No Poem

no poem, no poem
waiting on school bus friend
no hug no kiss like no
Duke prelude to again. no
bottom fallen light of angels
middle of dreams bend, no
mother-zone invade, no
growing up to ever be or lend
anxious to ashes fade, no
worry coming home again, no
picking up waiting child's laughter
like a piano playing no notes no 
no poem no end no life after.  

A Little Further

often the moonlight lend
breaks with grandeur to tend
to camp around silver bend
break for little ones bed down
just a little drink now, other-
side of the very slowest red
lunar coming out of purple
just a little further ahead
until can hear gurgling sound
smell the water's guilty fertile
steady mountain caps dripping
snow from high distant led
for cooking roots onion piece
a little salt the children fed. 

Paul r. Harding’s published works include: Hot Mustard & Lay Me Down (En Theos Press, 2003); Excerpts of Lamentation & Evidence of Starlite (Aurius Unlimited, 1993); excerpt of completed novel manuscript in Black Renaissance Noire; selected verse in Black Renaissance Noire, Transition 112, Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, Konch, Coon Bidness, Berkeley Poetry Review, Earshot Jazz, Raven Chronicles and various anthologies. Unpublished manuscripts in both the Gwendolyn Brooks Papers at the Bancroft Library (University of California, Berkeley), and the Derek Walcott Collection at the Alma Jordan Library (University of West Indies). Awarded Philip Whalen Memorial Grant for poetry and Edith K. Draham Scholarship for fiction. Spoken Music performed with Charles Gayle, Ravi Coltrane, Joe Ford, Michael Bisio, and other renowned musicians. Former Earshot Jazz Board of Directors President, former Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle Education Director and founder of ULMS Children’s University. Currently teaches critical thinking, reading, and writing in the Bronx. Presently completing a manuscript of short poems and researching first non-fiction project: Race and Heroism in Hollywood: Die Like a Man.