"The poets eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and name."

- A Midsummer Night's Dream (V.i)

Intersteller dust everywhere
though no costodian within telescope site
stars form, collapse under the bed,
taking a sock into black hole amnesia

Dreams shake a cosmic snow globe
comets, planets, candle flames, float
flowing in deep purple ink, almost void black
with spiral apparisions, smashing like goats

At night, last, the moon stopped, full
waking a pillow tossed restlessness
freying like edges of quantum memory foam
trying to fall back into slumber and endlessness

Long-ago-galaxies send photon lullabys
folded in the bedding of space/time
bending around massive editor's eye
serve as balm, a sleeping Brahman's rhyme

-cec

rain's tin roof voices
Northern Flicker's Harpo horn
day's soundboard prism

cec

waters bend shoreline
under billowing clouds
mirrored blind white, groping
wrapping around mountain trees
drifting in dusk's catnap

-cec

Snap-bone crushing loneliness
saps these last human desires
music's food spoiled moldiness

muted in feelings feeding calcined pyre

Winter's smoke threads coil skyward
into bent gray heavy clouds
tarry over these tired tombs

ferry-man bowed, slow over Styx, haunted, cowled

Now is this solstice slump home
despondent excursion south
exposing deep in marrow

decomposing airs of Bohemian couth

-cec

Caesar,
et tu Brute;
find crosses for eyes
in greater number than cloud nine
with no more use of life's
accumulated stills
amounting to naught

All our labors lost
one quick shutter click
a quietus consuming trick
played out on curtained stage
ambling scarecrow like
straw for end's wisdom
coins resting for vision ...

-cec

All these poems entombed in a dying bog-

their death wish come true
mourned by poets in communion
dead muses in abject thread count shrouds
there lay Brute in his "et tu" tu?
there Cesar bleeds for art and politic
a writer's sword rusts in obscure earth

though here, among Himalayan thorns
blossom greens and early orange berries
plucked by blue birds and titmouse
scratching foot-tiny script onto tree moss
read by a literal sway of conscious antenna
archived in depths of a comatose cosmos

-cec

Crescent Moon, tell nigh Venus
Mar's eye a ménage à trois
tangled night of domestic wine sky
and kicked heel skinny giggles
descending from a deep cosmic
sigh, breath, breeze
while here on firm frigid terrace
light shivers its evening ambitions  
pinching a twinkle of libidinous stars

≈ cec

gentle in the morning air, this-
which swings upon grey mist
as light and shadow soon appear
among the hush-hush leaves

this winter wet has now beset
within the orchard's glean
where viscid mud and bracken rest
and pearls of rain drops gleam

red berries lure wide eyes that bite
to satiate their gnaw
from limb to branch with claw or flight
for each must heed this call

with roiling clouds of hues and tint
above this valley's lows
these fronts move cardinal quint
in convection's rise and flow

from ages past in lineage lasts
with Raven's heart and soul
upon these western waters cast
through weathered mounts in snow

in this tale as solstice nears
beneath transition's Northwest blow
loyal stewards of this land revered
in humble cedar house repose

receive these then agreeable rains
that nurtures one and all
know this sacred season's reign
as chronicled forward in this squall

-cec

On paper, strings whorl
simple crayon colors swirls
doomed in attic's dust

-cec

a scent of roses fill this room
giving clues to summer's bloom
magnified through water's lens
thorns belie our velvet friends

a mouse once helped a lion's paw
who bawled to heaven with his pall
Hawthorn trees, appropriate name
sharp hawed lion with kingly mane

healing beauty eased its pain
as pity brooked the mouse's brain
a greater beast brought down to serve
the lesser mouse with velvet fur

a moral seems to lend its fragrance
as nature builds eternal rings
take this leaf, humbly snipped
as aphid clings to flower's hip

-cec

a dragonfly sat in this yard
atop a stick not far from near
above the poppies, above the mint
from sun above its eyes did glint
no hurry as the wind caressed
as shadow moved upon its rest
the time advanced, it floated by
this insect chose to stay awhile
then like all things it moved along
on flower heads and currents song
its gone now as the day grows long
from moments sight to fluttering gone

-cec

Federico García Lorca --

Dawn in New York has
four columns of mire
and a hurricane of black pigeons
splashing in the putrid waters.

Dawn in New York groans
on enormous fire escapes
searching between the angles
for spikenards of drafted anguish.

Dawn arrives and no one receives it in his mouth
because morning and hope are impossible there:
sometimes the furious swarming coins
penetrate like drills and devour abandoned children.

Those who go out early know in their bones
there will be no paradise or loves that bloom and die:
they know they will be mired in numbers and laws,
in mindless games, in fruitless labors.

The light is buried under chains and noises
in the impudent challenge of rootless science.
And crowds stagger sleeplessly through the boroughs
as if they had just escaped a shipwreck of blood.

An orange sun decends low mountain
shadows climb high the snowy crags
small birds disappear into silent forest
a beeswax candle lites near a cabin window

the inkstone wetted, the brush drinks deep
flowing slow strokes of evening's lament
when heart yearns and love relents
every tremble a storytelling twilight sleep

-cec

silly sung a soggy song
of tears wrapped in an envelope

years all tapped with angry raps
as neighbors' shades were drawn

scrawling bye 'n byes in flowing ink
all strung with notes of woe
postage licked with bitter spit
heart's bucket pours the soul

poets write to move the wind
lead like all Nantucket quilts
friendship and industry woven tight
too understand the cause to plight

today away from nay and sorrow
embrace the path to reach the 'morrow

-cec

Skype died yesterday-
assassinated for Dialing M-for ...
broken packet lengths
severed heads and tails
pixalated mumble-jumbo
a photo swirling mess
Its popping tune buttons
scattered floor waxed bounces
your contact under a refrigerator's pan
gathering dust and spider eggs
waiting to hatch a time-machine message
a Pleistocene missive of steamy goo

-cec

These old knees bark, longing sapling sinews-
with love, beauty, pleasure, songs of nature
sweetest passion, coy-eyed, lingers in you
while years man's core stretched heart's nomenclature
Deep now buried in roots hieroglyphic
nourished by once romance, moon light dancing
soon thoughts turn cypher, Orphic metaphysics
trying to sense nigh want or plight's advance
Finding smooth stones pocketed hand to wait
counting beaded moments beating ascent
where **** Aphrodite, wraps arms in warmth
protogenos Eros in flight's ferment
Ancient loyal feelings plod toward sea-foam  
emerge, reborn, accompany thee home

-cec

The very thought of you
strums time out of day-*


This baked wilderness defies emptiness
as cactus flowers bloom for none
in sun's blistering sorcery
as scaple sharp, shadow surgery

Of this sovereign heat spell
bleached dunes give way shells
crackling weeds, sentry sands
let arid Bristlecone land

Downward rooted and hoary
fibrous fingers sprout steadfast
retelling scrub brush stories
of phloem wine, mirage's vacuous blast

Clouds, in debt to ocean's soul
owe, are owned by Helios aloft
shape shifting steamy billows
promising royal anointment

Then this evening after life
when all is but spent in scurry strife
let it dwell upon a dream
of leopard rains and keystone schemes

Before silhouette night's numb lull
forcing close to petal's remit
in desiccated continental drift
prepare this silent will

-cec

hearts suffer great loss
hummingbird's tongue drips nectar
wings muted beating

-cec

This sadness in your eyes, eyes, eyes
plumbs abysmal depths
irretrievable dreams in debt

Here as viewing province, hesitant to pry
as  meddlesome, these subterranean wounds
in howling incubus despair

upon a sea of pregnant cries
aware, that we are life marooned
to test what we can bear

Transform, yield burdened truths
pull wool from heady visions
reveal your hearts, release regrets
reclaim joy's favor, and heal incisions

-cec

Fog rolls bank on ocean's crest
over mounds of roaming waves
buoy bells float in dissonant beats
near shores of sand-piper beaches

clangs that mark a barrier's depth
where sunken vessels sailed
and now these tolls extol their death
to those who brave this veil

the question lies on either side
and where these ship do round
on going out and coming in
through narrow's passage bound

-cec

Dear feathered friend
what do you rend?
a worm from down low
or grub with no toes

Up 'fore dawn's porridge
you care for no storage
'cept to fill a small belly
with nutricios bug jelly

Quick in you flutter, by an' bye
tree's tea leaf readings, fool the eye
you twitter, tin whistle, and tweet
announcing your day's avian treats

-cec

You, now turn to ashes, still call my name
diminished and watery as rolling waves:
you were my heart, you were my same

telling me you are gone to Elysium's gate
fate, draws a line in sand and castle's breach
witnessed with hesitant eyes that uneasy wait

time has run its course from ocean deep
to find upon this land's end awash in sorrow
where creatures immemorial crawl and weep

You were my heart, you were my same
Your turned to ashes now and I have no name
"waves and waves good bye, down to the sea"

-cec

Fire, Water, Earth, Air
Suspended —
between red and black
arousing over horizon
as dusk sparks crimson dreams

-cec

Their faces distorted
while bodies contorted
soon are deported
transported to hell

Painted dysfunctional
classic untouchable
labeled as fractional
migrant they dwell

Pharaoh's adorn
pharos do warn
these masses forlorn
narrow politics swell

homogeneity
sprung from Greek deity
democracy with fealty
a perfect union knell

-cec

All of us Americans ─

a tilted cowboy hat in a black & white photo
quoif, scarf, pins and a sprung natural look
flowered, dresses below the knees, short sleeve shirts
old clothes, flashy new and coal dust overalls
rouge color on pale cheeks below sad clay gaze
beards, no beards, eyebrows that come and go
smiles, leers, frowns, cheers, questioning mouths
kissed & kiss-less lips, painted, puckered, pouting
first picture, last, in-between, life and love
lonely portraits, family gatherings, couples cling
eyes peer at future viewers, wells into a soul
wallpaper thin stares, opaque glints at eternities
bursting happy faces radiating morning's first light
left right, left right profiles, marching off a stool
chair, log, fence, tree, minutes after mile markers
in a long chain of humanity migrating into frames
captured moments of agony and ecstasy flagged
absent red, white, blue in our film noir, still life, body

cec-

Traveling in rising walking strings
you stretch out these soulful sinews
and tune your mandolins of song
of seasons and tall waves on deep
whaling, wailing a home longing
in lungs breathing for both of us
on traditional barks and harbor docks
wanting, waiting, wanting
pickity passion's dancing flocks
of ******'s doves to prompt
voices aimed at golden gates

-cec

Trolls don't yield their way
finding innocent creatures
to trample, ****, eat
dyes cast in shadows
paint lurid landscapes hidden
in ghastly form bets
poisoning our life waters
******* words of hate
waiting under blind bridges
Let truth find its level
streams of savoir-faire master
chasten, unto love's new day

-cec

A rat stood on his hinds, in grass
between sidewalk and street,
gazing up with one eye it asked:
"Should I run? Stay here, delay
and sacrifice my final breath to you?"

Surprised at this spectacle of nature
one can only think that it was sick
or stricken by fear at this chance encounter
though something in that static eye spoke
of many lives over millions of years.

Moving on, it stared at this passing
as though it was meant to happen
forever in just this way with little fanfare
and no interruption of the moment
as two fixed as one endured recognition.

-cec

as thoughts whirl round around
of days to come, when actions go to ground

in fields of unknown poppies
what lies ahead in mystery's Rockies

per chance to meet our buttered fate
or turn this wheel once more 'fore late

beat back raw monkey that clings to will
and spit slime's inertia in this blue pill

-cec

How it drags those old stones
this saddened exhalation
carved by mystery's familiar hand
throwing down ta represent
burning bushes, city, civilization
best and worst of ish
taled to young-lings and old **** alike
these glass towers of Batsi hype
all them homies Hallelujah-jah
that cancer eating up their bones

When the spirit grooves y'all
and its nature moves wrawl
take that animal for a stroll
down fifth avenue, crawl
black and blue for someone
let them know your lovelies
build a story told with heart
forget stark fable's Telly parts
live to breath in honest crest
counting coup eat up the rest

-cec

Here fair livery of word's content
escapes this ever mindful heart
which frets upon a laden lament
of sorrow's wheel pull obedient cart

As year hard-by this gated plot
seems to forget what time has not
and grasses grow soft brown and green
above hard ground and fading dreams

In Tundral rest flows glacial loss
in Northern light yields up to moss
and weeping tree eye epiphytes
that cling to life in spite this plight

- cec