Last year I tried an experiment where I posted a poem every single day…for the entire year. It was interesting. I did it simply to see if I could. Of course I could, who was I kidding…I have what might be called oral diarrhea…I am VERY expressive (this is the polite representation).

Today it occurred to me to try the opposite…which I expect to be harder. I am going to take a year off blog posting. Why not? If it is more difficult as I expect then perhaps it will build some muscles I never knew I had – like self-restraint, silence, etc. I believe, for many reasons, this will be a worthy exercise in self-discipline. I hope to be better for it.

The skies may be grey

They press down upon this day

But i

I can see beyond the dark

To the clear blue above it all

Sometimes

Sometimes I can wing

To the hidden sunshine

That holds me in thrall

That surrounds us all

And it is warm like your eyes

Beholding beauty

As a pleasant, welcome surprise…

So

So these may be foreboding skies

But i

I can see beyond the dark

To the clear blue above it all

Where all the heaviest things

Have become so happily small.

I don’t know why but this is so beautiful.

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My column in this week’s Winkler Morden Voice and Altona Rhineland Voice newspapers.

The complexity

Of his sweet simplicity

Brings me quiet peace

My heart is a woman

Leaning from her window

On a hot summer’s sun

Pondering a geranium

Across the alley

And the absence of god

She thought would leave room

For new, exciting things

But they all just fall

Through a hole in her heart

Which makes her laugh

At the absurdity of this world

And the fool of a man

Asleep in her bedroom

Tired with the fullness

Of one who receives

But doesn’t know how to give

And so she laughs

And so she withdraws

To a corner hidden from the sky

To avoid the temptation to try

To stretch her tired arms and fly

To a place where one can cry

Because what’s the point

When you’ve got work

And the day to day to day to day

To pass the time until you are away

One last time

Just one sliver of truth

Is all it would take

And I would reach through the sky

To pull the crushing moon down

In great grey killing rocks

Wiping the earth clean of pain

Just a sliver…

If not for the tether

That roots me to this earth

I would drift away

Fly into the sky

And off to cold space

I can feel this sick lightness

Hidden within my gut

Selling to pull me up

Up and away

There are people who have sacred places

These places meant for certain faces

For soft and gentle wild embraces

Where there can be no other traces

These secret, hidden, and misty places

Fantasy realms made of dream

Destined to fade as time erases

And life outpaces

Even the fastest of the graces

Who seek to sustain the impossible

Against all that is plausible.