Endeavor's Trail

We do not grow into templates
Or soar by flight plan
We do not live to fulfill
What others envision
Or even master what
Towards we are driven
Instead our lives build upon
Complicated networks
Time and motivation pawned
For stable stature and a lawn
To what end endeavor's trail
Enjoyment, freedom may derail
More a term, agree, consent
Roles reverse then boundaries set
Perspectives none are cut and dried
Sediment of content rich
Settles after current slows
Looked upon as sky at dusk
A wonder after toil and trust.

-Kelly Voelker

Rain or Slim Chance

Living daydreams of fear within domestic hours
Wondering about changes to plans
Which were borrowed from simpler times
Before opinions were locked
During scheduled decency, holidays lined up
Nothing could stop us from keeping them up
The endless parade over the calender's horizon
The vanishing point of which the future's comprised
From our vantage point nothing much would surprise us
Maybe from now on, we shouldn't rush
To fill up our calendars a year in advance
When we aren't too sure of a rain or slim chance.

-Kelly Voelker

The Vacuum of Doubt

Doubt is a shift
From belief to fulcrum
Powerful or weak
Inviting new information
Thought which will seek

Doubt as a default
Weakens the will
Of others and self
Dampening virtue
Actions then shelved

Doubt as a vacuum
Leaves room for unseen
Forces of benevolence
Scorn or misdeed

Fill your doubts
With better not worse
Empower as someone
With truths to unearth.

-Kelly Voelker

Our Consciousness Withstands

Will the speed of our tomorrow
Allow for the humanity of today?
Will the lapse now in our schedule
Breathe life back in our day?
Will mechanized influences
Damage who we are?
Will the lessor of emotions become
Time consuming waste?
Leaving productivity and
Pressure to make haste.
Recognize advantages
We still have close at hand
Which will keep us human
So our consciousness withstands.

Kelly Voelker

The Disruption

The disruption rife
Ending attachments
Separation from
Earnest practices

Set down upon
Neutral time
Intentions frayed
Emotions stayed
Loyalties played

Let humanity
Refocus purely
Person to person
Look upon
One another

Stay unplugged
A little longer
See reality
Start anew.

-Kelly Voelker

A New Dream Circumspect

I reach for the familiar
To tame the unframed now
Looking for a preview
Of what could come up next
Nothing comes in focus
I remain perplexed

What remains of yesterday
As promise to back up
If I slip from reaching
Beyond what holds true now

A better, newer version
Everything upgrades
Everything renews itself
To simply make the grade

Discomfort in the stretching
Past what we may regret
Create a better system
A new dream circumspect.

-Kelly Voelker

When Progress Receded

Towns once essential
Grew along
Railroads crossing countryside
The newspaper there
An essential bearer of opinion
Open proper government
Order and guide to
Entertainment, social circles
Mercantile and market tides

Laying out an array of
Births and deaths
Meetings and borders
Columns of news
Eagerly awaited
Marking the weeks
Unabated

When progress exceeded
The horses went first
Replaced by machinery
Autos and hearse

When progress receded
Railroad torn out
Storefronts abandoned
Activity ceased
Streets and mortar
Crumble away
Neither passion nor care
Can spare the dismay

The newspaper has no
Word for good bye
No headlines reserved
For itself but
NOTICE I'm going
Dispelled as a proof.

-Kelly Voelker

A Temporary Recess

When schedules break
From orders dictated
Plans, financial gains
Deleted
A temporary recess
In the give and take
Of trade and travel
Time to discuss
What really matters

Pulled away from
Patterns, habits
Sealed just in the current moment
Awaiting news or something on it
Adjust predictions in the dark
Of what the final outcome sparks

Nothing due or really needed
Just the wanting that preceded
This great lapse in systems wide
Makes us doubt
The next high tide.

The Sun and Moon of Spirit

When my spirit faces the sun I string optimism 'round Problems and neglect. I see promise in the condemned Misused and historic relics. When my spirit faces the moon I realize I was seeing the world Through a lens of the future Not seeing right what is important In this particular reality. Not in this town Not at this time Only in this world At magical moments Appearing just often enough To keep my spirit facing the sun As an example or moment To outlast who won And during the moon I'm still here but not seen Waiting for a better day To improve what I see. -Kelly Voelker

Occupy your Neighborhood

Looking out at
A day in January
Nothing moves
Winter's sequence
Slow serene.

In the upper register
Of a monochromatic sky
A small hawk tests the wind
Another follows left behind
Until two hawks glide
Side by side.

Another day of winter's still
A house cat traveling
A visual thrill
Disregarding property or fear
Meandering along, through
Between and to
A random destination near

Be the only, be the one
The moving focal point to see
The singular spectacle
The star attraction
Moving through it as you would
Only you, especially should
Occupy your neighborhood.

-Kelly Voelker

Face of Time

I am the face of time
Can you look at me
Without squirming inside?
My eyes change
As adjustments are made
The way you see me changes
You'll see.

I am the face of time
I no longer try to tell you
That which you wouldn't understand
Because you believe
As you take your stand
In the end result of your notions inclined

I don't speak because I know
I don't seek because I've grown
From the inside in patterns
I can't now express

I'm solid and patient
I'll wait 'til you've spent
Your years of currency
Towards what you expect
I'll be here for sure
When you come to me after
Wanting to know
If I've known your disasters

Wanting to borrow
The time that you've spent
Only to find you've been banking
Pure knowledge of
An infinite kind
Of folly and heartaches
No intentional design
Just a unique catharsis
From intentions sought blind.

-Kelly Voelker

January Village

Bring me soon

A fresh white sheet

With no festoons

A clear and open road

A bright fantastic snow

For my heart rests best

When options are new

Complications few

Chimneys on rooftops

Sending signals of

Peace and warmth

That those inside

Are provided for

And stood by

Always as a village does

Together, winter’s trudge

Through cold then slush

Inviting all to take solace

In the simple pleasures

Owned and honest.

-Kelly Voelker

An Appeal to the Sun

You are missed
The grey days extend
Far as the frontier horizon
Never seems to bend

We know you are contracted
To focus elsewhere more
During this time of the year
We understand the terms

Yet our eyes half open
Much the day long
As our filtered daylight
Seems like a flat backdrop

For some it simplifies
Their day's required tasks
Fewer details, fewer ties
Our known annual last reprise

I somehow feel neglected though
Your radiance is missed
A depth it warms

Although my lament is futile
To express it helps to ease the chill
Longing for your gentle gold
Cheer and joy when shown through snow
Making beautiful the cold.

-Kelly Voelker

Just Wondering

Is this town the sum of
Declining statistics?
Is it a matter of linguistics?
Is our town protective, isolationist
Emotionless, deflationist?

Are we a frontier town
Going from brick to sheet metal?
Is our town a barracks for
Our local schools growing
Young adults for other locales?

Are we a mailing address for
corporations and legal entities?
Actual offices and building space
occupied by stored items not in use?

Are we streamlining our town
For more practical purposes?
Will the last open businesses
Be the mortuary and care center?
Will the churches remain to
Console the grieving and bitter?

Are we tired from unseen parasites
Routinely living off the cream
Our fleeting lives deal
As purveyors of labor
Just taxes no zeal?

Spend some time dreaming
How the face of our town
Will look in your best idea
Thriving through believing or
Neglected, shielded and sleeping?

We aren't leaders
We're just wondering
Where the leaders have gone
We mill around within our routines
Wondering where this will lead
What, who, where, when?

Character Legacy

Take care to amend
Any notions taken in
As part of your status quo

If your character has had
A mechanical failure due to
Not being engineered well

Fix it in time
To carry out your will
Even after your eventual demise.

-Kelly Voelker

You Could

Could you reassure
Calm and restore

Could you expect more
A higher bar of ethics
Becoming kinetics

Steering change
Without the havoc
Allowing leeway
To drift inline
A safer, milder, gentler kind

Could you wish it
With an open mind
To enter easily just in time

Could you know a harmony as told
Influencing others to unfold
From clenched expectations old

Perhaps this is not a question
But rather, open ended suggestion.

-Kelly Voelker

Seeds of Inspiration

My inspiration raises
More answers than it questions.

My inspiration praises
It doesn't criticize but suggests
People and their attempts are
On the right track, on their way
The road to realize more.

Inspiration does not notice
Degrees of in-congruence
Or cycles of disparity
Too much or less of anything.

If I overshoot the outcome
It still serves to raise the spirits
For someone may be wondering
If they are in agreement with
Any other nearby soul
Or anywhere between the points
Of the idea and its completion.

Never spare a spark
Within your mind as seed
For this is the trajectory
What is required to inspire
Is your optimism freed.

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

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