The tree is heavy with red-winged blackbirds
like early black fruit,
strangely silent gathering
before the territorial grumblings begin.
poem- (almost) free March 18, 2016
The bell rings for two weeks of freedom.
Free of schedules.
Free of expectations.
Free of responsibilities.
Except those embraced
freely.
poem-camera March 17, 2016
I freeze your image
Carve you in my memory
Gaze fondly from the future
Back to today.
poem-straining March 16, 2016
Face to face,
hands in hands,
She’s searching your eyes
for signs adoration,
for joy,
for love
for appreciation.
She is straining her ears to hear you say,
I love you.
You are beautiful.
You make me happy.
I’m so glad you’re mine.
And you say,
Are those black hairs coming out of your nose?
Is that because you’re old?
poem-brisk March 15, 2016
My nostrils are bitten
by the brisk scent of pine,
invigorating, enervating in the rain.
I follow my nose
to two freshly felled stumps
and marvel that death can smell
so very much alive.
poem-pick axe March 14, 2016
I am a pick axe.
I grimly focus on the patch of ground
in front of me, and chip, chip, chip away
at the rocks that block my way.
I will wear down this mountain
day by day.
I will find a seam and harvest value.
Today, it may seem too hard to do,
but I will chip, chip, chip away anyway
until I’ve made a hill of this mountain,
and have found the other side..
.
.
.
I’m smack in the middle of my penultimate grad school course. I’m finding it hard to concentrate, what with the recent family deaths and illness and related stress. After a long day at work, I just want to curl up in a warm corner and snooze. This is a required course, so there’s nothing for it but chipping away at readings, chipping away at assignments, chipping away at papers, and then it’ll be over. One month until the last paper is due, and then it’s through! The end is nigh!
poem-tortoise March 13, 2016
In dreams
I have been gifted with a tortoise.
A slow moving friend who will live long.
When I wake, I google
whether tortoises can lived in a backyard
through Canadian winter.
before I realize it was only
a dream.
poem-serendipity March 12, 2016
Old friend synchronicity
Visiting one,
Another arrives out of the blue.
After forty years,
there are sympathetic vibrations
that draw us together:
joyful serendipity.
poem-tenaciousness March 11, 2016
He walks with a personal cloud
dulling his world, blurring his perceptions.
Walling him in, between tendrils of fog
freezing him in place to avoid falling off the precipice.
Her arms are open with devotion and she calls to him,
but her voice bounces off rocks and mist.
Their mutual affections miss each other
in the haze, but both are sincere and will still be there
when the fog lifts
(or he goes over the cliff).
poem-welcome March 10, 2016
Every day you
walk through the door
wait for the greeting
a joyful embrace
(or in lieu
a wagging tail would do).
Shawn L. Bird 