Poetry: Friendship Series

These are some short poems I wrote this morning, inspired by friends:

Friendship Series

For the Mad Ones

Daylight dreamer,

you are both young and old.

You take a journey of a thousand miles

without a single step,

seeking the truth of love in the light and dark,

and the secret wisdom of ancient fools.

Voyager, you would be an architect

of a world without martyrs

where paupers and kings live grateful,

even for tears.

Blackbird

Chesnut-caped blackbird

teaching on the wing in silent tongues,

you elucidate with adagios

the magic in nature

and the nature in magic.

Do not chide the poor phrasing

or earthbound abecedarians

who, with you or without you,

cannot kiss the moon.

Monkey

Monkey monkey monkey

monkey monkey beer.

Monkey monkey monkey

monkey monkey. cheeseburger.

Monkey monkey monkey

monkey monkey pie.

Monkey monkey monkey

monkey monkey metal.

Yo Yo

Roll on,

Sacred messenger!

You remind us of our innocence,

of our childhood pure delights

and simple smiles.

You remind us that the softest hearts

are the strongest. So roll on,

painting the world with joy on cold mornings.

Roll on,

with your loving, watchful eyes.

Roll on with your playful joy.

Sparkler

Burn, burn, brief candle!

Like Terpsichore aflame

against the evening sky,

desirous of everything at once,

spilling bright tears

of steel-hearted kindness

on the eager ground,

each droplet inciting a new blaze

as though the earth had called the stars to her breast,

to rest there.

A Portrait of the Artist

If I could paint so well as you

I would paint you every day,

and consign to canvas

the tinctures of your dawn and your dusk

In Purples and plums,

render your contours in blood-orange reds.

See how my woven threads of “would”

Strain in opposition like cuts of rope,

seeking both to possess and unleash,

to encapsulate in my colors

your uncontainable hawk-on-the-wing textures

looped sinuously about my brush,

and to break open my palette

and let fly your unwritten spirit.