Sunday, April 27, 2008

Now we have Idle Mind Wondering, whose outlook on life is unique and acute.


He is a resident of the great state of Massachusetts.  


Check him out here:


http://allpoetry.com/poem/3309524



The Hitchhiker


The hills are stacked with city houses,

above and below, 

as the road disappears through a tunnel.


Sound diminishes within hushed echoes.


It seems so much more 

than a couple of years


since decidedly standing  

upon the on ramp of escapement

from small-town views.


Now reaching the end

of this highway’s promise.


          <~>


She was old

and called Tennessee

her home;

I was new

on the road to nowhere.


She picked me up out of the night

and we drove on;

Her beauty was beyond me

like a best friend’s mother.


She was watching my shy glances

as we talked away the miles;

until her eyes held mine 

and a confident hand 

                        touched me.


Somewhere on the side 

of a Pennsylvanian road

I forgot all about the 

high school girls.


          <~>


What impresses me the most 

is the limitless diversity of people

and their eager willingness 

to befriend a stranger;

if a stranger is willing to be a friend.


          <~>


Trees fall hard on the edge

of the Rockies;

at least for the new kid,


only three days in logger’s camp comrade.


But a skidder rolled today,

tomorrow we’ll bury a veteran

and I feel like I’ve known these people

my whole life.


          <~>



Cultural and geographical changes

are superficial;

in the end we really are

all the same.


          <~>


Backpack in tow

I climbed aboard

with a simple man 

who spent hours 

trying to sell me the Bible.


Carefully, I listened, 

because every soul has a story to tell.


He dropped me off 

at love’s doorstep

in the Pacific Northwest.


I became a second rate cook

for a lousy waitress - 

barely out of high school.


She was exotic

with eyes to mesmerize

And I became the fool, 

a puppet waiting for strings.

But boy,

  could that girl dance,


may the bus boy 

        have the best of luck.


          <~>


I could go home now

            if I thought I might belong.

But the road only goes one way.



It’s not very far, but long enough

and as day light heralds the tunnels end

I am granted a view of virgin landscape.

A vast valley 

without a single man-made-structure

and I am tempted to believe

that this is all undiscovered;


if not for the road running through it.



Check him out.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you, so much, for this honor; it is always a pleasure to be read and understood as a poet.
Many blessing.
ken (Idle Mind Wondering)