Strands
Strands
Separate the strands of spring song
From these ten thousand birds.
Sweet and strident
Simple and symphonic.
Follow just one
I am already lost
Follow them all
I am gladly ready
To listen and disappear.
©
Bob Schwartz
Category: Poetry
April 29, 2018
April 28, 2018
Dream Butterfly
Did I dream the butterfly last night
Or remember yesterday gazing at it
Or both? Either way
Remembering the dream or the butterfly
Was a sweet syrup shot into my heart,
Which lightly fluttered.
As bad as dreams or days may get
There is a butterfly and a flower to feed from
In the heat of the sun
Or the cool mists of phantasmagoric sleep.
April 19, 2018
Cold Coffee
Cold Coffee
The longer this coffee sits
The colder it gets.
Heat it
To make it warmer
Add ice
To make it colder
Cream makes it lighter
Sugar sweeter
Drink up.
©
April 4, 2018
Field
Field
Beyond the trees
That lace my window
There is the field
That young I woke to.
But out the door
Past those trees
No such place.
Without moving
I have gone
Ten thousand miles
To here and nowhere.
©
March 23, 2018
Perpetual Adoration
Perpetual Adoration
“It is with great sadness we had to make the decision to close our beautiful monastery in Tucson, Arizona as of February 26, 2018. Our sisters have relocated to the motherhouse in Clyde, Missouri.”
In hoc signo:
No Trespassing.
Benedictine Monastery of the
Sisters of Perpetual Adoration.
The sisters have left the building
St. Benedict Jesus God too.
The sisters to Missouri
The rest homeless for now.
Carved wooden doors locked
Bushes for the butterflies
Cut back and soon gone.
Who by fire
Who by water
Who by sledgehammer
Wrecking ball dynamite.
After the noisy dusty struggle
Mountains abide.
©
Note: For an earlier post about this building, sold to be replaced by something residential or commercial, see Houses of Worship As Reminders on the Street.
March 23, 2018
Dish of Dice
Dish of Dice
“I am going to build a church someday. It will have a holy of holies and a holy of holy of holies, and in that ultimate box will be a random number table.”
Gregory Bateson
Different dice
On the altar
Four six eight sides
Ten and twenty
Sleeping in the dish
Awake and rolling
Prophets with a message
Plan and prepare
To laugh cry and play
The numbers rise up
See their beauty and wisdom
Listen to
The last lesson you need
©
March 12, 2018
Bird Talk
Bird Talk
In China
Chinese food is just food
In the yard
Bird song is just
Morning chatter
©
March 11, 2018
Yesh Me’ayin (Creatio Ex Nihilo)
Ayin
Yesh Me’ayin (Creatio Ex Nihilo)
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Nothing.
©
February 28, 2018
Explorers and Wanderers
Explorers and Wanderers
Honor the explorers
(whole continents by name)
Disdain the wanderers
Destination nowhere
Leaving nothing
©
February 26, 2018
The Wandering
The Wandering
Close your eyes
Through the forest
Wade the river
To the canyon’s edge
Open
Fly or fall?
©
Bob Schwartz 