"ALL BAD POETRY SPRINGS FROM GENUINE FEELING." - OSCAR WILDE
a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.
free verse, limerick, cinquain, acrostic
Poetry is where I got my start in writing. I still have my Hello Kitty notebook from 1986 and the first few entries are poems - I will save you from those first attempts.
These poems are some of my poetry practice. I like haikus but also freestyle poetry and have been exploring the cinquain.
Haiku 1
Fingers cold as stone
Arctic wind creeps down my back
February chill
2-1-23
Haiku 2
Double yolk good luck?
We could use a bright rainbow
To shift our life tide.
2-2-23
Haiku 3
Grief washes up me.
I quell the torrent - not here!
When I'm alone, come.
2-3-23
Haiku 4
Moon mother reflects
The state of humanity.
How are we faring?
2-4-23
Haiku 5
A glittering sea
Holds dark secrets in its depths.
Haiku month is hard.
2-5-23
Haiku 6
Cheers, oh that theme song
Would make me melancholy.
But it's grown on me.
2-6-23
Haiku 7
Pregnant silences.
Assuming I think the worst.
Please understand me.
2-7-23
Haiku 8
Words I never said
Choke and clog, never to flow.
Now solidified.
2-8-23
Haiku 9
White noise is too loud.
Errant thoughts run through
my head.
I will never sleep.
2-9-23
Haiku 10
The long shadows form
Later along the pavement.
Hi, Spring, is that you?
2-10-23
Haiku 11
An unlikely nest.
Birds chirp chirp above our heads.
In The Home Depot.
2-11-23
Haiku 12
Insta "Romeo",
I'm not your pretty lady.
Toodle pip (goodbye).
2-12-23
Haiku 16
Dirt trailed in with me.
Soft earth on a concrete floor.
What an odd pairing.
2-17-23
Haiku 13
The crazy 80s
When bullying was for laughs
Cheers does a great job.
2-13-23
Haiku 14
A Valentine's Day
When I didn't do massage.
What would that be like?
2-14-23
Haiku 15
Exhaustion crawls in
Like a cold hand from the grave.
Watch as it grabs me.
2-15-23
Haiku 17
Emotions run high
Estrogen flowing throughout
Here's The Bachelor. 🌹
2-18-23
Haiku 18
Fuchsia pink blossoms
A love memento to her
She would be two now.
2-18-23
Haiku 19
Heart pangs start up from
A family's cruelty.
How can they not care?
2-19-23
Haiku 20
Raindrops pelt the street
Chasing people back inside.
Steaming up windows.
2-20-23
Haiku 21
Oh, little bonsai!
Thy leaves hath all fallen off.
Shakespeare - I am not.
2-21-23
Haiku 22
A baby was born
Seventy-six years ago
Happy birthday, Dad. 🎉
2-22-23
Haiku 23
A fake Faberge
So delicate and pretty
When is this month done?
2-23-23
Haiku 24
Slush and snow? For real?
Why does it irritate me
To walk in this mess?
2-24-23
Haiku 25
Sweetness on my tongue.
Am I a baker? Oh no.
Betty Crocker mix.
2-25-23
Haiku 26
Windy storm outside,
Steel gray clouds shroud
the mountains.
Winter favorite.
2-26-23
Haiku 27
The wet road is a
Black snake sliding through
green hills
Setting sun its prey.
2-27-23
Haiku 28
Ode to Haiku Month
You have challenged and strengthened
My love of poems.
2-28-23
Birthday Haiku
Fifty is nifty.
But not if you're Nik. He thinks
Getting old is sad.
3-12-23
Heaven's gate opens
With a limoncello sky
And gray turtle clouds.
3-24-23
The heat melts my skin.
Rivers of sweat run into
My waistband. Kill me.
7-16-23
Sweat pebbles on me
Like droplets on a river.
Snow, where are you now?
7-16-23
A small green tendril.
Spring is in its tiny root.
Hope in what's to come.
Feb 1, 24
Gunmetal clouds pour
Icy pellets of stardust
Onto the humans.
Feb 2, 24
Black slices of ice
Cut ribbons down the mountain
Fear feels like lava.
Feb 3, 24
A flood of panic
My flesh goes weak and trembly
And one knee is off.
Feb 4, 24
Garnet droplets fall
Tumble and splash brightly from
The deep part of me.
Feb 5, 24
A yellow pain forms
In the root of the gum tree.
Drilling will commence.
Feb 6, 24
A shadow above
The pines, covers the lakeshore.
The ship disappears.
Feb 7, 24
Ice white blinds the eyes
Burns my face bright
red. Is pain
Really worth the ski?
Feb 8, 24
A dark blue expanse.
Pinpricks gleam into the void.
I feel very small.
Feb 9, 24
Pfeffernüsse mountain
Wish that I could take a bite.
Sweet treat will suffice.
Feb 10, 24
Radiating pain
That leaks for decades, causing
Decay and demise.
Feb 11, 24
Greed clutches inside
“That's mine not yours
so be gone.”
Doomed humanity.
Feb 12, 24
Blue white snowy ridge
Obscured from view while
snow falls
“We need the moisture.”
Feb 13, 24
Gold band encircles
A ring around my heart that
Feels fit to bursting.
Feb 14, 24
Cinnamon and clove,
White noise from the family,
Is holiday cheer.
Feb 15, 24
The white rime of ice
Coats the black branch,
like your frost
Shrouds your blackened heart.
12.28.24
other styles
free verse
An Evening Stroll In Liberty Park, Salt Lake
​
Winter is in the treetops.
It's in the honk of geese
And the laugh of the mallards.
It's in the turquoise & coral sunset
And the jingle jangle of dog collars.
Winter is in the bleached gray sky, the terracotta lawns &
Naked trees that look like milk chocolate sticks.
Winter is in the powdered sugar snow
Frosting the bank of the clear pond
Where a single orange flame cuts into the ice -
Faux warmth on a chilly night.
LA
12.18.18
What Now?
​
Driving old routes
To visit old memories.
The smell of exhaust in my
Old, new Ford truck
Lumbering down the road
Jumping in pot holes,
Creaking past turns I've
Driven a hundred times.
How is my neighborhood so small?
​
My routes were always routines, mundane,
Yet now they drum up nostalgia, what-ifs?
But, no more regrets.
I've done this before -
This revisiting to force emotion so
I can move out of the pain -
To trigger the sadness I buried,
The anger I swallowed and ate -
Coating my arms and thighs and tummy.
​
I want it off my glorious, breathing, live body,
But I don't know how to burn it off.
So I haunt old places, my old life,
Hoping it will spark the fire needed
To metabolize the pain.
​
LA
12.17.18
God
​
Dark purple flashes of violet and lavender.
Nebulous - tangled up in the stars & negative space.
Gossamer webs slip past grasping fingers.
Up, up & away into the silvery light.
Fluid lines float by,
Swim past solid bodies
To be plucked out of the ether &
Anchored to wet skin,
Absorbed like a sponge,
Changing the molecules of the life being lived.
Shifting the path -
The very air vibrating violently as
More threads are
Added or
Subtracted.
​
LA
12.18.18
​Brain fire builds up pressure along my bones,
Splits my face along its sutures.
​
Anger burns, blisters, destoyrs -
The brown sludge leaks out of me and burns others.
​
Brown rocks,
Globs of stress
Stick to me like wet candy.
​​
LA
11.21.23
limerick & cinquain
​There once was a man named Nicholas
Who cooked as if each day were Michaelmas.
His friends ate so much
That they started to puff
And all said "Good feast!" to Nicholas.
​
LA
09.09.24
​Crickets
Chirp the night through.
Tiny legs seesawing
Lulling me into a deep sleep.
Quiet.
​
LA
09.09.24
Water
Gently clears me
Washes away debris.
Unlocks the fetters of my soul.
At last.
​
LA
09.12.24
Blissful.
Wind whistles by.
Fall chill is in the air.
The mountain waits for first snowfall.
Cold bones.
​
LA
09.16.24
Moon rays.
Light the night sky.
Did the natives view it
From my same vantage point on the
Mountain?
​
LA
09.16.24
Sunrise.
Daily photos.
Light and lake and mountains
Framed in view while I lounge in bed.
Delight.
​
LA
01.14.25
