eric sundin

)About Sam, my grandson i high school, who is an accomplished soccer player

Tough fellow who never flinches
Above all he’s towering:
all his challenges turn cinches
going away, powering

Whether he’ll be acting stringent
even perhaps pedantic
in a next moment contingent
he pulls a carefree antic:

Crushingly competitive
a star of field serene
Seen his deliberative
soccer scoring routine?

Unhampered by gravity
he’s all gyration
Propelled by pure gallantry
he’s all elation

One on one he’s reflective
with results productive
Calm, gently inquisitive
reasoning inductive

In this Era of The Fool
who spouts oafish offense
Sam is Genuinely Cool
untouched by all pretense

edited 05/13/23 0855

A splendiferous mallard
flew up from nearby Ballard

Swam around Green Lake
but for goodness sake:

How does this make a ballad?

edited 04/02/22 0700

In sleep your chest
exhales, heaving
So calm at rest
full in breathing

Rising, falling
without compel
Captivating
like peaceful swell

Safe at anchor
in rise, in fall
Absent rancor
in port of call

+)
swell = large, calm (non breaking) waves, following a gale or storm

edited 01/28/22 0720

Our bodies, minds now fraying
of erstwhile bounce bereft
Our wrinkles deepened, graying
hair of what little left

Years bland or full were they deft
countless days in reprise
Dragging us by heft & theft
closer to our demise

Arrived at earthly life’s edge
we must not age apart
allow between us no wedge
Together, let’s take heart!

edited 10/11/2026 0800

Our faces turning craggy
Synapses misfiring
Jowls & butts sinking saggy
Worn thinly brain’s wiring

Daily routines found conspiring
full of setbacks & wrinkles
New challenges cause perspiring
Long since we felt goose pimples

Civility sorely lagging
Screeched promotions propitious
abound posturing & bragging
pitches puffed-up, suspicious

No punishment but reward
when in old age we’re ignored

+)
-propitious = indicative of favor; presenting favorable circumstances
-wrinkle = a trick or dodge; crease in the skin

When to consume feels choking
by gorging & swilling
somewhat akin to croaking
from stuffing & filling

Then slicing to quintessence
chaos turns clarity
sails out in luminescence
opens to charity

Be it just fleetingly of course
as much of that what I write
keeps turning out manure by horse
or at best of boorish sleight

Still rather write in faux creativity
than reading in lethargic passivity

edited 04/04/24 0955

Verbosity’s mercenary
he speaks when unnecessary

as the lights of restraint
these days flicker but faint

No blather too arbitrary

edited 10/30/23 1030

Have words become just something we say
subject to rash all-out abuse
just dumped in to the impatient fray
like ever-so-smooth TV news?

Trying express ourselves clearly
seems taxing work, so we balk
rings socially too austerely
Try listen? We’d rather talk!

What if blabber became the umbrage
while restraint conversation’s glue
with enjoyment of succinct language
shared beyond a literate few?

Such prospects are wildly chimeric
as we’re victims of ‘reporting’
by those self-absorbed & mesmeric
in sundry states of transporting

+)
-chimeric = chimerical: given to or indulging in fantasies
-mesmeric = attracting and holding interest as if by a spell
-‘reporting’ = here: to boorishly drone on with pointless & self-centered accounts of the minute & mundane
-restraint = here: voluntary constraint or reserve in feelings or behavior; discipline in personal and social activities
-transported = here: carried away by strong emotion; enraptured

edited 06/05/25 0805

Mortal Socrates and Jesus Divine
left behind not a single written line

Since then many others have rather
penned in infinite profusion
Much, be it elegant, still blather
compounding human confusion

Swift, countless like birds
in shrieking flock
failing, flailing words
of squawk & schlock

Awkward sentences churning
leave us achingly yearning

edited 11/01/23 0920

Lightning storms of ‘insight’
turned but fleeting gales
though did flash clear & bright
verbalizing fails

Pen limply sadly sags
Hand shaking, fumbling
Vocabulary gags
Crisp paper crumbling

Breakthrough just on the brink
yet another reversal!
Wasted sumptuous ink
on what turned mere rehearsal

Attempted cheaply gallant
in overreaching quest
Been courting Blessed Talent
who cold shoulders my zest

edited 04/17/22 0910