Month: March 2024

8th Century Chinese Poetry

I love 8th century Chinese poetry.
I even like their poets’ names like Li Po and Wang Wei.
They sound so cool and so exotic to me.
Those poets liked things like jade — in abundance;
They seemed to like it more than we like gold.
They liked oriole birds, and if you see one, you’ll know why
And there are eight species in the US and in Canada.
They loved the word crystalline, as in crystalline water.
In many ways their poetry is close to peerless,
Their use of imagery is phenomenal and sublime.
All of this amazes me because it was written so long ago.
And by that way, I’m not talking reading these poems
In Chinese. I know nothing of Mandarin, and I can’t
Speak Cantonese. Nor any of the hundreds of
dialects that are considered Chinese.

Bob Boyd

Coming and Going

Some come into this world suffering
all manner of medical conditions
out of the womb.

Most go out of this world suffering
dementia, cancers, other medical
conditions into the grave.

Why all this suffering? Where’s the love?
I swear by heaven above, if I were in
charge of the here and now, the

comings and goings, nobody
would ever suffer on the way in
or the way out.

Bob Boyd

Luckless, loveless Old Man Lament

As a luckless old man ten unsteady steps away being in the obits,
I’ve given up on the ship I’ve waited for all my life to come in.
I think it’s docked forever in Singapore or at the bottom of the Bering Straits.
The only ships I see are those that always pass me in the night.
I sit here marooned in a beggar broke, loveless unshipworthy life.
Almost won the lottery, 10 million, but somehow the ticket got lost.
Had what I thought was the love of my life, Daisy Bobby Sue Mae,
Didn’t know she was half crazy and crazier about the monied life.
She left me when she somehow got flush with cash and bought
a BMW, designer clothes, diamond rings and a fancy pants gigolo.
I know what you’re thinking.

Bob Boyd

A Tangled Life

He lead a tangled life,
A miscreant in high school,
A troublemaker in the military,
A criminal back in the real world.
Then as an incarcerated outcast
Had an epiphany in solitary that
Untangled his tangled life.
Saw he was the architect
Of his destructive behaviors.
Reformed and rebuilt himself
Into a better benevolent man.
His troubled life vanished
like dark clouds after a storm.
Spent the rest of his days
In compassionate service to others.

Bob Boyd

Anu

When Anu was in the highest heaven
I was waiting in the wings of the ethers
To be born.
Though there a thousand years
passes in a millisecond,
Trillions of those is a long time to wait
To be born.
Soon I’ll die and go back into the ethers.
Will I have earned heaven
or liberation from the wheel?
Or will I be back in the ethers waiting
To be born?
Whatever the outcome, I’ll be
Better off than Anu. No longer
In the highest heavens, he’s
Dead and gone.

Bob Boyd

The Bad Boy of Religion

The bane of Heresiologists
The scourge of Polemicists
Even Peter didn’t like me
He wouldn’t take a bribe
I was formidable
I was a sorcerer
I was a magician
I could levitate
I could fly
I was the bad boy
Of religion and I
Never knew why
They said I was
Malevolent
I said Nobody’s
Perfect we all
have our
Imperfections
In Rome I
Was redeemed
And deified
Name’s Simon
You probably
Know the rest

Bob Boyd

Amazing Woman at Harris Teeter

She works making pizza at
Lawndale Harris Teeter,
Friendly, helpful, compassionate,
Exceptionally nice.
Survivor of cancer three times,
Now in remission.
Fiance got cancer too, the
Cancer ended his life.
So terribly heartbreaking, hard to
Imagine coping with the loss.
She has a strong, brave spirit,
And a beautiful disposition.
Awes me how despite the cancers
And her fiance’s death,
She still smiles and stays strong
And exceptionally nice.
I’m so impressed with this amazing
Woman at Harris Teeter,
Hope she has a long and happy life
And never gets cancer again.

Bob Boyd

They Used to Rock Us on the Way to Church

Elderly exemplary woman, eighty years plus, medical conditions.
Despite having little, better, nobler than most having much.
Daughter shot to death by ex boyfriend, four year old daughter
saw mommy in pool of blood on kitchen floor.
Elderly self-sacrificing grandmother worked two jobs for years to
Raise that child right, Honor Roll student, Bennett College graduate.
One Christmas, asked grandmother if she wanted a free Christmas turkey,
My agency had many that year. She said no, let someone have it
Who needs it more. Knew her for many years, had highest respect for her.
Despite how noble, how magnificent she was, when a child
walking through a field to go to church with preacher father and four sisters, racist teenagers and hateful grown men often threw rocks, rocked them, on the way, should have been arrested.
But things were different back then, justice for some never served.
How horrible, how sorrowful, must have been those hateful, dangerous days.
A religious woman of high character, she forgave them,
never holding a grudge. In my opinion, always saintly, and I’ll
Never forget her.

Bob Boyd

In Memory of a Mike McHugh

I remember you friend Mike McHugh, always a good story, always a great smile.
Women loved your raven black hair and your bright, deep blue eyes, to them
you were a handsome prize.
I hated how time dulled your bright deep blue eyes, grayed your raven black hair,
stole the stories from your lips, numbed your mind with a medical condition worse
than Parkinson’s.
How it saddened my heart that all that you were and more the years erased
And worse, now that all that you were and more is gone forever
buried in the cold, unfeeling ground.

Bob Boyd

The Older I Grow

The older I grow the more people and generational icons
I know in the afterlife.
The older I grow the more I realize I’m merely a
sojourner in this uncertain, fleeting life.
The older I grow the more my body breaks down and
needs medical repairs to maintain it.
The older I grow the more I become like a fossil in
this fragile, transient existence.
The older I grow the more things I see I dislike
in this ever downward spiraling world.
And the older I grow the more I see death as a friend
who will usher me into my eternal home of
limitless love and unending bliss.

Bob Boyd

In Memory of Joe Drew

From Woburn, Mass, a small city, in 1964 Joe Drew joined the Marines,
The few, the proud, the brave sent him to the front lines in Viet Nam.
A good, gentle guy, never harmed anyone with words or fists.
Often thought, Joe why … why … why you, the nonviolent one?
Concluded gentle Joe probably felt he wasn’t manly enough,
And the Marines made manly men out of gentle teenage boys.
I’ll never forget Joe Drew, goodhearted, tender soul, great guy.
Joe came back from Nam in a body bag, first in Woburn.
Tears rained all over the city, one of our own down forever.
How I wish Joe never joined the marines and went to Nam.
A nicer guy there never was. If when I die, I wouldn’t be
Surprised if I meet an angel in the afterlife … Joe Drew.

Bob Boyd

Forsaken

The sun tearfully sets in the horizon
The moon cries in the lonely night
The world pines over your departure
I stand at your grave, eyes full of tears
Feeling broken hearted and forsaken
If only you’d given life another chance

Bob Boyd

Remembering Ruth

Remembering you with tears my eyes misted
was saddened to learn you had 52 years only.
You should have had at least 70 or more.
Never learned what sent you into the afterlife.
Your nicotine decades long addiction, I suspected.
You always smoked too much, worried me.
But maybe you hit the afterlife lottery, leaving
sooner, freed from the ravages of aging,
and I’ve no doubt you’re in a heaven. And
just maybe … we’ll meet again.

Bob Boyd

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