Blog Archives
Nonsense to Celebrate Daylight Saving Time
Water spilling from a cup—
Will you help me wipe it up?
Grass is crying in the rain—
Watch out now, here comes a train!
Throw the broken plate away,
And then ask your friend to play.
Sing and sway, don’t rock the boat!
Just remember: Stones can’t float!
Poem © 2021 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Intimations of Mortality
What you’ve stolen fades away,
Nothing made of gold can stay;
All your silver turns to brass,
All your diamonds into glass.
Look at your reflection fair
In the mirror hanging there;
Peer again, though, and you’ll see
You’re laced with mortality.
Cruel payment’s coming due;
You will have to pay it, too.
All the games you like to play?
Death will snatch them clean away!
Until then, however, know
That you’re free to come and go,
Doing what you like to do—
But on Judgment Day, you’re through!
More The Whirligig #275
More Writers’ Pantry #29 at Poets and Storytellers United
It’s Winter, My Love
A desert family enjoys the cool December weather in this mosaic on a wall in Ajo, Arizona.
It’s winter, my love, keep playing the bones!
Stars o’er the valley are singing to stones.
Keep yourself limber, and shrug off the cold.
Summon your courage, and learn to be bold—
Bold in the barnyard, and bold in the dome,
Bold when you’re far, far away from your home.
I’ll end my song here, and hope that you find
That most folks are true, and loving, and kind.
Poem © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
Kiss the Acrobat
Kiss the acrobat goodbye,
Do not be afraid to fly.
Play the right chord, not the wrong;
I will listen to your song
And admire your awesome skill—
Aim for dulcet notes, not shrill!
Test your apron, tie it tight—
Hope your cookies turn out right!
I’ve been missing you a bunch—
Let’s have cookies for our lunch!
Poem © 2018 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #190
More Poetry Pantry #431 at Poets United
Tricks
Wild asters, Apache County, Arizona
autumn afternoon—
the tricks my eyes play on me
in the aster field
Haiku © 2016 and photo © 2011 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Blue Monday
More Our World Tuesday
More Haiku Horizons: “Trick”
Diary Entry
O my little pumpkin-head,
How you thrilled me when you said,
“Bring me milk and bring me dirt—
I will teach you how to flirt.
All night long we’ll play at love,
While the wheeling stars above
Shape and shape anew our dream:
To have love our only theme.
Neither brick nor bird nor car
Will outshine that dazzling star,
Star that guides our hands and feet
In the ways that lovers meet.”
O my little pumpkin-head,
I’m still thrilled, though you are dead.
Strange Little Songs
~~ 1 ~~
With plastic roses,
some of them scarlet, some white,
we freshen the graves.
~~ 2 ~~
a spicy salad—
picking at it in silence
with white plastic forks
~~ 3 ~~
a discarded tire
verses carved in the sidewall
honoring road trips
~~ 4 ~~
Discarded boxes—
seven refugees pretend
they have found new homes.
~~ 5 ~~
blind man’s violin
flying as though Marc Chagall
had lifted his brush
~~ 6 ~~
no one knows their names—
illegible inscriptions
on toppled tombstones
~~ 7 ~~
God wears out his shoes
and takes them to the temple
for some quick repairs.
~~ 8 ~~
demanding a song
from the bird that cannot sing—
demented woman
~~ 9 ~~
holding hot cocoa
in my left hand while scribbling
haiku with my right
~~ 10 ~~
two children use them
to play a game of marbles—
olives from the bowl
~~ 11 ~~
the stench of decay
rising from New Orleans streets
after Katrina
~~ 12 ~~
an old apple tree
bearing rusty jackknife scars—
Kevin loves Suzanne
Poems © 2015 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Sunday’s Whirligig #23
Play
An old Palo Verde tree, Sonoran Desert, Southern Arizona
is the play of tangled light
on broken branches.
Text and photo © 2014 by Magical Mystical Teacher
More Carpe Diem: “Paradise”
Magical Mystical Teacher 