Poem: More Perfect

More Perfect

English teachers often say

That there is no such thing as

More perfect. But as Americans

From the get go said, “We the

People, in order to form a 

More Perfect Union…” It is

Undeniably clear that we

Were lying to ourselves.

We never even believed in

Perfection because we always

Thought we could make it

Better. We can strive for

Perfection all we want but, 

Because we don’t believe in it,

It can never be attained for us.

We will be forever inventing

And reinventing things for

Our never ending perpetuation of 

Perfection, a thing we don’t

Believe in, a thing that can

Never exist.

January 2025

About This Poem

This poem is a little more pessimistic than I usually am, but it was inspired by the political times. Right now we Americans are at each other's throats thanks to our President and his MAGA movement, which clearly divides us. I decided now was a good time to publish it as we are celebrating our 250th year as a nation. It deals with the opening words of our constitution. The photo is a flag at the Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston just a few months ago.

 

Poem: Coarse Here I Will Continue

Coarse Here I Will Continue

The size of the swell matters.

The sand on the seashore is

Ever present from the crashing 

Of the waves, its color marked

By the cliffs or banks against

Which the swell has beaten.

But an alpine lake in a

Granite outcropping? Even

With the granite’s pliability

If there is any sand it is

Coarse and not much of it

To be found and when it is

It’s like something grating

Into your skin that must 

Be dealt with before you are

Torn. While I love the crashing

Waves of the sea, their girthy

Pounding upon delicate shores,

I think of myself more in the 

Mountains with little ripples

Refusing to refine me.

Allowing my coarseness to stay

While miles away those big

Waves crash away refining

Those cliffs, coarse here I will continue.

January 2025

About This Poem

I love big bodies of water, and, it seems, in the American political and cultural landscape it is more refined to live on the coasts (coastal elitism). I don't actually believe any of that. You can find elitism anywhere in the U.S. as well as less than elite, or coarse. I don't really see myself as either elite or coarse, but I promote the idea of belonging. I feel like I belong on an alpine lake with very little beach, and what beach it has will be of very coarse sand. But obviously the poem also refers to another kind of coarseness, and I can embrace that sometimes as well. The photo is of Lake Louise in Banff, Alberta. It's definitely an alpine lake and one that I very much enjoy (though the smaller ones in Idaho where there are not crowds are even better). 

 

Poem: I Let the Music Envelop Me

I Let the Music Envelop Me

I let the music envelop me

As the instruments play beauty

I let myself become that song

Floating over the hills and over

The waters like a gentle breeze

Rustling a leaf here or there

Moved by the music I bring

Through nothing more than

Being. I desire no pain, no

Destruction of anything, just

Calming in my melodic presence

Sharing the beauty and peace 

Of the wishes of my composer.

I desire no competition with

Any other, but, alas, some

Will wish it so, to be equal 

To me or even better and

As the song I will sometimes

Become frenzied, wild even

With aching and longing

Beyond my natural desire

To glide calmly over hills and waters.

January 2025

About This Poem

I wrote this poem in response to my love of classical music and music in general. Classical music always seems to take me away and it is more than just background noise. It also encompasses so much emotion always. The photo is of me singing in a choir at Oxford, I believe in Exeter College chapel (but I'm not certain). I'm the guy in the middle with the strange reflection crossing my face and to the right is Randy Gutwein and Dennis Kaye. 

 

Poem: Acrostic

Buried under stacks of papers

And wondering how to get out, I

Retired from 

Teaching English.

Brilliant thought to 

Retire, giving me time to run

Into the splendor of 

Autumn, able from

Neglect to free my garden.

Poetry now drips from ink

Onto this paper

To tell you my

Tale that I shall

Ever relate of joy in

Retirement.

October 2020

About This Poem

The inspiration of this poem is overly obvious as an acrostic, but it's me now in retirement, a poem that would be very different from an earlier time in my life. Instead of posting a picture of myself (though that is my hand) I chose a recent photo with my name on my Bloomsday number. You will notice that the B is after Brian and that is because I have always claimed Bart as my middle name, but now everything HAS to match your birth certificate or you might not be a citizen. I even had to change my social security card to match my birth certificate so that I could collect my retirement pay. Crazy. Just one more way we are losing our individual autonomy--God forbid we choose our own names!

 

Poem: I Must Retire

I Must Retire

Breaking free of all my duties

To just read and research the world,

To travel and navigate seas

That are for me in pages curled.

This has been my life’s desire,

So, teaching kids of all these things

Though great, from this I must retire

To float from here on angels’ wings

And to the mountains rest awhile

Or o’er the plains with birds to soar

Before it all into a pile 

Is burned and I rest ever more.

January 2018

About This Poem

I wrote this two years before I retired, but I was clearly thinking about it and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. At that point I had met all my qualifications to retire but worried about paying for health insurance between then and 65. My plan was to go three more years, but COVID came along and changed those plans by a year (so, yes, I'm paying for health insurance now). Retirement from teaching has been great and I still hang out with my old friends who also retired. The photo is of me a couple of weeks ago on election day trying to encourage people to vote for our local schools. They did vote and the levy did pass. So, maybe I'm not fully retired from teaching?