color

color color my life with poem with songs I don't yet know and let us find uncharted paths together in the valley of our souls sketch me a landscape of beauty with the crayons of a child with all the vibrant colors that mark our world both wonderful and wild draw me exotic creatures from distant and faraway lands giraffes, gazelles and zebras stencil me with your hands mark that I belong to you tell me a bedtime story showing me all the stars of the universe in all their tragic glory for even the stars must nova when they reach their end of days but let me burn like the meteor in a most magnificent blaze color my life with poem give me words to play on write things that no one else can know with your box of magic crayons finger paint my picture you have no need of a brush lean close enough to whisper to my heart so it will hush and stop this incessant drumming and pounding in my ears soothe me like the ocean make sadness disappear erase my shades of sorrow with your promises and facts of all of our bright tomorrows in your box of colored wax plant the flowers of our dreams then let your sunshine grow them like painted dainty butterfly wings color my life with poem

All The Tiny Fishes

All the tiny fishes, swimming in the sea
All bright and winsome creatures on the coral reefs
Oyster and abalone make homes on ocean floors
With the pearls and mother of pearl ladies all adore

The urchins of the ocean are little porcupines
Protected by the notion of their sharp and sticky spines
But they do well to keep from being snatched by a sea otter
And served as appetizers, there’s danger in the water

Manta ray and octopus roam the murky deep
Electric eels and cuttlefish searching things to eat
The tiny fishes dart away to see a shark appear
Dark shapes swimming overhead bring the fishes fear

You tiny little fishes; you dazzling scaly wonders
Beautiful as fashion divas dressed in silks and colors
To visit reefs and find you there in zebra stripes and blue
Is a most breathtaking sight; I must give that to you

Little starfish march the sand; seahorses gallop by
Dolphins laugh that beasts of land swim in their midst like I
To all you tiny fishes, what wondrous joy you bring
No wonder that the nymphs and mermaids in the ocean sing

Kernel

Tiny wrinkled thing
Size of a ladybug

Dry and dead as stone
It rested in my palm

I buried it beneath
The black leaf loam

From the grave it rose;
Green phoenix stretching

Lifting striated wings
Worshiping the sun

In months, taller than I
It rustled against the sky

Silver silk flowing
Over robust ears

Beneath rough sleeves
Cobs bulged with life

Rebirth from destruction
Born again from death

Multiplied like stars
Reformed and alive

Such is a spirit reborn
Like a kernel of corn

Waiting to Fall

Crippled and broken cornstalks;
pierce a field of waist-high grass
a weathered gray barn still stands
about a mile from the overpass

She was once the pride of the valley
where the harvest of plenty was kept
but now that there isn't any
she stands empty and windswept

She held the hope of America
so gently in her arms
and graced the land with bounty
from orchards, fields and farms

Farmers, crippled and broken
Watch their children leave the land
But whether epitaph or token,
The weathered gray barn still stands

Another World

Down a dry and dusty road
Beyond a field of thirsty grass
Lies a portal to another world
Beckoning to those that pass

Magnolias through waxen leaves
Sigh a breath of melting warm
Spanish moss on white oak trees
Every branch and limb adorn

Deeper now in forest keep
Rotting wood upon the air
Soft green moss beneath our feet
Dark and cool as we walk there

Outside, the heat is sweltering
Yellow bursts down on the stream
The sun has come to pools to bathe
And left in place, a living dream

Dragonflies speed swiftly by
Bodies blue and tails of green
Dancing among the Tiger lilies
Like small crayfish, to shade unseen

Leaving here, the traveler finds
More time elapsed than first believed
As through the gate the pathway winds
With all his worries now relieved

I Crept and Walked Into the Dawn

I crept and walked into the dawn
Through the dew upon the lawn
I heard the morning rooster crow
The eastern sky was still aglow
Strokes of cotton candy pink
From His eye God gave a wink
And smiled into my waking room
With honeysuckle sweet perfume
In their beds some stretch and yawn
I crept and walked into the dawn
Forest creatures scurried there
Brave field mouse and timid hare
And from every tree I heard
The praise of God from every bird
I know that those who sleep are blessed
As from their week they take their rest
Yet not as blessed as I, alone
I crept and walked into the dawn

The Rocking Chair

The Rocking Chair

Mother spoke lucidly of her grandfather
She wanted to go to his house
She knew he had just passed on
There was a rocking chair bequeathed to her

It's just sitting there in that dusty attic
She wanted someone to get it for her
She spoke lovingly of her father
And talked about when she was a girl

I held her hand and promised I'd ask
About the rocking chair and she smiled
Later, when my sister visited
She told mother the house was no more

Mother was adamant the house was there
If she could only get there
Up those rickety stairs was an heirloom
And she wanted the rocking chair

The house had long been torn down
Land was cleared; a convenient store sat there
Mother would not be satisfied until she could see
Wondering aloud who had taken her chair

I would have done anything to ease her mind
But the mind wanders where we cannot go
Lost in dreams of childhood...she sat in his lap there
In curls and dress; a moment of happiness

Remembered with a promise...
"When I am gone I want you to have
This memory and this moment forever
And yes, this rocking chair"