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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

“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.

Friday, May 20, 2011

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.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

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.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

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. 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

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.

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

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.

Monday, May 02, 2011

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