Official Poetry Thread

[Garyis]

Unfortunately Raven died several years ago.

(KLD)

I hope she is doing okay

[cass]

gone, but not forgotten. i miss you, raven. i wonder if your son ever comes here any more.

[1 Fine Spine RN]

I miss Raven...she was a wonderful and loving woman, and a wonderful poet!

[wazabiker]

The poetry in this thread is very depressing. I am a glass half full person and look for the greatness and beauty life offers us on a minute-to-minute basis.

Rick Shaw

[SCI-Nurse]

The poetry in this thread is very depressing. I am a glass half full person and look for the greatness and beauty life offers us on a minute-to-minute basis.

Rick Shaw

So why don't you contribute something more positive?

(KLD)

[Garyis]

response to wazabiker;

I don't consider myself a poet, I do like writing though, sort of journal keeping about what's happening around and in me on a minute-to-minute basis; Life is hard, difficult and a struggle even on my good days. I can't help wanting to put what I'm going through in writing for proof of it's existence.

Allow me to post some writing that isn't depressing, it my not qualify for publication but I can post it here.



This was written recently recalling some time in my life when I was a walking running hiking snowshoeing dancing man.


MIND THOUGHTS


long before I had a chance to grasp
or even get a glimpse of or fathom
any meaning to of what they were telling me
they passed on with the previous second


they won’t come around soon if ever
those thoughts that were perfect expressions
to write down and hold long enough
to know them know them well enough
to put them in writing
with an acceptable structure
put together by me
no vocabulary training
or understanding of as yet


new ones come though
I am ready for them
and have them slow down
often times they dance and play with me
confounding me
gently guiding me to look deeper
look elsewhere slipping through
cracks along dark crevices
out to sun bright paper avenues
opening onto colors of tans faded yellows
blacks desert canyon reds under
a round red orange sun overhead
while hiking up the trail to a
small out cropping on the cliff


settling down on my blanket
overlooking hundreds of square miles
of what were once vast lakes
The Great Basin of Eastern Oregon
time passes and the night appears quickly
bringing a mist dissipating under low lying clouds
to just above my head
while I experience maybe forty miles away
intense lightening cracking and spitting
from different directions clashing fiercely
miles wide and hours long thunder rumbling
over the flat desert so loud my mind shuts down
and my bones vibrate


all this energy being absorbed
into any peoples bodies
experiencing earths dance with itself
brings us deeper into the raw
chaotic source of an entrance
into this what is called life
completely outside of ones self


the thoughts keep rolling in
like a gentle tide lapping between
the in the out the in-between
thought and no thought
that continue their comings and goings
and become part of this color-scape
of my networking mind the greens of nature
blue skies birds white clouds
the myriad colors of flowers
Indian Paintbrush bees fish
bring colors all manifestations of my mind
they are colors just the same


no mind though
brings nothing but
an indescribable immersion
that can only be expressed
as the bottom fell out of my foundation
I am falling in place going nowhere


the words continue coming this night
from somewhere I am not certain
or nowhere perhaps
are they even there not really
my mind conjures them real
I write them down thinking of course
of how they look lined up as I have
yet new ones slip in and alter the layout


do welcome the late comers
as they bring new ideas and a freshness
to what was getting stale and a newness
so unexpected so uplifting
"how can this be?" says some old
way of thought another ‘ages’ rules


free of that I enter a new way
a new way of being with myself
my awareness aware of ‘I’
all this unfamiliar energy
allows the old way to dissolve
and open new avenues and new paths
where eventually words form lines
into a work a piece a shape a structure
telling showing gliding along the pathway
to those thoughts that were
perfect expressions
to write down and hold long enough
to know them know them well enough
to put them in writing and here they are
the original perfect expressions
forgotten changed altered intentions lost


but the feelings sensations
the with-ness so open so fresh
so unexpected so welcomed and
as suddenly and unlikely as they appeared
they fly alway with the breeze this brings
and here I am left with the remnants
color swatches golds tans reds ochres
my self colored bathed saturated warmed
by this way of using words on lines
using these words that keep arriving
through this night and placing them
in this what could be described
as structured intentionally by me
yet I know it as a free form dance
or like swimming up a river
or riding behind the crest of a wave
or being bathed under a fifty foot waterfall
surrounded by giant ferns moss
exposed roots of fir trees
then hiking down for an hour
ah the Blue Herons on one leg
on the S shaped curve on the gravel bar
the MacKenzie River


I left the old no regrets the new was so right
the sensations no words can speak of
maybe like a rebirth although
what I saw then what I see now
no words no thoughts can describe
I am appreciative blessed and thankful
for those years and time
never knew how much until decades later
I did know something thinking
the something I knew thinking
was the illusion mind creates
always


all this and other blessings
over the following years
so over whelming so mind altering
so welcomed some were so at home
settled in place with family there was the time
for family in Oregon that was good for us all
for that it has held through the distances
it holds through long time and space

[ketamine kitty]

3 Haiku

ツバメのようなダーツの葉
秋の寒硬い風に沿って
冬は、その時間待機

Leaves dart like swallows
along autumn's chill stiff breeze.
Winter waits its time.



桜があえて
晩冬の怒り
時間がただの夢である

Cherry blossoms dare
the late winter's fury.
Time is just a dream.



夜の闇は動揺を保持している
夜明け前の愛の花
彼女の恋人の心で

Night's darkness holds sway.
Love blossoms before the dawn
in her lover's heart.

Before anyone gets testy about kejiri, Basho often deviated and did not use them though they are incorporated in some above. Also one has a choice to follow Nihongo or English as the source, I chose English. Finally in the interest of space they are not vertical , but in the second somewhat acceptable form, especially for Gaijin. There are customary indents as the Haiku progresses that our board kills (Kiru)

I can deconstruct the double layered metaphors common to the Japanese interpretations of some of the key elements but will leave them as is for now. Part of my classical martial art training included.Fighting, Poetry, Tea, Sumi, crap forget the 5th. I only add this as my last posting of Haiku was shredded by Haiku Cognoscenti who eyes were open but did not see.

Raven I miss you.

Written for a very special friend

私は、あなたがそれらをお楽しみください

ket

[Tim C.]

What happened to Raven, what did she pass from?

[PN]

See this THREAD.

What happened to Raven, what did she pass from?

[Garyis]

Not many of us are posting poems, maybe we think that we stink at writing and don't want to be embarrassed?

Just do it like I'm going to do now. We need more poetry!

Mechanic of My Life
12.29.14


keep the motor running
keep the joints loose &
keep them coming


keep the chatter down
keep the matter meaningfull-less
keep them in tune


keep the questions to a minimum
keep the answers up front
keep them covered


keep the balls rolling
keep the faith
keep them well lubed


keep the wheels turning
keep the treads deep
keep them aligned


keep what you know
keep what you don't
keep them together


~~~
All as One Thing Always
Words the Threads holding
The Tool Box handy
~~~