HOPE IT GOES IN AS EASY AS IT CAME OUT

"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle" Gloria Steinem

Hope It Goes In As Easy As It Came Out

A painter yesterday,
a plumber today
gives me reason
to chip my nails,
scrape my hands,
see my blood,
stub my toes, and
curse at inanimate things
as I create ways to
transform them
into tomorrow.
It is how I know--
I am a capable woman.

TJKG

SMILE THERAPY 4

"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road,but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence." - Lin Yutang

Smile Therapy 4

I am in smile therapy
when I drive home from
the gym at 6 a.m.,
and the sun is as early
to rise; we both feel
spring coming.

I am in smile therapy
when I search deep
inside my soul
to feel the helix of my
smile.

TJKG

CROSSWISE

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
Helen Keller

Crosswise

But in art
as in life,
one cannot defer
that
iron
bars
are emblematic
of
uncertain happiness.
One’s hope
affix across
a female form
may
foment
freedom, a
tantamount
to life and
the art
of security.
TJKG

SMILE THERAPY 3

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.”
― Albert Einstein

Smile Therapy 3

I am in smile therapy because I have
seen too many reruns on Monday--
not of Gilligan’s Island, not of
The Road Runner, but of real life
reeling on and on and repeating to me,
this must be happening.

I am in smile therapy when
shaking my bootie with
my daughters to Wii Just Dance 3
feels like I am out at a dance club
with my girlfriends, in my twenties,
minus the shots of kamikazes
and the smoky electric atmosphere.
TJKG

THE MADNESS OF IT

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”
― Marilyn Monroe

                                                                                        Photo:T.Kraft

The Madness of It

You need to find the bottom to everything,
to see if it will kill you;
this is the problem with trauma,
there is no middle ground to walk on.
No riddles to solve, no worries to weave,
no bruises to mend, no blood to shed, all
rimmed with barbwire to keep the truth out.

She says…
Your mind does not choose to have
a flood of guilt, a raging of war,
a loop of tapes, a mayhem of tears,
to tear down your body of borders.
I broke it,
so free yourself from the madness of it.

Whatever it may be, I want to stay alive, and if
you want to die, you can. I worked too hard to
find my way here,
to be victim’s blood. And hey--
one of us is crazy and it is not me.

How far under the radar should
you fly to make a difference
to the cipher of scabs?
I have the creator’s want,
the philosopher’s question, and
a poet’s blood,
you need feet on those words,
she says to me and then
I will drink them from your lips,
like water to wine,
she says to me.

I have the universe’s compass and
the ideas are flowing like holy-water.
She says, when you are searching for your
dream boat and you find a life boat
with me and Marilyn Monroe in it,
you will know it.
TJKG

4 DAYS IN PARIS

Happy Valentine's Day

Oh Moon, sweet, sweet Moon, I want to be naked on you. I want to be like a flower growing on your surface, unique and mysterious, at home in the wonder of you, as if my naked body would be something growing out of your soil, something precious, a lovely gift on your landscape.  James Lusarde

4 Days in Paris

The veil is dissolved
as her mystery
is revealed,
my muse, my lover.
I am lost inside
your hushed words,
this yearning, my muse,
this yearning, my lover.

This, I yearn for more–
and more,
my lovely tempest,
my moonlit goddess,
that which has been
given back with the
serenity of your silence,
a loneliness lost
to the distant past.

In the still voice of
my lover's wisdom,
my lips are still tender.
I see more of how
she lives in the shadow
of my stillness.
In the stillness
of my sight,

in the release of
my breath, I seek
to understand you,
your finger tip
is not enough
of a journey to
fulfill me.
I have prepared
myself all these
years for four
found days in Paris.
TJKG

SMILE THERAPY- 2

   All true responses to life...

   If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. 
                                                                  Maya Angelou

Smile Therapy 2

I am in smile therapy
even when the dirty dishes
and the dish fairy are
in a terrible battle in
the night and the dirty
dishes are still
there in the morning.

I am in smile therapy
even when the guy sitting
next to me in a bar
talks to his
buddy about digging a
six foot grave for his
soon to be x-wife.

TJKG

AMBUSH OF THE EDGE

A lot of times I came across as too masculine to men, and they couldn't handle me, they stayed away. Brenda Holloway

Ambush of the Edge

The silver link
slips over the head
of memory’s chain;
the paisley tie of society,
bound body locked from fluidity,
cinched firm to
the controlled leash of time.
Prong collar, a clanking reminder
demanding a
corrective pinch, a straightened path,
an evolutionary whisper,
a tethered beast noosed from
the liberty of his lurch.

His spirit rises leaving
past anger and resentment
and crippling ego to fall; a truth
found in one’s present
unknotting. And as each
knotted cord unbinds,
a hidden scar fades to freedom.
His creator is sculpting
revelations as exposed insides
alleviate trepidations,
a consummation of letting go,
birthed from the
breath of an unraveled heart.
TJKG

I AM IN SMILE THERAPY

A friend taught me about smile therapy and it has changed the disposition of my life. Putting a smile on your face, a smile that comes from your soul, can change the molecules of your being and actually make the world a better place. I know it sounds Forrest Gump...you should give it a try. Big grins for Monday.

"Setting a good example for your children takes all the fun out of middle age."
William Feather

I Am In Smile Therapy

I am in smile therapy
even when I bite the heads
off of Teddy Grahams and
leave their little floured
bodies littering the
kitchen table.

I am in smile therapy
even when Ken and Barbie
are hanging in the Jacuzzi
and I am picking up all their
doll-sized clothes that are
clearly nicer than mine.
TJKG

SLEEP WALKERS

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. ~Chinese Proverb

Sleep Walkers

I dream of sleep
hidden in the cracked
moments of peace;
my body held in the depths
of gravity’s slumber, cradled
in the core of the earth,
slightly sinking,
warming the ways for my
troubles.

Shelter lies in the depth
of my darkened covers,
a shield that swathes
my human soul,
a haven of raw questions
amass in my heart gives
me hope for the purity of
your worriless home.

I turned over and
thought of you, like
a candle licking away at air.
I turned over and
wanted you, like
a candle’s illumine,
anointing my fears.
I turned over to
purify my burning life,
warming the burning in you.

I’ve been saved
by turning over
and facing me,
burning the feared
traces of my purging.
TJKG