Sixty has Come to Call

Sixty has come to call
Sixty calendars can fill a wall
Sixty, and now my days move into fall.

Too many months for memories’ clear thought
Too many in which once battles were fought
Too many tears for the pains I’ve wrought

Oh, so many ways to have got Life wrong
Oh, so few days for light heart’d song
Oh, so few people left with whom to belong

© Copyright, 2017 Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

Clamp Down on Pounding Heart

In nighttime’s creeping shadows
Loneliness can be found
Padding along on silent feet
Moving without sound

Empty house’s echoes
Bounce hollow in the ear
Raising small hairs of neckbone
Shivering soul with fear

Hear the creaking floor boards
Beware room’s sudden chill
Scratching on the window pane
Surely bodes ill will

Somewhere in your distant past
You’ve wronged another being
And in the lonely nighttime hours
They return for reckoning

So lie as still as death yourself
Clamp down on pounding heart
Plead for your forgiveness now
And in time they may depart

©Copyright 2019, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

What Does One Say to an Old Love

What does one say to an old love
A love that’s withered and died
What does one say to an old love
That’s not another wound to one’s pride

How does one reconcile the loss
Of future, happiness, and hope
How does one reconcile the pain
What does one do to cope

For my part I’ll not place you in position
To defend what’s changed and why
Nor will I place me in position
To break down in front of you and cry

Never ask me to belittle what I felt
Whether it was the same or different for you
Never belittle what you meant to me
When our love was strong and true

 “Being friends” just mocks the level
Of care, commitment, and feeling
“Being friends” simply blocks progress
Of mending, moving on, and healing

Thus “friends” is not in our future
Friends was a part of our past
My best and last word on the subject
I hope that your next love will last

© Copyright 2019, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

Burning Promise

Like a golden beam
Of sunshine
Burning promise through
Dark leaden skies

Arriving unexpected,
Unasked, unsought
Reminder of shared memories
Of  thoughts and cares

A “simple” surprise
Unfettered by expectation
Leaves me basking in joy
Peace and Love

© Copyright 2019 Marty Vandermolen

A Grandfather’s Advice

Build a library
Stocked with old and new
Build with stories
And ideas true
Build it strong
Against winter’s wrath
Build it light
To illuminate the path
Build it cool
For hot, arid days
Build it restful
To shed stressful ways
Alice and her adventures
In Wonderlands
Pooh and Tiger
Where 100 acre wood stands
Peter Rabbit’s, lost coat
And the farmer’s fence
And every story told,
Before and since
Magic and fantasy
And fiction’s pull
Harness their wonders
Inspire your soul
Read each day
Also read each night
Read to learn reason
Sift wrong from right
Read of new vistas
Walk strange lands
Read of new “peoples”
Clasp new hands
Read to find
Alternate ways
Read to grow and live
And love each day
Read aloud
Read silently
Read unusual ideas
Enthusiastically
Read to grow
Read to someone
Read to learn
Read for fun

© Copyright 2018 Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

Return to the Rhyme

Every child is drawn to a rhyme
The rhythm, the words, the sound
The mind pictures colorfully crafted
The meanings complete and round

Then somehow poetry morphs
Into something convoluted and hard
And children drop their books
To go out and play in the yard

The elite just quiver and shake
Enwrapped in emotional bliss
At each new odd meter and line
Or syllables with exotic twist

But to me all that twisting gymnastics
Is just lazy wordplay unleashed
And “poetry” would have more meaning
Back on the rhythmic foundation beneath

© Copyright 2018, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

To Keep Honest Pledge

What man can say that he’s only been kind, true?
What woman can repeat that vow and say me too?
All Men and Women are flawed of memory
Thus recalling things vividly that never could be
And all have failed at least once to keep honest pledge
As they’ve danced along life’s sharp mortal ledge

© Copyright,  2018, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

Borne Away

As I float back over
Where my life began
Tracing its’ brief pattern
In the cooling sand
Having marked each step
With my energy’s blood
Only to be borne away on
The coming tide’s flood

© Copyright 2017 Marty Vandermolen – All Rights Reserved

She Exists

She exists
From day to day
Barely, She exists

Life swirls around her
Tugging, pulling, encouraging,
But, She exists

Friends call, children grow
Pets come and go,
Still She exists

Chances beat boldly on doors
Wisper seductively through windows,
Meagerly She exists

Unaffected, uninvolved
Unsustainably
Yet She exists

Clutching close to tainted breath
Tears spent in self-conflicted emotions
Wearily She Exists

Marking the days allotted her
Not by living, but by not,
Waiting She exists

© 2018 Copyright, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

Wind Whistles Lonely

Why does the wind whistle so lonely
When it winds its way through the trees
Sounding clarion trumpets loud
Or sighing soft as you please

Why is the moon so bright
On wilderness twisted terrain
Lighting each rock and tree
Til daylight comes once again

And when the moon is dark
How do the stars shine so great
That the trees and the mountains reflect
Off the surface of a calm lake

And when winds carry before them
Bunched and laden cloud
Why is the thunder so pleasing
Regardless being scary and loud

More important than even these puzzles
Is that while in knowing yet I stand
Not in wilderness soils deep
But in the “civilized” land

My mind yearns for the wilds
My heart cries out to be heard
I need to be out there encompassed
Seldom trouble by wasted word

Far from the stresses of people
Far from the anger and shame
Living a life of simplicity
Where nature sets the soul tame

I need to be out in the forest
Or afloat on ocean grand
Challenged by wind and wave
Far from concreted over land

©Copyright 2018, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

After Parenting

What pray tell should life become
With setting of child rearing’s sun
Shall life remain moored as in bearing years
Or cast adrift to seek new cheers

As father I wore a certain coat
As parent I captained a specific boat
That carried goods and goals and needs
Provided grain and eggs and feeds

Before that time though I did stand
On a different path across this land
My coat then made of leather tough
To protect me from adventures rough

Old siren calls of places, things
Remain in memory as clarion rings
Urging me to cut the chains that moor
Take aim for far gone distant shore

To seek new life in what’s left of my days
Thus to impact in as many ways
The world around; to betterment make
And repay the resources that I did take

© Copyright 2018, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

Grieve No More For Me

Grieve no more for me
For I’m gone and surely free
Grieve not for my life surrendered
I’ve taken with me the joy it rendered
Grieve not for what I’ve left undone
I gladly hand it off to one
With more youth and vision than I
To paint anew the land, the sea, the sky

 ©2018, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved

Temptations Thrive

This year begins as all years should
A slow meander through the wood
With time to feel and space to think
A crystal falls from which to drink
The sun’s pure and tempered light
Heating every stone and tree in sight
Casting magic through dappled glade
Weaving retreat in meadow jade

Laying back on sun warmed stone
Wispy dreams on breezes blown 
Of paramour known but unrealized
Though mind and heart had idolized
Bringing peace to fevered brow
Slowing heart rate, resting now
Time tempers all that life can accept
Changes wrought while emotions slept

Feelings treasured as they merged
Joys retained, pain is purged
Recalling past years’ living done
Melding memories, actions won
Shifting sun counters cooling shade
Yet falls behind as daylights fade
Until air is cooled, stone is cold
Reminding one that time grows old

What was once, shall nevermore be
Though sparks remain in memory
Facing New Year with chances unknown
Memory feeds stable life path sown
And long and short, far and near
It is memories of each yesteryear
That buoy through times hard and bad
Stressful, angry, boring, sad

Thus through verse, and remembered bliss
Allow me just once to express all this
I treasure beyond mere words scribed here
Select memories of you that I hold most dear
And times we spent in thoughtful deep
Discussions long, great thoughts to reap
While lastly thank you for temptations that thrive
Reminding me even now that I am truly alive

 © Copyright, 2018, Marty Vandermolen, All Rights Reserved