The 4th "Floating Poetry" live weekly broadcast, on joy.
By heart-light. From Weekapaug, Rhode Island.
By the brilliant & buoyant sea.
A 25-minute voyage.
To places of inner & outer joyfulness…
The Floating Poetry Broadcast ~ No. 2 ~ on Gratitude
The second in a weekly series of live broadcasts…
…by moon-and-star light from Weekapaug, Rhode Island,
…by the deep and deeply healing ocean.
…a soothing 25-minute journey. Into Nature, life and self. Into places of outer and inner gratitude.
A chance to lean back and listen in to a handful of original, themed poems…
…to nourish the heart, mind and spirit.
A Day to Remember ~ a plein air, plein honneur poem for Memorial Day
"Preserve Yourself" © Colin Goedecke
for Memorial Day
Yes, those who died
serving their country.
But maybe, too, those
who fought valiantly
for their own lives,
on their own lines
of fire. On fields
of grave illnesses,
fierce divorces,
falling fortunes.
Who entered their fray,
brave or scared.
Who suffered,
sometimes greatly.
Were wounded,
sometimes fatally.
Survived but scarred
deeply, emotionally.
People known to us,
and unknown. All worthy,
not solely of our remembering
but also of our silent
and spoken honoring.
For the courage
they summoned
in the face of the fearful;
the belief in self
and the power of possibility
they called on, or
discovered. These unsung
we can choose to remember,
can raise a thought, a glass,
a large, feeling flag
of heart to,
this day.
Colin Goedecke
On Memorial Day
Short Hills, New Jersey
May 27, 2019
Standing Still with the Sun ~ a plein air poem for the Winter Solstice
"Where Shooting Stars Are" © Colin Goedecke
Standing Still with the Sun
an ode to the Winter Solstice
Meteors are showering overhead
this Solstice night,
this nearly Cold Moon night;
deep wintering night.
The North Pole is turning
south again, to the echoes
of centuries
of singing and feasting,
fires and dancing;
sometimes with poetry
and pomegranates,
sometimes with bathing
in holy rivers; giving alms
to beggars and Brahmins.
Round the death and rebirth
of the Light;
round the last and next seasons
of the Earth. Sol sistere.
A night for the Sun and each soul
to stand still. An invitation, to feel
your sacred place, in Nature,
your passage, through Time;
the vital part you play in this Great Mystery,
in this endlessly curious, wildly
wondrous Journey.
Colin Goedecke
at the Winter Solstice
Morristown, New Jersey
December 21st, 2018
Have You Had Your Dark Nights ~ a plein air, plein peur, plein noir et lumiere poem
"Beware the Maw ~ in the Forest of There" © Colin Goedecke
Have You Had Your Dark Nights
Of the soul.
Cave-dark,
bat-dark nights.
Times and places
of raw and
nameless,
sometimes
name-plated
fear; sheer,
cliff-faced
anxiety.
Fear of falling
into an abyss;
into a maw:
swallowed
whole
into the belly
of a fierce,
unknown
beast.
And, despite
each starless
passage,
each imagined
stroke of fate,
miscarriage
of your fortunes,
somehow,
somehow,
however barely,
unforseeably,
making it through ~
to the light
and the heart
of day;
limbs intact.
Onto solid ground.
To the forgotten
safety of faith
~ in self,
and the never-
vanished bounty
shining away,
inside and
all around you.
Colin Goedecke
August 2018
Declaring Your Independence ~ a plein air poem on the Country's Independence Day ~ July 4th
"Stepping Into Your Nature" © Colin Goedecke
Declaring Your Independence
on the Country’s Independence Day
On this day when we mark
with fireworks and picnics
the Country becoming
wholly self-governing,
maybe it’s a day,
an opportunity
to affirm or assent, ascend to
our own free-handedness,
our fullest independence ~
of thought, of action;
of way of living, being
in the world. The right
to freely choose our own way,
to naturally express
our own feelings
among our own people,
all people.
Without fanfare, or fear
of their histrionics,
censorings or polemics.
Maybe declaring this
Self-rule; giving up
beholdenness ~ to
anything or anyone that
keeps us from growing,
keeps us from rising.
Including allegiance
to old beliefs,
unserving loyalties
~ and giving ourselves
these vital, radial liberties,
takes equal braveness ~
and even greater
precedence.
Colin Goedecke
Morristown, New Jersey
July 4th, 2018
Bring Yourself to This Day ~ a plein air poem for the Summer Solstice
"Lake, Light & Floating Poet" © Ann Vellis
Bring Yourself to This Day
for the Summer Solstice
This Solstice Day,
re-generous day.
Of new Summering,
good Naturing.
The sun so greatly
lengthening.
The trees
so freely dancing,
in ever deeper,
ever greener ecstasies.
The clouds caressing
the open skies,
and dotting the eyes
of sailors
and mountaineers,
painters and
sonneteers.
The waters of lakes
and rivers, firths
and fjords, bays
and sounds, clear
and mirroring.
Bring yourself,
your whole nature,
bodifully,
spiritly ~
as bountifully,
to this day
of balance and
beauty,
dalliance
and euphony
between
the boundless
heavens and the
re-turning earth;
with a lightening
heart and long,
lengthening breath.
Colin Goedecke
Morristown, New Jersey
June 21st, 2018
In a Drop ~ a plein air poem & meditation on our connection with nature
In a Drop
of saltwater,
you can see an ocean
blueing;
of rain,
you can hear blossoms
opening;
of wine,
you can taste a landscape
sunning;
of quicksilver,
you can scent weather
coming;
of ink,
you can touch a poet
dreaming;
of a tear,
you can feel your being
flowing.
Colin Goedecke
in the woodlands
of Morristown, New Jersey
March, 2017
Homo digitalis | Digital Man
Homo digitalis / Digital Man
Over-wired
to the world.
Under-wired
to the heart.
E-volving
and devolving.
Who lives yin-ly
and yang-ly, i.e.
actually
and virtually;
from restless
plugging in
to endless plugging up.
A curious species
both spacious
and specious.
Man of this
progressively
Expressive-
Regressive,
time-lapsing
Moment.
Colin Goedecke
moving between cityside & countryside
March, 2017
Into the Wild Green Wonder ~ a plein air poem & ode to another Spring
Into the Wild Green Wonder
an Ode to Spring
Under Spring’s Wild Blue
Wonder we enter its new
and renewing Green.
Enchanting us round parks
and woodlands, ponds,
hillsides, meadowlands.
Awakening us
through all our years,
all the ages of earth,
all the pages of history,
poetry, mythology.
With its symphony
of daring colors.
Its delicate flowering.
Its essencing
of innocence; ecstasy
of purest presence.
Beckoning us
to fall once again
into the wild green wonder
of its outstretched arms,
like forever young and
eager lovers.
Colin Goedecke
in the Loantaka Woods
Morristown, New Jersey
March, 2017
The Great Blue ~ a plein air poem for a heron on a summer pond
The Great Blue
meditation on a great blue heron
I love his presence.
His absolute stillness;
aura of solitude,
sacredness.
His long-legged patience
in the wind-stirred pond.
Gracefully at one
with everything;
wholly attuned
to every moment, movement
above and below the surface.
His watchfulness, sureness
despite the drift of time
and summer clouds,
into the split-second
he spies and elegantly spears
a shining fish,
and flies off
in his Great Blueness
to a nearby bank
of cattail grass
to feast, and rest.
Colin Goedecke
on Kitchell Pond
Loantaka Brook Reservation
Convent Station, NJ
July, 2016
continue the (r)evolution ~ a plein air poem for our human species, our humankind
continue the (r)evolution
and (re)cognition, from
Homo habilis.
Able man
to
Homo erectus.
Standing man
to
Homo sapiens.
Knowing man
to truer, maybe sooner
inner glowing,
outer flowing
Homo animas.
Soul man.
Colin Goedecke
Convent Station, New Jersey
July, 2016
The Road to Kaliskia ~ a plein air poem from Greece & the Aegean
The Road to Kaliskia
The ocher earth road
spools down, sails out,
plunges into sapphire,
into the swaying sea.
Marble-strewn coves
shelter solitary boats,
sun-blown branches,
slow-swimming bodies.
A lyre-wind
plays gently, lyrically
over the waters,
over the wonders.
Colin Goedecke
Kaliskia, Kea
The Cyclades
August 2012
The Lady Smiled ~ a plein air poem for the Statue of Liberty & all things liberating
for Ute Dugan on becoming an American citizen
When you took your oath to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness
today, the statue
of the colossally copper-clad lady
standing since 1886
at New York’s door
with her sunlit torch of gold,
smiled. And as she smiled,
ships of all shapes
and sizes and ages,
especially ferries and tugs,
blew whistles and horns
sky-high and bass-low.
And bells on bicycles
and church towers,
from the Battery to Gramercy
rang clearly, and joyfully.
All to salute you
and your declaration of independence,
your pledge to pursue the possibilities
and great freedoms
that come with being an American;
that belong to us as citizens;
who, us among them, welcome you
today with broad stripes and bright stars.
Colin Goedecke
New York City
April 2007
Green Clouds ~ a plein air poem from the watery wilds of Alaska
Green Clouds
Green clouds
lie along the surface
of our coastal passage.
Clouds of conifers,
of Sitka spruce and cedar,
shore pine,
hemlock and alder;
that change shape by decades
instead of days;
by generations
of snow and light;
that share the shelter
of their deep-rooted solace
with the water,
the earth, the birds
and sometime-passing men.
Colin Goedecke
The Inside Passage, SE Alaska
July 2009
The Day to Spring - a plein air poem for the vernal equinox
a poem for the spring equinox
It's The Day to Spring,
from winter's bare coil.
The Day for Self,
and Nature,
to draw its longbowed
heart and sap back
and let fly,
freely,
swiftly,
vernally forth,
air to ground,
arrowing
with anticipation
into the marrow
of all newness,
all awakening,
all fullness.
Colin Goedecke
Central Park, New York
March 20, 2016
A Too-ra Loo-ra Day ~ a plein air poem for St. Patrick's Day
There's a glossy, moss-hatted leprechaun
smiling Irishly on the subway platform,
waiting to travel underground
(as all leprechauns do) up to Fifth Avenue,
where the street is paved
with red-headed men
and freckle-faced maids
and a St. Patty's parade
is in full swing;
the City a wild shamrock,
lilting with Danny boys and
sweet Kathleens
and people dressed
in every shade of Spring.
Colin Goedecke
New York City
March 17, 1998
Sea Cycle - a poem from the Coast of Tuscany
Sea Cycle
A man rides his bicycle
on the sea;
salt rubs the tires,
sun reflects on the soles
of his shoes
as he pedals
over starfish
and speckled crabs,
under seagulls
and threaded clouds,
past fishermen
and upright bathers -
until the pier,
where he turns left
and follows the sun down
over the horizon.
from The Speed of Sight
Colin Goedecke
Forte dei Marmi
October 1997