If I could write my passion down
On memory two by two squared four
I’d be alive just like the sky
Floating high above for me
I’d sing of open fields to cross
Of bird’s flight so free
Of whales who’d dive far into see
A game amidst unknown
I’d climb each tree
And shoot each arrow
A target I’d always know
I’d have at least
Ten thousand tomorrows
To let loose into the air
As if they were a sign of my
Devilish nature afloat
Like a growing fire
Amidst embers so hot
One by one’s begun.
Month: August 2017
Thus Wed (day 2273)
It is no longer passion
That inflames my thoughts
Your effervescence always near
Though they linger while
I take my breath
Of morning air so clear.
What’s left is what makes
Sun so hot
Tracing edges of earth’s day
A silent smile budding
Like a fruiting tree
A sun soaked sigh so gay.
Time floats by in reverie
Visions clearly refined for me
Even ravens as they fly overhead
Hold messages of thee
And so shall be my memory
All thoughts shall rest thus wed.
Pocket Knife (day 2272)
A handy man should always have
A pocket knife by his side
No better friend in times of need
Could come to be at the ready
Rope was made for just the tool
So was whittling by the fire
And opening each bag of tools
Was fit just for that knife’s service.
Eager was the folding knife
Tucked away discreetly in thy pocket
So, then, was the fixed blade
Attached at a leather belt secure
To become of such valiant service.
For each man holds on to their tools
In which way feels right to them,
So no man shall defame a man
Who holds a knife at the ready
A handyman recognizes a good man
Who keeps a pocket knife ready for service.
But just as important for the handyman
A sharp blade makes one smile
A stone that keeps a blade able
For any task that rests at hand
No handyman should relax as if
Their blade be forever sharp
It is forever right that a handyman keep
Beside every dressing table to thy name
A handyman should keep right there
A handyman’s sharpening stone.
Midnight (day 2271)
You are a midnight that I watch
A tall letter written with love
Emotion twirling around the dance floor
In silk and leather attire
Sipping scotch in a dark corner
Watching every single eye contact
As patrons of the night
Denizens in full regalia
Touch shoulders and recognize
Hold each other in sweet embraces.
And your visage recollects
Games we’ve touched on,
Half unsuspecting
In a gypsy sort of way
Where decadence cannot ever decay
Because it rides tonight,
Midnight in your purse
Towards jewels hidden deep inside
The glimmer in your eye.
Hiawatha (day 2270)
Oh Hiawatha how you lend my heart to sadness
How you’ve been so great and noble
To your finest friends and people
How your handmade birch canoe
Rose and fell within the waters
How your willow bow and arrow
So skilled and faithful fed you
But in spite your faithful service
Your ever fearless journey
Dear sweet Minnehaha
Sent off to the blessed land
From a winter hunger fever
From her life so taketh your heart.
And loneliness then cometh
Though we all know just as seasons
So must come and go our good friends
Chibiabos, Kwasind and all kinfolk
And so we must take to remember
Four nights we must take care to
Send them off with mindful firelight
Four nights must we wake to stoke
Campfire for their journey.
How so easy it is to forget
All your deeds of strength and honour
Clearing rivers of their boulders
Catching Nahma, the sturgeon
In unnecessary tumult,
Fighting gravely the Pearl Feather
Fighting Megissogwon
That lived past the black pitch-water
Where fiery serpents gathered,
How Kahgahgee tried to
Take out Hiawatha’s corn fields
But how Hiawatha captured
Kahgahgee, the raven
And killed all the crows who plotted
With Kahgagee to
Cause destruction to his people.
So then why did you have to
Sail off in the Big-Sea-Water
Gitche Gumee shining brightly
So no more the sun would rise
Brightly on your wigwam, Hiawatha?
This Howl (day 2269)
This howl awoke into a fog
A late winter hovering on summer’s brow
Shifting dreams into shivers
Shifting giants into trees
And stones walking in silence
To wind blowing softly
Upon the giant’s sail.
A lone small bird soared effortlessly
Into and then out of fog
Looking regularly at the ground cover
For the days feed of minions and minnows
Bobbing with the grace of an oil lamp
Stained the colour of desolation
Like a sea captain standing proud
Upon the hearth of a sinking ship
Smoking his last bowl from his foreign pipe
Blowing heavy clouds over the valley
Set deep inside his heart of a howl.
Reasoning (day 2268)
My reason left a black mark upon that open door
It reached up, seared the roof then clambered about the floor
Dragging it’s hefty tail each step along the way.
Lamenting, I cried into the rain splashing about my ankles
Until I made a lonely call that brought back each raven
And there we sat in harmony, speaking to each other free
As my marking upon the door began to float up, on, out the door.
Midnight Fire (day 2267)
As a fire I torch the way
Alight into this night
Burning each timber
Aflame, aglow
Amber lays my path behind.
I take apart
Each sliver of wood
Placed into my path
Charring black
Exposing bark
I bite and lick each crack.
But as wind doth die down
As kindling wanes at the hearth
Gentle doth my folly go
Slowing each flicker
Embers glow
And midnight’s roe fares well.
This Moon (day 2266)
This moon is alive
It howls with coyotes
And burns with fire
It sings through maples
Blowing softly in night air
And it dances beside stars
That wink as they move.
This moon has brilliance
That squeaks through cracks
Carefully laid to catch
Spiders and light.
But this moon speaks not a word
Lays not a sound to an ear
Because it is alive in night’s embrace
Way up high beyond reach
As a symbol to charge
What hasn’t been remembered.
Rain – part V (day 2265)
(part IV)
I felt good beating away my irrational fear
That this hungry stranger was wild man
He did have some unkempt parts about him
But nothing more than your average man.
He said he’d been working on a pig farm
Just inside the Ontario border
For the last four years
A smell I had keenly detected
When I first met him.
He warmed over as he drank the tea
And soon he was calmer
As the dog stopped growling at the stranger
The fire I kept going I’m sure
Also brought up his spirits.
I fed him toasted bread, jam, and eggs
And sent him off to the barn
Before darkness set in.