A few random poems by Kenn Amdahl in a couple of styles

A Mutt in Alaska
kenn amdahl

Easy friends, like huskies,
Show up periodically,
Bark a happy greeting,
Rub against your leg,
Then go lie down,
Content in the corner.
You can sustain a lot of these.

But the pup who needs attention,
Who must be petted,
Must be fed, let out, then in,
Is a burden.

You saw me wag my tail,
And scratch a muddy paw against your door,
Obviously useless for pulling sleds,
And your face said dog-pound.

 

A Tiger is Coming
kenn amdahl

A tiger is coming, I don't know his name,
But he moves like a shadow at dusk,
He waits with the sureness of death for his claim,
In the stillness of spice trees and musk.

A tiger is coming, I've not seen his face,
But I've heard the grass sigh in his wake,
There is no philosophy in his cold eyes,
And his fangs leave no room for mistake.

The tiger who comes, I can't say who he loves,
But he whispers a name to the moon,
His muscles ripple like silk when he turns,
Yes, a tiger is coming here soon.

The Night I Learned Jon Killed Himself
kenn amdahl

I stare through the cold window of the playground
Section of MacDonald’s. The mothers examine me
Discreetly; Silver hair too long, not neat, clothes rumpled
From the nap in my truck, no wife, no child
No happy meal– suspicious, they decide,
But probably not dangerous.
It’s a short drive, and I have time,
But I come to the window to watch the traffic,
Plot my course, drink my coffee.
The road’s become black ice, a mother says,
Apparently while I slept.
The cars creep by with dignified caution
The snow blows horizontal under the street light
Like flashes from a welder’s torch; my coffee cools.
A little kid approaches, wide eyed at the wonder
Of whatever it is he thinks I am
And says hi. I say hi back,
Knowing he’s about to get in trouble.
Then he’s gone and the hushed scolding begins.
I look back outside. Without moving my eyes
I can focus on the bright room behind me – circus colors, shrieks, giggles, memories–
And the slow procession outside fades.
Then I let the room dissolve to a calm buzz
And only see cars and the fireworks of wind and snow.
With effort, I can watch both. A car in the parking lot
Runs over a child’s reflection...
Neither notices
But slowly the road pulls me. It’s not a long drive,
I have plenty of time. But sooner or later I’ll join the procession.
The lively reflections fade, I look deeper, and see past
The road to the highway beyond. It’s been sanded,
For the cars fly down it, white headlights, red tail lights,
As fast as the snow – creatures who’ve mastered their wings.
Beyond them, where I have not learned to focus,
I know there are stars.

With a Little Help
kenn amdahl

I want a hit of that Joni Mitchell drug
Straight and raw, whatever it is,
The stuff she grows in blue motel rooms
And candle-lit cafes, somewhere in Europe,
Far away from fame, yet close enough
To feel its icy loneliness
Her dealer sells rivers to skate away on,
And the clouds of Michelangelo,
She hides her stash in a room full of secret pastels
And antique mirrors.
My dealer sells puns.
I want the number of her pharmacist,
And an open account.

I also want a long slow pull
On the bottle Gordon Lightfoot hid away;
A rainy day friend would share it.
We'd watch all the ladies in their finery
Whirling like rainbow trout in the country evening,
He and I, wooden sailboats that long to be gone
And yearn to stay. We'd walk with dreams
That understand men
But dissolve like the weather girl
Leaving only a scent and a memory
And we'd reach once more for the bottle...
Yes, let me be drunk like that, just once.

I need the disguise Paul Simon has rented,
And, of course, his dictionary.
Let me bundle up, safe and warm,
And throw snowballs at the crowd,
Make everyone duck, except the children,
And the other well-bundled people.
There but for my lack of grace, go I.

A few drops of Bruce Springsteen
And I could cut back on my coffee.
A shot of Hoyt Axton Tequila and I won't feel so bad
When women confuse me.

While we're at it, order me a bag of
Claudia Schmidt's magic powder;
I'll wake up all alone, deep in the night,
Hear the rain, and not be sad, but smile.
Or step on broken glass,
And wish a former lover well.
Peter Pan could use such dust.

Fill my bag, if I’ve any currency left,
With a few gems that might not fit in everyone's earrings:
The Bob Lind rubies, the Fred Engleberg sapphires,
Stanley Jordan's right hand, a well-worn Paul Stookey or two,
The Roches on Tuesday nights, draped over my shoulder,
And a baseball cap that says "The Bobs."

I'll feel dressed as fine as Ricardo Montalban, selling cars,
And I'll fly, wild-eyed and bat-like over cities and prairies
With a grin on my face and a buzz in my head
To make the Texas Chain Saw Assassin jealous.

The Dying Buffalo
kenn amdahl

The tired old head of the dying buffalo
Lay in pooled moonlight near the corner of the zoo pen.
His cheek-bone hard against the dirt, like an Indian, listening,
Each ragged breath blew clouds of dust
From red, infected nostrils;
Pus and blood oozed from his open mouth
And flies attacked his eyes.
The ancient gods gave one small gift:
The night-guard had a girl with him,
And wine, and plans; The office lights were dim...
The old one would have peace enough to die.

Yellow eyes flickered, and the buffalo traveled,
Uncaged of time and walls, as buffalo always do
The evening of their death.
He stood beneath a street lamp now,
Amid suburban lawns and sidewalks
And houses made of fog, as if unreal,
Phantom houses, phantom streets,
A dim disturbance on his immortal prairie.
He pawed the earth, young again and regal,
Breathing in the sagebrush magic,
Breathing out white frost against the stars,
Traveling back in time, the houses fading...

A car horn honked, he shuddered...
Once again he wheezed within the squalid cage
Too tired for life, or dreams. A woman's young laughter
Floated from the guard's office.
The breeze moved stiff brown hair,
His eyes closed, and he was running, running,
His hooves pounded dust from the ancient homeland,
Now laced with ghost-like roads and cars,
That slowly disappeared.
A million buffalo beside him crushed the memory of the future
Into clouds and thunder against the blue sky.
No horse or man or time-devil could contain
This rolling pride forever.
This was the time that was no dream,
When God was a herd the size of clouds,
And man watched, fearful, from pitiful safety
And the buffalo feared no mortal thing.

The night moved quickly; such nights do.
A tilt, a shift, the stars spiraled,
The sleeping earth changed position...
He stood among others, much older,
That no longer looked like buffalo;
Huge beasts, as he was now huge,
At the edge of an ocean
That would soon dry to prairie.
The sky was full of lightning and magic,
Shadow herds, the size of clouds,
Raced above the waves, flickering and unreal,
Phantom animals, his history, and his future.
The others, the old ones, stared at the ghosts on the water
And pawed the ground, as if to say
Join us...
It is time to begin again.

 

Wyoming
kenn amdahl

A pride of mountains, restless, rolling sure,
Quenching flatness, as the blind man's flute
Satisfies the silence, or day obscures
Dawn's subtle shades; their brawn transmutes
The small to nothing, the huge to little more.
Shudder, as creatures near a lion must–
Their life or death a whim, their wills ignored–
At granite-fisted rage and craggy thrust,
Made small by mountains, shrunk and awed by stone,
As God or Truth would do, as they are known.

 

 

clearwater publishing company publishes Kenn Amdahl books in Colorado. Clearwater Publishing Company publishes educational fun books. Books include There Are No Electrons Electronics &lt;span class=&quot;style8&quot;&gt;for Earthlings, Algebra Unplugged, Calculus for Cats, Joy Writing: Discover and Develop your Creative Voice, The Land of Debris and the Home of Alfredo. Clearwater also publishes The Barefoot Fisherman: a fishing book for kids by Paul Amdahl. and Economics for the Impatient by C.A. Turner. Our books are about science, math, creative writing algebra, calculus s, economics, fishing, kids, parenting, education. Curriculums like them, and so do home schoolers. Joy of Writing and The Joy of Writing are not our books, but Joy Writing is. Kenn Amdahl is president. He's a songwriter and author in Broomfield Colorado. Electronics, teaching electricity, teaching math, especially alebra and calculus and creative writing. SAT, LSAT, and other test takers may like these books. They are like books for dummies, algebra for dummies, algebra unplugged, math book. kenn amdahl jim loats calculus for dummies, creative writing for dummies, fishing for dummies, parenting for dummies . Or Algebra for Idiots, Calculus for Idiots, Creative Writing for Dummies. Memoir writing or memoir writers may find Joy Writing useful, although it is not The Joy of Writing or the Joy of Sex or the joy of writing sex or the Joy of Algebra for that matter. They are not chicken soup for the writers soul, or algebra for the writers soul, or calculus for the writers soul. They are not strictly speaking Christian or religious or spiritual, but those folks are welcome. Jesus would not disapprove of these books. Jesus might like them. The Rapture of Writing might be a good title. Self-publishers read our books, Dan Poynter is recommended. Top ten bestsellers not on the list. New York Times Bestsellers are loved here. DaVinci Code or Harry Potter fans welcome. Obviously I'm practicing my writing on this web area that you should not be able to see because I need to make thisalgebra unplugged, math book. kenn amdahl jim loatsclearwater publishing company publishes Kenn Amdahl books in Colorado. Clearwater Publishing Company publishes educational fun books. Books include There Are No Electrons Electronics &lt;span class=&quot;style8&quot;&gt;for Earthlings, Algebra Unplugged, Calculus for Cats, Joy Writing: Discover and Develop your Creative Voice, The Land of Debris and the Home of Alfredo. Clearwater also publishes The Barefoot Fisherman: a fishing book for kids by Paul Amdahl. and Economics for the Impatient by C.A. Turner. Our books are about science, math, creative writingg algebra, calculus s, economics, fishing, kids, parenting, education. Curriculums like them, and so do home schoolers. Joy of Writing and The Joy of Writing are not our books, but Joy Writing is. Kenn Amdahl is president. He's a songwriter and author in Broomfield Colorado. Electronics, teaching electricity, teaching math, especially alebra and calculus and creative writing. SAT, LSAT, and other test takers may like these books. They are like books for dummies, algebra for dummies, calculus for dummies, creative writing for dummies, fishing for dummies, parenting for dummies . Or Algebra for Idiots, Calculus for Idiots, Creative Writing for Dummies. Memoir writing or memoir writers may find Joy Writing useful, although it is not The Joy of Writing or the Joy of Sex or the Joy of Algebra for that matter. They are not chicken soup for the writers soul, or algebra for the writers soul, or calculus for the writers soul. They are not strictly speaking Christian or religious or spiritual, but those folks are welcome. Jesus would not disapprove of these books. Jesus might like them. The Rapture of Writing might be a good title. Self-publishers read our books, Dan Poynter is recommended. Top ten bestsellers not on the list. New York Times Bestsellers are loved here. DaVinci Code or Harry Potter fans welcome. Obviously I'm practicing my writing on this web area that you should not be able to see because I need to make this square bigger and have not learned how yet except to type in words, poetry, prose, language, steinbeck type stuff, No Child Left Behind, that's my motto. Naked books, with no girls gone wild, no bikini models no first amendment problems. Sorry, no Jill, no wagner. no amateur index ladies or lightspeed girls or coeds or women. Just books about electricity, like Tesla or Edison might write, books about Algebra like Aristotle might write. Calculus books like Garfield the cat might write. Cat stuff, feline stuff, study guide type raw material. Books for girls who like to read and boys who know how to. Teach yourself math, science, fishing, in clear water or clearwater economics creative writing and poetry. Sing a song. Release a CD Write a book and self publish it. Groups we like include Book Organizations of Colorado, Colorado Independent Publishers Association CIPA Colorado Authors League Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Pikes Peak Writers Aspen Writers Mountains and Plains Booksellers Independent Booksellers SPAN Small Press Association of North America Publishers Association of the WEst Colorado Library Association Last Note Singers Cottonwood the music group. Edward Ormondroyd and George Garrett gave blurbs to our books </span></div>
square bigger and have not learned how yet except to type in words, poetry, prose, language, steinbeck type stuff, No Child Left Behind, that's my motto. Naked books, with no girls gone wild, no bikini models no first amendment problems. no amateur index ladies or lightspeed girls or coeds or women. Just books about electricity, like Tesla or Edison might write, books about Algebra like Aristotle might write. Calculus books like Garfield the cat might write. Cat stuff, feline stuff, study guide type raw material. Books for girls who like to read and boys who know how to. Teach yourself math, science, fishing, in clear water or clearwater economics creative writing and poetry. Sing a song. Release a CD Write a book and self publish it. Groups we like include Book Organizations of Colorado, Colorado Independent Publishers Association CIPA Colorado Authors League Rocky Mountain Fiction Wri</span><span class="style11">ters Pikes Peak Writers Aspen Writers Mountains and Plains Booksellers Independent Booksellers SPAN Small Press Association of North America Publishers Association of the WEst Colorado Library Association Last Note Singers Cottonwood the music group. Jill Wagner is the actress in the Mercury Mariner TV commercial. Jill Wagner will become a big star and people will google her. That's Jill Wagner, mercuryvehicles.com, TV actress. She's in Vancouver filming a movie.Edward Ormondroyd and George Garrett gave blurbs to our books </span></div>