No Rhyme Nor Reason

By Michael Tapia

35 free verse poems. With the exception of one poem, all poems were written this year. The one exception is Garden of Sand which was written around 1996. It concludes the collection and was included because despite having been written 23 years ago, it is still relevant. The eclectic collection uses various voices and different points of view. Our Happy Lives has various voices and varous points of view and Burnt Autumn is not spoken from a singular voice. Some such as An Evil Woman can be considered tongue in cheek from the point of view of a Brett Kavanaugh or Clarence Thomas. Most deal with the individual and the search for meaning in contemporary society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Tapia
• Release date: Oct 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463827888

Michael Tapia

Born and raised in San Antonio Texas. Retired from the USAF as a Russian Cryptologic Linguist. Had tours primarily in Germany, with six years in Berlin, Germany. Graduated from University of Maryland overseas division, B.A, A.A., Community College of Air Force, A.S.

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No Rhyme

Nor Reason©

No Rhyme nor Reason

Copyright ©2019 by Michael Tapia

Registration Number CI-330748912

All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the author.

This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people.

Publisher: Cicada Cadence Publishing

Table of Contents

Heroes

Manifesto

An Evil Woman

Choose Your Master

Our Happy Lives

A Dark Light

An Early Night

Dance Me to the End of Love

A Place to Forget

The National Anthem

Vintage Emotion

Aesthetics

Burnt Autumn

1st Reiteration

By Goss

Driving the Demons

Joint Pain

Keepsake

Leaving Home

Numbers at Night

Taming Time

Perennial

Shadow Boxing

Silent Echoes

A Time to Remember

Stand Over,Survive

Sticking

Storage

The Bridge

The Crossroads

The First Leaf

The Mattress

Under Bedouin Skies

While You Change

Garden of Sand

Preface

No rhyme, nor reason as to why I woke up in the middle of night. Perhaps some pixie doings. All quiet and still I found myself awake. I needed to first determine the time. Sometimes, I wake up, tired but convinced that I slept through the night, only to find that I had slept only about two hours. Next, I had to determine if I would be able to fall back to sleep immediately and if not, what would it take to fall asleep. This night, I was in-between, not quite ready to fall asleep but almost quite able to. I figured I would give it ten minutes, laying still, relaxing, meditative thoughts. Maybe imagining a stream or a meadow, butterflies fluttering over delicate blossoms. 

For no rhyme, nor reason, I started to doze off and I imagined someone needed help with a real-estate problem. I knew the person to be a friend, but I did not recall ever meeting that person. A middle-aged man of average looks and demeanor. He recently decided to start selling properties but did not know where to begin nor how to do it. I looked over his glossy pamphlets and started breaking down the process for him. I took it back to the beginning. What was his motivation, goal? As I was directing him to examine himself while focusing on the real estate, listening to myself, I started to believe, This is good stuff. I could write entire