I Am No Longer Unclean (I Hope) — Revolutionary ConTEXTing Free Verse Poem

Those who I worked with,
Prayed with,
Laughed with,
Helped,
Was helped by,
Taught,
Was taught by,
Mourned with,
Loved
And was, I thought,
Loved by;
Those who I Disappointed
And walked away from,
Now treat me,
As I return,
Like a leper.
As though my filth
Is still there.
As though
I will somehow
Taint and soul soil them/
With my past,
Instead of lift them
With my future,
With the possibility
Brought about by the Reason
We’ve worshipped together before.

I am surprised
To have to say,
Again,
I’m sorry.

I’m shocked
That after decades
Of talking in councils
And classes,
Around campfires
And sports fields,
And sitting down at BBQ
And Thai and other meat,
That we can’t
Now meet;
That when they see me,
They have nothing to say
To me.
That their lives,
And their children,
No longer matter
To me
Who spent
thousands of hours
On.

Perhaps I
And mine
Never mattered
To them.

Should they leap
To embrace me
And welcome me
And my return?
Is that selfish?
Do I expect
Too much?
Why not?
I would.

But maybe it’s true:
You can’t return
No matter how cleansed
You’ve become.

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Her Hair, My Heart: Romantic IMprov Sonnet

She quickly departed/
to dry her hair./
The thoughts she started/
were just dropped there.

With her cool ridge muse
of dream opiate,
she left me confused,
yet not able to forget.

Her thoughts brushed free visions/
and imaginationings;/
combed life revisions/
and hope awakenings.

Like golden braids without an end or a start,
she’s woven inspired thoughts through my mind and heart.

Exercizing Memories: Romantic ImproVerse Haiku

What must I do to/
exercise the memories/
Of past foolish acts?

Quiet Isles: Revolutionary ImproVerse Haiku

if you’re off island/
long enough, you forget how/
*quiet Vashon is.

Or
quiet isles can be.

Forgotten In Self Pity: Romantic ConTEXTing Haiku

In the fullest throes/
of a self pity party,
I forget: you care.

Behaving Appropriately

When sheer joy you bring/
overwhelms me, I forget/
how good I should be.

Or

Sometimes the sheer joy/
and excitement overwhelms/
me and I forget.

Check Out Of The World’s Hotel With Me: Romantic ImproVerse Freestyle Poem

If you take words/
and thoughts,
and ideas,
and feelings
that the world speaks
and thinks,
and apply them
to what I say,
I can see
how my words
could be misconstrued.
I can see
how you could misunderstand
my intent.
I can see
that I could not be
the type of man
you would want
to be around.

Please understand that,
sometimes,
I forget to live
in the world.
Sometimes, I forget
the way the world is
and what they say
and what they think
and what they feel
and the ideas they have.

Please understand that,
sometimes,
in my naïveté,
I say things
from my heart
that mean,
to me,
something very different
than what the world’s
words
would mean.

Please believe
my sincerity,
my honesty,
and my good intent.
When you think
that I am saying
what the world says,
take a moment,
ponder,
and think of how different I am
than the world.
Then you’ll hear
what I say,
and know
what I mean.

Don’t Let Me Forget: Revolutionary ImproVerse IMbic Poem

Flags in my neighborhood/
make me ask why./
Then I remember/
a long-ago September:/
Death from the sky/
and I cry.

Remember To Experience Life: Revolutionary ConTEXTing Rhyming Haiku

There’s so much to do,

I hope I don’t forget to

experience it.

A Lost Improv Sonnet: Revolutionary Improv Haiku

I improv from air/
sonnets for someone jealous./
She quickly forgets.