Verse Lite

Sublime Limerick

This limerick's last line doesn't rhyme

And I've been thinking for quite a long time

What is a word

That won't sound absurd

But will make this whole thing sound just great?

The Penn State Flower Gardens

I was morose

For hours and hours

When they dumped manure

All over the flowers.

In the spring, they'll grow

So pretty and sweet;

It just goes to show

That you aren't what you eat.

Brevity

"Brevity is the soul of wit"

But not, you see, the same as it.

This Limerick

This limerick would be quintessential

If it were a bit experiential

A little less haughty

A little more naughty

And a lot less self-referential

Autumn Haiku

Gold dust from wheat fields,

White dust from flowers floats by -

Haiku! Gesundheit!

No Time

[a true story]

As I walked uphill on my way home,

Thinking of my troubles,

A little girl sans shirt and shoes

Was patiently blowing bubbles.

As I passed, she turned and said,

"Hey - there's no time!"

I agreed and, lest I forget,

I've written down this rhyme.

Church

I heard a bird sing

"higher power, higher power, hi".

And so I whistle "higher power"

whenever I walk by.

The Buddha

The Buddha sat beneath the tree

So long that it was frightening.

And when he finally let it be,

He was struck by enlightening.

Success

Success is easy,

There's nothing to it:

Decide what should be done

And do it.

Data Points

Can you read the Gita in your digital display?

Can you see the light or do the lights get in the way?

How many angels dance on the pinouts in your head?

Can you believe, and do you, that we live after we're dead?

Are you a clock with a cuckoo or a ghost or a dream

Or a wise old soul of a new machine?

Did I Mention

Did I mention my penchant for writing dumb rhymes?

And liking to use words like "penchant" at times?

Did I tell you that I enjoy telling bad jokes

And puns that often annoy other folks?

Have I said a word about playing word games

And writing short verses that may not have names?

Were you given a warning that my humor is given

To this silliness to which I am driven?

Could you sense that I enjoy "nonsense", in a word,

With a sensibly sensitive sense of the absurd?

Acrosti' Internet

[an acrostic of early internet-related lingo]

Words, phrases, sentences, rhymes

Are scrolling up my screen.

"It's non-stop noise all the time"

Says some zippy new zine.

Garbage in means garbage out

Or so the manuals say.

Programs, pictures, text about

Home, hobbies, work, and play.

Electronic systems route

Real garbage far away.

With all this connectivity,

Will all the words enlighten me

When talk is cheap and info's free?

Faster and cheaper's all you get;

The content isn't wondrous, yet

Plug in, 'cause it's a great outlet.

I Could Do That

"I could do that"

The dilettante says,

Eyeing the abstract.

"If I had the canvas

And the paint

And the brushes

And the time,

I could do that."

Cloud Kingdom

Looking down on a cloud palace

As I fly over its unroofed rooms -

I'm sure I could step

there

And curl up in that corner

there

And I'd scoop out a window in the floor

there.

Cloud Kingdom beckons

With comfort and beauty

And teases me with the possibility

Of deplaning

here.

Haiku Day

Morning haiku in me

Casts a shadow on paper

Tells me what I know

The bull says "SNORT-nod"

He threatens us through the fence

Great big BS-er

Trees collect sunset

Until they're full of color

They spill on the ground

Softballs

One week our pitcher wasn't around

So I was picked for this.

A little nervous, I went to the mound

Thinking, "Just don't miss."

I knew how to stand

And I knew how to throw

But as the ball left my hand

My fingers didn't know.

And so, on every single pitch,

Just as I would let it fly,

My hand would turn or fingers twitch

And I had no idea why.

I walked four batters in a row

Before they took me out

My conscious mind still does not know

What that was all about!

[Always motivate yourself with positive suggestions. - Mark]

I Sing the Body Electronic

I sing the body electronic

I sing of the integral and integrated

Of grids and graphs and greyscales

Of numbers and nanoseconds

Each life is a Universe -

Analog and analogous

We quantize and digitize us

So we're more knowable and changeable

With an interface where each life overlaps

Where before there was just friction

In each leaf of grass I see the beauty

And the dimension as one -

To measure is to know the meter of the music

And my experience is multiplied

The only danger and only fear

Are depletion and dependence

I must use it to be, but can't renew it

I'll need it to see, but will I get through it

If I depend on something that can disappear?

Each curve is resolved until it is a curve again

Each deviation an approximation

The only truth is information

The only art, miscommunication

Matter is data and it's data that matters

Objects are dissected, ideas decomposed

Feeling is phenomena

Generated with some randomness

For understanding is more than order

Morning Walk in State College

There's a halo around Mt. Nittany at sunrise this spring day

Krishna-blue water towers glow among green trees

Early-risers rush around unaware of the wonders

I leave the sidewalk for the path

I break branches like my Father taught me

A bird sings: higher-power, higher-power, higher-power-hi

The King of Me

I am the King of Me

You are the King or Queen of You

It's a lifetime position that you can thank or blame your parents for

It's the only thing that can't be taken from you

You get all of the responsibilities and all of the rewards

You get all of the blame and all of the joy

It's a tough job but everybody's got to do it

The Odyssey

He was sad and lonely

When he left to see the world

Then he found his one-and-only

And returned both buoyed and girled

Write of Way

[at Rome Lab]

See inside things

See a section

See the hole thing

See a way

Feel the feeling

Feel the sur-face

Feel the first pain

Feel your way

Know you are loved

Know man's best friend

Know man's island

Know the way

Write what you know

Write where you are

Write of passage

Write of way

Dentalism

My dentist chants "Ahhhh" for mental relaxation.

He's trying to transcend dental meditation.

Morning in Worms

I am walking

in the steps of Martin Luther

at sunrise,

past the closed markets

and open cathedrals,

over the bridge by the beer hall,

over the bridge over the Rhein,

past the signs showing

maximum weight and speed for tanks -

I challenge all my theses.