WITH a spurn of yellow and a shout
A lone Mexican poppy
Aside the mountain path
Caught my meandering eye.
How diminutive was its stem
And so few were its petals -
Nevertheless - smart with poison -
As it stood there - tranquil.
For one who's loud in color -
I warned the little poppy -
It's not good to be popular
For you can be plucked easily.
COMING from within a rising hedge
Of voluptuous white oleander -
I sensed a turmoil; one writhe
Seduced better than before
And within the naked boughs
Of some palo verde - in a rustle
Of few leaves - I thought I saw
Among them a potential
So quick and sullen, I almost not
Deemed it worthy a mention
Until a lone grackle squawked
That vernal suspicion
Then the wind flirted with a sage
Whose mane shimmied - fervid -
As if the breath of Earth had encouraged
Spring to dance for him.
LIKE the Sphinx
Igor lies regally
With eyes closed off
To the world.
He finds his zen
And feels the breeze
But knows not how much
He is revered.
THE fold lifts, I see him in the mist
Gliding nearer by, I don't resist.
Let everything be still - I esteem
He's even better than what I dreamed.
Stars fill my eyes as we meet lips.
It's a world of two, two in the world.
The rush, the fire of his touch would
Enshroud us but for a tender moment.
Eyes of sincerity confess of want -
So much spoken without a word.
My eyes open to the embroidered curtain
That nullifies the harsh morning sun -
A secret knowledge now in his stead.
I rise up with a smile, though twisted.
Verily - what sweet provocation!
KEEP your vigil, whispers of gray -
Speak of what I do understand.
Assault the evil glare of day;
It doesn't speak for my heart -
Rather for the city made of stone
Which knows no bounds of hate.
On this day, I've fallen asunder;
No love for the pieces that remain.
This day has nothing to offer.
Your neutrality fills me whole;
Share my haven with this mute
Though you are harsh but truthful.
Engage me, oh whispers of gray -
Until I can bear its façade -
I will bleed for a better day.
A LITTLE jewel beetle
Whose antennae did bristle
Sauntered - his head up high -
As he sported a rainbow.
Friendlier than a fly
Craftier than a mosquito
More handsome than a moth
More ornamental than a bee
I watched - then bethought -
Little bugger - how uppity -
Strutting away as I gawk
Has put me in my place!
EVERY day is a new adventure
A new iota, a new gnosis -
Search not by the easy standard
But see through the eyes of genesis.
The more I learn, the more I love
What man before me has done.
It catapults my soul aloft -
I yearn for that higher plane.
Push back those old perimeters.
Notch in my brain a new wrinkle.
I forge pathways never traversed
And find my world bigger still.
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Come and find me in this garden;
I know not where the hours go.
Palm fronds brush against my cheek -
Lone toadstool, blush of mallow.
They say this is the Garden of Eden -
Rocks of lichen, red yucca.
But I think this is probably heaven -
Birds-of-paradise and vinca.
You will find here a green shelter;
Shade fills the inner sanctuary.
Canaries whistle o'er yonder -
Dew drops on a banana leaf.
Let's be as kids like we once were;
Take my hand, let's go find its end.
Make a wish on a four-leaf clover -
White passion vine, black-eyed Susan.
Heaven can wait if we persevere.
Let my bosom be your headrest.
Morning glories open to the day;
Sure feels like we're heaven-blessed.
WEARY day surrenders to night;
She wears a pleasant countenance.
Echoes of traffic hush the strife
Of a long day; a moment of silence
Makes still even the Holy Ghost
As the cobalt of the sky fades.
A moth makes love to the lamppost
Knowing the warmth of its rays.
Come darkness, come tomorrow.
Will they bring the nice thoughts I've thought?
Yea, my heart is not shallow
But guides in a way my eyes cannot.
WHEN long days drag on me
And my soul cries in the dark
Then I speak my prayer in sleight
And He slips it into my jar.
Prithee – give it wings to fly up
Beyond to the sapphire throne –
Leaving me amidst where I am
Yet I do not feel alone.
Someday when time is cut sharp
I'll retrieve it from Whom I belong
And finding a full jar of prayers
Know that I was never alone.
SEE there marches Orion
With Sirius close at his feet
Tarrying not long in the air
To begin the midnight hunt.
His quickened breath congeals –
His boots crunch the fallen snow –
His eyes attempt to discern
Between tree and furtive shadow.
Mark the occasion and time
Of this harvest moon's fair
And note the dog's primal talent
For smelling blood and fear
Not to bring down a mighty elk
To quarter and tan its hide –
What they instead come upon
Is Aries in a clearing field.
JESUS stole him from me;
A cleft of my heart went
With my beloved to grand company.
Shock distracted the void –
Grief befriended melancholy
And I tagged along, I admit.
Anger pulled – whispered mortality –
I regrouped my senses
But still, it finds me.
Thank God, forgiveness was created
For also this exigency.
HOW capricious it is
To follow the tail of a comet
And skip across Saturn's rings -
To wade in endless streams -
Cloaked in ether's blanket
Of midnight fantasies -
Where I've other lives -
I'll never completely tell of them
But to the Pleiades.
AMPLE is the rising sun
That alights the furthest mountain –
A carmine drape upon every hill –
Exciting the birds to warble.
Ample, too, is the evening sun
That paints a nebulous curtain –
Quickly changing the palette until
Bringing the good day to shutter.
WOULD you meet me sometime
At the space in between
The corner of reckless schism
And the street of broken dreams?
I just covet a good word or two –
So long as we break silence –
And I will collect an echo
Then leave and recommence.
THE Sahara is another vast sea
Of zero-edge horizons
And remote hours of austerity
For "sailors" upon caravans
And the Sun beams mercilessly
And seems cruel to patrons
Until the Wind scoffs haggardly
And reshapes its art of dunes.
IF ever we tarry apart a spell
Because circumstance conspired with fate
Remember all our days for your heart's sake;
Remember and wear a little smile.
Keep it as one would a given token
Until in flesh we unite once again.
EL Capitan - you are a joint
Within the Sierra Nevadas
Of punctuated granite -
A sentinel of the ages.
Sylvestris partition -
Beam of silver - or steel -
Are you a step to heaven
Or a capstone for hell?
Stern expression of peace -
Keeper of fortitude -
Of what would you speak?
Would I even understand you?
EARTH surely is the place of purgatory
Where “homeowners” are bolstered up -
Are thrilled by and thrive in lies and slavery
And would sooner scoff at desert encampments
But I think it should be most savory
To call a canyon pathway a sidewalk
And a gnarled ironwood a canopy
And afford a mountain cave to a vagrant.
MY EYES SO GREEN
Plumes of peacock -
Silver sequins -
Halls and faces are aglow.
Music resounds -
Ev'ry lady
Is dancing around her beau.
Where is my friend
Who I wish would
Seek me hither presently?
Yet I, too, wear
A sequined mask.
How shall he recognize me?
I am the one with eyes so green -
The greenest this court has thus far seen -
And they shall search those who convened
For the fair knight of whom I'm so keen.
He wanders about nigh, I deem -
And he shall hold me in high esteem
And love me true once he has seen
My eyes, oh, my eyes so green.
Let the lutes play
For he found me
And his love lights up my life!
Ocarinas
Whistle a tune
As we celebrate tonight!
MANY-HUED pubs bid me welcome
As would friends on the street
And so does Cromwell Bridge
Where long ago we first met.
I see the fields where we played
And plucked up the kerry violets.
I gaze out over the dark bay
Reflecting our lives as glass.
Memories live but a season
And like a photograph
And erelong, I will be as one
Fading - crumbling fast.
When you are old and banjaxed
Will you still remember
And find there my countenance
Among the leas of Kenmare?
WHEN pillars fail
When walls break
My angel can bear
The unknown weight.
If darkness prevails
He comes striving
To lead me down trails
I've never been.
WHAT love is this
That spellbinds me
And keeps me returning
To read scripture?
Older I will get
And wiser I will be
'Til these times end
And I've endured.
THERE exists no place
Outside the Lord's grip -
From the outposts of space
To the eclipse of a pit -
He's never far away.
MUSIC starts my little church
And bids us goers "come forward" -
Timid and cleansing at first -
Bringing voices to one accord
Then Chris's voice waxing loud
And the piano's tempo
Make the atmosphere bound
To become a crescendo
When our song meets Him above
And the sweet chorus repeats.
Did such music greet Asaph
At the foot of heaven's gates?
IT was hefted upon a breeze -
As in a warm, flowing current
Through a sea of palo verdes -
To search for an embankment.
That seed of promise -
An implicit aster -
Was sent to broken gneiss
To become one with nature -
A golden bloom to come
To an expectant glen -
Not knowing how it found home
Except that it did.
FORGIVE me, young dandelion.
I did not feign disinterest.
My mind has running thoughts
That stole my attention.
You only meant to be a friend.
I was not being callous.
Your seedlings ought to whisk
Them away upon a random wind.
COME, graceful brittlebush
And creamy globe mallow blooms.
The winds of spring call you
Again from the sandy tombs.
Come, you dashing lupine
And join the wingnuts on the hills.
Go and place your annual stake
With them near the trails.
There is room, woolly daisies
And Engelmann's cacti, on the plain.
Come dressed in your best trimmings.
You are favored by the sun.
I will swing by and count you
Among my treasured finds.
Fill my life with flowers
So I know that I'm alive.
ONE Christmas, death showed up
To rip the bonds apart
And they, who were stunned -
Said their good-byes
Hastily at the tomb.
That same Christmas -
Another family opened their arms
To a transfigured man
Who wiped his eyes
And ushered him home.
THROUGH a break in the trees
Flows a tawny river
Sanding the rock endlessly
As a peerless carver.
The jungle is not seen
In the murky water's face.
The skies do not skim upon
Its delicate countenance.
It refuses the tree's growth.
The rushing seeks to replace
Tribulations for peace
Skipping them away.
Its waters fill my mind.
I remember Zongo Falls
As an obscure haven
For which my heart longs.
A lone Mexican poppy
Aside the mountain path
Caught my meandering eye.
How diminutive was its stem
And so few were its petals -
Nevertheless - smart with poison -
As it stood there - tranquil.
For one who's loud in color -
I warned the little poppy -
It's not good to be popular
For you can be plucked easily.
COMING from within a rising hedge
Of voluptuous white oleander -
I sensed a turmoil; one writhe
Seduced better than before
And within the naked boughs
Of some palo verde - in a rustle
Of few leaves - I thought I saw
Among them a potential
So quick and sullen, I almost not
Deemed it worthy a mention
Until a lone grackle squawked
That vernal suspicion
Then the wind flirted with a sage
Whose mane shimmied - fervid -
As if the breath of Earth had encouraged
Spring to dance for him.
LIKE the Sphinx
Igor lies regally
With eyes closed off
To the world.
He finds his zen
And feels the breeze
But knows not how much
He is revered.
THE fold lifts, I see him in the mist
Gliding nearer by, I don't resist.
Let everything be still - I esteem
He's even better than what I dreamed.
Stars fill my eyes as we meet lips.
It's a world of two, two in the world.
The rush, the fire of his touch would
Enshroud us but for a tender moment.
Eyes of sincerity confess of want -
So much spoken without a word.
My eyes open to the embroidered curtain
That nullifies the harsh morning sun -
A secret knowledge now in his stead.
I rise up with a smile, though twisted.
Verily - what sweet provocation!
KEEP your vigil, whispers of gray -
Speak of what I do understand.
Assault the evil glare of day;
It doesn't speak for my heart -
Rather for the city made of stone
Which knows no bounds of hate.
On this day, I've fallen asunder;
No love for the pieces that remain.
This day has nothing to offer.
Your neutrality fills me whole;
Share my haven with this mute
Though you are harsh but truthful.
Engage me, oh whispers of gray -
Until I can bear its façade -
I will bleed for a better day.
A LITTLE jewel beetle
Whose antennae did bristle
Sauntered - his head up high -
As he sported a rainbow.
Friendlier than a fly
Craftier than a mosquito
More handsome than a moth
More ornamental than a bee
I watched - then bethought -
Little bugger - how uppity -
Strutting away as I gawk
Has put me in my place!
EVERY day is a new adventure
A new iota, a new gnosis -
Search not by the easy standard
But see through the eyes of genesis.
The more I learn, the more I love
What man before me has done.
It catapults my soul aloft -
I yearn for that higher plane.
Push back those old perimeters.
Notch in my brain a new wrinkle.
I forge pathways never traversed
And find my world bigger still.
THE GARDEN OF EDEN
Come and find me in this garden;
I know not where the hours go.
Palm fronds brush against my cheek -
Lone toadstool, blush of mallow.
They say this is the Garden of Eden -
Rocks of lichen, red yucca.
But I think this is probably heaven -
Birds-of-paradise and vinca.
You will find here a green shelter;
Shade fills the inner sanctuary.
Canaries whistle o'er yonder -
Dew drops on a banana leaf.
Let's be as kids like we once were;
Take my hand, let's go find its end.
Make a wish on a four-leaf clover -
White passion vine, black-eyed Susan.
Heaven can wait if we persevere.
Let my bosom be your headrest.
Morning glories open to the day;
Sure feels like we're heaven-blessed.
WEARY day surrenders to night;
She wears a pleasant countenance.
Echoes of traffic hush the strife
Of a long day; a moment of silence
Makes still even the Holy Ghost
As the cobalt of the sky fades.
A moth makes love to the lamppost
Knowing the warmth of its rays.
Come darkness, come tomorrow.
Will they bring the nice thoughts I've thought?
Yea, my heart is not shallow
But guides in a way my eyes cannot.
WHEN long days drag on me
And my soul cries in the dark
Then I speak my prayer in sleight
And He slips it into my jar.
Prithee – give it wings to fly up
Beyond to the sapphire throne –
Leaving me amidst where I am
Yet I do not feel alone.
Someday when time is cut sharp
I'll retrieve it from Whom I belong
And finding a full jar of prayers
Know that I was never alone.
SEE there marches Orion
With Sirius close at his feet
Tarrying not long in the air
To begin the midnight hunt.
His quickened breath congeals –
His boots crunch the fallen snow –
His eyes attempt to discern
Between tree and furtive shadow.
Mark the occasion and time
Of this harvest moon's fair
And note the dog's primal talent
For smelling blood and fear
Not to bring down a mighty elk
To quarter and tan its hide –
What they instead come upon
Is Aries in a clearing field.
JESUS stole him from me;
A cleft of my heart went
With my beloved to grand company.
Shock distracted the void –
Grief befriended melancholy
And I tagged along, I admit.
Anger pulled – whispered mortality –
I regrouped my senses
But still, it finds me.
Thank God, forgiveness was created
For also this exigency.
HOW capricious it is
To follow the tail of a comet
And skip across Saturn's rings -
To wade in endless streams -
Cloaked in ether's blanket
Of midnight fantasies -
Where I've other lives -
I'll never completely tell of them
But to the Pleiades.
AMPLE is the rising sun
That alights the furthest mountain –
A carmine drape upon every hill –
Exciting the birds to warble.
Ample, too, is the evening sun
That paints a nebulous curtain –
Quickly changing the palette until
Bringing the good day to shutter.
WOULD you meet me sometime
At the space in between
The corner of reckless schism
And the street of broken dreams?
I just covet a good word or two –
So long as we break silence –
And I will collect an echo
Then leave and recommence.
THE Sahara is another vast sea
Of zero-edge horizons
And remote hours of austerity
For "sailors" upon caravans
And the Sun beams mercilessly
And seems cruel to patrons
Until the Wind scoffs haggardly
And reshapes its art of dunes.
IF ever we tarry apart a spell
Because circumstance conspired with fate
Remember all our days for your heart's sake;
Remember and wear a little smile.
Keep it as one would a given token
Until in flesh we unite once again.
EL Capitan - you are a joint
Within the Sierra Nevadas
Of punctuated granite -
A sentinel of the ages.
Sylvestris partition -
Beam of silver - or steel -
Are you a step to heaven
Or a capstone for hell?
Stern expression of peace -
Keeper of fortitude -
Of what would you speak?
Would I even understand you?
EARTH surely is the place of purgatory
Where “homeowners” are bolstered up -
Are thrilled by and thrive in lies and slavery
And would sooner scoff at desert encampments
But I think it should be most savory
To call a canyon pathway a sidewalk
And a gnarled ironwood a canopy
And afford a mountain cave to a vagrant.
MY EYES SO GREEN
Plumes of peacock -
Silver sequins -
Halls and faces are aglow.
Music resounds -
Ev'ry lady
Is dancing around her beau.
Where is my friend
Who I wish would
Seek me hither presently?
Yet I, too, wear
A sequined mask.
How shall he recognize me?
I am the one with eyes so green -
The greenest this court has thus far seen -
And they shall search those who convened
For the fair knight of whom I'm so keen.
He wanders about nigh, I deem -
And he shall hold me in high esteem
And love me true once he has seen
My eyes, oh, my eyes so green.
Let the lutes play
For he found me
And his love lights up my life!
Ocarinas
Whistle a tune
As we celebrate tonight!
MANY-HUED pubs bid me welcome
As would friends on the street
And so does Cromwell Bridge
Where long ago we first met.
I see the fields where we played
And plucked up the kerry violets.
I gaze out over the dark bay
Reflecting our lives as glass.
Memories live but a season
And like a photograph
And erelong, I will be as one
Fading - crumbling fast.
When you are old and banjaxed
Will you still remember
And find there my countenance
Among the leas of Kenmare?
WHEN pillars fail
When walls break
My angel can bear
The unknown weight.
If darkness prevails
He comes striving
To lead me down trails
I've never been.
WHAT love is this
That spellbinds me
And keeps me returning
To read scripture?
Older I will get
And wiser I will be
'Til these times end
And I've endured.
THERE exists no place
Outside the Lord's grip -
From the outposts of space
To the eclipse of a pit -
He's never far away.
MUSIC starts my little church
And bids us goers "come forward" -
Timid and cleansing at first -
Bringing voices to one accord
Then Chris's voice waxing loud
And the piano's tempo
Make the atmosphere bound
To become a crescendo
When our song meets Him above
And the sweet chorus repeats.
Did such music greet Asaph
At the foot of heaven's gates?
IT was hefted upon a breeze -
As in a warm, flowing current
Through a sea of palo verdes -
To search for an embankment.
That seed of promise -
An implicit aster -
Was sent to broken gneiss
To become one with nature -
A golden bloom to come
To an expectant glen -
Not knowing how it found home
Except that it did.
FORGIVE me, young dandelion.
I did not feign disinterest.
My mind has running thoughts
That stole my attention.
You only meant to be a friend.
I was not being callous.
Your seedlings ought to whisk
Them away upon a random wind.
COME, graceful brittlebush
And creamy globe mallow blooms.
The winds of spring call you
Again from the sandy tombs.
Come, you dashing lupine
And join the wingnuts on the hills.
Go and place your annual stake
With them near the trails.
There is room, woolly daisies
And Engelmann's cacti, on the plain.
Come dressed in your best trimmings.
You are favored by the sun.
I will swing by and count you
Among my treasured finds.
Fill my life with flowers
So I know that I'm alive.
ONE Christmas, death showed up
To rip the bonds apart
And they, who were stunned -
Said their good-byes
Hastily at the tomb.
That same Christmas -
Another family opened their arms
To a transfigured man
Who wiped his eyes
And ushered him home.
THROUGH a break in the trees
Flows a tawny river
Sanding the rock endlessly
As a peerless carver.
The jungle is not seen
In the murky water's face.
The skies do not skim upon
Its delicate countenance.
It refuses the tree's growth.
The rushing seeks to replace
Tribulations for peace
Skipping them away.
Its waters fill my mind.
I remember Zongo Falls
As an obscure haven
For which my heart longs.