Poetry -- for your enjoyment?

[CREATIVE1]

This one's by my hubby, and it's kinda true.

It's a Problem I Have About Houses

it's a problem I have about houses
I'm not too good
                at keeping the outside outside
siding falls off the roof always
leaks and the doors don't shut
                good and the critters get in
all the time possums wrens
squirrels snakes rats and geckoes
                mold mushrooms grass
in the gutters and climbing vines
and whatever weathers outsides
                inside too I mean no
central this or that just some shit
to plug in to make a bit warm
                or cool or bright
birds fly through the rooms
staring at the official pets
                the cats dogs turtles
tropical fish parakeets lovebirds
cockatoo Honduran milk snake
                and of course us twoo


Next (if not too many boos)  Grateful Dead and VW van poems

[Amanda_931]

 

define official pets?

I have an acquaintance who has a cat door to his house--maybe not quite sited correctly so that only the cats come in--regular visitors include raccoons and a skunk family.   There's enough cat food for them all.

The possums occasionally came into the Nashville house, don't think the ground-hogs did.  But for that reason, I fed outside critters outside.  The outside critters included the neighbors' old and retired fighting cock.

[CREATIVE1]

So we're not unique?  In this case it's good to hear.

The definition of official pets is a little fuzzy, since most of the "official" ones either walked or flew in from parts unknown.  We've had geese in the living room, owls in the den, flickers in the kitchen, dogs sleeping under the house in unused insulation, bats sleeping on the house. Maybe we are flashing a "welcome" sign only visible to animals, or something.

And--we live in the city.

[Sassy]

We've had lots of "unofficial" pets, too!  We purposely put a pond on our roof for bats so they can eat the mosquitoes, its turned into a frog pond & they are keeping the bug population down in our garden, & I even have a frog in the master bath that finds its way into the toilet!  :-/   I always have to look first before using - how he gets in there, I don't know, as I keep the toilet lid down... lots of lizards roaming the house (even found a lizard skin in the bed   after we had been gone a few days!) We have our resident raccoons, stray cats, haven't seen a skunk since the 1st time we looked at the property (it was wandering around the car & Glenn was out looking at the property, it was dark by then, I was sure he was going to get sprayed when he returned   ).  Oh, yes, we have the wood rats, mice & gophers...   don't like them much - our cat Tobey used to get one of them everyday.  He still hasn't been back...   ... we have lots of deer who think my roses are delicious... they also get on the roof if we leave anything open at all... think that's about it.  Our goat, Cupcake, thought she was human, would follow us into the house, we had to put up gates... but we don't have her anymore due to unwelcome coyotes or a mountain lion.  

In the past Glenn has raised baby coyotes, a cat that was 1/2 bobcat,plus a myriad of exotic birds, tarantulas; I had a pet possum, ginko, cockateil (those were my son's), rats...

Keep up with the poems!  

[CREATIVE1]

Wow!  That's fantastic. We have lizards, and geckoes, too.  Buster the cat, a squirrel-juggler, finally got the bathroom lizard, but there are hundreds more. Geckoes scoot across the walls and ceilings at night like mini-acrobats.  The black snake is usually sunning at the foot of the stairs, and goes under the steps when Snapper the dog comes charging down to catch him (this has been going on for six years--smart snake).  Tree frogs in the bromeliads, battalions of racoons.  No cute mice, just big river rats. Fewer bats now--the city cited us for a "vine violation" and that's where they lived. No coyotes. Or goats.  One of dogs did make best friends with a river otter way back when, though--they played like maniacs.

We are moving to Washington, with bears and cougars as neighbors, oh my (no tigers).  This could become less cute.  But one of my fondest memories is of a cinnamon bear sitting in a field of yellow flowers in Sequoia National Park...

More poems to come---

[CREATIVE1]

A more thoughtful serious one this time, for all you "oldies but goodies" out there.  They pay poets 10 cents a dance, or send them a magazine for free, so I might as well share it this way.

You Can Just Sit Around

I mean you can just sit around
and wait for things to come to you
the universe entire did fit
inside the old man's hat after
all in the Buddhist mountain woods
in snyder's poems and everything
is really only you or you
are just the shadow of its light

or you can wander with the wind
and find stuff else you'd never see
without the crossing of boundaries
to meet the other beings in
the magic dream we are a part
of I remember lightning bugs
in constellations in the trees
a moon eclipse with coyotes

my very first swallowtailed kite
fly-dancing in the summer air
a silent fireball floating slow
over Appalachicola
riverbanks and I remember
talking to the Withlacoochee
river fawn and raven echoes
in the north rim canyon evening

wandering through crowds of people
I shake out my shoes find the gifts
tai chi chuan and dobro music
a useful knot a wonder poem
the way you jam a crack climbing
bent paddles for my old canoe
the way to touch how to be still
a ticket for the grateful dead

and wander on upon the spoor
of magic wonder seeking love
a piece of quartz the singing creek
the haloed moon a meteor
her dancing eyes by spring starlight
the sacred silence of the wild
until finally I go back home
and realize I never left

[Amanda_931]

OK.

(one of my favorite memories was sitting in the park across from City Lights bookstore back in 1963 reading Gary Snyder--was it Washington Park with a statue of Benjamin Franklin or vice versa?)

[CREATIVE1]

Here we go again, an original poem found nowhere else except this wide-ranging forum.

dreamings
like fishing
on infinity's shores

no bait
but ourselves
our heart on a hook

the catch
magical
beautiful mystery

[CREATIVE1]

Another one!



volkswagon camper bus
westphalia
with stove fridge closets
filled with packs
sleeping bags hatchet matches
rope and some paddles
                                 stuff
driving to work
asphalt streets concrete sidewalks
power lines
navigating right-angled streets
part of the pack
rubber-wheeled rooms
                                running
horizons of telephone poles
artificial factory clouds
robot traffic rivers
signs signs signs sighns
stop go turn
buybuybuy use this
                                 choose
camper bus in chains
looking for a tree the mountains
volkswagon domesticatus
tamed and neutered
dreaming of the hunt its
prey the streams hills flowers
                                 campfires
the driver plays freedom
music threads the city maze
hoping for the way out
a crystal in the ashtray
forgets to see the sky
a wrinkled map to get to the
                                  edge

[Sassy]

that poem brought back a lot of nostalgic memories, although I never had a VW bus, I used to camp a lot... and when I'm in the city now (some people don't even consider Fresno a city   too small) - I get the same feeling your poem evokes...

[CREATIVE1]

(I guess you can tell from the poetry that we're well beyond 20 years)


the sound of the slow thickness
within a honeylocust tree
should be (breeze and green)
the measure of time
                          not clocks
(tictictictictictictic)
let life measure my living