When I was young

Memories  of my green years
Return with a smile
Now that the rush of the day is done:

Fireflies dancing on an early June night
to a chorus of cricket song,
a hot summer afternoon skinny dipping
and the water running ‘tween my toes,
picking blueberries for a pie,
crushing autumn leaves
and watching fragments fall,
rain pattering the roof,
the smell of tobacco curing in a barn,
snow ball fights and snow ice cream,
a sleigh ride on a New Year’s Eve,
biking countryside on a spring morning,
lying on a field of Kentucky bluegrass

in those Tom Sawyer days
of white picket fences
and Huck Finn following the river.

And oh, the childhood friends:
Cinderella off to a ball,
Jack and a beanstalk climb,
Snow White with her seven friends,
Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road,
Peter Pan and the Lost Boys
making Captain Hook cry,
Robin Hood facing down the Sheriff,
Poe at the midnight hour,
Roy Rogers astride Trigger,
Long John Silver finding treasure,
Tarzan swinging branch to branch
swimming across a jungle sky,

And Sherwood Forest,
Neverland and Oz
as swell as swell can be.

Looking around

They say he crawled out from under a rock.
He looked around and took him some stock.
“Maybe I’ll stay and give it a knock,”
he said and then made off in a trot
To see the sights never to be forgot:
Four seasons and time without a clock,
Snow and the green, the cold and the hot,
Rivers, mountains and all within eyeshot,
Roses, daisies and forget-me-nots,
Lions, tigers, leopards and all that lot,
Kittens, cubs and faun ready to be taught,
Robbins, sparrows and birds that mock,
Horses wild and peacocks that strut.
All in all a pleasant place to flop.
So he did.

Sun, yellow sun

Sun, yellow Sun
Chase the dark away
Open the morning curtains
Give us another day

Sun, yellow Sun
Part the sea of clouds
Flowers bend hello
The oak stands unbowed

Sun, yellow Sun
Bright above our heads
Your children, the robins
Their songs sunlight fed

Sun, yellow Sun
Pass the noonday line
Shadows on your trail
Done with morning’s climb

Sun, yellow Sun
Sinking into bed
Day closed behind you
Your footprints orange and red

Sun, yellow Sun
Asleep for a time
Slip off into dreamland
Let Moon complete the rhyme.

micropoem of the day: the lizard

The other day I took my morning coffee out on the back porch. It was a pretty good day to meditate. Get my groove back. The birds were singing up a storm. If you looked up “nice day” in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of this particular day. Azaleas were blossoming like crazy. Acting like they own the world. There was even a butterfly or two. I looked over. There looking at me eye to eye was a lizard. He looked like he didn’t have a care in the world. Then I noticed.

a lizard, no tail
green thread against the wall
a tail, no lizard.

micropoem for the day: daisy

This one came about one day when I was rushing out to my car. I was running a bit late for work. So, here I am go-go-go. Grab my lunch and head out the door. Hurry to the car. Popped open the trunk. Threw my lunch and my bag in. Shut the trunk. Unlock my door. Pull it open and go to sit in the front seat. Just as I did, I looked across the yard and there it was. A daisy. This little fellow all by its lonesome, waving at me in the breeze, letting me know that it was spring. I stopped what I was doing and walked over and was reminded of e e cummings’ line, “i thank heaven someone is crazy enough to give me a daisy.” Here was nature trying to give me a daisy. I was glad and stopped and spent the next five minutes looking at that there daisy. She was a pretty lady.

a daisy
five white petals and a yellow disc
on a patch of grass