Sadness

If someone clever
Slipped away to play
And I was left with no direction
No idea could come to pass
With sadness, sadness holding fast
Weighing down my face and eyes
Some well meaning souls
Offer to take me along
For entertainment or storage
But I too sad to accept or
To numb and bereft
Feel my joyfulness was spent
On love and aspirations went
Leave me to the woods and leaves
To retreat and replenish with greater speed.

-Kelly Voelker

*bereft - to be deprived of something
**replenish - fill or build up again

Leavened Dread

 I fear once again the nature of my optimism

Kept in this petri dish study

Will inflate as leavening

Fed by the slightest bit of sweetness

Raising a mass of simple ingredients 

Towards the goal of something 

Which could be enjoyed by all

Yet inevitably gets punched down

To the same level from which it started

That same chronic level of Spartan compliance

Baked into commercial goods

Shunned by artisans 

Who starve in their isolation

By way of insisting on finer and finer 

Focus to delight those imagined few

Who might notice or care

An audience of one or two fair

Resulting in sarcasm

Unwilling to entertain or dare.

-Kelly Voelker

What is Humble?

Humble, as an attribute,
Stands quietly in the distance
As a familiar mountain range
Or the shape of a known landmark
Slightly ahead of
And bowing aside
As others pass it steeped in pride.

Its balanced buoyancy
Keeps it calm
Acquired over time
A ballast of prime proofs
A chalice of found truths
Authentically derived
Offered without words
For all to drink from
If they would ask.

This sequence is key
To knowing the purity
Of the bare plain safety
Of the humble soul
As a lone tree offering
Shelter from competition
Peace from the heckling public
Rest for the weary newcomer
Who walks the Earth blind.

-Kelly Voelker

Productive Poise

She behaved and was punctual
Day in and day out
She prepared, preserved, planned and did
She reserved her opinions
Refrained from the crown
Refused to dream outside
As procedure surrounds
But the Buffalo was silent
The Raven was roost
The Ibis was wading and silent to boot
So where was the magic, the thrill and the loft?
Patient and waiting 'til systems produced
The useful whole offspring of planning and couth. 

-Kelly Voelker

*couth - good manners; refinement.

Autumn Grounding

The Raven was with her mind
As it floated o'er the tides
Inspiration waves and ebbs comprise
Still not landing
Where toil and thoughts blend
Laughter and profanity cackled aside
Her ease as she lowered
Descended and died.

-Kelly Voelker

When an Enigma Dies

As I perceive through a spiritual lens
And accept the changes and amends
I'm coming short of reconciling
A departure of one beguiling

To know the hidden highlights
The lively encounters
The dynamic pursuits
Dimmed by waning hopes
Hidden in time by decades
Before my arrival on the scene

To know one so effected by beauty and life
Could no more share the same planet
Could no more be within physics
Tests the chasm between
The realms I know of and
The realms my body resides in

The bridge won't allow me to cross
To see for myself how it is
To be neither here nor anywhere
But an actual part of peacefulness
Renouncing the human qualities
Known by all but in truth false

No more having the will
To generate an acceptable image
No more willing or able to
Arrange a jolly gathering
Or beguile a single other soul
As now not of features or flaws
Not a creature with claws
A facet of wonder now pervasive beyond
What our ideas and words can respond.

-Kelly Voelker

Beguile -  1. charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in a deceptive way.
2. LITERARY - help (time) pass pleasantly.

Waning -1.  (of the moon) have a progressively smaller part of its visible surface illuminated, so that it appears to decrease in size.
2. (especially of a condition or feeling) decrease in vigor, power, or extent; become weaker.

Hence

As photos dissolve into digital images
Organized on a man-made information cloud
As books become hence, transferred from
author to reader by invisible means
As paintings become digital photographs
enhanced by the light of computer screens
As consciousness sees the world through
technological portals
The memories, the expressions, once
assisted by plants via paper and canvas
Can be owned by us and our own creations
The warehousing and curating of material
Expressions will dissolve, and resources
Freed back to their own natural realms
after ages of division in purpose
We had no other way
The lighter and freer sharing of thought
Beauty and memories automatically
Organized better than before
Disappearing forever once witnessed and born.

-Kelly Voelker

Hence -
1.  as a consequence; for this reason.

2.

in the future (used after a period of time).

Plain Truth

In my mind
Exists the intention
To take in beauty
To observe as
A simple intvention
Asking supreme design
For a crumb, a tid-bit
A pixel, a misfit
A signpost of truth
From designs to unwrap
Hidden in my mind
A treasure of moments
To pass on or amplify
Highlight or pacify
In my mind ideas
Like tumbled plain stones
Become more beautiful
When turned and polished
In my mind are treasures
I reach in to choose
What shall this day reveal
Which thought will thus pose?

-Kelly Voelker

plain - 1. not decorated or elaborate; simple or ordinary in character.

             2.

(of a person) having no pretensions; not remarkable or special.

3.  clearly; unequivocally (used for emphasis).

           4.  a large area of flat land with few trees.

Time Erases Significance

Time erases the significance of everything.  

Current significance exists 

Because of inherited attachments.  

Create something beautiful.

Beauty is the only valid legacy. 

-Kelly Voelker

Morning Grains

The horses and insects
Stand still in first light
Of a new early morning
Positioned to soak in
Golden warmth melting
The chill of the night

I too sit still daily
In the first morning's sun
As the horse I am idle
Browsing the array
Of what's before me
In a leisurely way

Soon come directives
Saddles and reins
Mornings are precious
About idle not bridle
About grains and
Not gains.

-Kelly Voelker

WORDS NUMBERS MUSIC

I can leave this plane at any time
Into a system of words
To play, be entertained
Arranging words until
Sometimes a truth
The words already knew
Is displayed to me
Yes, displayed in words
As if the plane of words
Had its own superior ancient consciousness.

I see at once with this realization
The natural tendency for others
To leave this plane also
There are two other similar planes
With their own innate
Intelligence seemingly waiting for us
To arrange things in a way
That we discover answers and patterns
Displayed before us in the language
Of each other similar plane
These other planes are numbers and music

So are words, numbers and music expressed
In characters so that we can more easily
With words numbers and notes
Play in realms of intelligence
Infinite in scope yet orderly in composition
So that we may replay favorite knowns
And discover any number of unknowns
At our leisure without a fee
As a standard benefit of being human?

-Kelly Voelker

Church as a Catch Pen

What I learned from the bi bull?
A question I asked
Alone I was puzzled
A simple enough task

Nothing . . . the answer
Oh wait there's one thing
The adults in my village
Are not intelligent or
Sensitive enough to feel
Or express that it means
Less than nothing
In their lives. . . to be real.

A peer pressured guilt
Or shame to admit
Fences them in
With an open gate.

-Notes to sELF

Catch Pen - The catch pen is an area where the cattle can easily be gathered and sorted. ... Each catch pen should be large enough to provide approximately 18 square feet per animal. The crowding pen, often referred to as the tub, directs cattle from the catch pen and funnels them into the alley.