Midnight
Her solemn gaze,
Fade into black with hints of cold light
Her echoed name,
Ghostly foggy breeze
Her sweet lullaby,
Thrice times the raven calls
Her wisest words,
Winters harshest night,
Her gentle kiss,
Little one
Your laugh is the brightest day,
Youth's grace,
Your smile is full of ease,
Dear,
Your tears raise life from barren seeds,
Lady,
You're heart bleeds life into dying days,
Aged and grey,
Your eyes don't hold back
O' moon up high
Hear the chant
Born to death and life
Endless cycles
A daughter's craven namesake.

My love,
My words have gone
I've lost the fire within
My mystic ease has run thin
This letter is my caged song
I have nothing left to give
And I'm tired of fighting to the ends
I never bought future dividends
So I write,
These lines you shall never read
To say the darkest things,
Deadly ease
Floating away in the breeze
Let my bones be
Spill my blood where the ground doesn't freeze
Set my eyes on the endless horizon,
High enough to see where the sky meets the sea
Bury my heart where my people be,
And if that is too much for now
I'll wait until Grace sees fit
Though my soul is ready to flee
This pain is deeper than it should be
And I've lost sight of the child in me

Harken the dark
In gulps and gasps
How easy it is born
Quenching itself
On a soft light
A candle amidst a black night
A friend or foe?
Empty and alone
Rushing in
Black waves of oceans cold
Home below
Beats a frozen sound
It's gotten so loud
The candle has lost its glow
And there is no one around

It's dripping down the walls
Sweet in taste
Bitter for the soul
Pleasant for the mind's control

Surrounding sounds
Nature calls and wild growls
Too much eaten
Yet starving despite it all

All the blood raining down
Doesn't relieve this hunger,
This dying ache
For love and fear surrounds

Won't you let me know
Before I go
That you heard my sound,
My hunger wasn't lost
Amid the jungle sounds

Tonight is a night of hallow
One we cannot share
In light or dark
It's a night beyond compare
Of wonders and horrors
Blatant to disregard my care,
Of what I speak
A wile of mine
That wanders my sacred places
Of grey and white
And where the caged beat roars,
Upon the midnight stars
Roam the horses
Of winds and dreams
Running fast
Upon cosmic sleet
The void of all who seek
An endless well
Reflecting each question back on thee,
Tonight is a night of hallow
The trees have said to me,
Follow the roots
Twisted and gnarled as they may be
White and black
For every scar and age
Ash upon your feet
Not to return from this night,
A night of hallow
A lonely journey of the soul
That must be complete.

Tonight is a night of hallow
One we cannot share
In light or dark
It's a night beyond compare
Of wonders and horrors
Blatant to disregard my care,
Of what I speak
A wile of mine
That wanders my sacred places
Of grey and white
And where the caged beat roars,
Upon the midnight stars
Roam the horses
Of winds and dreams
Running fast
Upon cosmic sleet
The void of all who seek
An endless well
Reflecting each question back on thee,
Tonight is a night of hallow
The trees have said to me,
Follow the roots
Twisted and gnarled as they may be
White and black
For every scar and age
Ash upon your feet
Not to return from this night
A night of hallow
A lonely journey of the soul
That must be complete.

I don't know how much to give or take
Should I live and let go
Or fight every moment I wake
I don't know

Fear hides in every corner
Dark whisperings asking for more
It's why I face forward
Never with my back to the door

I'll take it in stride
I can live without the light
It's not suicide
To gather my might for another fight

Sensitive is what I worry about at night
It keeps me up along with anxieties of the daily why
Do I love too much,
Or not enough for us to be alright?

I'm too tired from life
To give my all tonight
My faults give me strife
It's why I write

If I'm too potent for you
Say it when the sun dips
Just below the view
So I can take one last sip

Flickering vibrant life
Alive
Flames in your eyes
Tell the story of your life
Smoky hues of struggle
Rich blues of the destructive side
Your fire pleads for life
Raw and barren flames
Asking for respite
Fed to stay alive
Squashed enough to die
Your flame is brighter than this hue
Let it grow
Till it blazes
And you fear it burning you
Then you will see the fire in my eyes
And our dance will light the night

Ships coming down
Straits of bone
To the bottom hole
Last to see
First to go

Hallowed fields of gold
Brushing gently
Upon little toes
Running to hearth and home
Earth grown

Empty sounds
Go unnoticed
In this field of brown
Ghosts roam around
Knowing not life

Like a winged fowl
Piercing gaze
And hunter's scowl
The reaper comes down
To mazed fields

Graced by dark and light
The fields change
While shadows roam by
Seeking peace in dualities
Opposite extremes

Scythe in hand, harvest is swift
The shadows gaze with uncertainty
Of the unseen
And all within intuition's grasp
Of the threshing fields

Shadows move in sun and moon
Seeking
Fields of gold,
An end to rough terrain,
Answers to the pain

I crossed my legs and sat
Listening to the silver fox
Our shadows stretching in the moonlight
It's easier at night, he said
The shadows like to play and dance
It's how I came to know them
I've been the predator and I've been the prey
Both left me pondering what the stars say
Do they pity the mouse who lives to die?
Or praise the man who dominates everything but his life? he asked
I wouldn't know,
I've seen the mouse and I've lived a human life, I said
And now you aren't satisfied? he asked
I nodded
He chuckled with gleaming whites and said,
Like the shadows
It's an illusion you've lived
This is why we sit in the four winds
Each blows, saying it's time to grow
You're pulled all ways
But your mind has yet to let go
Release what you think yourself to be
And we'll begin the journey into the untold
First we'll roam,
There is a forest with haunted souls
Several are calling you home.

Should you ask of me
I'd give it all away
Light each broken candle
In eyes of grey
I'd find the silver in me
Make them gold
So they warm you in winter's breeze
Each drip of wax
Runs down my cheeks
Burning before its path is complete
Oil and sweet scents
Burn brilliantly
Each night I light what's left of me
Watch myself burn
Feel my warmth radiate through me
A thousand tears for each
Light the way
Twelve Candles
Lit in me

I turned on the gas till the flames took light
Watched the fire with flames in my eyes
Walked right in
Flames didn't even touch my skin
Cursed soul
Can't even burn alive
Heart tempered by starlight
Smoke in my lungs
Devil's child I've become
Special light
For every breath was my lullaby
Candlelight and explosions bright
The flames are the only time I feel alive.

My dear,
If I were to write you a song,
I'd surely fill my lungs

My dear,
If I were to write you a letter,
I'd surely kiss the sun
Burst into a thousand flames

My dear,
If I were to write your final words,
My pen would bleed
Of all you've been
And never seen

My dear,
If you learned I wrote your story,
Would you understand
Forgive me the tears
The loss within,
If you knew each line was a beautiful creation of mine?

My dear,
You are always mine
From infants cry
To burial time
Don't despair today
This line will become yesterday
You haven't seen my melodies or poetry
We'll kiss the sun another day.

Mighty pine
Age has rotted your branches
Your roots no longer caressed by vines
Your needles have fallen
Eighty feet high
You've touched the sky
Heard its whispers and sweet mysteries
Now you sway dangerously
A stiff wind shakes you horribly.

Mighty pine
You've seen seasons pass
Longer than many alive
Now it is time to rest
Your wood turns into a sweet smoke
An offering to the sky you reached
Freedom from your solid stance
A guardian you no longer need to be
Be free and kiss the sky for me

Have you heard the call home?
Do your dreams speak of the untold?
Does your inner world breathe life all of its own?

A bird of lofty heights soars
Its call a beautiful longing
Claiming the skies home

Pain written in lyric lines
Of caged rage
And nooses of rough twine

Snowy nights
Followed by sunny days
Whittling sticks of time

How's it all relate?
Freedom is a dangerous game
It flies in the face of proclaimed right

The heart betrays they say
The mysteries await
Enter Fate

My lover of the stars
My giver of refreshing light
My singer of the afterlife
I want you tonight
Caressing me with midnight breeze
And bittersweet symphonies
Reminding me what I cast,
Of the life I've lived,
All the times I did
And never been.
The illusion of life came to me
I was only five
It whispered to me
Told me the way
And to never forget its face.
Now I take my place
My wanderings took me away
I understand what I was told long ago
And why I see the world this way.
I've entertained the scholar and the soldier
I've tasted poverty and grace
I've wept and smiled on many days,
Now I look in your eyes
I shrink under their might
And I'm raised beyond any height
I see galaxies and eternity in your sights.
Be with me tonight,
Master of my dreams
Healer of screams
Come with me
All of my being
Let us breathe
Show me a taste of freedom
A feeling of complete
My inner being

Oceanscapes
Followed by swirled green
And jagged cliff face
Pinched between index and thumb
A child's hand
Small but fully in command
Sits the glass sphere
A world of fantasies
Ruled by the little king
He keeps his sphere in line
With all his other worldly glass
He counts and names them off
Declaring law on his domain
His galaxy until he grows up some day
He'll think of other things then
Until he grows old
And sees his old marbles
Will he wonder what happened,
To his peoples he created?
Or think himself an old man full of flight and fancy?
I hope he remembers
For the marbles sake

While falling down this dark hole
I stopped screaming and began to wonder
As dreams and memories became the same,
As voices soothed me from far away
Asking if I was really awake,
Was this pit reality?

A woman's voice so comforting,
Like cool ocean breeze providing certainty,
Washing over me in the dark
Is this memory?
Kindness drifting like fall leaves,
Gentle rains soaking parched feet,
Giving relief where I didn't know I need.

Falling erases memories
It scrubs clean the warmth
Leaving cracks that bleed
I've gone so far the ether speaks to me
Bringing me a cool sip of relief
Wet my aching throat
So my voice doesn't join the myriads of misery

The Ancients knew,
Tartarus was at our feet
The rivers of mortal life passing by without ease
Our shadows pulling another way
Bent on knees before the stars,
Asking for reprieve.

Hell isn't fire and brimstone
It's life unbelieved.

There is the poet who writes
Of broken hearts,
Love gone right and awry,
Then there is a poet who tells
Of lonely days,
Life's litte mysteries,
Another poet still will sing
Of beauty in nature's glory,
Of the seasons and roses,
The last poet will hardly be one at all
Not the most lyrical
Writing a soliloquy
From pondering love to moonlit nights
This poet will drown in thoughts
If you be a poet ask yourself one thing,
What do I leak?
Blood or poetry

I wrapped up my things today
Cleaned out my room and dusted the place
I tied a noose from the ceiling
And hung my heart from it, to air its woes
I sat and listened to it beat
Its constant thump echoing through the halls
Reminding me of this house in which I've grown
A house of bones
I know as I get older it will creak and moan
I count the scars in this house of mine
One, two, three..oh and one from when I tried to climb
I turn the faucets on so I remember it's okay to cry
I scrub the floors and paint the walls
Just to keep this house strong and all
I'm only a tenant in this house
But I call it home
This house of bones.

A record plays a scratchy song of yesterday
I sit down
Dust the weariness away
With some soulless rain

The sun sets
A reprieve from the snake
While my cares and apathy battle away
Seeking balance before the ending day

The words and thoughts are stale
I've tired of their endless debates
So I watch the sun set
Listening to Cohen play

I remember the day
All I felt and forgot
It may have been too much
That's okay

I know
And found a better way
A raspy tongue
Steinbeck feels the same to me

Some days I forget my way
I don't know what to say
My sighs are defunct
And silver is grey

Perhaps Cohen can light a match
Smoky voices and acoustic beats
Are beautiful today
After memory decayed

You look at me
Like you could command the sky and sea
If only the sea didn't thrash
And the sky wasn't so vast
It brings a smile to my weary face
The darkness in the eyes,
The pain hidden inside
My dear I've written those lines
It's why you feel safe in my sights
A port for a storm that's raging inside
You found something you like
If only I didn't thrash and seem so vast
Perhaps you could find mastery
But these are foreign seas
And the sky is storming, see
I see you looking at me
Wistfully
My dear, I am the sky and seas

A bird flew today
Through the leaves
And trees
Knocking dying leaves from their keep

A bird fluttered today
In my heart
Or in my stomach
I never knew

A bird left today
Taking the warmth
And summer daze
With prompt haste

A bird told me today
To take it easy
Let myself be
Spring will come

For now let death have its peak.

I once saw a swarm of flies
It was night
I was a child, a passenger with belt tight
No moon illuminated the sky
A lonely road with no one in sight
Only headlights
Lighting up the two laned road
South was reservation land
Filled with old mystery
And legends I grew hearing at night
North was a secret place
Government land, a base
Where some see lights or so they say
A lonely road bordered by these
With nothing but moths and flies
The night sky bright with stars
A streaking milky way
Our two lights making way in the night
A vortex of bugs numbing my eyes
An eerie feeling to be alone at night
Not a soul in sight
Even the stars watch with distant light
On a lonely road
The unknown on the left
Legend on the right
The road a fine line
My childish eyes seeing more than two lights
I see fireflies.

Once I wrote
It was free
And I drowned
In what I thought and what I feel
I found no limit to myself
And on this journey
I discovered
It started where I ended
With some words I wrote
On a paper hidden
In a place I had forgotten

I saw life and death,
Life in this here afterspell
For all its horror and beauty
It was an aftersight,
While death wore weary eyes
Begging for one more sleepless night

From all the fires of dying eyes
To the fields of pure sight
I saw myself wander from dusk to morning light
My memorial engraved in stone
My life with no dates to divine
How I came or left undefined
Time a mere observer of my soul's journey of the night

Leaves of amber and red
Yet remains of smoky skies
A dying year preparing for winter's cold embrace
Linear shadows facing away
While mine bends the light
A serene grieving time
Grieving is rejoicing another's life

Waters edge
Horizon line
Knelt beside
Drinking cool light
Currents swiftly passing by
Of nocturnal light

The edge of creation
Event horizon's light
The void pulls tight
Wrapped in rings
Drifting inside
I wonder
About the light
And dark

Mates
Whispering sweet carnal things
Of destruction and delight,
Morning dew
A lovely hue
Burned by day
Frozen by night

The edge of light
Dancing like it'll never die
Immortal taste of life
Brash and defined
Luminescent
Passionate
Etherally wise
Bringing tears to eyes

I wish,
I didn't float so easily,
That my lungs didn't rejoice so with cool air,
That the night sky didn't fill me with longing,
That my thoughts didn't touch eternity every night.

I am,
A million lights and a void with nothing in sight,
A tempest given form,
An echo of past life,
A sunrise and sunset folding into endless light,
A storm of unparalleled might,
The child of my dreams crying at night
And the one who comforts her each time.

I will,
Attach my willowy ways to sinew and bone,
Stick my feet in the Earth,
Find peace in my temporary home,
Ask the highest of you
And not think less of you when failure is due,
Be the gentle breeeze caressing your face,
And the violent hurricane bringing change,
Be the storm inside of my wildest dreams.

Do you hear the creak?
Of the wooden sign breaking free
This is Dead Man's Ranch
The horses died long ago
And the cattle don't graze any more
The plains wait for none
Thundering clouds beating down
On this blood soaked ground
A sacred town
Of dead and cultures long gone
Beneath the dusty bones
Are the lives who worked this ground
Can you hear their shouts?
Few can hear these calls
This country life is dying now
The last son loaded what father gave him
A piece of lead to protect this hallowed ground
Here he sits with the dead all around
Saying nothing as the dust stirs
The final beat of generations sound
Dead Man's Ranch
Listen now

Dead light
Passing by
More alive than you or I
Released into ether
Held by past memory
A balloon in a child's hand
Looking for ancestral might
Connection in our changing lives
Something to grab hold of
When the storm blows by.
When the light fades,
And I close my eyes
Let me go
I'll always be here,
In a cool breeze when the sun is high,
In the storm bringing water when the ground is dry,
And in the smile when you cry
A ghost I will not be
I'll exist in everything.

Voice ringing out silently
Where only shadows go
Memories coming round
Faces of the untold
They came easily enough
Seeking some sound
Silence knows no bounds
Breaking these walls down
Underneath was abandoned and cold
Dark shadows come
Their quiet gazes strike home
Breaking the heart's hesitations
Shadows where do you roam?
Have you found home?
Creatures of light and void
You understand the struggle within
Won't you stay?
Help me find solace within this shadow of home
Shadow calling was my gift
Born from grace in the unknown
Where darkness flows
And light bends to grab hold
Hear my calls
As I empty my soul

I disembarked at the last stop
It was fate
Though I didn't know it then
They said I would need to be patient
A foreigner in a strange land
I took jobs of all sorts
And did my best to always make amends
I learned to laugh and joke
As well as any native did
I made myself a life
Thinking nothing of the past
Until I found my ticket one day
Stamped at entry so long ago
I tried hard to remember my life then
Only to come up short
So I went to the port
And asked for any who knew me
Only one answered
Though his mind seemed less than sharp
He checked my ticket
And gave me a toothless grin
The last passenger he said
You stayed till fate released your hand

I stand here in morning rains
Grey skies
Surrounding me
I open up
Like the flower beside
It's cold
And drowning rain
Rinsing my soul
Of weary stains
Wet my eyes
Of tears needed yesterday
My soul was fixed
Lighting me with why
A melancholy scheme
Wandering the sky
A bird seeking home
Knowing its age is gone
Finding tranquility in pouring rain
Wet globes of home
Quenching dry eyes
Quintessence of solitude

Roaming through
No place else to go
Shadows call
Home wasn't here
The place where the burden goes
Shoulders aching
Under the load of a silent woe
Just a moment
An echo of home
Rest these weary bones
Violet rich
With eyes of storms
Soothing touch of otherworldly forms
Take me home
Where freedom roams

I wrote a dozen poems in one night
A dip into memoryscape
Take my hand and hold it tight
I've remembered the way
A place of serenity in my sights
My footsteps mark the place
I need a companion to remind me it's alright
Someone to grant me a little time
To reassure the pillar of its might
Wise man's knowing why
Needs the understanding Seer's eyes
The soldier needs to hold his weapon tight
The traveler needs a memory of home
And the seeker needs to know there is light
Empty eyes need sight
Relief comes one step away
Do not grieve me as I go
Empty eyes have glimpsed a sight

Like every day it comes and goes
A number on a page
Of September moon
The sixth day just like my great-grandmother
Except she she was in 1920
I came on Labor Day
My mother says she took the meaning seriously
But that was many years ago today
Three, six, nine
I've got them in spades
My poker face hides the smile that never fades
Born in dying heat of Autumn blues
Refreshing cool and end of summer
Have always been my restful cue
Twenty-seven may it be a good year for you.

Have you ever seen the moon rise
Fall on high tide
Echoes of cold light?
Have you ever looked in a pool of silver
Gaze at the reflection staring back?
Both speak of silence
Moments of thought not easily described
Have you witnessed the light in your eyes?
Or the pull and push of your tides?
At night when all is quiet and the world sleeps,
Have you looked inside?
Reflections
Real or not
What does the mirror say?
Of your windows and gates

When today sheds its skin
And becomes yesterday and tomorrow
Will the longing of today be spent?
The call of the void fading
As I close my lids
Echoes of past and future tense
Coming like horsemen
Demanding what I fear to give
One last breath before I slip
Into the soul's domain
One last look where my body lay
I hasten to hear what the soul has to say,
It's begun
Tell them I have come
And let go what you think you must become

You looked about twelve
With hair that had grown dark
You were gangly and thin
And could run fast
I chased you through the field
To that lonely hammock
Swinging in the breeze
The shade of the tree keeping us cool
On a warm summer day
The sky was so blue
You asked why I didn't smile like you
Or had fun the way you do
Looking long and hard
That youthful face came anew
The smile when I'd climb a tree
Or any other height
The scrapes and bruises from building a contraption or two
My smile did fade
And my eyes did dim
Now that I look at you
Can I play with you?
So I can remember
All the things that took me from you.

He went to a bitter place
There was too much hate
Perhaps that's why the bottle was never far from his face
When the forks came he always took the darker way
It led him here to a gutter of a place
He was content to wile away
Until she told him to get up one day
He yelled and cursed
How dare someone disturb his disgrace
She said nothing and edged him toward a cliff
If he was so miserable why didn't he end it all today
He sputtered and complained
But there was no sympathy on her face
She gave him the option to either fall down the rest of the way or come with her to another place
He chose to go with her after some debate
She led him away and he followed cautiously
She never said a word on the journey
Until they arrived where the winds meet
She led him into the sea
He panicked when he was neck deep
But she drug him further
He cried and screamed, she was killing him
She laughed, asking how she could **** what's already dead
He protested that it could not be
She smiled and shook her head
Saying he had died in the gutter a while ago
He hadn't learned that he could move past it you see
She came to show him another way
But first he must release all he's been carrying
So breathe the water deep
Let the bitter man lie where your body sleeps
The only thing to lose is suffering.