Poem People Project has come to a natural conclusion. I am posting new poems on Medium at: https://medium.com/@dangellert23

Sending a poem weekly, to a random home, gave me a quiet corner to create - I’m grateful for carving-out that time.
A list of all poem titles below… click to read a random idea:

• 2019
  • May 28, 2019 the end
  • Apr 24, 2019 Dear Youth
  • Apr 17, 2019 Brain Game
  • Apr 9, 2019 the Ride
  • Mar 19, 2019 Own It
  • Mar 12, 2019 Back Again
  • Feb 27, 2019 Evolution
  • Feb 21, 2019 Jester
  • Feb 5, 2019 Slightly Ahead
  • Jan 30, 2019 Rally In The Park
  • Jan 22, 2019 Consider Conflict
  • Jan 15, 2019 Everyone Knows Someone Older
  • Jan 8, 2019 Everyone
• 2018
  • Dec 18, 2018 Between Routine
  • Dec 12, 2018 Disease of Despair
  • Dec 5, 2018 In Plain Sight
  • Nov 27, 2018 An attempt
  • Nov 20, 2018 Pause
  • Nov 14, 2018 The Prey
  • Nov 7, 2018 Conflict and Kindness
  • Oct 30, 2018 Expire
  • Oct 11, 2018 Ease renga
  • Oct 4, 2018 A Grazing Gaze
  • Sep 26, 2018 Pained
  • Sep 20, 2018 Stride
  • Sep 13, 2018 Just Only
  • Sep 5, 2018 A Relative Pause
  • Aug 30, 2018 Place Called Home
  • Aug 21, 2018 Imprint
  • Aug 8, 2018 Definitely Makes A Difference
  • Jul 31, 2018 Anxiety Alternative
  • Jul 24, 2018 Necessity
  • Jul 17, 2018 Enough!
  • Jul 10, 2018 Allusion Delusion
  • Jun 26, 2018 Superiority Not Based On Reason Or Actual Experience
  • Jun 19, 2018 Birth or Bury
  • Jun 12, 2018 ask
  • Jun 5, 2018 Triumph
  • May 29, 2018 Road Rage
  • May 23, 2018 Dying Memory
  • May 16, 2018 Lots Of Life
  • May 9, 2018 my kind of way
  • May 2, 2018 Overflow
  • Apr 17, 2018 Gulping
  • Apr 11, 2018 Male
  • Apr 4, 2018 Curious
  • Mar 28, 2018 Fight For The Right To Fight For What's Right
  • Mar 20, 2018 the nose
  • Mar 13, 2018 Hurry The Hanging
  • Mar 6, 2018 Trees are Trees are
  • Feb 27, 2018 Cacophony Demolition
  • Feb 20, 2018 Kitchen Reflections
  • Feb 6, 2018 Slightly Faster
  • Jan 30, 2018 Tone
  • Jan 23, 2018 Two Haiku plus One
  • Jan 16, 2018 Darkness Seen Through Light
  • Jan 9, 2018 Flow
• 2017
  • Dec 30, 2017 Symphony #5, 3rd Movement, Pizzicato Section
  • Dec 24, 2017 Why Do
  • Dec 5, 2017 Treasure
  • Nov 28, 2017 Catching The Reveal
  • Nov 21, 2017 a gentle assurance
  • Nov 14, 2017 Looking Aside
  • Nov 7, 2017 Heavy Days
  • Nov 2, 2017 An Act Of Seeing
  • Oct 17, 2017 the Choice
  • Oct 10, 2017 Feeling Futile
  • Oct 3, 2017 Carefully with Trepidation
  • Sep 26, 2017 Monumentally Slow
  • Sep 19, 2017 Strong People
  • Sep 15, 2017 Framed
  • Sep 11, 2017 Poem For Nike To Defeat Human Laziness
  • Sep 5, 2017 Colors
  • Aug 29, 2017 Be Somebody
  • Aug 22, 2017 Coast
  • Aug 8, 2017 Crazy Sane
  • Aug 1, 2017 Sunshine
  • Jul 25, 2017 Cost Of Living
  • Jul 13, 2017 Bad Citizen
  • Jul 5, 2017 No Noes
  • Jun 28, 2017 Chunk
  • Jun 20, 2017 Opposing Opposites
  • Jun 13, 2017 What Is Wrong
  • Jun 6, 2017 Process
  • May 30, 2017 Glasses
  • May 24, 2017 The White Door
  • May 17, 2017 Grave
  • May 9, 2017 First Again
  • May 2, 2017 Nourish The Workers
  • Apr 26, 2017 Pain
  • Apr 18, 2017 A Bow
  • Apr 11, 2017 Notorious
  • Apr 4, 2017 Penetrate
  • Mar 22, 2017 Paisley Passing
  • Mar 14, 2017 Venice
  • Mar 7, 2017 Slightly Salty
  • Feb 28, 2017 Generator
  • Feb 22, 2017 Green Phone
  • Feb 15, 2017 Not In Theory
  • Feb 14, 2017 Valentine
  • Feb 7, 2017 I Can't Wait To Go To Bed
  • Jan 31, 2017 A Cycle
  • Jan 26, 2017 On You
  • Jan 17, 2017 Good to Great
  • Jan 11, 2017 Currency
  • Jan 4, 2017 New Year
• 2016
  • Dec 20, 2016 Privileges
  • Dec 13, 2016 Donald Trump
  • Dec 6, 2016 Old Becomes New
  • Nov 29, 2016 Vigilant On Love
  • Nov 21, 2016 Raspberry Ring
  • Nov 14, 2016 Flowers
  • Nov 6, 2016 Tension and Tears
  • Oct 27, 2016 In the voice of William S. Burroughs
  • Oct 19, 2016 Distill
  • Oct 12, 2016 Well Positioned Laugh
  • Oct 5, 2016 A Bow To Art
  • Sep 27, 2016 A Stop
  • Sep 21, 2016 Leave It Behind
  • Sep 13, 2016 Line / Human
  • Sep 6, 2016 Depending
  • Aug 29, 2016 Bruised
  • Aug 22, 2016 Go Tell A Story
  • Aug 10, 2016 untitled Church
  • Aug 3, 2016 Magnificently Futile
  • Jul 28, 2016 Dress The Noise
  • Jul 21, 2016 Some Sense
  • Jul 13, 2016 For You
  • Jul 6, 2016 Gift
  • Jun 15, 2016 Another Our Father
  • Jun 8, 2016 Particularly Sweet
  • Jun 1, 2016 Be
  • May 25, 2016 Rage Around
  • May 17, 2016 Parents Are People?
  • May 11, 2016 Unload
  • May 1, 2016 Lost
  • Apr 26, 2016 woo-ha woo-ha
  • Apr 19, 2016 Endless Expertise
  • Apr 11, 2016 E. E. E.
  • Apr 5, 2016 Heave
  • Mar 27, 2016 Vignette
  • Mar 21, 2016 a Solid C
  • Mar 14, 2016 Aim
  • Mar 7, 2016 Acceptance Speech
  • Feb 29, 2016 Heart Of Earth
  • Feb 21, 2016 Beatles, the
  • Feb 11, 2016 War
  • Feb 3, 2016 Electric
  • Jan 28, 2016 Alternate
  • Jan 19, 2016 baby-drive-love
  • Jan 7, 2016 Silence

Take the good 
Release the bad
You've learned enough to survive
Now encourage yourself to thrive

Stumble through learning 
Displaying your scars
Your allies will see those old wounds
Your loves will love them

Be bold on this journey
It’s required
After grappling with ideas 
Make your assertions loudly and respectfully

“Have fun.
Be yourself.
Don’t hold back.”
And life will give life back

.

..

…

- artwork by Willem de Kooning…
- mailed to New Hampshire -
- inspiration by John Dick of CivicScience -

Busy brain stays alert

distracted with preordained projects.
Distracted brain might see opportunity

disciplined to notice differences.
Disciplined brain keeps perfect time

attentive to a fault.
Attentive brain bestows joy

generously spread when needed.
Generous brain buys-in often

enabling multitudes of desires.
Enabled brain learned to learn

busy with success that followed.

.

..

…

- artwork by Shantell Martin -
- mailed to Massachusetts -

Focus forward 
past the clear vision
toward the beginning
of anything new
     The baby responded
     while I drove the car
     and myself down the path
     of destroyed alleys
with their garbage-making garbaged walls
and smearing colors of broken packages
that held everything purchased yesterday

"Bumpy ride" baby began
but I heard "jump inside"
So obediently
that vision closed to the outside 
and every side
I started seeing ahead of the light
toward the work to do
for baby and something new
Past some clear vision
toward that beginning
of a new belief in... ...

.

..

…

- artwork by Kiki Smith -
- mailed to Rhode Island -

There is a privately owned public space
The face
Always-on for viewing
But the whole story rests
Under the breath
Beneath some rage
The judging
The judgement
Spewing
From our
Privately owned public space

.

..

…

- artwork by Kimon - dekadrachm - circa 405 BC -
- mailed to Alaska -

Jasmine broke a heart
alone
in that life back there

hurt heart returns
in a flash

sometimes yesterdays should not return
then
they need to
as
breaking a heart
needs company too

.

..

…

….

- artwork by Jorge Eielson -
- mailed to Connecticut -

again and again and
round and round

revolution

a record of
days years centuries
combine

historic revolutions
saved in
the planet's mind

like playing those
33 45 78 revolutions-per-minute

remembering that song
stimulates senses anew

our daily
revolutions come to mind

desire and destiny
we pray
stay intertwined

.

..

…

….

- artwork by Mario Nigro -
- mailed to Delaware -

a poem is like a machine
with mechanisms encouraging dream
layers of levers dressed as words
creating the engine to spew undeterred

using words to get beyond words
poems infuse vitality to closed eyes
holding contradictions in a single breath
activating ideas unless you're dead

O poem O poem
direct me away from certainty
yet be concrete and precise
enough so I can jest today about yesterday

.

..

…

….

- Artwork by Gary Hume… -
- inspiration by “Why Poetry” by Matthew Zapruder -
- Mailed to Maryland -

We destroyed pesky demons
then they returned.
Wading through territories
around the soul.
Small factions of laughter
hiding right there.
Sounding long sirens
next to small joys.

Brace for long harvests
ending with blooms.
Baking with more yeast
for longer noons.
Can't stress about perfect
silently pronounced.
We build histories
for showing our own.

.

..

…

- artwork by Thomas Wilmer Dewing -
- mailed to West Virginia -

Feeling like a piece of cheese
Squashed in pita bread getting melty in the middle.
Heat coming from pressure.
Moving closer. So close to the adults.
Pockets bumping and mouths murmuring.
It’s not a circus but looks like one.
Feeling small. Looking up. 
Getting hungry.

The crowd heaves toward a single point reciting a dream.
Flailing words tripping over the air in a roller coaster of chaotic meaning.
Why? What? For Who? not me.
Seems like eating would be secondary to these ideas
To this crowd of big people.
They squeeze my hand tighter
I think because the words mean something to them.
But I can't stop thinking about cheese.

.

..

…

- Artwork by Dan Colen…
- mailed to Virginia -

They bother another,
each other.
Bodies bumping, skulls attacking - 

There is conflict on the street, and
in cars buses and trains,
schools homes and televisions - 

Conflict in our bones making stomachs tighten.
Some thrive. Others crumble.
Please help us endure the friction, please - 

Can we be like the bothering squirrels,
jabbing around outdoors,
never stopping too long for injury - 

Consider,
possess, then put aside - 
conflict.

.

..

…

- artwork by Sam McKinniss -
- mailed to North Carolina -

Age is gray when youth look up.
The aged, like rotting diamonds, 
shine again
during storytelling time
with one listener,
or many,
to families, then crowds,
religions, ethnicities,
to countries, then lands,
to the entire earth.
If we listen
the aged gray
tell a way

.

..

…

- artwork by Carrie Mae Weems -
- mailed to New York -

Nobody cares
all the time
for that someone
we think about
all the time.
Who can we
care about
all the time
if we ourselves, in
fact, are careless
some of the time.
So we carry
on caring at times,
when needed or convenient.
Then somebody 
writes a thank you 
because we cared 
for their singular 
'all the time.'

Generations will read it,
solidifying your caring.
Still we know
nobody cares
all the time.

.

..

…

- artwork by Simone Leigh -
- mailed to South Carolina -

Awake, before daybreak.
Clean, brush and scrub like a machine.
Drive, just enough to arrive.
Work, eat, work, eat, work without missing a beat.
Drive, determined to get home alive.
Exercise, with no cries.
Eat, speaking with girls 1 & 2 - so sweet.
Animal, walking quite minimal.
Read, or write or TV to fertilize a seed.
Brush, usually in a rush.
Sleep, mostly quite deep.
Repeat, repeat repeat...

.

..

…

- Artwork by Mario Nigro -
- mailed to Georgia -

We blow our best intentions toward life
until a disease of despair causes a death of despair
drug and drink abuse, and suicide

Like dogs chasing tails, constantly turning away rotates you to the beginning
despair, causing disease bounding toward death
drug and drink abuse, and suicide

Listeners helping on hotlines, listening is sometimes enough
listeners at home too close to help, accidentally blind sometimes
drug and drink abuse, and suicide

Systemic processes designed to fail minorities
they start leaning toward death, a death of despair
drug and drink abuse, and suicide

Whisper strength into those bones
barely advancing until prepared to
drug and drink abuse, and suicide

As boiling milk forms a bubbly creamy top-layer
blurry becomes normal and constant, during
drug and drink abuse, and suicide

Help does not arrive expectedly, promptly, enthusiastically
but a love may poke the tiniest window toward life, inside
drug and drink abuse, and suicide

Squash and mutilate that disease of despair
leaving a body and mind hurling away, from
drug and drink abuse, and suicide

.

..

…

- inspired by "Mortality and Morbidity in the 21st Century" by Ann Case and Angus Deaton -
- artwork by Wayne Thiebaud, “Large Sucker”, 1971
- mailed to Florida

Don't hide
   like a squirrel watching a dog from a tree
      or best intentions for a new lover Jamie.

Search riddles
   to bless a beverage shared with humans and friends
      or to make some sense when ignorance must end.

Do work
   with a vengeance like farmers who own no land
      or when new jobs arrive under fresh new command.

Leave slowly
   like critics savoring scintillating art
      or lovers a-grumble refusing to fall apart.

Play youthfully
   letting that kid inside lead with the heart sometime
      and laughing easy wholeheartedly without design.

Don't hide
   in times of cold or heat or day or night
      and say what you know and dream what you might.

.

..

…

- artwork by Prince Gyasi -
- mailed to Alabama -

An attempt


comes after encouragement,
which comes after interest,
which comes before dreaming.

Bare down on obsession.
Find the tiniest keyhole and stare, seeking light.
Entertain the dream to maturity.

Expose all, until truth appears;
Remembering,
someone is telling the truth while no one listens.

.

..

…

- Artwork by Susan Rothenberg -
- mailed to Tennessee -

Without urgency
work slows, dreams shrink, worlds suspend;
and, a life may fail.

Like healing from surgery,
urgency returns slowly.

.

..

…

- artwork by Dorothy Dehner -
- mailed to Mississippi -

Some days ago we cried
Making tears flow while laughing at... that

Some hours ago we laughed
Crying tears for absurdities by governments

Squirrels bury the possession they most love, nuts
People cherish an idea which they've repeated forever

The sun provides for life and can scorch earth in an instant
Teenagers desire autonomy and at any moment ask for anything

This planet contains beauty which can rage unexpectedly
Finding truth depends on wit during the constant smearing of ideas

.

..

…

- artwork by Francis Bacon… -
- mailed to Louisiana -

we balance high above the angry river 
on a tightrope 
clenching anxiety
here, focus will be keenest

but over there 
are the toys, joys, sorrows, creatures, chosen ideas;
our stuff

that tightrope 
is equal parts pathway forward and anxiety instigator to
our stuff

we must manage, we must balance
Conflict and Kindness
nobody else will do this
step in and pursue

.

..

…

- artwork by Olafur Eliasson -
- mailed to Arkansas -