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Thank you to those who support me via my Paypal account: rikwrybac@yahoo.com. The government doesn't read my poetry. You do. Out of over 560 poems here on this blog by me, I hope you find one or more you like. Thank you for my readers. Thank you for your comments.

Monday, July 7, 2025

Trauma

Trauma

Shut away from a world rage
Creates a place on your own stage
Where light is turned down dim
Breakfast cooks on a recent whim
There is no more incessant pain
As the joy brings sleep with simple rain
There won't be any touch or scratch
No hurt with mother's words that match
Careless children in a weakened state
As beans and salad flee the plate
Be alert to this simple sign
The lines that fall to page with rhyme
Behind them is a needed time
For rest and peace this home is thine


Barry G. Wick



Sunday, July 6, 2025

Puer natus est nobis

Puer natus est nobis

My Latin is a little rusty
Where rust never formed
Not a dead language
Just parked in some corners
Designed to force
The less-than-catholic
Into translation frocks
Where we uninitiated
Wear a temporary collar
to pretend we are moved 
By such erudition

I had my own reason
To leave my church
Yet some still cling to theirs
To spray the world
With their Roman candles
Creating flame spewed
Over the rest of us
To grow the weeds 
That should have been sprayed
Sparked centuries ago
Filled with hate and stakes
For refuseniks of accepted lies


Barry G. Wick



-


Tuesday, June 24, 2025

the way it for me today

June 24, 2025

Hi dear readers,

I'm 73 and get around badly on my stage 4 osteoarthritic knees.  I use a walker.  My plans began a few years back.  With no money except Social Security and gifts from friends.  I knew I'd need a mobility scooter some day.  I've lost close to 160 pounds with more weight loss planned.  Mobility scooters are rated by weight.  More weight, more money.  I grew very heavy sitting with and caring for my demented mother.  But yes,  I opened my mouth and shoveled in food.  I weighed 530 pounds when I moved to the Iowa City area.  I'm now around 370 pounds and going down.
A mobility scooter has to moved somewhere in order to go into shops and malls....or parks.  That takes a dedicated carrier.  With gifts from friends I purchased  this carrier for my 20 year old jeep.  Used, normally priced new $170 to $240.... this was for sale for $100.  
Months ago I acquire a huge sail for free.
When I'm able to find a mobility vehicle
I'm going to sew a cover.  If haven't checked lately, sail cloth ranges $28 to $36 per yard.  I estimate I have 20 plus yards I acquired yards free from a nice man cleaning out his shop.  I have yet to take out the sail from its huge duffle, but there's time.
This message is my prayer to the universe
To help me get an electric scooter of sufficient strength and power to help me around the rest of my years.  Here I am as of mid-June 2025.  Ì
If you Or the universe can help in some way my PayPal account is: rikwrybac@yahoo.com 
I'm grateful for everything I have now.  My life.  My new friends in  Coralville and Iowa City.  My old friends from Rapid City, South Dakota.  My poetry tutors, my simple inspirations.  Oh,  out of the over 560 poems here, I hope you find just one you like.  Who knows.  I may have written just one good poem.  One great poem?  Probably not.  But that's for the ages to determine.  Your PayPal gifts?  Simple gratitude is all I have.
Barry G. Wick






  

Dance

Dance


We have to dance even if we sway

In our wheeled chairs

We have to sing even if we just hum

We have to know art

Even if we only feel sculpture or

Touch a wall hanging made of rope

With tin cans full of dents

Many feelings fall from us

The fruits that grow

From the rain of lìfe


Barry G. Wick

Thursday, June 19, 2025

The Lonely Audience

The Lonely Audience

We stay silent in this passage
From visions of a bright stage
To bones in padded seats
It's as if clouds pass over us
As they create flashing shadows
Leaves sparking in the trees
Bees circle in front of Spotlights

Here we watch a world baking
Unable to throw itself into fire
Insane leaders driven by gods
Soak the earth in living color
A puppy laps it up to live
Boys stomp in playing  puddles
The lonely audience picks losers

Barry G. Wick

Friday, May 30, 2025

All the Questions

All the Questions

Midtown New York
People outside the library 
My mother worked 
At the library
Probably Flushing Meadows
But who knows

My parents are visualized
Sitting on the steps between
The lions silent unmoving
To the roar of traffic
Did Leo 1 beep?
Ah, just a horn

During the war conversation 
About their work
About their fears
I never asked the many questions
I could have asked
While they lived

My children are silent
Without the dialog
I ask them of their lives
Their children and growth
Old like me they'll want to know
All the answers I never heard

Barry G. Wick

Wednesday, May 14, 2025

The Deflating Balloon

The Deflating Balloon

There was a pressure
As I gradually put my lips
To the elastic nozzle
Inhaling precious atoms
To fill this old balloon
I held it's contents in
Until I could no longer
Tolerate my memories
Of how I filled it
Day after day
Hour after hour
Being cajoled by family
To fill the balloon
At every special event
Then every day after day

Tired of the pain of pressure
I let go and watched it
Zoom about the rooms
Deflating in a flight of fear
How will it look in the mirror
As the wrinkles appear

It's not a diet
It's eating less more and more
I have no one to please
Making their meals
I'd lived to eat
Now I die to feel better
To be me in my deflated body

Barry G. Wick

Friday, May 2, 2025

Kodokushi

Kodokushi
[Lonely death in Japanese.  Many older Japanese die alone in their homes and aren't found until days or weeks.]

The last day I see my face
What thoughts will be in mind?
How grateful I was to be alive?
How sad I am I hurt so many?
How shamed I feel for actions
I did not stop?

These and more 
My children and grandchildren
The little I could do for them
The list of failures that plague me
Over and over and over.

There will be no next life
That so many believe.
I haunt myself
I am my own ghost
Staring in the mirror
Ready to disappear
Nothing remembered
No more pain

Sagging skin fading away
To songs I cannot play
Or sounds of my own heart
That pumps the day through me
Hours go up in smoke
With my mind ablaze
Turning to its last dreams


Barry G. Wick

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Dear Missoula

Dear Missoula

Your service at my table
Was friendly and worthy
Of a closer time
A few kisses and the pleasures
Of our bodies
We fell in love 
I held those memories
With me all these years
I hope we are lonely
And worthy of the remainder
Of our lives together
Yes, this is my proposal
Neither of us will be young
We will have kept our memory
All these long years
I hope the years have treated
You with respect and you survived
All the trials that came our way
All the losses we felt.
All the hurt of our separation
Please come to me
Give up what you have
To share the little I have
Where I cannot leave
Write me now
Believe in my love


Barry G. Wick

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Going Under

Going Under

Are these waves
Nothing about them is wet
They are full of memory
As painful as it gets
I'm reminded of guys
I knew years ago
Remembering every one
Their special qualities
I lose them at every step
Whether by their action
Or my telling them to go
My reasons were always
My family who would disapprove
I never thought for myself
My life didn't belong to me

So all I'm left with is sad memory
My later years alone
It's all my fault
This negativity continues
This emptiness is in charge
I can't step forward
What would they think
Who would I be
There's no profit
There's no benefit
Illusions continue to pile
As I tell myself I'm happy
Insert laughing here

Barry G. Wick