Body Lesson

Posted on January 30, 2018 by sputterpub

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I had a haircut yesterday. The chair
was pumped to handy height, and I conversed
as commas fell. I like the people there
and thought I was relaxed, at least at first,
but when my stylist placed a steady palm
upon each shoulder, pressing down and back
against the chair, I knew I wasn’t calm –
without a word I understood her act.

A gentle pressure to my back or chest
is more effective than an expert’s speech
for treatment when I’m tensed and over-stressed.
Massaging fingers locate and beseech
my muscles to relax, my spine to ease.
In quiet, I can hear my body’s pleas.

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Benefits

Posted on January 29, 2018 by sputterpub

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Three years ago, I gave up eating sweet
desserts, nocturnal snacks of chocolate bites,
and gourmet cookies too. I rarely cheat-
ed that proscription, based on what indicts
the party line: the anti-science Plate.
Amazingly, I didn’t feel a lack.
I soon forsook most flour meals. I rate
this diet low in carb and high in fat.

I’ve done my reading – I was not surprised
to lose unwanted weight and hunger pains.
But soon I noted sharper mind, revised
and gentler reasoning: all mental gains.
And lately I’m enjoying what appears
to be an end to ringing in my ears.

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Smarts

Posted on January 25, 2018 by sputterpub

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Self-confidence and core intelligence
are unrelated mental qualities.
We’ve all known individuals as dense
as mud, who think their own abilities
exceed the smarts of everyone they meet.
With visage smug and posture stiff-assured,
they act as if development’s complete,
and claim to know the gist of every word.

We’ve also all encountered gifted souls
who seem to doubt their depth of intellect,
as if their self-esteem is full of holes,
their satisfaction brief and quickly checked.
All brilliant folks, including you and me,
imagine how much smarter they could be.

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A Day Off

Posted on January 23, 2018 by sputterpub

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I woke today with normal energy.
I wrote and took my morning exercise
while reading and with coffee next to me.
I showered then and dashed off quick replies
to texts from family. And when I looked
for other tasks, I realized I’d no work
that needed me today: no meetings booked
and not a single deadline on the lurk.

Alive in weather relatively mild,
aware that I could walk or play or read,
I spent ten minutes gleeful as a child
out of school, but then fatigue laid siege.
No sooner had my labors earned a gap,
than I devoted time to take a nap.

Posted in Aging, Poetry | Leave a comment

Obscenity (A Metaphor)

Posted on January 22, 2018 by sputterpub

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A piece without redeeming social worth
is often classed among obscenities.
Offensiveness without an edge of mirth,
with nastiness and gross gratuities,
is how the court defines the types of porn.
Another trait peculiar to all smut
is rapid loss of shock – the slap is worn
away as fast as a director’s cut.

So insult has to ever multiply.
The final climax needs an orgy scene,
more deviance, or violent reply –
whatever moves away from clear or clean.
The truest thing about pornography?
It has to ratchet up extremity.

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Squirrels

Posted on January 18, 2018 by sputterpub

sphinx

This winter weather isn’t normal here.
I state that not to argue or complain.
The other coast, the other hemisphere
have got it worse, but we’re bereft of rain.
The squirrels race around like early spring.
Mid-January hummingbirds abound.
Oxalis freckles lawns and sparrows sing
at azure skies from desiccated ground.

I’ve had a happy life, and this reverse
does not result from horoscope or luck.
Perversion of our climate is the curse
of slash-and-burn for profit. What the fuck
was in the hearts, the minds of rich and strong,
who met the sphinx and heard the riddle wrong?

Posted in Poetry, Weather | Leave a comment

Baby Eyes

Posted on January 16, 2018 by sputterpub

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Are infants wise until they learn to speak?
Can children see the goodness in our souls
as well as the reverse? When grownups seek
to gauge companions, have they lost controls
that served them well before they thought at length?
I’ve known stupidity in old and young,
seen ignorance in hundreds, and found strength
of comprehension from a child’s tongue.

Acute was I, observing folks around
my home, at school, within the neighborhood.
Less often than I met the kind, I found
a character who wasn’t nice or good.
And though our tally now exceeds three score,
the mean remain consistent at their core.

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Recordkeeping

Posted on January 15, 2018 by sputterpub

DayTimer

I changed my voicemail greeting every day.
It centered me, and let my callers know
if I was likely to be reached that way,
until last year. I bid the custom go,
retiring. Still, I kept a calendar
on paper: spiral notebooks, twelve a year.
Recording dates and projects made me sure
I’d not neglect the needful. That’s more gear
my future doesn’t want and I won’t mind,
but 40 years of habit cannot end
at once and without bumps. I’ll leave behind
the deadlines, notes and plans, but won’t pretend
a course without that ballast is sublime.
It may take months, adjusting to free time.

Posted in Behavior Modification, Poetry | Leave a comment

Weird Place, Weird Time

Posted on January 13, 2018 by sputterpub

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A splash of sunshine on a wooden floor,
a leafless tree with sparrows on its limbs,
a cloud-white teasing sky that should hold more
of rain for us, but winter storms are flim-
sy here – so far this year the weather’s dry,
and out of season burns the coastal range.
For these are times when stupid rulers fry
our culture, and then too, the climate’s strange.

We flip from wry amusement to disgust,
compiling irony from cable news,
complaining waning like we might adjust
to barbarous behavior. Don’t accuse
the weather of a plot against our glee,
but let’s impede today’s plutocracy.

Posted in Poetry, Weather | Leave a comment

Because We Failed to Act Like We Took it Seriously

Posted on January 12, 2018 by sputterpub

A year ago, or once upon a time,
a race was won by an incompetent.
Exhibiting no quality a prime
executive must own, belligerent,
bombastic and unsure, his victory
surprised his own supporters even more
than how it rocked the rest of us. You see:
the Internet framed surreality.

Improbable became the state of us.
We mostly reeled in shock and froze at news.
Paralysis was melted by disgust,
but our disdain has made his base accuse
intelligence of biased act and word,
as if a fair shake’s owed to the absurd.

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