poem of the day April 30

I wonder

if a cow

enjoying

an afternoon

relaxing

with friends

in the warm

South Dakota

spring sun

has any idea

of its future?

 poem of the day April 29

Nothing much had changed

Maggie's café is still around

in this Wyoming cowboy town

It was closed for the day

but I was able to look inside

The bar was the same

The table chairs the same

The jukebox was still there

Everything was the same

except for me who had eaten

there many times as a young man

and now stood by the door looking in 

as an old man remembering his past

 poem of the day April 28

Driving through

the Mojave desert 

An environment 

so dry

so parched

so inhospitable 

I am glad I am 

not travelling the early

nineteenth century

struggling to survive

without any shade 

in a land of no water

My musing made me very weird

when I finally got to the motel and took

a shower where I used more

water than the fragile desert can possibly provide

 poem of the day April 27

Thin socks
Tired shoes
Many miles
All well use
I see them early
before the dawn
picking the fields
without  a home

 poem of the day April 26

I heard

the Oscars 

were a bust

Nobody watched

or even cared about

the plastic lives of

shallow celebrities

strutting on the red carpet

We were all too busy 

being famous stars in our own movie

It is now a brave new world

where anyone with a phone can be 

a glamorous important VIP big shot 

Be sure to check in to see

what I was wearing when I

ate my mundane poem near Vegas 

 poem of the day April 25

How far can

love travel

on roads full

of open hate

through regions closed

to any ideas other

than their own

Is there some

vessel to carry

flowers so fragile

even the slightest

bump can bruise the fruit

I wonder if this perfection

festering in small wells

narrows our perceptions

and becomes the problem

The obstacle of beautiful imperfect love

 poem of the day April 24

A new door

into an old home

A chance for 

a fresh start 

A new beginning 

A different way

to enter the familiar

full of new possibilities

powerful possibilities

able to change stale patterns past

 poem of the day April 23

 

Shore birds on

the flat of tides

fly each time

the waves arrive

Back and forth

without a thought

footprints washed

as they take off

From canvas sand

they pattern part

I see their flight

as Escher art

 poem of the day April 22

Natural to the sight

down to every detail

nothing out of place

even to the drops 

of sky and water

Man made masterpiece

human toil

human folly

fake or real?

Wanted or unwanted

Does it matter?

 poem of the day April 21

So many flowers

all over the City of Angels

Everything from

wild to tame

hardy to frail

impossible to possible 

A bouquet of spring

Bright smells and sights

full of eternal hope

for a city consumed

by the insanity of humanity

 poem of the day April 20

Motel hotel dreams

strange out of place

figments every night

New rooms

New dreams

living in old beds

Are they left over

from other souls

who rested their heads

on the same pillow

Are they born in a traveler's womb

then given life inside each passing stranger

Do these sub dreams linger

like vapers of the arcane 

Currents of hallucinations

that travel the open road

with a suitcase full of nightmares and fantasies 

waiting for a fresh soul to give them life

 poem of the day April 19

I have been

driving cross country

these last few days

looking for a sign

A sign as to where 

America is heading as a nation

I have waited all week

for an eagle to swoop down

or for Don Juan's crow

to appear with a vision

but nothing has been revealed

That is until just now

when I saw a huge giant

beautiful American  Flag

sitting atop a center pole

The biggest flag I have ever seen

blowing confident in the wind

completely unfurled across our vast nation

in a totally leftward direction 

poem of the day April 18

 

To change the world

all it takes is a new seed
full of wild imagination
able to grow a sustainable future
Fifty years after oil
food for cities can be
raised on both sides
of every highway
Houses can have roofs
made of energy panels
with enough electricity
to power cities the size
of Los Angeles
Replanted native landscapes
can save precious water
for future generations
And humanity can
focus on loving the land
like Native Americans
did centuries ago

 poem of the day April 17 

On a western highway

racing neck to neck 

see-sawing a freight train

as we both travel together

over big wide open spaces

The flat dry parched desert seems lifeless

except for balls of tumbleweed

and a few foraging cows

Dust on the horizon makes 

the far off mountains appear surreal

like a Okeefe landscape

Where once in a while a dust devil

twirls to life to paint the moment

 poem of the day April 16

Everything 

in Texas

is BIG

Bigger

than life

Big hats

Big hair

Big trucks

Big cows

Big guns

Big flags

Just about

everything

is SUPER SIZED

except for only one thing

The right to vote

 poem of the day April 15

Oysters eating jazz

Felix the catfish 

dancing on Gumbo Street

Po-boys looking for love
dive deep into Lake Pontchartrain
only to find a spicy boil of Crayfish 

pinching tails and sucking head
A girl from the French Quarter 

selling fortunes for almost free

eats a sugar dusted beignet

Yelling to anyone who will listen

"You ain't seen nothing until you 

see a  fine plate of jumbo shrimp

flirting with cajun sauce 

on the shores of the mighty Mississippi"

 poem of the day April 14

There is a sadness

driving on the highway

Every few miles

makeshift memorials

dot the road to remind

us of fallen drivers

who have lost the way 

 poem of the day April 13

Shenandoah Valley

so poignant pretty in spring

Full of giant crosses

churches and ghosts

Fields of daffodils

line the highway

in random clusters

like fallen soldiers 

on an American battlefield

Time has infused dead souls

in every blooming flower

But one small ring of daffodils

sat all alone on a lonely hillside 

different from all the rest

appearing as perfection

A circle so round 

it must have been planted

by God to give us hope

that there is a path

greater than another civil war

 poem of the day April 12

It's that time of the year

My house plants

are going crazy

full of spring fever

thinking about 

spending the summer

living outside in

the great outdoors

I can see the anticipation

in their leaves

every time I open the door

 poem of the day April 11

Winged

small

balls

of red

of blue 

of white

of black

of yellow

and orange 

All fly around

on a landscape

seemingly big enough

for everyone and everything

It was only when the colors

flew too close to human fire

That the oxygen of  love

became smothered

by flames of desire

which filled the cake

with colors to hate

 a poem of the day April 10

A clockwork green

An epic masterpiece

Long strides open

unto an early spring

Me and me dogs are out

for a long morning stroll

checking out the meadow

looking for anything 

and everything to further  

the mad idea that there 

even is a season called spring

 poem of the day April 9

Too many eyes 

watching from 

outer space

Big brother

full of chips

has built a house

made of bar-codes 

tracking every movement

of everybody's lives

Very hard to get away

to the land of nowhere

when they know

where you are

just by the mark of your soul

 poem of the day April 8

Subtle days

a green magic carpet

creeping steadily

over the meadow

Flower buds almost

about to burst

The change unreal

like slow magic

While I was waiting

in the indescribable 

I talked to the Sun 

about all things splenderificious 

and Sun said to me

"It's all real my friend

just ask the trees"

 poem of the day April 7

When to watch

when to ride

when to drive

up to the sky

life so long
life so quick

remember breath

that is the trick

 poem of the day April 6

Accomplishment

is the reward

at the end of

every journey

An inner smile

of satisfaction

knowing one

has practiced

the art of completion

Now my only barrier

to this wonderful perfection

is finding the time to start

 poem of the day April 5

A part of night

still lingers in day

The air still crisp

The wind still sleeping

Whispers of dreams

are like smoke 

of an old candle

full of faint circles

that slowly fade

almost undetectably 

past the realm of subconscious

into the realm of consciousness  

 poem of the day April 4

The illusion

of permanence 

The never ending

cycle of forever

The merry-go-round

of lifelong immortality

within the framework

of ordinary mortality

makes for a very good ride

 poem of the day April 3

TV friends exist

but do they count?

The familiar face

The reassuring friend

talking into the camera

intimately just at you

We know their lives

delight in their escapades 

Have secret crushes on them

But are they real friends

or only imaginary reel friends?

Super strange in these days when

even real friends are reel friends too

But what I want to know is

what does one get out of it?

Why do we form a friendship

with someone who does not 

even know of you?

 poem of the day April 2

Figure eights

Butterfly wings

Simple twists

that fly within

Energy flow

spine to spine

relax the bones

to feed the mind

 poem of the day April 1

I am dreaming about a handshake fountain

part of a giant hand shaking machine

for greetings nonstop on a long haul arm

Hands shaking soft and hard depending on the needs of touch

Then after a while of shaking hand after hand  over and over

it will be time for a drink and the hippie hour band