January 2, 2008 Pantoum

The pantoum is an incredible form of poetry that I find very well suited to issues that I have not fully dealt with yet. I find them even more therapetic than artistic but I like them for both reasons. I found a this link to help me explain what a pantoum is if anyone would like to know, and to prove I am not making this up. 

January 2, 2008

If things had happened like we thought,

we would have packed and ran.

Fueled with idealism and naivety;

living  only for love and justice.

We would have packed and run.

We had nothing figured out .

Living only for love and justice;

it seemed so simple in our heads

We had nothing figured out.

Fantasying about a mundane life.

It seemed so simple in our heads.

Living by conviction is never simple or mundane.

Fantasying about a mundane life,

we made bold and rash decisions.

Living by conviction is never simple or mundane,

still I like sleeping with a clear conscience

We made bold and rash decisions.

Nothing turned out as we hoped,

still I like sleeping with a clear conscience.

Never could have known how right we were.

Nothing turned out as we hoped,

but it turned out as it should.

Never would’ve known how right we were,

if things had happened as we planned.

Oklahoma

This is not a poem about how I feel about Oklahoma, it's a poem about how I felt about a very specific place at a very specific time. It is another one I wrote out of a writing prompt. I wanted to write about something else but this was therapeutic.

Oklahoma 2009

I have no roots here.

I know if the right wind blows

(and it threatens to every day,)

I will simply blow away.

The winds are relentless;

the clay is indifferent.

The insects have taken over.

Survival is based on luck;

this place is not designed for life.

The sky is too close, threatening to fall.

We have no Mount Olympus and the

invaders mock the gods.

The sun is too hot;

the rain is too scarce.

No one treats this land as holy.

The colors are matte

And what else would they be?

If everything is threatened here

what will protect me?

I took these pictures in 2009 in Oklahoma.