In trying to write a poem, I paused
To peer out in joyous wonderment
At God’s resplendent panorama of
A beauty far beyond man’s poetry.
This breathtaking extravaganza of
Sights and sounds and sensations
Overwhelmed me so completely,
I wept over the sublime splendor
Written into every blade of grass.
I don’t think I can write that poem
Anymore — wait, I think I just did!
The planks and oarsmen
Groaned as one,
The wind began to blow,
And at the bow Leif Erikson’s
Unease began to grow.
He’d put his trust in Jesus now,
And sailed to serve the Lord —
Yet Odin’s raven mocked him
As the longboat left the fjord.
Soon blown off course,
He pulled aside a slave
In his distress, and said,
“Bring me your mistress, thrall,
Bring me your prophetess!”
The witch came forth,
Her robe bedecked with
Skulls and precious stones,
And calling on the Alfather,
She cast her ancient bones.
“What is is?” Leif called out to her,
“What do your old bones say?”
“They say a man should trust
his gods to guide him on his way.”
And so he prayed to his new god,
And soon a land was found
Where food and game were plentiful,
And “wheat and grapes abound.”
(originally 11-16)
For a man to deny that apes
Are his cousins is ignorance
And maybe even excusable
For a man to deny that other
Men are his brothers is pure
Prejudice and oafish bigotry
Let us step back and see the
World without borders and
That man is one with all life
crazy cold
and i wish i didn’t have to go
out there in the snow
my thermometer
reads forty below
fahrenheit and celsius
our bulbs are turning blue
she peers through dark leaves
at the colorful real world
and is glad for it
she is pleased to be alone
no matter what they all say
–photo by me
our father star left long ago,
the supernova type,
but mother star is stabler so
we give her all the hype,
yet father star did not just blow
us off out in the cold,
he left us our inheritance
in silver and in gold.
i dreamt my feet
had turned to roots
held firmly
in the ground
and all that i
could manage was
to think and
look around
and standing there
attached to earth
i couldn’t help
but seeing
that i’m a part
of everything
and not a
separate being
I sat at the window
In my lonely house
And scrutinized the
Sad summer moon.
Find another lover
On the lawn below,
A lurking black cat
Shape-shifted thru
Indistinct shadows.
Move on, she’d said
The soft moonlight
Somehow soothed
The all-enveloping
Sorrow in my soul.
Swear it on my life
I reluctantly got up
And threw my butt
Away as well as my
Old marriage vows.
You made a promise
In minutes, I was at
A single’s bar, both
Hoping and hoping
Not to find a lover.
webster’s says a sportsman is a man
who hunts wild animals as a pastime
but it doesn’t seem all that sporting
to me for a heartless trophy hunter
to gun down a wild animal for sport
terrified of the stinky monkey man
his more docile prey see him as an
evil affront to nature with his noisy
guns and his sharp teeth for ripping
flesh and his eyes so full of murder
the sportsman is a very macho man
you should see him aiming that gun
and so carefully pulling that trigger
if he desires to be a real sportsman
he should hunt lions with his knife
As the old year
Goes out
And a new one
Comes in,
We’re reminded
About
Resolutions
Again,
And each year there’s
No doubt
We will vanquish
Our sin
When the old year
Goes out
And the new one
Comes in,
And each year we
Will flout
All our plans with
Chagrin
When the old year
Goes out
And the new one
Comes in.
michaeljordahl 