Salmons-flavored poetry

I found a very old notebook of mine (very old as in all of seven years). Some years are longer than others, as I often say, and those few have been nuts.

For example…seven years ago I was a college student at a private Christian University, full of ideals, ideas and a general sass. I was a communication major, having recently arrived from a junior college in Kentucky. I was actually exiting my poetic phase—having done the whole “teenage angst, set to prose” bit, and was about to begin the blackout years where I didn’t write much of anything.

So I was surprised when I noticed this raggedy, mashed thing. I figured, “Why not post a couple?”

I’ve included a couple about winter to mess with Uber peeps Adrian and Sarah. Haters. Hooray cold weather!

Ode to non-nature

I do not mix with nature
It does not take me in
I deplore its dusty trappings
And they gladly wash from me

At last, to autumn!

O autumn breeze, you are a wond’rous thing!
That men in hours long and hard
can find cool comfort in your arms.
And I, for one, enjoy the cold,
that your evening whispers hold.

Watching distant campus path lights

Small beads of light burn brightly there
They light the way and light the stair
They wink in turn when passers-by
walk from chapel’s steeple high

And one for winter

The lake holds its breath
in a crystal mirror of the land

The trees undress for winter
and drop notes for my attention

The wind reserves its sprints for brighter days
—warmer days

As now a mere whisper of the cold
draws out a curse

The branches sway in autumn
Are they ashamed? Standing naked?

Do they drift to sleep, their gowns released?
Free at last, to rest?

Ha! Funny stuff.

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