These Are My JOTtings, Part #2

Focus on the Best

Busy-ness, the dreaded foe
has kept me from my pen.
Many things won't let me go
with talent growing thin.

Acting has its place, I know.
The gift is fully there.
Time is gobbled. This I trow
is making me to stare.

"Music tames the savage breast,"
but not the rushing clock.
Notes are made to soothe each test,
but life's great boat may rock.

Painting is a pretty thing,
if color can be found
to make your day to brightly sing
with time to go around.

Needlepoint demands we stick
with knots of woven work,
it shares not mind, though heart be sick
with other "lives" we shirk.

The years of life are marching on
with interests running wild.
What "hat" of skill should I best don,
that life be not defiled?

And for that thought, I wish to know,
"How can my words improve?"
The senses ebb and they do flow
as daily "stick men" move.

The torrent of these novel thoughts
engulfs the letters' yard.
afraid to edit as I'm taught.
The man, who would be bard.

How doth the moniker impede
the "writer good" to grow!
The "writer best" would supersede
the "writer safe," I know.

What wasted time I daily rue
as suns are flying past!
The good of all the things I do,
which of these truly last?

by Jay O'Toole
on July 8th, 2019