The voices of the dead can not cry
so we cry for them
we cry for answers, justice, equality
and we cry for accountability.
A. L. O’Prunty
April 21, 2020
Arrows
arrows
arrows they bled tears
thin sheets of time
split words under water
in jawless whirls
nails in clouds fill my dream
these sheets of tender ink
leave words under stones
to colour these stitches
fetch love in threads
image: pinterest.com
March 22, 2020
Mother’s day 2020
My mother didn’t make it
to see my sixty years
when she passed away in May last year
amongst the smiles and tears
That saddened me (of course it did)
but it’s other times I miss
like the joy of giving flowers
on Mother’s Days like this
Yet the solace that I take away
from all the days I’ve cried
is the ever joyful knowledge
that she’s by my Father’s side
read more »
March 7, 2020
FAR AWAY – BUT ALWAYS BONDED
February 19, 2020
19 February 1974
The knock at the door
I remember it well
though forty-six years have now passed
The vicar right there
with something to share
for a slap in the face that would last
It was anger I felt
with a fist in the air
that my father had left in that way
And I heard not a sound
from that hole in the ground
as I stood on that February day
read more »
February 14, 2020
Self love
Happy Valentine’s Day to all the lovelies. Love can happen anywhere, anytime with anyone but it always starts with you. Self-love is the best way to live.
A warm and a tight hug
can do wonders I have heard
It can lick and suck all your pain
for those who have eternally suffered
It’s that magic potion
that elixir
that have worked wonders
read more »
February 14, 2020
42 Valentines
Forty-two and counting
Valentines I’ve sent
every one of them sincere
and full of sentiment
Forty-two to the same love
my soulmate true and through
a love that’s shared and deepened
the more years we accrue
Forty-two with every word
each February fourteen passing
meant and sealed with promise
for a love that’s everlasting
read more »
February 6, 2020
Questions That Come With Age
The clock… relentless.
What’s my allotment going to be?
How to make the best of it?
How to keep dignity,
avoid a failure of imagination,
avoid self-pity….
“Savor each moment…”
Yes, well that’s a cliché.
I know what’s coming,
What I’ve lost for good.
The trick is to
Savor these, too,
With a little grace.
No lies in the mirror.
No false smiles.
No regrets.
No cruelties.
Kindnesses given
with no expectations.
There are enough
bitter herbs around.
But
One surprise smile is enough
to recharge a whole day.
Thank you, darlin’
read more »
January 31, 2020
Cowgirl
I encountered a young Colorado woman, once,
from a distance. Our trails crossed in our personal badlands.
A beauty, she had the raw fire of a mustang.
I caught her at a terrible time in her life.
Or should I say, she caught me.
Her marriage was coming apart,
her husband having lost interest and sunk into cruelty and betrayals.
We never met, except
as passing
electronic ghosts. She writhed and wrote of her pain,
her bruised pride and injured beauty.
She touched us with her anger and anguish,
her soul’s search for beauty nonetheless,
In that state she painted lurid images of
what she would do with me,
to me, what she wanted from me,
pinned against a wall, legs apart,
full of anger, fury, revenge.
read more »
January 29, 2020
Passion, Courage, Choice
I have chosen to seek
each day the path of courage
and passion.
I fail, often.
I don’t
say this with bravado,
because I do not feel brave.
If I could choose something
easier, I would.
It never gets easier.
But to make the choice each day,
Each minute, to turn and
face the sadness and suffering,
of the world; the pain and joy,
each on it’s own terms
and not be defeated by it—
that is something that
must be chosen again,
and again, and again.
It is the job of poetry.
No compromises.
It is not a choice of pleasant fictions,
a diversion of entertaining nothingness;
nor like the fog of opium that
leaves us still breathing,
but dead.
Each night, darkness does not fall.
That is the wrong image.
Rather, when the earth spins away
from the sun, it rises up from the deep places
of the earth and the oceans, from
the caverns and the bottom of rivers and lakes and seas.
A deep exhalation.
A time for alternatives.
read more »
January 28, 2020
School of the Electric Fence
Photo by Richard Calmes
I suppose I knew this,
once upon a time,
but love is a little like
the electric fence I used to
crawl through to get to the woods.
You have to be cautious, not timid.
(I wouldn’t go so far as to agree with
Crosby when he said being with Joni was
like falling into a cement mixer.)
read more »
January 20, 2020
How do we still fall in love?
December 25, 2019
A JOYFUL CELEBRATION
By Charles Robert Lindholm
A
Christmas Party,
A Joyful Celebration
Shared With Friends And
Family
Copyright © 2019 Charles Robert Lindholm – The Reluctant Poet
All Rights Reserved – Please Come View My Archives!!
12.19.2019 11:40 p.m.
December 25, 2019
CHRISTMAS HAIKU: CHRISTMAS EVERY DAY – 2019 REPRISE
December 25, 2019
HAIKU: A CHRISTMAS SLEEP IN – REPRISE – 2019
December 25, 2019
CHRISTMAS WISHES AND MEMORIES
November 28, 2019
I’M THANKFUL FOR YOU!
November 22, 2019
After the small hours
November 19, 2019
Sentenced
October 9, 2019
Prenuptial
August 3, 2019
My sons tower over me
July 27, 2019
FOR YOU, OUR BELOVED POET
July 7, 2019
40
July 1, 2019
July
June 6, 2019
Starving
May 19, 2019
