Prickles of needles and drops of love
              veins cascade memories of light
Where the noble heart beats in love
with a ****** universe that knows no betrayal.

       Silver leaflets do not wither
               and no passing season kills the youth
Roots like fingers in sand
basking in the rich warmth of a fire more distant than death

        These trees touch the roof of the sky
to tempt infinity with a definition as tangible as the wind on your face.

Today this day will last until it needs not
the fire will shrink and a festival
                                                      (of tiny illumination)
will spark the imagination of a generation
                                                      (before it is born)

Revels and stories are odes to a gift so precious
we celebrate on lungs full of sweet scents,
the nectar of flowers feeding, nourishing,
sustaining a population of children-not-children.

A darkness not frightening
            but                 Joyful
                 wrapping our eager minds in insulation
to breed seeds of eternity recorded in minds untroubled by
unanswerable
questions

Tonight this night will last an age that requires no dawn,
only sacred appreciation of what mysteries tomorrow will bring
tucked in pockets of night's cloak

                                                        (But Today is not over
the sun still beats and eyes stare
                                     in wonder
                         at colours vibrant and ripe with innocence

Today I will know you and you will know me
So that tonight we will be written ever as one)

Once upon a time
            I counted all the trees
But I knew by the time I finished
            more had sprouted
I counted again
            and found a new answer
This time it was infinity
            eternity, the wheel of time
When we count something we
            expect an end
What if there is no end
            and we didn't know that?
Would we spend an eternity counting
            or lose an eternity?
            I don't know yet.
                     I'll tell you when
            I reach the end.
Ten-Thousand One...
Ten-Thousand Two...

There once was a river,
that flowed two ways.
It broke all of the rules,
and achieved the impossible.
It grew and grew, then shrunk
and dipped into darkness.

Upriver it flourished,
downriver it forgot.
Never was there ever
something quite like it.

It left no tracks.
Appeared in a whisper and left in a rush.
The breath came from the wind and
the course was where ever.

Safety

                     is just where we go when life comes

a knockin'

The Big Lie behind clouded eyes

               (a great betrayal of the little truth)
               (that It's Okay)
          
                                       only we'll never believe ourselves
we'd rather trust the strangers who do not know

how could they? we've never shown them who we are

because we're safe and afraid

and all alone

                     but somewhere
                                                (inside)
                                                             fear is champion over hope

             love
             life
(all a prisoner)

Until we learn to say that It's Okay.

Over the edge of the bluff lies a distance. It's lost,
deep and consuming.
I've clawed, fought, and surrendered.
Loss turns to despair, despair to hatred.
I hate you and your fears.
Your fears are my fears, and the dawn reveals a truth.
We believe in the truth we neglect. A wind is a whisper, a gale
a shout.
My fear is a breeze, keep your ear to the wind and you'll hear me

A tussle, a rustle
a broken wind rushes
              through dead grass
              withered trees
              scatters crackling leaves
Pictures painted in blown dirt
across scarred rock walls
             etch the wind's memory
             in reds and browns
Transient figures and nascent dreams
             depict a young history
of Fate and all his friends
             They dance
Fire flickers stoked by wind
              battered and fractured
From world's end
                           to world's beginning

soft and lustrous, these colours decorate
like stars of a feather, all wrapped together
if i close my eyes, they begin to swim
tight in a spiral, they spin and spin
each colour a story, vivid and rich
amber - a cobbler, poor and overworked
blue - a priest, with sermons of doubt
and that green, and this red
a tapestry woven in luminosity

We vary, We deliver, words are words.
I've only ever won in thirds.

Fight, Die, Lose, Revive, and all we
ever see are dreams in disguise.

Whatever was done in anger can be fixed in Love.
Whatever is done in Love lives in History.

A trail blazed is a path created.
A trail forged is pure creation.

Once you reach the end of the world
the only way to go is back.

Blue morning light
                         outlines an idea of your image
           serenity in carelessness
and soft contented breathing

                        I, a mere Mortal
gaze upon your Immortality
         peace and pleasure
a cool autumn breeze

                                          You are perfect in a moment
and the next
                     and the next
                                          Dream-etched feelings

It seems such a crime
                    to look upon you so
          A Blessing undeserved
in such a cruel world

Silently            softly           stirring
            hushed          husky            whispers
fluttersunderoceansoffabric
The Goddess of the Room Murmurs

I'm never prepared
to be taken by your eyes
All cool satisfaction
and the glimmer of ageless curiosity

                                              I Whisper Defiantly
against the pregnant silence
that I am yours
          and you are mine

Clouds pass and reveal
Distant stars and inky void
We write constellations
Upon the very heavens
While terrestrial worries
Take root in weary hearts

with the darkness of winter closing out our days
so too is winter's bite, silent, invisible
mandibles of frost and hypothermia

at first the pressure is light, even pleasant
an embrace, and we welcome it
until it starts to hurt

the chill eats at your fingers, your nose
a cold consumption
of unprotected flesh

there is no fighting, no hiding
only waiting, and freezing
winter is long, and winter's bite - patient

Dip your hand into the
             frozen sea
It won't come back the same
clinging consuming warming
              The roots are deep and old
This is a different form of life
              Existing outside of
                             (nature)
               It is adieu to us
abnormal                        supernatural
             You feel it not in
              heart    or   mind
but  in                 your soul
Tainted Corrupted
                            Eternally a new
              and fragile sea
Rage becomes you
                 you welcome it

My hand your shoulder
Your hand in mine
Green eyes lock blue
I push you move we step
A scratch a falter
We giggle and sigh

Carried away by the ocean
To sights far from shore, on
The swells of sweet-blue brine
And waves like skyscrapers
Help, o' rescuer mine

Carried away by the ocean
Like a flea on a dog
On an elephant sea
A small life, determined
By whim, fate or fancy

Carried away by the ocean
Or drowned, a ship scuttled
Car'ed away, or Taken?
I fear this no nightmare,
no green world to wake in

Carried away by the ocean
Me, a thought, Me afloat
A salt breath in, rhythm
Eyes up, not ocean blue
A floater, white phantom

Carried away by the ocean
Sudden, tumultuous
roar, crash, repeat, closer
Closer! hum, whine, mouth sounds
Pull, no Wet. warm. Answer.

My dream is hers
Her memories come too
She calls herself me
The stranger stares back
Our worries feedback
She cries to sleep

It repeats
It repeats
It repeats
Stay away
Take me home
Don't forget me

Bare branches bend
To scratch and pull
While cold frost clings
In grass and breath
Footfalls crunch and shatter
Except in that patch of late fall sun

I carve my love
In broken and decaying bone
Promises scratched in red sand
On worlds distant
And lacking atmosphere

Days like revolutions
Return to their origin
The wheel can travel
But the point remains
Fixed in structure
And spun in limbo

The words we use
Are hollow expressions
That fail to grasp
Deeper melancholies
And sweet truths
But suffice for directions

We all dance and sing
To sounds unheard
And rhythms felt in flesh
Like one we move
And though our distance grows
We are timeless bound
In a sacred heritage
Of genetic expression

I wake up
Unsure of the where
Yet driven with why
The path is clear
This is not the first
3000 times I've tried

The tears I cry
Are for the parts of you
I no longer remember
You try to remind me
With photos and journal entries
The mementos of a stranger

I only have until
This flame dies
The wax is old
Flame sputters weak
There is a breeze
Yet still it burns

I used to think
That I could be alone
Cool and aloof
The outside observer
But it is just missing out
In fancier clothes

I cannot fathom
The distance your message
Had to travel through space
Only to be discarded
Out of the basic fear
Of being alone

The lake below the ice
Is another world
Teeming with alien life
Inhospitable to me
But come the spring
I will be an interstellar traveller

The pages I journal
All begin the same
But the mistakes I make
Are always different
Cast as a character
Trying to break the loop

Now I only see you
When eyes blink
And light is censored
So now I pray
For final rest
In dreamless sleep

My world is painted
By myraid dreams
Wry and stolen memories
A picture created
By someone who forgot
How it all went together

All I have to remember what we had
Is this faded and scratched photograph
Time has taken its toll on us
And now a cursed stain veils you
Leaving only a me who looks ahead
At all the memories we would make

I walk the halls
Of the youth I recall
But all the paintings
Are memories of yesterday
And many other yesterdays
And the halls take turns
That I cannot recall

I write because
This sorrow wells
To overflow the chambers
Of a heart already
Sectioned and cold
By loss upon loss

Watch the starts turn
The horizon bends
To swallow them whole
The moon rises and runs
It can only run so long
The dance resumes tomorrow

There is a pull
From where I know not
It demands attention
It has hooked my soul
My body cannot follow
I am rent in twain