April 24, 2015 by drkottaway

Shadows

S is for Shadow in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

I wrote this poem in April of 2014 after hearing a sermon based on the bible passage that if you cast one devil out, it will return with 7 more.

Mathew 12:45 “Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”

My minister was talking about how feeling virtuous can make us behave worse than ever, and that we don’t acknowledge our own bad thoughts even to ourselves. I thought about how hard it must be to be an unloved shadow or feeling who is cast out or denied.

Shadows

I am happy today
Because I let the shadows alone

I see them
I did not name them

They aren’t mine
Unless I name them
Then I add to them
They stick to me
Their owners disavow them
Their owners recoil in horror
from me, a huge talking shadow

Their owners disavow them

Poor shadows
They are so lonely

But it doesn’t serve if I name them
Their owners think they are mine
Their owners think they are gone
Relief
Freedom
Evil named and cast out

Once I am alone, the shadows roil
They cry for home
They cry for their people
They are fearful
They gather into gangs
To face the terrible journey home
To their owners

When the shadow is offered
I don’t reject it
I don’t name it
I wait

It is in the room
Manifest
Between us

And mostly the owner
Speaks of something
Else

And the shadow sinks
Waits
Bides

I hear the shadows weeping
To be loved

II.

I hear the shadows weeping
To be loved

I thought if I named the shadows
They would be visible
Freed
Loved

I was wrong

I am so sorry, shadows
I am so sorry, owners

I was wrong

I send you all my love
and tears

I hear the shadows weeping
to be loved.

4/5/2014

April 17, 2015 by drkottaway

Not quite acculturated

N for Not quite, in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Not quite acculturated

And she was unsympathetic
That doctor
That immigrant doctor
I heard she told a patient
“You’re too fat.”
This was whispered
In accents of pleased shocked horror

She came to dinner
That unsympathetic doctor
Southeast asian
Told a little of her story
To my wide eyed children

When she was 10
They were boat people
Escapees
Refugees
Pirates caught them
Real pirates
“They weren’t so bad,” she said
“We were about to die from lack
of food and water.
Though we heard other stories
that were very bad.”

My daughter could imagine the boat.
She moved to my lap.
The pirates were too real.

Perhaps plenty is not always taken
for granted
And sympathy is a matter of degree.

previously published on everything2.com

April 14, 2015 by drkottaway

Just, Justice, Juxtaposition

J in the Blogging from A to Z.

Just, Justice, Juxtaposition

It is funny

R says that I should not
associate with J
leave the wrong
impression
everyone watches
judges in a small town

I am committed
to J

J wants more
pushes

I can’t tell
if J thinks
I’m joking
or just
is pushing me
past my limits

I don’t know

but it is funny

because J and R
are alike
passionate
idealistic
madmen

ethical
committed

R does money
J does improv

yet alike

and R is the joker
and J is the taskmaster

and everyone
is not
what they seem

and my reputation
is shards
anyhow
in the surf
my X
told all
that I wasn’t
putting out

before
we were X

one
in the surf
was my office manager’s
daughter
and my office manager
asked me
next day
couldn’t
I control
the X

I laughed

someday
I want to bring
J to R
or
R to J
and watch

them
circle
like cats
antipathy
or recognize
the heart
that stands open

which is why
I love them both

previously published on everything2.com

April 6, 2015 by drkottaway

Love in Ten Sentences

Janebasilblog nominated me for this challenge and I finally have done it. Now to tag ten MORE people…..

Details of the challenge: Write a 10 line poem with four words to each line, and each line must contain the word ‘love’. Nominate 10 people to carry on the challenge.

love complicates my life
love and don’t like
behavior not deserving love
love pours forth anyhow
love feels deep hurt
love withdraws lick wounds
love heals ventures forth
less contact mean loves
behavior change brings love
complicated joy : love anyhow

I still need to nominate ten people to carry on and write the NEXT love in ten sentences. I will add that…

April 4, 2015 by drkottaway

Glad heart

For the Ronovan writes weekly haiku: prompt words are ill and rest

Ill will makes heart sick.
After ill, rest must be still.
Well and glad heart fills.

The photo is from 2009, from the National Junior Synchronized Swimming Championship…

March 24, 2015 by drkottaway

Foul sweets

This is for the Ronovan writes weekly haiku prompt. The words are foul and sweet. I am at a medical conference where we are really delving into diet and how the high sugar/ high corn syrup and high carbohydrate typical american diet increases our risk of inflammation. Eat more vegetables! And here is the poem….

Foul sweets, treats greet us

Meet us, daily folly. We

growl at sweets, eat meat.

The picture is a mushroom growing out of a tree on the Olympic Peninsula.

March 20, 2015 by drkottaway

In the zoo

In the zoo on the first day of spring
The seals lie edging the pool in a ring
Under warm sun and the blue blue sky
Stretching their odd webbed hands, they sigh

March 16, 2015 by drkottaway

Beacon bacon

I am really enjoying RonovanWrites‘s weekly Haiku prompt challenge. Also he made me laugh here at the “ow” comment. Thank you for making me laugh! The problems are that I have trouble spelling Ronovan (I want to put the o at the end and the a in the middle) and is the apostrophe in the correct place? These are things to ponder. Today’s prompt is Field and beacon. I have been rereading Walt Kelly’s Pogo comics, wordplay and spellingplay all over the place. He makes up words or combines word or misspells words on poipoise. It is wonderful play. So the first word that comes to my mind with field and beacon is, of course, bacon. Wasn’t that true for you? And bacon sparks a whole other train of thought. My brain is like one of those old fashioned train stations, where the engine was place on the central track and could be turned to start off in another direction, or even turned to face back towards the train that it had just pulled in….

And another track: I have a friend of 30+ years who works on rear end devices. Trains, not twerking…. rear end devices replaced cabooses. I liked cabooses better then the rear end box. And we could now go soaring off into black boxes and airplanes…..

Here are the words I played with:

Field, beacon, bacon, become

feel, felt, belt, real steal meal

steal, steeled, feeled, deal.

And the result:

Bacon beacon past

beckons. Feeling real steel field.

Feeling begs, I yield.

The photo is from a place where bacon was loved. Peace be with you.

March 15, 2015 by drkottaway

Idaho Gigolo