I decided to take my poetry and commit it to one single thread, making it easier for friends and visitors to find it and for me to link to in my signature.
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Siren Song

I've had my fill of city life
with it's steel and concrete sprawl
I'm for a quiet country life
and I must obey the call

The years I've spent in this concrete maze
should slake it's vampire thirst
so I'm saying farewell to the smog and haze
and I'm putting my sanity first

I'll find some land to settle on
maybe an acre or ten
then build me a house with a big front porch
and trees and flowers and then...

I'll no more roam from my country home
but you are always welcome to visit
just give me a call before you come,
that's not much to ask, now, is it?

California Tableau

In California
where seasons never change
the best kind of oak leaf
or maple are the ones rain-swept brown
and orange from their mother tree
and left like gifts on my patio -
reminders that there is beauty
even in death.

Horse Play

A sound of hoof-beats brightly thundered
down the meadow as I turned to see
a pure remuda of horsey wonder
galloping proudly and running free

Sunlight gleaming off stallion and foal
horse-hide canvasses in russet and gold
whinnying happily and dancing with glee
they took no particular notice of me

But I was filled with such elation and joy
that I knew, though I was only a boy
that I would never forget the sight or the sound
of that moment I shared in their horsing around.

Wheel

I am a cog
in the great wheel
of life

Though I am small
and ordinary
I am indispensible;

without me the
wheel
will not turn

the machinery stops.

You may be a
gear or maybe a rotor
Also integral to operation

we work together, the
machinery that
turns the wheel

round and round.

I am a stone
tossed into a lake
The ripples that my
being
creates
spread geometrically
touching you
as you touch me
Brother rock,
Sister stone
and the water is
the world.

I like, especially siren song, its a sentiment I can very much sympathise with, i'm at my happiest barreling through a wooded path on my mountain bike. there really is something quite blissful about being surrounded by nature. I don't think it can be healthy for humans to be too removed from it, after all we are only animals at the end of the day.

Respectfully,

mal,

Thanks for the kind words, Mal; it's always nice to be noticed. I wrote that poem on a day when the city seemed unusually oppresive for some reason. I find myself yearning for the simpler life almost everyday. Hopefully, I'll eventually make the break, but until then...

If you truely want it, then i'm sure you'll get your wish. The city has many advantages but I think you have to find a balance, far too many people never venture outside of their man-made landscape, and there is little in this world more relaxing than walking in the woods on a sunny day......

respectfully,

Mal,

Stormrider..

OUTSTANDING!!!

Your poetry is deep and actually enjoyable to read..

Keep it coming...




Semper

Thank you very much, Semper. I enjoy writing and poetry is something I especially like, although sometimes the birthing process of a poem can take as long for me as a new mother going through nine months of gestation.

I am trying to post something new at least 2-3 times a month, but we'll see. I hope to have enough quality stuff to make up a collection for publication in the next year, as well. Praise is always accepted but critiiques and suggestions are also welcome, since I don't consider myself to be particularly more readable than anybody else and there is always room for improvement.

Thanks again for your nice review. That's what keeps me writing.:

Originally posted by Stormrider
so I'm saying farewell to the smog and haze
and I'm putting my sanity first

You are in L.A., I assume, SR?

I relate very much to this sentiment, after my tenure in that city.

Originally posted by Essedarius

Originally posted by Stormrider
so I'm saying farewell to the smog and haze
and I'm putting my sanity first

You are in L.A., I assume, SR?

I relate very much to this sentiment, after my tenure in that city.

Yes, I am in L.A., at least for the time being; I have plans to head for "calmer seas" by the end of the year, though. To borrow a phrase from an old Canned Heat song, " I'm going up the country, got to get away",