Ship of Wonderful Things

I AM a ship of wonderful things.
My heart and mind have traveled and learned.
My evolution for now is complete.
I return to the home port with my treasures.
My ship is too large to fit in the slips here.
I have the wisdom to know what to do.
I AM the wise captain of all that I AM.
I will anchor off shore beyond the gaze of the villagers.
I will humbly row into the village with my small boat.
I will visit the village on foot.
I will risk showing only a small part of who I AM.
Everything else will be waiting for me out there on my ship.
I will eat and talk as the locals do, playing their games.
When it is time, I will row quietly back to my ship.
There I will joyfully reunite with all that I AM.
Then I will travel to ports made to accommodate ships like my own.
There I will arrive with all that I AM.

-Kelly Write Away

Past Imperfect

"includes folk misspellings and made up words symbolic of imperfect recollections and selective repetitive recollection of kin folk everywhere "

If memories yielded more interesting prizes
Instead of a snowballing load of missed chances abided

I'd listen more closely and shy away less
Begging for more insight and meaningful signages

If memories blossomed as wisdom and light
Instead of 'I should haves' and wasted alliances

The elderly wouldn't be lonely
I wouldn't be impatient
Burying my own memories as diseased seeds of bindages

Morphing the rational with doubt and fear left
From hearing the failures and judgments laid down

Our ancestors pass along caution and fret
Diminishing courage as chained ankles in sweat.

                                         -Kelly Write Away
                                         recipient of unprocessed occurrences from elderly family members

The Game at the Edge of the Forest

I walk with my aged Mother
Through this year of connection
Together in proximity to
Know and comfort one another

I sit in the forest glade summoning her
She stays at the edge of the forest
Afraid to come out of the protection
I am afraid to join her in the forest

We have spent many days there
In melancholy
Performing to pass the time with
Games of order we meet
Evenly minded through
The symbols and numbers
Still relevant and true

The cards reveal a truth
"You just never know"
No amount of experience
Disproves this truth

The forest is as written
The forest of the unknown
I want to show her what
Is on the other side
But i don't know which path
She doesn't know either

So we sit together
In silence sometimes
Letting the orderly game
Guide us steadily through
Many beginnings and endings

This game brings comfort and
A call to order of different thoughts
Focused on the reminder
At some deep familiar level
We both know this is all
A part of the game
Any of which can provide
A surprise ending making us
Want to start all over again
Hoping to see and learn something more

Each game is played with the same deck
Shuffled differently each time
A lifetime of choices
Sometimes courageous sometimes passive
Sometimes lucky sometimes predictably flat
Sometimes thrilling sometimes only time consuming

Ordered by four symbols
Varying rules
Different players
Each culture draws comfort and meaning
As we are now
At the edge of the forest.

-Kelly Voelker

Snow Daze

I have lost track of days
I have lost track of hours
My thoughts in a haze
Of poetry and flowers
With snow piling up
Purposes halted
Sleep entertains me and
Friendships exalted

-Kelly Voelker

Irresponsible Wind

The gospel of the forecast
Whose homily is lived daily by
Could not keep up with the
Wind which hurried the snow along
Not allowing it to exit on cue

The wind kept the snow out much later
As they danced and danced
In the darkness alone
All eyes afraid to enter their theater
For fear of the cold bitten wince

And so the dance continued
As everyone worried the
Snow might be late for
A forecast elsewhere.

-Kelly Voelker

Creator Seed

To write is to give priority
To something other than your brain
Other than your punctuality or hygiene
Other than your perpetual juggling
Of other people's demands

To write is to
Give your heart a voice
Allowing others to see
Another choice
Another way
Another idea
Born as a creation
From the Creator seed inside
Let it grow forever

We all come with
A Creator chip installed
It's a free app
Use it.

-Kelly Voelker

Joy of Letting Go

Let go and let the dance hall spin
Taking others taking wins
Round and up and out past ten
Round and up and out past when
You thought the highs were highest then
Round and up and out again

Let go now let inertia take
Outer limits thrills awake
Farther faster bigger best
Simple focuses equate
Making sense of senseless acts
Round and up and out at last!

-Kelly Voelker

Dose of Wonder

Each day's dose of wonder
To kick-start the day
With impossible outcomes
Held possible may
Through forces of wonder
Though veiled beyond reach
I feel the hope promised
The secret I'll keep
Because no one will ask me
No one's interest is piqued
Familiar to me
As a daily sure feast
My sure source of wonder
For now is discreet.

-Kelly Voelker

Worth all the Trouble

The year I forgot to record in my mind
The year I fussed over a calendar's pace
Omitting the year it represented in haste
The year I took out of my life as a whole
To rectify relationships with family inside
An envelope kept in the drawer of a lifetime
Saved to address and read between unwritten lines

I'll take all the time I need to be here
Relaxed and to linger and not rush away
Nor to be herded in branded old pens
I will ride round the range
Interacting  like twins

One of me holding space anchored at bay
One of me caring and serving today
Making up for lost yesterdays long
Year upon year chasing scripts to platteau
Ever just climbing and tidying loose ends

Now I have reached it
The mesa, the view
The place overlooked is home
Rarely so visited never to stay as long
As loved ones require to
Feel I was worth all the trouble to tire.

-Kelly Voelker

Changing yet Certain

Thank God for the rivers
Whose form still is seen
Upon maps as borders
Waving along territories
Squared in by lines

Rivers are not challenged
When ownership  changes
When fences form grids
Through hills and flat ranges

Rivers respected
Left to their business
They are sovereign
From ages of choosing their place
At the bottom of valleys
They rule and relate

Everything, all of us,
Plants, men and animals
Relate to the rivers as one
Even aligators
Remain through unfathomable
Amounts of time's changes

Because of rivers
Curving through and along
Changing yet certain
Amending and long.

-Kelly Voelker

Above our Efforts

Land engaged for human's will
All is fenced and linear tilled
The winter blanches color out
Winds blow violent, gentle out

The highway bends to acquiesce
Hypnotized as I exist
To drive these miles for points to earn
Towards society's progress spurred

In the sky my heart finds joy
To see some geese in V's
Ordered in some magic direction
Knowing more than me for certain

Holding original space and ways
For us to see how wild's not tamed
These creatures live with no conditions
Put upon by rules or traditions

What awe inspiring sight behold
They're wild, successful ways foretold
Long before the rows and fences
Above our efforts, they'll never vanish.

-Kelly Voelker

Cloud of Dainty Song

In a miniature fury
We ride the wind
Settling on the bare treetops
Like a chiffon veil

We add specks to the tree
With our distant silhouettes
Above the auditory range
Our song breaks through

Heard by only a few
Sensitive ears
Plastic whistles heard
From over the horizon

Distant hollow whistles
Woodwind sounds in
Intermittent harmony
With the bare branches

In reality up close
We are clothed in
A costume so sacred
Both humble and Angelic

Both Earth and Sky
Painted color as delicate
As vintage Japanese teacups
Head accented by feather hat

Eyes hidden by black streak
To protect us from
Any inappropriate gaze
We see only a few sensitive you

We survive existing together
As a cloud of dainty song
Away from your longing
To see us entirely we thrive

Alone we would not sustain
Vibration aloft for
Such a dense place as this
We need each other to remain discreet*

*discreet - intentionally unobtrusive

NOTE FROM AUTHOR:  I was verifying definitions, and realized discrete and discreet mean two different things.  I merely misspelled discreet to discover this.  This in turn made me realize Cedar Waxwings are mostly discreet to us, but on a higher plane are discrete.  To be discrete makes them vulnerable to our lower plane, but to be discreet protects them and their higher physical station in this often brutal world.

**discrete - individually separate and distinct

-Kelly Voelker