For my websites of poetry, articles, and fiction

http://www.psalmsyawpshowls.com/

https://shimmeringpebblesinthelightstream.blogspot.com/

http://lastthings.weebly.com/

http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/

http://planktonpelican.weebly.com/

http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/

In the LIGHT of the GOOD, the TRUE, the JUST,

Daniel Wilcox

Meditation on Shimmering Palms and Floaters

Meditation on Shimmering Palms

On more days and nights, an invalid,
In pain and loss, I often just want to go...
Unconscious;
But then, again, I stare out
To the wind and sun
From our upstairs
Window;

There towering above, 2 lone palms
In sight from my weak haven,
Swaying in that blue expanse
In a lively coastal wind,
Their mop-tops of slender fronds
Shimmering
Like flashing magnesium flares
From brilliant reflecting
Sunshine.

Those two undulating sentinels dance
over/above my fading consciousness,
Ailing awareness--
Two unconscious messengers,
While I lay here filled with sacred
Remembrance, mindful
Of my former festive living,
Becoming, and doing...

Yes, the wonder of being a human primate
Living!
but finite so brief,

This
Gift,
this Present
Shimmering--
Then we’re gone.

Only the Center, the Light
Everlasts.



-Dan Wilcox

--
FLOATERS--a poetic reflection on autumn, the season,
and late life

I, often spent to despair,
For lost hope yearning;
Tried for years to rescue others
Caught in those tangled news hours
Of hellish hate, intolerance, despair,

Wrong right-leftist spinners,
Those creedalists and secularists
Both deniers of the morally real--
Their abyss of modern sheol winter.

Stop!
Abandon this somber cellared lament,
this dirge,

Instead, listen to hope!
My sweetheart suggests,
Let’s visit
A coastal winery!
Say, I do,
We do.

Hobbling with walker out,
She drives along a winding river valley,
We arrive, expectant,
Hoping for zest;
Then, listening to soft music,
Sipping small glasses of moscato and merlot

Enjoying a glad refreshment day,
Mellow and casual,
Light of heart,
Carefree, contented
In California’s autumn’s wonder
Below tall sycamores and elms;

After Thanksgiving before winter;
We bask in 86-degree warmth,
When unexpectedly a slightly curled
Leaf floats down before
My eyes,
And lands gently on my lap,
A died wonder for us to behold;

Then another drifter
Lets go from a large limb above,
A deep rust-brown leaf spattered
With light tan highlights and vein-lines,
Descends in front of us,

Swaying back and forth,
Languid,
Lightly
Floating down
Inches away from us,
Landing nearby
On the lawn;

I lay with my head way back,
Gazing up to the sky's azure blue,
As other gifts let go every few moments
From high above,
Swinging wide and gentle,

Falling beauty in slow motion,
Floating, swaying;
I realize—here, now--
With this Present--
I could die free, released.


In the LIGHT,

-Dan Wilcox

Lines for inspiration and reflection

Hearts-full, Not location or creed

Instead Evangelicals live for US First--
Group-egotists, of that proud sort

Water piped in from pristine reservoirs
Lush grass, high-tech, enlarged houses and store;

But down below, poor refugees get Walled out,
Live in patched together plastic tents,

Preyed upon by ruthless cartel killers;
Or back down on their small stony acre

Near their shack and Jesus church of prayer
Where peasants Juan and Ana used be

Poverty, local gangs, and disease ruled;
But now hope for kind actions, smiles,and care;


Flighting Surprise

In my morning mug
Cold milk, washed blue berries
Dark and delicious
Lay waiting for another swig

Wait; what’s that?
Adhering--a wispy white feather

Or more briefly:

flighting surprise

in my morning mug--
adhering to wet blue berries
a wispy white feather

--
humming attack

wearing my fiery red shirt
for Christmas, I open our
sliding glass door;
sudden jolt in front
of my startled face--
a flash of feathers hum-buzzes,
darts within inches of me;

but away it flits left
back to that flowering bush
along our fence--
me a reject

--

side of the road

gray shadowed mail box
overwhelmed green, red-purple
bloomed jungle wonder
--


Twilight: Crossing Shimmering Streams into Dusk and Stars


--
fall back to autumn

treetops blazing gold
with the last light of this day--
we lift our eyes


a time for springing
childhood,

festivals of Monet-splashed leaves
that my sister and I raked and piled high
in the deep ditch in front
and jumped down into,

and our large garden behind the parsonage
with pumpkins, melons, and withered corn rows...

and lightning bugs on the wane,
flashing on and off

full of fall...

--

bidingTimeabiding

bite my teeth on famous lines
a hole lot of fragmented shells;
hunger hollows within--
deepening abyss
of lost longing
lone-ranging, reigning the distance
of a round heartless night

of a round heart-last light
lane-ranging, raining the day-stance
of last longing
steepening a-bless
fulness hallows within--
a whole lot of fragranced shalls;
bide my heart on famous lines
--


August 2020:

bolder utah

utah boulders

eye widening rock
pastels bold in harvest's sun--
basalt garden wonder

--

at the park's bat box

my young grandson scooping up handfuls
of dust
and swinging it loose--
fogged clouds of powder
lighted by sunshine
disfused halos
that disperse
back to cleated ground

--

gull wings

gullish wings
lightly spraying over gray clod fields
6-year drought--
so 'irrigating'!

--

In Every Crisis

When flailed, blind-sided,
Going down fast in
A basket abyss shrivel of worth-loss
And hope fails all drowned,
Do we launch deeper into the Deep?

Do we weep,
Do we shrive?
Thrive?

For in every crisis
Chry-sal-is*



*From crawler to butterfly--chrysalis

Even in the worst, most evil events, each of us still has the difficult possibility of heeding Viktor Frankl’s shocking words about their horrific experiences in Auschwitz Concentration Camp:
“Between stimulus [even trying to survive at Auschwitz!] and response
there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
“As we see it, an analogous relationship between the realm of human freedom and a realm superior to man is quite imaginable, so that man is endowed with free will...”
Viktor E. Frankl
“(26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997 was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and a Holocaust survivor, of Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering and Türkheim. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy (literally "healing through meaning") a meaning-centered school of psychotherapy…part of existential and humanistic psychology theories. He is the author of over 39 books; he is most noted for his best-selling book Man's Search for Meaning based on his experiences in various Nazi concentration camps...
In 1941 he married his first wife Tilly Grosser, who was a station nurse at the Rothschild hospital. Soon after they were married, she became pregnant but they were forced to abort the child. Tilly died in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. His father Gabriel died in the Terezin concentration camp(Theresienstadt) in 1942. His mother and brother, Walter, were both killed in Auschwitz
--Bio from Wikipedia


--
Dan's Brief Bio:
How did I become a hobbling mutant with a red walker?
Got struck with bad stroke of bad luck 4 1/2 years ago, shortly after returning with my sweetheart from a 12,000 mile Ram camper van trip to the heartland of the U.S. and the Great Lakes.
Plenty of scenic hiking, history-learning, photo-taking, cusine-enjoying. So many
beautiful natural scenes, historical places, colorful lighthouses, quilting stores, and chilly weather!

Would you believe, we encountered 3 weeks of stormy weather in May and June?
About May the 24th I encountered a dense snow storm in western Colorado, gripped knuckle-hard my Ram steering wheel because of dangerous side-winds in eastern Colorado, barely missed 2 tornados in Kansas by about 5 minutes, but got severe lightning all about me.
And survived coat-cold weather in Michigan in June. Hit by heavy hail coming into Duluth, Minnesota.
And it rained, rained, rained--especially in Missouri.
However, we loved the trip:-)

Now I am virtually stuck here looking out at the chilly gloom of January 2024 on the Central Coast of California, at our bare-branched plum tree, our 2 rambunctious cats, the Sphinx and Selah.
-----
You might like to do a Google sleuth and find washed up pieces of my poetic driftwood lines on the vast shores of the Internet.

Dan's wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices,
The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine, hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot, and
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat & Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.

Previous published poems in the past:
October 2019:
A Poetic Debacle of the American News

May 2019:
trembled
First pub. in Stylus Poetry Journal

April 2019:
playing blues

March 2019:
I became a beachcomber of beauty

February 2019:
El Paso

First pub. in Unlikely Stories IV
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2019/02/el-paso-rallys-political-contradictions.html
Alluded Fractures

A Twist of Words

First pub. in Counterexample Poetics

January 2019:
my gramma's beheading like the results of Dort

September 2018:
mused moments in nature
including

side of the road mailbox

california dazing

January 2018:
Lemons, "Pineapples" and Mexico
(for my dad)

October 2017:
MORNING GLORY
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2017/10/morning-glory.html

connudrumed Clockwise Cat
starbacked
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/59489337/klox-and-katz-ink

October 2016:
a haiku, dripping rain vox poetica
http://voxpoetica.com/dripping-rain-drizzles/

December 2015:
bidingTimeabiding Dead Snakes
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/12/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html

Poem for My Dad Lightwaveseeker

Deaf to Death
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2015/12/personal-two-poems-for-my-dad.html

September 2015:

Ricochet Dead Snakes
First pub. Yes Poetry

End of a Rope First pub. The New Verse News
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/09/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html

--

August 2015:
The Signal of the Flag
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/08/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html


The Wind Blew Away the Young
(Dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut)
First pub. in Mad Swirl

July 2015:

One Dog Night Dead Snakes
First pub. in Unlikely Stories 2.0


Film Over Our Eyes
First pub. in Camel Saloon

Juxtaposition
First pub. in Camel Saloon
https://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/search?q=wilcox

April 2015:
Gazing on Gaza Contemporary American Voices


earstopper
First pub. in The Write Room

our 'checkered' past

https://contemporaryamericanvoices.wordpress.com/2015/04/


February 2015:
The Modern Covenant Dead Snakes
First pub. in The Cerebral Catalyst

Iraqi Temples
First pub. in The November 3rd Club

On Visiting Hemingway's Mansion
First pub. in The Rogue Poetry Review
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/02/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html

Moon River Poetry Pacific
First pub. in Ascent Aspirations

horse trailer
First pub. in lyrical passion poetry
http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2015/02/2-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html


November 2014: The Road to Elsewhere Fish Food Magazine October 2014: RELEASE OF KINDLE VERSION OF THE FEELING OF THE EARTH August 2014: The Pull-Out Coyote vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/pull-out-coyote/ dark cliff walls Three Line Poetry http://threelinepoetry.com/issue.php?id=27&issue=27 July 2014: If you haven't checked out any of my other creative websites, hark over to them: http://www.selahriver.com/ Social and Spiritual and Personal Poems http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/ More Poems and Stories, Light in the Darkness http://lastthings.weebly.com/ Speculative/Science Fiction Poems and Stories May 2014: 1967 Dead Snakes http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2014/05/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html Use Your Head First pub. in Unlikely Stories IV Face-Overs First pub. in Mouse Tales Press JANUARY 2014: THE FEELING OF THE EARTH A Speculative Novel of the Past and the Future In 2013: Short story, "The Gift," in Scattered Hearts: An Anthology and available on the website November 2013: Film Over Our Eyes Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/11/film-over-our-eyes.html October 2013: Juxtaposition Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/10/juxtaposed.html September 2013: The Dog's Bite...in Syria Dead Snakes First pub. in The Recusant, UK Gum Up First pub. in Poydras Review http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/09/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html August 2013: Retreaded Poetry Pacific http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2013/08/1-poem-by-daniel-wilcox.html July 2013: Nail Holes Enhance Literary Magazine June 2013: "Roll Ever Columbia" cavalcadeofstars Northeast Night two hands vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/two-hands/ May 2013: The Last Libation Dead Snakes First pub. in Sentinel Online Midnight Voyager http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/05/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html First pub. in La Fenetre in France April 2013: The Revolution Dead Snakes First pub. in Lucid Rhythms http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/04/daniel-wilcox-poem.html March 2013: Ah, Bird Poop Van Dead Snakes First pub. in The Bicycle Review November 2012: In Every Crisis Ancient Paths Literary Magazine After the Battle The Write Room They Have Procedures Mad Swirl Face-Overs Mouse Tales Press October 2012: At the Retreat Ascent Aspirations September 2012: Three Sons Fight and Allah Knot Magazine, Middle Eastern Journal First pub. in outwardlink.net Whether...an Arab Spring First pub. in The New Verse News Shell Casings First pub. in different form in The Recusant El Paso Unlikely Stories IV Use Your Head? http://www.unlikelystories.org/12/wilcox0912.shtml Monks Brawl in Holy Sepulcher First pub. in The New Verse News August 2012: AWOL Paradise Review July 2012: Shipping Thirty Pieces The Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2012/07/shipping-thirty-pieces.html WayLight The Mindful Word 4-Letter Praise http://www.themindfulword.org/2012/poems-daniel-wilcox-present-moment/ Discarding First pub. in Tipton Poetry Journal Present Moment First pub. in Liturgical Credo Retina Shadow First pub. in The Greensilk Journal Outside the Limit First pub. in Flutter Poetry Journal June 2012: horse trailer Lyrical Passion Poetry First pub. in Stylus Poetry Journal May 2012: Clammy Chops vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/clammy-chops/ Their Beekeeper's Moon The Greensilk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/poetry_3_spring_2012.html 4th poem down The Journey Rime of Faith Rubber Lemon April 2012: Lapping Ideas Front Porch Review First pub. in The Centrifugal Eye Out of the Carcass Enhance March 2012: " Let's Do the 'Twister'" The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2012/03/lets-do-twister.html February 2012: Gum Up Poydras Review End of a Rope First pub. in The New Verse News January 2012: Human Imitation Bigger Stones Joan of Arc The Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2012/01/joan-of-arc.html December 2011: Rock the Nations as a Cradle The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/12/rock-nations-as-cradle.html Sunday Morning Quill & Parchment http://quillandparchment.com/archives/Dec2011/sund.html November 2011: Cape May Light hotmetalpress.net The Mystery of Modern Life Missouri's 'Job' Markers Ventura Beach October 2011: Summer of Love Quill & Parchment First pub. in Wild Violet http://quillandparchment.com/archives/Oct2011/summer.html Reflection in Glass Westward Quarterly First pub. in The Oak Bend Review 'Whether' The New Verse News Of the Arab Spring http://archive.feedblitz.com/8753/~4086452 Remix: Babbling On, Again, River Eunoia Review http://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/remix-babbling-on-again-river/ One Dog Night Unlikely Stories http://www.unlikelystories.org/11/wilcox1011.shtml Brief Decades Review Mean 'Wile' Unlikely Stories First pub. in Frame Lines Tomorrow and Unlikely Stories and Tomorrow and Tomorrow First pub. in The Medulla Review July 2011: Walls The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/07/walls.html June 2011: Ah, Bird Poop Van amphibi.us First pub. in The Bicycle Review May 2011: A Last The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/05/last.html April 2011: Perception Poetry Super Highway the bumps Haiku Journal March 2011: sliced Three Line Poetry dark tent black barred window http://threelinepoetry.com/issue.php?id=2&issue=2 earstopper The Write Room Our Indy Pacer Casting Out February 2011: The Paradox of Truth Western Friend Magazine Borderlines The Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2011/02/borderlines.html Traveling Within The Camel Saloon January 2011: Time Lapse Widowmoon Press The Animal Sound in the Trees Widowmoon Press First pub. in The Driftwood Review Stone Seal Widowmoon Press First pub. in The Writer's Eye Magazine The Cat's Scientist Windowmoon Press First pub. Abandoned Towers Magazine
And many more before. Do a Google search and find more washed up pieces of his poetic driftwood on the vast shores of the Internet.

His wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices, The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine, hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot, and
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat & Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.

There are 3 collections of Daniel's published poems,
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls,
Dark Energy
and selah river.
All 3 areavailable at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local bookstores, and coffee shops.
For Daniel's speculative writing, futuristic poems and stories warp over to
http://lastthings.weebly.com/.

Other websites include
http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/
http://planktonpelican.weebly.com/
and
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/

And OLDER PUBLISHED POEMS:

December 2010: Ricochet Yes, Poetry November 2010: Of Princes and Frogs Liturgical Credo But the Cesspool... Right Here The High Way Chair Present Moment http://liturgicalcredo.wordpress.com/present-moment-daniel-wilcox/ The So n' So Argument MediaVirus Magazine October 2010: The Last Act Midwest Literary Magazine Short Story Morning Four and Twenty http://4and20poetry.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/4and20_v3i10.pdf A Word from the Tree Front Porch Review September 2010: All 'Hail' Gloom Cupboard August 2010: A Love Affair The Clockwise Cat Iraqi Temples http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2010/07/two-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html Giving Talk 'A' Graded Clutching at Straws July 2010: Sign of the 12 Rubber Lemon #1 Tomorrow The Medulla Review and Tomorrow and Tomorrow June 2010: The Hatted Fish Structo Magazine #4 UK http://structomagazine.co.uk/ The Canine Trail vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/the-canine-trail-memorial/ Onslaught Danse Macabre Live Branch Reach Willows Wept Review Night Watch Psalm May 2010: manta ray Lyrical Passion Poetry Retina Shadow The Greensilk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/poetpg5sp2010.html The Teeth of It The Centrifugal Eye April 2010: Israeli Morning Wild Violet Literary Magazine http://www.wildviolet.net/2010/04/13/israeli-morning/ red peaches A Handful of Stones The Last Exit Right Hand Pointing March 2010: molten froth waves A Handful of Stones February 2010: Sayings so Unkind The Centrifugal Eye Ah, Bird-Poop Van The Bicycle Review Three Poems The Copperfield Review Midnight Voyager Unfettered Verse The Cheyenne Gift Scattered Hearts Anthology Short Story January 2010: On Visiting Leaf Garden Hemingway's Mansion Only Left Standing The Modern Covenant Calliope Nerve Of Things Past Static Movement and Future December 2009: The Nemesis Counterexample Poetics Three Sons outwardlink.net Divergent Learning A Song of Songs http://www.outwardlink.net/features/danielwilcox/song_of_songs_into_olding.html The Wind Blew Away Mad Swirl the Young Caught in the Act in Iraq October 2009: To Whom it Does Not protestpoems.org Concern http://protestpoemsdotorg.blogspot.com/2009/10/daniel-wilcox.html August 2009: End of a Rope The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2009/08/end-of-rope.html Her Strands Writer's Ink Walking the Night July 2009: Dark Energy Diminuendo Press Book of Poems The Trouble with Names In the book Writing Cheerfully on the Web and Terms a few blasphemies The Recusant The Winged Ones Black Light Comcerning this 500th Anniversary of John Calvin and his Tongues of Fire June 2009: love's bullion Full of Crow mowed field May 2009: Picture Identity Oak Bend Review Under the Sky World The Green Silk Journal Hardwood Tap Dancer http://www.thegreensilkjournal.citymax.com/poetrypg2may09.html Ever After The Shine Journal Our Human Real Estate Word Catalyst The Miser For Goodness Sake April 2009: Cambria in Gray The Houston Literary Review restless slumber March 2009: 'ExHume' the Mind Counterexample Poetics The Incredible Shrinking Consciousness Eye Bandits A Twist of the Words Alluded Fractures The Cup Wild Violet http://www.wildviolet.net/linked_lives/cup.html February 2009: Mean 'wile' Frame Lines The Cat's Scientist Abandoned Towers Print Magazine #2 Cold as Hell Frostwriting First pub. in The Externalist In Store for Less the poetry warrior January 2009: Missing Star and Cradle Danse Macabre December 2008: Live Branch Reach Western Friend Magazine Less Is More The Daughter's Return Word Riot Body Parts California Mythic Death Moria AWake http://www.moriapoetry.com/wilcox.html November 2008: The Nature of Fishhooks The Centrifugal Eye Art Clasps Mississippi Crow Print Magazine Getting the Slip Up Early after the cyclone Hanging Moss Journal A Modern Psalm Monks Brawl in Holy The New Verse News Sepulcher http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2008/11/monks-brawl-in-holy-sepulcher.html The Mythic Mask Mad Swirl after the loss The Slowness of Danger three haiku ocean diamond Stone Seal The Writer's Eye The Faces of Rock Danse Macabre Short Story Reprint Perception in Late Night Word Catalyst Magazine Under the Big Sky A Song of Songs Into Olding October 2008: Research Filing Cabinets Mad Swirl In the Far Lane The Scruffy Dog Review Wasted Wealth Word Catalyst Magazine The Shell Zebra Mussels In September 2008: The Dog's Bite The Recusant The Loss of April Oak Bend Review Reflection in Glass The Lady in the Garden Baja Abandoned Towers Without Rime The Possibility of Suburbia Divergent Learning Paradise The Space Clown First pub. in Right Hand Pointing August 2008: Gargoyle The Clockwise Cat Utter Common Sense library census Reflection While 'Lying' on a Bed at a Slant Collapsed Falling http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2008/07/five-themed-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html July 2008: Dirge in the Night Danse Macabre Night Watch Psalm The Cherry Blossom Review Messed-Up News Crossing Rivers Into Twilight June 2008: The Road Kill Cliche The New Verse News May 2008: Two Haiku Ink Sweat & Tears The Crucified Isle The Centrifugal Eye April 2008: Black Samaritan The Houston Literary Review of the Street Rock Life Partially Found Poem Lost-- Hemingway By the Waters erbacce print journal surreal morning Stoned for Truth Dear Susan B The Modern The Cerebral Catalyst Covenant March 2008: the animal sound in the trees The Driftwood Review Of Things Past and Future Half Way Down the Stairs http://www.halfwaydownthestairs.net/index.php?action=view&id=76 February 2008: Aesopian Snail The Cerebral Catalyst Discarding Tipton Poetry Journal http://tiptonpoetryjournal.com/tpj8/wilcox.htm Waking at the Funeral Lunarosity Montana's History Lesson The 'Darlossness' The Clockwise Cat of Dawkins http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2008/01/five-themed-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html Only Left Standing What Nerve of the 23rd Psalm Artesian Well of Voice Losing Your Head January 2008: Be Forewarned The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2008/01/be-forewarned.html December 2007: Outside the Limit Flutter Poetry Journal The Revolution Lucid Rhythms The Space Clown Right Hand Pointing November 2007: Shell Casings The Recusant shadowed garden The Green Silk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/page/page/5161101.htm Conflicted West The Writer's Eye Fable of the North The Centrifugal Eye My Canadian And in the book Dark Energy Memories From Below the Line Caught in the Act The Clockwise Cat http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2007/11/five-political-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html Kiss of Death 'Heir Ball' The Day My Battery Died Carpet Diem Pomona Hills Identity Theory Her Santa Right Hand Pointing Barbara Way Court Hearing The Faces of Rock The Danforth Review Short Story http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/300/danforth/2007/no20/fiction/09_07/wilcox.htm 2 Haiku Idlewheel literary friction http://idlewheel.wordpress.com/volume-2/esch-haiku/ Summer of Love Wild Violet in Philadelphia http://www.wildviolet.net/blue_moon/summer_love.html Harvest Time Words-Myth and in the book Dark Energy Yosemite The Indite Circle Sitting... Word Riot Natural Selection Lapping Ideas The Centrifugal Eye I Love You Flannery O'Connor The Last Libation Sentinel Poetry Online http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/0207/wilcox.html Redux of Moose Words-Myth and Men And in the book Dark Energy Iraqi Temples The November 3rd Club One The Green Silk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/page/page/4231640.htm 3rd poem down On Hemingway's Mansion The Rogue Poetry Journal Fall's Impression The WriteSideUp and Dark Energy Book Cold as Hell The Externalist and in the book Dark Energy Word from Tree La Fenetre International Literary Magazine The Wearing Midnight Voyager The Essence of Software The Cat n' Mouse Anthrozine http://anthrozine.com/ptry/cat.and.mouse.html 3 Haiku The Stylus Poetry Journal Sunday Morning The Other Side Magazine The First Gulf War The Evangelical Visitor Supper The Other Side Magazine Fall Eyes Gambit Editorial Columist The Forty-Niner of Cal State University, Long Beach Other Poems and Articles Small Magazines and School Publications Short Story Award Scholastic Magazine National Short Story Contest We're Disturbing the Chaos Honorable Mention
--

Daniel's wandering, wondering lines have appeared in many magazines including Contemporary American Voices, vox poetica, Dead Snakes, Word Riot, Centrifugal Eye,
Write Room, Enhance, Static Movement, Counterexample Poetics, and Unlikely Stories IV.
Three large collections of his published poetry are in print: Dark Energy,
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls, and selah river. And a speculative novel, The Feeling of the Earth, one of alternate history and futuristic science fiction.

Before that, Dan hiked through the University of Nebraska, Long Beach State (Creative Writing), Montana, Pennsylvania, Europe, Palestine-Israel, Mexico, Canada, Arizona, and many other states. Now he resides with his quilting wife on the central coast of California. Life gets difficult in elder age as I got a stroke of bad luck, so am mostly house-bound. But as circumstances get tough--we MUTANTS get tougher:-).


In the Light,
Dan Wilcox

selah river: Poems of reflection, remembrance, transcendence

"I've known rivers...my soul has grown deep like the rivers."* Langston Hughes

Yes, travel rivers of the world
and rivers of the soul
and rivers of the mind.

Selah.


Presence transcends

Drowned in family tragedy, despairing, distraught--
that morning earlier;
thus down encumbered,
he came to Quaker meeting, but not speaking
of his family’s severe circumstance, kept hidden;

But in the midst
of open expectant communion, Transcendent Light
shown forth in a stranger’s sudden
a cappella spiritual chorus--
a deep songing deepening within;
intense meaning lifted us gathered in communion--
vivid encouraging Hope;

That sacred chorus didn’t take away our shattered glass
lives, nor end many distraught
circumstances and tragedies--
but
Oh, what Hope fulled within.

--Dan Wilcox


a beachcomber of Beauty

a why-ing kid
up
with go-vision eyes stretching and out,
rambling
meandering rocky-rubble farm roads
and roaming over creeks, through timber strands,
brief forest, and out across pasture lands--

I discovered beautiful bits and lumps that matter
--pebbles, stones, and rocks
(especially when wet)
and odd ugly ones, to boot

on fun nature hikes
wide-eyed adventures--
outside of our minor village
in 50’s southeast Nebraska;

Put those bright objects, small hunks, in my pockets
where they lay heavy
or in my overloaded baggish hands,
carrying them home,
my free treasures of early/pre-youth

enlarging my throng of wonder
in my pine-walled basement room--
Yes, I became a rock-mongrel mutt;

And later found others, mostly bits of minerals,
my boyhood keepers
in the Black Hills, Rockies, Sierras,
and a small chunk of copper ore
from an open pit mine in Bisbee, Arizona,

and a few parched white bones from
a long-ago bison jump
near Lame Dear, Montana.

I became a boarder of pebbles, quartzes, feldspars, agates,
granite bits, and mica, sea-glass, iron pirate,
and who-know unknowns,
and fascinating shells and other sea life from 3 coasts--

a life-long beachcomber of minor Beauty,
a voyager through this washed-up-n-down of life,
Adrift explorer, searcher, curious wanderer.

But now in receding elder age, mutated
by a stroke of bad luck,
I hesitently hobble about with a rolling walker alone
along Pismo sand dunes and Morro Rock shores
still searching, seeking for more special riff-raff,
to add to my ‘treasured things,’
our rooms’ shelves;

Here they still lay waiting
inert for another
I/It encounter...

Oh, the aesthetic depth of minor things,
bits that matter which sometime
transcend
into present
WONDER!

Yes, objects of beauty that exist in Deep Time...

In not too many years,
I will leave them behind;
and those long-enduring things will
exist others of the future.

And this long rumination of my life-long collections
Reminds me of a pebbled thought of beauty for present living--

We humans get washed up
on this shore of existence,
surrounded and crowded

by things and circumstances
we didn’t choose--

We all get roughed down and polished by adversity…

But the wonder of our human brain’s neural plasticity--
is we all get to choose
how we respond to life’s circumstances,
harsh trials, and horrific tragedies--

Yes, until our death, we get to create anew
Each moment,
If only briefly
--
Conclusion:
What has washed up on your shore today?
What beautiful pebbled moment of wonder?
Or what irritant, ache, troubling circumstance, or tragedy
has gotten lodged in your
oyster mind and heart?

What can you do to turn this troubled moment into a precious
gem/pebble/stone/agate?

-Dan Wilcox


Awake at dawn

upending my camping mug
for a drink,
at dawn,
but no water slurp;
almost empty--

except for a gray web’s net
rim to rim;
below, a dark spider
silent dwelling
--


Retreaded, not yet board and carded

I’m retreaded but road-tired,
Rolling across cantankerous land
Though, thank heavens—knock around
On pavement
And redwood,
Not yet sent off to a ‘board and card’ mansion,
Rehearsing...

You know where decks and bingo
“Was a dog…” chips or
Markers
Define the tokened measures of your/our life--

Or where, too
Reclining and breathing entertain you/us.

Or tipped-wobbly with 4-wheels and unfeeling-ed feet
I walker along the wet sand at Morro Strand beach
Staggering in wonder at this breathtaking coast...
Here
Until my brief spark of awed experience embers out

Gone...

Yet
Reality Ultimately
Transcendent
--


Meditation on Shimmering Palms

On more days and nights, an invalid,
In pain and loss, I often just want to go...
Unconscious;
But then, again, I stare out
To the wind and sun
From our upstairs
Window;

There tower above, 2 lone palms
In sight from my weak haven,
Swaying in that blue expanse
In a lively coastal wind,
Their mop-tops of slender fronds
Shimmering
Like flashing magnesium flares
From brilliant reflecting
Sunshine.

Those two undulating sentinels dance
over/above my fading consciousness,
Ailing awareness--
A duo/two unconscious guards,
While I lay here filled with sacred
Remembrance, mindful
Of my former festive living,
Becoming, and doing….

Yes, the wonder of being a human primate
Living, but finite, so brief, and this
Gift, this Present
Shimmering--
Then we’re gone.

-Dan Wilcox,
--

FLOATERS--a poetic reflection on autumn and life

I’m spent to despair,
For lost hope yearning,
Tried for years to rescue others
Caught in tangled news hours
Of hellish hate, intolerance, despair,

Wrong right-leftist spinners,
Those creedalists and secularists
Both deniers of the morally real--
Their abyss of modern sheol winter
Stop!
Abandon this somber cellared lament!

Instead,
My sweetheart suggests, Let’s visit
A coastal winery,
Say, I do,
We do.

Driving along a winding river valley,
We arrive, expectant,
Hoping for respite;
Then, listening to soft music,
Sipping small glasses of moscato and merlot

Enjoying a glad lackadaisical day,
Mellow and casual,
Light of heart,
Carefree, contented
In California’s autumn’s wonder
Below tall sycamores and elms;

After Thanksgiving before winter;
We bask in 86-degree warmth,
When unexpectedly a slightly curled
Leaf floats down before
My eyes,
And lands gently on my lap,
A died wonder for us to behold;

Then another drifter
Lets go from a large limb above,
A deep rust-brown leaf spattered
With light tan highlights and vein-lines,
Descends in front of us,

Swaying back and forth,
Languid,
Lightly
Floating down
Inches away from us,
Landing nearby
On the lawn;

I lay with my head way back,
Gazing up to the sky's azure blue,
As other gifts let go every few moments
From high above,
Swinging wide and gentle,

Falling beauty in slow motion,
Floating, swaying;
I realize—here, now--
With this Present--
I could die free, released.

-Dan Wilcox


Color Me Fiery Intense Red

As a kid, expressive, creative, rambunctious,
something of a wild card
long into adulthood
I loved vibrant Green--
for abundant life, for exuberant energy, vividly alive
for beauty like in colors, emerald or jade,
for the natural world from creek to patch of woods
behind our house on the edge of Adams village,
to verdant forest green glens of the Sierras, Sequoia and Yosemite

But--
then, suddenly, unexpectedly, without conscious why;
spontaneous, impulsively one day in middle life,
I awoke
not liking green anymore...
viewing green instead as dull, insipid, sickening, repetitious, odd, over-done, humdrum...

Color me instead--RED riveting, intense, striking sparks of light
cardinal, crimson, scarlet burst into my eyes and consciousness
—passionate, dazzling, blazing, heated, different...

as in exploding firework sky rockets,
as pulsing red coals in a bonfire,
as an amazing psychedelic quilt by my sweetheart
like an Impressionistic painting, luminous in our house
to ruby red lava in Hawaii’s volcano,
intense sunsets, and Utah’s red rock

RED forever

--Dan Wilcox


A Psalm of Late Life

Pessimist of my oldering years
Preyed upon by lamentable loss
I find no balmy psalms to lyre
But after discovered liars
Only this harp
of yawps and howls,
I pray for transcendence,
​This my modern yelled holler
My psalm of life end's exit
Dance in this sorrowing starred night



bidingTimeabiding

bite my teeth on famous lines
a hole lot of fragmented shells;
hunger hollows within--
deepening abyss
of lost longing
lone-ranging, reigning the distance
of a round heartless night

of a round heart-last light
lane-ranging, raining the day-stance
of last longing
steepening a-bless
fulness hallows within--
a whole lot of fragranced shalls;
bide my heart on famous lines
--


a time for…

in the fall a time for springing
childhood,
festivals of Monet-splashed leaves
that my sister and I raked and piled high
in the deep ditch in front
and jumped down into,

and our large garden behind the parsonage
with pumpkins, melons, and withered corn rows...
and lightning bugs on the wane,
flashing on and off

full of fall...
--


bolder utah

utah boulders,
eye widening rock
pastels bold in harvest's sun--
basalt garden wonder
--


at the park's bat box

my grandson scooping up handfuls
of dust
and swinging it loose--
fogged clouds
lighted by sunshine
that disperse
back to cleated ground

--

gull wings

gull wings
lightly spraying over gray clod fields
6-year drought--
so 'irrigating'!

--
Experience the awe-widened beauty of the Columbia Gorge:

MORNING GLORY

http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2017/10/morning-glory.html
--

Want to be conundrummed? Live in the starbacked night?
Visit Clockwise Cat Poetry Magazine: Klox and Katz Ink Issue, for my two new poems:
conundrumming
Starbacked
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/59489337/klox-and-katz-ink

Check out a brief poem on summer gloom, a haiku at vox poetica:
http://voxpoetica.com/dripping-rain-drizzles/

Then leave sorrow and war and memory behind. Journey love and romance in "Moon River" at Poetry Pacific.
http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2015/02/2-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html

Need a little bit of humor in the midst of so much human tragedy and political chaos?
Try "The Pullout Coyote" at the fine poetry magazine, vox poetica.
A true but funny poetic story of our encounter with a wild critter in Yosemite last year.
http://voxpoetica.com/pull-out-coyote/
-

For Daniel's previously published writing visit http://www.psalmsyawpshowls.com/
Also, check out his new speculative novel, The Feeling of the Earth.

Get caught up in the joys, trials, and tribulations of 3 alienologists who warp into our solar system in 1842.
They become deeply involved and a mutation occurs in the human species. Journey through the years with them to 2074!
Available now at Barnes Noble, local bookstores, libraries, and Amazon.

Deal with the moving film over your eyes in "Film Over Our Eyes."
Is it easier for a camel to go through the eye of a poem....?

Experience Hollywood's wild ire, the roller-coaster excess of youth,
growing up fundamentalist Baptist, all that rollicking rock crazy Oz of the 60's, and Life itself.
http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/11/film-over-our-eyes.html

There are 3 collections of Daniel's published poems,
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls,
Dark Energy
and selah river.
All 3 areavailable at Amazon, Barnes Noble, local bookstores, and coffee shops.
For Daniel's speculative writing, futuristic poems and stories warp over to
http://lastthings.weebly.com/.

Other websites include
http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com
http://planktonpelican.weebly.com/


Do a Google sleuth and find washed up pieces of his poetic driftwood on the vast shores of the Internet.

His wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices, The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine,hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot,
and
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.

Photographs by Dan and Betsy Wilcox

​

Yeshua, Child of the Masses

Yeshua, Child of the Masses

So awe fulled the birthing
of God's presence, new cauled
in humble manger's destiny,

The base and apex of
a starred cave's presents
of all future festivals

Yet abandoned, forsaken to
the crowned world's nails,
every man's cursedness;

Farthest reach of faith
this Apocalypso dancer
crosses the Cosmos,

Morning us night-less;
he compassions Earth
ever peopling Heaven,

Emptying the pitiless bottom
zeroing Apollyon
into ever's Now

Beloved one, Yeshua
child of the masses
point man for us all.



--- A poem I wrote 15 years ago that I think still distills the Good News message. It still warms my spirit during this cold, intolerant, dysfunctional time, though I no longer think the lines are literally true.

Hopefully, the poem will speak to all of you.

May you have a blessed Christmas month, filled with hope, joy, and kindness.

Dan Wilcox

First published in The Green Silk Journal

pebbled poems strewn along the shore of this life

First pub. in The Houston Review



utah bolder

eye widening rock
pastels bold in harvest's sun--
basalt garden wonder

--

dying leaves fluttering
scarlet
oaks and aspen into glory

--

at the park's bat box

my grandson scooping up handfuls
of dust
and swinging it loose--
fogged clouds
lighted by sunshine
that disperse
back to cleated ground

--

gull wings
lightly spraying over gray clod fields

6-year drought--
so 'irrigating'!

--

photo:lkaklimited

--

date palms swaying up
in crimson's sky
feather dusting
dusk


--



Lapping Ideas

Backstroking across the ceiling
white gulls of light arcing
wing refraction

from the high intensity bulbs above
that shekel-flash on the blue body waves of the pool
bright incandescent—dare we say transcendent—lights

swimming in this liquid marble
strikes of lightening broken
and broken on the waves
like archetypes that shimmer in this cavern
and electrify under water across the blue cement,
chimeras of our mental synapses;

After the swim, stepping out the glass door
into the brilliant sunlight--

Shades of Plato.

--

shadowed mail box
overwhelmed by green, purple
bloom jungled wonder


--


Morning

a trail of dashes
translucent on our red brick--
night's telltale caller

--


lines, no white clothes but
birds black in a row clothes-pinned
to telephone wires

--


starbacked

starbacked night, coffee-drunk sky:
rows of cars metal
at the red orb,
anonymous

a lone skateboarder foot-struts,
waiting for the flash of sage green
his board-wheeler a bill of adding
getting a toehold
from the faceless

hidden in their dark auto glass
street
fathomless

when all dreams night
into marred perception

--


Fog rising in the west
Watercolor washed
Horizon faded jean
Sky filled east
By the blazing sun
Over
Our
Central Valley

--

falling like cold ash--prayer in our last hour

--

dusked stars, galactic stream--shimmering in twilight

--

snow falls to crystal
path deep white over my knees--
light inside my head

--




ice melts
clear splashes on the teak matt
our heat,
'tinder' intense caresses
and our slushious kiss

--

warped fence boards in sand
lean askew toward green windbreak--
old gnarled cypress

--

horse trailer rattles
by curved eucalyptus leaves
that skit to gutter

--

yellow-beaked birds perch
in the wind-shifted branches
clamorous squawking


--

Cambria fire

green vines wind up fences
bursting with succulent grapes--
but dusted in ash

--

crinkly gray strands caught
in my black brush of bristles
approaching heir time

--

Up Early

In the gray-hazed dawn
Pale light blossoms
Softly explode from a violet tree
Rising by a jade-green hedge
Birdsong morning

--

Night Watch Psalm

Walled granite
Moonlight
One mile
Down
Below the rocked rim
In the rusted Canyon
Rushing Colorado
River russet copper;
Nearby in the evened dusk
I lay ‘stilled,’ a silent psalm
In the shine
Of that lighted granite
Eyes wide in the dawn
Of that Night


--


Misplaced?

Lost?
Seek the moral compass
Round the world ringed
Compassioned--
Don't pass by on the other side;
Be passionate
And encompass
Love's Sphere
Found

--

starlight
when one doesn't
see the dark

---

Some poems first pub. in The Green Silk Journal, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel, ink sweat and tears, 4 and 20 poetry, Full of Crow, The Cherry Blossom Review, etc.

In poetry's lightness,

Dan Wilcox

John Adams: "You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.”

This is such a catchy maxim, one written by President John Adams
to his son, John Quincy Adams: "You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.”

However, quickly, deeply, key questions arise:

1. Is this true, that you will never be alone?

2. Which poets ought one to include, without so stuffing your pocket it begins to look
like you have a huge wart on your leg?

3. Besides, Adams, spoke of only one poet at a time. So that leads to the more difficult question,
what poet ought one to put in his/her pocket first?

4. And most of all, what poem deserves to be hugged closely to yourself, bleeding deep into you--
one that you read with shock, powerful reaction,
sometimes in delight or in horror,
and eventually with deep reflection
that gets down into the marrow of your bones and heart?

You--with that pocketed poet in your soul and gut--then like the proverbial camel who chews his cud,
you chew on it for years.

The camel goes incredible distances through difficult terrain and inhospitable weather, and can survive without water and other things that most animals must have.

Does any poem do that for you?

Here's one powerful poem, a stunner:


in time’s a noble mercy of proportion
with generosities beyond believing
(though flesh and blood accuse him of coercion
or mind and soul convict him of deceiving)

whose ways are neither reasoned nor unreasoned
his wisdom cancels conflict and agreement
– saharas have their centuries; ten thousand
of which are smaller than a rose’s moment

there’s time for laughing and there’s time for crying –
for hoping for despair for peace for longing
– a time for growing and a time for dying:
a night for silence and a day for singing

but more than all (as all your more than eyes
tell me) there is a time for timelessness


by e.e. cummings




In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Beauty of Romantic Innocence

a few of my very favorite romantic poems of innocence:

from the poet, Gary Soto--

Oranges

The first time I walked
With a girl, I was twelve,
Cold, and weighted down
With two oranges in my jacket.
December. Frost cracking
Beneath my steps, my breath
Before me, then gone,
As I walked toward
Her house, the one whose
Porch light burned yellow
Night and day, in any weather.

A dog barked at me, until
She came out pulling
At her gloves, face bright
With rouge. I smiled,
Touched her shoulder, and led
Her down the street, across
A used car lot and a line
Of newly planted trees,
Until we were breathing
Before a drugstore. We

Entered, the tiny bell
Bringing a saleslady
Down a narrow aisle of goods.
I turned to the candies
Tiered like bleachers,
And asked what she wanted -
Light in her eyes, a smile
Starting at the corners
Of her mouth. I fingered
A nickle in my pocket,
And when she lifted a chocolate
That cost a dime,
I didn’t say anything.

I took the nickle from
My pocket, then an orange,
And set them quietly on
The counter. When I looked up,
The lady’s eyes met mine,
And held them, knowing
Very well what it was all
About.

Outside,
A few cars hissing past,
Fog hanging like old
Coats between the trees.
I took my girl’s hand
In mine for two blocks,
Then released it to let
Her unwrap the chocolate.
I peeled my orange
That was so bright against
The gray of December
That, from some distance,
Someone might have thought
I was making a fire in my hands.


--Gary Soto,
retired professor at U.C. Berkeley;
Grew up poor in Fresno.

--

from songwriters David Lee Murphy and Jim Collins--


Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?

We were sittin' up there on your momma's roof
Talkin' 'bout everything under the moon
With the smell of honeysuckle and your perfume
All I could think about was my next move

Oh, but you were so shy, so was I
Maybe that's why it was so hard to believe
When you smiled and said to me
Are you gonna kiss me or not?

Are we gonna do this or what?
I think you know I like you a lot
But you're 'bout to miss your shot
Are you gonna kiss me or not?

It was the best dang kiss that I ever had
Except for that long one after that
And I knew if I wanted this thing to last
Sooner or later I'd have to ask for your hand

So I took a chance
Bought a wedding band and I got down on one knee
And you smiled and said to me
Are you gonna kiss me or not?

Are we gonna do this or what?
I think you know I love you a lot
I think we've got a real good shot
Are you gonna kiss me or not?

So, we planned it all out for the middle of June
From the wedding cake to the honeymoon
And your momma cried
When you walked down the aisle

When the preacher man said, "Say I do"
I did and you did too, then I lifted that veil
And saw your pretty smile and I said
Are you gonna kiss me or not?

Are we gonna do this or what?
Look at all the love that we got
It ain't never gonna stop
Are you gonna kiss me or not?

Yeah baby, I love you a lot
I really think we've got a shot
Are you gonna kiss me or not?


Songwriters: David Lee Murphy / Jim Collins
Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not lyrics © Spirit Music Group, Carol Vincent & Assoc LLC

--

And romantic innocence when faced with problems and trials:

from the songwriters Jon Nite and Ross Copperman--

Glass

Trying to live and love,
With a heart that can't be broken,
Is like trying to see the light with eyes that can't be opened.
Yeah, we both carry baggage,
We picked up on our way, so if you love me do it gently,
And I will do the same.

We may shine, we may shatter,
We may be picking up the pieces here on after,
We are fragile, we are human,
We are shaped by the light we let through us,
We break fast, cause we are glass.
'Cause we are glass.

I'll let you look inside me, through the stains and through the cracks,
And in the darkness of this moment,
You see the good and bad.
But try not to judge me, 'cause we've walked down different paths,
But it brought us here together, so I won't take that back.

We may shine, we may shatter,
We may be picking up the pieces here on after,
We are fragile, we are human,
We are shaped by the light we let through us,
We break fast, cause we are glass.

We might be oil and water, this could be a big mistake,
We might burn like gasoline and fire,
It's a chance we'll have to take.

We may shine, we may shatter,
We may be picking up the pieces here on after,
We are fragile, we are human,
And we are shaped by the light we let through us,
We break fast, cause we are glass.
We are glass.


Songwriters: Jon Nite / Ross Copperman
Glass lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Jon Nite grew up in Amarilo, Texas, married his sweetheart,
and they had an infant while still in high school; then they
moved to Nashville.



In this time of twisted views, lurid obscenities, and sexual assault,
let us turn away from such ethical darkness!


Turn to the Light of Romantic Innocence and Beauty,


Daniel Wilcox

Lines of Why, Wonder, and Loss

Missouri's Travail

Midwestern agony, thrice told
Tolling again, and again, and again:
Said one surviving son repeatedly—
“My Father, Father, why?”

Against the suffering onslaught,
Forsaken, to the priestly ‘preying’;
According to brazen ministers,
God Father's brass knuckles slam,

Supposedly that gangster god’s attack;
Lacerated and lambasted humans
Shaking from wrathful damnations,
Condemned before time, before their birth.

Our travail


Ravaged by Calvin’s sovereign despot
Slaughtered in another mighty wind*--
That savages across our land, rampaging
So many perishing in this world,

Not eternally loved, not compassioned,
Only sworn global news gone timelessly old,
Voltaire's crushed Lisbon, so many descendants
'Job'd' in another cosmic trial again.

Our travail

Selah.

"This is a miracle," after the torrential wind,
Intoned one smiling survivor hugging another,
Not the tornado slashing through, or the homicidal attack
Not surviving nature’s unholy debacle but rather

When his little sister, a virgin, was delivered
From the womb'd ruins of a dead minster’s deceitful home,
She one of hundreds of thousands injured;
But no longer about to be molested.

Our travail

Not seven days later, nor those triple sixes!
Beware that horror ended sign of last things--
That's supposedly yet another god-appointed disaster;
But now only a quarter to a third million dead

Including a few ravaging leaders,
Stained ones of sacred public cloth;
Those who distort the Divine into wrath
While intoning mumble-jumble ritual.

In these endless natural horrors,
So many sons and daughters who do not rise;
To quote the 'vained' Preacher, “Mere breath,”*
So billion'd the god-hysterical body count;

Our travail

Another ‘whether-vein’ rake-off
For now torn-asunder winds flail
These abject supplicants lost from hope,
Lamenting, lamentable 'patients' of Job;

But contrary to insolent religious doctrine,
Which lays all evil at the foot of God's throne,
One son of man wept, endlessly for all,
Crucified weeping.

Our travail

Selah

*Job 1:19, Ecclesiastes, and recent world news

--

Cape May Light

Back then
Her young wedding eyes glistened
More than the prism‘d Fresnel lens
That centered our lives
On the Jersey shore;

Now here,
From our rising 'light-tower', her loving gaze
Warm loving brilliance, still
Signals out guidance through violent storms,

To those lost in the raging sea of conflict,
And her belled joy sounds through blinding fog
To endangered others--
So many lost ships passing in the night.

She’s a Keeper.



--


Ventura Beach

cleaning up
on the beach street,
swaying date palms feather-dusk
fading crimson
but miss
gang scrawl

--


Markers

The pressure
Presses down, sure,
All four billion years

On to gleaming cars,

Glaring windows
On Maui's narrow beach shore--
Juxed up against a worn
Row of ‘withered’ gravestones


-Daniel Wilcox

Peoms first pub. in hotmetalpress.net;
also in a handful of stones
and the poetry collection, selah river


Edit--the poetry magazine, hotmetalpress.net no longer exists.


In the Light of God's Love,

Daniel Wilcox

The Ocean of Light

Mathieu sat looking dumbfounded as the red liquid seeped out on the wood of the cafe table.

In Jean-Paul Sartre's classic novel Age of Reason, the main character Mathieu suddenly comes to a shocking nadir of awareness--his own "age of reason"-- realizing how much of what he has thought, perceived, and done that is all so delusionary (as will most humans shortly because it is 1938 and only months before the Nazis launch humankind's own nadir, one of absurd unreason).

So suddenly, Mathieu, shocked with this personal awareness of the existential, stabs a knife through the palm of his hand daggering it to the scarred wood of the cafe table in Paris. And looks confounded as his blood seeps out while his friends look on bewildered.

I've encountered my own nadirs, and that's how I've felt, metaphorically, like a knife jabbed through me.

Would you like me to get melodramatic;-)?

Despite his pierced hand, Mathieu is no christ (he's getting his mistress to have an abortion).

And neither am I like Christ...though I seek to be, though I yearn to be.

I've been reflecting back through my recent posts of the last few months--times of deep spiritual crisis where I've lost my spiritual home, discovered I've been living in religious illusion. And now realize anew, I spend way too much time ruminating on and grieving over the "no" and "the ocean of darkness," and not nearly enough time on the "Yes" and "the Infinite Ocean of Light."

So here's a few of my Lightful lines:


Perception in Late Night

I work the graveyard shift in ‘67
Stock shelves of Marlboro ‘Country’
For California slickers, tubes of
Ultra Brite ‘sex appeal’
Brushed by grim oldsters,
And Olympia, ‘it’s the water’
For partying young adults;

I close the flashy cooler,
Pick up the empty card boxes,
Crumple and dump them in the trash bin;
Across the street a Texaco filling station
Slogans forth still, “Trust you car to the man
Who wears the star,’ but its ‘vacant for lease’ sign
Came from the only auto to ford
Those shallow words.

I lean on a metal stool behind
The counter, no customers; its past
The midnight hour; so I
Close my tired eyes,
Rub my warm forehead,
The feel of bone so arched like a vault,
My skull under skin
Almost Neanderthal,
And my sense of self in that inner cave
Of stored ads, memories and procedures;
What will be left in the finite end?

Suddenly like a lighted tidal wave
Overwhelming self and night,
Wide a w a r e n e s s
Oceans deep--
Awash in God.

______________________


The Mythic Mask

The vast kaleidoscoped cosmos
On black velvet background
Galactic star swirls,
One great masked Chagall
Above us in infinite light years,
Visioning vivid rose and royal blue,
We cover the earth,
Weeping colors of bowed rain
In this troubled world’s lastness,
From the very beforeness,
Out from
The great cosmic Blast,
A hooded violet trope
That hurtled
Us into the question
Before the asking;

Our distraught masks
Cascading;
Yes, we turn our
Stained-glassed faces
Away from the harshness
Of wintered survival rage
To stare at the flaming sun,
Ruby, emerald, and sapphire
Gleaming through,
Not mindfully blind
Behind metaphor’s
Translucent veil,
Seeing the True Face,
Ever-becoming visually real.
One finally white endless strobe
Of the brightness of becoming,
Unlimited strophe of the Masque
Of all Dancing.


In the Ocean of Light,

Daniel Wilcox