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

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.

My Name

If my name were initials
A symbol together
My essence to hold
One letter would steer me
One letter would fly
Together in tandem
To signify Phi
One letter the handles
Of a bicycle
The other the head
Of a butterfly with
Multifaceted eyes
Antennae light in the wind
Sensing the softest
Differentiating air
All around would be pollen
Stardust and embers.

-Kelly Voelker

Iris = One

I contemplate the I AM
Without true meaning known
The explanations hollow
The scriptures won't bestow
A deep and integrating
Knowing from inside
But all along it's been here
Growing every spring
In my hometown gardens
In artist's favorite things
It is the Living Iris
So common that it's void
Of meaning or enlightenment
A fleeting burst of joy
I've always had a reverence
For these unique flowers
As exotic as the orchid
The Midwest's own endowed
It's time to seek them out now
The season is at hand
Examine with full focus
Their exquisite high design
Unfolding in unlikely
Unattended scenes
Displaying truth that beauty
Cannot be so erased
By neglect or abandonment
By drought or hottest sun
The iris comes back always
It's I R ... I is . . . ONE

-Kelly Voelker

Auto Finish

Yesterday opened a chute
Gravity was waiting there
Ready to receive
What the Center will transmute
Somewhere a silent sun
Masked by the light of One
We call the Sunshine

The chute opened at night
When all waves became troughs
The moon was irrelevant
Pulling its way but the Center
Pulled harder and I trusted it

I gave away my idea of what I should be
Leaving only what I AM
All the moral debts paid towards
Countless bad investments
All the blame for making these decisions
All the blame for not seeing the risk
All the blame for not finishing
A race which I cancelled

I was not meant to produce
I was meant to create
What has value only to
Others who create beauty
Out of deep contemplation
Out of casual accidents of beauty
Born from the act of merely starting

What I was meant to produce
Finishes itself because I introduce
The Source of Creation to those
Who doubt it comes through
Each of us as we are turned
Uniquely inside out.

-Kelly Voelker