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