Sunday, February 27, 2011

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

Monday, February 21, 2011

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?

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

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

Sunday, February 13, 2011

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.”

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Egypt

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

Thursday, February 10, 2011

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:

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

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.”