Leadership by Foot-Drag

 

Again,

 I learn of a 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

Fort Collins (c) 2025 :: 2502

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

 

 

 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 2025 :: Heroes Emerge  :: 2501

 

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.

                                   

 ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 2024 :: Full 2404

 

                                                  

On Stretch of Sand

 

together on our beach

beneath our trees

(yours, mine)

tending

sharing

knowing

each

a stretch of sand

 

 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 2024 :: On Stretch of Sand; I Coconut :: 2403 

 

 

 

Proverb 2402

Late to bed, sanely to rise,

makes one

healthier, wealthier, and wise.  

 

 

 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 2024 :: Proverb 2402 

 

citation:

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

 

Do Not Think Me a Pundit

 This morning,

a reorter appeared at my door

to ask my opinion of election to be.

"Don't think me a pundit," said I.

"Don't think me a spider," said she.

I closed the door--

watched and waited.

Until, strand by strand,

she consumed her silk.

Later, I opened the door

to wonder if I saw what I heard

or heard what I saw.

No trace of spider,

no proof of web.

 

 

 

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 2024 :: Do Not Think Me A Pundit :: 2401

Misfit

 

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

 

 Fort Collins © 2023 :: Misfit :: 2301

 

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

Fort Collins © 2022 :: We Were Younger :: 2202

 

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.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 1999 :: I Pray For Peace This Moment :: ,9907

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

Fort Collins © 2019 :: Be Careful :: 1904

 

Another Day

author's note: I wrote this poem on January 1, 2022 in the aftermath of devastating fires in Boulder County, Colorado, as Rusian troops amassed on the borders of Ukraine, Bishop Desmond Tutu's funeral took place in South Africa, and as I girded myself for the ominous anniversary of the January 6, 2021 uprising at the Capital of the United States of America. Initially, I called the poem “one, one, two-zero-two-two” (for January 1, 2022). I could have called it “Dread”. However, I have come to interpret and present it as a personal description of any day whose portent overwhelms my attempt to say, “It is just another day.”

'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.

 

 

Another Day

Bob Komives

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fort Collins © 2022 :: one, one, two-zero-two-zero  :: 2201

Aspen

 A lazy day,

in a lazy and lonely way,

went out, came in to play

[in an odd kind of way]

with an aspen.

Aspen

Bob Komives

 

 

 

Fort Collins © 2021 :: Aspen  :: 2107

Economics Must Be a Science

 Economics must be a science

--a human science,

 a life science.

 Wealth is basic.

It cannot be the invention of humankind.

It must be traced to the bases of life.

It cannot reside mainly in banks and buildings,

moneys and stock.

Primitive people had wealth

but none of these.

Economics Must Be a Science

Bob Komives

 

 

 

Fort Collins © 2021 :: Economics Must Be a Science  :: 2106