FOUR OF X

There’s more than minds can say or words can think,
But hearts decide our thoughts and love defines
The lines that spill as blood, or tears, or ink--
While souls decide what hides behind the lines.
As patterns change, so, too, the warp, the weft,
As texture goes from rough to smooth to rough!
There’s never just what’s right, there’s wrong, there’s left--
Of dreams for what’s too much than what’s enough.
As chaos comes, come, too, our doubts, our fears
Of all the dark loose ends--those fraying threads--
That somehow can’t be snipped by knives or shears,
Like all the grey split ends on aging heads:
The heads that vanquish threats while writing wrongs
In works of art like pointless little songs!

D. S. BIGGS
March 14, 2010

CONTINUING THE CYCLE

The signs all point one way, but life persists!
And love upholds mere flesh like dreams pursued;
Pursued, like light and heat, yet come such mists--
And love accepts all fears like hopes renewed.
We live to chase our days, but work abides--
And love consumes our nights like hearts endure
The season’s ebb and flow, life’s changeless tides
That hound us as we swim from shore to sure.
Like dogs that gamely bob their paddling way
To game that Death has marked with bloody dye,
We swim against a tide that calls us prey--
And seek for what may come to find out why
The signs all point one way, but love insists
We make the most of all its turns and twists.

D. S. BIGGS
March 6, 2010

FOR WANT OF A SPARK

We live Life's anxious here, Love's vibrant now,
And smile the while at bygone miles betwixt
Our distant hearts that bear not guilt, nor fear
The daily course Night's distant stars have fixed....
To ride Life's breakneck horse, Love's careworn mule,
And weep the while for wasted weeks well past
Some promised point of Hope's unreached renew'l
Of sinews on the bones that Fate has cast;
Of bonds that bind mere souls beyond all time
To span unending years and still connect
Our distant hearts by dreams--by reams of rhyme--
And selfless acts of patient, kind respect.
We sing Life's timeworn song, Love's lilting theme
And laugh that love had seemed some distant dream!

D. S. BIGGS
February 27, 2010


A PANEGYRIC TO COFFEE

In all this whole, wide world, I love caffeine--
That wake-up jolt that starts more hearts than lust!
And all from one small plant, one roasted bean
That crawled, like human flesh, from ancient dust!
I sing dark java’s praise, laud latte’s froth--
And thick espresso’s buzz for late-night hauls;
To burn life’s midnight oil and stave off sloth
While inspiration’s rife--and Nature calls!
A lot can be too much, that’s true enough--
When daylight breaks and bladders crave relief.
But who can blame us fools who quaff such stuff?
Our lives are much too brief and Time’s a thief.
So brew a few kind thoughts for coffee’s joys,
Whose bitter song fills mouths with joyful noise!

D. S. BIGGS
February 28, 2010