I took off my glasses
that I might see
I took off my shoes
that I might be
...
What does one do
If one finds oneself
Suffering the symptoms
Of being a poet?
...
What was it about October
That made us think
Spring would not be coming back?
...
Had the grandkids overnight
Dinner baths and do homework
Before TV - - - their Mom said
Before TV
...
...
We wanted to watch
Them sing and dance
Yet no one would hire them
Out of SF's Chinatown
...
I keep seeing people who should be dead
They're not be in the morgue yet
I don't see why
What is keeping them moving breathing
...
'So what's there
That's not right here?
What's this about
...
Ted Kennedy: February 22,1932 -
August 25,2009 - - - 77 years
Why we never had to
Take him out
...
He is resting
In a comfortable Library chair
With his boots and jacket on
His backpack is nearby
...
As I drove 'cross town today
To get my Holiday shopping under way
With my car radio tuned in
Classic Rock - - let the dance begin
...
Don't get your hopes up
There are hachets
Buried barely below the surface
We all know where they are
...
What pulls me to horde
Old pencils new pens
Newspaper clippings
Books magazines and my notes
...
It took only one
To restore
My faith in man
...
I know I shouldn't of
But I smiled yesterday
When one of my friends
Told me a joke
...
copyright 04-21-08
for single-parent urban Moms
Happy Mother's Day
...
Sitting in a coffee shop
Early the other morning
Getting started for my day
I almost dropped my cup
...
She wants a poem
Read to her by candlelight
While she sits at a small table
This would be sheer delight
...
*Tom J. Mariani - -a found poem on a Starbucks' cup
credit to Katy Croff
People often ask
...
I was born in San Francisco and have lived in Northern California all my life. My first full-time job, while working my way through college, was as an apprentice pressman for the SF 'Chronicle/Examiner.' The first year I worked there,1966, 'The Sound of Music' won the Academy Award for Best Picture. However, a more accurate indication of coming attractions was that Janis Joplin had just come back to San Francisco from Texas to join Big Brother and the Holding Company and sing at the Avalon Ballroom. Looking back it seems that I missed most of the Summer of Love. I had no time to hang out in Golden Gate Park during the day, nor in the Haight at night. I was trying to earn enough to afford to work only part time during the college year. After college, my day jobs for eighteen years were in bank management; first with Wells Fargo than a local bank in Santa Rosa. What do I think are some of the other influences on my writing that you should be warned about? I am a fifth generation native Californian. I have a picture of my great-grandparents, the second generation, taken in 1907 aboard a six-horse team wagon loaded with tan bark for a leather tannery. He also hauled railroad ties to complete the line north of Willits into Southern Humboldt County, and drove a mail/stage coach. She raised their four daughters and ran their ranch on her family's homestead (see my poem 'It May Not Seem Fair') . The rest of my life? You wouldn't believe it if I had the time to tell you. I have had a few of my poems and prose essays published. ('North Bay Bohemian online 06-04-08 and 04-22-09 'OPEN MIC.') Two of my short stories ('A Short Leap' JULY 2008 AND 'Fragments of the News, ' JANUARY 2009 in somalit.com and one of my poems, 'What Stage Is He On? March 2009) Most of my poems are fictional constructs. Some are autobiographical: e.g.'DETOUR' and 'Learning To Run Errands.' The rest? It's up to you to figure out.)
1968 Talking About The Revolution
I took off my glasses
that I might see
I took off my shoes
that I might be
The one I was in search of
The one I never had
The one that by finding
I would be so glad
I took off my watch
so I wouldn't know the time
I took off to nature
hoping to find the sign
The one I was in search of
The one I never had
The one that by finding
I would be so glad
I started to take of my clothes
I thought the last distraction
Then luckily I realized - - -
This is just a poem- - - an abstraction
Thank you so much for your comments and for reading my pieces. You can see more at fairytale-heart.deviantart.com if you would like. x
TOM, YOU ARE A HECK OF A PROLIFIC DEDICATED WRITER. ALL THE MORE REASON TO APPRECIATE YOUR THOUGHTFUL, KIND, CONSTRUCTIVE COMMENTS RE MY THREE SUBMITTED POEMS. SUCH POSITIVE REASSURING WORDS FROM YOU, SIR. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. YOU'VE ENCOURAGED ME TO BE A BIT MORE SERIOUS ABOUT MY 'WORDS' AND EFFORT. READ QUITE A FEW OF YOUR POEMS AND AM TRULY IMPRESSED. WILL CONTINUE THROUGH TO THE LAST ONE. MY WARMEST REGARDS FLY YOUR WAY, CAROL RHODES