Wings
Wings
The weight of the world
And my self
Stoop my shoulders
The wings
Pull them back
©
Bob Schwartz
Category: Poetry
December 22, 2017
December 6, 2017
First Fire
First Fire
In the desert
The first fire of winter
Comes late
A cold morning
A colder night
Sneaks up
Shivering you realize
Sun and season
Pass the job of heat to you
Ready or not
©
November 30, 2017
Añejo
Añejo
The desert is cool tonight
I rub the bottle of añejo
Coyote appears
I wish I say
To sleep under the half moon
When I wake
The sun will brighten the mountains
And warm the morning
So it will be coyote says
Now pour me a drink
©
November 27, 2017
Laura Nyro: Time and Love
Don’t let the devil fool you
Here comes a dove
Nothing cures like time and love
Sometime you’re going to want to catch up to the music of Laura Nyro, who, by the time she created her first three perfect albums between 1967 and 1969, was only 22. She created much more music, but died untimely in 1997, at 49.
There is a special place in my ears and heart for a number of women who write and sing, but in the special place in that place, in the holy of holies, is Laura. This morning, unsure of what would lift the unlifted and straighten the crooked, I played Time and Love, from the New York Tendaberry album.
So winter froze the river
And winter birds don’t sing
So winter makes you shiver
So time is gonna bring you spring
So he swears he’ll never marry
Says that cuddles are a curse
Just tell him plain
You’re on the next train
If love don’t get there first
Time and love
Everybody
Time and love
Nothing cures like
Time and love
Don’t let the devil fool you
Here comes a dove
Nothing cures like time and love
You been runnin’, you been ramblin’,
And you don’t know what to do
A holy golden wager says
That love will see you through
So Jesus was an angel
And mankind broke his wing
But Jesus gave his lifeline
So sacred bells could sing
Now a woman is a fighter
Gathered white or African
A woman
Is a woman is a woman inside
Has miracles for her man
Time and love
Everybody
Time and love
Nothing cures like
Time and love
Don’t let the devil fool you
Here comes a dove
Nothing cures like time and love
November 20, 2017
The Care and Feeding of Cut Flowers
The Care and Feeding of Cut Flowers
No matter how careful
This beauty
Was already dead
©
November 11, 2017
Reminders
Reminders
This way
That way
I think I know better
But I easily forget
Lost in myself
So a story
A sentence
A phrase
A word
A sound
A silence
A laugh
A look at anything
Reminds me
Of nothing more
Than this or that
O this
O that
©
November 10, 2017
Dylan Thomas for Big Pharma
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America have a new public relations campaign. It is no secret that Big Pharma is not wildly popular, given the perception that pricing is surreal and marketing is out of control.
The inarguable point of the ad is that pharmaceuticals save and extend lives. To make that point, it uses the most moving poem of Dylan Thomas, one of the great modern poets:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
My request is emphatic and simple. Whatever the merits or demerits of Big Pharma, find some other way to make your case, and please leave Dylan Thomas out of it. He is way out of your league.
November 7, 2017
It’s Just Pumpkin Pie
The Great Way is not difficult
for those not attached to preferences.
When neither love nor hate arises,
all is clear and undisguised.
Separate by the smallest amount, however,
and you are as far from it as heaven is from earth.
Verses on the Faith Mind
It’s Just Pumpkin Pie
It is a slice of pumpkin pie
The hundredth I’ve eaten
Is it good
Is it better or worse?
Some comment and compare
The filling and the crust
I notice too
But choose to just eat and enjoy
This slice of pumpkin pie
©
November 3, 2017
Violin or Moon (Either/Or/And)
Violin or Moon (Either/Or/And)
1
Tonight a neighbor
Plays scales on a violin
I drift closer to hear
But stop at the street
A river of light
Washed by a full moon
Watching and listening too
2
Across the street
Scales on the violin
Soundtrack
For the full moon
October 31, 2017
Flower in the Vase
The cut flower
In the vase
Petals and leaves
Now drying and drooping
No water
Will bring it back
©
Bob Schwartz 