Dead Wood
Clear out the Dead Wood
Make a clean sweep
Cut to the cwic
Find the life, the green
Bend like the sapling
Sea oats in wind
Blue-grey sky against green
Clear the way for new growth,
new beginnings
Sunshine
Honey bees
The sweetest sting
This emergence of spring
Initiate the clean slate
Tabula Rasa
The clean brain
Empty heart waiting to be filled
Empty body, purified
Porcelain vessel
This lit house, strobe glow
Light departs & returns
Light Hope
The new, crisp, clean chapter
Leaf unfolds
Unload the dead weight
Remove the baggage
Discard despair;
Teary eyes & brooding faces
Heavy hearts & dark places
No more
Fight the pain, & rotten words, rotten jests
Grating on nerves
All darkness depart, darkness spent
Dry the river, pack the nest.
Clear the dead wood, shove aside
Kick of foot, kick up dust.
This is your new fresh breath.
This is your new fresh life.
Drop the rotten & decaying hues
Bruised azul, sick blue
Burn the wood, the rotten words
Let smoke banners furl & uncurl.
Tears wiped clean
Clearing ashen faces
Tears drying out
All sad traces.
Celebrate the gone & the gain
A new dawn day begins
Welcome in
Fresh new love
Sea foam or yellow-green,
The color of trust
The color of love

So,
I can't sleep
I think of the terrors
Mass murders
Suffering & Greed
I don't understand it.
I feel helpless, hopeless
I see no point to it.
I don't understand
So this is depression
Or
Is this the world
The world now
The world a whirl
of Suffering & Greed
I see the fat cats raking it in
&
I see flesh pulled tight over bones
The bears no longer dancing
but standing in locked cages
Begging for food
I have nightmares like this
And I pray
But what does praying do?
I listen.
I hear.
'Focus on the Little Things.'
Hold on. Hold still
Focus on your bed
your body
your immediate surroundings
Take care
make your bed
Rest your head
Wash
Breathe
Eat well
Move
Breathe
Breathe
Focus on the little things
Stay focused
Right here
Right now
Right in front
No past nor future
No countries or cities away
Look
There are things to help
Things to fix
Right in front
Make your bed
Rest your head
Focus on the little things
And don't forget to breathe.

A quiet alcove
Gentle ripples
Glintings of sunlight
The soft hush and whisper of a breeze
Think: ‘Still waters’
Drink it in
Quiet the chaos of your mind
Wash the dust of yesterday
From your hands
Plant the seed of love & trust
Forgive your sins
Gaze in deep deep
Dark tunnels
Wavering hues
Blue deepening
Still waters deep
Quiet the ripple beneath your skin
A cloud passes over the sun
The sky moves the water
The patterns change
The change begins in you, too
Grow your soul & spread your wings
Still Waters Deep

Our scars show the wars
Past tears & growth
Birth, trauma the healing over
The telltale signs
of living for better or worse
Reminders of pain, loss
Gain
What has been here &
now gone
Choices we made
Toxic spills
cleaning up
The calcification stone rub of our sentence & prison years
, Falling down
Falling up
the ****** **** gauzed over
Second skins

Words harming me and mine

bleeding on the inside

cuts tear scars sear
the burning of rhyme
chaos in mind
Faded welts from forgotten paths
but not forgotten for etched in flesh
Rivlets bumps holes
puckered scars
aberrations in our universe
The pink red welts
The wriggle worms

mind slashes time
our years our fears

Our scars & battles
Survive these days
our ways
past memories
ripping apart the darkness
Letting in the light
Green glow of heart
Glow of hope
The truest carefree smile
Full breath of life
No holding back relax

Our scars only signs
Our miracles of flesh and light
Revenants left behind
Momentos
Memories
Souveniers from the roads we traveled

I wish to store my scars Away in jars
I don’t mind the reminders

but please no remembering today.

I am the cheese
Swiss cheese
Standing alone
Riddled with holes
Riddled in life
In mind
This cheese stands alone
There is a hole
Not diminishing
Not healing
Still ragged and raw
Still bleeding
Your name on it
Label maker
Stick-on
Cut out
Super glued on
Oh Super you
Not healing
The start is in the forgetting?
Or perhaps, different ways of remembering?
Release all pain
This is the trick I fail at
If no gain, then pain
Something I am good at
I pick at the wound and make wider
I peel off scabs again and again
The red bright in my grey grey mind
The red a bright dot tattoo
Memento
These moments though
There is a perfect catch
Perfect chance
Perfect dance
I fail at catching the rhythm
Stumble & fall
Hole soufflé
Cold duvet
A hole by any other name…
I fail to catch the rhythm
(Not complimentary
But clashes of personality)
The dance, the chance
So much is lost on me
But You…
I fall through
The hole wider now than before
Oh Alice, be careful what you wish for
You riddled through
Riddle you
Standing alone
You failed to catch the rhythm
The chance, the dance
So much is lost on you
Riddled with holes
Riddled in life
Standing alone.



.......................................................­..........................................
Acknowledgements:
‘The Farmer in the Dell’ nursery rhyme (1820, GE)
‘I am the Cheese’ YA novel by Robert Cormier (1977)
All rights reserved.

Loving the Alien
The ghost
The unseen, undream
The fiction & the lie
Tears with why
No understanding
Confusion
Why can’t loved ones
Be in my life?
Is it pride, anger, guilt
Or shame?
There is a white warm glow in my heart
Love doesn’t die
Love remains
Anxious
Lost
Caught in the winds
Between two worlds
There is deep space multiverse
Metaverse
Black holes, whoa
Reverse
There is mind.
There is MIND.
Mine keeping me up late at night.
No sparkle unicorn or singing dolphin
There is static, crackle , chaos & crumble
Machine crunching
Sticky bits in teeth
Overwhelming noise
Whirlwind tornado
No one to hear but me
Crunching teeth
Loving the green glow
Radioactive tunnel
The depth is shocking
The cruelty astounding
But nothing tortures me
Like thoughts of you
Nothing true
Only fiction and lie
Fanciful disguise
You and I
So fake so frightened
So ******* what
Too cool for school
Too cool for each other
Lost in space
Lost to each other
Alien madness
Alien dream
Give up, let go
Come back to me
Drift slowly, languidly
Carefully
There is no pain in my arms
Only peace
There is a white warm glow in my heart
Love doesn’t die
Love remains.
There is no pain

It's Not the End of the World (Believe)

ITS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD
STOP YOUR CRYING
BELIEVE YOU CAN BE BETTER
JUST BELIEVE
JUST BREATHE
BEGIN AT THE MIRROR
LOOK INTO YOUR EYES
DO YOU SEE INSIDE?
LOOK CLOSER
WORK HARDER
TAKE A TINY STEP IN A NEW DIRECTION
DANCE
SING
JUST BELIEVE
YOU CAN BE BETTER
YOU CAN DO ANYTHING