“The present is a gift,” they say,
these dogs of mine,
and this morning
they have already
unwrapped the day. But I prefer
to lie abed
wrapped snugly in
the gift of sleep
and leave to them the wild delight
of opening
at least until
I can see light.
JDG
You’d think I’d know a thing or two,
at least by now.
I’ve read books, watched
dvds, gone
to lectures, traveled overseas,
been rolfed and rolled
and therapized,
have three degrees.
Yet even after all of this,
my grandkids roll
their eyes at what
I still don’t get.
JDG
“Nothing gold can stay,” the poet
says, neglecting
to add that change
comes to every
shade, even black, and blue, and grey.
Nature doesn’t
hold to any hue.
In her always
changing motion picture show, she
allows each one
to come and play
its part, then go.
JDG
From the heart of silence words flow.
Let’s begin there
in the quiet
before the words.
Let’s notice all that’s stirring in
that space and wait
until the sound
we hear rings true.
Then let’s wait a while longer
til kindness comes
and from those depths
let the words flow.
JDG
The day began in haziness,
everything wrapped
in damp and grey.
Even my thoughts
hung in shades blending perfectly
with the bleakness
that clothed the day,
blurring its start.
Then you came and lay your furry
head upon my
knees and with that
a clearing came.
JDG
Out they shot across the highway,
those three young deer,
never pausing
to look my way.
Then I saw the fourth and older
deer and I knew
I ‘d never stop
in time, but he,
seeing me, quickly turned and saved
us both, leaving
me to rejoice
in being seen.
JDG
“It was a small thing,” she said, but
it eased open
a door slammed shut
by angry thoughts.
The calling cards, scattered across
the long hall floor
were now picked up
and placed anew
in a tiny holder just right
for the small ledge
where they were placed,
gentling the fire.
JDG
Since the high court most supreme deemed
me and GE
equivalent,
I don’t hold back.
As a corporation I don’t
need to scrape for
taxes to build
the roads I use
and other such socialist stuff.
I can get me
a Super PAC
and elect myself.
JDG
Of my many selves, I don’t know
who will show up
today and who
will stay away.
I don’t know when she’ll come or when
she’ll go or what
she’ll have to say,
but with some luck
my gate keeper will serve me well
and will prevent
a great big show
by some I know.
JDG
You’d think at sixty-nine I’d know
some things and yet
by all accounts
I still have much
to learn or so my grandkids say.
They were amazed
to discover
that texting leaves
me cold. It must
be a geriatric caper
that I prefer
reading books made
from real paper.
JDG
aholdingplace 