Spike The Chicken Writes Again

Daily Verse in the Magic Hour

Spike The Chicken

Spike The Chicken
Location
St Helena, California, USA
Birthday
May 28

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MAY 31, 2012 9:35AM

Drifting into Day

May 31, 2012


As dreams recede
I'm in a flat boat
In a black stream
Breathing easy
Nothing pressing
Gliding toward
Whatever's waiting
On the other side
Of waking

Stroke, stroke
My oars make satin
Ribbons in the black
When I relax
The current pulls me on
3 Comments
MAY 30, 2012 8:52PM

Morning Prayer

May 30, 2012

Morning Prayer

Give us this day
Our daily bread
No
Such a bold command
Even if it's uttered as a plea
Ill befits someone as full of doubt as me
I'd say instead
Since it's been given
And is mine to curse or praise
I'd just… Read full post »
3 Comments
MAY 29, 2012 8:59AM

Five White Raisins

May 29, 2012

Five White Raisins

Only five
Soaked in gin
The whole night long.
Take before breakfast
Before coffee or tea.
That's all there is
To this remedy.
Said the lady, in her eighties
Who had suffered bad arthritis
Holding up two perfect hands.

Perhaps we humans… Read full post »
6 Comments
MAY 29, 2012 2:11AM

Memorial Day

May 27, 2012

Traffic up on the road sounds like a sea
Cool hiss, fast slow
Everyone going where they have to go.

Now is the time of heroes and memory
Wars and death dressed up as glory
Age after age, same old story.

The afternoon garden breathes… Read full post »
2 Comments
MAY 27, 2012 3:04AM

From the War

Two bronze bullets

The size of flower vases

Stared down from the mantle

All the years when I was little.

 

They were silent

But imposing

Granddaddy, in his chair

Kept his silence too.

 

Sometimes he glanced their way

As if they held his secrets

What he saw in France… Read full post »

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MAY 26, 2012 2:49AM

Sudden Summer Shower

May 25, 2012

Just after noon
When all outside shone
Like a cymbal crash of sun
I was lying by the window
On the couch
Buried in my reading
The New Yorker
Woody Allen
Laughing line by line out loud
When suddenly
There came a strange, pervasive smell
The smell… Read full post »
5 Comments
MAY 25, 2012 1:20AM

Potato Navigation

May 24, 2012

Potato Navigation

Down East
Which to those who do not live there is
Up North
Old fishermen in coveralls and heavy boots
Delight in telling about heading home to shore
In densest fog, in deep of night
In wind and rain without
A light or GPS… Read full post »
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MAY 23, 2012 9:58AM

Past Forgetting

May 23, 2012

Past Forgetting

The road of many endings
With its potholes big as Cleveland
Led me here.
To where?

Look up. 
Spiraling in the cloudless sky
You can see the pages 
Sailing in the wind
From all the unwritten novels
Starring me.

I the mermaid… Read full post »
3 Comments
MAY 22, 2012 10:28AM

It Doesn't seem Like Much

May 22, 2012

It Doesn't Seem Like Much

At first
Just sitting here
In the room
With the ticking clock
The passing time.

Outside in the garden
In languages I do not know
Dramas play out I can't resolve.
The big blue bully bird
Scaring the dear ones… Read full post »
4 Comments
MAY 21, 2012 10:16AM

Garden of Mystery

May 21, 2012

I, the human, walk among the trees
And strain to hear them speak
What do you need? What do you love?
But their language is more subtle than my own.

They speak in tone, the color green
The sheen of sun upon a leaf, the angle… Read full post »
4 Comments
MAY 21, 2012 12:59AM

The Eclipse

May 20, 2012


The eclipse had reached its peak
On the card, its crescent shape.
Out in a rippling field of waving gold
Underneath a flight of geese.
I photographed it all.
You had planned it well.
The way you do
All things.
In the photograph
Your hair is… Read full post »
6 Comments
MAY 20, 2012 2:32AM

Napa Valley Summer Rain

May 19, 2012

The olive trees were raining in the Valley today
Sending sheets of tiny flowers shining in the sun
Sweeping down the streets 
And piling up in gutters like a dry rain
Riding on a hot summer breeze.

Tomorrow, there will be an eclipse.
A time of… Read full post »
9 Comments
MAY 19, 2012 2:49AM

Fear of Heights

May 18, 2012

I read about a poorly brought up man.
Who made a couple million when he ran.
He ran from Africa to China then Japan.
And broke all records since the world began.

I read about a man who when he saw two towers could
Not rest… Read full post »
3 Comments
MAY 17, 2012 10:05AM

Running on Empty

May 17, 2012



Sometimes life seems like an Eagles song.
Someone to blame, someone done wrong.
Too much effort is part of the deal.
And struggling's how we get real.
How do you feel?

I can't move any longer.
I just want it to stop.
My resistance… Read full post »
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MAY 17, 2012 12:45AM

Journeying

May 16, 2012

Journeying

In the dark
The viney tangled path
The steepness of the trail
Whose length I cannot see
Threatens
To defeat me

Who has a proper light
That shines the whole way back
And sees through all the cracks
And caves and broken rocks
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MAY 15, 2012 9:23AM

Give Us This Day

May 15, 2012

In the early dark the creatures' voices rise.
Mirroring the stars, like pinpoints of light.
A chorus in the leaves, swelling up on earthy wind
Lifting up the curtain on another day.

Intermission over, all the dramas start again.
Once I saw an old man on… Read full post »
2 Comments
MAY 15, 2012 12:16AM

At Day's End

May 14, 2012

At Day's End
My head is like a ring
In which the fighters have no bell
The darkness starts to fall.
The residue of dreams
Grapple each other down.
Shadows black as vulture's wings
Circle overhead like fate.
It is late for looking back.
Take this off… Read full post »
3 Comments
MAY 14, 2012 3:05AM

Shift in time

May 13, 2012


Sleep, dreams
My plate is full it seems.
The stakes are high as they can be.
As time and life go drumming by
With all their crises and emergencies
That fade to distant memories
What was that all about, that fuss?
And was the problem them… Read full post »
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MAY 12, 2012 10:39AM

What I Would Change

May 12, 2012


There's so much I would change
About the way I live my life
I don't know where to start
I resist, am faint of heart.
Every pile of disarray upon my shelf
Reflects a similar confusion in myself.

They say beauty is its own excuse… Read full post »
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MAY 11, 2012 7:39AM

Half Moon Rising

May 11, 2012



In the deepest night
The half moon rising late
Halfway up the arc
In the southeast sky
A mockingbird
Somewhere in the cottonwood
Across the river to the west
Chatters to himself
As if trying out new operatic forms
To win a mate this year.… Read full post »
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MAY 10, 2012 10:15AM

Dating

May 10, 2012


I used to sit in cabarets
And let the men
Stare in my eyes
And while the gypsy plays
His fiery guitar
They'd take my hand
But I'd jump up and dance.

They had ideas
Turning back to order me a drink.
What they thought… Read full post »
4 Comments
MAY 10, 2012 1:09AM

Roses and Images


May 9, 2012

Placing roses in a vase
Their petals pink of 30's gowns
Of silky smoking blondes
Shrinking from the light as
Often dreams and older ladies
In their parlors
With their brooches
And the tasseled amber lampshades
And the butler bringing tea--
The thought of roses crumples… Read full post »
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MAY 9, 2012 2:46AM

Cradle Song

May 8, 2012

Cradle Song
(for the sculpture by Theodore Roszac)

Where were you
Theodore
When you molded
Out of fire and ore
This crescent moon
And frothy sea
To rock me in?

Cradle Song
I met you in the Guggenheim.
When I was in my searching phase… Read full post »
2 Comments
MAY 7, 2012 8:54PM

Love in the afternoon

May 7, 2012

 

 

In the heat

Of the afternoon

The earth gives up its secret smells

They waft like silken scarves

 

Upon the heavy humid wind

In layers intermingled

Irises and orange blossoms, jasmine

And a scent of mint.

 

Further in there's something

Darker emanating from

The… Read full post »

6 Comments
MAY 6, 2012 9:01AM

Who Is Standing Here?

May 6, 2012

If you wake
And find yourself 
On a battlefield
And you are dressed for tea
It can be
Disquieting

In the middle of the scene
The ancient buildings fallen
Rubble all around
A baby in a nightgown
Family argument

They said thunder meant
That God… Read full post »
2 Comments
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