right and left,
    branding them sheep and goat,
    thanking the mutton for feeding the hungry,
    binding the horns of selfish cloven hoofed billys.

    The carpenter’s a genie,
    minimizing razzle-dazzle,
    magnifying maggots,
    meat of the matter—
    not what I expected to see
    on my way
    for bifocals.

    Stand clear of the closing doors,

    My visual field
    has expanded
    in ways
    inexplicable.

    Twenty dollar copayment!

    Have a vision once,
    expect another,

    bumping into the Anointed One
    blessing his caffeinated flock
    in an wireless hole.

    Ah, if He and I never meet again,
    I’ll search for sourdough
    and bits of herring
    on laps of bleary-eyed commuters

    Why do I more joyfully give directions
    to a stranger then high five
    a methadone raving beggar?

    Guide me, Rabbi . . .

    - Barry Denny
    Last edited by Barry; 01-18-2015 at 05:22 PM.
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  41. Gratitude expressed by:

  42. TopTop #2303
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Bird Prophet Rising


    Since you are asking who will save the Earth,
    I’ll tell you right now-- it won’t be some holy Jehovah,
    or the particle physicists, or the pimping politicos,
    or anything high and mighty floating in the sky above you,
    but the earth itself lifting its frilly skirt, curling past
    the idiot brain, plunging clean to lung, to gut, to feet.

    And then, go figure, those feet will start dancing

    like Bojangles, and the gut, forgetting all about
    the God in heaven, will pen breathless love letters
    to the mud it’s made of, and the lungs will burst
    their bloody balloons with such a pure and plangent
    draught that even the idiot brain will throb in its skull
    like the northern lights.

    Mark my words, the eighty percent of your gray-matter
    that is currently incommunicado, this planet is about
    to colonize like some Plymouth Rock in drag.
    The pilgrims will toss their bloody crucifixes for kindling,
    and the Injuns are going to bake them a Sweet Jesus
    mashed from cornmeal and the wheeling stars.

    And these shall be the signs of it-- somewhere a CEO
    will wake up stammering, “There never was a lotus
    that lowballed the mud.” And a Five Star General
    will declare, “The sun never called the rain its enemy.”
    And somewhere a jilted lover will confide,
    “The rose doesn’t feel cheated when the bee absconds
    with its fragrance.” And a geezer will exclaim,
    “The waxing moon and the waning moon
    are the very same moon.”

    That’s right-- from that day onwards the following
    will be deemed proofs of God’s existence:
    that the river never runs away from the sea;
    that a pine has yet to hoard its own cones;
    that the hummingbird fits the flower;
    that the grain doesn’t refuse the reaper;
    that the winter never forgets the spring.

    And, finally, that the big-brained dummy
    who does indeed forget everything,
    just remembered that he forgot it.
    He’s asked a little birdie to remind him.
    That bird is about to spill the beans.

    - Richard Schiffman
    Last edited by Barry; 01-19-2015 at 11:54 AM.
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  43. Gratitude expressed by 4 members:

  44. TopTop #2304
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Fresh

    To move
    Cleanly.
    Needing to be
    Nowhere else.
    Wanting nothing
    From any store.
    To lift something
    You already had
    And set it down in
    A new place.
    Awakened eye
    Seeing freshly.
    What does that do to
    The old blood moving through
    Its channels?

    - Naomi Shihab Nye
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  45. Gratitude expressed by 5 members:

  46. TopTop #2305
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    The Good Life

    You stand at the window.
    There is a glass cloud in the shape of a heart.
    There are the wind’s sighs that are like caves in your speech.
    You are the ghost in the tree outside.
    The street is quiet.
    The weather, like tomorrow, like your life,
    is partially here, partially up in the air.
    There is nothing you can do.
    The good life gives no warning.
    It weathers the climates of despair
    and appears, on foot, unrecognized, offering nothing,
    and you are there.

    - Mark Strand
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  47. Gratitude expressed by 3 members:

  48. TopTop #2306
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    In the Museum of Your Last Day


    There is a coat on a coat hook in a hall. Work-gloves
    in the pockets, pliers and bent nails.

    There is a case of Quaker State for the Ford.
    Two cans of spray paint in a crisp brown bag.

    A mug on a book by the hi-fi.
    A disk that starts on its own: Boccherini.

    There is a dent in the soap the shape of your thumb.
    A swirl in the glass when it fogs.

    And a gray hair that twines
    through the tines of a little black comb.

    There is a watch laid smooth on a wallet.
    And pairs of your shoes everywhere.

    A phone no one answers. A note that says Friday.
    Your voice on the tape talking softly.

    - Patrick Phillips
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  49. Gratitude expressed by 5 members:

  50. TopTop #2307
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    When You Are Old


    When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
    And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
    And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
    Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

    How many loved your moments of glad grace,
    And loved your beauty with love false or true,
    But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
    And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

    And bending down beside the glowing bars,
    Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
    And paced upon the mountains overhead
    And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

    - William Butler Yeats
    Last edited by Barry; 01-23-2015 at 11:13 AM.
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  51. TopTop #2308
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    that day


    for bill kortum


    down poured

    the rain
    backlit
    shimmering drops
    puddle smash


    the edge
    is seen
    unknown
    to fear
    your pace
    is relative


    cast
    your legacy
    far wide
    everywhere
    in between


    your presence
    in the present
    made
    future sense


    fierce kind
    effective
    gentleman warrior.


    - Richard Retecki
    Last edited by Barry; 01-24-2015 at 04:05 PM.
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  52. Gratitude expressed by 2 members:

  53. TopTop #2309
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    for bill


    he is felt
    in the whispering cold
    of a thousand scenes
    the warmth of summer suns
    in shadows that sail
    up Sonoma Mountain
    the crimson fire
    of coastal sunsets
    the green silence
    of Armstrong Woods
    in the bird fest
    of the Bay Front Marshes
    in the tight angular landscape
    of the Valley of the Moon
    in the wind shaped hills
    of the Merced Hills
    in the slithering stream
    of the Russian River
    in the tight light vistas
    of Knights Valley and Mark West
    in the ruggedness
    of the Mayacamas and Mendocino Highlands
    in the patterned rolling
    of Alexander Valley
    in the sulpherness
    of the Cedars


    communities vital pulsing
    he is felt
    and remembered
    in all these places and more.


    - Richard Retecki
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  54. Gratitude expressed by 5 members:

  55. TopTop #2310
    Larry Robinson's Avatar
    WaccoBB Poet Laureate

    Re: Poem for the day from Larry Robinson

    Sometimes you pick up the newspaper and you think it’s Cain and Abel out there. But sometimes it feels as though it’s Cain against Cain. You can’t tell who’s the good guy.
    Nadeem Aslam


    Brothers


    When there's not enough to eat,
    nothing to feed the spirit,
    to clothe the mind in novelty,
    we wander.
    Migratory animals,


    We step into occupied
    Territory, call it our own,
    Plant crops, rape
    The women, the land.
    We reap our rewards, turn


    Blind to acrimony,
    Centuries of injury.
    Our defeated brothers and sisters
    Plant revenge, seek to sow
    Justice. What god


    Exalts one brother over
    The other? Blesses one then,
    Curses the other
    So peace can never
    be possible?


    In all of us: a Cain,
    condemned by god—
    Rejected, vilified brother,
    Jealous of our brother, made so
    By our jealous god.


    - Rebecca del Rio
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  56. Gratitude expressed by 4 members:

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