Kids grow parents die
Looks jobs bosses partners change
In this dance of time
It’s true normal’s just
A dryer setting meaning
Tumbling in hot wind
So we all need things
To hold onto — tumbleweeds
Are so hard to hug
Friends dogs coffee God
Things that don’t just blow away
When storms are brewing
Spaces inside, out
Spaces life can’t rearrange
Unless we say so
We all need our rocks
To build our peace on, knowing
The sands will get in
From July 2-4:
The beach on the Fourth
Red, white, and blue, and that’s just
Tourists’ skin and lips
Bodies every shape
Umbrellas every color
Waves — just green, white, gray
Dreadlocks past her waist,
Wide body, richly tattooed
A living mural
Romping on wet sand
Playing tag, catching some rays
And that’s just the dogs
Two women, two dogs
Whippet, chihuahua, that’s the
Long and short of it
Diversity dogs
Golden-yellow by design
Big cross-bred beauties
Chihuahua trio
A dozen tap-dancing paws
Strain sequined leashes
Neat slashes in sand
Gangs mark their territory
The gulls and the terns
Beach boy loves the birds
But wishes they all could be
California gulls
Heads bob, dots in foam
Chocolate M&M’s in waves
Of ocean frosting
Solitary sail
An antenna attuned to
Wavelengths of the sea
Idyllic beach scene
Like movie but God doesn’t
Turn off wave machine
Lifeguard Station 5
Abandoned alien craft
From ’50s planet
Tiny house, west wall
Nothing but windows, gazing,
Catching every wave
The Rainmakers have a new video out. I thought there might be one or two people reading this who haven’t seen it. So there it is. It’s also a good excuse to post some more semi-related pre-blog stuff. Again, chances are good if you’re reading this you know the Rainmakers were a 1980s and ’90s band from Kansas City that got back together this year, 25 years after their first album, and cut another great album, “25 On,” pretty much in five days. (Get it here: http://tinyurl.com/655s34s.)
Anyway, as I get older it’s inspiring and heartening to see people my age and older doing amazing things, and to feel that I’ve never been quite so alive and capable and creative. Thus, “Old Guys” haiku, from March 16:
Old guys have the chops
Rainmakers “25 On”
Better than ever
Old guys really rock
Neil Young, like a hurricane,
Still blows us away
Old guys have the goods
Neil Young showed the way, out-grunged
Every new grunge band
Old guys have Mojo
Like Tom Petty cranking out
His 15th album
Old guys have the touch
Land a plane on the Hudson?
Sully was no kid
Old guys have vision
Frank Lloyd Wright in his 60s
Dreamed Fallingwater
Old guys have the ear
Janacek wrote his classics
At 70-plus
Old guys kick your ass
Then effortlessly drink you
Under the table
Old guys keep going
They were just born to outlast
Punks and pretenders
Old guys do it all
At least the ones who really
Could in the first place
The only thing that
Really gets old is people
Hung up about age
And here’s a little Rainmakers addendum, from April 13, reference to Hendrix’s saying, “Oh no, I’m out of tune again; well, only cowboys stay in tune.”
“Tuning’s for cowboys,”
Jimi said; Rainmakers say,
“Rehearsing’s for kids”
Cold air, frosted ground
December morning wanders
Into October
Olive oil question:
How is it that something can
Be extra virgin?
October’s the month
To adopt a shelter dog
Diamonds in the “ruff”
For a friend whose pet passed on yesterday:
We say we own them
But our hearts know they own us
Their tails wag our lives
Greg's Hack-u 