_

Dear Mr. Moon,

Please let me see
your wondrous light
wash over me

And take this love
I hold inside
spread it across
your evening sky

And let it flow
to every star
glistening bright
so very far

In hopes that she
will feel it too
when her eyes gaze
this night at you

For she is who
my heart does miss,
please Mr. Moon

Sincerely,
*Chris

_

Upon this elevated perch I sit
Jagged rock and nature’s bleed
Looking out beyond my sight
Knees and hands of weathered seed

Straddling an outward view
Clinging tight to breathless cries
Clouds now form of smoky fill
Cracks evolve of southern skies

Down below the valley sleeps
Curtains closed and bolted doors
Green between the acreage spills
Crumbs are swept from hollow floors

When an anguished howl is heard
Bounding far and chilling wide
Makes me stand, unsure of foot
Destinations run and hide

Dark precedes a warning moon
When two eyes of crimson glare
Break the glass in shards of fear
As my aching eyes do stare

Razor quick and fired flames
Out of breath my thoughts to run
Lightening strikes at where I cringe
Burning skin of tortured sun

Death does come, but eyes still see
Weary as of this forlorn
Tattered dreams long past their prime
When deep beyond a reason born

Still I sit on broken stone
High above the slumbered lanes
So frightened of horizon’s fall
And the light delivered pains

Now many nights and many days
Have crawled amidst my destiny
For when embarks a moon so full
This anguished howl now heard is me

~

In ode to all who succumb
through wayward passages
lined of scribble notes
dripping ink’s savagery,
staining cursive patterns
in Sylvia-like depressions

Jarred bells ring
down lost tunnels
around each dark corner…clang
from steeples we chase
and beds we lie
draped in sadness
and shapes of
poetic happenstance

Tear drop vinaigrette
spiced of leftover lifetimes
drizzled on leafy desperation
bids a tired farewell
before time collects
*the deserved rewards

~

Silhouettes, shapes,
  clouds backlit
   by a distant sun
  rising slowly
      in the east,
   Cantaloupe swatches,
       painting introductions
    of a desirable dawn,
  drape the sky,
    illuminating my heart
       to another
          wondrous day
                *with you

-

I drug my feet,
then turned and
marveled at the
perpendicular
lines in the
soft earth until
I noticed you
standing at the
far end,
where I started

-
I came across to grown men who were fighting in the street
I asked them tell me why this fact is so
What has caused this incident of words and fists to meet
They both looked up and said, “I don’t quite know”

“Then why on earth would two men fight like children in the yard,
out here in the road for all to see
Finding a solution to this problem can’t be hard,
maybe you should both try poetry”

“He said he didn’t like me and I thought he was my friend”
The other said, “He did the same to me”
“That proves he is a liar for those words I did not send”
“The liars' standing right there don’t you see?”

Maybe I was wrong, this might be harder than it seems,
this bickering just makes me want to cry
But hopefully my plan will put an end to all these screams,
you never know, I’ll just give it a try

“Can’t you see our neighborhood is losing people fast,
everyone is running out the door
Never looking back in hopes to put this in the past,
feeling like they can not take much more”

I handed them a pencil and a pad on which to write,
they both looked at me as if I were strange
“Come on, write some verses on this sheet of paper white,
let’s see if this problem we can change”

They thought for a few moments, on their face the blankest stare,
nothing seemed to come across their mind
Then some pencil movement and some words one longed to share,
the other wrote some lines that he did find

They handed me the notepads and I read them both in time,
savoring this moment for a while
One had written free verse and the other metered rhyme,
when then upon my face there came a smile

I handed each the notepad that the other one did pen,
then watched as their emotions did unfold
They both shook hands and said, ‘Let’s try to never fight again”
and there you have my story as it’s told

Yes this write is fiction though you never know what’s true,
maybe in this poem you will see
It truly is amazing all the things that you can do,
when you write, not fight in poetry

~

As I walk this path,
I draw the night sky
on my skin,
cosmic outlines,
embedded darkness,
the softest touch
of heart shaped ink,
and I imagine you
tracing a similar image,
caressing these dreams
while wishing upon
the brightest star
glistening above,
walking the same path
in your part of the world
drawing us closer together
with each moonlit step
*we take

~

I mistook
the sea for
the sky while
it slumbered
mid the garden
where I was
dreaming
*in poetry

Lonely days,
clouds of wishful thoughts,
cut grass desires linger,
fallen petal emptiness
scattered on damp sidewalks,
bleeding into the cracks
forming of fingers reaching

With pen in hand
I stare off into distant verses,
favored phrases,
seeking words to express
the missing I feel,
vacancies with no room
in a space of nothing,
four walls, open doors
no exits

when she is away
and I wait, wilting
a feather without a wing
for the end of these
lonely days...

dreaming of tomorrow

~

Vibrations loosen
 the dust on my piano,
  releasing tiny particles
   into a rectangle sunbeam
    dancing about the glass,
     as I play compositions
      upon freeform keys,
       fingered imagination
        frantically moving
         levers in never before
          heard melodies
           with a locked
            sustain pedal
             holding each note
              to gradually
               evanesce
                into silence
                 as the dust
                  once
                        again
                                se­ttles

They say if you die in a dream
you are dead, but what happens
when your dreams die
and you wish you were?

~

Sometimes I don’t say it
as eloquently as I should

Words run from me
disappearing over mountain tops

In the last phrases of my day
when moon light seeps in

Through opaque glass
and curtains of lace promises

I clutch tightly my pillow
wishing it were you

Hoping that tonight’s dream
will give me a hint

Like some painted message
on marshmallow clouds

Drawing lingering lines
in star to star whispers

Chasing firefly flickerings
with a mayonnaise jar

Trying to capture your heart
in a twilight whimsy

Within the verses of a poem
written on a breeze

Floating across
midnight skies of woven stanzas

Eloquently or not…
*of my love for you

A lonely morning
Rain fed and darkness
Slick highways
And laughing traffic lights
Colorful and happy they seem
Splashing in puddles
Wipers hypnotize me
Back and forth
Smearing my vision
As I drive, drive, drive

Our song on repeat
Over and over again
Sometimes it makes me smile
Most times it sings me pain
Accelerating through the intersection
Wishing, I’m not sure what I’m wishing
It is just so hard to believe
We were us, you and me
And now empty lanes go on forever
Just as we were supposed to

I should forget, I can’t forget
My heart will not let me
Turning corners is for others
Those who have a direction,
A passenger to share the ride
Seal belts buckled, holding tight
Hands across consoles
Love on every city street
Finding the perfect parking spot
As I drive circles around
What we used to be

A lonely morning
Rain fed and darkness
And a drive in
That used to bring me to you
Now leads nowhere
Anymore

'

Here seeking shelter from nature’s born fury
Standing alone on the ground as it swells
Rising this river to flood bounded glory
Bringing the gloom of its rain induced spells

Drenched in a moment of desperate hours
Closing my eyes in the face of the pour
Clinging to heights, falling prey to the showers
Digging in deep as I can’t take much more

Fearing my life as the walls start to crumble
Mortar and stone fade away forth the storm
Thundering skies speak in voices a’ rumble
Sinister sounds beneath clouds that now form

When in the distance my eyes find a gleaming
Flowing white gown of embroidered attire
Casting the waters in fingertip dreaming
Beaming of sun on a windswept desire

Rose petal sails full abloom on this river
Taming the waves of a heart nearly broke
Sending my smile on an un-ending quiver
Hearing the echoes of love as they’re spoke

There in her eyes is a safety now waiting
Arms open wide as I reach for her hand
Straight to my stead westward flows navigating
My footing escapes as I no longer stand

Falling in deep I find darkness surrounding
Gasping for breath as the end it does call
Gazing the depths with my pulse loudly pounding
Longing her touch now to capture my fall

Drifting in silence of wishes found needing
So very close was my dream almost true
When in a flash now the waters receding
Breaking the surface, enchanting the view

And as I breathe in the air’s sweetened flavour
Merely her touch sends my mind in a spin
Caught in the whirl of a goddess to savour
Now I do feel my heart beat once again

Lifting, she pulls me from seas overflowing
Holding me close neath the heavens above
Gently a kiss brings her light to me glowing
*Endlessly now I shall drown in her love

~

Cast among the downpour,
gates beneath dark clouds left open
The creek is rising, drowning underbrush
darkening tree trunks
moving swiftly the discarded
Collected at the walls of this home
stone and mortar slowly crumble

From a desperate vantage point
overlooking nature’s angry powers
I see a shape, a silhouetted aura,
eyelet gown of gold stitch, woven ribbon dreams
Mahogany hair flowing, eyes captivating,
floating atop muddied raging waters,
directing the flow with blown kiss persuasion

Swept away, barely a breath remains,
swallowing life in murderous gulps
Flailing intoxicated waves, undertow’s grasp…
when a hand reaches, fingers interlock
Glazing blue skies whisper in sunlit reflections,
ocean breezes soothe washed out tides,
as a sand dollar wishes on a seashell

Upon this beach I am now safe within her heartbeat,
tasting her Pina Colada lips, warm and sweet
I drink in her flavour neath palm tree shadows,
cool in the heat, but hot of her skin, salty, wet
and my heart hears the glistening, tingling my senses
drenching me in desire’s hard to contain,
as I endlessly drown in her perfect love

~

Even the
    loneliest
  of days
      eventually
          end

I am so
     thankful
    mine always
         end with
              *you

~

“Star light, star bright,
The first star I see tonight;
I wish I may, I wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight”


The winter wind is cold
as I stand in the yard
staring up at a
the evening stars
we once shared

When the ground crumbles,
giving way beneath my feet,
frozen earth opens up,
swallowing me
into a deep abyss

And as the surface falls,
caving in, creating
a darkness like
I have never known
I whisper, “thank you”

For soon spring will come,
and new grass will grow
over the disturbed land,
erasing every trace,
that I ever was

.

Gaze silently towards the heavens
as beams of shimmering gold
beckon to you
with brilliant light of the full moon bright
fond memories you come to hold

Taste the sweet fruit of passion
shining on your perfect face
sending you
dreams of me to always be
the outline of your heart felt place

Walk along the lighted path
amongst the sprawling sycamore
touching you,
reaching far of every blushing star
to send a love of true adore

Breathe the air of midnight moon
scents of windswept atmosphere
caressing you
with aromatic symphonies upon the breeze
calming of your every fear

Feel my affection upon these evening skies
tempting as this nighttime glow
finding you,
your beauty blooms within this fullest moon
as ever I shall love you so

I tasted the piece that
smoothed the way,
submerged, as a single leaf
floated unknowing

Salted sweetness
on folded fables,
turned pages rapidly
between parted indexes

As eyes pierced,
interlaced of cotton fibers
Laying fears aside,
wrapped in yesterdays worries

While lounging on the side of caution
in plastic sheaves
protecting the existence
of unwanted realizations

Still the moments that fell
atop motions fed my soul,
inserted into the warmth
of streams flowing deeper

And up to my knees wading
brought sighs of satisfaction
when dreams came and went,
but still remain everlasting

-

I wrote you a love letter,
sent it to you through the mail
Barely legible (it was my handwriting)
but something that came straight from my heart
You said it was the most beautiful
thing you have ever received

And I just want you to know,
I meant every word

Tear drops fall
between silent lines
carrying the tune
of this weeping melody
written on my heart’s
faded sheet music

Scales cry in sharpened flats
twisting treble clef sorrows
Candelabras drip pain
on withered fingers
roaming ivory slivers bleeding
out of tune syncopation

Unheard choruses
in three quarter sadness
wasted on black and white keys
played long after
the lid was closed
on our love


Where is that sustain pedal
when you need it?