​






​Written in 2019

​Bedrock crumbles neath the weight 
Of ages rolling steadily
Ancient giants all dissolved 
To grains of sand in every sea

Nothing dares to make a stand
No pow'r known could see it through
The steel of ships burns orange in death 
While leather thins and tears in two

Memories once hot and bright 
Wane down to ash devoid of spark
And minds that once shone luminous
Lay still and silent in the dark

Civilizations raise high towers
To sneer and mock the slow decay
As silent laughter jeers them back
And wears them out in subtle ways

But beauty, that shapeshifter she
Doth change her many forms
To rage against relentless age
In flower, mount and storm

To press the veil of nothingness 
With her relentless spark
And dull the fangs of ever night
Whose bite precedes its bark

The balancing of life and death
Of emptiness and sound 
Creates the void where minds may play
And meaning may be found

Written in 2017

Autumn moon
Sadness wakes
Sullen darkness
Writhes and quakes
Eye that fogs
Bone that aches
Skin that bleeds
Heart that breaks
Hollowness
Within me makes
A void that simply
Takes and takes
A void that simply 
Takes and takes

Written in 2017

When I gaze into her eyes
I see the rise and fall
Of kingdoms in all ages,
And the lineage of sages
Born as ancient flames in this dark night. 

I sense the tide and feel the ocean,
The planets in their motion,
The life and death of stars now waning
Dwell within the endless depths,
Like secrets in her aspect kept
By nothing more than varied shades of light. 

I see the goings on of earth,
The miracle of birth,
The strange and quiet trust
Of each in turn surrendering to dust,
As the wings of birds all taking flight. 

I feel the seasons and their turnings,
The never ending yearnings
And memories of youth,
The wisdom held in every book,
The stones in every brook,
The pull of forces infinite or slight. 

When I gaze into her eyes 
My soul both smiles and cries,
Existence has a meaning
With presence supervening,
Each time I catch the look of her delight.

Written in 2016

The soul at last sought to awaken
Strong, resolved, adept, unshaken
Anchors loosed, my bonds forsaken
Nought remains that can be taken

For I was searching, never seeing
Humanness had lost its being
But when comforts started fleeing
Nakedness was deeply freeing

Seldom sought out, often labeled
Stories grew, the truth was fabled
Emptiness had now enabled
Hopes and dreams I'd long since tabled

I seize that now for which I've waited
At the cost of being hated
Though my name is oft debated
Minds and mouths are left unsated

Still I go, though now alone
My heart, my soul, my blood, my bone
All churning as a tumbling stone
My destination yet unknown

Written in 2012

How lovely is thy form
Thy flesh, thy blood, thy bone
What soft, what gentle ways
By which thy heart is known
Thy beauty ever washes over me

What night cannot be lit
By love's eternal flare?
Her light dwells in thine eyes
Her autumn in thy hair
Her longing ever draws my gaze to thee

Upon thy tender touch
My heart, my soul eclipse
Pure nectar of thy words
On blossom of thy lips
Doth savor sweetly of thy inner grace

As sailors long for sea
And dreamers beg for sleep
So doth my soul desire
For thy eternal keep
To hold mine ardent love in thy embrace

When lightning runs the sky
And summer speaks unrest
I hear thy vital tide
Through gently heaving breast
And then awake to find it is but rain

How lovely is thy form
How gentle are thy ways
How marvelous thy love
In swift and fleeting days
The end of which hath cleft my heart in twain

Written in 2014

I once met a girl
With porcelain skin
Who hated the life she was in

Her bones cast the shadows
Of youth and of night
And glowed with the best shades of light

Her blood was the color
Of crimson and tears
Her memories, shaded with fears

But the look in her eyes
Was unbridled and free
With a hue just as blue as the sea
With a hue just as blue as the sea

Written in 2001

A bed of grass has chosen there to go
Beside the home where you would watch me play
And every year I come to watch it grow

And in the garden where you used to sow
The seeds of fruit have all since seen decay
A bed of grass has chosen there to go

Yet through your tree the winds still often blow
Though apples on its limbs would wish to stay
And every year I come to watch it grow

Beyond the yard the trail weaved to and fro
Remember when we walked it every day?
A bed of grass has chosen there to go

Oh grandmother, what happened to the glow?
There’s longing in my heart for all those days
And every year I come to watch it grow

But mourning will not bring them back, I know
So I shall place these flowers on your grave
A bed of grass has chosen there to go
And every year I come to watch it grow

Written in 2011

My nostrils are filled with life
With the fresh young scent of the dawn
Sailing on a sea of mist
Each breath heaving as the waves
Constant as the sound of the evening tide

A symphony of bone and sinew
Of flesh and blood
The dance of feet on pavement
Each step taught as a wind driven sail

Adrift on a sea of glass
Lost in silence and solitude
Hidden away from the noisy clamor of life
From the listless disquietude of berth

My body throbs with a longing for the sea
With a thirst for all that is she....
Careening o'er the waters with the momentum of my heart

Written in 2001

Ill repaired and tether cut
I drifted with the wind
Blue eyes the sea that took me there

Hello so soon, I fell for her
Like a busted satellite

And that month became like rain on the Sahara

Forgotten all that first was told
Wrought out in seasons past
Affection’s clock ticked its last
Rewound, it started over

Stories of old, stories of love
Wheeling me in on a gurney
My wings she gently mended

And summer’s beard was gray and long

Wealth did lose its value
The street still warm beneath me
I stood there in the dark
A king without a castle; a cloud without a sky

Goodbye, the coldest word of all
My one regret: goodbye

Written In 2009

There is a place I keep within
A place that only I have been
Where dreams are born and hopes begin
And twilight is unending

Yes all is well within this room
Where latent thoughts like roses bloom
And absence keeps a ready tomb
For fears or doubts impending

Anew I taste eternity
So still beneath our willow tree
That night, your kiss, a gift to me
The bounds of time transcending

The hue of moonlight on your skin
Each perfect curve like porcelain
A thousand times I've lived again
A thousand times pretending

And so love's seed began to grow
Enraptured wholly in its glow
Our lives silently held in tow
Our hearts were for the lending

Yet for the joy such dreaming brings
There's tragedy in all these things
For love, it seems, has sprouted wings
And scarred me with its rending

And so alas I must awake
To start again, to dull the ache
To light a match for memory's sake
Its haunted shadows bending

There is a place I keep within
A place that only I have been
Where dreams are born and hopes begin
And twilight is unending

Written In 2001

I'd like to watch the intrigue in your eyes
Set off to flight and pirouette with grace,
And resurrect the truth behind the lies.

To lift my face toward heaven when it cries,
And as I pass a glance across your face,
I'd like to watch the intrigue in your eyes.

To mourn for the last daisy when it dies,
To search out all the gray within this place,
And resurrect the truth behind the lies.

From on the rooftops watch the sun arise,
And when simplicity gives all disgrace,
I'd like to watch the intrigue in your eyes.

To learn the keenest phrases of the wise,
To randomly pull you into embrace,
And resurrect the truth behind the lies.

To coax you from the safety of your guise,
And prove that even beauty you abase.
I'd like to watch the intrigue in your eyes,
And resurrect the truth behind the lies.

Written in 1999

A tear of us grew in my eye and rolled onto my cheek
A whispered sigh through lullaby and words I could not speak
It traveled like a shooting star on seas without a ship
Whose waters sing my sorrows and find death upon my lips

Tomorrow came and said goodbye, it found us far apart
But I still taste the saline and the stains still paint my heart
Wiped clean my eyes to see you off, I hope to find you well
And thank you for our moment, this tear of us that fell

Written in 2001

The night, much longer than I could have guessed
Does all to taunt and jeer me ere I go
Cold hands would rob the peace that gives me rest
As through this glass reality I row
 
Beyond the last of blue I'll reach the shore
Still not before my fears should sit this deck
And I must go to face the truth and lore
Though fate would favor waves that bid me wreck
 
But fate does not command my vessel's wake
Nor has the wind the hands to guide me home
Tis I that force the oars upon this lake
And I alone shall chart what course to roam
 
So search I shall beyond horizon lines
Again, the will to reach the shore is mine

Written in 2001
“A poem is a way of capturing a moment.”  Nikki Giovanni
 
The darkness fought with a thousand city lights
With a deep, mystic regality the horizon cut into them
Like great swells of ink
Dipping low to kiss the earth
 
I watch each lamp bleed out into darkening waters
Stretching toward a gray western skyline -
The last breath of a dying sun
 
And the cool, having been banished by day,
Awakens once more to wander the earth:
Through these rails
Across this deck
Pushing all warmth beyond my reach
 
Here am I
Reclined and sighing
Chasing after elusive time with jots and tittles
Stringing up a bed of stars
To wander through
To rest within
To help me remember where I am

Written in 2001

In the blackened folds of darkening night,
The skies unfurl their dreamy lights,
That sing to all an unheard song,
In perfect joy, from dusk ‘til dawn.
 
The cool, crisp air, so smooth and still,
In hues of dew, shall stay until
The scent of daylight held aloft
Will ride a breeze both sweet and soft.
 
All sounds of night my ears to greet,
As crickets sing the dreamer’s suite,
‘Til dark shall gray in the sight of morn,
Another day will soon be born.
 
Light now paints horizon lines,
And every dip and hill defines
As all at rest begin to wake;
A chance to rise, a chance to take.

Written in 1998

I dreamed the perfect world for you
The perfect room to stay for you
And let the windows change so I
Might spend another day with you
 
I lost the perfect night for you
Fought off the bitter cold for you
Beyond the chaliced heart to find
The strings that pull me near to you
 
Rode off on flailing steeds for you
And sailed a thousand seas for you
Drowned deep in tears, the most of mine
While living on my knees for you
 
Flew high the marble kite for you
Drained out my soul to write for you
That hope through scattered chandeliers
Reflects upon the trite for you
 
Misplaced the question “Why?” for you
Slowed comets in the sky for you
If joy the crimson in my veins
Then I would bleed them dry for you

Written in 2002

When winter wields its withered hand
And summer’s sun speaks out goodbyes
‘Til Time is all talebearers tell
And laughter lulls to lullaby
 
Through mystery made meaningful
These promises pray I’ll pursue:
I’ll never idle in this love
Or weary while I wait for you

Written in 2012

The day is passing on
Its aged countenance dimmed
Careening toward sweet death
To the yawning light of a fiery horizon
Her gates open wide
Her arms outstretched
Starving to receive a wandering sun

There is magic in such embrace
 
And so night awakens
Roaming earth and sky
Hungry to be known by all
So mysterious the deep
The sullen darkness that swallows up the mountainside
 
A white moon rises
 
This humble fire is comforting
Its golden heart bearing forth light
Lifting a train of pale fog to the stars
There is something hidden in this solitude...
A strange transcendence
So I wait here alone
Washed in the warmth of these glowing embers
Bathed in the love of this dancing flame

Written in 2012

My love is fire wild and free
Sweeping o'er the plains
Her eyes a tempest on the seas
Her passion as the rain
 
Her feet awash with earthen stains
Her garment hem with tares
With sunlight beaming through each vein
That parts her wind whipped hair
 
My love is a river fierce and strong
Rushing toward the sea
A banquet hall alive with song
That sweetly covers me
 
Her face aglow with twilight's flame
The moonlight on her skin
Like desert stallions - free, untamed
The heart she bears within
 
My love is a song bird lost in flight
Floating on the breeze
Her melody the sounds of night
of water, grass and trees
 
She runs among the dandelions
In dreams bereft of fear
As I give chase, ne'er far behind
My life, my love, my dear

Written in 2008

Now is here and then is lost
Still somewhere in my heart
And everything that ever was
Is pulling me apart
 
For I have seen the future -
The life that could have been
I play it over in my mind
And I have seen the end
 
Where you and I are ambling
By the sea, upon the sand
My wrinkled fingers folded
In the creases of your hand
 
Our love told like a story
Each chapter wrought with age
The fading sun a harbinger
Before our final page
 
Yet chapters left unwritten
Form a space so bitter cold
And leaves still left unopened
Crave the story left untold
 
My love for you has never died
Nor will it ever feign
Like roses grown inside of me
That thrive on memory's rain
 
But thorns that stem each flower
Press the walls within my heart
The scars they leave are beautiful
They take me to the start
 
To a place that never ended
In a story without lies
In a book that lovers long to read:
The tale of you and I

Written in 2012 

As the solemn street lamp blazes in the night
So my heart burns within me
Flame bent, raging against the dark
 
I have been slain by beauty and by love
Pierced through by the rushing of its torrid arrows
Lain bleeding in the streets with none to mend my wounds
 
For who can know my sorrow?
 
I have watched the sunlight glisten upon Aphrodite's cheek
I have kissed the lips of a goddess
And touched the skin of an angel
 
I have trodden the sacred paths of the dawn
And beheld the glory of her rising
 
I have held the summer lightning in my hands
And felt its thunders rumble through my soul
 
I have ridden upon the wings of the wind
Drawn by her beckoning
Hearkening to the whispers of her lips
 
I have been both smitten and bitten
And I yet feel the rush of love's sweet poison in my veins
 
I have parted the meadows on a midsummer's eve
And lay silently, breathlessly - Sweetly entangled by her grace
 
I have been met with a love as deep as the ocean
As powerful as the sea
As enduring as the surf upon the shores
 
My tears are the envy of men
Both young and old
My heartache, the longing of seraphs
 
For memory brings no more beautiful sorrow
Than to love, and be loved by she

Written in 2014

There's a light that's falling softly just like embers
With the night in tow and finding me too soon
Inside these golden flames I watch the faces
Of memories once born in autumn's moon

Still I wander like a child among the waters
Swept away in all the colors held by June
Tonight the chilling bones that dwell inside me
Feel the aching of a heart that's left in ruin

And I'm wishing for a lover or a stranger
To awake me from my silent reverie
As shadows chase away into the forest 
Like ghosts of better days escaping me

In the distance I can hear you softly calling
I would give my life to hear you speak my name
The midnight wind transforms into your whisper 
For begging ears whose hunger won't be tamed

And I wonder who it is that stands beside you
And I wonder if he loves you just as deep
While the willows and the pines are wrapping round me
And these heavy eyes are drawing me to sleep

Still the river in the meadow carries onward
Toward the canyon that will guide it to the sea
With a constancy outlasting any rivals
Save the love for you that's buried deep in me