Some of my poetry

I thought I would share a few of my poems. See below.

Every Day

Every day,

when I am reminded of your gentle eyes

and warm hands,

I make a small paradise for you

here in my heart.

Walk through my open door dearly beloved;

step into my arms and join me in the Holy Dance.

Every day

that we fly our carpet over the heartbeat of the Earth,

searching for answers to old pain,

healing each other's wounds,

I am drawn to you like

the humming bird to the first flower of spring,

sipping the sweet nectar

that is our friendship.

There are not enough

words,

music,

nor holy places

to tell you the full Joy I feel in your presence.

Yet, the mystery of our friendship

must not be constrained

by the content of some exalted verse,

 bottled as a rare perfume,

nor knotted into some colorful ancient Tapestry

just because my poem might want it so.

No, we are blessed, you and I,

that God

has put limits on my speech

so I cannot bind up

that which should be boundless.

by Tom Snell        

Granddaughter at Six

                                    Granddaughter at Six

I sit

with my Granddaughter in my lap

while she opens my chest

and removes my heart,

then holds it gently

in her small hand

as though it were a Monarch

about to take flight.

“I love you Gramps”, she says

as my soul

quietly melts

into God’s arms.

By Tom Snell, Jan 28, 2000

Revised May, 2005

Falling

Falling

Falling off last night’s dream

I wanted to be caught by the thickening air,

like my hand out the car window

speeding down the interstate.

The chickadee near my garden feeder

does this instinctively. She

steps off the branch,

 – drops –

instantly gains speed,

wings catching the denser air …

But I must learn it again and again,

letting go to falling,

 – trusting –

becoming so hollow-boned

that I can extract the weight of doubt,

lightening my soul enough to fly.

                    by Tom Snell – February 11, 2005

California Garden

California Garden

The heavy gray of winter had lingered

so I had not noticed the cascades of color

the spring rains had brought to my garden.

But this morning the flames from

the wild rose, burning its way

to the top of the tree beside our house,

woke me for the first time.

In a daze I slipped out onto the deck

and was greeted by a wall of blossom.

The eager petals reached out their scent and,

like a small child wanting to show off a new toy,

pulled me, gasping,

round the corner

and into the astonishment of summer.

by Tom Snell- May, 2005

Issues around the Federal Government's budget deficit.

These days we're yelling and screaming about the government's budget deficit, and how this is the fault of our congress persons. But much of the problem is also with us. We have wanted (and need) all sorts of things but don't want to pay for them. When anybody suggests that we ought to raise taxes to pay for our wars or infrastructure, or the services we so rely on as a complex culture, we (especially the Corporations and the ultra-wealthy) scream bloody hell and kick out the one who suggested raising taxes in the first place. 

It costs a lot to live in a complex world, and much of that cost comes from the things we need to keep that complexity within bounds. Examples: food inspectors, flight controllers, airplane inspectors, bank and wall street regulators to keep them from gambling away our money, all the complexity of Homeland Security, and the list goes on and on. Add that to the costs of all the complex infrastructure (roads, sewers, airports, water systems, etc.) that keeps our modern economy running smoothly and you’ve got a lot of bucks. But we hate paying for it. We’ve taken on a mindset that everything "government" is bad. It’s not. It just has to be run right. 

Example: I don’t want to have to buy some fancy science kit with which I can test every toy I buy for my grandchildren for lead content. I want some common organization I can trust to do it for all of us.

I could go on and on, but enough for now.