Incorrect traditions.

 

Examine ev'ry custom that you follow willy-nilly;

some are beneficial but how many are just silly?

Superstitious dogma or attraction to sly fraud

still keep so many people from quite understanding God.

Having been favored above every other nation.

 

The favor of the Lord is great,

but those who do procrastinate

and let in lazy slipshod ways

will find that laxness never pays.

Their former glory will depart,

to leave behind a crippled heart.

"Out of the Office."

 

(Dedicated to Anthony Harrup. WSJ)

I'm out of the office and cannot reply.

(I work from my laptop at home, by the by.)

Important affairs are engaging me now.

(As from my window I watch a snowplow.)

If this is important and brooks no delay

(and threatens my long winter naps to gainsay)

contact my editor, agent, or aide

(while I view The Simpsons on my bed unmade.)

No hot water New Year's Day

 

No hot water New Year's Day

in the building where I stay.

Dishes washed still full of grease;

how I'd like to break the lease.

But it's subsidized, you see --

All hail Social Security!

Minnesota; The Viking.

 

Lakes and hills, but mountains none.

Not mystery, but grouse and sun.

The limitless view of a sky undone.

Silos keep the land so prone

like conquerors now all alone.

My childhood was thus loosely sown.

I wondered at the silent trees.

The resonance of bumblebees.

But nothing brought me to my knees.

Until tornadic winds began

and to the cellar we all ran,

hiding under mom's caftan.

At last the thunder does not roll,

and, despite snapped 'lectric pole,

the wet green grass makes me feel whole.

So back to careless ways I dashed;

no distant peaks make me abashed.

A woodland Viking, rude mustached! 

A New Cadence.

 

I want a new cadence;

the last one's too broke.

It started out solid,

but turned into smoke.

(My voice so refurbished

still tells the same joke.)

Awakened out of a deep sleep

 

I slept, but thought I was awake;

until the Lord my slumber brake.

His words and spirit did arouse

me from my heedless sinful drowse.

Now my waking hours brim

with tenderness that comes from him.

Today's timericks.

 

There's leftovers aplenty from Xmas Day extant/I nibble on them so much I feel like a gas plant/Another choc'late orange? A slice of Gouda cheese?/Throw out that turkey dressing -- and dump the eggnog, please!

I shopped at Sears when just a boy/ to get a bike or mitt or toy/and when a suit became a must/they sold me one that didn't rust/Dependable, I always thought/I can't explain their creeping rot/But since I'm so opinionated/I'll say it's hubris accumulated.

In England sugar, fat, and salt/will soon come to a screeching halt/The Brits have taken up the cry/"Eat that stuff and you will die!"/Good luck with that, when fish & chips/means more to them than scholarships.  

People keep me in their prayers/or send me cute teddy bears/No one thinks to send me cash/when my health begins to crash/Money cannot cure disease/but it softens ev'ry sneeze. 

The well need no physician

 

The well need no physician,

but that is not my case;

although I say devotions,

I droop at rapid pace.

My body now reminds me

how fleeting life can be,

when a wee small virus

doth make a wreck of me!

Today's timericks

 

The government likes telling me just what I ought to eat/according to their experts it is watercress and beet/any other foodstuff is adulterated scree/let's talk about it over lunch down at the KFC.

I think that I shall never see/another big screen loud movie/that super hero derring-do/is streaming now on pay-per-view/It's just as well; I hate mayhem/and get my kicks with TCM. 

I like vetoes, yes I do/they tell Trump what he can do/with his egotistic hype/no wonder all his tweets are tripe!