Beneath a Fearless Sun

Beneath a fearless sun

I wander

With only a name and a face

And no story to put to them

I remember the stars

Their light once guided me home

But now

Beneath a fearless sun

I wander

I could stare for hours

Into endless blue

And never see another star

I remember the stars

Their light once guided me home

Their light

And the light of that smile

The one that lit towns from here

To that land of heavy winters

Facing that smile

I could stare for hours

And never see another star

But from here

To that land of heavy winters

I wander

In search of the story

To put to this name (and face)

Remembering the stars

And hoping

Their light will guide me home

To a smile

That lights towns

Beneath a fearless sun

Musty eye weight

Must I?

Like a burning stinging sight

The tear blurred light

No. Not me.

Eyes so dry

They belong on a British tele

Yet a deadpan face

Belies all that happens inside

And the eager tail-chasing race

Of puppy dog hopes abide

In this eye-browed, scruffy-bearded kennel

In the quiet minutes of the night

I think I must fight

Hours and days

That hang like a weight around my neck

A weight of waiting

And as I weigh theses hours

Against the days that went before

I think I can take a few more

But I want to know what’s in store

So I can purchase or walk away

But that’s not how it works today

That’s just selfish and mean

(As in: on the fence)

That’s not the routine

(I don’t even know how to fence)

I wait?

Not sure, perhaps a few ounces

A few too many perhaps.

Eyes weigh heavily on the mind

Ounces don’t weigh into it

Pounds and tons neither.

A ton perhaps

As a wait and not a weight

A ton of waiting to see those eyes again

But I’ll try the part of a patient man

I’ll play my act

(It’s the little button with the triangle)

Wait for the finale

(And the crescendo!)

Skip the applause

(The joys of modern technology)

Hop off the stage

(I swear it was genuine)

Go out the door

Of this week, month (or however long it takes)

And dance with a smile

Into her arms

Must I wait?

In My Head

A thought that cannot be dislodged by q-tips

Is bouncing around my skull

Causing the playful havoc of my mind

I’m a photo of motion at night time

Like a calm sunrise after a hurricane

Like a typhoon after placid seas

This thought makes no sense

And came without warning

But there it is—

Its very reality belying its nature;

It cannot be and yet it is

So where a head (and heart) once seemed empty

Now a constant chaos reigns

And maybe it’s all in my head

A simple infatuation

A made up yarn or thread

But a story (if that’s what it is)

Is so exciting when you’re on the first page

So give me some advice and make it sage

And season it all over this mental soup I’m in

Cause I’m drowning and I forgot to swim

But the thought... it has not

It still does laps

In my head

Reason Ends at Love

I.

All reason ends at Love

And there, at the borders and the foothills,

The cyclical train halts

To let the world weary and adventuresome off.

From the station they depart

Solitary or in twos

To cross the wastes and crags

Of false starts, betrayal and broken hearts.

Many lose their way, become sick and hard

Head back to the station and wait...

But reason’s train is difficult to resume

Once quit for the high domain of Love.

It stops to let off passengers

More often than pick-up

And many stops are in darker realms

Than the daybreak lands of Love

Yet those who pass through wastes,

Shadowed valleys and icy streams

To reach the stretching, rising roots

Of Love’s great mountain wall

Will see their trials multiply

At entering fair borderlands

Some will tire on a cliff face

To fall beneath bright mists

Some will turn for laziness—or fear

To wander back through lonely wilds

Some will fold before the crest

And sit and wallow—heedless of how far they’ve come.

Myriads lose all they are

On the mountain walls of Love

Still those who lose themselves upon

The mountain’s sunlit face

And yet continue chanting strong

“Further up and further in!”

These pilgrims cross the peak-tip’s blade

Not noticing its bite

And entering will find an inn

For their journey’s earned respite

II.

“Don’t pillow long your weary head”

The innkeeper will say

“You still have many lengthy miles to travel on the way”

At the summit you thought you’d found

Your journey’s ending place

But in the distance you can see

A higher mountain range

And all your efforts seem to be

A child’s mere bouldering

How can I climb those mountains there?

—I barely made these hills

My weak and fledgling efforts have

All but drained me of my will

“Fledgling? Yes, but don’t you fret”

Said the innkeeper with a smile

“I’ll guide you further on your way

Just walk another mile”

I thought it would be easier

I dreamed of a plateau

But now I see it’s harder still

There’s many miles to go

“You entered Love down at the roots

Of this great mountain wall

And those who failed to make it here

Retreated to their fall”

This journey ever upwards, inwards

Is harder than I thought it’d be

But I cannot imagine turning

That just might be the end of me

“So keep on going upwards, inwards

To the lands above the clouds

And when you cannot go on climbing

Call for me and don’t be proud”

Ridiculous! How can he come

To raise me up from the abyss

If he is here within this inn

While I fall off the precipice?

Then with a twinkle in his eye

The innkeeper did say:

“These lands are mine and I’m the King

I’m sure I’ll find a way.”

Egypt

Fragile as a crystal feather
Hopeful as a child
Stronger than she has been ever
More beautiful and wild

I Am Cold

My veins are ice my breath is dry

While winter burns my soul

And here I stand: an island lone

I’m so much less than whole

The sea of voices flow around

To barely glance my shores

My bluff-faced walls have kept me safe

But now I wish for more

An island lone enshroud in dark

Is torn to shreds by breeze

And shore’s pale comfort doesn’t last

When waves erode with ease

The rising tide heralds the sun

While I wait for a graze

Of some warm skin upon my sand

Or sun’s all burning blaze

And there! A sailor, here at last!

He must have seen my fire

His coming now has rescued me:

A lone and starved vampire


(Poetry Communities:
http://bigtentpoetry.org/
http://poetryblogroll.blogspot.com/2011/02/thursday-think-tank-35-shadows.html)

The Web

Nearsighted hunchbacks dimly pass the time

Watching the victories and failures of

Liquid crystal denizens. Watching all

Across the meaningless distances spanned

By gold filaments and fiber optics.

Distances are eliminated while

Voids greater and lasting fill their spaces.

The crisscrossing wires wrap around the globe

And trap the earthbound daughters and sons of

Spiders who spun too much web to escape.

As if leaving was on their minds – eyes

That cannot see through flimsy manmade screens

Cannot dream of higher and further things.

So hunching to their screens they keep their watch

As all around them the void thickens in

Its emptiness. Rampant webs of  purblind

Spinners indiscriminately catch prey.

Whether bright-eyed youth or graying matrons,

Intellectual or professional,

All the quick will become mere spectators

Within the spreading demon-weave dragnets.

The quick and the dead will be difficult

To distinguish in the encompassing

Torpor. “As it should be!” says our fey foe,

“For my victory is achieved when great

And small children of men do naught but lie.”