Untitled 10

the unhappy hour
grows longest
the clock ticks
slow
and yet
when you turn
around
you see
your time is gone
and nothing
can bring it back
once more,

~ R. Harder

dream garden

angels in my dreams
keep me from waking
to the glory road.
with beauty blossoms
the white thorn
with petals of
silk
and a subtle
cyanide scent
in my garden they
grow,
among the mums
and forget-me-nots
they tangle in my
hand
as I reach to
pluck
as I bow to
smell
in the copper light
of my estate
I wonder if I
should
hesitate?

~ R. Harder

Untitled 9

a more happy
pasture is waiting
for me to find

somewhere
out there
somewhere
I cannot go

I wish I
could reach
and hold it tight

but I hold
me back
I must journey
from inside.

~ R. Harder

Untitled 8

The Summer’s dawn
is waking.

out of the winter
spring is born

out of the rush
and fear
and sorrow
new lives new loves
begun.

awaken new
and face the sorrow
turn it into your
day.
all the pain and
fear you’re holding
let it all
pass away.

tear down all that
was gone.
to find a new place
for you
to belong

~ R. Harder

the year ends
with the
spring’s rise
and soon
we must
leave our roots

the sun
though cheery
the skies
though blue
mark an end
of this year
and the
start of
a new

and older
we get
with each
summer’s rise
and as seeds
we depart
to flightier
skies

the winter white
weather lasted
so long
by cold
and endurance
it made us
all strong

and though
it was a
struggle
it’s a struggle
we’ll miss
as the sun dawns
it is welcome
but it marks
an end
to all this

~ R. Harder

the Hour of time

every day is an hour
as the world turns us by
an hour of waiting
too soon we will cry

that hour by hour
becomes day by day
where has it gone
why has time gone away?

as every day is a speck
in the sand of all time
it is but an accent
in an infinite rhyme

of the world as it grows
becomes shaped and defined
as millennia pass
with an eye that is blind

like a guttering flame
lives flicker and spark
they leave existence
without further remark

that every day of our lives
is but an hour in time
that each life is fleeting
seems an infinite crime.

For us every hour
now becomes a day
because each one we have
is a countdown of dismay.

too soon we will pass
and the world will go on
in the death of our hour
to each minute we hold on

every minute is precious
every second is dear.
So have all the love
for the time you are here.

~ R. Harder

Untitled 7

erased
e gone
goodbye
so long.

~ R. Harder

the Sandpiper’s call

the wind laps his legs
like tide ‘round the trees
the branches that grow
toward heavenly seas

and floating in the skies
the winter-white creeps
blown by the ebb

of eddies that weep

in the watery ways,
the paths of the breeze
he floats on his sails
of feathery skis

his feet are his anchor
his rudder a tail
he sports in the wind
above the sea kale

his compass points north
he always flies true
on great ocean waves
of decadent hue

wind-tossed and driven
we push from the shore
that golden gleam beach
is left to find more

though storms dot the skies
on the ocean we brave
he waits on the shore
for us to be saved

his plume is unnoted
but we all know his lore
he watches us wander
and calls us ashore

~ R. Harder

Untitled 6

get up
and see the dawn
of your day
always rising

frozen at the
peak
where it can
rise no more
nor sink

the sky in autumn
color blooms
an angry eye
faces the darkness
falling
you watch and
you wait
when really you
should be moving
and unstall
your life
make it of your
choosing

~ R. Harder