“Priorities” (Priorities Poem)

Looking at the list

of all the things I want to be

and then comparing it

to what I’m doing,

--explosion management

for my 14 year-old

talking monkey

blonde landmine

balancing and structural support

for my two adult children

as I run alongside

while they practice

riding through life

without training wheels

dream and wish fulfillment,

with a side order of

emotional, spiritual and

recreational partnership

 to the most beautiful woman

in the world

cultivator and synthesizer

of ideas, profound and trivial,

and multimedia documentarian

of this life

willing follower  

critical deconstructionist

and very flawed example of

the power and the glory

of Jesus Christ --

I notice

I put others first,

then myself,

then God.

My priorities are not

in order of importance,

they are in order

of grace and forgiveness,

from the smallest

to the Greatest.

Worse Than the Bars (One word prompt: domesticated)

Trained
and sitting in cage,

he’s domesticated.

But
worse than the bars
that surround him

is the minimum security prison
that he’s locked himself into
from the inside 


and he tossed that key
far far out of reach.

No Technique (Telling It Like It Is poem)

Is 

No Technique

a technique 

in itself,

I wonder 

as the prompt

reminds me 

of why 

I hate poetry

and why I like

whatever it is

I write.

Seeing, Paying Attention

Since everything is always moving

all the time,

my challenge is

seeing, paying attention

to the many kindnesses

hidden in this as the world -

from the promise of a rosebud

to a perfect storm-klatch of words,

because they were all

put here for me.

Yes, even you were put here

for me

and I for you.

May my life fit

perfectly

into the space of time

I have been given,

and when I am taken

may there be

no debts owed on my bank account

no apologies or tributes left unspoken

no dreams or desires not sated. 

Epiphany

Before I knew it

there were wrinkles

taking up residence

by my smile,

stray gray hairs

curling wildly from

my sideburns,

my aching, crackling

knee joints

betrayed me,

the memories

stuck somewhere in the back

require a more complicated

set of cues

to loosen them

from their

hiding space.

I needed longer arms

to read the small print

on my blood pressure

medicine

and I understood

the necessity of

euphemistic language like

“erectile dysfunction”

and I smiled because

these were proof

that I beat the odds

and have lived

longer than I thought

I would,

long enough

to be an old man. 

Suspend My Disbelief

I’ve stretched my mind

trying to understand

the scared mystery of

The Holy Trinity

but in the end

I gave up,

and accepted this puzzle as

an article of faith.

Furthermore,

I stretched my reason

and logic

like philosophical silly putty

to understand that

God loves us

in a way that transcends

human understanding,

unless, of course,

you don’t profess

your belief in Him.

In that case,

you will burn 

in everlasting hell.

Everlasting?

Eternal?

Like,

as long as

God Himself 

has been alive,

longer than the Sequoias have climbed

into the sky,

deeper than the Coral Reef,

past the boundaries of

outer space?

That kind of

eternal punishment?

Seems vindictive to me,

vindictive

in a human way.

In the name of faith,

I will suspend my disbelief

only if it brings others

into the Grand Re-Unification,

but I didn’t join up

to scare others

into signing on

the dotted line.

I am a follower

of the Christ,

and I am here to tell you:

God loves you

and wants to be reunited

with you.

I am not a salesman

for an after-life

insurance policy.

Wisdom (Prompt: On the Other Hand)

Maybe

the grass is greener on the other side

and you can judge a book by its cover

and the first restaurant you see may be the best

and it’s ok to let the sun catch you crying

and pride doesn’t always go before a fall

and love is not all you need

and the good don’t always die young

and the Lord doesn’t help those who help themselves

and the free market system isn’t best

and the early bird doesn’t get the worm

and he who hesitates is not lost

but on the other hand

I have only four fingers

because of a

freak industrial accident

which

for all my wisdom

I could not foresee

nor prevent.

Word Cloud of PAD 2011 Favorites

So, I took all the names of all the mentions I made during PAD 2011 and let wordle.net make a word cloud for me.  When I think of talent writers, this is what I see. - Moskowitz