. . . . . . . Bob Komives' Poems . . .

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

Leadership by Foot-Drag

Again, I learn

of one way to be an out-front leader:

drag my feet;

stay a wee way back,

until

a small crowd sprints into spiral,

and I notice it parades behind me.

Leadership by Foot-Drag

Bob Komives

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Heroes Emerge

From dormant seed

heroes emerge

as evil dumps fertile manure

--here and around--

on thought-to-be sterile ground.

Here, there, where

--or so we thought--

hero seed is not to be found.

Heroes Emerge

Bob Komives

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Sunday, October 13, 2024

Full

In memory of you, the great Jack Lane—

though I called you Brother Mark

through those few

important,

life-full years.

When you asked me

(the football player)

to arrange a vase of flowers,

of course, I did—

no, I tried and failed miserably,

but you thanked me for trying.

When you paused our English-class class

for a few days in order to teach etiquette

we—the supposedly smart cohort—smiled,

shook our heads;

and we learned.

You showed us to be never so full of ourselves

that we could not be full for others.

We love that man,

you, Jack Lane, Brother Mark.

As we have, so I will

cherish and nourish-from your memory

all these

important,

life-full years.

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Tuesday, July 23, 2024

On Stretch of Sand; I Coconut

together on our beach

beneath our trees

(yours, mine)

tending

sharing

knowing

each

a stretch of sand

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Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Proverb 2402

Late to bed, sanely to rise,

makes one

healthier, wealthier, and wise.

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citation:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/11/night-owls-cognitive-function-superior-to-early-risers-study-suggests

Monday, July 1, 2024

Monday, September 25, 2023

It is not the getting older (which is a true gift)
it is the becoming a misfit.
I no longer fit with you
because I lack the machine to join you on What's App.
And that is my fault.
I try to join you on Instagram,
but I and my screen are misfits.
We are of the horizontal race
but the drinking fountain has a new sign: “verticals only.”
That is my fault.

Though innocent,
I have long been accused
(in a gentle loving way)
by friends and loved ones
of choosing and enjoying my missed fits.
Perhaps it was my charm--
almost never a problem nor a fault.
Now, it is my fault that I must send you an email rather than a text.

Until I have the machine that allows me to fit
I will add Instagram to the things I forgo.
I will continue to be myself,
enjoy knowing myself as a misfit,
and love you for knowing:
the charm in it is all my fault.

Misfit, 9/24/23

Bob Komives

Monday, July 4, 2022

We Were Younger



We were younger and optimistic 
              for our nation and planet.

 Pessimism is newer, 
              painful and useless.

I am in pain
              seeking a cure.

We Were Younger

Bob Komives

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

I Pray For Peace This Moment.

I pray for peace this moment
(for more than absent war)
to gather one contentment
on a land where I've sown four.

A day to care,
a day to share,
to make a stranger, friend,
to spread a peaceful moment
through circles without end.

I Pray For Peace This Moment.

Bob Komives

Let me fight for what I believe
and your right to believe me wrong.
Let me help my needful neighbors,
yet not make them sing my song.

Let me squeeze the hand I'm given
and give the hand I own,
to lend a working shoulder
in the village I have grown.

The favor I just lent you
I had borrowed long ago.
The favor I just accepted
comes as wealth from debt we owe.

We live in borrowed clearings
on an earth that greatness mends.
When we leave this place we've borrowed
let's not be the place it ends.

A day to care,
a day to share,
to make a stranger, friend,
to accept a neighbor's favor
through circles without end.

In hour of work,
in hours of play,
to remember attention paid,
to share a silent moment
and speak as silence fades.

Let us pray for peace to gather
in fields of absent war,
to harvest our year's contentment
on each day when we plant more.

Our time to be,
yes, time to see
we can be a village growing friends.
Pray, squeeze a hand and give one
through circles without end.

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

Be Careful

Be careful.

Before you make a next, fashionable quip about white males;

imagine yourself sending all white males

(those you personally know)

to death camps;

sell them into slavery;

destroy their shops and their right to work.

Picture imprisoning them unjustly.

Castrate them.

Rape them.

Take away their right to vote and hold political office.

Stop research into their diseases.

Lynch them for flirting.

Deny them their right to education.

Blame them for all evils in history.

If you think my caution silly,

if you know such could never happen,

then, quietly to yourself,

acknowledge:

prejudice is prejudice--

even if fashionable,

politically correct,

naively innocent,

among good people,

good friends.

Too convenient and too blind.

Too lazy and too dangerous.

Be careful.

Be Careful
Bob Komives

Saturday, January 1, 2022

One January One

'just another day, but not.
'just another year, but, no, it is not.
'just another hope, but we know it is not.
'just more moments, so why momentous?
'just another opportunity that we both have and have not.
'just another day, but not.

One January One

Bob Komives

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Aspen

Aspen

Bob Komives

Sunday, May 9, 2021

Economics Must Be a Science

Economics Must Be a Science

Bob Komives