119.365 - quatrain 119.2017 easing past

I wish I understood this itchy skin
patches that burn, or stretches that hurt
but hell I wish I understood my teachers
and for four years that hadn't worked

118.365 - quatrain 118.2017 might as well

Alicia finally took pity on her date
he waited in the livingroom to drive home his friend
who was busy in the bedroom with her roommate
"c'mon." she smiled, "let's get some practice too"

117.365 - quatrain 117.2017 life at the top

"oooooohhh!  inspiration" the guitarist cried
and rapped off a string of chords I'd never heard
so I rapped out a string of syllables I was sure made no sense
until the guitarist mounted them on his chords

116.365 - quatrain 116.2017

 the elegant elegant lady says something like "Rendena"
and a beautiful voice floats over the crowd
so beautiful you think "angels!"
and some people begin to cry

115.365 - quatrain 115.2017 oops again

this is another apology quatrain
I spent yesterday mostly sleeping
and neglected to write a blog quatrain that day
please let this one makeup for that

114.365 - quatrain 114.2017 coolers

my mother was a ventilator
my father an air conditioner so
they argued all day what the temperature should be
til central air replaced them both

113.365 - quatrain 113.2017 pain and confusion

waking up, not quite waking up
finding my leg pinned
on a chair-seat-point
trying so hard, so hard     to make sense

112.365 - quatrain 112.2017 scrabble-a-whirl

look!  look!  the wind has tossed my letters into the air
and for once I am excited at what might come down
I take off my crown and watch with child's eyes
the letters whirl, spin, and tumble like a dare

111.365 - quatrain 111,2017 strange thoughts

little boys think the strangest thoughts
trying to understand the world
until some approximately adolescent year
they stop thinking to understand girls

110.365 - quatrain 110.2017 proofs

I itch, I ache, I burn, I hurt
unlike Descartes who could still think
and thought that sufficient for his existing
I think my proofs are more enduring

109.365 - quatrain 109.2017 ordering

somedays the disorder in my computer
raises a yell from whatever's left of that orderly engineer
for hours, I collect story-starts into a folder
poem-starts into another, then grin and admit this is a different disorder

108.365 - quatrain 108.2017 advice

a friend calls with a tax question
I recommend she call one of the after hours tax services
Linda gets on the phone and after ten minutes of explaining
makes the same recommendation

107.365 - quatrain 107.2017 imitation

dancing
they call it ballroom dancing
but we know ballrooms and have danced there
sometimes getting the right poses, sometimes feet where they belong

106.365 - quatrain 106.2017 Easter

it was a bright, sunshiny day
Easter this year
a day for swimming pools, horseback rides, and children at play
a day to smile upon what we all hold dear

105.365 - quatrain 105.2017 someday

home, and finding comfort in that
even though the place looks like we abandoned it a week ago
and have only stopped by to grab supplies
one of these days, we must get organized!

104.365 - quatrain 104.2017 not quite up to it

late in the night, a shadow of Friday night's pains
throws shade on my heart
and Lindy and I hold hands and wait it out
and shadow-like it fades under what light we bring

103.365 - quatrain 103.2017 consolation

oh damn!
a friend who'd planned to visit has new plans
we'll just have to stuff the hole that leaves in our lives
with thrown away detritus from this heart thing

102.365 - quatrain 102.2017 obedience

"don't itch," I tell myself, "don't itch"
myself only has ears for suppertime
I might as well lecture it about holiness
or try to bribe it with a dime

101.365 - quatrain 101.2017 sleep-bank

today I slept less
catching up perhaps?
people who should know tell me that isn't possible
although I've made it seem so in the past

100.365 - quatrain 100.2017 visitors

two people, no, three!
came by to visit me
I didn't but I almost cried
that glad I hadn't died

099.365 - quatrain 99.2017 sleep

sleep
wake and eat and sleep
I did manage to watch the news this night
but most of the day was for sleep

098.365 - quatrain 98.2017 resurrection

two shots of nitroglycerine
apparently stopped the pains
and after twelve hours in two hospitals
I seem to be me again

097.365 - quatrain 97.2017 after a cardiac incident

oh bless the pain that does not kill!
oh bless the between times!
oh bless!  oh bless!  oh bless!  oh bless!
I can still find these rhymes!

096.365 - quatrain 96.2017 burro

the burro leaned against the canyon wall
looked back at the cowboy and shrugged
"you go on without me for a while
I'll catch up with you soon as I can"

095.365 - quatrain 95.2017 surplus

it was a year of plenty, it was a year of harvest
and mathematicians spent the winter and spring
trying to predict the next one
while songmakers celebrated this one

094.365 - quatrain 94.2017 paired

my brother was married fifteen years
before he accepted his bride
I thought him as crazy as anyone
but wondered the same about her

093.365 - quatrain 93.2017 password

he stood by bright waters and awaited the boat
and practiced what he must say
not any of the usual greetings he knew
just "good meeting" and then look away

092.365 - quatrain 92.2017 bullet storm

Mother wept, and Sister slept and Daddy played his card game
and Johnnie and I sat in the loft where we could see both them and outside
the cops arrived, exchanged high fives, then bullhorned for us to surrender
nobody said nuthin but Pa turned a card and around us bullets flew everywhere

091.365 - quatrain 91.2017 competition

Ms Johnson came here after the war
Ms Linseed was here before
they don't speak never to each other
but no one's died from either's cookies

090.365 - quatrain 90.2017 mysteries

tire pressure
steering wheel
rearview mirror
why do we make two words of these?

089.365 - quatrain 89.2017 living old

Methuselah reached out his arms
and smiled, it's a helluva world
but I can't for the life of me say why
I don't give it all up and die

088.365 - quatrain 88.2017 "Oh, I don't know, you pick!"

oh, peaches and carrots and Dumbledore querrots!
oh, pieces of normal life turned strange!
oh, family and petticoats and whistles and sleighs!
oh, best of nights!  best of days!

087.365 - quatrain 87.2017 I want out!

Sandy said to Mandy or so Mandy said to me
"Believe nothing that horrid Bill says
he lied that much to me," but Bill says Mandy lies and so
I think I'll go to France

086.365 - quatrain 86.2017 decapitation

my mother, my brother, my uncle, my aunt
sat on the sidewall and couldn't dance
they glowered and frowned and citied and towned
and chopped heads off with wishes each round

085.365 - quatrain 85.2017 scent

once he brought gardenias
once she used perfume
but now he thinks just coming home
should be bouquet enough

084.365 - quatrain 84.2017 balance

one of these quatrains should be here for balance
all kindly, and smiles, and polite
without a hint of anything dark
or a vestige of what crawls in the night

083.365 - quatrain 83.2017 justice

"as Mother is my witness," the poor boy said,
"I never shot no Lord that day or any other!"
"Eh?  What?", his mother said, "What's he sayin?"
they hung him at sundown

082.365 - quatrain 82.2017 splanation

this is a quatrain, he explained, to fit into my blog
it can be serious or funny, wise, silly, or quite fogged
it can make sense or independence, or dance, or leap, or cheer
it just can't do any one of those with much skill or flair

081.365 - quatrain 81.2017 war precision

the young men climbed the hill
the young men came down the hill
they left a squad to hold the hill
and prowled off for the next

080.365 - quatrain 80.2017 disappointment

when God looked over the world one day
looked it over again without much to say
He made an annoyed face and snapped His finger,
but couldn't figure out just then quite how to start over

079.365 - quatrain 79.2017 glory

sometimes it takes a bit of glory in the night or dawn
to shift us sideways half a step in how we see the world
some people call it angel sight, some fairy,
I just wish the rest of us could share in its magnificence

078.365 - quatrain 78.2017 the gift

nebbish and skolar and querkus and rat
decided it was time to belle the cat
so they found him a kitty all lissome and lean
and brought her to him, as he woke - and that was that

077.365 - quatrain 77.2017 cleanup

"how do people do that?" the cop decried
"plead, and beg, and carry on, but wait to die?"
he shook his head and kept cataloging bodies
and every one of them built up his "why?"

076.365 - quatrain 76.2017 idyll

this is the story I'd love to spell
the pretty young dancer and the soldier tell
stories and tales and what-you-need-to-know
then disappear in the glade for long happy hours

075.365 - quatrain 75.2017 damned ankles

there's no male hurtin' I've read about
greater than my ankles know
unless maybe what my heels have found
as all this talkin' comes to ground

074.365 - quatrain 74.2017 I hurt

oh damn, I hate to sing again, "I hurt!  I hurt!  I hurt!"
but what's a body left to say, "I hurt!  I hurt!  I hurt!"
painkillers don't and what's left is, "I hurt!  I hurt!  I hurt!"
please, body, bring me some new song, "I hurt!  I hurt!  I hurt!"

073.365 - quatrain 73.2017 narrative

oh what the hell was supposed to go here?
it was clear as day when I had it in hand
but I set it down and turned around
and nothing I see now fits with the title of this

072.365 - quatrain 72.2017 we won!! we won!!

the clouds are weeping orange and blue
and grey and black too
and the kids who watch them smile at the show
the clouds missed the wedding you see

071.365 - quatrain 71.2017 mysteries

sometimes reading the lives of artists
one imagines everyone out on the afternoon sidewalks of Paris
all but tripping on each other, but steadily, steadily
keeping faces carefully averted

070.365 - quatrain 70.2017 plan

let us praise what we must praise
and decry what needs decrying
let us sing what we must sing
and let others sing our dying

069.365 - quatrain 69.2017 unrash

Regis and Reginald and Reynard and me
climbed the base of the old apple tree
and when we'd climbed as high as we dared
we climbed back down to the ground again

068.365 - quatrain 68.2017 cross your heart and do what you know better than

the teenaged girl meets your eyes
with poise you couldn't have known at her age
"the time is now," she says, "the place nearby,"
she takes your hand and tugs, and if you are a fool, you resist

067.365 - quatrain 67.2017 play

music!  television!  our own bed!  well, for one of us
returning home after a night away has the joy and excitement of kids at play
about some things it seems we never grow up
and what a kick that this is one of them

066,365 - quatrain 66.2017 squeeze

writing a quatrain in the squeeze of time
as midnight approaches and ten o'clock recedes
is even trickier when your network connection
sizzles and separates, rejoins and disappears

065.365 - quatrain 65.2017 unmaintenance

there once was a cock-pistol quite manly
it went off every night or two
but the owner was careless of where he put it and used it
and now dark nights parade all unfired

064.365 - quatrain 64.2017 starters

if rose hips, pearl onions and catnip will do
as starters for homemade wine
do you think it might simply be true
Californians make anything remind them of you?

063.365 - quatrain 63.2017 bleakness

Oh I still need one to hide in my blog
maybe it can be sunshine and gladness
nope they're all freezing and wet and trying to forget
and hoping at best for madness

062.365 - quatrain 62.2017 points

Tommy read a recommended book
and Lou Ann wrote a letter
And Betty rode her horse around
what the hell can I do better?

061.365 - quatrain 61.2017 Napoleon

Napoleon placed his cannon, Napoleon placed his horse
and counted on his infantry to fight and march and fight
they did it with precision, they moved as if in flight
then they turned and fought again where he wanted, of course

060.365 - quatrain 60.2017 seriously

perhaps quatrains can satisfy more
if one treats them seriously and lets them store
philosophy and wisdom and knowledge galore
which might require me to get wiser f'shore

059.365 - quatrain 59.2017 Carthage

he stirred the flames and stirred his tea
and sipped and stared and said to me
the destruction I see drags on decades
and nothing repairs, the ruins just fade

058.365 - quatrain 58.2017 Jude

one day when Thumper and Bambi and Fleur
traveled across Old Fox's moor
they got caught in a bramble so wide and sure
that even Old Fox called it the Obscure

057.365 - quatrain 57.2017 a-Viking

when I went a-Viking, oh!
I sailed the stormy sea
I never dreamed that what I'd find
would come home and rule me, oh!

056.365 - quatrain 56.2017 reticent

dawn came and looked over the world below
decided it wasn't worth it
crept back and hid and wouldn't come out
and changed history as far as we know

055.365 - quatrain 55.2017 truth be told

this is a quatrain I wrote for you
on St. Swivern's day so you know it's true
'cause I wouldn't dare  tell a lie or three
that might come back to haunt us, you and me

054.365 - quatrain 54,2017 coalescing

when in the course of human events
it's time for pie of almonds and mints
and maybe just a touch of quince
all brought together to heal our rents

053.365 - quatrain 53.2017 silence

the brothers closed a camaraderie
that wound up protecting the ones who strayed
from the paths of goodness and the glow of well-meaning
but they only hid evidence of murder, embezzlement, and rape

052.365 - quatrain 52.2017 spirits

they told us fix our bayonets, they said prepare to charge
but that was near four hours ago, something must have gone wrong
I do not argue with majorettes, I do not argue with Sarge
but lord I wish someone would come and lift us with a song

051.365 - quatrain 51.2017 mixing

the preacher tells us stories
and so does Sunday school
but both sound just like Tories
and now the Whigs rule

050.365 - quatrain 50.2017 here am I

if this is the sound that a quatrain needs
then here am I to provide it
and there are you, bless your hearts for your speeds
with ears to collect and divide it

049.365 - quatrain 49.2017 age

I wonder if it's really true
that once I didn't hurt
every time I tell a story
there's a fall, a break, or some other glory

048.365 - quatrain 48.2017 relief

after five years of drought
long enough for us to forget how to dress or drive in wet weather
the skies opened and poured all day long and all night
like we have been told they did in days of old

047.365 - quatrain 47.2017 jury education

jury duty comes from the sixth Amendment
so thank Mr. Madison and his friends
the next time you get your summons
and as you're glad for the Bill of  Rights, make your amends

046.363 - quatrain 46.2017 small ship

the little pirate ship, barely a foot long
breezed slowly into the cove where I swam
I could hear no chasing squeals, so I waited, admiring
surely no one abandoned this much care and attention

045.365 - quatrain 45.2017 the meaning of home

oh my mother, oh my pa
I had no business out here
but once they marched me out so fa'
my whole business was to get outa here

044.365 - quatrain 44.2017 creating the gods we need

night
new mountains scrape the sky
and even claw at starlight
people watching invent gods who fight

043.365 - quatrain 43.2017 like Flint

Mother and Mary and Sister and Sue
didn't know what in the world to do
banker had poisoned the city water supply
so the rest of us only could die

042.365 - quatrain 42.2017 contributions

if I could, I'd give this pain
away in dribs and drabs
one to an already dying tree
and to a stone maybe two or three

041.365 - quatrain 41.2017 lost loves

where in the world did my family move?
or was it me who left them?
why can't I remember what happened, love?
and why do I feel so bereft of them?

040.365 - quatrain 40.2017 winter is coming

at first it came down in flakes
that vanished wherever they touched down
but now they pour down thicker than air
and their chill threatens our heat to drown

039.365 - quatrain 39.2017 oddities

sometimes a quatrain is really a couplet
with infernally long lines broke in two
sometimes what the president wants
takes forever to say just so

038.365 - quatrain 38.2017 different

this is a different quatrain
this one is not like the first
this is a separate quatrain
and maybe it is the worst

037.365 - quatrain 37.2017 complications

life was simpler back in my day
the mother told her teenager
do you already know how to use one of these?
and gave her a tooth filled with cyanide

036.365 - quatrain 36.2017 the cost of making believe

latvia, estonia, and langendorf
and andalusitania sublime
sound like places in make-believe
but have cost us thousands of lives

035.365 - quatrain 35.2017 rewards

out in the tulies of Alpha Centaur
teenagers never explore
the outer fringes of what they can do
and explode when they turn twenty-four

034.365 - quatrain 34.2017 cloud science

whither, whether, wither, weather
how do the clouds know
to puff up or not, to tower or not,
and where in the world to go?

033.365 - quatrain 33.2017 maybe a future

there must be something to celebrate
these days while the Republic falls
maybe that youth to youth still calls
as if maybe this was time to mate

032.365 - quatrain 32.2017 unstained

some people hope the coup leaves a stain
on streets, stairs, walls, and door-splinters
but Argentina and Chile cleaned up quite well
no one could tell after a couple of winters

031.365 - quatrain 31.2017 center

horses and rifles and hand guns and beer
I shouldn't combine them, someone will sneer
but I was thinking of things that bring me joy
and those lie at the heart of what makes this boy

030.365 - quatrain 30.2017 do wheels grant mercy?

what happens when the wheels of time
drive mad the country superior
I fear we are finding out and I'm
ready to ask for mercy inferior

029.365 - quatrain 29.2017 existential despair

it wasn't just the loneliness
the boy against the wall said
it was the feeling that my gun
pointed always at my own head

028.365 - quatrain 28.2017 rising sun

there once was a crooked old house
downtown in the gambling quarter
every time it got sold its stories retold
explained why the new owners bought her

027.365 - quatrain 27.2017 Peter

the rabbit looked over McGregor's field
can rabbits smile?
can he push a wheelbarrow in and strip the field?
can doing that be the source of his smile?

026.365 - quatrain 26.2017 prepare

jungles, gyms, and birthday cakes
Mother of Mary and constrictor snakes
hullabaloo and I've got the shakes
but this time it's serious, prepare my wake

025.365 - quatrain 25.2017 rhyme

oh, life, you flit around our playing
especially when we go a-maying
and now I've forgotten what I was saying
rhyming sometimes comes out a lot like neighing

024.365 - quatrain 24.2017 talkin'

"oh, I have so much more to say
stop trying to kiss me and listen!"
and then she fought to keep her clothes on
and nine months later had something to christen

023.365 - quatrain 23.2017 follow the leaders

the music starts and after a while, a girl steps onto the dance floor
a boy follows her on, and after they dance one whole dance
when the band starts again, three couples join them
and, off to the side, a teacher who hides writes their names down in a journal

022.365 - quatrain 22.2017 celebrating

higgledy-piggledy, dance thee a jig
today is leftover Sunday
people are trying to get home anypig
so they can start work on Monday

021.365 - quatrain 21.2017 concerns

the little cowboy shoots the bad guys out of the air
out from behind trees rocks and houses
he little worries how he offends ladies everywhere
his job is to retrieve and protect the cowses

020.366 - quatrain 20.2017 enough

they went out in the rain, the cold, the chill
and paid the rent and what seemed like a hundred bills
and hurried home to cough, shiver, and hack
but glad, despite that, they hadn't had to lack

019.365 - quatrain 19.2017 hybrid

his mother was a lioness, the pride of the pride
his father was an eagle, rider of storms
so he was a gryphon, his halves made from each
and lightning flew with him, his kills to adorn

018.365 - quatrain 18.2017 Lady Liberty

oh, that steely bright object out in the harbor?
the copper-green sheen was all washed away
and replaced by anodized aluminum
you can see her now on overcast days

017.365 - quatrain 17.2017 waiting

four lines waiting for a heart
four lines waiting for a start
four lines waiting for a reason to be
four lines waiting for you and me

016.365 - quatrain 16.2017 justice

the woman with the blindfold on
offered the boy her sword and scales
"I won't be needing these a while"
she said, "all parts do when one part fails"

015.365 - quatrain 15.2017 Carroll

"uh-oh" he said, "I have just read Lewis Carroll
and if I now write a verse
it will come out quite terse
and we almost certainly shall quarrel"

014.366 - quatrain 14.2017 critics

the lion, the cheetah, the orangutan, and the yak
watched the end of a battle, with corpses and near-corpses everywhere
"that was them fighting like animals," the lion said, "do we care?"
that's when the yak peed so long and so loud that they all got their humor back

013.365 - quatrain 13.2017 Keith

Keith walked the land his father knew
but knew it like his father couldn't
Keith listened to people who lived there
whose skin made it so his father wouldn't

012.365 - quatrain 12.2017 lost love

"Mother, he was so sweet!
I gave him my buttons and laces both
til the night he laughed as I lay at his feet
now his body rots in his used-to-be boat."

011.365 - quatrain 11.2017 defeat

foreigners have entered the city and killed the queen
the oldest princess, and the priestess who killed the bull
we sacrificed to the gods to keep us safe from them
they show us, they claim, how ineffectual our gods are

010.365 - quatrain 10.2017 Richard and Sicily

a rose, a lily, and a peregrine hawk
met in a field so they could talk
the hawk stood tall and lorded over them
but the flowers left him poisoned and he never flew again

009.365 - quatrain 9.2017 contemplation

imagine!  imagine, if you will,
a rabid pack of rich men on a hill
contemplating as many ways as they can
of getting even for not being a working man

008.365 - quatrain 8.2017 Simon

Simon Bolivar
taught people the same ideas
that inspired Thomas Jefferson
and freed half of South America

007.365 - quatrain 7.2017 suspicion

the more that man displays his worth
the more I shiver for our furs
I think he'll come for them as tax
before to our freedoms he takes an axe

006.365 - quatrain 6.2017 a place

the lady with faraway eyes
walked on the lawn last night
walked across the neighbor's yard
to find a place to hang

005.365 - quatrain 5.2017 inauguration

after the vows were said and blessed
the cameras pulled back and showed
the weeping bride and leering groom
another country wed to her doom

004.365 - quatrain 4.2017 prejudice

the lion and the leopard
decided to get a beer
but ran into "no mingling" laws
and couldn't do it here.

003.365 - quatrain 3.2017 evidence

where, she said, where is this love you pledge me?
what shall I show my father to convince him?
sweet lady, he said, see that moon?  that stream of stars?
show them to your father, tell him I gave them to you

002.365 - quatrain 2.2017

what I'm trying to say, the preacher said
is you could go ahead, paint the town red
but deep in your heart, you know instead
you might as well have just stayed in bed

001.365 - quatrain 1.2017

I promised you a quatrain
I promised you four lines
I never promised they wouldn't be
'bout beer, good food, carbines.

Wyatt Underwood © 2017

announcement of 2017 project

FWIW, my project for 2017 shall be to write a quatrain a day. I know there are eight formal forms of quatrains, and I may try all of them, but AFAICT a quatrain only means four lines. Still, it is a formidable task to squeeze a poem into four lines. Damn!

<g> Trust me, I will also be writing my more usual troubled verses that are like ballad fragments or shards of songs.

completing 366 appreciations

what do I appreciate about completing these appreciations?  that I did it.  that for a year, a leap year in fact! every day I came up with something I appreciated, looked up what I needed to, wrote my appreciation, edited and polished it, and posted it before midnight.  (I think there was one exception, one day when midnight arrived before I thought to do all that.)  I'm glad I did this exercise, because I had come to a failure to appreciate that had gone on too long.  I hadn't appreciated, and certainly not "out loud", for too long.  I basically had to retrain myself, and I did it publicly.  and I did appreciate, many many things and ideas, like toy trains, and shooting a gun.  has it made a difference in my life?  yes.  Lindy says I'm calmer, and that I accept her corrections more readily.  or more nearly readily.  I can't say - it isn't true - that I spontaneously appreciate now, and I haven't seen any evidence of my appreciating in my poems.  I haven't seen them grow happier or more joyful.  I'm not sure I'd want that.  I don't trust happy poets, or joyful ones.  I know there's a possibility that they've really gotten what the Buddha wanted for us, but I wonder if they are really that insensitive to all the suffering, and all the evil around us.  but that's another story.  or maybe not.  an idea just amused me:  I may not trust those poets, but I appreciate them.  they do a task I cannot.  I'm a serious poet.  boy, am I a serious poet!  so I appreciate them bringing to poetry what I cannot or will not.  <bow>  now isn't that funny?  that in my appreciation of completing 366 appreciations, I learned that I appreciated some people that I hadn't yet learned I did?