Thursday, August 16, 2012

If Finley Died Today......................

Leave it to Finley.

First he vanishes, not just from our city......but to where....Canada?

Then after a couple of weeks doing whatever he is doing there, he headed straight to Wyoming or Idaho, someplace like that to do more vacation stuff with his family.

I don't begrudge a guy or cutting loose and stretching his legs.

In fact I recently read a list issued by the Dali lama where he said one good way to experience personal growth was to visit a region you have never been to, one time every year.

Like I said...I get that, but Saint Paul w/o Finley is like going over to your Grandmothers house.

The Grandma that lives in an apartment filled with old people so there's nobody to play with.

Then knowing that you're bored out of your mind, she scrounges up a coloring book for you to play with, but then she apologizes cuz she can't remember where she put those blasted color crayons.

So now she hands you a blue Bic ballpoint pen and tells you........

"Knock yourself out kid."

Thats what Saint Paul w/o Finley is like, a coloring book and a pen.

I know it's only been like 3 weeks, but 3 weeks is a long time in my world.

Then one morning, a Thursday, the day I see Finley drinking coffee with Brian Horrigan,  He wasn't there, and then I thought.....

OMG - If Finley dies one day, years before me......who will I discuss poetry with.

I could discuss it with you peeps, but no offense... it wouldn't even be 1/2 as  much fun.

Well Mike, if you stay alive, and come back to Minnesota, I can show you the poems I've written in your absence.

Here's one that I finished earlier today, and I really like it, not a little, but a lot.

That's another reason it sucks to have Finley out of the Capitol City.....who will tell us all what we need to do to improve our poems? LOL

I miss you friendo - enjoy
 
Skulls & Airports
  
I took the wrong turn off

I cut through the airport

I got to the place where you drop travelers off

I almost drove by, but then I saw an old man

Embracing a woman that may have been his wife

Their moment of separation was touching

Touching enough to turn off the ignition

And watch people separate from one another

On a sidewalk that offered

Departure to each corner of the globe

If you stand in one place

Engulfed in this mob

You’ll witness people exercising emotions

Ranging from despair to elation

I only stayed 7 minutes

People are flawed

People are stupid

They disappoint

And seldom deserve trust

But if you stand outside an airport

Where people send those that they love away

It might be just enough to give you hope

It did for me


3 comments:

  1. When I am with you, we stay up all night,
    When you're not here, I can't get to sleep.
    Praise God for these two insomnias!
    And the difference between them.

    -from Essential Rumi, Trans. Coleman Barks

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  2. Funny, while I was away I was at an airport waiting for Rachel, and wanting our visit together to be a good one. I am always rocked by the embraces of passengers with family members and lovers. They close their eyes for a moment, and almost weep. You think, ah, they were coming home. And at this precise moment, they are home.

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