ENTRANCE STRICITY PROHIBITED TO...

[The following is posted at the bottom stair landing that leads up to my office / poetry place / man cave / whatever]

Entrance strictly prohibited to smokers, alcoholics, drug addicts, sick people, people with infectious diseases, misbehaving children, liars, people with defamation intentions, angry people, beggars, emotionally unstable people, borrowers, thoughtless people, all animals, thieves, stupid people, informers, people unable to love, people who do not like poetry, people bearing fire arms, people with severe emotional disorders (though I will permit some moderate disfunctions), people who watch too much mindless TV, narcissists, people who don't listen, people who rarely think, people who cannot concentrate, criminals, terrorists, people who don't return what they borrow, people who don't return calls in a reasonable time, certain cynics (but not all of them - see me for further details), people takng surveys, loafers who will waste my time, AND SOME OTHERS...

TEMPLE OF WORDS

Welcome to a bit of my world
To thoughts about our world
My little book
My temple of words

ACCEPT

"Life is 10,000 sorrows and 10,000 joys - accept"
An aphorism for a cloudless day

However, now it is storming
I must add two more "accepts"
To get me through this day

One is all that's needed for good fortune
Two are required on a bad day
But three are needed for the very bad things

I pray I'll never need a fourth

LISTEN AND TALK

Rabbits listen
Then hop
Friends listen
Then talk

Listen and talk

FLY NOW

Fly now
You cannot flap your wings
Under the lid of a coffin

CHASING FEELINGS

I used to chase feelings
Older now
I set a trap

DOING WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

Doutbless the ants
Won't change their plans
After we are gone

Marching, working, eating
Doing what needs to be done
The disciplined will survive

SUN AND MOON

The moon watches
While the sun insists

SEARCHING

Stop searching
Use what's in your pocket

The LULL

Why is it
In a lull
Between my storms
It seems so clear
What others should do

MORNING ROSE

The wheel keeps turning
This morning's rose
Will be this evening's fallen petals

SEA OF TROUBLES

Drowning in a sea of troubles
I tried to grow gills
Foolishly I forgot to swim

BOOK SHELVES

Book shelves
My Wall of China
Standing guard
An arsenal to fight ignorance and confusion

MERITOCRACY

I am a striver in a meritocracy
Though I live here
My mind rambles regularly
And I realize
Carelessness is what got me here

ENOUGH OF WAR

Enough of war
No more trying to control
By being more terrible than the terrorists

We need a campaign of brazen honesty
Where truth meets consequence
And we reject what is rigid and rotten

CATALOG OF AGING

Two new items
For my catalog of aging

Gray hairs turn to silver
My dome is being painted with white

And a grave matter
I remember which dormitory of the dead
Their now powdered bones sleep in
But I cannot find the site without help

It seemed so improbable
I would ever forget the spot
We laid them down to eternal rest

PERMANENT

There are no permanent friends
Or permanent enemies
Only self interest is permanent

WHAT THE HEART WANTS

What the heart wants
Is what the heart wants

Until it gets what it wants
The heart can be an organ of fire

RARE NUMBERS

Rarely revealed
Numbers of their civilian dead
Collateral children and mourning mothers

Also rare, teachers killed in classrooms
While giving the gift of knowledge
Even rarer, the number
Of ravaged veterans and now fatherless kids

More than they want us to know
For to know might mean to NO

FALLEN LEAVES

Fallen leaves on dedicated battlegrounds
All that remains of soldiers' blood