Shower by the Hour

Shower by the Hour
29 November 2014

I swear the gas bill’s going up
And the water bill, too.
It’s all from Al showing up
To shower and shampoo.
When the water’s just right
He doesn’t know he’s over the top
And the water just runs in spite
Of the costs going on non-stop.
He turns around and around
Under the water’s warm spray,
Dancing naked and unbound,
Acting like it’s time to play.
He’d turn the water off
If he had any common sense.
It’s time to towel off
Instead of testing my beneficence.
I fervently hope that he
Cooperates and understands
Instead of leaving me
Just wringing my hands.

Valentine’s Day 2012

Valentine’s Day 2012
14 February 2012

On this special occasion
I just wanted to say,
With the voice of persuasion,
“Happy Valentine’s Day!”
I hope it’s a lovely delight
And filled with friendly cheer;
Then at the end of the night
You get naked with someone dear.

Possibilities and Limitations

English is a wonderful language full of possibilities. Wiktionary has over two and a half million English entries. Although many words are science and industry specific. Sometimes I think English never met a word it didn't like. Many foreign words have been imported whole. That means many rhyming possibilities.

However, in composing poems, periodically I've come across a word that's hard to rhyme. The Complete Rhyming Dictionary edited by Clement Wood on pages 117 & 118 gives a short list of words that don't rhyme. I've spent the last few months going thru my rhyming dictionaries culling words that don't rhyme or that rhyme with only one or two other words. In other words, these are words to avoid. They can still be used in poetry, just not at the end of the line to rhyme. My hope, dear reader, is that you will help me add words to or delete them from my list. Here's a sample of common English words that don't rhyme: agent, also, ancient, bogus, bozo, budget, bulb, citrus, country, damage, delta, eighth, else, film, fortress, gospel, govern, helmet, hungry, icon, iron, joyful, junior, kiln, kingdom, liquid, limit, market, memo, naked, ninety, object, office, poem, polka, questioned, quotient, refuge, riot, sahib, sculpt, temple, topaz, ulcer, unit, velvet, visit, width, and wolf.  For the complete list, you can contact me by leaving your email address in the comments or use Facebook or whatever works.

Metamorphosis Process

I took Jack Random’s “All Around You” and rhymed it.

Metamorphosis Process

6 November 2011

When I die, fold me naked, brother,

Into the dark flesh of the earth pile;

No coffin fortress against my mother,

No formaldehyde lip stitching denial 

Of the soft machinery of life’s assault.

Let the gentle sex of the probing root

Trail downward along the white vault

Of my cathedral bones’ strong suit.

Let the holy orgy of the earthy sod

Fill my domed skull with the resurrected

Gentle loving of the worldly clod.

Then each year fold me unprotected

Back into the warm flesh of creation

And I will become the loving planet.

I will spread my spirit on the wind’s reverberation.

I will have eyes of green rose granite.

I will have blood in the splashing sea tides

I will have a consciousness of grass,

And I will have arms under all the hillsides.

Arms vast enough at last, landmass

To hold all my children by the platoon.

From my warm bed I will be the sun's lover

And a magical brother to the moon.

I will trail sidelong and downstream cover

And I will be in the food you consume

Alive in all the fruits that abound,

Awake in the fall of each cherry bloom.

Once dead and in the solid ground, 

Now immaculately starting to leach

I will be there when you’re going

To burst the veiny flesh of a peach.

I will be all around you silently knowing,

This is my body bursting for your sip.

Take, eat and pass me with cants

From hand to hand and lip to perfect lip.

Let my name dissolve with my substance 

But when you drink the blood stew

And eat the smooth flesh of plants,

I will be alive, awake and all around you.