(poem) Sins of the Past

Is all the pain
That I have felt
Equal to or more
Than the pain I have dealt?

Surely it is less
But who can honestly tell
That we take
More than we give hell?

Its been an amazing life
To be sure
I just pray
There is no more pain to endure.

Luckily
The loneliness is gone
Replaced with a wife
And her teenage fawn

The past is behind me
The future is so bright
How did my life
Suddenly turn out right?

Did I pay
For the sins of old
I swear that I have paid
The sum total of threefold

I guess I shall see
As time goes forever on
If it was enough
For me to have a happy dawn

That will spread
Throughout the noon of my life
And continue through
The afternoon with my wife

So we can
Grow old together
And never worry
About nary a blunder

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!

A Great Love

I love random acts of love.  I’m sure most people would simply say we are still in the ‘honeymoon’ phase, but after a year, we are still very much enamored with each other.  There’s nothing quite like sitting here, concentrating on something, then BOOM, being drawn into a kiss.

Much of my poetry of late has been very mushy, and romantic, and centered on Lisa.  The reason is pretty obvious, as I’ve never been so happy.  Finally finding someone that understands me, in her own odd way, has been the greatest gift ever.

The First Love, is only the beginning.

There is nothing like falling in love, especially the first time.  Part of me will always envy those first loves that get married out of highschool and live their lives together happy for another sixty to eighty years.  To bad it hardly ever works out like that.

I remember my first love well.  She broke my heart in so many ways, but most of those ways were important.  I had great potential as a person, yet I was squandering it.  I had dropped out of college in the first year, was living with my parents, and spending eight to ten hours a day writing a novel that wasn’t completely thought out.

Dating a Teenager's Mother

I remember several years ago, a colleague at work turned to me and said, “You shouldn’t go for women who had children.”  I remember looking back at her and said, “Finding a woman at my age without children...yeah right.”  I remember the conversation well, and how true it was then, and still is.

Falling in love is hard enough, even though when it happens its way to easy to just fall.  Lisa and I fell fast, and hard, and it was wonderful.  But quite a few people were startled by it all, watching from the outside.  Not least of which, was a teenage daughter caught in the middle.  But here’s one thing I’ve learned, if you are to have a mother love you, then you have to love the child as well.

(poem) - Envoy of my happiness

How did I not know
My life was so bad
Before I had you
As my bride?

The day to day
Meandering pace
Of simply avoiding
The mirror’s face

(poem) She is my everything.

She is my wife
She is my life
She will not be cut away with a knife
She is my everything

I wake in the morn
I feel her in my arms so warm
And quickly forget my dream’s forlorn
As my eyes meet hers, my soul takes wing

I go through the long day
Knowing that with me she’ll stay
I do not have to soothsay
To know she’ll fulfill my yearning




I look at her with so much love
While my heart flutters like a dove
She makes me rise above
She makes my soul sing

We make a solid team
And we hardly every scream
She is the woman of my dreams
It is my soul that she is saving

Saving from a lifetime of woe
I love that she loves me so
To save me from a life so hollow
With the love of such a loving being

There is no strife
With her as my wife
This is an amazing life
She is my everything.

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!

This Journey

What a journey.  Soon I shall pass the 1000 page view mark, and I couldn’t be more happy.  I know many people surpass this mark much faster than I have, I’m still very proud.  How could I not be?

Our blog here is definitely a little labor of love, and I’ve had so much fun doing it.  With The Ballad of the Emerald Bard up and running on Saturdays, I’ve become even more proud.  Just to know people are stopping by and enjoying what they read, and then coming back later for more is a true honor.

Remembering a Wedding

Why are weddings such stressful things to plan?  It makes absolutely no sense.  You want a celebration of your love with friends and family in attendance, but it turns in to a huge drama-fest of trying to make sure everything’s perfect.  But why?

Surely its not an ego thing.  It seems like it when you watch the shows on TV about it.  How people have to have a weddings that’s better than another persons.  Its sad when you see it, but it definitely happens.

Optimistic Pessimist

Optimism in this day and age is such a ramshackle term.  The world seems to be going down in flames, yet having a favorable outlook about it all seems silly.  I think that’s the reason why I call myself an Optimistic Pessimist.  Most people try to split the middle by calling themselves realists, but I’m definitely not that.

I believe everything will work out for the best, though there will be pitfalls along the way.  My current example: the battery went out on the car, a dead battery is either the thing that charges the battery, the alternator; or its just a dead battery.  If it’s the alternator and you don’t check it and you replace the batter with a new one it will kill the new battery, as well.  So when does it cross the line FROM optimism to say that we should check the alternator just in case?

(poem) The people who Hate.

There is always one
Who will hate you
One who will throw your happiness
Into a busy avenue

I know these people
I know them well
When they speak
I can hear the bells of hell




They ring loudly
In my mind
Thoughts of murder
Rage making me blind

But then I smile
Into their face
And do their job better
At a quicker pace.

I wonder why
They are so intimidated
By one such as me
I’m always so timid

Yet this is what they do
They pick out your superiority
Even if its not flaunted
And plan its atrophy

(poem) Why I live my life.

As the seasons rise and fall
And everyone tries to make sense of it all
We watch the sun rise and set
As life fades we try not to fret

So we try to live life without regrets
And to be good to our pets
Yet most don’t know how to enjoy
All that life has to employ

Shame comes and goes
As does pain’s throws
Yet we life through and trudge on
And wonder if our last name will fade into anon

I asked for all things that I might enjoy in life
And I was given life
So that I might enjoy all things
No matter what it all might bring

This I hold true to
No matter what or who
Might try to bring me down
Because life is too short to constantly frown

So smile I do, as much as I can
Since this life began
And live by a creed that most dismiss
Because there is nothing in life I want to miss.

From watching my step-daughter
Try not to die from laughter
And enjoying my wedding to her mother
Being that woman’s one and only lover

Sure I’ve had my downs
But I fear them less than clowns
Of course, that goes without saying
Clowns send a lot of people to praying.

I’ve loved and lost
And each time felt the cost
But it all paid out in the end
For my life now has the perfect bookend

I knew it would all be worth it
No reason at all to throw such a fit
What a ride it has been
And it will continue to be, until the end.

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!

Escape of a lifetime.

What is it about traveling that makes people more worldly? I guess the answer is obvious, but it is pretty amazing at how those who have left their home and moved far away have so much more wisdom and insight.  In my home town, everyone is so stuck in a rut, and I can see that in other places, but never as bad as that place.

I admit, I’m not as much of a gypsie as some people, but I was born in Texas, lived in North Carolina for eleven years, lived close to Little Rock, AR. For a year, and now I’m in Oklahoma. Rural OK at that. Its been a wonderful life, and I’ve been amazed at what I’ve seen and how far I’ve come, but I still find those people, whom are older, yet they just don’t seem to have this experience with life.

The Yin of Yang.

I cannot count the times that everything good and amazing in life is countered by something bad.  I’ve lived my life waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak.  I have a constant worry that it’s all going to unravel somehow and balance what else is going on.  But all along the way, I think about how interesting its going to be as I watch it all happen.

After 2 months of it being in the shop, we got our car back out.  Spent $1,800 to get it fixed.  There is nothing as frustrating as getting into a car and hearing a click as you turn the key instead of the wonderful sound of an engine roaring to life.  We dealt with the problem for a very long time.  Finally we put it in, after a ton of things being fixed on it, we were excited to get the thing back.  I crawled into the car, and turned the key.  Ahhh, the wonderful sound of that click.... *sigh*