An Ode to the Still Voice

I've never ceased to hear the voice that called
Me to the Muses' realm--it's sometimes mute
Or muted, melancholy, maddening,
But always seeming welcome all the same--
I named my firstborn son the name it called--
I learned by then I must obey--I learned
To listen to the smallest voice, perceive
The smallest curt command it gave--the goal,
The destiny remains unclear--my wife
The voice commanded me to marry--she
Was walking up to me, the first her flesh
Was present to my touch--the voice sent me
To Mississippi, then to Texas, sent
So I'd diversity my mind's contents--
It's made me wise and foolish, ignorant
And full of knowledge, ugly, beautiful,
A madman and most sane--it made me know
Myself and hide myself and show myself,
Transform myself to become who I am
And truly was--I heed its call and dodge
Its call and pay the price for every slip
Off of the mountain trail it leads me up--
Behold the vistas it has shown me, darkness
Unveiled by it, lush valleys dense with trees,
Wide mountain meadows pointillist with flowers,
Sequoias on the slopes, bare rocky peaks
That rise into the clouds of thought and meaning
And scatter and collect before the front
That chills it all to senseless sounds that stream
To torrents of tales, then to waves of verse
To pour into the oceans that surround
This land that lifts into the peaks where I
Am led up to proclaim apocalypse--
Behold the house and debt, suburban life
That tame the voice that drives me on and on,
The voice that only sometimes speaks--I catch
The voice in random silences that swell
Into the ceaseless chatter, noise, and music
That now define our lives so we won't listen
To still and silent voices that could transform
Our lives--we like the hot and humid places,
The swamps and the mosquitoes draining us
So we don't have to hear the voice that drives
Us to distraction, creativity,
And innovation, art and madness, love
And new technology and ways of life--
The debt, the chatter, politics and strife,
We choose anxiety before  before we'd choose
The voice revaluating values verse
By rhythmic, often-rhyming verse to raise
Our thoughts to music echoing across
The valleys we make fertile with our songs.

To the Failed Entrepreneur

You stood upon the brink and stared down fear
And sought to sell what you thought we would want,
But you miscalculated and paid dear--
You took a risk and then you took the brunt.

And though financially you're ruined, broke
And bankrupted because you couldn't make
It work-and though you are unknown, a cloak
Of ignorance about your fate can't take

Away your courage, everything you've done
For everyone by trying--when you fell
And failed, you helped us learn. No, there is none
Who did not grow from water from your well.

Unlike a soldier you's shot down in war,
Your loss is hardly permanent--you stand
To try again, to learn--an open door
Is what you see, and through it are the grand

And awesome opportunities that you
Will make if you succeed or fail--the wealth
Of our society is only due
To those who fail and learn--you are our health.

Ode to the Loris

The loris lies along the limb, each leaf
A light and limber living love of brief
And fleeting things, for each will fall and float
From limb to litter, acting as a coat
Of green to brown so death does not bring grief.

Can one adorabled by wide eyes, round
In round head, have a reputation found
Among the sloths and serpents? You know "slow"
Is in his name. Some say a venom flow
Ought to be feared from every bite inbound.

Our cousin doesn't deserve such cold shade
Beyond that given by his trees that braid
A home, protection, food, and place to sleep.
He only wants to live and slowly creep
To food and love and where his bed is laid.

These loris lies do not deserve the least
Attention -- just believe your eyes, the feast
Of traits that make a mother of us all --
And in the evenings you can hear them call --
Their whistles fill the woods in the far East.

Iced

You sit there, cold and bitter, tempting me
To taste your bitterness. Each rancid drop
Spreads sharp across my tongue. It's savory
And wet yet can't and won't make my thirst stop.

I won't have milk or sweetness moderate
The bitterness I love to taste each day.
I've grown accustomed to what I should hate --
Our tastes are shown to be such plastic clay.

But if I did not have this in my life
I'd lie in listless pools of laziness
And feel across my scalp a razor, strife --
And so this rancid bitterness I bless.

Without it I would have a life that's mean --
And thus I praise the washoff of a bean. 

Ode to Solitude

The first hour I was left alone I sat
In silence, silent room and silent house,
And listened to my heart just beat. I found
It wondrous, sitting in the silence. Spouse

And children gone (one gone to sleep), my mind
At rest, with no demands, complaints, commands
To rule me. Just my slow and steady breath
Accompanies my heart and my still hands.

Beloved solitude, where I can think,
I've missed your silence and relaxing flow --
I've been away with other loves; they fill
My life. And yet, I need you both to grow.

No television, music, politics --
No screaming, running, playing -- not for me
For but a while, for but a short, short while --
But in that while, enough. Now I can be. 

Ode to Gravity

You cause the toilet paper to fall in
The toilet water; I must fish it out.
You caused the scab there on the baby's chin,
Bring to their knees in prayer the world's devout.

You are so weak that I can overcome
You with mere muscle movements, lift my son
Up off the Earth. And yet you pull the plum
From off the tree the moment it is done.

You pull the Earth in orbit and rotate
It on its axis. Pulling asteroids down,
Destroying land and life, you change the fate
Of life itself. And yet you make the clown

With pratfalls make us laugh; he trips, he falls
And you're his straight-man -- there, invisible.
Without you things would fly apart, yet walls
Will crumble at your feet. And all is full

Of you -- the Earth and I, this phone, these keys --
In spacetime folds you bend each object, curve
All lines; you pull us down and bend all knees --
To overcome you you we first must serve.

But do not think that I've forgotten you
Have made me more than once plunge hands into
The toilet water to retrieve a few
Wet rolls that melt into a soggy goo.