Get back into orbit, oh planet child
Way out of line you are, your orb askew
The natural order must prevail, your wild
Perambulations you must now eschew
Desist your ways, remit your resistance
This family runs on joylike obeisance.
On How Life Can Change In an Instant
With billowed clouds arrayed in glad suspense In eager grace to shed their pearly store The skies have opened up in rapt commence To spend in one deft swoop their prize galore This goodly flood is God's bestowed reply To oft-asked prayers, His bounties now brought nigh.
On The Dragon’s New Year
With vernal joy the drums proclaim the dance, The ring of cymbals greets the festive prowl, The lions in lockstep march so proudly prance With rapid winks of eye and waving jowl, With each bold leap and bound the crowds would cheer To welcome this, the Dragon's own New Year.
On Being Held Prisoner by an Interminable Zoom Call
Impatience stains my over-beetled brow As prattlers prattle in smug servile tones Oh give me gun to shoot my temple now Than me to suffer this in silenced groans!
On Life’s Storms
You made your choice, to slink your way through Life, To hide behind your temperamental rage, As if this world would shield you from all strife, When you well know, Life's storms none can assuage.
On Your One Mortal Life
When your body is battered, breaking down, You need to pause and listen to reflect, Perhaps your life, your craving for renown Must now make way for prayer and genuflect. Your duty now to yourself in this strife: Enact true justice to your mortal life.
On Why You Sneer
You just needed someone
You could sneer at
And jeer at
For failing
At that one thing
You wish could have been
Your own path in life.
On Wondering Where All the Years Went
I saw you onstage yesterday
Giving a speech to the assembled gathering
And it struck me
That it has been fifteen years
Since it was me on that stage
Playing the groom
Smiling at the crowd
And I remembered thinking, in that moment
Where did the years go?
How come I’m here now
Sitting in the crowd
With a head fuller with white hair
Wondering,
Whatever happened to all those dreams?
On The Self-Doubt of an Unpracticed Poet
These vines of doubt entangle me
Ensnare me in this darkened cage
Each line confounds, embitters me
And shrouds me in benighted rage
In white dreams I imagine me
A shining knight of sky and earth
But light of day proves: oh, poor me!
I’m but a speck, a pebble’s worth!
And so these lines, in spite of me
Come sputtering in halting train
These verses dark accuseth me
I crumble ‘neath my dreams, all vain.
On This Resolution
This New Year
I have made
This resolve:
To pare down
This one life
To slough off
Vain desires
Like snakeskin
Discarded:
An offering
For Your blessing.