FILL IN THE BLANKS
My favorite gift today,
a blank book requesting poetry.
My grandkids have such taste,
weaned on the likes of Silverstein, Milne and Seuss.
Why should they read grandpa's verse?
The empty spaces in these pages
can capture nothing
that has not been uttered better before
by Eeyore,
or with more spunk than The Cat in the Hat.
I have no attic retreat
promising enlightenment.
But I am buoyed by this advantage.
These giants of the literati,
had imaginations which took them to the edge of the world,
but on trajectories which did not meet
those of my kids’ kids.
I can write
inspired by names and faces etched in mind,
of how Emily, Hannah and Alyssa,
Olivia, Senja and Blake
have filled the spaces of my time.
DRK
1/26/12
Friday, January 27, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
GREEN POETRY
GREEN POETRY
That’s our forte’.
Rambling prose,
discursive,
is there room
for more of those?
Today’s leaner lifestyles dictate
limited data bytes,
recycled paper bits
and a carbon free voice
of light, footprint-free
metaphors and similes.
What’s the point?
Information obesity.
Reduce it
with a diet of lies --
high potency poetry,
exaggeration energized.
Word burdened?
Get relief with verse.
It’s tersive.
I can only guess
where all that prose
goes.
Dennis R. Keefe
11/19/10
That’s our forte’.
Rambling prose,
discursive,
is there room
for more of those?
Today’s leaner lifestyles dictate
limited data bytes,
recycled paper bits
and a carbon free voice
of light, footprint-free
metaphors and similes.
What’s the point?
Information obesity.
Reduce it
with a diet of lies --
high potency poetry,
exaggeration energized.
Word burdened?
Get relief with verse.
It’s tersive.
I can only guess
where all that prose
goes.
Dennis R. Keefe
11/19/10
Monday, January 9, 2012
HOT SEAT
HOT SEAT
Need your bod thawed?
Start at the bottom with a merrier derriere.
For a little January chili silliness
warm your bum
or hotten your botttom
by getting it heated seated
to a hot butt temperature
that sears your rear
to a sizzled ass.
Heat tweaked cheeks
will leave your sacroiliac’s
sacrum chili hot.
DRK
1/5/12
Need your bod thawed?
Start at the bottom with a merrier derriere.
For a little January chili silliness
warm your bum
or hotten your botttom
by getting it heated seated
to a hot butt temperature
that sears your rear
to a sizzled ass.
Heat tweaked cheeks
will leave your sacroiliac’s
sacrum chili hot.
DRK
1/5/12
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARIES
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARIES
It began in January,
JFK and Jacqueline, America’s fling
with royalty,
the glam of Camelot.
It ended, December thirty one.
Do you remember
where you were in 1961?
THINGS LAST
Benedict’s monks,
engaged communities
engaging communities for fifteen centuries,
addressed 1961 and beyond
with a Marcel Breuer masterpiece in a Minnesota woods.
Bells in a banner and concrete masonry
anchor a monastery
with a stained glass wall
through which St. John’s Abbey
has brightened fifty years of contemporaries.
FOR AWHILE
From a few active married years five decades ago
little remains of use today, or to endow.
Memory shards play hide-and-seek
in the sun and shade of the leaves
creating effects which neither travel well nor make much noise.
A few pictures and artifacts saved,
and a grave.
The gold, left above,
props open a door
letting in . . . new love
and out . . . me, to grow.
SOMEWHERE.
The most beautiful car ever made
in the eyes of Enzo
Ferrari.
From ‘61 to ’75 the Jaguar E-Type
charmed MOMA, conquered racing venues,
and graced avenues worldwide.
Now enthusiasts keep the tradition alive:
sleek, cat-curvy, stunning machines
maintained now for show
and fair weather drives .
DRK
12/6/14
It began in January,
JFK and Jacqueline, America’s fling
with royalty,
the glam of Camelot.
It ended, December thirty one.
Do you remember
where you were in 1961?
THINGS LAST
Benedict’s monks,
engaged communities
engaging communities for fifteen centuries,
addressed 1961 and beyond
with a Marcel Breuer masterpiece in a Minnesota woods.
Bells in a banner and concrete masonry
anchor a monastery
with a stained glass wall
through which St. John’s Abbey
has brightened fifty years of contemporaries.
FOR AWHILE
From a few active married years five decades ago
little remains of use today, or to endow.
Memory shards play hide-and-seek
in the sun and shade of the leaves
creating effects which neither travel well nor make much noise.
A few pictures and artifacts saved,
and a grave.
The gold, left above,
props open a door
letting in . . . new love
and out . . . me, to grow.
SOMEWHERE.
The most beautiful car ever made
in the eyes of Enzo
Ferrari.
From ‘61 to ’75 the Jaguar E-Type
charmed MOMA, conquered racing venues,
and graced avenues worldwide.
Now enthusiasts keep the tradition alive:
sleek, cat-curvy, stunning machines
maintained now for show
and fair weather drives .
DRK
12/6/14
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
DOWN ON THE FARM
DOWN ON THE FARM
we
grow
capital gains
market value
and alligator back snapping turtles
cultivate
ordinary income
indigo snakes
and gopher tortoises
promote
cropland leasing
and hunting rights
monitor
operating expenses
land surveys
and acreage estimates
lobby for
conservation legislation
while following the latest
easements
and tax credit situations
use best practices
to steward
hill crop trees
wetland trees
native and endangered species
and we grow
DRK
9/13/11
we
grow
capital gains
market value
and alligator back snapping turtles
cultivate
ordinary income
indigo snakes
and gopher tortoises
promote
cropland leasing
and hunting rights
monitor
operating expenses
land surveys
and acreage estimates
lobby for
conservation legislation
while following the latest
easements
and tax credit situations
use best practices
to steward
hill crop trees
wetland trees
native and endangered species
and we grow
DRK
9/13/11
MEETING MANHATTAN
MEETING MANHATTAN
Met Helmwige backstage,
live at the Met.
Our youth,
wrapped in iPod tech
seemed somehow engaged
by the 19th century.
Met Sieglinde at Max Brenners
humming pop songs from the ‘80s.
Same youth,
rapt in chocolate,
could not connect
with the twentieth.
Later met Wagner
live in HD.
Cinema close-ups disturbed
with spit and drool detail.
Met Cathy’s chocolates.
Mothers’ Day
at 69th and Madison.
An Italian mailing candy
interrupted our sampling.
Met no one at Le Charlot,
French lunch al fresco.
Glass walls, open; customers, insular,
not here for the atmosphere.
Eye contact scorned.
Waited at the Chelsea
but Dylan Thomas and Thomas Wolfe were no-shows.
Instead, lunched Greek at Nisos.
That man passing by on the street,
why is he acknowledging me?
DRK
8/22/11
Met Helmwige backstage,
live at the Met.
Our youth,
wrapped in iPod tech
seemed somehow engaged
by the 19th century.
Met Sieglinde at Max Brenners
humming pop songs from the ‘80s.
Same youth,
rapt in chocolate,
could not connect
with the twentieth.
Later met Wagner
live in HD.
Cinema close-ups disturbed
with spit and drool detail.
Met Cathy’s chocolates.
Mothers’ Day
at 69th and Madison.
An Italian mailing candy
interrupted our sampling.
Met no one at Le Charlot,
French lunch al fresco.
Glass walls, open; customers, insular,
not here for the atmosphere.
Eye contact scorned.
Waited at the Chelsea
but Dylan Thomas and Thomas Wolfe were no-shows.
Instead, lunched Greek at Nisos.
That man passing by on the street,
why is he acknowledging me?
DRK
8/22/11
RALLY TO THE SEA
RALLY TO THE SEA
Left the starting gate at noon.
Called back by the starter
on our way out of town --
attempting travel without a camera.
Infraction remedied,
start two was clean.
First order, head for the border
and easy going through Ohio
until sleet greeted us
near
Checkpoint One,
West Virginia’s foothills.
Family rally, day one -- no glory.
Point tallies showed penalties
for late arrival --
Restaurants and pools, closed.
Kids needing exercise had to do supper,
takeout, late.
Day two,
late start warning.
Veered right
on 77 bearing south.
Appalachia’s scenic views
sent us through
the Blue Ridge Mountains,
Virginia and North Carolina.
Tamarack Tourist Center, underrated;
scenic West Virginia encapsulated.
Down the other side
spring emerged
and served
redbuds, wisteria and daffodils
with the warm gentle
coastal lowland air at
Checkpoint Two,
Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Again, late penalties
at check-in.
Hannah and Alyssa,
heroically patient
with travel confinement
and unmet
promises of vacation play,
were rewarded finally
at
Checkpoint Three,
a short dogwood drive down 95
to our embarkation eve
at Cocoa Beach.
Motel Three, not Western’s Best,
but arrived on time
to get ocean wet
and do a poolside
snorkel test.
Morning,
Checkpoint Four,
Port Canaveral and
The Monarch of the Sea.
Again, fined --
eager early,
long slow lines.
First, the rig-a-ma-roll --
parking, passports and luggage tags, health forms, security scans and passes.
Then a few gangplank steps
to a welcome aboard lunch,
search for rooms and initial explore.
Late afternoon, setting sail, arms on a rail,
watching
pelicans dive,
the port and anxieties drift away
with the sea change in our lives.
From the Viking Lounge
up top
a relaxed overview of the sail away party
live music
and buckets of beer.
The young,
presumably soon
on their way up,
were now content
with their first spring break
chance to dance.
Later, traffic delays
on our way
to
Checkpoint Five,
Coco Cay.
Overworked equipment and crew
created a long tender line
snaking through
ship stairwells and decks
awaiting boats to a Bahamian tenderloin --
beached bodies uncovered and oiled.
Alyssa’s eyes -- we knew them as blue --
now showed something new --
the first to see a Bahama Iguana,
she had a knack for
seeing complex venues.
We learned to follow her everywhere.
Rules about fins, vests and safety
led to false starts getting snorkel-ready.
But the glorious sun
made waiting part of the fun.
Beach rocks raised more concern.
Footwear advised,
but our young snorkelers never touched down,
snorkeling to a shipwreck.
Outa sight!
But not out of mind.
It made wrecks of Meme and me.
Hannah, an adept swimmer, now finned,
was halfway to Nassau before we could say
“buddy system.”
Lunch was an outdoor cruise line food buffet.
Then on to an off shore park for water play.
Slides, climbers, rockers and jumpers --
ballooned giants, large muscle exercisers,
exhaustion and fun.
Then a return tender trip to the ship
and an overnight cruise
to
Checkpoint Six,
Nassau.
Morning light showed us docked
five ships abreast.
One, The Majesty of the Sea,
provided a breakfast show,
rotated in the harbor
and backed in next door.
Evening entertainment continued
when we waved it back to sea --
with The Norwegian Gem,
and The Carnival Fantasy.
We chose to see Nassau
touring to Rainbow Reef,
there to snorkel over coral
and colorful fish.
On the trip out, chatted with a Georgia girl.
She had just received a birthday gift chicken hatching kit.
I couldn’t quite picture that
but it seemed like a good Gainesville fit.
Anticipated snorkeling “for real”,
like you see on TV,
but this would not be
Jacques Cousteau.
One hundred spring breakers bobbed in the water
a mile or two from Nassau’s shore
-- with other tour boaters and bobbers.
Meme took our pictures
when she could sort us out.
There were colorful underwater
views of flora and fauna
and while we didn’t see Nemo
Hannah did see an anemone.
On the way back through the bay
more scenic views,
celebrity houses,
Tiger’s, Oprah’s and M. J.’s on display.
A sunny travel day at sea
eased us back toward reality.
Here’s what you do if you’re ten
on a ship with a rock climb.
Send grandma to get her camera.
Reach high with your arms
the higher the better.
For a challenge go up on all blues.
Continue all day.
Unfortunately the wall became too popular.
Older than ten,
my rewards were found
at the coffee bar -- conversing
with a couple from Ireland
whose wee baby
was visiting grandmother
from Kissimmee.
Some of the things you and I missed . . .
a men’s belly flop contest, adult ping pong, last chance karaoke,TV tune trivia,
black jack, win-a-cruise Bahama bingo, and the world’s sexiest man competition.
Not my idea of heaven.
Next stop,
Checkpoint Seven,
Return to port.
The finish line? States away.
Trip back strategy,
race, don’t rally.
Replace “Arrive on time”
with
“Arrive home early.”
The kids’ verdict:
They would have liked it better
had we brought the whole family,
especially their dog, Rabi.
And a larger car would have allowed
shopping for baubles
larger than thimbles.
DRK
4/1/11 -- 4/9/11
8/1/11
Left the starting gate at noon.
Called back by the starter
on our way out of town --
attempting travel without a camera.
Infraction remedied,
start two was clean.
First order, head for the border
and easy going through Ohio
until sleet greeted us
near
Checkpoint One,
West Virginia’s foothills.
Family rally, day one -- no glory.
Point tallies showed penalties
for late arrival --
Restaurants and pools, closed.
Kids needing exercise had to do supper,
takeout, late.
Day two,
late start warning.
Veered right
on 77 bearing south.
Appalachia’s scenic views
sent us through
the Blue Ridge Mountains,
Virginia and North Carolina.
Tamarack Tourist Center, underrated;
scenic West Virginia encapsulated.
Down the other side
spring emerged
and served
redbuds, wisteria and daffodils
with the warm gentle
coastal lowland air at
Checkpoint Two,
Orangeburg, South Carolina.
Again, late penalties
at check-in.
Hannah and Alyssa,
heroically patient
with travel confinement
and unmet
promises of vacation play,
were rewarded finally
at
Checkpoint Three,
a short dogwood drive down 95
to our embarkation eve
at Cocoa Beach.
Motel Three, not Western’s Best,
but arrived on time
to get ocean wet
and do a poolside
snorkel test.
Morning,
Checkpoint Four,
Port Canaveral and
The Monarch of the Sea.
Again, fined --
eager early,
long slow lines.
First, the rig-a-ma-roll --
parking, passports and luggage tags, health forms, security scans and passes.
Then a few gangplank steps
to a welcome aboard lunch,
search for rooms and initial explore.
Late afternoon, setting sail, arms on a rail,
watching
pelicans dive,
the port and anxieties drift away
with the sea change in our lives.
From the Viking Lounge
up top
a relaxed overview of the sail away party
live music
and buckets of beer.
The young,
presumably soon
on their way up,
were now content
with their first spring break
chance to dance.
Later, traffic delays
on our way
to
Checkpoint Five,
Coco Cay.
Overworked equipment and crew
created a long tender line
snaking through
ship stairwells and decks
awaiting boats to a Bahamian tenderloin --
beached bodies uncovered and oiled.
Alyssa’s eyes -- we knew them as blue --
now showed something new --
the first to see a Bahama Iguana,
she had a knack for
seeing complex venues.
We learned to follow her everywhere.
Rules about fins, vests and safety
led to false starts getting snorkel-ready.
But the glorious sun
made waiting part of the fun.
Beach rocks raised more concern.
Footwear advised,
but our young snorkelers never touched down,
snorkeling to a shipwreck.
Outa sight!
But not out of mind.
It made wrecks of Meme and me.
Hannah, an adept swimmer, now finned,
was halfway to Nassau before we could say
“buddy system.”
Lunch was an outdoor cruise line food buffet.
Then on to an off shore park for water play.
Slides, climbers, rockers and jumpers --
ballooned giants, large muscle exercisers,
exhaustion and fun.
Then a return tender trip to the ship
and an overnight cruise
to
Checkpoint Six,
Nassau.
Morning light showed us docked
five ships abreast.
One, The Majesty of the Sea,
provided a breakfast show,
rotated in the harbor
and backed in next door.
Evening entertainment continued
when we waved it back to sea --
with The Norwegian Gem,
and The Carnival Fantasy.
We chose to see Nassau
touring to Rainbow Reef,
there to snorkel over coral
and colorful fish.
On the trip out, chatted with a Georgia girl.
She had just received a birthday gift chicken hatching kit.
I couldn’t quite picture that
but it seemed like a good Gainesville fit.
Anticipated snorkeling “for real”,
like you see on TV,
but this would not be
Jacques Cousteau.
One hundred spring breakers bobbed in the water
a mile or two from Nassau’s shore
-- with other tour boaters and bobbers.
Meme took our pictures
when she could sort us out.
There were colorful underwater
views of flora and fauna
and while we didn’t see Nemo
Hannah did see an anemone.
On the way back through the bay
more scenic views,
celebrity houses,
Tiger’s, Oprah’s and M. J.’s on display.
A sunny travel day at sea
eased us back toward reality.
Here’s what you do if you’re ten
on a ship with a rock climb.
Send grandma to get her camera.
Reach high with your arms
the higher the better.
For a challenge go up on all blues.
Continue all day.
Unfortunately the wall became too popular.
Older than ten,
my rewards were found
at the coffee bar -- conversing
with a couple from Ireland
whose wee baby
was visiting grandmother
from Kissimmee.
Some of the things you and I missed . . .
a men’s belly flop contest, adult ping pong, last chance karaoke,TV tune trivia,
black jack, win-a-cruise Bahama bingo, and the world’s sexiest man competition.
Not my idea of heaven.
Next stop,
Checkpoint Seven,
Return to port.
The finish line? States away.
Trip back strategy,
race, don’t rally.
Replace “Arrive on time”
with
“Arrive home early.”
The kids’ verdict:
They would have liked it better
had we brought the whole family,
especially their dog, Rabi.
And a larger car would have allowed
shopping for baubles
larger than thimbles.
DRK
4/1/11 -- 4/9/11
8/1/11
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)