Posted in Poetry, tagged creative writing, modern poetry, nature, painting, Poetry, Serenity, travelogue, Writing on 09 Oct 2025| Leave a Comment »
with paper before me and
a pen in my hand
a cloud is
rising blooming billowing scudding
cumulus nimbus a thunderhead
dark foreboding airy bright
with paper before me and
a brush in my hand
a cloud is
gradients reflective limned
shadowed grey sunlit white
rounded flat-topped
with paper before me and
nothing in my hand
a cloud
is
Posted in Creativity, Poetry, tagged beach, creative writing, modern poetry, Pacific ocean, Poetry, Writing on 03 Oct 2025| 1 Comment »
I was born of Pacific waters
bathed in their colors of stone and sky
swam their frigid swells and troughs
to return awakens my heart’s connection
to walk the firm yet yielding sand
to wade knee-deep through the rip
to comb a fiver’s worth of unbroken dollars
to have my ankles caressed by sea foam
to greet the sunrise and kiss the sunset
to hear my father’s words echo
“Never turn your back on the ocean”
though I do, if only to see my world
as the ocean views it
a dark forbidding challenge
to its unparalleled power
the Pacific is the edge of my existence
it flows in my veins
it nourishes my soul
Posted in Creativity, Poetry, Writing, tagged aging, creative writing, friendship, getting older, modern poetry, Poetry, Writing on 25 Jul 2025| 1 Comment »
to these old eyes
we none of us have aged
and all are as when first we met
though days and years
and decades all
have trundled past our feast
though unforgiving fate
has called a few away
and left their seats unfilled
and loft-bound bitterness
and joy have played for us
their varied minstrel tunes
it’s just the failing candlelight
that limns us each
in haloed wisps of age
for if I squint I once again
can see us clear and bright
with vibrant youth
all straining ‘gainst the slips
and hungry soon
to master dreamed-of hopes
so charge your glass
and be upstanding so
that we may raise a toast
to all we’ve known
and all we’ve loved
and all that yet remains ahead
for life with all its sorrowed pain
is better lived than not
and better still
with friends beside
Posted in Creativity, Poetry, tagged creative writing, modern poetry, Poetry, quiet living on 29 Apr 2025| 1 Comment »
stop
stop
take a moment
stop
listen
hear that?
it’s life
rushing past
at the speed of sound
the tiny earthquake of an infant’s wail
squabbling chickadees on a dew-dropped branch
a sink full of dishes
the dog’s nails snare-drumming on the kitchen floor
cars trucks vans cycles all shushing purring grumbling past
a familiar key in the front door’s lock
voices near, voices far, loud or quiet, laughing, shouting
the fermata of your breath, your heartbeat’s vibrato
a dry fingertip turning a dry page
ice cubes in a tall glass
this
this is life
heard and gone
it is all we are
an ephemeral fabric
uncountable strands
of gossamer
Posted in Creativity, Poetry, Politics, tagged cruelty, empathy, modern poetry, Poetry, politics, project 2025, Trump on 31 Mar 2025| 2 Comments »
What you are trying to teach me?
To harm? To hurt? To hate?
That a worthy reputation
is only built through fear?
That honor is irrelevant,
an antiquated ideal?
That rules, golden or base,
apply only to governed
and not the government?
What do you want me to learn?
Cruelty + Money = Power?
That everything, even a life,
has a market value?
That caring for others’ well-being
is a sucker’s game?
That discord and outrage
are the privilege of the rulers
and not the ruled?
Because that is not the lesson
your actions drive home.
The lesson I am learning,
the lesson that you teach, is
that bullies have no friends, only sycophants,
that predators prey on individuals, not unified fronts,
that small-minded men use power as a weapon, not as a tool,
that loyalty born of fear lasts only as long as the loyal are afraid,
that plans of destructive intent always birth unplanned consequences,
that masses move slowly, react slowly, but once in motion, stay in motion.
The herd now smells the wolves.
Tick-tock.
Posted in Poetry, tagged creative writing, love, love letters, modern poetry, Poetry, Valentines Day, Writing on 13 Feb 2025| Leave a Comment »
I used to write you love letters
with age-old tools
with pen and paper
with flowers delivered to your desk
with gifts left to be found on a car seat
But since then my love has found voice
in other media
in home-baked bread
in racks of clean dishes
in beds made, ready to be rumpled
I write letters
in gestures and gifts of freed time
I sing songs
in tiptoed footsteps on lazy mornings
I craft poetry
in items checked off to-do lists
After so long, so many years,
my words, mere words,
seem insufficient to relate
the depths and breadth
of my heart’s compass
But perhaps a cup of tea
that I know you want
presented without
your having to ask
speaks better of my devotion
Posted in Creativity, Poetry, Politics, tagged creative writing, inauguration, modern poetry, Poetry, politics, Trump on 15 Jan 2025| 1 Comment »
Bow, ye Faithful! Bow!
For your Creation comes forward
Wrapped in the trappings of power
Wreathed in censorious brimstone
Flanked by slavering legions!
Genuflect! Bend the knee before Him!
This gold-plated god of hammered tin
Hear the sheet-metal thunder
Of empty pronouncements
And believe His words yet again!
Wail, thou dissenters, and lament!
As the paisley-clad dreams
Conceived in your Summer of Love
Are ground to dust and ash
Beneath His jackboot heel!
Kowtow, lick-spittle magnates!
Turn your fawning obsequiousness
And pettifogged morality
Up to Eleven
And pray you evade His notice!
Exalt, all, as Turpitude ascends!
Powered by the Voice of Millions
Who wanted nothing more
Than cheaper eggs and
Shelter from the storms.
Pray, you huddled masses!
Fellow citizens of the coming chaos!
Pray with every atom you possess
That we are all strong enough, in time,
To regret this thing we have done.
——————-
k
Kurt R.A. Giambastiani 