words in poetry
ball again
In an old story about Hoosiers and Jimmy and a coach and a team
A tired town tied its hopes upon some boys to live out lost dreams
Their season came close to the bottom; odds looked mighty razor-thin
Then Jimmy came back, said: “I think it’s time I started playin’ ball again.”
Before the Maker decides whether to kick us out or let us in
We best get ourselves off the bench and play some ball again
Robert Reich and our President warn us ‘bout the inequality of income
But the gap grows more cavernous between rich and poor and then some
They point out all the disparities and all their associated monetary sins
They’re just tryin’ their best to get us all to start playin’ ball again
Before the coroner decides it’s time to notify our next of kin
Maybe we better get back in shape and play some ball again
A few rich folks look to turn our lives into their own capitalist casino
Drunken power spins roulette wheels; where we can’t tell veritas from vino
Those Koch Brother types put us in a state like a dose of bad mescaline
Maybe we better all get off the couch and start playin’ ball again
Before the clergyman tells us it’s time to absolve all our sins
We can’t wait until the buzzer sounds to start playin’ ball again
sdr 4/11/2014
A tired town tied its hopes upon some boys to live out lost dreams
Their season came close to the bottom; odds looked mighty razor-thin
Then Jimmy came back, said: “I think it’s time I started playin’ ball again.”
Before the Maker decides whether to kick us out or let us in
We best get ourselves off the bench and play some ball again
Robert Reich and our President warn us ‘bout the inequality of income
But the gap grows more cavernous between rich and poor and then some
They point out all the disparities and all their associated monetary sins
They’re just tryin’ their best to get us all to start playin’ ball again
Before the coroner decides it’s time to notify our next of kin
Maybe we better get back in shape and play some ball again
A few rich folks look to turn our lives into their own capitalist casino
Drunken power spins roulette wheels; where we can’t tell veritas from vino
Those Koch Brother types put us in a state like a dose of bad mescaline
Maybe we better all get off the couch and start playin’ ball again
Before the clergyman tells us it’s time to absolve all our sins
We can’t wait until the buzzer sounds to start playin’ ball again
sdr 4/11/2014
1968
April 4
Cherokee Mamaw said
First light
Brought darkness
To the eyes
Whose tears turned them red
Gunshot roar
Grandson Okie said
Last night
Brought mourning
To the cries
On the eyes in my head
Nevermore
Television said
Last rites
Brought sorrow
To the ears
On the faces of our head
Forevermore
History book said
King’s fight
Brought justice
To the lies
Of the bones of the dead
sdr | 4/4/2013
Cherokee Mamaw said
First light
Brought darkness
To the eyes
Whose tears turned them red
Gunshot roar
Grandson Okie said
Last night
Brought mourning
To the cries
On the eyes in my head
Nevermore
Television said
Last rites
Brought sorrow
To the ears
On the faces of our head
Forevermore
History book said
King’s fight
Brought justice
To the lies
Of the bones of the dead
sdr | 4/4/2013
Aurora
Green sheer veils sometimes purple and red
An elusive sight and totally dependent on
What the sun wants her to do
She flirts hauntingly on internet images
Lifting up a colorful solar skirt for all to see
Making us all hot and bothered
Her beauty is not garden variety stuff
So she picks her exhibitionist times carefully
Then her striptease apparitions begin
She decides how much you’re going to see
And how you’re going to get to see her
She is always in complete control
And although images hatched in the viral airwaves
Make strong and lasting desktop impressions
Aurora has personal sexy beauty
She cannot pleasure her viewer any better
Than up close and very personal and with the
Strictest permission from daddy sun
sdr | 3/14/2013
An elusive sight and totally dependent on
What the sun wants her to do
She flirts hauntingly on internet images
Lifting up a colorful solar skirt for all to see
Making us all hot and bothered
Her beauty is not garden variety stuff
So she picks her exhibitionist times carefully
Then her striptease apparitions begin
She decides how much you’re going to see
And how you’re going to get to see her
She is always in complete control
And although images hatched in the viral airwaves
Make strong and lasting desktop impressions
Aurora has personal sexy beauty
She cannot pleasure her viewer any better
Than up close and very personal and with the
Strictest permission from daddy sun
sdr | 3/14/2013
Alaska winter
She braces her buxom white winter earthen breast skyward
Looks good bowing her delicious back slowly bit by bit
Just so she can show all the other mountainous locales
A place where beauty won't really care if it's a sunny day
Her veil be gray or blue the light will find your eyes spellbound
Raven presides over now wintry festivities often playfully
Keeping disorder in order to romanticize cold mystique
His crazed droning echoes drama on his frozen breath
sdr 11|12|2012
Looks good bowing her delicious back slowly bit by bit
Just so she can show all the other mountainous locales
A place where beauty won't really care if it's a sunny day
Her veil be gray or blue the light will find your eyes spellbound
Raven presides over now wintry festivities often playfully
Keeping disorder in order to romanticize cold mystique
His crazed droning echoes drama on his frozen breath
sdr 11|12|2012
Halloween
White pervasive blotches
Dot the October evening lawn
Here at the sunset never seen
It's cold but here they come
Tiny laughing monsters wander adrift into nights unseen
Breathing sugary sleep til morning yawn
Halloween
sdr |10/31/2012
Dot the October evening lawn
Here at the sunset never seen
It's cold but here they come
Tiny laughing monsters wander adrift into nights unseen
Breathing sugary sleep til morning yawn
Halloween
sdr |10/31/2012
Shell Games
Laid out wide open
Bared down to red flesh
The secrets now over
She runs from the nest
Soaring straight for the sun
No thought of hesitation
Chasing truth on the run
Toward her own destination
Her easy way of spelling
The firmament of minds
Steely, sharp, compelling
The most convincing kind
But the nuts had no shells
To carry out her illusion
Fully exposing themselves
And her deviant contusion
sdr | 10/31/2012
Bared down to red flesh
The secrets now over
She runs from the nest
Soaring straight for the sun
No thought of hesitation
Chasing truth on the run
Toward her own destination
Her easy way of spelling
The firmament of minds
Steely, sharp, compelling
The most convincing kind
But the nuts had no shells
To carry out her illusion
Fully exposing themselves
And her deviant contusion
sdr | 10/31/2012
RIVER
fishes, god and
buddah
stone is still stone
straight back to earth
animals to bones
alone with the
river
where water speaks
drowned out liars
washed out incompletes
ghost, devil and
jesus
fear is just fear
searching for a star
from far that is near
on the river's
shimmer
time cannot tell
the ferryman's oar
from pen in the well
currents, rocks and
water
not all in all
just past the end
past the waterfall
back into the
river
fall back midstream
is just life lived
in belief or in dream
sdr | 6/21/2011
fishes, god and
buddah
stone is still stone
straight back to earth
animals to bones
alone with the
river
where water speaks
drowned out liars
washed out incompletes
ghost, devil and
jesus
fear is just fear
searching for a star
from far that is near
on the river's
shimmer
time cannot tell
the ferryman's oar
from pen in the well
currents, rocks and
water
not all in all
just past the end
past the waterfall
back into the
river
fall back midstream
is just life lived
in belief or in dream
sdr | 6/21/2011
from the rays
driving a certain ridge top vista
between the spruce and cottonwood
look along low gleaming silver rivers
a long cold July day
restful birch leaves shyly shiver
from the casual raindrops falling
like they never dreamed they would
on cabin window panes
making the steep grade
it is just not always so easy now
going up and down the choices
all have to be made
so the sun peeks her hair
out to send the clouds
crying and running for cover
shelter from the rays
that's her answer for everything
for making everything right
so she always get there
in her sweet time of day
sdr | 2011
bones he got
ernie don't wear his bandana
for no one but sara
he's happiest when his head
is upside down
he got no cross-purpose
no strings attached
only bones he got for makin
come off his fish
ernie don't like my moccasins
he thinks they're savage
knows those slippers are
from his distant kind
he got crazy night glare
cross his eyes and whiskers
only bones he got for takin
left in his dish
sdr | 1/2011
for no one but sara
he's happiest when his head
is upside down
he got no cross-purpose
no strings attached
only bones he got for makin
come off his fish
ernie don't like my moccasins
he thinks they're savage
knows those slippers are
from his distant kind
he got crazy night glare
cross his eyes and whiskers
only bones he got for takin
left in his dish
sdr | 1/2011
southbound drain
lacier
ice fields crisscross
heaving up
slow and frozen
drunk with beauty
cracking with pain
water
downstream echoes
pounding up
white water roars
canyons of gravity
southbound drain
ocean
blue lost horizon
heaving lunar
tide slow roll
mantra of the sea
breathing refrain
sdr | 1/2011
ice fields crisscross
heaving up
slow and frozen
drunk with beauty
cracking with pain
water
downstream echoes
pounding up
white water roars
canyons of gravity
southbound drain
ocean
blue lost horizon
heaving lunar
tide slow roll
mantra of the sea
breathing refrain
sdr | 1/2011
gate spring
twang
out on the high plains
stretched out old gate spring
once long young days
made lazy a quick pulse
after the blades stop turning
once the combine engines stop
and the grain elevator closes
dust and tumbleweeds blow
a rusty gate spring twangs
old man
weathered in wheat dust
makes a rusty gate spring twang
sandy sidewalk slow shuffle
hogs and chickens grunt and cluck
after the blades stopped turning
and the combine engines stopped
and the grain elevator closed
tumbleweed memories still blow
a rusty gate spring twangs
sdr | 12/2010
out on the high plains
stretched out old gate spring
once long young days
made lazy a quick pulse
after the blades stop turning
once the combine engines stop
and the grain elevator closes
dust and tumbleweeds blow
a rusty gate spring twangs
old man
weathered in wheat dust
makes a rusty gate spring twang
sandy sidewalk slow shuffle
hogs and chickens grunt and cluck
after the blades stopped turning
and the combine engines stopped
and the grain elevator closed
tumbleweed memories still blow
a rusty gate spring twangs
sdr | 12/2010
scratch and back
ants with ultraviolet vision see
half-life saver
somebody gotta build the pyramids
puffing out a phoney
treasury chest
a symbiotic relationship
scratch and back
somebody gotta build the pyramids
clearinghouse casino cassanova
always know best
sdr | 12/2010
raven machinations
in a hard land north
snowflakes prevailed
in the dark and
veiled constellations
piled high at light
on a wingspan north
black feathers sailed
a vast parkland
no designation
against a cold white
a joker holds forth
skies blue derailed
crass remarks and
machinations
he dances with delight
raven dances with delight
sdr | 12/12/10
snowflakes prevailed
in the dark and
veiled constellations
piled high at light
on a wingspan north
black feathers sailed
a vast parkland
no designation
against a cold white
a joker holds forth
skies blue derailed
crass remarks and
machinations
he dances with delight
raven dances with delight
sdr | 12/12/10
Nightline of Meadows
I knew a man
Sang like a willow blows
I knew a man
Lived like a willow blows
Put a nail in his arm
And the willow blows
I knew a man
Lived like a willow blows
On a bright line of meadows
A willow blows
I knew a man
Sang like a willow blows
I knew a man
Lived like a willow blows
The craft in the hands
And the willow blows
On a nightline of meadows
A willow blows
sdr | 11/11/2010
We Drove Away
I keep asking Gene Rayburn
About a cast iron skillet morning
Could he remember
After a whole pint and a half later
A high blue-black Kansas sky
We drove away
Sandy dust in our teeth
Tracks from worn out mud and snows
Green 53 Jimmy
Dust and jokers to go
Little mama's pudding habit
Can't stop us from rolling
Over a gift-wrapped low bar
We can't see no empirical visions
In that unabiding god-forsaken dawn
Dirty fingers of his workday
Wrapped tight around the wheel
Our wheels were rolling
Down ruts in the sagebrush
Past the barbed wire and city lights
We drove away
Tumbleweeds in a memory
Past the supervescent, gelid squalor
Old Jimmy five-window
Dust and jokers to go
I keep asking Gene Rayburn
Can he remember
About a cast-iron skillet morning
When our wheels were rolling
How could he not remember that
Blue-black Kansas dawn
sdr | 11/11/2010
About a cast iron skillet morning
Could he remember
After a whole pint and a half later
A high blue-black Kansas sky
We drove away
Sandy dust in our teeth
Tracks from worn out mud and snows
Green 53 Jimmy
Dust and jokers to go
Little mama's pudding habit
Can't stop us from rolling
Over a gift-wrapped low bar
We can't see no empirical visions
In that unabiding god-forsaken dawn
Dirty fingers of his workday
Wrapped tight around the wheel
Our wheels were rolling
Down ruts in the sagebrush
Past the barbed wire and city lights
We drove away
Tumbleweeds in a memory
Past the supervescent, gelid squalor
Old Jimmy five-window
Dust and jokers to go
I keep asking Gene Rayburn
Can he remember
About a cast-iron skillet morning
When our wheels were rolling
How could he not remember that
Blue-black Kansas dawn
sdr | 11/11/2010
Lantern and Lunchbox
bones of miners
breathed a sigh of relief
a hole punched through
to the other end
through the dust of old bones
that the company owned
long turned to ash
the hammers in hand
lantern and lunchbox
all that remain
picks and shovels
jarring echoes chorus
sonics in a shaft
keep digging deeper
for more holes of hope
sdr | 11/11/2010
breathed a sigh of relief
a hole punched through
to the other end
through the dust of old bones
that the company owned
long turned to ash
the hammers in hand
lantern and lunchbox
all that remain
picks and shovels
jarring echoes chorus
sonics in a shaft
keep digging deeper
for more holes of hope
sdr | 11/11/2010
The Long Now
Sun
Fights sleep
Summer vigil
The long bright here
Riding a zenith
Toward darkness
Dark
Sleep fights
Winter nocturn
The long dark here
Freezing auroras
Toward the light
Time
A ten-thousand year clock
Without hands
Slowly winds backward
To go forward toward tomorrow
In the long now
sdr | 07/28/2010
Fights sleep
Summer vigil
The long bright here
Riding a zenith
Toward darkness
Dark
Sleep fights
Winter nocturn
The long dark here
Freezing auroras
Toward the light
Time
A ten-thousand year clock
Without hands
Slowly winds backward
To go forward toward tomorrow
In the long now
sdr | 07/28/2010
Breakwater Line
Out past the breakwater line
Where the boil and chop aswirl
Sea mist explodes to vapor
In the nautical hazard churn
Gulls adjust their wind wings
To compensate their climb
This bone yard for good sailors
Knows not credit lines
The harbor is gone off distant
Its lights grow dim astern
The sounds of people faded
Only echoes now are heard
She takes the spray head on
Her fears are yet unknown
All she ever yearned for
Was to make way on her own
First break rains down her deck
Her sheets are thrown aloft
She takes her first tall step
Out past the craggy rock
For all the preparations
And champagne bottle burst
She now must prove up worthy
The voyage is her first
And the lady that she be
She strokes the sea to sleep
And tames the waterline
No matter how tall or steep
She listens to her captain
And says her prayers at night
She sets course for future seas
Out past the breakwater line
sdr | 29 March 2010
Kodiak Island Alaska
Where the boil and chop aswirl
Sea mist explodes to vapor
In the nautical hazard churn
Gulls adjust their wind wings
To compensate their climb
This bone yard for good sailors
Knows not credit lines
The harbor is gone off distant
Its lights grow dim astern
The sounds of people faded
Only echoes now are heard
She takes the spray head on
Her fears are yet unknown
All she ever yearned for
Was to make way on her own
First break rains down her deck
Her sheets are thrown aloft
She takes her first tall step
Out past the craggy rock
For all the preparations
And champagne bottle burst
She now must prove up worthy
The voyage is her first
And the lady that she be
She strokes the sea to sleep
And tames the waterline
No matter how tall or steep
She listens to her captain
And says her prayers at night
She sets course for future seas
Out past the breakwater line
sdr | 29 March 2010
Kodiak Island Alaska
Jewish Cowboy in Black
I’d just been out runnin’ in the early Hill Country heat
Smell of the Texas summer mornin’ still, quiet and sweet
On a Kerrville hotel sidewalk in a trail of cigar smoke
A face caught my eye and somethin’ familiar in me awoke
I walked past the man in flip-flops, with coffee in each hand
Stopped straight dead in my tracks like I’d been hit by a fryin’ pan
We both spun around face-to-face like pistoliers in a duel
He chomped down on his Cuban, took a swig of thick black gruel
I said “You’re Kinky Friedman, the Jewish Cowboy in black”
He said “guilty as charged” as he laughed and sat down his sack
We talked about Utopia and all the animals he’s saved
And Cousin Nancy and Tony and the love they always gave
He asked me how a transplant Okie could know so much of the man
I told him I read Texas Monthly, I’ve read your books and I’m a fan
We talked of life’s second chances and how little money means
Conditional love, sleepless nights and mysteries of unanswered dreams
He welcomed me inside his world; had me come out to his rescue ranch
With McGoo and Brownie at our sides, we hauled off some rank old trash
We talked about a storyline for a book he’d been workin’ on
About a missin’ boy named Dylan and how they searched for him so long
If you’ve never been to Utopia, you should get down that Texas way
The Hill Country beauty is somethin’ special each and every single day
It’s a magical experience; it burned a smile within my heart
That will stay with me a lifetime no matter how far we’re apart
Kinky don’t have to be governor to give Texas eternal hope
He does it through good deeds and his humorous tongue-in-cheek jokes
If you can’t get down to Utopia, just find its beauty inside your heart
Adopt unconditional fur-covered love, give yourself a brand new start
sdr | kodiak island | 2010
Smell of the Texas summer mornin’ still, quiet and sweet
On a Kerrville hotel sidewalk in a trail of cigar smoke
A face caught my eye and somethin’ familiar in me awoke
I walked past the man in flip-flops, with coffee in each hand
Stopped straight dead in my tracks like I’d been hit by a fryin’ pan
We both spun around face-to-face like pistoliers in a duel
He chomped down on his Cuban, took a swig of thick black gruel
I said “You’re Kinky Friedman, the Jewish Cowboy in black”
He said “guilty as charged” as he laughed and sat down his sack
We talked about Utopia and all the animals he’s saved
And Cousin Nancy and Tony and the love they always gave
He asked me how a transplant Okie could know so much of the man
I told him I read Texas Monthly, I’ve read your books and I’m a fan
We talked of life’s second chances and how little money means
Conditional love, sleepless nights and mysteries of unanswered dreams
He welcomed me inside his world; had me come out to his rescue ranch
With McGoo and Brownie at our sides, we hauled off some rank old trash
We talked about a storyline for a book he’d been workin’ on
About a missin’ boy named Dylan and how they searched for him so long
If you’ve never been to Utopia, you should get down that Texas way
The Hill Country beauty is somethin’ special each and every single day
It’s a magical experience; it burned a smile within my heart
That will stay with me a lifetime no matter how far we’re apart
Kinky don’t have to be governor to give Texas eternal hope
He does it through good deeds and his humorous tongue-in-cheek jokes
If you can’t get down to Utopia, just find its beauty inside your heart
Adopt unconditional fur-covered love, give yourself a brand new start
sdr | kodiak island | 2010
Under Foot
Clean scent in a foreign southern nose
A crunch grinds under foot
Raven dances with showoff glee
In all white and otherwise ear-ringing silence
sdr
Between 2 Breakfasts
Glacial streams
Eagle screams
A town filled with golden Hope
They rolled a little blueberry dope
Pace was slower
Humpback’s wet blown stream shower
Trout’s life ending and beginning push
Night never comes
Beer flow runs
Woman’s unending ratchet of lingual noise
Twice came unexpected
Against all odds relief
Shortened by the limits allowed
The brief distance
Between 2 breakfasts
by Matt Mace
Eagle screams
A town filled with golden Hope
They rolled a little blueberry dope
Pace was slower
Humpback’s wet blown stream shower
Trout’s life ending and beginning push
Night never comes
Beer flow runs
Woman’s unending ratchet of lingual noise
Twice came unexpected
Against all odds relief
Shortened by the limits allowed
The brief distance
Between 2 breakfasts
by Matt Mace
Empty Vessel
An e vessel
He was so much more
But that was before
Skin on brown knees glow
Covered tonight with a nautical throw
Skin that mattered once
But that was before
Now it’s just brown paint
Coats on the sedan
Not part of the man
But like a coat on a sedan
The vessel continues fading
No matter how he suns
All the light is artificial
True light he once knew
Made him a man
Magic light once his rock
Haunts him with the ticking clock
And now he can’t tell time
As he searches for white mustangs
He finds only white pelicans
Motionless on abandoned pilings
Like unfinished sentences
Spoken in an unknown language
Awash in eternal anguish
The vessel searches for redemption
His feeble attempt at silence
Cannot shun the light
True light not of Earth
Magic light not of time
Transcends mere chance passing
Their fires remain everlasting
The vessel, recalls the man
Was so much more
But that was before
sdr
kemah texas
He was so much more
But that was before
Skin on brown knees glow
Covered tonight with a nautical throw
Skin that mattered once
But that was before
Now it’s just brown paint
Coats on the sedan
Not part of the man
But like a coat on a sedan
The vessel continues fading
No matter how he suns
All the light is artificial
True light he once knew
Made him a man
Magic light once his rock
Haunts him with the ticking clock
And now he can’t tell time
As he searches for white mustangs
He finds only white pelicans
Motionless on abandoned pilings
Like unfinished sentences
Spoken in an unknown language
Awash in eternal anguish
The vessel searches for redemption
His feeble attempt at silence
Cannot shun the light
True light not of Earth
Magic light not of time
Transcends mere chance passing
Their fires remain everlasting
The vessel, recalls the man
Was so much more
But that was before
sdr
kemah texas
Stardust Memories
Stains of stardust memories
Strides of strained reason
Stages of insensitivity
Staples in the heel bone
Stretching the sabers
Starved of sobriety
Starstruck by the invitation
Steeped in social awareness
Staying under the radar
Strapped into determination
Staging the sequences
Stipulating to situations
Stabilizing its transmission
Staffing the project
Stoning their Salem witches
Stigmatizing his rumination
Standing up edgewise
Starved for symbolism
Startled by conscience
Stolen from sleep
Stated in a memo
Stuck on formulas
Stained by the stardust
sdr
Strides of strained reason
Stages of insensitivity
Staples in the heel bone
Stretching the sabers
Starved of sobriety
Starstruck by the invitation
Steeped in social awareness
Staying under the radar
Strapped into determination
Staging the sequences
Stipulating to situations
Stabilizing its transmission
Staffing the project
Stoning their Salem witches
Stigmatizing his rumination
Standing up edgewise
Starved for symbolism
Startled by conscience
Stolen from sleep
Stated in a memo
Stuck on formulas
Stained by the stardust
sdr
All That Mean
Quaking, quacking quandaries of a
Quaffed, quelling, quintessential Queen
What on green Earth
Does all that mean?
Ramparts of remembrances and robust
Royalties, racking up record remunerations
What in market forces
Does all that mean?
Backstabbing bankrupt bystanders
Bound to blissful basement bombardiers
What on CNN
Does all that mean?
Fleeting, foaming folic female
Face fucking furiously familiar
What on my computer
Does all that mean?
Sensuous, subliminal sorcery, sacrificing
Serious situational salvation
What in faith
Does all that mean?
Devoted doorsteps, developing dastardly,
Dubious, death-defying drama
What on TV
Does all that mean?
Hyperbolized hysteria, heaped upon
Homebound, harried humans
What in my newspaper
Does all that mean?
sdr
Quaffed, quelling, quintessential Queen
What on green Earth
Does all that mean?
Ramparts of remembrances and robust
Royalties, racking up record remunerations
What in market forces
Does all that mean?
Backstabbing bankrupt bystanders
Bound to blissful basement bombardiers
What on CNN
Does all that mean?
Fleeting, foaming folic female
Face fucking furiously familiar
What on my computer
Does all that mean?
Sensuous, subliminal sorcery, sacrificing
Serious situational salvation
What in faith
Does all that mean?
Devoted doorsteps, developing dastardly,
Dubious, death-defying drama
What on TV
Does all that mean?
Hyperbolized hysteria, heaped upon
Homebound, harried humans
What in my newspaper
Does all that mean?
sdr
Lady In Waiting
Silver jetstream goliaths criss-cross contrails
Under deep blue overpass of invisible highways
Unknown destinations with false intervals of certainty
Launch roaring at wispy westward headwinds
Into a sinking silver sun; an elusive pursuit of time
Travelling toward today, fast away from tomorrow
Temporary passengers in a futile race to own today
While running from tomorrow - their lady in waiting
sdr