Code of Tiny Details

My mind open wide
My eyes scoop up
The vast prairie landscape
Mile after mile
Yielding tiny details
Huge subtle patterns emerge
The local spoonbill scoops
Large amounts of water
On the move
To yield tiny zooplankton
From which to nourish himself
To survive longer than other fish
From what is written
In the code of the tiny details.

-Kelly Voelker

What Do I Sound Like Inside Your Mind?

For those who don't know me
When reading my poems
What do I sound like?
In your mind on your own
You must make up a sound
As you're reading the lines
Fashioning an image of
What someone like me
Would sound like if fluent
And speaking to thee
I never read aloud my own poems
It feels unnecessarily naked
Like my voice cannot own
The sentiments shared here
From an ancient wise soul
Sarcastic about society's
Strongholds and norms
Yet hopelessly loving
Trace sentiments hidden
In mundane experience
Each horse had been ridden
Each path had been trod
A great depth of experience
Eager to respond
A witness and sympathizer
From the mysterious beyond.

-Kelly Voelker

When I Finally Relaxed

When I finally relaxed
My body had changed
Not holding my breath
Not being so vain
When I finally relaxed
My hair had extended
Full of shine with no style
As genetics intended
When I finally relaxed
I expanded inside
Blanketing feelings
Evicting my pride.

-Kelly Voelker

The Thrill of Spill

Once my bucket was finally full
I gushed and overflowed
Onto the page and
Onto everyone in range

Then I am once again
A little less than full
Still once again

Sorry for spilling
Some people
Don't like to get wet
Only when they are
Expecting it

-Kelly Write Away

Feelings Blend

Life slowly rolls out details for us
Making the complexities simple
Our perspectives change slowly
This causes disorientation
When attempting to revisit
Old places and people we knew
Our memories inaccurate and few
Unlikely people move into iconic positions
Iconic people move into helpless positions
Our peers of yesterday are leaders of today
Yet in their faces is seen
The person they were as we
Realize what was can last
Even as perspectives mask
The essence of people now and then
Is a beautifully witnessed feelings blend.

-Kelly Voelker

Treading Time

Treading water seems to imply walking on it.
I'm treading time
Many days I feel I have already dialed it
Forward and back
But this time, this place I'm treading
Must be important
A chapter that is not understood
A few words not noticed
My character's entire reason
For being part of the plot
Instead of just mentioned by name
The scenery keeps changing
But I'm still here marking the days
Treading the time
No one can guess the outcome
They soldier on as if they know
Their images seem to sharpen with age
As mine fades ever more quickly
Maybe it is tiring to keep turning back the wheel
Of a vessel which is being pulled hard the other way
Resistance only exists as my own pondering
Questions within questions
Where everything seems certain
Except for what I'm doing here.

Changing Prognosis and Time

The vapor of consciousness
A heavy cloud in the valleys
Waits as it processes
For as long as it takes
When the sun deems* right
In all manor of all kinds of ways
It lifts the damp vapor
With all it has processed
Up gradual or swift
To lighter and higher
Eventually drifting
Processing in
Sunshine and wind
Down again cometh
As rain to the grid
Forever changing
Prognosis and time
Nourishing life
While removing unkind.

-Kelly Voelker


*deem - regard or consider in a specified way

Prayeree (pronounced Prairie)

If prayers were more visual
We couldn't decipher
Unless we saw grassland
Wetlands and heather
A soft sweeping movement
Of Earth's own plant waves
Sending the code off planet to save
The suffering or buried or
Lonely one knows
Peace in the ebbs
Release in the flows.

-Kelly Voelker

Sand and Snow

The wind turns the prairie
Into an ice blue desert
Crystalline sparkles
Water lifts into air

The sun agrees simply
It's more and more fun
Shadows dramatic
When crystalline spun

Sand too as crystalline
Earth born in air
Drifting in sugars
Molasses and waves.

-Kelly Voelker

Contrast and Colors Did Fade

When all of the contrast and colors did fade
Each person more natural and Earthen
Walked less noticeable through the day
Not sparking contention, desire or dismay*

When combined within range
All people looked similar, relaxed and maintained
Their tasks and their lives and their families more well
Competition was extinct and image for show
Egos were banished and security flowed

For no conquering, stealing or betrayals were done
Because harmony, joy, and accomplishments spun
Where more fun, more creative and more honor was given
To those who used wits to solve hitches in progress
And waste was not normal and anger was evil
Among the moderate pace of the self-governing people.

-Kelly Voelker

contention - 1.heated disagreement  2.an assertion, especially one maintained in argument.
dismay - consternation and distress, typically that caused by something unexpected

Before Words

Before words were ever said
Uniform responses couldn't blend
Each person unique was read
A natural sound or gesture
Willingness to understand and mentor

Before books were used
Alertness was but for cues
A sigh, a glance, a normal stance
Before behavior was standardized
I wonder why, whom and where
Could thoughts be transferred with a stare
Or known in advance by character each
The code of human before speech.

-Kelly Voelker

A Temporary Lifestyle

A temporary lifestyle
For temporary needs
In temporary circumstances
Direction I will heed

Intending to tread lightly
And not establish habit
A routine nonetheless
Has taken to me rapid

Maybe I can skip past
Details to the end
Skipping unread pages
The story to upend.

- Kelly Voelker

heed - pay attention to; take notice of
upend - set or turn (something) on its end or upside down