Sunlight and Shadows

Finding poetry in star dust, sunbeams, and passing clouds

  • Rubber Hits the Road

    Bright orange barrels, pointed cones

    Waddling along fast freeway roads

    Rubber ducks lined up in weaving rows

    Blocking off great chunks of lanes

    Squeezing traffic into narrow streams

    So close one flick fells all the dominoes

    City streets of bumpy rock

    Asphalt scraped to corduroy

    Acrid scent from sticky pavement piping

    Piles of dirt round drainage ditches

    Muddy puddles, roped-off sidewalks

    Lines of paint in white and yellow striping

    Bridges out, work at the tracks

    Miles of country road are closed

    Marbles roll on detours, long and late

    Flagger ahead on one-way lanes

    Wait forever while no one goes

    Welcome to Ohio, the orange barrel state

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  • Decisions

    There’s so many ways to weigh a way

    Whether by night or whether by day

    The choice is yours, it’s you who must say

    Whether it’s right or it goes astray

    There’s so many scenes either seen or unseen

    Uncertain things to tell what they mean

    Caught in a question of what’s in between:

    A foot worthy bridge or a hidden ravine

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  • Autumn Evening

    I remember those September nights a’rocking on the porch

    With the easy evening breezes licking round the candle torch

    Golden splashes, shadowed lashes in the fading dusky light

    Flickered flames like mentioned names that all dissolve into the night

    Wood joints clicking, needles picking yarn up in tight stitches

    Crickets pattering, sparrows chattering down in brushy ditches

    Killdeer keening, red hawks preening out in half bare trees

    Furry flashes – rabbit dashes through dry cornfield seas

    Wood smoke thinned on the wind, tendrils whispering of fall

    Russet scent of cornhusks spent, first of harvest’s haul

    Cooling tea beside my knee of chamomile and mint

    Wafting slow in low sun’s glow, a pearl of china glint

    Sunset brushes red rouge blushes over rippling plains

    Darkness washes liquid splashes, spreading azure stains

    Pinpoint stars from sprinkled jars wink across the sky

    Summer night and pale moonlight, a memory lullaby

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  • Symphony of the Year

    January meanders like lanky saxophones

    Drawling wintry jazz in dark minor tones

    Tinny harpsichords ring in February

    Slinging brittle notes of an icy rhapsody

    March sails in on a dancing fiddle reel

    It flies high, low, fast, and slow with energetic zeal

    Winds turn to rain in April’s sonatas

    Piano keys pattering etudes and cantatas

    May flutters by with breezy sweet flute trills

    Bright chirping melodies of birds and green hills

    June cascades in sunny twirling tempos

    It blooms in rolling bluegrass licks and twanging banjos

    A brass band marches in on July heat

    With blasting horns, great tubas, and heavy metal beat

    August unfurls a grand orchestra symphony

    Flashing strings, thundering drums, and woodwind melody

    Rustic folk music slows the rhythm in September

    Guitar tunes float over harvests in cooling weather

    Trumpets herald October with vivid hues so bold

    A fanfare of color in regal red and gold

    November’s violins promenade a farewell

    They pirouette and waltz like twirling leaves that fell

    December rings out with tinkling bells of cheer

    A joyful silver glitter on the rhythm of the year

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  • Shared Road

    It only takes a little word

    A gentle hug, a smile

    To lift a fellow traveler on

    A long and lonesome mile

    The smallest things bring greatest joy

    The love that evil can’t destroy

    The strength through every trial

    It only takes a little word

    Of cutting scorn or blame

    To drag another traveler down

    And leave them hurt or lame

    The crushing barbs will stick and spurn

    Wreck every bridge and good times burn

    From spark to roaring flame

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  • Dreamland

    Dusk falls in a lullaby

    Rosy clouds caress the sky

    Every bird flies to its nest

    Animals and insects rest

    Music from the stars sings down

    Lyrics for the moon’s sweet sound

    And children tucked into their beds

    Nod off to sleep with weary heads

    Dream sweetly on until the dawn

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