There are kitty noseprints on the window Where my cat Freddie Noodles looks outside Watching for dogs on the sidewalk below Or nightly opossums but woe betide Some brazen stranger cat not from our street!
For when Fred meows I let him out to chase The interloper down in full retreat Then he comes in with a smile on his face To eat some crunchy kitty treats and purr Freddie you are top cat: you always were
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
May 5, 2006, 4:18 pm
Hope Survives
When darkness falls and finds you sad Remember light will rise again Tonight though things look bleak and bad Though all seems punishment and pain Know soon the sun will rise surprise And bring perspective to your eyes
Remember you are not alone When darkness falls we all await Through our long night of the unknown The answer to our question fate Unfolds at last when light returns Who waits with patience is who learns
But patience must be learned through hope And comes but grudgingly when young For years we seem condemned to grope Impatient with hope's song unsung Yet when at last the gift arrives In deepest darkness hope survives
When morning comes and dawn breaks out It is as life itself were freed The sun smiles with a silent shout And light returns to meet our need As out of death this daily birth Of life itself wraps round the earth
Embraced by hope through patience we Learn in return eternity
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
May 3, 2006, 9:13 pm
Death is for Stiffs with No Sense of Humor
Was it my time yet? Apparently not I have been sent back at least for awhile I almost left this life but I forgot That no one leaves until the time has come As life itself reminded with a smile A few shenanigans of spring and some Timely reminders of what I lived for So here I am to live it up some more
No one can ever live down anything In any case so forget about it Especially here at the height of spring What birds sing is true and is no rumor Life is sweet and I no longer doubt it Death is for stiffs with no sense of humor Having seen death up close and eye to eye I have no doubt: I am too young to die
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
May 3, 2006, 3:59 am
Like Comfortable Lions in the Sun
We are and have always been family So many years now and here we are still With nothing about which to disagree Closer than ever yet closer we will Be and the question is answer to me That yes you and I will be together Because we are now and always will be And never mind how long when or whether Some things just are like the moon in the sky A simple inevitability We simply enjoy without knowing why
It may lack drama it may lack suspense Does not unfold operatically But makes us happy and makes its own sense Like comfortable lions in the sun Of an afternoon lie contentedly Next to each other two happy as one We rest in natural affinity Sunrise sunset unending unbegun Such is our mellow mutuality That which just is does not just come undone We are and will always be family
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
May 1, 2006, 6:10 pm
Just the Two of Us
If I am an outsider and you are too That means I am not an outsider with you Together you and I with one another Form our own inside as sister to brother As comrade to comrade come in from the cold To fountains of youth where we never grow old The water of which is curiosity
The very essence of life which you share with me
The war will get worse great monster storms will come Unimagined terrors are well underway Yet through strife and bird flu you and I share some Sweet and secret moments on the darkest day Just the two of us as what will be will be If you are an outsider and I am too Then we are insiders who know what to do
Our eyes are wide open now: as we wait ...and see
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 29, 2006, 6:24 pm
Jesus is a Worker Too
1 May Anno Domini 2006
The Lord Jesus is Latino In solidarity I know With those who strive and struggle hard To clean your house and mow your yard While like him they are rejected By hypocrites you elected
For Jesus is a worker too Would that you let him work for you
+Steven Curtis Lance
Fiat justitia ruat mundus
Copyright MMVI
Apr 28, 2006, 7:10 pm
Poetry Competition
Poets spend their lives in competition Not on teams but each completely alone In a solitary undertaking From a unique personal position Each in a world of each poet's making One which to anyone else is unknown Nor does it matter what anyone thinks Except for the one doing the thinking
Each alone in daily repetition Dives into deep water without blinking Into the spring where the mountain goat drinks Competing not against each other but Only the self in a personal quest For the highest purest noblest and best The unattainable no matter what
But we attain a little more each day A little closer yet further away
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 27, 2006, 3:50 pm
We Share and Are Thankful
"The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season; thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing."
One at my window and one at my knee Two cats are hungry and looking to me The source whence each day mysteriously Cat food arrives and some kitty treats too
Therefore they watch to see what I will do
Ravens and opossums wonder as well The former by sight the latter by smell They keep their distance but keep tabs on me Wary of my cat companions you see
Soon enough all of them will feast their fill God is in heaven and I am here still
Give me this day O Lord my daily bread And enough too for my friends to be fed
Twelve of the clock and the St. John's bells ring We share and are thankful for everything Some in the garden and some in the tree One at my window and one at my knee
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 26, 2006, 3:00 pm
Take Me
Your hair is almost as long as you are It goes on and flows and cascades so far No one would ever imagine hair could Pour such a paradise for you and me There in your warm breath where I want to be No one could imagine no one else should There is no one who has hair like you do
Rain forest canopy deep rich and good Your burnished-copper skin my treasure too There where your heart beats so hard I can see Wrap me up with love in your darkness where My dreams are all found hidden in your hair I have dreamed about you for so long now Your body wrapped with mine in velvet night
I know I have to be with you somehow Take me then take me home to your bronze breast My body wrapped with yours in velvet night Under your canopy deepest and best Where duality becomes unity While riding our riddling reality Completed in complementarity
Wrap me up with love in your darkness there Is nothing like the sound the scent the sight Where at your heartbeat your love rings out free Throbbing like the drumbeat of destiny Where limbs and lives together are grasping Where hands and hearts together are clasping There where our breath together comes gasping
Anything possible everything right
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 25, 2006, 1:48 am
I Think I Love You
One of the things I like about you One of many Is how you think about what you do Instead of just following blindly Fill-in-the-blank forms Of commonday norms But with care considered and kindly With integrity intentional You do the things you do thoughtfully Without any Compromise with the conventional
Despite all the pressure to perform In a certain way I know you will Resist all the clamor to conform Which you hear each day Be yourself still One reason you mean so much to me You are real and true This is something which I can always Count on to get me through the dark days I can count on you
And you are just right just as you are I think I love you ...if from afar
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 23, 2006, 3:16 pm
Beyond Actuarial Eschatology
out of time (in a good way)
As I explore time as I dig and delve In eschatology of humankind Twenty-One December of Twenty-Twelve The Mayan end of days comes to my mind Perhaps I might have had enough by then Of numbering days and be ready when Time drops off sharply and ceases to be Perhaps that might be time enough for me
Yet I remember Nineteen Eighty-Four As not so futuristic anymore
Although its politics have come to pass Government probing us all up the ass I suppose I will still be here to see The future in hindsight Twenty-Twenty And should that be all that would be plenty Although no one knows the day nor the hour When the stock exchange rings the final bell Each of us right now holds time in our power:
To live our days kindly wisely and well To make life more like heaven less like hell
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 22, 2006, 2:18 am
Raven
One raven on the once-bare tree Grooms its feathers as I can see All around it green buds sprouting And each bud looks like hope to me I no longer hear the shouting Of that erstwhile majority As mockingbirds fall silent now
The former foes unanimous Our leaders are misleading us
This solitary bird today Bears truth which will not go away Inconvenient reality For those who would misrule through lies As spring is born as winter dies Bears witness to our hope somehow That as buds burst at last we rise
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 20, 2006, 1:20 pm
As I Look in Your Eyes
Based on our past our future might look discouraging Yet I choose to hope the young will have better sense Than their elders whose hatreds have been so intense When the young speak of their dreams it is encouraging
And anyone could do better than we have done
Although my generation never listened to me So my effect on things was limited at best They liked my books as they shook their heads at the rest But the young know that they hold the keys of destiny
That the world can be saved that its people are one
Although now it is dying the young know they must save This home of ours because it is the only one we Have ever known and they alone can do it: be brave My young friends the hope of our world belongs to you
As I look in your eyes I see I am young too
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 19, 2006, 8:18 am
Poltroons Buffoons Jackanapes and Scalawags
One poltroon and one buffoon met in the square one day And each one wished the other one would go away The buffoon cried "boo!" to which the poltroon asked "boo who?" They had reached an impasse and neither knew what to do When some jackanapes with a squad of scalawags Swept on the scene and bundled both in burlap bags
Their tempers were ruffled their "boos!" and "boo whos?" muffled Yet their protestations were heard by the passersby Who reacted with indifference but asked "why Should we care about these silly hobbledehoys? Whether bundled in those bags or not they just make noise"
The jackanapes and scalawags took them out of town Releasing them but not before hosing them down Nor before having jolly jinks at their expense For poltroon and buffoon both a fitting recompense Wherein the punishment quite rightly fit the crime After which the passersby passed this stern rule by rhyme:
"Should a poltroon and buffoon meet in the square someday That which is just is that they must both be sent away"
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 18, 2006, 12:59 pm
A Stripling a Scamp and a Hobbledehoy
When I was a young thing a slip of a boy A stripling a scamp and a hobbledehoy If queried in Spanish I answered "yo soy" Or now and again when in German "ich bin" Sing a ding dong derry sing it high and low I just say "I am" instead of "yes" or "no"
Should you ask me what I am I could not say I only know this is a beautiful day To be and since it is I would like to be Whatever I am since all I am is me Sing a ding dong derry sing it short and long Curly Moe and Larry might have sung this song
Since we have no stooges here except for us We had better call a cab or take the bus Forget the past and future let now begin All the time we have is the time we are in If queried in Spanish to answer "yo soy" Or now and again when in German "ich bin"
A stripling a scamp and a hobbledehoy
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 17, 2006, 10:31 am
That Brand Still Burns Which Once Was Burned
Driven out from the Baptist church Branded as homosexual My absence left them in the lurch To others less effectual Since by this they deprived their choir Of the benefits of my hire My background was Republican But it suited me not at all I was a curious young man Unsuited to their cramped and small Solutions to larger questions
I questioned their explanation And offered my own suggestions Reaping righteous indignation Culminating in expulsion Cast out from the conservatives With misdirected revulsion Out to where the other half lives This was when I was seventeen I am surprised to still be here Yet here I am now big as life Those Baptists bound and gagged by fear
While in the interval between I had three children had a wife Became a German Lutheran Liberal Democratic man Concordia University Full scholarship Class of 'Eighty-Two The poet +Steven Curtis Lance Quite harmless even useful to Society for having learned A lesson of intolerance The hard way nor will I judge you
A silk purse made of sow's-ear me By way of one hard lesson learned
That brand still burns which once was burned
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 15, 2006, 7:49 pm
Enough
When is enough enough? Soon it becomes too much Then we begin Over again Stuffing ourselves with stuff
We are starving to touch Another soul To be made whole We must give stuff away To have enough today
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 15, 2006, 5:47 pm
Autobiographical Dust
The famous and the infamous Write their autobiographies Manifestly neither of these Just one more misfit among us Or else among you I should say
(Being a misfit is that way) Since my life is not exciting I only write poems today
Yet some say I should be writing About my eccentricities What I have been what I might be That maybe someone would buy it As a book then should I try it
But I barely know poetry And who wants to hear anyway From some self-published nobody?
They say I might make some money But too late for that now honey On websites fancy folks have fun Pretending to be somebodies They are not fooling anyone
I like to write poetry just As what I do before the dust Reclaims us all ...and fancies me
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 14, 2006, 8:12 pm
Road Song
To be able to write the English tongue Have a sense of humor and be well-hung A wandering poet singing unsung Is quite enough to be and never mind That money honey which I left behind To pay all those bills and cure all those ills With which society had burdened me I slipped their bloody hands and wriggled free
So baby it is you and me out here This road ahead rolls on who knows how far The only thing we have to fear is fear Of which we have none just this moon this star This moment and this kiss for luck this love Around this earth beneath this sky above
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 13, 2006, 11:52 am
"How Naive of Me"
How naive of me To believe in fate When at last I see Life is more or less A hideous game Of beautiful lies Tragicomedy Too little too late
TV screens flicker A grotesque burlesque Reflecting blind eyes Beyond love past hate No one is to blame Looking back it was Meaningless I guess
Another fool tries Another lost cause Impossible odds The rich write the laws Yet the fool chooses Hope which cannot be Bets all and loses
Laughed at by false gods Of insanity As the hopeless jeer And the dead snicker Another fool dies To get out of here Another fool sighs: "How naive of me"
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 11, 2006, 3:06 am
Family
In eight installments I paid off my past In eight books each more heartfelt than the last And now as I prepare to leave the scene I know the peace of mind of having been Heard and understood at least by those who I did all this for: I did it for you
Who read these words of mine at this late hour Who know that there is more to life than power I was no one only one of many Outcast and poor who never had any
But I wrote about it all the way down Remaining with my ship and now I drown And yet for all of this my dream came true I never had any regrets nor do I here at the end: respect to you friend Respect and solidarity and love
It was my great adventure the time of My life with all the bad and all the good I am content: I spoke you understood That makes us family now you and me
A family whose power is poetry
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 10, 2006, 6:19 am
Throw Your Stones
I no longer care if I die in the street If I live free there that is all right with me Home or homeless live or die I will be free To triumph in death as you live in defeat
I did what I came here for and I am proud To have given it all the best I could do I have no regrets and I spit it out loud: Judge me all you want I am as good as you
You feel so fat and fine with all your money But judgment approaches now to take you down You see the people looking at you funny? They are coming for you now: marching uptown
So go home and lock your door get on the floor All both of us have left is to wait and see The people do to you what you did to me They know who you are what they are coming for
I did what I came here for and I am proud To have given it all the best I could do I have no regrets and I spit it out loud: Judge me all you want I am as good as you
Throw your stones you sons of bitches go ahead You can never be like me alive or dead
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 8, 2006, 7:18 pm
Incurious George
Smirking artificial cowboy Incurious George W Your followers watch you destroy Their hope: you are in trouble you Are past the point of no return Now and it is too late to learn At this late hour to do your job
Now as you face the angry mob The angriest of all are they Who must explain your crimes away
Crass counterfeit false everyman Incurious George W In World War III without a plan
Now what in the world will you do?
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 8, 2006, 3:50 am
Dance Me Spring
Bursting buds bloom bigger in my weary sight Some something has intruded on my endless night I know spring is here now because I can see Paired-off parrots preening in the tall pecan tree
The click click click of my kind cat's quiet claws Purrs pointillistic patter on the hard oak floor He heard the lovebirds scream but knew that it was Just another sign of spring outside our back door
Where the sky is painted green with rutting birds Who squawk a poetry beyond these English words Easter lilies sprout in "the memorial park" Which is nonetheless "the cemetery" ...after dark
So in the light of spring it seems that life goes on Dance me spring shine and entrance me to oblivion
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVI
Apr 7, 2006, 2:59 am
Sawyers and Lawyers
Sawyers once did with their saws That which lawyers once did with our laws They simply used them No one refused them One never hears of sawyers anymore Having no saws lawyers used our laws Now they abuse them
Thus I refuse them Since the one I had was a money-whore Who screwed me Then Eschewed me When The money was gone
But now comes the dawn Of the reckoning: Justice beckoning
No more therefore No money-whore Nowhere near me With that perverted lust for power Of attorney At hundreds of dollars per hour And blood the fee
I will bloom as the lotus flower Although it be in poverty
Let lawyers lie beneath the lawn Even by sawyers forgotten There where wood can no more be sawn Where wood as their word is rotten
