There is too much going on in life right now. And so poems are erupting like the plague. All of these were written this morning. And it’s only 7:35 in the morning. More are roiling under the surface.

Poetry is a poor portrait,  truer  than truth sometimes. False as a adulterous lover other times. Raw and considered both. It has a life of it’s own, and at times, it’s my life. At times, I wonder where it comes from. At times, I know.

In the end, it’s like a dance with my soul, in words. Inflicted, or shared (depending on your point of view,) with you, my readers.

Kaleidoscope,

You think you know,
that the pictures you collect
and the lenses you use
so diligently

show you what is, yet
time has shown me
that it is just the opposite,
that likely

your lens changes everything,
less glass, more kaleidoscope,
changing with every move,
every speculation,

time lapse recording
with an emphasis on the lapse,
storytelling at it’s most
incomplete.

And yet, it is your truth,
the hopscotch view
guides your truth,
a pock marked beauty

that sees, not the soul,
but the scars

===========================

Everything has a Price

What would it cost
to stop,
to listen to more than the first few words

before launching
into the sky like fireworks,

loud, bright, and ultimately,
blinding?

============================

On my daughter’s accident

Her bruises will fade.
The soreness will fall away.
No scars will show, yet

you wonder
what lessons will rise from the remains –

Fear?
or the joy of survival,
the knowing
that life and love blooms like dandelions
after winter,

irrepressible,
unless you choose to kill it.
==========================

The Devil Inside

Do not give in
to the interruptions.
to the devil’s drama,

in all it’s forms.

Do not believe the lies,
least of all the ones you tell yourself.
(with apologies to the Rolling Stones)
==========================

A certain kind of Fool

You stand at the bottom
of the valley, not
perhaps of death,
but something worse,
despair,

each handhold crumbling,
again and again
as you climb.

But, fool that you are,
even battered and worn,
you reach up

==========================

Advice

Here’s all you need to know:
Darkness dies, and
there is light on the other side.

Nothing else matters.

one more time.

==========================

The picture was taken in Rome. You can click on it for a larger version. It captures something I love, even if, even in poetry, I can’t express it.

Tom