[tabs style=”default” title=”Showcase”] [tab title=”Poems”]The following poems are from “Dreams and Detours: Reflecting on the souvenirs of a lifetime…” by Des Moines media personality Mike Pace. The book is available at Beaverdale Books, The Book Store, the Des Moines Art Center’s Museum Shop, Tandem Brick Gallery and Frame, Found Things and Plain Talk Books & Coffee. Proceeds from the sale of the book benefit HCI Care Services.
Blessed and Discontent
I find myself feeling at once blessed and discontent.
Blessed that the mountains that I must climb are
tiny, rolling hills compared to the jagged peaks
so many must face, yet discontent that the hills are
a safe, sorry substitute for the mountains I long to climb.
Just Another Spring
On the first warm day,
the finch finds its birdbath by my window.
Boys and baseball reconvene.
A gardener … a walker … a sidewalk smile …
The calendar turns, and again,
the promise is made, the trust renewed.
Could-Have-Beens
What is this prolonged emptiness?
Is the engine of my heart stalled,
missing some vital additive?
Am I living in a new, detached plane,
more spectator than player?
Even music, my exquisite escape,
seems too much trouble.
Or, am I afraid the listening
would fail me too,
taking me deeper into the composer’s
sad truth and reminding me of
all the could-have-beens
I’ve allowed to die?[/tab] [tab title=”Art”]
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