The Jasmine blooms on warm summer night

Intoxicating scent for the humming bird flight

The beauty in both her bloom and her scents

While clinging precariously to chain linking fence

Some petals get chosen to be worn in the hair

Others experience crushing, to freshen the air

Some just float away, on a babbling brook

While others get squeezed by the page of a book

However the Jasmine, might be chosen to serve

For fragrant employ of the olfactory nerve

One thing’s for certain, from near and from far

In the universe of flowers…the Jasmine’s a star

David Kettler

The word for the letter J was Jasmine. I can’t say that I knew much about this flower except that it looks nice and smells real good. I learned that it is made into tea, essential oils, and perfume. I do remember my Mom saying on a balmy evening, “can’t you just smell the Jasmine!?”

The door remains locked to me

Until I’ve paid the price to own the key

The room off limits to my sight

Till the open door grants me the right

The house remains a mystery

Until invitation comes to me

It all starts with a simple key

Turning a cylinder that sets me free

So small to hold there in my hand

So big to open what’s really grand

The gate is locked and fast is closed

Restrictive rules strongly imposed

I have this key given in trust

So open the gate, yes I must

The biggest possibilities there are to be

Start with the smallest little key

David Kettler, 4/10/09

This poem is dedicated to my friend Shirley Doolittle who once spoke about the key in a Gospel meeting in Riverside. The thought was that the key is very small but it opens a lock that is bigger than itself. The lock then opens a door that gives access to a room which is part of an even larger house. When I wrote down “key” for my choice of alphabet poem in “K” a lot of these thoughts came back to me.  



 

Power from up above, the convergence of hot and cold

The flash across the sky, the rumble of big and bold

Lightning streaks across the plains

Smiting tree with burning pains

Foreboding sky and parched ground

The curtain falls with crashing sound

Stage is set the show to start

Flashing lights and failing heart

To the left and to the right

Will this show go on all night

A flood breaks loose way up on high

As if lightning ripped the sky

Booming sound now settles down

Thirsty earth begins to drown

Darkness settles high aloft

Light show switch has now gone off

Peace now comes to desert scene

The violent show is quite serene

But power is waiting up above

For clouds to start their push and shove

David Kettler

Written 4/10/09

The word for “L” was lightning. Writing this poem brought back many memories of fantastic lightning storms. One was when we were traveling across the country by train when I was about 12 or 13. We were somewhere in the Mid-West and we were sitting in an observance car which had an all glass roof. It was during a lightning storm and the lightning would start at the horizon and go all the way past our car to where we had to turn around to see it. I remember it was awesome. Also on our motor home trip with Mark and Cheri in 2000, we were treated to a beautiful lightning storm in Alberta Canada.   

He goes deep in the darkness, to help us see light

He sifts through the dirt, to find nuggets so bright

He goes through the earth to find diamonds of worth

But it’s he who is digging with sweat and with girth

His lungs paid the price for the warmth of my home

His back bore the pain, for the comforts I’ve known

Digging and toiling and working away

For treasure not his…just hourly pay

Blackened with soot but bright in the eyes

He digs through the dark for buried surprise

The miner so faithful with shovel and pick

Turns on my world with a switch and a click

So tip of the hat to the men down below

Thanks be to them for the stove oven glow

David Kettler, April 16th 2009

The miner made me think of both gold miners and coal miners. Both the thought of having to go through tons of dirt to find a few flakes of gold and the idea of digging down deep where it’s dark and dangerous for the coal. I like the idea of the miner working and digging for someone else’s treasure, not his own. It seems like an analogy of all the people who work hard for someone else’s profit.



 

She’s not the mom just the nanny that’s all

But she is the one who the mom’s often call

A change of the diaper, a blow of the nose

A load of the laundry, a run in the hose

Run over here… while you be over there

Do ten things at once with no moment to spare

Don’t be surprised when your nerves hit the skids

You’re playing a mom with another mom’s kids

When they go off to college the folks get the credit

But it’s you all along, to which they’re indebted

The late nights with babies, the terrible two’s

The teenager angst about dating and booze

The nanny she raises her hopes and her dreams

Along with your kids…while cleaning latrines


David Kettler, April 16th 2009

 I’ve never had a nanny or really know anyone who is a nanny that comes to mind. I guess I just think of how hard my wife had to work with a two year old and a new born in the house at the same time and then think of doing all that work and having them not be your own children. That was kind of the idea I had in my mind while writing this poem…the “N” in the poetical alphabet!



 

 

 

 

 The ostrich stands there with its butt in the air

His head in the sand, not seeming to care

His back end is huge with feathers and tail

And a brain like a pea, he is dumb as a nail

Long in the leg and long in the neck

A sharp little beak that he uses to peck

Big gnarly feet and a fluffy rear seat

Run like the wind or be made into meat

Little you knew that you’re so famous now

And welcome to Wendy’s as this century’s cow!

 

 

David Kettler, April 16th 2009

 What mix up in the gene pool did you come from?

Part duck part beaver, but mostly part dumb

One heck of a swimmer I must confess

But in the mud man, you look like a mess

Where exactly do you fit in life’s tree…

A rodent a squirrel or beaver mystery?

Are you a weird shaped duck with a beaver’s rear end?

Or a funny shaped beaver with a duckbill mend?

Looks like nature played a really mean prank

And I hate to be insensitive or unfairly frank

But to be really truthful and a little bit cruel

It looks like nature must have peed in your pool!

David Kettler  4/28/09

 The queen in her splendor, so royally arrayed

Subject adulation at her feet are laid

The royal crown atop her dome

Her royal blood her royal bone

Her royal seat her royal skin

A pedigree of royal kin

The royal king there by her side

Her royal gait her royal glide

The royal hand with royal wave

From royal birth to royal grave

She lives and dies like you and me

Within a bubble far from free

You wonder if she has disdain

When royal life’s a royal pain



David Kettler

Written 5/20/09

 Crashing over jagged rocks

Others gently floating docks

Smallest streams of babbling brook

Raging rivers, power mistook

The downward path is always found

Gravity pulls underground

Giving life and sustenance

From the river’s flowing dance

Some as wide as eye can see

Flowing broad and deep and free

Where they start at mountain top

To the ocean where they stop

The river flows with liquid grace

Seeking out its rightful place

Some refresh in carefree play

While others with their life will pay

This river plays no favorite game

In taking life or laying blame

The very one that life will give

Can take the life that you will live


David Kettler, 6/05/09

 

 

Hiding beneath a pile of rocks

or cutting “S” curves in the sand

Seeking unsuspecting socks

where his fangs would like to land

He’s a sly one-he’s a killa

in the jungles of Manilla

Or the deserts dry and hot

scaly temper’s what he’s got

Rawest deal right from the start

the just result of being smart

Now because his plan went bust

he slithers wordless in the dust

When found in unsuspecting spot

the end result…he’s usually shot!

Or unceremoniously chopped in half

with a shovel and a laugh

Even his name is thought of now

with degenerate lowest brow

When a person’s on the take

he’s only thought of as a snake!


David Kettler, 8/18/09