My New Home

I step outside and realized I'm welcomed everywhere I see outside my home.  As far as I would choose to wander is mine for the moment, yet requires nothing of me except shared reality. Ownership is remote and has trusted decisions when needed to be mine.  Otherwise the precise geometry of the large pines and self regulating pastures and fence lines guide and remain automatically. The creatures seen and unseen have well established patterns and knowledge of the area in which I may live as if in a natural basket of well being.

The house has waited for us, with our expertise, to repair and focus attention on those hidden problems which others do not see.  The goal is to make the house hum with precision and secure boundaries between the outside and inside where two different sets of rules apply. 

I honor the field mouse and tree frogs nearby, which have shown themselves to me one by one.  I agree on their habitat and will delight in watching the mouse run through open pasture like a miniature deer. I will listen to the tree frog sing as I work in the garage.  The catbirds patrol my outside windows for insects, meow from the hidden pine boughs and perch at the pinnacle of the pines; a vector of known mathematics to some supreme designer of catbirds and wind-resistant trees.

Kelly Voelker

The Village I Left

 The village I left

Again and again

This time the last

I know as a fact

There are no more reasons

For ever coming back

There's nothing left to write

Nothing left to observe

No one to visit

Nowhere to splurge.

-Kelly Voelker

Where There Are No Memories

 A bright and cool autumn morn

Is leaving me feeling forlorn

Even as the obvious beauty of the day

Promises the best for work or play

I remember working with my father

Feeling how far from this I've come

I don't know what I'm becoming

As my guidance is unseen

But each intricate skill and task

I've dreamed of and now mostly done

Leaves a feeling of satisfaction

In its familiar yet totally foreign spin

On the person others 'round here know

Who is but a shell I will outgrow

I want to put myself where

There are no memories which

Constantly want to shape

The growth I have enjoyed to date. 

-Kelly Voelker

Between the Seasons

 The wind had went down

The sun was near set

The football team so far has led

The feeder birds had all been fed

Doves were near silent in groups on the ground

Geese too were quiet and flying around

A half grown kitten was safe by a house

His mother was playing nearby with a mouse

Some of the trees had gold on the top

The outcomes were known so far as the crops

Decisions were made and questions were known

I'm enjoying the silence and walking alone.

-Kelly Voelker

The Chemical of Love

I remember

The pastel sky was calm

Behind tall palm trees always in threes

As the light faded he pointed to something

In the sky there was a pattern of stars

Not known to me before 

Which he said, "Is your sign"

Scorpius is dominant this time of year

Then and there the whole season was mine

Everything I've always wanted

In a new place which always looked like vacation

I know now it was the chemicals of love

Making each of us more special

Grand enough to dominate the sky

Soft enough to remain in constant wonder

If this chemical were used in the water system

Instead of fluoride

All of humanity would feel their connection 

To each other and to the macrocosm of wonder we share.

-Kelly Write Away

The Only Secret

 The only secret I ever kept

Was sealed off from others

Without an attempt from them to wonder,

Speculate or guess

Why my life to them didn't make much sense.

The only secret I ever kept

Was the brilliant and clever

Way I was exempt

From the fate or the fracture that others have told

As long as the stories reoccur from the old.

I succeeded for a long time riding the crest

Of a wave between freedom and surely contempt

From others who walk a more well traveled road

They wouldn't believe me even if I had told.

-Kelly Write Away