Have I Noticed

Offerings of kindness

Rising in many voices

A choir of improvised repertoire

Without a director mouthing

Cues or wielding a baton

Movements of compassion

Calls for vigils of the voiceless

Sufferers hidden or locked away

Unimportant stragglers occupying

Shadowy edges of humanity

Fields of creativity

Undulating without want of rest

Collaborations across borders

Unheard of and unknown linking minds

With restlessly famous

Nests of hummingbirds

Barely larger than fairytale thimbles

Revealed as unexpected gifts

These hours and days of altered stasis

Toss madness with solitude’s clarity and wonder

I Tried but Could Not Yet

I tried but I cannot yet do what must be done

Write a simple sonnet the friendly man says

Begin right after I read you this one

Maybe I haven’t yet worked hard enough

He seems so sure I’ll find the flow

Write about flowers or write about the blues

Write fourteen lines about buying new red shoes

Write a simple sonnet the friendly man says

Soon as you do you’ll be slipping into some silver sonic address

Reciting Dante while riding a horse called Volta

Through some echoing ancient forest

Next to Prosodic Avenue

I’ll be waiting for you.