This year's crop of birthday poems

Hello stumbling or surfing readers of this haphazardly maintained blog. Here are a few poems I attribute to my annual birthday writing phenomenon.

still the task is difficult

reaching out
from yourself
you fight
to live
but
die
each time
you fail
for yourself
no mercy

that moment
just before
the fear
takes hold
you
stop
take charge
be free
just until
the next time

reaching out
just before
you fight
the fear
hold
life
take time
fail-free
just yourself
no next time

ltv
12/9/07


2007

imprinted
in my soul
a brand
so searing
I won't forget
a tribal tat
the cat bite
a new soul
to welcome
the mourning
of a local era
sparks of life
leave Maori scars

ltv
12/11/07


This one's been bouncing around in my head for a while now. Two phrases started this poem: "the dead remain silent" and "living is noisy."

living is noisy

a constant chatter
of gossip and
grey matter
the voices of
the choices we made

babbling away
in our daydreams
of ghosts getting
one last chance
to say goodbye

crying, pleading
struggling for
the noise of life
but the dead
remain silent

ltv
12/12/07