Finally, a discussion on one of my favoritest topics: Hats! There are all types, as many as there are varieties of birds. But don’t quote me on that because I haven’t counted either. What? Speak up! I hate when my mind mumbles. Does yours ever do that? Extremely irritating. Some people have heart murmurs. It’s probably just as annoying. Okay, I’m listening! Sorry, you’ll have to talk louder! And enunciate! I can’t understand your gibberish! You’re right, it might help if I quit shouting. This isn’t about hats you say? Well then, I must’ve misunderstood. That’s easy to do when deciphering brainwaves. They get crossed like wires then muddled or fried. Which is why I seldom follow my own advice. It’s rather unsound. Plus I like to think for myself, even if I fail to pay attention. I guess that makes me ill-advised.
If this isn’t about hats, I’d best get on with writing a poem. There’s no point in my lingering to make statements that have nothing to do with jester caps, berets, stovepipes, brims or bowlers. Who would bother listening? Certainly not I.
And another thing: I really must speak to myself sometime about slapping titles up there that are apt to confuse. It’s bad enough if you’re confused. If I’m confused, forget it. There will be no making sense of anything whatsoever on this page. And if nothing makes sense, the words can simply run amok and merge together until the page turns black. Without the white, you’ll be staring at the opposite of a blank page! I suppose you thought that would be a page with something on it, didn’t you? A common misconception. A black page has everything on it — so much that you can’t see anything in particular!
Writing is a delicate balance of the black and the white. At some point, for some reason, you’re expected to make sense. Unless you choose to write nonsense, which makes a lovely excuse for this being as vacuous as most of the prattle I rattle off before writing these poems. I start typing and the words roll from my tongue through my fingertips. Sometimes they dribble or drool and my keyboard starts smoking, but never mind that. There must be a connection between hand and mouth. Oh yes, it’s called a neck. And shoulders. I wouldn’t want you to think I was missing those. A set of arms also, since my hands couldn’t be scurrying around loose! (Correction: They might were this a horror story. One might’ve freed the other so they could both escape, leaving a red trail of fingerprints. As well as an author who would have to learn to type with her nose!)
My writing, on the other hand — or nostril — is delicately unbalanced. It has a mind of its own and does what it pleases. When I say it speaks for itself, I mean that literally. Do not be deceived, however. The unruliness of my writing is cunningly calculated; premeditated. In its defense, please note that there is a difference between knowing the rules and deliberately breaking them or not knowing the rules. My writing knows what it’s doing. Therefore, despite appearances to the contrary, it isn’t criminally insane.
Grrrr, I’m getting déjà vu. Now I’ll have to worry I’ve said all of this before. I hate that!
My brain is muttering again. Eh? All right, all right, back to the poetry. Something to do with “hatitude”, whatever that is. Maybe it’s something to do with hate. I guess I’ll write a poem about that too, just in case. And whatever else spills out. I’m really only the janitor, left to swab and blot the ink so there actually is a little white space between.
What’s that? Why don’t I cease babbling then? I thought you’d never ask. Not you. My cerebrum. This is all so confusing. Let me just shut this thing off. There. Much better. Now I can hear myself think. Except I can’t think because I shut off my brain. Houston, we have a paradox!
No matter. I don’t need to think to write. It just sorta happens. Wait for it. Wait for it . . .
HATITUDE
I wonder, as I will
Out of idle curiosity
That if hatitude is an attitude
Then despising tardiness
And hating to be late
Must be your latitude
Thusly, would liking to take long
Be someone’s longitude?
Or is it aiming for great heights?
Is gratitude that you are grating
Platitude that you have plating?
Does magnitude imply that magnets may have gunfights?
When guests neglect to wipe their feet
Do they have a welcome-matitude?
I confess it’s quite abstruse
How then could hatitude
Have naught but aught to do with hats?
These thoughts may give my brain a bruise!
I’m in a bratitude of dratitude
So what is hatitude?
Is it happy as a clam or as scoldish as a gull?
A hateful sentiment or a placid loving mood?
Might it growl at me or purr?
Is it anything or the nothingness of null?
I don’t know but I can tell you
I won’t use it in a sentence
I can’t tell if the first vowel’s hard or soft
I’m going to leave it where I found it
Put it back where it belongs
I merely stumbled ’cross it rummaging aloft
But on reflection, in retraction
On categoric irrevelation
Please don’t listen to a single word I’ve said
Because it’s obviously apparent
My hatitude is exactly thatitude —
It’s as plain as is the hat upon my head!
HATE
The vile ooze of enmity
Spreads slippery as oil
Infects like a virus
Heats blood to a boil
Permeates every island
Contamines all land
The air that we share
Each granule of sand
The bacterium of dislike
Leaps from one to another
Contagious as germs
Causing loudmouths to wuther
In the ocean of wrath
Tides crescendo and rage
Sea monsters will lash
Storms of warfare do wage
And innocent suffer
The belligerent fire
Of multitudes clashing
Teeth gnashing with ire
When animosity flows
Understandings will miss
While envy invades
The respectful may diss
We are none of us safe
Though self-righteously clad
High in our castles
Far from the mad
For indifferent acts
Carry consequence too
No, we can’t turn away
From what others may do
Every tumult is based
On the tenet of Hate
Which we among us must conquer
Before it’s too late.
MY CORNER
Here I find the peace
In a pastel sunset on a satisfying day
A walk on the shoreline
Of a gloomy tranquil bay
Down the aisle of a forest
’Long a trail of dappled light
Though I sit in a corner
This isn’t where I write
I am free to record
My cadent steps down a cobbled avenue
The huff of my breath
As I hike Timbuktu
Impressions of Paris
Idle roamings through Rome
Explorations of London
Coming home to Stockholm
I can dream of my past
Timbered routes, Saint Germain
Wisconsin’s red barns
Treasured fragments remain
From my corner I journey
To such places afar
Those I’ve seen, those imagined
Some that once left a scar
I was trapped in that corner
’Mongst the dust in my head
A chill sunless dungeon
Where my heart was unfed
There I waited for release
When the outward crept inside
Things felt very wrong
So I wanted to hide
In my corner of the world
No more a place of isolation
I can touch other hearts
Calm the rise of desperation
I can reach across oceans
Beyond summits, over sand
Connect every corner
And share where I stand
We all have our niches
A sheltered cranny or nook
To find safety and refuge
Perhaps in a book
Perhaps as the reader
Huddled cozy and tight
We all have our callings
One of mine is to write
From my little corner
Of a cabin or tent
In a canyon or cave
On a sea or ascent
Wherever I am I am everywhere else
In the shade of a tree or even a tomb
I am no longer confined
By the walls of a room.
ODE TO THE ELEPHANT AND WHALE
Arbor-legged, wrinkled knee
Long-nosed trumpeters of the plain
My heart is moved by your harmony
And yearns to commune again
Sleek-bodied nimble waterphants
Your presence swells the seas with pride
My eyes embrace your ballet dance
The mermaid beauty in your glide
I can’t comprehend how beast or man
Could fail to be touched by the likes of these
Would lack the awe, the mental span
To appreciate such qualities
Both creatures claim the noblest stare
Of tender intelligence, untold virtue
Yet men have sought without a care
To hunt them till they’re through
Some bravehearts place their lives at stake
For the sake of these gigantic souls
Whose presence we can’t for granted take
We have taken too many tolls
If you’ve ever gazed into one’s eye
You know just what I mean
And why the human race must try
To end the massacrin’
Such graceful goliaths are a gift
Whose existence we must defend
Without them our lives would be unshrift
Like abandoning a friend
Whether great or small, every life has worth
In ways that cannot be counted
For these natural wonders of the Earth
Will never be surmounted
We surrender by degrees each day
But will never know how much we’ve lost
We can’t let the biggest slip away
However great its cost
May the untamed spirit proudly thrive
And the chorus of humankind enjoin
That we value everything alive
More than the glitter of the coin.
LET THE WILD ROAM FREE
You can hear it in the wind
A song of release
The shouts of jubilation
From the voices of geese
A flutter of wings
Brisk stamping of feet
A lonesome salute
As two mooses meet
The roarings of bears
A crashing of horn
The thrum of small insects
On a wilderness morn
Let the wild roam free
Let everything be
This is my plea
Let the wild roam free
It’s the task of each nation
To walk with respect
Limit their cities
What is unruled protect
The task of each people
Preserve Nature’s child
Don’t pick every fruit
Let seeds grow wild
Don’t pave every path
Don’t cage what survives
Let the wild roam free
For all of their lives
Let the wild roam free
Let be what must be
Remember this plea
Let the wild roam free
If we don’t understand
We cannot transcend
The unthinking damage
We must now amend
Give the land back its hope
Give the sea back its health
For this is our treasure
In this is our wealth
There is no greater jewel
Than the raindrops or tears
That fall from the skies
From the eyes of the years
Deep in our core
We all know it is true
It is everyone’s mission
And everyone’s due
It is our common glory
But a mutual blame
To let others extinguish
The natural flame
No city is greater
No kingdom as old
As the order of Nature
Yet its balance we hold
Let the wild roam free
Please listen to me
Let everything be
Let the wild roam free.
HAWK-EYED
How stunted I feel
Without feathers to sail
High above Life
Confined to land like a jail
Oh sure I could fly
In a big hunk of steel
Confined to a chair
No air would I feel
Except reconditioned
Puffed out of a vent
Poked by neighboring elbows
That’s not what I meant
I would be in the belly
Of a large metal bird
Not free to maneuver
Just part of the herd
At the moment I’d rather
Soar free as a dove
To spiral and dance
In the air high above
An eagle or falcon
A fearless skydiver
Agile and bold
No subtle conniver
Like a surge of adrenaline
Keens the hawk’s daring note
Sturdy wings outstretched
Vibrant song in its throat
Being borne through the air
In a plunge of rash bravado
Sighting preciser details
Than my poor gaze can know
As if spying the future
With its hawk-eyed perspective
Or tracing fine clues
Like a winged detective
A bit haughty at times
Yet a riveting sight
I could watch all day
A hawk in flight
And dream of the clouds
My feet on the ground
Perhaps in the end
I will be heaven-bound.
OF A SUMMER’S DAY
An orange-bellied robin of youth
Swept me away
To the carefree untroubled countenance
Of a gentle summer’s day
My soles and limbs were bared
Fringed cut-offs a bit uneven
The smile of innocence still in place
My single sorrow the thought of leavin’
Can we ever return to such rapturous hours?
Be filled by the emptiness till we overflow?
Recapture that sense of the immensity lost
In the tiniest things — where did it go?
Idle moments when we had the leisure
To feel happier than we knew
Than we can ever find again
Somewhere scattered in the crystal dew
Of a summer’s day
Before the heat makes it disappear
Ere we could grasp
What seemed perfect and clear
For just one more second
If I could but hold
That ethereal thought and fragrant waft
Of a summer day . . . grown cold.
THE INNER WORKINGS OF AN OVER-WOUND CLOCK
Sproing! A spring has sprung and hickory dickory, tickety tock
I am feeling amiss like an over-wound clock
Coming unraveled, my notions in kinks
Rather cuckoo, ring-dingy, a tad broken methinks!
I must be repaired but oh where can I go?
A clock-mender? Watch-tender? I simply don’t know!
In my turbulent way I am asking for aid
Though it isn’t my habit to act needy, unmade
Within my innermost workings I tend to be taut
My pieces aligned, gears faltering not
Why then am I off, my seconds too fast?
My hours a mite slow, my minutes a bit past?
Can anything be done, can this off’nse be righted?
My poor springs be loosened, the tension untighted?
Or am I destined to remain in an overwrought state?
Too wound up and high-strung? Will that be my fate?
Am I crazy or what? Tell the truth, I can take it
Would my offness be fixed if somebody should shake it?
How alarming to think I might never be on time
Either early or late in my hourly chime
That I’m stuck with this status until I run down
Winder too rusted, hands and face in a frown
A deplorable end for a stalwart timekeeper
If buying a new clock turns out to be cheaper
Or if my off-ense results in a draw
And can ne’er be adjusted, an irreparable flaw
But maybe I’m better off out of my mind
Exotic, quixotic, one of a kind
Perhaps I’m not damaged, just peculiar or strange
I might try being happy being off for a change.