Wonderful Entries: More Poets on the Move~

Here are more Poetry on the Move contest entries.  You will agree with me that there is much talent on the move in the county.

Enjoy! And if you care to leave a comment, I know the poets would love hearing from you.

Poetry on the Move is a project of the Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. All poems remain the property of the authors.

Sally Ashton
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate

* * *

Mornings at SLAC

Steel-toed next to running shoes
(we run to catch beam),
old work boots to the ankle
with nearby sandals and socks,
the richness of penny loafers.
A pair of European calves’ leathers
joins forces with ragamuffin cousins.
Merveilleux!
Each morning we return,
voting with our tired feet.

Janice Dabney
Mountain View

* * *

Don’t relent, invent
Review an old ethic
Traverse the parking lot
With care, a sweeping politeness.
Never rush your shopping cart
On a tear from produce to fresh fish.
The morning walk, rich in eye contact
Vibrant “hellos” to neighbors
Don’t relent, invent, not a gadget
But the simple moment
Of awareness of the other.

Judy Darling
Sunnyvale

* * *

2 Part Invention

part 1 (prelude):

Orchards => Semiconductors;
Canneries => Computers;
Garages => Geeks;
Electronics => Entrepreuners;
Railroad => World Wide Web;
Valley Oaks => Silicon Valley;

part 2 (fugue):

Plant	Look	Imagine	Take	Make	Change
The	Outside	The	A	It	The
Seed	The	Possibilities	Chance	Happen	Entire
	Box				Universe

 

Karen DeMello
Mountain View

* * *

On the Path

Late sun molds the purple hills

where I pass clefts of watercress

and hardy chapparal, coyotes’ home.

I find my proper size–a moving point

along a path, as in those Chinese scrolls

of men on mountain roads, bent figures

almost disappearing in white space.

It is enough to be a part of this,

 hair like grass, stirring with every breeze,

 feet falling in rhythm with my heart.

Maureen Draper
Cupertino

* * *

Invention?

Our fragile minds reel at the prospect.
We can do anything! But can we?
Only if we let the mind sing and listen to the chorus.

Anne Dunham
Saratoga

* * *

Grow the Power

Collards and chard
Stir fried or steamed
Sing praise with garlic
Oh happy bones

Parsley, peppers
Anything goes
Hallelujah hair
Testifying teeth

Urban garden
Patience for parsnips
Born again biceps
Pumpkins for joy

April Eiler
Palo Alto

* * *

The sun comes up;
the engineers and entrepreneurs
daily explore all the implications
of digital forms;
they are inventors and schemers,
not designers;
the Great Designer
of user experience is dead;
what’s left?
the specialized ants
who don’t know the color
of the sky.

Bruce England
Sunnyvale

* * *

Alchemy

Can you tell me
What alchemy
Can turn a blooming cherry tree
And a stream of mercury
Into electric energy?
In this valley, we all know
Is where the mind can undergo
Bright, inventive overflow.
It must be in the earth below
What’s planted here, can’t help but grow.

Anne Ewbank
San Jose

* * *

Focal Point

Landscapes shape shift;
Motion blurs everything to gray.
I long to invent a way
to slow the streaming tints:
Pause time for clarity
of sight and mind.

The movement goes on.
I am carried toward what I fear;
I can’t leave this train until I understand
where I’ve been.

Kristina Fluitt
San Jose

* * *

Ocean

At first it may seem improbable
The fountainhead of civilization
Is but the mere human mind.

Yet like a mountain spring,
ideas trickle forth unending;
Consolidate into streams;
Persist into rivers.

Soon enough the torrents betray
The tranquility of the source.
Man has created an ocean,
Which he cannot tame.

David Fong
San Jose

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