FREEDOMFLYS

Flittering, fluttering, flying on the breeze.
Swishing, swooshing, dancing in the sun.
Unconfined, unrefined, undefined,
Only living for the joys of life.

MY LIFE

Looking through my life,
As in a crystal ball,
I'm glad to have felt
As never felt at all.

For having lived I've learned
Greater joys and sorrows,
Without either of these
There would be no more tomorrows.

For all the times that are bad
There are better times to look for,
And all the hurt you've felt
Will fill up with love twice more.

Let your feelings out
Let the world know how you feel,
Be a total person
Be always fully real.

The picture above is a clip from a video taken 11 years ago at the Wichita airport. The little boy on the left is my oldest grandson, we haven't a clue who the little girl is. While waiting for a plane to come in my 3 year old grandson walked over to the little girl looking out at the planes and stood beside her with his arm around her. They stood there for quite some time. So very cute.

SHADOW

I am no longer here
My shadow is all that remains,
I have held a tear
Of which I fear, no more
Shall I refrain.

The shadow's there--
but cannot speak,
It's musty and cold
And very meek.

But it, too, will die
By and by when the
Sun comes out into the sky.

When...

Often inspiration strikes in the most unlikely places. When this happens you grab the nearest piece of paper you can find to write on. Here are a couple of napkins that survived the years till I was able to scan them...

When the only flower left is a plastic one; Then will man break down and cry for the destruction civilization has caused. But he will continue till he has nothing but himself to destroy, and he will die.

When all is peace and love . . .
. . . the wind will be able to blow freely.
. . . Mother Nature will prosper.
. . . the world will be in the beginning of the end.

BARREN

Upon a hill stands a tree
My husband planted there,
Representing the child
That I could not bear.

From a tiny seedling
The tree grew strong and tall,
Braving all the seasons
Summer, winter, spring, and fall.

To the hill he'd go each day
To gaze upon that tree,
From one branch he hung a swing
For his child that would not be.

In it's shade he'd sit and dream
For many hours every day,
He'd envision the children we couldn't have
As they might romp and play.

I watched him grow old with the tree
And saw the emptiness in his soul,
It was I who made him that way
His happiness I had stole.

Twas a cool summers eve neath the tree he sat
His thoughts with the children at play,
God saw fit to take my man
To his playground far away.

There neath that tree stands a stone
The epitaph of a childless man,
"This tree is my child, my love and my life,
Eternally it shall stand."

RIVER OF LIFE

Running, flowing, never stopping. Starting as a trickle, joining other trickles, becoming a stream. Stream joining other streams pushing its way through rocks, mud, sand, and plants. Becoming a mighty, strong, widening river. Picking up pebbles along its way, tossing them, turning them, playing with them, and then dropping them off further down and forgetting them. Rains fall into it and join as one with it. Heat evaporates it and takes part of it away. Ever flowing, ever changing, never passing the same way, twice, never regretting having been there.

The photo is a clip taken from a video that I took on a 1998 trip to Portland OR for a family reunion. We went sightseeing along the Columbia River and walked in to see several of the many falls. It's all very beautiful and well worth the visit if you ever get the chance.

CANDLE OF LOVE

Melting, dripping, running, hardening.

Forming running, escaping designs as it flows.

Remelting, dripping, running further, hardening.

Flame flickering chasing it farther,

no escape till the flame dies.

Turbulence makes the flame flicker harder and burn faster.

Calm creates a steady fire burning slower,

and shining brighter, less melting, dripping, running,
hardening.

-

-

Candle drawn in Corel Essentials using my Wacom Intuos tablet.

SHADOW OF A SHADOW

Fluorescent flower painted of a shadow.
Flower dying slowly, uprooted from the ground,
Once living, growing, blooming, dropping seeds, and replanting. Uprooted it lives only to die without rebirth,
The flower dies and becomes only a shadow of the shadow on the wall.

This prose describes something that I actually experienced. As a teenager my mother allowed me to paint on the basement walls where my bedroom was located. Her reasoning was that my father would get tired of the things that I painted on the walls and then he'd be motivated to fix up the basement. That backfired when I painted a larger than life arm of Jesus nailed to the cross with the "Judge not..." verses calligraphied beneath. Anyway, I digress; one day I was given a carnation which I placed in a vase and set on the table by my bed. The flower cast a shadow on the wall and with fluorescent paints in hand and nothing else to do I painted the shadow of the carnation on the wall in bright vibrant colors. Days later I had forgotten all about the flower and the painting till I turned on my black light, turned off the overhead and there on the wall by my bed the shadow of the flower burst to life as the real flower drooped dark and dead, now nothing more than a shadow of the painting. It was quite amazing, really.

FATE

My name is Fate
I live on the wind,
No one's my enemy
Everyone's my friend.

No ties or bonds
To hold me fast,
I do not worry
About the future or past.

I walk in the forest
And dance in the springs,
I live in the flowers
And ride on butterfly wings.

No storm can stop me
No fence can keep me in,
For I am Fate
And I live on the wind.

Nude

Nude sketch, charcoal pencil

SHE

She was born in the heart of the forest,
Pure as the heavens was she,
Gentleness was her nature
She loved all that was free.

Her life was simple and happy,
It was all that life should be,
Joys she saw in little things
Most people will never see.

She was poor and never knew
For life held many joys,
She had love you can't replace
With a bedroom full of toys.

She gave to all that she met
This love she had to give,
To make this world a happy place
For everyone to live.

WORLD AND LOVE

How can I live
In a world without love?
I give all I can,
With help from above.

With men overseas
Who are willing to die,
How can we sit around
And watch time fly by?

They know what it is
To love their land,
To show love
And give a helping hand.

We must live each day
One by one,
And show each father
How to love his son.

Put each family
Where they belong,
With alot of love
It can't go wrong.

But I guess for now,
I’ll live as I must
In a world of hate,
Killings, and distrust.

But maybe someday,
With help from above,
We'll live in a world
Filled with love.

Church in the Wildwood

Crayon on manila drawing paper.

FOUND

Where in these stars did I come from
Where in this world do I go?
Everyone say they have answers
To questions they never did know.

They tell me the laws of the universe
They tell me the laws of the land,
They tell me the things that must be so
But it's their words I don't understand.

You must be shrewd, you must be cold
To live on honey and walk on gold,
Hold your own and give to none
Wallow in the greed and hate you've spun.

Once in my youth I remember hearing
A wonderful, beautiful, loving story,
About a babe sent down from heaven
To walk on earth, the son of Glory.

He taught the laws of the universe
He taught the laws of the land,
He spoke with love and compassion
That everyone might understand.

He will tell me where I came from,
He can tell me where I'll go,
He has all of the answers
To the questions they never did know.

His name is Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior
Come to earth to help us all,
He will help me along my way
And pick me up if I should fall.

NOTHINGNESS

I listen, but do not hear.
I have sight, but cannot see.
I talk, but am unheard.
I touch, but cannot feel.
I am free, but am a prisoner of my mind.
There is light, but walls of darkness surround me.
I am alive, but do not live.
I am alone in a world full of people.
I walk, but only in circles.
I call, but no one answers.
I am human, but am treated like an animal.
I smile, but feel tears in my heart.
I seek love, but find only hate.
I write letters that no one ever receives;
I write poems that are never read;
I write songs which are never sung.
I reach out, but find no help.
I cry tears that are never felt.
I find happiness in dreams only.
I fight a lost battle that never was.
When I have the will I find not the way.
When I find the way all will has escaped.
I still write although it will remain unread.
I write in the hope that, someday, someway,
..........the blind, will see, the lame
..........will walk, the deaf will hear,
..........the dumb will speak, and the
..........innocent shall be set free.

LIVING

Am I living? or am I just alive? I breath; I eat, I sleep, I wake. I'm not dead; am I? I don't know. Is breathing living? or is it just life? And sleeping or waking? what is it? Isn't it just habit? You have to have these for mere life. But what is living? Living is Loving; is it not? I am living when I'm with you, Love. Not just breathing but more, much more, When I hear you, or see you, or even just think about you; THAT'S LIVING! When you’re gone, I'm gone also. You are my breath, my heartbeat, my everything.

I'm thinking of you now,

I'M LIVING!

Love

REJOICING

Flowers on a hillside
Misty morning dew,
Waking with a happy heart
Rejoicing over you.

Your love makes the flowers grow
And diamonds of the dew,
It makes me wake with a happy heart,
Rejoicing over you.

Without you the fields are bare
The dew falls like crashing rain,
My heart is a lonely place,
Filled with untold pain.

You have come to me my Love,
You've made the fields fill again,
Again the dew forms silently
Upon my window pane.

Let us walk through the flowers,
And collect diamonds in the dew,
And I'll wake with happy heart,
Rejoicing over you.

Two Men

Assignment done for Business Machines class in High School, circa 1972. Poem by “Anonymous”.
(Ditto machine: Do you remember the ditto machine? The copies from this had that "smell" that everyone remembers.)

OSIFER (Officer)

Written in the early '70s.

Osifer, Osifer, give me a fix
Send me right down that river of Styx,
Osifer, Osifer, don't take me away,
'Cause once I get there
I won't want to stay.

Have pity on me, on my soul I pray;
Just give me a cot for my bod' to lay.

My mind has blown out
My life is dead,
I'm just a run-of-the-mill little acid-head,

So,
Osifer, Osifer give me a fix
Send me right down
That river of Styx.