Posted in Creativity, Culture, Poetry, tagged creative writing, modern poetry, Poetry, Writing on 15 Mar 2024| Leave a Comment »
what if this
is heaven
where love rains down
on dreaming fields
to feed a soul’s desire
what if this
is hell
where acidic hates flood
shanty-clad plains
to burn flesh bone-deep
what if this
is both
where the ebb and flow
is merely a response
to our intention
k
Posted in Creativity, Gardening, Poetry, tagged context, creative writing, gardening, history, modern poetry, Music, Poetry, praetorius, renaissance music, Writing on 17 Aug 2023| Leave a Comment »
Walking my garden paths
fingers inspecting leaves
snips cutting spent blossoms
I hum a tune born
four centuries past
across continents
and seas
I wonder if the author
as he wove his tapestry
of notes and voices
imagined his music
would live beyond his life
persist through time
as empires rose
and fell
I wonder if he
as the ink dried on
quavers and triads
imagined his melodies
would grace the flower-scented air
of distant gardens
in a land
unknown
Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged creative writing, Creativity, modern poetry, nonsense poetry, Poetry, Writing, writing tips on 03 Aug 2023| 5 Comments »
do not put vowels
in the dishwasher
as they are made
of air and intention
and will likely melt
consonants are built
of sturdier stuff
and may go in
the upper rack
punctuation is best stored
in the garage with
nuts and bolts and
other fasteners
words once crafted may be
machine-washed and tumble-dried on low
but avoid fabric softener
unless the water is
especially hard
take time assembling
phrases and sentences
aligning them to the meridian
in a clean well-lighted place
free from excessive drafts
paragraphs benefit most
from a finish on the line
in springtime when the
breath of the waking world
begins to blow
non-fiction requires precision
and regular maintenance
so for peak performance
tune to 4° before
top dead center
patience is recommended
when assembling fiction
to ensure tight seams
and a proper fit
stir poetry
over low heat
until reduced
by half
k
Posted in Poetry, tagged aging, creative writing, modern poetry, Poetry, quiet living, Serenity, Writing on 08 Jun 2023| Leave a Comment »
he took the time
looked up at day’s end
at sun-fired clouds
watching
slow subtle shifting
rose red orange
spark flame ember
glowing rusting cooling
he took the time
enjoyed the splash
of shadowed flights
on the sunset canvas
hard-edged jetliner dark-winged crow arrow-fast songbird
from farthest to nearer to near
all the layered worlds
sunlight to twilight
that lay between
his eye and the heavens
he took the time
not for the beauty
filling the space
between his heartbeats
but to give time its due
not to be spent filled wasted
but lived in
a constant transition
a string of nows
reaching
from dark to dark
without end
Posted in Culture, tagged aging, birthday, creative writing, getting older, retirement, the beatles on 01 Dec 2022| 1 Comment »
This weekend is my Beatle Birthday.
I had my “LP” Birthday in 1992, my “Single” Birthday in 2003—and if you’re old enough to get those references, I see you—but they went by relatively (or completely) unnoticed, unmarked, unremembered. (My “78” Birthday, in 2036, might be the same, and I hope I’m lucky enough to reach it.)
Since 1967, though, I’ve thought fondly of this coming milestone, despite the fact that I was convinced I’d never reach such an “advanced” age. The song pretty much nailed what I looked forward to in my elder years (sans grandkids, of course; never wanted kids, much less grandkids), with its images of puttering in the gardens, fixing things about the house, taking a month at the seaside in summertime.
I mentioned last time that my retirement is finally visible on the horizon, and this birthday, routinely imagined for the past 55 years, is a time to stop, look around, and evaluate.
Some of my friends have already retired. Some have put their all into new ventures. Some hopped on a plane on Day One and began (or continued) to travel the world. Some, sadly, took ill, beginning entirely unplanned journeys. I admit, I compared the image in my head with how they began their Third Act, and felt the old report card put-down of “Not performing up to his potential.”
It’s not as though I plan never to travel. It’s not as though I plan not to try new things, learn new things. It’s not as though I plan to spend my entire retirement digging the weeds and fixing fuses. It’s just that, in my heart, after decades of pushing, learning, wrangling, fretting, struggling, planning, pacing, saving, working, I merely want to slow down and enjoy the ticking of the clock, the crackle of the fire, perhaps the crash of waves on the shore, and the settling of ice in a dram of whisky.
And, of course, I hope that she will still need me, that she will still feed me, when I’m sixty-four.
k
Posted in Poetry, tagged creative writing, humanity, modern poetry, Poetry, unity, Writing on 10 Nov 2022| 3 Comments »
we are
eight billion quilts
fashioned of threadbare cloth
stitched by blind hands
in a darkened room
uniquely alike
consistently different
or
are we
eight billion pieces
of patchwork pain
and remnant joy
a masterwork revealed
only when we see
not the threads of our lives
but the pattern of our existence
Posted in Poetry, Writing, tagged creative writing, modern poetry, Poetry, Relationships, Writing on 31 Oct 2022| Leave a Comment »
she’s a night owl
and I rise before dawn
which gives us both
a few hours alone
to miss each other
Unraveling Time
Desert Wind
Ploughman's Son
Ploughman King
The Year the Cloud Fell
The Spirit of Thunder
Shadow of the Storm
The Cry of the Wind
Beneath a Wounded Sky
Cryptogenesis: A Memoir
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 