Visiting on a summer breeze
Knocking on the wooden door
Knowing I'll always answer
Carrying scents of salty seas and earthy flames
Dusk hazes your eyes while the stars keep you alight
Smile of a thousand suns
You ask me to stay
To hear the crickets play
Longer days are your symphony
The nights my delicate tapestry
Sitting on the horizon with me
My passing love
My sun among the skies
I'll shine bright in the night
Until you come to visit again
And we can enjoy the silence on the shores of the midnight sun.

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

A hunter walks
In a subtle stalk
Holding his breath and refusing to talk
Waiting for his prey
When it appears his rifle is cocked
His lungs go quiet and his heart quickens
He pulls the trigger
The moment cannot be forgotten
Life and death hanging in the air
Like scents of apple blossoms
All a hunter will ever be
The silence unforgiven.

A bitter truth I sit down to write
But the words stop and nothing flows
So I sit and think
Stare at the wall and wonder about the paint
Is it grey or primer paint?
Then I remember what I came to say
If only the words would stay
So I decide to come back another day
Only to find the words at 2 am
There goes another night of sleep
Written in four words I weep
"Why can't I sleep?"

I wrote today
As I do most days
A journal locked away
Kept for posterity's sake
It doesn't hold my name
And the grammar is far from okay
I wrote today
As I do every other day
Tears no longer flow
And anger does not taint my soul
They both have found a home
In a the pages of my tome
My journey has taken me here
To the land of no man, alone
No footsteps to guide
I wrote today
An inscription of the person I am for another day
When I forget the shadow that led me this way.

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

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.

Through my eyes,
My human eyes
I saw you standing there
Afraid with eyes bright
Aglow with instinctual light
A hint of recognition sparking to life
A smile of mine
With kind eyes
Will they show you my compassion?
Sitting down in the moonlight
Waiting patiently while you pace
Wild and untamed with feral eyes
Nothing as beautiful as you roams the night
Our empty lives incomplete
You are free and I sit silently
Forever gazing at each other
Separated by mere shadows and light
My beautiful wild sight
I'll watch you every night

A writers pen
Well used and ink stocked
Sitting in a storm of dark and light
Darkness that cannot be seen
Lightning that can be breathed
Wet electricity
Warping drying ink
Tears of rain blurring lines
Emptiness as the storm ravages away
Gentle patter of rain
Followed by the hurricane
Beauty of the storm
Seen in dried ink
Not when the winds and rains blasted down
Buzzing with electrical fill
Writers sit down with quills
Mastering the storm of wills

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

The hills burned
The blue sky turned dark
As smoke blotted out the sun
Gracing the valley in red dusk
Burning skies
So beautiful tonight
Embers of brush and piñon pine
Nature's destructive light
Raining ash
With gentle might
Dying skies burning bright
Wildfires decimating for new life

Empty muskets
Breathing life and piercing holes
Tasting metal in your throat
Red rocks of oxidizing ore
The dirt is already filled with it
Why does it need more?
Ares colors run deeper than gold
Blood moons in prophecies of old
Deep red of our veins coats the Earth
Leeching life into our hearts
From cries and screams to hollow weeps
Blood born from mothers to Earth.

Like a little lone puppy seeking a home
In memory and history
Catching attention in little things
A scent of laundry detergent in the breeze,
To remind of youthful summer breaks
A song playing from another day,
Reminding of a time and place
A taste of another's drink,
Reminiscent of a lover who has gone away
Go on home pup and wait for me
I'll come along later and we'll play
For all the yesterdays and todays

Rise from ash and dust
Soughter bones until their tough
Call of the night
Is birth and death come to life
Resurrection cry
Rise from the ground to the sky
Bringing light on the darkest night
Combusting to bring darkness in the brightest light
Fly with me one more time
I'll burn us to the ground and make us new tonight
Magic born from ash and dust
Birth and death a cycle of rite
Hear the birth pangs and dying gasps
The balance of creation and destruction
Coming to life in fire and light

Skin with skin
Holding tight like it was the last night
Said you sleep better when I'm by your side
I ward away the sleeplessness
And demons of the night
You watched me breathe
Worried when I shook
Little did you know,
I had my own battle to fight
My peace that warmed your eyes
Was something earned every night
I never asked for you to hold me tight
But I needed it all the same
When the demons of the night come
I'll help you fight them off
I've been to this place
The demons know my name
War leaves scars
I know
I'll stay by your side
When the day comes I lose my fight
I hope you'll be by my side.

I hear you calling my name
Looking back from some other time
I put the phone down and I'm not opening the door
I'm not answering anymore

You think you're a wolf
Stalking the prey
Let me show you something real today
When I release the lioness from her cage

I see them coming across the plains
Dressed in white
Pretending they are messengers of the divine
They are coming for me
Little do they know
I'm not clothed in sin or dressed in white

Hate never stood at the door
But justice came by and spoke to me
Claimed she saw me on the front page
Of a book long escaped
Since she's companioned with me
And now she's asking your name

I hear you calling my name
Looking back from some other time
I put the phone down and I'm not opening the door
I'm not answering anymore

Because if I do you'll be at death's door.

It's a bitter potion
It sours my stomach and taints my mind
Hovering over me in the dark of night
I remind myself it's an enemy I have faced before,
"Nothing is to be feared", I whisper
No matter the lies it says,
I tell myself to sleep but know I won't
I settle for waging war against myself
These anxious thoughts shout a battle cry.
There is a war waging in my mind
I hear the battle cry
I don't need any to confirm or deny
Anxiety is in my mind
So I put on my helmet and strap a weapon to my thigh
I never really hung up the uniform of my soldiering time
I settle in for the long battle into day.

I saw the barren street,
Full of empty sound.
Children looking for some place to be,
With no one around.
Such a proud people once roaming free.
The marks you left on this land are clear.
I see it on the rocks, etched in stones.
A wisdom forgotten,
Of stars above and seasons long ago.
Now that's slipped into eternity,
But I still see the proud gleam
When you sing,
The chant a rhythmic pulse.
I feel the dance of your feet against the ground
And I know this empty land still calls you home.
I smile when I hear your drums
To a life buried but not gone.
I live not far though this is not my own.
This land knows and these mountains speak,
The red of this ground flows in you,
Children of the ground.

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

Wintry tales
Of warmer days and green space
Jagged snow capped peaks
So high up there is little to breathe
Nestled in cliffs is a warm place
Where my heart beats
Far away from anything
I don't recall putting it there
But there it beats
With strings of soul attached
In the broken peaks it waits
Unbroken and untamed
Its thunderous beat is frightening
Sometimes it scares my sleep away
The electricity arcing through nodes
Down to the bundle
Commanding every fiber that exists
It waits
For the day I can reach the airless peaks
Claim what's mine
And will always be

In the dark,
Candles whisper
Smoky fingers of a lovers embrace
Heartbeats thunder,
Happenings of the heart play in beautiful twisted ways,
Day is a passing memory
A season of warmth forgotten until it returns,
Monsters lurk in the shadows
But they're scared of the creatures of the sun

In the dark,
The stars remind us we are dust
It releases the mind from its tethers
Madness and freedom at our fingertips
If it wasn't for the dark
We wouldn't see the stars
Would we think our dust is all we are?
Pins of light
So far away
Of another place
To remind us to cherish our speck of dust amidst the space.

Come to empty your soul
Of its wants and needs
Pay with your desire
This is Walking Weep
Where talk is cheap and the band never sleeps
Take the left road there
Right after the willow tree
We sit on the crossroads of hell bent and apathy
Have a drink, it's free.
Sit on down and tell the barkeep,
Whatever keeps you from a good night's sleep.

I have a fear
Of something real
And something dear
No matter the lies I tell it's clear,
I hurt and so I fear,
A stranger who nears
It's love I fear.

Thundering plains
Winding down a valley haze
The heart came to play
But its lonely beat was not met
So the horses came
Trotting in time
They knew the spirit of the wind
And the passion of the land
When the beat is left alone
Listen closely for thundering hooves
Coming to meet the heart
Free in the wildness
The horses come to dance with the lonely beat

A thousand days
Followed by a thousand nights
Callused hands and silk ties
Each a different journey of the night
Scabs and names becoming all the same
Three hundred more
Whistling a song at the door
A simple melody
Of a hundred scores
Carried in every lore
Another night
How nice
I look up high and see the sky
Smiling wide
I whistle for each life
Each in my mind
I'm becoming whole tonight.

Three ranges
Running North and South
Miles expressed homeward bound
Jagged peaks
Plummet down
Earth's chest breathing in rise and fall
Easy now
Two valleys
Empty barren lands
One road stretching down
Through the valleys
Where shadows dip
Painting their shrouds
So the sun may not beat down
Three ranges
Two valleys
One road
Summit peaks and empty creeks
The valleys do speak
To all who travel the open ground

Grey setting in
Turning darker with each passing wind
Blotting out the sun
Winds raging in
Bending grass and trees thin
Agitated clouds taking in dry air
And dusty winds
Storms of breath is all it is
Grounds meeting skies that bend
I'd rather stormy skies
Then sunny days and shallow winds
I don't know why
Been that way since I was a little tyke
Grey skies grant my eyes,
Sweet relief and breath of life
Empty your skies on mine
Rains dance with me,
Thunder provide the beat,
Lightning make me see.

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.

Been looking in my well as of late
Saw my reflection on the watery face
I don't have much to say
There was plenty to hear
But I didn't want to listen
I was tired of its watery song
It's been quiet as of late
Leaving me with my wintry soul
It weaves and blows
Its direction unknown
Always returning with a story
Been looking in my well
Saw my watery face
Never dry as silence unfolds

I walked away
To a different night
To a different life
A dream of another time
If I'm alive how come I go?
If I die, will I come alive?
I walked away tonight,
Left this life
In the morning perhaps I'll return.

In my hallowed keeps I roam
Never knowing if the path I'm on is right or wrong
Only discovering when I step on
It is both and none,
Libraries of old
Holding stories never told
Walking the halls and rows
My cup overflows
As I drink from what I've always known,
My soul is busting these bones
I know I'm heading home
The compass points north
To the lands in which I've grown
As my journey grows
I write the unseen and untold
For anyone to see
It's time the stories are told
The oracles speak and minds are set free
Settle down and listen
To the Storyteller who has come to wake you from sleep.

There is a man who lives on a corner
Where students live, right next to the practice fields.
He's older and a smoker
He stands on the corner everyday
At a four-way stop
Smoking one after another.
I've seen him in snow, bitter cold and sweltering hot days.
Always smoking
He's out all day it seems,
Watching the cars pass by
Pausing in confusion because they don't know how to obey a stop sign.
I think he must laugh sometimes
Watching the world pass by.
I've seen him for years but I've never known his name
He almost seems like an old friend sometimes
I pass by and see him there nearly every time
I always wonder why
What led him to a life of smoking all the time?
I know the answer I heard it one time,
A veteran who didn't come back alright,
people whisper in shame as they pass by.
But his eyes are a genuine kind.
He smokes, killing time.
I wonder if he's just waiting to die
But still I see him and he brings a smile to mind.
To the man on the corner, smoking all the time.

Late last night
I sat on the highest hill
A child among mountain giants around
But still a lovely little hill
The monsoon battles the dry
It has every night
The half moon was bright
Shining amidst storm clouds
The cool breeze pushing lazily by
A battle of moon and clouds played out
It was a glorious sight
The clouds would darken the sky
Brightening only with lightning
Then the moon would shine
Declaring its superior light
Only to darken once more
The battle waged for hours
Until my eyes grew tired
My last sight a triumphant yellow moon
Then I closed my eyes
And the clouds had won

Built on a sunny day
Intended as a fortress
To keep the darkness away
But it faltered in the dead of night
The guards scattered as it went alight
They hollered and shouted
But nothing stopped the blaze
Not the coldest water or stormy rains
It smoldered and flamed
In the most spectacular way
A horrific beauty to see
As this castle burned with no relief.

On a dusky day it was built
Salvaged from skeletons and heaps
It crumbles at times
And the guards are always busy,
Minding its failing keeps
But none have trespassed
And the darkness stays away
This castle of ash has proved stronger in every way.

No one comes along to take your hand
The path long left the map
Your footsteps are on an empty pass
Your shadow is the only company
On this singular path
Many will try and take you from it,
Offer safety in numbers in a broken system that long passed into yesterday's abyss
Fight for who you are
And take no one's word for wise
The guide is you and the path is only for your eyes
Embrace the life you have
The show will not last
And this illusion will have lost its chance
Learn what you can and make it last
The steps on this path are yours to find
Take it in stride
Leave the masses behind
You'll be alright

Come back to us,
My son so sweet
A face too young to be taken away.
My daughter,
Drawn away to this careless world
It does not deserve your grace.
My loves,
I am with you in every breath
It will always be this way.
Torn away by petty things and historical mistakes.
I will never send you away,
I wait with warm embrace
Do not leave a folded flag in its place.
Come back to us
We wait,
Every generation a dying race
But a mother always waits.

A swath of fabric worn and old
Patches upon patches
The shoulders worn beyond repair
No protection from the bitter cold
Hardly a coat to protect the little man
Who hurries along the cobbled streets
Of his cold and clouded city
A denizen of little want
Serving mother Russia with little pay
Harldy enough to buy a new cloak
He douses his candles to save them
And steps lightly to save his shoes
To buy a new cloak to keep him warm
A necessity giving hope in his dreary life
Brightening his mood
He steps out in his new cloak
That he scrimped and saved for a year
Feeling like a rich man in his warmth
A few days of happiness bought
A great expense for a lowly man
Taken by harsh men of ill repute
So broken was the little man
He died very soon
Haunting the people of his city
For the cloak taken from him.

Black or blue
Iridescent feathers shimmering through
Scavengers with a noble walk
A raven squawk

Beauty in the sun
As it rearranges pebbles just for fun
A trickster, an omen of insight or ill
Beak meant to pierce old kills

The raven den was empty here in
But they still squawk
On a pole watching the world go
Looking for a shiny stone in the empty roads

Laughing without stock
To their friends and enemies aloft
Intelligence in their eyes
Claiming more than mere sight.

Good or Evil?
Simple terms
Circumstance and happenstance
Treated equally by the tactician
Grave ambition
Touched by sedition
Allied?
Never truly known
Honor code
To a people unknown
A servant never meant to bow
A warrior or a monster
Depends whose writing now
Know when he comes around
You've lost before you began
It's only a matter of time now

Whistle, breeze and blow
Full of words and promises
Some are sweet, others cold
Some sting and bite
Others are wise and old
Hear them all
But do not make them your own
Unless they sit right and speak to your soul
They often whistle, breeze and blow
But it doesn't always make it so.