I crown you with laurel

I crown you with laurel

I admire and adore

Your fight and conviction

Your want of something more

Forge ahead regardless

I bow to you on knee

I’m sending you all my

Positive energy

Magnets both push and pull

Magnets both push and pull
Lost dreams to destiny
Songs of a broken heart
Without a melody

Fighting without armor
I think, but is it me
Looking for a new chord
Always sounding off key

Ohio farms in fog

Ohio farms in fog
All the corn rows are gone
The sun and hawks rising
A Thanksgiving Day dawn

A touch of New England
For some afternoon fun
Travel back home again
With a slow setting sun

Unable to begin

Unable to begin
Can't find a place to start
The stars are not aligned
No courage in the heart

Must keep moving forward
Or at least take a lap
Destination unknown
No direction, no map

Leaves not in the current

Leaves not in the current

The autumn season done

Time to reflect upon

The battles lost or won

Or battles not chosen

Not enough time or might

There must be some solace

Can’t always stand and fight

Where is the winter snow

Where is the winter snow
No snow clouds are forming
Another cloudless day
Another day warming

But winter has arrived
Birds are done migrating
But where's the winter snow
Naked trees are waiting

In a hurry for home

In a hurry for home 

While planes at twilight leave

Tears in a blue canvas

In time, they’ll come to weave

White clouds intersecting

South with east, north with west

But the sun is setting

I’m almost home to nest

I found a black feather

I found a black feather

That is a part of me

Lost in some search for an

Unknown and shiny key

Restless to find answers

Did I lose it in flight

Showing wear and tear from
This long unending fight

I may be whispering

I may be whispering
But my heart wants to shout
I just can't seem to let
All the emotions out

Words and letters jumble
Behind a mental dam
Clearly, there's more to say
And more to who I am

In a hurry, rushing

In a hurry, rushing
Trying to capture time
Incomplete sentences
With alternating rhyme

And soon my chance will pass
Can I finish it now
I only have two minutes
I'm done, now take a bow

Looking past the future

Looking past the future

Will the fish ever bite

Nothing seems tangible

All shadows without light

Hinging dreams on vague hopes

These useless prayers falter

Answers and equations

Always must be altered

The days spent without you

The days spent without you

Have no time or meaning

When are you coming home

All my thoughts are leaning

I hold my feelings in

Umbrella upside down

Staring at one shadow

All lonely on the ground

An inch becomes a mile

An inch becomes a mile

Rain makes rivers and seas

Minutes become full years

And stars form galaxies

Moments make a lifetime

Our lives, branches and trees

Age erases it all

As quickly as a sneeze

Lines about vague flowers

Lines about vague flowers

Can the reader sense them

Are they thinking roses

Full blooming on the stem

Or the gentle daisy,

Tulip or daffodil

When I fail to describe

The flowers on the hill

All the time not painting

All the time not painting

Yet the artist creates

All the sea is not waves

All the fence is not gates

Out of living, arrives

A true moment, a spark

A diamond from coal or

A bright flash in the dark

A summer day in the

A summer day in the

Middle of November

But all the green is gone

A time to remember

A sun that circled high

Short shadows and long days

Cold is in the forecast

Good weather parting ways

I am wiser than you

I am wiser than you

Nothing to do with age

I choose to face the facts

True colors instead of beige

I was right, you were wrong

In our corners we stay

The silence between us

Is all we have to say

Grateful to be with you

Grateful to be with you

Imagine life alone

The solitary view

Each day a monotone

Arm and arm together

The journey up the hill

No matter the weather

Each day is more fulfilled

I've fought this war before

I’ve fought this war before

The battlegrounds are known

I can see the scars that

Cut closely to the bone

Too weary for battle

Will I rise to the stop

Can I even win here

Will this war ever stop

All of this self-judgment

All of this self-judgment

As I wait here and kneel

Sword rests on my shoulder

Do I grant my repeal

Laurel in lieu of thorns

The pressure and demand

To shake hands with myself

Be free and in command

Life as a bonsai tree

Life as a bonsai tree

Growing old, never tall

Like a wild running horse

That never leaves the stall

Am I the container

That keeps my roots so small

Although I’m reaching out

I hit my own hard wall

I can't erase or hide

I can’t erase or hide

The damage of my youth

Once it is broken, there’s

No growing back a tooth

True resolve and distance

To myself I must give

And then there’s age and time

That gently rock the sieve 

Happy as a minnow

Happy as a minnow

In a slow moving stream

I’ve abandoned grandeur

For the simplest of dreams

The fabric is woven

And my thread is the hem

Never to have flowered

No fruit and just a stem

In the eye of a storm

In the eye of a storm

Finally a plateau

Someplace to catch my breath

To count fingers and toes

To assess the damage

Knowing there may be more

To find some new shelter

Now let the showers pour

Striving for potential

Striving for potential

Must find a bumper crop

Can’t stay at the bottom

Rise somewhere to the top

No rest in the valley

And always climb the hill

Living is a challenge

We’re here to test our will

No longer in motion

No longer in motion

At this moment, at rest

No problems, no worries

And no need to be best

The jumbles, the puzzles

The mysteries abound

Are coming together

Missing pieces are found

Not a cloud in the sky

Not a cloud in the sky

But a plane’s vapor trail

The two of us are free

Not hammering the nail

We were given a gift

A true crème de la crème

Like a shiny object

Or a jewel, a gem

I call out, call again

I call out, call again

No one answers, no friend

All I hear is the wind

I’m waiting so alone

Empty roads surround me

As far as I can see

Should I stay here or flee

The future is unknown

Baby blue autumn sky

Baby blue autumn sky

Early morning clouds that

Look like mountain ranges

But here the land is flat

The moon slowly setting

As the sun takes its place

And the storm has ended

While life resumes its pace

The work life eludes me

The work life eludes me
How can the working bee
Just enjoy the flowers
And not the drudgery

How to find contentment
Is it by decision
Can I propagate it
Grow it with precision