NaPoWriMo Poem #10 of 30
Changes
It changes you-
when someone
takes your full heart
far, far away-
on a ride
down a distant road
to see the stars
and leaves you there
to walk all the way back
to reality by yourself
It changes you.

NaPoWriMo Poem #10 of 30
It changes you-
when someone
takes your full heart
far, far away-
on a ride
down a distant road
to see the stars
and leaves you there
to walk all the way back
to reality by yourself
It changes you.

#9 of 30 poems in 30 days
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Actually,
I’m good with weird
Weird finds me
wherever I go
It follows me
like a stray cat
And brings me presents
from the hunt
Weird calls to ask
if I can do
something
I’ve never done before
And I say.
Yeah. Sure. Why not?
Weird asks me to give a talk
on some weird thing I’m doing
because someone else
wants to know
how it works.
And sometimes weird
hands me a ticket
to somewhere
I didn’t even know
I wanted to go
and when I get there,
it’s exactly where I needed to be.
You see,
If you don’t second guess weird
when it comes looking for you
You will find yourself somewhere wonderful
You will find yourself somewhere
You will find yourself
I am good with weird
○○○○○

National Poetry Writing Month. Poem #8 of 30.
♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

I stand now-
In this older body
Calling down the years
To when the grand dream was new
And the people came to celebrate
In the beauty of that time
It was a thing of wonder
To have your life more in front of you than behind
And to risk everything for love
It was worth it
Just to have stood on that earth
In that moment
With a crazy brave heart
Shouting out
To the horizon-
Yes!
Island of Dreams
Reluctance weighs me down
when light dances
through my happy eyelids
Each bothering moment
pulls me farther
from my safe nest
Where everything works
Where all things are calm
and I am walking
In places where ones
who are no longer here
sit with me a moment
and the empty place inside
Fills once again with their warm light
This safe nest of quilts …
pillows angled properly to hold me
like true love-
where my best answers await
where the cuts from sharp words heal
Where my heart rests
and renews its vow
to bring me through another day
My solitude
My small kingdom
My tiny cottage-
Some days- I can hardly wait
to use my return nightly ticket
to my very own
Island of dreams

Poem 6 of 30… Haiku
Simple Solution
How clear it was when
You said … just change completely
Then – I can love you

NaPoWriMo Challenge-
30 poems in 30 days. Day Five. This is a Ten Word Poem.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Old Friend
I saw your life-
beautiful
wild
dreaming
before you changed

Pedestrian Ballet
Steel and glass
Give way to brief glances
Of shimmering water
And concrete corridors
Where another river of dancing beings
travel in metal boxes-
In raw form on legs
On wheels–
Flow
Interesect
Attract
Repel Merge
Synchronised chaos
Ground flying–
like
Bird flocks
Turning
Diving
Undulating
Into L’s and Ubers
Escalators and revolving doors
Clusters change direction together
Then break into smaller groups
And smaller yet
To scatter off alone
No words spoken-
Silent pedestrian ballet

Poem #3 of 30. NaPoWriMo
Soul Sister-For Marylynn

Decades move
Like melting glaciers
Returning us to our ocean source
The stories we share
At our slumber parties
Echo shapes of needs and wants
And how they have changed
And not changed-
From junior high
To senior living-
Hair and boys and clothes and body changes
Grey and men and comfortable shoes and body changes
Half a century of late night whispers
laying out our moments
Like a candy haul
From a lifetime of Halloweens
Spread out on our hotel bedspreads
Here on this Chicago weekend
Sorting out the best bits first
And as the night goes on
We’re down to tossing inedible things
They happened but they do not own us
Soul sister
The one I can hold my world up to and ask
“Do I look weird in this life?”
And she’ll say,
“Oh, hell yes. But, somehow, it looks good on you.”
The Train Ride
He on his train
Me on mine
Same track
Same destination
One hundred fourteen years later-
He was 15 and like his brother and cousin
Braved the ocean passage from the north side of the island
to the dirt streets and crowded immigration buildings of Ellis Island
The hard part still awaited him
The years working at the rail yards-
Carrying a meager sandwich, a partial bottle of wine and an ever present switchblade in his boot that he used for more than cutting apples grabbed from trees along the way
This rough place where boys- almost men – spoke languages foreign even to the foreigners
Working, sweating, laughing, fighting
Finding their way to gathering enough to dare a dream of a home and family
To imagine the unknown future sons who would one day bring the rest of us into this world
Like me-
Moving now on this same track
Also Chicago bound
And imagining an unknown future grandchild who may cover this same ground
In a distinct future
With her own dreams held like this journal
Filled with the promise of more
Haiku
Steel snake on the ground
Makes it’s way around the lake
Eats and spits me out