Tag Archives: Grief

IN MEMORY STILL

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged , , , / / by

IN MEMORY STILL
(or computers byte)

You keep popping up in my memory

On old disks I find love notes
still as loving as when they were entered

Faxes, letters, poems, thoughts
full of beauty full of trust

Valentine’s poems, three of them
overflowing with sensual exaltation
wisdom exchanged, depths plumbed,
promises made

Fresh and clean and bright
as the day they were written
lines that would go on forever
lines that still do go on forever

I don’t know how to tell the little ones
and zeros that we’re now apart
it might break their heart

KENDRA

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry / tagged , , , , / / by

KENDRA

When the natives of this land
suffered a death such as this
they knew how to grieve

They felt it to the depths of their being
and cut deep into their arms and legs
that they might reach deeper

Today my great friends
I reach and bleed with you

Written for my cousin Kenny and his wife Betty on the tragic loss of their eighteen year old daughter

KURT

Audio Recordings, Poems about Poetry / tagged , , / / by

KURT

I am sure that the life
of my dear friend’s brother
held great meaning for a great many

He will be missed

My poems will miss him

He would take them down
into the greatness of his being
wrap them in music and meaning
and sing them back out to the world

I am sure that Kurt touched many people
in ways they have not been touched before
nor will ever be again

My poems join in the mourning

for that touch

THOUGHTS ON A DEBBIE MOMENT

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged , , , , , , / / by

THOUGHTS
ON
A DEBBIE MOMENT

Debbie, a great friend of mine, died too young
and in too much pain in Houston about five
years ago now

This moment just sneaked up on me
earlier this year

Can’t help wondering how many people
are having Debbie moments now in New
York and around the world from what
happened just six weeks ago

How many people in the world in the last
five years having Debbie moments from
a hole blown in their sky

HANGING TEN WITH DEBBIE

Audio Recordings, Relationships / tagged , , / / by

HANGING TEN WITH DEBBIE

When she was alive
she was just so damn alive
It makes her being dead
just so damn much more dead

We were together
the day the Challenger exploded
and the day the Gulf War started

Violence all around but we never fought

We just laughed and played
and howled at the moon

And surfed ten years
on that sweet sexual edge of almost
then she died

If either of us
had leaned ten degrees closer
we might have caught the perfect curl
and saved the world

Three degrees and we might have been
two reef torn bodies on the sand
but I block out scenes like that

I just see her innocent wave goodbye

I just watch the uncaught waves roll by

FROST BITE

Audio Recordings, Cowboy Poetry, Relationships / tagged , , , / / by

FROST BITE

On the prairies they know
that you have to use snow

In January on the Wood River
the laces got wet and then stiff
and could not be untied

Walked the whimpering long mile home
in one frozen skate and one warm boot
part of my foot and all my toes
numb and milky white

On the prairies they know
that you have to use snow

Too much warmth all at once
can bring the feeling rushing back
with more pain than you can stand

I have since learned
and this is the sad part
It is the same way with the heart

REMINDERS

Audio Recordings, Personal Growth, Relationships / tagged , , / / by

REMINDERS

Sometimes my body has to remind my mind
yes sometimes my body has to remind my mind

Remember her touch and the times out of mind
and the times out of mind
Remember the tastes and the times out of mind

and all the treasure that we both would find
in those times out of mind
all those times out of mind

And the mind, being mind, says
never mind never mind never mind

I pushed her away but another I’ll find
never mind never mind never mind

I sent her away but another I’ll find
never mind never mind never mind

And the body says
never mind, mind, you never mind
never you never you never mind me
never you never you never mind me

All my great pleasures you’ve again undermined
and you don’t think I mind no you don’t think I mind

And it’s easy for anyone half blind to see
you’re lonely as hell and depressed as can be
pouring chocolate and booze and sugar in me

And we’d be both better off if you’d only mind me
we’d be both better off if you’d only to mind me

I AM A PELICAN

Audio Recordings, Environment, Nature / tagged , , , , , / / by

I AM A PELICAN

I have flown over the dinosaurs dying
through the ash of the meteors crashing

I have swam in the ice floes melting
I have eaten the first fish walking

I have felt the poles a shifting
in the magnets in my head

I have seen the white man and the red
I have seen the old wives dead

I have felt the pull of the settlers need
and tasted the poisons of their greed

I have heard the earth a groaning
I have felt the earth in pain

I have seen the Rainbow Warriors
dance the vision back again

And I fly and swim and wait
and pray they’re not too late