No Regrets Summer 2019

No Regrets Journal

Summer 2019 Issue 26 Selected Poems Issues 1 through 4


No Regrets, a journal of poetry, prose and images about the exploration of being and meaning.

Clayton Medeiros, Editor, Poet, Photographer, collage artist claymedeiros@aol.com Neil McKay (Johnny Trash), Webmaster Submissions are by invitation of the editor Epublishing http://issuu.com/claymedeiros/docs Facebook page No Regrets Journal, haikus poems and photographs https://www.facebook.com/NoRegretsJournal 

Universe I hear it The Universe Humming




Islands Wait Islands wait for Someone to come Sit patiently Sun bright waves Sound against Rocks and sand Accompaniment For the story Not yet told If you wait Long enough Listen closely Slow words Come from Wind’s whispers Water’s murmurs

Dappled Walks Late morning Dappled walks Leaves flutter Belie chilled Sandaled feet Day awaits Coffee aromas Prepare minds Appreciate Nature’s efforts Attention’s paid Salutations Genuflections Choral praises Voices rise Hold up the sky Diurnal time’s Blue vault

Perfunctory Sky A perfunctory sky doesn’t bode well A parsimonious temperature With indecisive events Inconclusive conversations Words hang in the weather Shadows unsure of their direction Neither cumulous nor stratus clouds No horizon to be seen Time itself muddled The sky leans close Hears whisperings In the haze

Dark Blue Slow darkness comes Out of the sky’s center Spreads to the horizon Until there is only star light Evening’s minutes Count toward dream time Something long ago blue In day light mystery Moment to moment Perhaps a song comes Melodic and infinite Fills interstitial space A dance of black holes Among racing galaxies Soft light rises From earth’s edge Separates night from day Until the last star fades Morning’s passing hours Impatient dog walkers Worried about being late Something graceful comes Adds French curves Your favorite color Afternoon spread out Against the day An exuberant meditation Among closest friends Or just you and I Wings welcome quiet dark As if sleep needs it Too fragile for blue Stories emerge in passing hours With separate dreams Light shimmers between us

Memories Mind’s suitcases Carefully stored In keyed lockers A railroad station With tiled floors Domed ceiling soars Careful schedules 10:02 arrives Lost and found Each suitcase locked Until a key turns Memories Daffodil spring Soft summer day Wind whisked leaves Orion filled sky Leather suitcases Worn corners Creaky hinge Latches snap open Contents once again Come to light The room’s aromas Where it happened Sunlight across A formica table Screen door breeze Almost June Memories Once again

Turn of Mind There is a turn of mind That sustains romance In spite of an indifferent Universe that expands Round and round.

There is a turn of mind The fruit of constellations, Signs of the saintly Zodiac Bridge cavernous gaps Moment to moment

There is a turn of mind that dreams curved space Time’s back and forth.

A Mobius strip’s Alchemical wizardry

There is a turn of mind A hesitancy of time Backwards and forwards Into curves and corners Of everyone’s history

There is a turn of mind That justifies intense query Hope for kindred spirits Incented compatriot’s perform the impossible

There is a turn of mind Scholars and story tellers Frame how it was Sense of how it will be In the whirled medium

There is a turn of mind That sees the end in doubt Caught in twisted fabrics, Wrapped one on the other.

Timeless beginnings

There is a turn of mind Of fertile escapades In search of answers Fate faith free choice In this episode of reality

Cars Hissing The wheeling hiss of car’s tires Head up the hill beyond my yard Like a whisper the hiss disappears With the distance of the crest The car no longer seen Except at night on the way up The bare tree limbs are lit By headlights that swoop Down the slope by my place On their way to stores parties The house of a friend for coffee The news of the day recent stories About Helen’s nephew Harry Who went to California He left behind the enclosed New England hills stone wall lined For mesas deserts points west Helen was all he had She worried and wrote so he knew Seasons change from March crocuses To hardy mums to prepare for winter He’d call leaving a trail of zip codes

Loneliness Words Loneliness once spoken Perhaps not as deep But what remains unsaid Sticks to heart and bone Relentless thirst unquenched Searches answers in other’s eyes As if nothing’s known alone Even rosy sunsets viewed Strangers if none other Share words gorgeous lovely Poetry speaks Dark lady sonnets Discuss among them Always gray skies Yet love comes Across the room Down the walk Eyes catch the heart Ever hopeful redress Somewhere someone Squares life’s circle Recompense for dark times Like tomorrow’s sunrise Comes after midnight dreams Curve through the dark

Disarray In Gray Sky and ground in disarray Rain slants across windows Street framed bricks Tilt the world’s structure But no end of time Just tangential streaks In morning’s gray scale Windy walkers tug coats Hats yearn to be free Sail for points west Follow Gaugin’s trail Escape human frailty The endless push and pull Of yesterday and tomorrow God’s desire for company A break from infinity Allah kept writing From the angels Who watch and wait For our enlightenment Even on this gray day Someone retains faith In sometime sunshine

Wislawa Szymborska A rose by any other name smells just as sweet, But Szymborska knows that you still can’t be one.

Holding your breath doesn’t help, No leaves grow, You will not be a rose.

So after this effort, What are you if flowers aren’t possible?

Then, this body must be lived with in peace.

A final acceptance That some things will not change, No matter how many coins are tossed, Or otherwise conveyed To the world’s fountains.

A world of memories, quietly rendered, Others would understand.

Dismal categories do not contain poems Meant for reader’s eyes and ears.

Leave the critics behind To seek solace in words And life’s bounded cultures.

Genders oblivion In the familiarity of so many years, Language is not needed to Overcome the darkness.

Both sides are seen, With apologies, To anyone forgotten, To anything forgotten, Living, dead, or yet to come to the world.