DOING THE WORK
Dark nights of the soul may come again
This time I will have more candles
Category: Personal Growth
RAISING THE TITANIC
RAISING THE TITANIC
with gratitude to Dr. Joe
Remember when we were old
and used to spend all of our gold
on lotions and potions and medics galore
and every new fad at the health food store
Tar for the seams of a sinking ship
thinking we were near the end of the trip
But if time
is but a wrinkle in thought
just think of all that we’ve got
THE TURKEY SHOOT
THE TURKEY SHOOT
Small town Saskatchewan
raising money for the curling rink
Targets fifty feet away
and old bent-sight 22’s to shoot
The trick to bringing a turkey home
was not how well at the bullseye shot
but how fast you learned that life
is sometimes three inches down
and two to the left of where you aim
November 22, 2017
THE ALBATROSS OF THE PLAINS
Beavers’ teeth never stop growing so they chew on wood to keep them at a manageable length. If they didn’t maintain them their teeth would eventually grow into their brains.
I shot a beaver in my youth
who cursed me with this curse
My teeth
will be your poems now
remembering our gift unused
grows fatal to the brain
GROUNDHOG DAY
GROUNDHOG DAY
While I feared my shadow
it was never spring
WRITING THE AUSTRALIA TRIP
WRITING THE AUSTRALIA TRIP
We went to teach, we went to learn
we did a lot of both and more of some
We met amazing people – they met us
perhaps none will be the same again
Details I leave for further poems
which I hurry to hurry to write
before the ripples rippling out
are lost
clockwise and counter clock
down the toilet bowl of time
I SHAMAN
I SHAMAN
Once again I touch
and pull back from my Shaman self
the thinning veil becomes
once again a curtain, and a wall
And what if the wall should fall
Could I face the demands
people might place on me for their healing
– the responsibility for my own
Could I resist using powers for personal gain
breaking the balls of traitorous pals
or poking pins in political dolls
Perhaps I will think about this again tomorrow
for as Scarlet says “Tomorrow is another day”
And tomorrow is Tuesday
and tonight is Monday Night Football
HE GOES ALONE TO COUPLES THERAPY
HE GOES ALONE TO COUPLES THERAPY
And finds that it is mostly
a matter of listening to the other
Honoring equals love, or trumps it,
or extends it, or replaces it nicely
Respect means never having
to say you’re sorry, when you’re not
and will know you’re lying anyway
Hours are fifty minutes long
the other ten a gift from God
He goes home, his feet lighter
for the shadows sown on
He is afraid people
will think that he can’t spell
and means sewn, like Peter Pan
not seeds, and seeds, and soil
I’M READY FOR MY NEW HIP NOW
I’M READY FOR MY NEW HIP NOW
I think I have finally forgiven
My old hip for all those years of pain
My mother for her hesitation
to carry me in a time of war
My father for the crushings
between the baler and the shed
and between his will and mine
And have taken also
the first small steps toward gratitude
for how far all three have carried me
THE OLD PLACE
THE OLD PLACE
Drove past the old place today
amazed at how small and dark
it had suddenly become
Like your mind just before
you learned the thing
that changed everything