Poem for today: TORTOISE (from The Carnival of the Animals)

Tortoise

With that shelly ‘round your belly,

as you meditate in place,

slow and steady most definitely

won’t win the race.

They say for you every hour

Is like for us like a day,

and that all of creation sits upon your shell,

well, then take us for a ride

show us, bestow us your ancient lore,

“Slowly, to see more,

slowly, to feel more,

to know more,

to live more.”

 

Ah, Great Master Turtle,

I slow down

to catch up to you.

Poem for today: WILD HORSES (from The Carnival of the Animals)

Wild Horses

Wild horses galloping,

cascading flash of hooves

striding streams, dashing

grasses, bounding boulders,

majestic mountain of mighty muscle,

speed-spirit,

Run, run, run!  Run!

arrow shot across the horizon,

one more mighty leap

to reach the starry pasture

of the heavens.

Poem for today: HENS AND ROOSTERS (AND THE EGG)

Hens and Roosters (and the egg)

What came first - the chicken or the egg-cellent plumage of the rooster’s head peck-pecking, scratch-scratching…ooh! a grain of corn, no a pebble, gulp, it’ll come in handy, dandy ruler of the roost gives a boost to the day when he opens his mouth to say cock-a-doodle-do, or kikirikiki, in Spanish, kokekokko, Japanese, if you please, And the egg, the International sign of breakfast; scrambled, poached, fried, on a roll, in an omlette, on toast, the gooey yellow pre-chick is the most, it makes the world go round, the world go round, the world go round, the barnyard is busy with flutter and feather, clucking and dashing, the corn, the corny rooster, the corn-ish hens, sitting upon the simply magnificent, totally terrific, egg-salted and peppered, egg. 

(Part of Carnival of the Animals, which I perform with the brilliant Frederic Chiu on piano)

Poem for today: THE LION - from The Carnival of the Animals

Lion

Here he comes, the mane-man,

swaggering, swinging low,

bring him a chair, no, a throne of his own,

he’s the boss of the jungle,

head honcho, macho, the king of the ring,

doesn’t need to prove a thing,

he’s a natural born leader,

first-in-line eater,

deep sleeper,

female keeper,

sunbather, soothsayer,

never gets ruffled,

barely gets in a tussle,

lets the ladies use their muscle,

he’s got gravity like the center of the universe,

this cool cat is the feline felon, the witness, the jury and the judge,

order in the court! order in the court!

the lion is coming,

listen to him roar.

(see more here:  Carnival of the Animals video demo with Frederic Chiu on piano )