a cross-section for you, of poems for people and occasions of many kinds
for a young man embarking on a solo journey, a wander and wonder round the wilds of the world
Now, Voyager
for Alex S. on his Round-the-World Journey on Two Wheels
As you make your way
across countries
and continents,
cultures and customs.
Meeting a world
of faces and voices,
stories and mysteries.
As you travel
through time
and timelessness;
consciousness
and sentience.
May each day
bring you gifts
of all kinds;
gracings
generous
and spontaneous.
Especially pure beauty,
and wonder.
Deep solitude,
and adventure.
And move you
to bring the gifts of
your whole self,
heartful presence,
to each day.
Each voyaging day
and night,
under the Sun,
Moon, skies
and faithful stars.
Singing the song
of your soul
as you go; listening
to the song of the Earth
as you go; to the hymn
of humanity; to the hum
and Great Om
of the Universe
as you walk, ride
and flow freely
and easefully
through it.
May you discover
things about your self
and life
you never imagined.
And things you have.
Trusting your knowing,
and unknowing,
at every turn.
And returning home
from the far reaches
and inner spaces
of the World
wildly safe and widened,
deepened and ripened.
Into the arms
of all those you love,
all glad for your journey ~
and the embrace
of whatever life
awaits you,
calls
with fresh promise
and new purpose
to you.
Colin Goedecke
Westerly, Rhode Island
2023
for a long-time, long-valued man, attorney, and mentor to many, on his 82nd birthday
Swing for the Fences
for Michael B. on his 82nd birthday
What you do
each day.
And inspire others
young and younger
to do in their lives.
Go all out,
with your work,
your passions,
your dreams.
So full-on-ly
that you fly
out past all
usual boundaries,
past bleachers
of onlookers,
estimations,
expectations.
That you surprise
everyone,
including yourself.
More often
than not.
With a swing
you never tire of
making;
never shy
from trying;
that has
over decades,
kept you vital ~
and succeeding;
made you the man
and mentor,
the stepper-upper
and home-runner
you surely
and so sensationally
are.
Colin Goedecke
Weekapaug, Rhode Island
2020
for the jubilant birth of a first grandson
Nato al dente / Born al dente
for a grandson, Leonardo B. on his birth
Faster than it takes
to make linguine
for the vongole, or open
oysters, or place a phonograph
needle onto an old recording
of Caruso returning
to Sorrento. Before the Moon
had time to rise and shine
its nose and cheeks
for the occasion, and anyone
had time to think past
you being a beautiful boy
or girl (but the Universe,
knowing all, found plenty of
time to wink). And while
millions of men and women
put on their pajamas and
put out the lights
to go to bed, ecco
e presto, you were born;
perfectly al dente; into the warm
and welcoming bowl
of your mother’s breasts
and your father’s arms.
Into a future bright with family,
friends and feasts. Into a home
with heart. All sunnyside up.
And an open-wide world,
and now even more
wonder-filled lives.
Colin Goedecke
New York City
2007
for the birthday of a flowering goddaughter
Exhale
for Axelle S. on her 26th birthday
Each time you breathe in
the Earth’s air,
the life-giving air,
you breathe out
a cocktail of
nitrogen, oxygen,
argon, carbon dioxide.
But also,
and more vitally,
more profoundly,
the exhalation,
the Axellation,
of your prana,
of your animated
and animating spirit.
A rush
of aliveness
that joins
the Great Wind
of all outspiriting breaths;
the ether, elixir
of every living thing,
every other being.
That joins and streams
its essence,
invisible presence,
through the world.
Colin Goedecke
Westerly-by-the-Sea, Rhode Island
2024
for young newlyweds, on their marriage
Carving Out a Lifetime
for Jain & John E. on their marriage
With bone and flesh,
hand and heartiness,
you carve
out a lifetime.
Of summer steaks
salted with sea air
and fireflies.
Turkeys with wings,
giving thanks.
Easter lambs
saying rosemarys.
Christmas roasts
and rosiness. Crusty loafs.
And an air of comforting lightness.
You feed and are fed
and nourished.
Wield a blade with heed,
and without bleeding.
As you preside and guide
with simple tools
and grace, at the table
of your life.
Colin Goedecke
New York City
July 2009
for a devoted Maine couple on their wedding anniversary
First Lighters
for Allan & Angela S. on their 33rd anniversary
From the first light
of love
that appeared between you.
The first torch of partnership
you set alight,
as you married.
The first spark of life
you gave to your children.
The first light
you beheld, and behold,
in your Maine oasis,
the dream home
of your hearts
and hearth.
To the pure light
of friendship
you kindle,
freshly,
each and every day.
Colin Goedecke
Lebanon, Connecticut
2024
for a family patriarch on the Olympic Peninsula on his birthday
Earl’s Eyes
for Earl B. on his 83rd birthday
Blue as blue hydrangeas,
they’ve seen the world
at war and peace.
Mountains and the men
who moved them.
Children and grandchildren
come and childhood go.
Thousands of moons,
full and waxing,
suns rising. Faces of all kinds
and cultures smiling.
They’ve opened widely
in love and closed shyly
in kisses. Cried for a lifetime
of joys and sorrows,
of sentiments and great moments
of exuberance. And the more
they see and let and light inside,
the more we see, through those
luminous, endless blue eyes,
of you.
Colin Goedecke
East Hampton, New York
2007
for a soulful Brooklyn woman on her nativity
Spirit of the Rye
for Nicole C. on her birthday
Woman of a hundred grains.
Source of the bread
of good words, and deeds,
floured from the heart.
Hardy bread that feeds
souls, sons to strangers.
Woman of sprouting ways,
who thrives through times,
places, weathers and cold
winters, bringing fields of gold
and green to life and savor.
Beautiful woman long and slender.
Earth-lover. Seed-sower.
Nourisher. Sun-catcher.
Deep-rooted spirit
of the rye.
Colin Goedecke
Morristown, New Jersey
2019
for an intrepid Pacific Northwesterner on his birthday
Wildwatering
for Tim G. on his birthday
You, braver of the wildest
waters. Fiercely bracing,
embracing waters.
Venturer, in bare and
second, shadow skin.
Into the arms of the deep
and darker mysteries,
siren-sung melodies.
Of the endless, restless
ocean. Mirroring
at heart and root
its elemental energies,
insistencies, touch-and-
untouchabilities.
Showing us how
to attune, commune
with the rampant nature
of our own freer-flowing,
fuller-flowing inner
and outer waters.
Colin Goedecke
Morristown, New Jersey
2018
for my father & all fathers, on a Father’s Day
To The Best Days
for the fathers
Of our fathers.
Our Dads.
The men who made
our arrival on Earth
possible. Or played
a fathering role
somewhere along
our life-way.
What were
their best days.
Their salad days.
When they were
filled with zest,
full of dreams,
feeling their best,
their most.
I wondered,
as I came across
photographs of my father
as a younger man.
Before I was born.
Before he sat me
on his knee,
told me vivid stories,
taught me how to sail,
grew old. Sailed out
of the world.
Time-capsuled moments
bordered and deckle-edged.
Each one dated, in blue ink,
by someone’s fine,
fountain-penned hand.
Of his larger, lively family,
who loved being together.
Who called him June,
for Junior.
Of the scenes set
on broad lawns,
Summer houses
by the sea.
All with an air
of easeful pausing,
graceful living.
An aura of ease
in his world,
his life, just then.
A man who had many fine
but also many fierce
passages as his future
unfolded. As marriages
and children came,
and went.
As big dreams
came true,
and others faded,
into the mist. But
I see, gladly sense,
as I hold these images
in my hand,
in my heart,
that beyond
the father I knew,
firsthand, he had
other blissful,
breezeful days. Ones
that brought him joy,
became touchstones,
hearthstones,
that fed his spirit.
Long before I came along,
and long after his days
of youth and beauty,
fathering and figuring
passed.
Now, when I look
into the faces
of the fathers
I know, and love,
some who’ve
been generously
fatherly to me;
especially those
in the upper reaches
of years, I look
for the sparks,
and listen
for the stories
and signs,
of the best days,
the best times,
of their lives.
Colin Goedecke
Westerly-by-the-Sea, Rhode Island
2024
for a wonderful man, friend, father, grandfather & lover of clocks, in his spry 90s
The Man Who Keeps Time
for John T.
The man who keeps time
by the hands, bells and chimes
of clocks.
Hundreds of clocks.
Of every size, shape,
age, color, kind.
Ticking in every room.
Even the garage.
Some with the hands
of a mouse like Mickey,
a knife and fork,
a Big Ben.
One a wooden clock
holding a saint
close to its golden face.
Another whistling
locomotively
along the tracks
of each hour.
All these timepieces,
and pieces of time,
kept going
by this faithful Father
Time~Keeper. Himself
a marker of 801 thousand,
500 hours and counting.
Who’s always well-wound,
well-set and heard.
Who knows the preciousness
of every moment.
Whose time on Earth
we’re beyond glad for.
Colin Goedecke
Westerly, Rhode Island
2024
for a well-seasoned rover, sculptor & storyteller on his birthday
North to South by Southard
for Richard S. on his 77th birthday
Stetsoned
and white-steeded,
he gallops and canters
south, from the far north.
From a state
of Mainely being,
to a place
of confrères, compadres,
confederates, warmth,
welcome arms and
next openings.
Moves nattily,
reverently, rather Walt
Whitmanly, so at-easily.
Through the landscape.
Of the day, of the dream.
Pouring out his music,
pouring out his prayers.
Pouring out his big heart.
The silver-maned Man
in the Great White Hat.
Colin Goedecke
Morristown, New Jersey
2019
for a beloved old house in Berlin & its owners
Love is Blooming / Liebe Blüht
for Rolf & Gabriela
And life.
At Nummer Eins Ritterstrasse.
In a sun-Kussed corner
of Berlin.
Where antique pink roses
bloom in the bath.
Parrot tulips perch
and blush
on the kitchen table
beside a large bowl of fruit.
As parti-colored flocks
of butterflies
flutter freely over the walls.
Here a goddess octopus
undulates bluely
and greenly in the corner
where you pass for coffee
or müsli, cheese
or Riesling.
A stately old radiator,
tall and cream-complexioned,
contains a filigreed cabinet,
with double doors of moss green,
that awaits muffins or mittens
for warming. A charming
Begründerzeit touch.
Out extra-wide French doors:
unlit lanterns dream
of summer nights; a riot
of flowering vines
awaits official Spring.
Clay pots, also patient,
begin to conjure greenery.
And a wicker canopy tilts
in a jaunty-gentleman way,
above signs that point
to the Beach --
but No Diving, bitte,
from the deck
into the blue pool below.
In the low-slung living room
of pillowy sofas and plump chairs
an Old World yellows, browns,
stands still.
Two cows have slipped out
of their skins
and disappeared, au nature,
perhaps east to Ludorf, Müritz
and even greener pastures.
While above, on the upper deck,
under full sails
and brass-buttoned sailors,
you discover a portholed lounge,
a well-dressed passage
(where you can also pedal),
a sunken bedchamber
for sleeping beauties,
two to be exact, and, of all things
a Trumpetarium.
A Trumpetarium gleaming
with rows of old horns,
polished and tarnished,
a golden megaphone Rudy Vallee
could love. A German derby
held out blackly & whitely,
politely, from no hand. All
silently resonating the songs,
singers, Berlin dances, dancers
they shared delight, Lieblichkeit with
decades of nights and nightclubs ago.
Colin Goedecke
Berlin, Germany
2015
a poem-of-goodbye for a cherished friend soon parting from life
Fare Thee Well
for a soul brother on his impending leaving of the world
Fare thee well,
dear friend.
Dear man.
Rare man.
Beloved brother
I, and others,
have travelled,
revelled with
so joyfully,
so gratefully,
these years,
seasons,
evolutions.
As you open
your wings now
to the wonder
of a journey
into the Greater Mystery,
maybe the eternal harmony,
unity ~ infinity,
of what lies beyond
this mortal coil.
The one you brought
your best self,
imperfectly perfect
self to.
This Earthly soil
of living and loving
your being grew so
one-of-a-kindly in,
and feelingly through.
As you move to join,
rejoin,
the whirling,
beckoning,
soul-singing
constellations.
In a shower
of stardusted feelings,
reveries, memories.
As you lead the way
for us, some day,
to follow you.
And sometime,
glad time,
meet you, again;
greet you, there.
As you head off,
and leave the star-
light on for us.
And we, dear friend,
we who remain,
leave the heart-
light on, here,
till then,
for you.
Colin Goedecke
Shelter Harbor, Rhode Island
2022
A poem of blessing for the soul of a man newly laid to rest
On Your Way
for the Soul of John M. on his Journey into the Source of All That Is
To your One-ness.
To your completeness.
With all the departed,
repatriated souls
of the world,
since Time began,
as witness.
And ones present
here on Earth,
who knew you
as a man,
especially those
you held dear,
encouraging
your Great Voyaging
and divine arriving.
As you make your way
now to deepest peace,
fullest grace,
freest place.
Into the Source
of All That Is.
Know your way is clear.
Know your way
is truly blessed,
and infinitely sure.
Colin Goedecke
Westerly-by-the-Sea, Rhode Island
2024