Tag Archives: Grief

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

DEBBIE – SIX MONTHS LATER

Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged , , / / by

DEBBIE – SIX MONTHS LATER

How can I write of your death
and writing make it real
how can I not and ever hope to heal

How can I write of the crab
without a hatred more than buzzard red
who will at least not eat you till you’re dead

How can my heart and hands be empty
with fullness of gifts I cannot give
How can it be you do not live

How like a vampire do I walk the night
and in a mirror no reflection see
Without a you where is the me?

JUDY

Poems about Poetry, Relationships / tagged , , , , , / / by

JUDY

Judy was a beauty
tall and blonde and shy
early this month she decided to die

The soft wise eyes, the curling lashes
all now ashes

We have been friends for twenty years
hugs and coffee when in town, cards when far away

And always the latest poetry

She said it was important, and it touched her
in places nothing and no one else could reach

Three years ago
I put my neck in a green eyed noose

I sent no cards, I did not call

I do not know if I could have saved her
though touch and poetry have been known to

I only know I hate what I did and didn’t do
I only know that she drowned out there alone
I only know it was a long time since I had thrown her a line

HILLMAN

Audio Recordings / tagged , , , , / / by

HILLMAN

A shadow on the wall in Hiroshima
ashes on a lake in Austin

Donna looks over the side of the boat
and cries as they drift
because she cannot see his face in the ashes

She might also have looked
for 81 years from China Sea to here
for the feet of the best dancer she ever knew
the graceful movements of Tai Chi
the hands of massage
and the mind and heart of a poet

The ashes drift to the banks and bottom of Lake
Austin

All that remains are the shadows on our minds and
hearts

And the walls of Hiroshima

FATHER’S POEM

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

FATHER’S POEM

My father’s poems
did not come down to us on paper

He was eight years old when his mother died
his youngest brother not yet three

They say he adopted the care
of the sweet sad child
and told him a story each night

Night after night after night

New stories he made up each night

And he would gather him up in the story
and hold him there
until he slept