Setting One

Your beauty
Laid out before me
Stops
Me
Your beauty
Laid out before me

Orange hues wrapped in florid haze
This sky
Brushed upon a palette
By the sliding sun
Layers
Broadcasting the coming twilight
Filled with hope and promise
Your beauty is
Laid out for me

Seeks me
Reaches out and touches my eyes
Causing them to care for you

A beauty that grazes my thoughts
Hunting
Beyond knowing
your play through faint prisms
Longing to be known

Your beauty
Laid out for me ready to be felt
A lover’s embrace
Caress of possibilities
Tonight
In each sigh
Each brush of lips

Your beauty
Laid out before me stops
Me

Longing has left with
Desire
Calm and undisturbed
Even as your wonder
Strikes my sightlessness
Drumming
A distant glow

Still Waters

Still Waters

placid ripples radiate
out from the stone's wake
plopping into silence
downward

from a nameless toss it came
flying in a moment
failing to break gravity's grasp
downward

descending the abyss
parting waters of primeval ways
stirring the reservoir of rage
downward

what life lies beneath
what longings to be stirred
what hopes become reacquainted
down there

thus we settle on deepest sediment
nests into our new dark home
and something, disturbed, moves
down there

Joy's Passing

joy's passing

muffled echoes of old laughter
the last wave of eternal bliss
retreating from memory
freezing this moment of nothing

the stillness begins

sighs of forsaken hope
descending to the cell
in a clang of resignation
doubting daylight's unknown caress

the emptiness again

comes a glimmer of remembrance
recognition of this familiar prison
it's safety, security and temporary reign
until broken into unrestrained
emprizonment

The Hollow

The Hollow

cravings gnaw
screams of mute desires
hunger ravaging
unrelenting taunts


the search
for sustenance, substance
this starving spirit now
memory, loneliness
ancient appetites left unfed
the plate of comfort, broken

shattered is the chalice
vanished the cup of love
no audience remains
to silence these endless calls
for the needs of one solitary life

what of the wound of human
what can heal where no
drug can reach, no hand touch
wounds bleed, infections grow
constantly consuming


silent in the screams
fullfilled in the desires
within the gap broken ones
lies comfort
a solitary whisper rises


waiting to be heard and known
a voice from all chaos rises
a word is sliced and a touch dropped
into the hollow, hallowed
heart

Scary Solitude

Scary Solitude

before the dust settles on plain
memories of pain, cries that rain
of sorrow
these wounds of my creation follow

take me, my soul my sin
take me, take all that is within
take me, wipe me away
leave only the memory and stay
don't go...


after a smile and a laugh together
joys fade, flits away like a feather
in flight
comes the fright of being alone in the night

take me, my soul my sin
take me, take all that is within
take me, wipe me away
leave only the memory and stay
don't go...

sorrows echo, resounding
pounding down all joy you could bring
in today
seems forever my soul will shout to say

take me, my soul my sin
take me, take all that is within
take me, wipe me away
leave only the memory and stay
don't go...

Today – Online

We are living diverse lives…

Today, we are

Glad it’s Friday

Remembering deceased loved ones

Headed to the hospital to sit with mom

LMAO at a puppy playing with an ice cube

Anxious about a lover

Tired

Excited about a new job

Reading

Writing

Pondering spiritual truths

Sharing quotes because I’m bored

Posting smiley faces and crying inside

Posting frowns and laughing

Stalking

And

In all of this

Are we

Perhaps

Looking for something more

Someone to say

“I get it. I understand. You’re not alone.”

Yes

Yes, we are

How’s that working for us?

Dream You

Dream You

were you a dream
soft clouds of unknowing
drifting passion of twilight
moments of obsession
found us and pushed us apart
again

Tanked

The sputter can surprise us
Running wide ass open
Taking no prisoners
Casting laughter like caution
To the wind
Blowing up a storm of passionate dreams
And friends cheering us on

The road turns, twisting
Thought and perceptions
Into unrecognizable shards
Broken, poured out, spilled
Across memories of tomorrow’s
Dreamers awaken
When the fuel of creation
Runs dry

Thus fools rush in
Where angels fear to tread
And shout
"Fill’er UP!"

Temptation

Temptation

lusty voices, delicacies beyond reach
desires unmet, thirst parched utterings
grasping hands, openings, invitation

thin, glimmers move silently
among the chaos
swept away, dismissed to theory

the battle rages, threatening to
divide soul, destroy spirit
eternal battles waged within children

us

The Sea

The Sea

Swirls foam around my ankles
Toes wiggle in the archaic sands
Minnows dart, carving runes in the tidal plane

The early sun warms tanning skin
Gulls sing anthems of the dawn
Waves rise in the distance announcing change

Waves rise
Fleeing tides grab sand and shell
As the wave impacts

The salt burns, eyes and nose
Water cascades away from spralling legs and  flailing arms
Caught unaware, startled by familiar currents

Laughter swells within the sea of my soul
welcome home...

I Can't. Can we?

Hey God

Its’ me.

I can’t do this, not by myself

There are too many, too many

Fires, explosions, parched deserts and silent dreams

There are too many

Wanderers, sorted addictions and pending schemes

Weighing us down

Threatening to steal hope and violate peace

I can’t do this

The burden is too great while

Tears falling on dry soil

Evaporate joy

While empty water jars fill too quickly with

Despair

And buckets of despair are terribly heavy

I’m willing to do my part

Tired and afraid as I am

Alone…willing

Could you send someone?

Or two?

To walk beside me, encourage me

Maybe even guide me – just for a while?

The miles would seem shorter, at least

In the company of a friend

The weight lighter

When spread across shoulders

And the fear

That fear that taunts me from behind statistics

And speaks thick words of discouragement

That fear

Doesn't linger when

Others are around

Metropolis of Me

The Metropolis of Me

This city in which I live
This metropolis of me
Where skyscrapers stretch to
Reach the heavens
Towers babbling about us being God

Where we are so busy, trapped
Looking through empty frames of
Microsoft’s Windows
That our own windows have become clouded
Panes draped with cob webs and smoke
Residue of distraction and automated existence

Stimulus and response
Repeat, read
Has replaced my repose and regrets
Sorted into files within files
Paperless creations, updates
Statuses are me

 Monkey see monkey do
While buildings tilt
Monkeys stacking sticks and stones on top
Of hollow towers hoping to get a little higher
Closer to the source of us, the cause of me

Jonesing for a fix of divinity

Then one day
Most assuredly these shaking shells
Will fall, down, down
In thunderous silence
Crumbling my place

And in time I will
Tottering out into the remaining ash
Of all I've done, undone, un-filling
Perhaps discover that in
My climbing, building, borrowing of wastelands

In what time remains
Among the ashen debris
Will come to me, this spent man
Shadows stretching from horizon to setting
This one truth

The divine rests not in self-willed towers
Or constant circuits, surging, urging
Affirmations of the deeds of me
But rather in the me of me
That lives in this city

When freed
Of me

In My Hands

in my hands

in my hands
gentle and small
wonder and delight
a mingle of smiles and squirms

in my hands
the future rests
tasks to be learned
surprises of nature and mind

in my hands
a bundle of recollections
my daughter's squirming
my son's gentle dreams

in my hands
folded space carved by deep lines
happy scars, dancing aches
fill
my hands

Weeping Familiar

Familiar

you
this creature with my face and eyes
small and fleet running rampant on my soul

what quest brings you here again
to chase and devour my joy
ever laughing as you go, flinging scorn and distain?

to me
troubler of spirits
rest here on my lap and tell me what fuels your frensy

how goes
your recent troubled flight?
weep with me as we wait together for the rain

waterfalls
might bring us sprites in drops of sweet dew.
let us tarry here
my familiar

The Voice of the Irises

The Voice of The Irises

This morning
Damp with it all
The purple tongues
Of the Irises
Threaten to speak of spilled memories

She always loved the spring
That the Irises announced
Arriving on palates
Of green and violet
Promises of tender possibilities

But, the spring never really changed
Anything of substance and
Colors run in summer rains
Pooling into charcoal swirls

And the Irises died
With a vain promise
Whispered into tomorrow’s
Memories

The Falling

The Falling

pierced by spoken blades
flesh asunder, opened
wisps of life, pouring
possibility

flailing on the edge
frantic fingers grasp for
solid hope, some security
in vain

While Reading Poetry On A Rainy Sunday

While Reading Poetry on A Rainy Sunday

words dance and weave
emotion
these singular assaults
passions with a clash of images and sensations
each kindly interrupted by its cousin
uninvited visits
each roughly terminated in mid touch
all to be known faintly
in momentary memory
and egregious imagining

(Special thanks to Nevine Sultan's poetry for today's inspiration)

Still...the...Pain

still the pain...
shards slice within
crippling, forcing me to bow
feel the pain, yield to
the grip of limitation

NO! shouts my will
i will move on
i, this one of will and power
this man of means and strength

i will move, i will not yield
what are you?
a simple discomfort
a muscle in rebellion, ha!

within, the frosted grip seizes
pain, upon pain, slicing will from reality
leaving me
lying, crying in this moment

i cannot go on
i am beaten and crippled
i surrender
and, still the pain

Something Changed

Something Has Changed

the rays of the morning sun warm my eyes
bringing awakening, awareness
i move, leaving Slumber's serenity
struggling into the commencement of a new day
something has changed

my mind begins to fly
racing through the memories of yesterday
lunging forward into today's challenges
hunting feverishly for the change, the problem
something has changed

have ancient lies come to light
to rest upon me, here demanding restitution?
have forgotten voices spoken shouts of condemnation, final judgements?
something has changed

my mind drowns in the chaos of uncountable confessions, untold trespasses
What!, my soul screams.
What rests upon me today?
something has changed

i move forward into the unknown
lifting my self and standing upon the morning's truth, and i know
something has changed
the pain is gone.

Into The Day

You know those days
When winter is giving way to spring?

When the day begins on crisp promises
Finding us
In layers of comfortable clothes
And gentle expectations?

When both will be stripped off
Tossed aside along the path
Of a beautiful day?

Yep. Today is like that.