Dreams

 

—Poetry by Joe Nolan, Stockton, CA
—Public Domain Photos Courtesy of
Joe Nolan

WATER DREAMS
 
Does water have sweet dreams,
Of running down tall mountains
In small streams?
In rushing brooks,
Gurgling and babbling
Around trout fishers’ hooks?
Noodling and swishing
Over rocks,
Sweeping past smooth boulders
All washed clean
By years of cresting waters
Summer rain
And storms of Fall!
Does water dream in white?
Frozen things, like snow
And sleet and ice?
Frozen twice:
Once in sky,
Again on land,
Waiting
For warm Spring
To lay its hand
On icy back
And send it running
Swiftly to the sea.

 

 

 

HUMAN BEINGS
 
Human beings
Are made of dreams,
Of whispers,
Fears and fire,
Forged from warm desire,
Into dancing clay,
Set upon
The Earth to play,
For just a moment’s breath,
Taken, then
By death.


(prev. pub. in Voices, 2020, Cold River Press)

 

 

 

 

A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL
 
There’s a man come hither
In the morning,
To beg my hand in marriage
On the day,
And prays us off to honeymoon
To wander
And to marriage bed,
Together lay.
Someone should be clear
And kindly tell him
He’s a fine young man
And some fine lady, may
Say yay! and with him
Run away,
But not this lady
Or at least
Not this day,
Nor any other day.

 

 

 

 

 

CATS CAN’T USE STRAWS
 
The strangest thing
I never saw
Was a cat
Drinking milk
Through a straw!
 
Cats do not have lips,
So they can’t drink milk by sips.
And because they just have paws,
Their bottles likely slip.
No matter how you ooh and auw,
It really is impossible
For a cat to suck milk
Through a straw.
Their cheeks won’t work that way!
It doesn’t matter what you say.
 
The strangest thing
I never saw,
Was a cat
Drinking milk
Through a straw!


(prev. pub. in Cats Can’t Use Straws by Joe Nolan)

 

 

 

 

MORE WAR, PLEASE!
 
War, war!
Let’s have some more,
Another helping of war, please!
A little war here,
A little war there
Give us some more,
More than we can bear!
Fill up my plate
With fear and hate.
Tell me the enemy’s
At the gate.
Please don’t let him in, sir!
It’s clear from the way that you’re blinking,
That your brain, it must have stopped thinking.
Our boys are coming home shrinking!
Shrinking and sad,
They drive their wives mad,
Their houses are full of crying.
Crying and crying,
From killing and dying.
They cannot take any more!
Hear, hear!
Another war’s near;
So they say, and lie they nay.
It’s them we should go after!
War, war!
Let’s have some more,
Another helping of war, please!

 

 

 

TOADS
 
Toads must eat
So eat, they do,
Gobbling down,
No teeth to chew.
Something slimy
Must get through,
Down to their briny tummies.
 
What else is a toad to do?
Toads do not have proms to dance.
Few are those
Who’d kiss a toad,
To spring a prince by chance.
It’s been ages since
Many a toad has been kissed.
Few, if any,
Toad’s a prince.
Surely, it will be ages hence,
‘Fore anyone springs a prince
From a toad.

 

 

 

 

e. e. isn’t coming to your rescue
 
e. e. cummings
Isn’t coming
To your
Poetic rescue.
He’s not a muse to you
Nor would he likely
Choose
To be one
When you are
Turned upside down
Searching for
A verb
Or noun
With which to
Fill a line,
The one that
Fits in perfectly
As though from
The Divine!
e. e. isn’t coming
To your rescue.

You have to write it
On your own.
You have to sweat
And rack your bones,
Sensitive to undertones
Of words
That drift off sideways
Into innuendo,
You didn’t intend, Oh!
How hard it is
To get it right
In the middle
Of writer’s night
When e. e. isn’t coming
To your rescue!

____________________

Today’s LittleNip:

When you make music or write or create, it's really your job to have mind-blowing, irresponsible, condomless sex with whatever idea it is you're writing about at the time.

—Lady Gaga

____________________

Today's thanks to Joe Nolan, another long-time SnakePal, for today’s poems and pix! Joe Nolan is a retired attorney who began publishing his work in the Fall of 2017. He has three self-published books of poems: Human Grace (2d Edition); Cats Can’t Use Straws; and Sky Gardens; these are available on Amazon. His fourth book, Water Dreams, was published in 2021 by Cold River Press.

Joe’s poems have been published in the Sacramento Voices Poetry Anthology, Now, VOICES, Better Than Starbucks, Poetry Now, Collisions 5 in Modesto, Medusa’s Kitchen, Song of the San Joaquin and Brevities Mini-Mag of Minimalist Poetry. He has published more than 1300 poems since 2017, and over the years he has also been very helpful in finding photos online for possible inclusion in Medusa’s Kitchen.

Interests include news-monitoring, hiking in forests and on beaches, time in nature, meditation, yoga, Jin Shin Jyutsu acupressure, chi-gong and spicy dishes at Thai and Indian restaurants. Thanks for your poems and photos over the years, Joe!

____________________

—Medusa

 

 

 

Joseph W. Nolan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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LittleSnake’s Glimmer of Hope
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dinosaur jaws
chew up the asphalt—
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