A Sort of Love

A Sort of Love

There is a sort of love
With an interweaving of souls so strong
That it is unbreakable and knows no end
With roots running so deep
That it can reach beyond the valleys of death
And can find a way through the abyss of any sorrow
Whose branches reach so high
It can cuddle among the farthest stars at night
And touch the midday sun shining bright at noon

It can fly among all the clouds of Mother Earth
And can dance with every raindrop
Bringing supple, life giving water
To every creature and all plants
That grow in rich, brown soil

There is a sort of love
That creates a tender embrace between hearts
Reaching beyond the never ending eons
To wander together and wonder and rest
Far past the ends of time

Dewey Dirks

The Phone Call

The Phone Call

Tomorrow it will have been exactly one year
since Laino passed on.
She and I always used to make a trip
across town twice a month
to the Native American smoke shop to buy cigarettes.
It was always an errand we made together
and we always had a lot of fun on the ride.
Over the years I came to enjoy it very much
as it was time we could spend together,
make a lot of jokes about all kinds of ridiculous stuff
and generally have a very good time.

Now that Laino is gone, I still make
the trip twice a month and I always think of her
on the way remembering
all the good times passed that we had together.
My memories of our smoke shop trip’s
are so vivid it always seems like she’s still there
in the car beside me talking to me
eyes sparkling with a happy smile.

Yesterday, I ran the errand thinking
of Laino all the while.
When I got home, I walked into the house
and put the bag of cigarettes on the kitchen table.
I fished my phone out of my pocket, still thinking
of Laino and the errand I’d just got back from.
I looked down at the phone suddenly astounded
because apparently the coins in my pocket had pushed
the phone touchscreen in such a way that
Lainos name and phone number were up on the display
as though she had just made a call to me from the Summerlands
to say with a smile “Hi baby! Here I am! :).”

I sat at down at the table, still looking at the phone screen
and thought of some lyrics in that song
from the seventies by Kansas, ‘Miracles out of Nowhere,’
— “It’s so simple right before your eyes
If you’ll look through this disguise
It’s always here, it’s always there
It’s just love and miracles out of nowhere.”

Dewey Dirks

Glob Glue

Glob Glue

Every time day-to-day
troubles try to pull
me away from you,
sweet Nature
brings me a few memories
that make me feel anew
the lifeline between us
where sadness, and joy,
and our souls intertwine
to make a bond
beyond life and death
that can never be broken.

Once, a wise man
called it ‘The bridge
across forever.”
You and I, very happy
to see the fun in all things,
stuck our tongues
out at each other,
and called it “Glob glue”

Dewey Dirks

Wildflower Free

Hi folks, I’m happy to tell you that my newest book, “Wildflower,” is available for free for a very limited time Be sure to drop on by Amazon.com and pick up a copy. You definitely won’t be disappointed. You’ll have to hurry as the promotion won’t last long. Click on the picture for the link:

Wlidflower Featured

Hi Folks, I have some excellent news 🙂 I’m honored to say my newest book, “Wildflower” has been featured on the “Moxie Girl Musings,” blog and the “Kisses, Caresses, Whispers in the Night,” blog by romance author Amber Lea Easton. As you may know, “Wildflower,” is a small book of poetry about my late wife, Elaine. Please visit these blogs and read about my book. If you like what you see please leave a comment and buy the book. Here are the links:

http://moxiegirlwriting.blogspot.com/2014/03/love-matters-only-romance-of-which.html

http://amberleaeaston.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-song-forever-rollslove-is-timeless.html

Wildflower

Hi folks. I’m happy to announce my new book, “Wildflower” is now available as a kindle book on Amazon.com Wildflower is a collection twenty love poems written about myself and my wife. It follows our life together over twenty-one years time up until shortly after my wife’s death from cancer in twenty-thirteen. It is a heartfelt chronicle of a couple living, loving, and raising a family together. The poetry in Wildflower is written straight from the soul. It is full of moving, intimate, song-like verses and is certain to bring the reader to tears of both joy and sorrow. All of you have a very good day, D.D. Here is the link to the book on Amazon—

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00J0OQU60

Not Anymore

Not Anymore

My baby
has been passed on
two months now,
and, I think,
it’s only been
in the last few days
that it has really began
to sink in.
She’s not coming back
anymore.

I’ll never again look up
from the computer
to see her grin hello
as she walks in the door.
We’ll never again
have long talks
at the table
over hot coffee and tea,
no, not anymore.
Never again
to hear the smile
in her voice.
Never again
to feel the gentle touch
of her hand.
Never again will
we be outside and notice
the full moon up there
in the sky at night.
No, never again.
Not anymore.

No more errands
together joking
and laughing at
the signs as we
drive across town.
No more
of all the small things
that she always did
to brighten my day.
No more cuddles
in the afternoon,
and again
late at night.
No more kisses
No more I love you’s
lilting like the notes
of a song from her lips.
Never again.
Not from Laino,
no, not anymore.

Her soul
has been to visit often
of this I’m sure,
but I am greedy
for her touch
not only in eternity
beyond the blue veil,
but here in this world too.
And here, alone at the table
I take a drag on my cigarette
and reach for her deep
in my heart,
only to find
a gaping hole there.
She’s not coming back.
No, not anymore.

Dewey Dirks

Soul On Fire

Soul On Fire
(For Elaine)

She could break your heart
with the look in her eye
and just standing near her
could light your soul on fire.
Long, long ago I watched
her motor on through men
like a fast, fast mustang
on a midnight moonshine run.

To this day
I still don’t know why
I was special to her
though she tried to tell me
a thousand times over.
To her last breath
the light in her turquoise eyes
was ever a mystery to me.
She lit my eternal flame
out of soggy wet mud
and saved my life more than once.
She was my lover, my best friend,
my reason for waking each day
for half my lifetime.
For these, I owe her
a debt of gratitude
I never can repay.

She never put down her colors
and told all
who might do us any harm,
“Do whatever you like
but don’t you
fuck with my family.”
She could fight as fiercely
as a snow white tiger
and was as intelligent
as the midsummer solstice
is long
She carried with her
a magic as powerful,
as wise, high, and beautiful
as Shengren mountain sides—
one part in the dark shadows,
the other bathed
in vivid sunshine.

She could break your heart
with the look in her eye
and just standing near her
could light your soul on fire.
In the end, for me she did both
because she lit my eternal soul
with a flame brilliant, bright and true
and then one dark winters night
she left me standing alone.

They say every angel
who gets their wings
also becomes a light and a song
to kindly guide those who wander
the green hills, rolling seas
and sandy deserts of Mother Earth.
Tonight, tonight my friends
look high up into the Southern skies
there shines a new star
in the velvet night
whose name
sounds like a wildflower.

Dewey Dirks

Elaine Cunningham-Dirks

Hi folks. I have some real bad news. Three months ago my wife Elaine was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. She passed away peacefully in her sleep with me by her side early in the morning 12-30-2013. In her last few weeks alive she was able to spend much time with our family which was very important to her because for Laino, family was everything.

Laino was a very loving mate, mother, and friend. No one could ever ask for a finer partner in life. She was the kindest person I have ever known and one of the most capable people I’ve ever met, bar none. It has been an honor to be her mate. We were together for twenty-two years and I’ve known her for over half my lifetime. We all miss her so much.

Laino was one of those people who was always moving in four directions at once and so was able to fit a very great deal into her life. She was a jack of all trades and was very accomplished. In life she had been a bartender, waitress, process server, business owner, loan officer, appraiser, paralegal, caregiver, and patient advocate. Many times over the years she worked three jobs at once. Through it all she managed to fit time in for our kids and myself every day.

She is survived by myself, three sisters, two brothers, her son, her step-daughter, two nieces, two nephews, a grand niece and a grand nephew. In life we considered her nieces and nephews as though they were our own children.

Elaine Cunningham-Dirks
1960-2013

Deep

Deep

When you loose your mate,
your souls match,
the pain you feel
runs so very deep
like a ragged gorge cut
into your heart
with a dull, salt covered spoon.

But I promise you this;
The love and peace and beauty
gathered carefully, gently
by two pairs of hands
bit by bit, piece by piece
from a grand lifetime
of love between two
who know what it is
to live a charmed romance,
runs even deeper far, far into
the brilliant white light
of your soul
and deeper yet, far into
the star filled night sky
that surrounds us all.

Look inward my friend
and look outward
deep into the night sky
it’s there for you to feel,
there for you to touch,
there for you to taste,
there for you to see.

Dewey Dirks

The End of Your Days

Winter Poetry

I’m pleased and honored to let everyone know one of my poems has been published in Brian Wrixon Books new anthology “Winter Poetry.” Here is the link: Winter Poetry

The Song

The Song

You can hear it in the morning
brewing in the coffee pot
As you sit at the kitchen table at dawn
Later in the day, when you’re busy at work
You can hear it in the rustle of papers
down at the copy machine
And though you’re too involved think about it
Still, you dance along
You can hear it when your wife calls at noon
You say “I was just thinking of you”
And she says “I just thought I’d call”

You can see it in a dogs eye
And in the toes of a tiny kittens paw
You can feel it in the hand of a stranger
As he helps you up from sidewalk
After an icy night fall
Just as you can feel it in the smooth wooden handles
Of old, well worn tools

You can taste it in a freshly cooked cob of corn
Or in the water from a hose
Out in the yard down at the farm
It’s the nothing
That makes everything whole
And the something that fills the cool air
Of empty beaches and elementary schoolyards
That makes you want to visit
On Sunday afternoons

Everything that lives, everything that is
Dances a grand dance
And sings a grand song
Living is music
And the secret in life
Is to listen for the melody
And then sing along

If ever you wondered at the gossip
Of a bushy brown squirrel
Or sat in the car with your girlfriend
Outside the airport for two hours one afternoon
Watching 737’s take off
You’ve noticed for awhile
A few of the notes in life’s long song
And felt the gentle rhythm
That nudges and twirls us all

You’ll never know where you’re going
Unless you can tell where you’ve been
To know where you are right now
You have to learn to appreciate
The things that are right in front of you

From “The Questioning Way”
Dewey Dirks

For Giving Away

For Giving Away

He showed me two songs
Heartfelt and full of life’s
Ironies and aspirations
‘Said these two helped me
When I needed a hand
And I’m grateful to those
Who made them
For giving away pieces
Of their heart and glimpses
Of times in their lives
When some muse showed them
How to scribble a moment or two
Or a breath onto paper
For giving away

Then he asked what helps me
I showed him three songs
One that reminds me
We all have hoped sometime or another
For a love lasting and true
One that reminds me of
How life can seem charmed
When true love touches you
And one that reminds me
Some dreams are for living
Sometimes we dream together
Sometimes we each dream alone
Because words cannot convey
And some dreams we dream
are for giving away

Dewey Dirks

White Lines

White Lines

Even though
I’ve not gone
in quite awhile,
I used to love to take
drives out across
the country.

When I was young,
I’d go all alone
or with a friend
late at night
for drives
with the excuse
of getting a coke
or a vanilla shake
from obscure little
towns ninety
or a hundred miles
away from home.

Driving on summer nights
with the window down
the sound of warm evening air
rushing into the car
wipes clean your mind
and clears your inward eye.
The white lines flow
rapidly towards you
in the headlight beams
and quickly disappear
beneath your car
taking the clutter and jabber
of day-to-day thoughts
with them.

The vastness of the land
and the star filled skies
reach far, far into your soul
and draw out ideas and emotions
as deep and broad
as the skies your journey
takes you under.

Long ago, driving there
far across the Wyoming
sagebrush prairies
roving quickly through corners
thinking speed,
my life took a wide turn
and became philosophy.

Dewey Dirks

Signs and Wise Child

Signs

Animals in the white clouds
Fortuitous shapes
In a flock of sparrows
Dashing over
To your neighbors yard
Two doors down
Faces in the green branches
Of the forest across the pond
Sun dogs high
In the sky
At three in the afternoon
Fox on a boulder at the edge
Of your yard stopping
To stare at an April
Nights full moon

Signs people see
Signs people dream
Some things you see
Once or twice in a lifetime
Others you see as often
As you care to read
The palm of your hand
Or a deck of tarot
For a friend just up
On a visit
From out of town

The secret of signs
Is that they are just
Nature waving hello
To your minds eye
It is you that give them
Meaning or cast them aside
Like brown leaves raked up
On a cool October evening

The secret of signs
Is that they happen
All the time
They are some of the lullabies
Our mother planet quietly sings
To us all

Dewey Dirks

Wise Child

Each day rise,
Sit at the table
For a few cups
Of good coffee
And soak up
The fine morning air

Put on your clothes
And your best
Working attitude
Astute and mature
Take care of business
As best you can

After the days business
Of paperwork,
And power bills
Is taken care of
Throw off once again
Your age and spend
As much time
As you can
Being as young
As you can

Life is too short and sweet
Not to see it through
The eyes
Of a wise child

Dewey Dirks

The Place To Be

The Place To Be

Many talk of silencing
your mind.
I speak only of becoming
accustomed to knowing
that wherever you are
in your brainbox
just now
is precisely
the place to be
just now.

Become, my friend,
comfortable with
you own
wandering and wondering
and most everything else
will follow soon enough.

Just as long
as you know how to drive,
a brilliant mind
is like a red Ferrari;
It is Gods own joy
to see elegant and at rest,
but it is happiest on a curve
at high speed.

Dewey Dirks

Touching Souls

Touching Souls

One of the characteristics
of most humans is that they
ordinarily are quite reserved
of themselves when they meet new people.
They put on their best public
face and put their best foot forward.
Only rarely do they place their heart
on their sleeves and tell what is
in their soul and really on their mind,
speaking little of their real worries
hopes and dreams.

When two people are alone together
and tell each other what is really
on their minds and in their hearts,
their souls gently touch.
What is divine in each of them
gives the other a sacred
piece of themselves
and an unbreakable connection
between them is forged.
Ordinarily, people only share
of themselves in this way
a few times in their lifetime,
with their very best, very closest friends
and with whom they fall in love.

Try, my friend, for one month wearing
your heart and soul on your sleeves.
Show who you really are to the next
three people you meet.
You will find giving of yourself
in this way is an extremely powerful
emotional experience
and after you’ve done it a few times
it becomes addicting
in the best possible sense of the word.
When two people touch souls, they are compelled
to empathize deeply with each other
and look upon each other forever after
as one of their closest confidants.
If everyone shared of themselves in this manner
with just three new acquaintances each year
and then looked upon as friends,
the friends of their new-found confidants
soon everyone in the world would find
they could not bring themselves
to harm one another because
of the new-found compassion
between everyone.

Dewey Dirks

Sun and Hurricanes

Sun and Hurricanes

Sometimes the way
is gonna be hard and rough
no matter which way you go.
Times when taking a shortcut
only means exchanging
one hard line for another.

Some problems are lodged
in the past for you
to muddle over when it’s quiet.
Other problems are right
in front of you
for you to struggle with now.

It’s true you cannot
change the past
but you can change
the way you look upon it
and sometimes the only way
to get through the present
is to alter the way you look at it.
When the way is hardest,
the freedom you have to create
a different view for yourself
can be the only thing
that will carry you
through sometimes.
The freedom to change
your point of view
can be magic if you let it be.

They say contrast
deepens most everything.
Everyone has
their share of chaos inside
and every life runs
into its fair share of storms.
One consolation of trouble
is that without all the
howling winds and two-by-fours
flying by you from time to time
whatever kindness you
happen into along the way
would seem hollow
and the beauty and grace
you come across
would only be as so much wallpaper.

For some,
who have happened to notice
the universe looking back at them,
no matter what goes on after that
if they take pause, they can feel
the gentle touch of grace in the air,
the creativity they feel in their veins
becomes the kind hand of life
touching their mind and heart
and the full breadth events
they see in all the world around
becomes part of the soul of life itself.

Life would not be the life
we each live without both
bright August suns
and terrible hurricanes.
Most often,
what you happen to see
depends on where
you choose to stand.

Dewey Dirks

In The Questions and No Difference

In The Questions

We live in societies
where a whole
lotta people spend
a great deal
of time pretending
to have answers
they don’t really have
and there are
many who think
to themselves
“If I find all
the answers
I won’t have
to worry
anymore.”

Things will be
much easier if you
grow accustomed
to not having
all the answers.
To be human
is to ask questions.
Before you
can find
any answers at all
you have to ask
a lot of questions
because, you see,
the answers
are found
in the questions.
So, if the answers
you find
don’t lead to new
questions
You’re probably not
doing it right.

We live in a mystery
wrapped in an enigma
floating gently
in a vast dream.
Life itself, my friend,
is in the questions.

Dewey Dirks

No Difference

Sitting in the quiet
with a silent mind
basking in the stillness
of an idle moon.

Creativity
in the act of creating.
Working hard
figure, figure, figuring.
Busy days
with a ways
yet to go.

Yin, Yang
each come and go.

No difference
when you’re you
being you.

Dewey Dirks