Category Archives: Poetry

I Cried For You Today

Posted by thom amundsen on

A sadness occurs when rain speaks

talks of a surrounding pool of grief

Once in awhile the woods cannot

give solace to the falling showers

of common recall and contribution.

I like to spend my time in the forest,

often there are moments where truly

I have hidden from the reality of life

amongst the brush and buried horizon.

Though with the mind a sudden impact

we may glance across the room to remember

seeing laying in bed, whether I wanted you,

or felt estranged, I suddenly am anxious

with the memory of just you being nearby.

The result of my actions I wasn’t

expecting would have such impact

on my day, on my psyche, on my …

ability to look away from that which

we created for years together.

I glance upon the walls of my bedroom

and see the framed beauty of our oneness

that which are smiles I wish might always

be alongside my dreams, stay with me

only the truth exists in the future.

Our children speak truth now forever,

freedom fly your way, I’ll remember.

© Thom Amundsen 9/2020

An Autumn Sky

Posted by thom amundsen on

Oh we do see the autumn of our lives

each season holds promise to the wise,

ah, to breathe sordid remnants of summer

where twilight body bathed in hot slumber

 

Now to wander in the mind inside a travel

on sunsets and rises we felt could unravel.

That perseverance such is humanity fierce

that will always sing its harmony in verse.

 

When does love on this earth become sweet

how silence in the rain may venture in sleet,

yet still do our eyes have wells, a dignified cry

would we let a mist cleanse face in gray sky.

 

An ashen wind in the west a foreboding scenery

while our sacrifice weep, sweet is aging silvery.

© Thom Amundsen 9/12/2020

Finding Streams

Posted by thom amundsen on

Go home and write

a page tonight

Let that page come out of you –

then it will be true                      -Langston Hughes

I ask them all to do it,

my students

wide eyed or sleepy

take these words and let them become yours,

tell us (me) about you,

what are you like?

what makes you tick?

pour out your life into a few lines on a piece of paper,

and then it will be true,

well, it is supposed to be because

that’s what I

the teacher

expect of you.

But is it me,

the teacher,

do I really know what I am asking,

do I get it,

asking her, him, them

to open up their lives

to my eyes on a piece of paper,

to share their soul and what they could believe,

much like the student

did living in Harlem,

going to an all white college

in the fifties,

and yet, that’s what he did,

his life over yours

over my own.

We all do have these lives we live,

no one really understands why,

just go forward,

have the better smile,

means more than the better ride,

well if it is sincere,

oh to be so genuine,

in a society like,

like this one,

we all still struggle to understand.

© Thom Amundsen 9/2020

A Forest in the Distance

Posted by thom amundsen on

Walking through he woods

stepping with care

the brush up to my knees,

conscious of thistles, the mud, perhaps

even catching an ankle in a vine

taking a fall,

letting a branch scrape open forearms,

perhaps slamming my forehead

on rocks that lay clean

without disturbance nearly a century.

~

That occasion does arise,when the forest

remains deep in our mind,

as we navigate the confusion

in our lives,

this such is a mechanical lifestyle,

giving less credence to

the metaphysical nature of why it is,

why we are,

what the struggle means

to find our way,

the path of a chosen prophecy.

~

That epiphany I was compelled to imagine

as a child, that revelation remains in the woods

carrying upon itself the eyes of a heart and soul.

© Thom Amundsen 9/2020

Winds of August

Posted by thom amundsen on

Feel it when the breeze catches a frame of mind,

sudden shifting in your seat, rearranging,

wondering how it ever became so blind,

a nation struggling to understand and be kind.

 

We have lived this way now,

while everyone everywhere anytime,

has the same logic behind survival,

no one is really excluded, no rivals.

 

The winds of an august have begun a whine

like no other in our lives before,

we are asked, move forward, stay behind,

we are not really quite sure how to be.

 

We are living in a different time where all

heart and soul, dreams caught in rewind.

© Thom Amundsen 8/2020

Dreams & Shadows

Posted by thom amundsen on

Thank God for dreams

though they might frighten

in a scheming time

no filters no recourse

just a forcibly open mind.

Welcome to a bright ‘sunshiny morning’

So much enhanced

seeing the light of day

leaving darkness behind

my eyes did open

I did feel a sudden pain

slowly lifted

stepped away

in my dreams

shadows remain.

©️ Thom Amundsen 8/2020

The Mechanics of Time

Posted by thom amundsen on

A manner of words will carry weight

for the listener

far more likely than that speaker

for whom the end never arrives.

 

There is a wisdom in the quiet –

when will we ever understand difficulty

is far beyond

a matter of chosen explanation.

 

Might we sacrifice peace of mind

too often

rather than finding a way to live

accepting thoughtful compromise.

 

Certainly one cannot fathom

a notion of defense

would overcome the deceit apparent

is fraudulent dialogue.

 

A communication designed around time

and history,

once revered in a clocked day

become weeks of truth.

 

Days begin weeks become months

the years fly by,

and yet words once shared

do now become a travesty of time.

 

We are in the throes of this ‘human condition’

tossed about like pawns by our own volition.

© Thom Amundsen 8/2020

 

 

During Those Days

Posted by thom amundsen on

Remember when we were kids,

the spruce saplings in backyard acreage

we tore through those  – sticks and rage,

long before we misunderstood cyber-kids.

 

Back then, way back when, back in the day

we figured our lives were then forever

never imagined hearts we love might sever

would we really have to stay inside today

 

Simple solutions surrounded our lives when

everyone around, the supporters we did glean

at least that illusion gave us strength as a teen.

Nothing needed last forever way back then.

 

We were a now, an immediate satisfaction

long before ever a need for this gratification.

© Thom Amundsen 8/2020

Eyes Open

Posted by thom amundsen on

Glance outside, slatted reminder

Cloud cover inside rays of sunlight

Awakening to keen choice occasion

Mindless storms set aside today

We are on rhythm designed a hunter

Those whose early rise a sorrow might

Upon now themselves haunting derision

Having practiced in life what we may

For truth will shine in a forever soul

Feel that organic nature of our whole

A startle usually a ticket out of a hole

Skylit harmony help an ugliness ease,

Hold powerful a sweet sensual release

Natural support provide accentuate peace

©️Thom Amundsen 8/2020