Sweet and savory tides
Fill the self-perpetuating void
Spinning spokes of inspiration
Distillate of jungle and earth

Axels and chains and
Feet and brains
It's the bicycle beats
And the trees and the streets
Join the lines in the sidewalk
As I ride and I talk
To myself,
"Breathe in," &
"Breathe out," --
Burning and churning to the
Grooves and the cracks
Red light's the only chance to relax
Racing the bus and flashing a grin
To the sorry folks trapping themselves therein
Ecstasy building with each revolution
Wiping my sweat away, tasting pollution
Grinding and winding a path on my bike
Where cars and pedestrians hate me alike

Glistening golden cells
Geometrically stacked
Decanting crystalline ambrosia
Sweet and sticky
One step from the Sun
Dripping, oozing from on high
From its mathematic matrix
Millimeter by millimeter
Into my mouth

Existential exercise
--In & Out--
Eternal ebb and flow, the
Catalyst of the ages
Revolving and funneling
Precipitating and materializing
Quarks and photons into
Histories and futures and
Laughs and lies

Oleander wax
Dribble and curl
Betwixt Rosemary, Sage and Thyme
Tiger's eye dust
Lamb's blood and rust
Rubbed heavy with
Switches of Rye
Smoldering Ash &
Freshly pressed hash
Entwine with bubble and snort
Sing for the dead
Cry for the living and
Mop up your tears
From the floor

Exemplify without try
Each teacher bears the
Burden of account,
But the only way
They carry it is with
The strength of humility
--The emptiness to learn,
The fullness to teach--
And they do it without speaking,
Flowing like a river
Through a fountain
--Ever depleting,
Ever replenishing--

Making manic impersonations
On a momentary scale
We ride on the echo of cymbals divine
Decanting data into philosophic wine
Perceptive perspective manifesting matrices
Unknown --
Uncontrollable, undeniable, imminent &
Haphazardly perfect;
The essence of our yesterdays & tomorrows
Etched, in passing, into the
Particulate framework
-- Momentarily --
& yet
-- Eternally --
Manifestations cloaked in the veil of time,
Laced with intentions self-concocted,
The tides exchange,
Endlessly blurring the line between
Creator and Created

Freedom rang,
bang   bang   bang
and we traversed the dense foilage
of my Sepia Jungle
Populated by Spirited faeries
Whose lives came and went with the blowing wind.
And Time dissappeared beneath the sublte sunshine
As we entered Apricot Village
Where twisted, sappy leaves gnarled between
Milky white blossoms that decorated fetal fruits,
Whose crowning golden heads pushed petals fresh,
From budding limb,
Now kidnapped by the wind, a lazy sloshing sea of air,
The ground garnished by its aged spices.
It was a village where cottages grew among the Trees.
Devoid of holiness & Dogma, but steeped in the rife Purity of Nature,
No Man was to be seen, rotting fruit about the feet of Trees,
The floors of cottages strewn with Apricot pits, fleshy fruit half eaten
By the Birds, nestled into fertile Earth, and sprouted Life
rising fresh from pichest soil.
We ate of the fruit, now rested in the Golden Afternoon, which
Reached beyond the fringe of Time,
The fleshy pulp of Apricots the strands of bygone Universes,
Which taught us how to slumber there among
The petals and the Wind.

Goodnight anthropocentrism—
Mitochondria swim in your stardust
But Contraverse awakens on the
Frontiers of the Valerian Kingdom

At the gnarled staff of the Oil Sage
Taking root between the Earth’s furrows
Springing forth fountains of sweetest Nard
The Jewel of Jatamansi emerges glistening green

In it the eye of the beholder finds the
Seeds of a once forbidden dream
Germinating in the juices of this Gem

Out of it the silent roar of a thousand fields pressing
Aromatic oceans through bursting buds
Of Lavender pagodas rapturously trumpeting forth
Framed by stacks of soft sweet musky Sage
Broad and leathery like elephant’s ears
Curtained with a soft cascade of Orange blossom snow
The sweet kiss of Neroli on your brow

Imbibing the senses with paralyzing pungency
Tangling tendrils to heartstrings
And pulling us beneath Rosewater pools
Floating breathlessly ensconced in a dream
Primordial songs whispering wordlessly,
“Wake whenever you’re ready . . .”

can you spare some change
i could really use a little
get back up on my feet
feel the ground beneath the street
all i got’s this little beat that’s
pushin pulmonary particles through
passages inside me
it’s a losing battle
but i wage it anyway
every day
there’s no point, just a pulse,
just that rhythm driving chemicals
through channels unknown

“Smack—” brutal interruption.
Boeings groan down the runway—flight!
“Smack.”
The ceiling.
Freedom, flight, yes—there it is!
The hollow, cloudless sky,
The deep song of technology
Ushering them all unto distant horizons,
To distant shores.
Now—“Smack!”
The window.
Portals of complexity, numbers; calculations.
Confusion, darkness, loneliness—
“Smack”

Crippled wings and foreign tongues,
Dejected, forgotten refuse makes for a greasy coffin
As the carcass awaits decomposition.

Defeat.
Death.

As for me
Forgotten whispers of a
Brown-eyed hooligan
Penetrating ancestral burial grounds
To the twisted knotty roots of
Redwoods that tickle the
Earth's core

Til glacial groaning
Wakes wind and waves
Til tickled crusts of
Ash and earth
Burped bubbles of biologic froth onto
Forest floors
Fertilizing forth-coming fruits that
Fell once more to the floor
In the motionless dance:
The return to the Source

Holding hands with my shadow
the source becomes apparent
as subtle nuances conglomerate,
the boundaries between them dissolve
my awareness begins to loosen
its grip on self-inflicted illusions
making room for
-- This Very Moment --
the culmination of pulsating particles
subjectively self-willed  .  .  .

The difficulty becomes
A source of ease as
perspectives adjust
the dust settles
& the inherent perfection
of each idiosyncrasy
dulls the duality of
my self-conception

I have fallen asleep in your dark waters
And lifted the heavy meniscus thereof
I have been cut off from identity
And returned with your love

My eyes have rolled like floating maraschinos
Aimlessly drawn to the vacant potential
Out of the pool of scattered images
The puppet master culled

Stories written by grey neurological
Fibers assembled appearance of array
Fastening to muscular reflexes
That danced to the display

I am the water moving through the earth
The lifeblood of withering roots
Stirring ancient sediments
To nourish new pursuits

I am the language of truths ineffable
Encoded in the rhythm of your heart
The secret DNA of crystals
Informing their mineral art

I am the earth moving through the water
The tides are my breath's interval
Mountains bow to the sea's advance
A dance of push and pull

I am the darkness hidden in the light
The contrast that lets us see
The nonexistent difference
Between you and me

Running blind and barefoot
Every breath changes us
Subtly yet entirely

The fullness of exchange
Meets my mind with
Wakeful momentum

Every step a catalyst
Charged with precision
And power

I can never stop
I can never look back
This is what I am now

Deconstruction has begun
The terror of becoming
Fragmented
Grows into hysteria
And eventually
Surrender
Darkly taking solace
in Comedy
As the puppet master
Chisels lines into your face

Forgetting who you
Used to be
Yielding to chaos

Orange blossom snow
Garnished our crowns
Now and again
With fetal fruits
Descended from
Vibrantly quivering canopy
That verdant galaxy
Studded with snow white stars
A-buzz with swollen satellites
Sagging with sweet nectar
and Golden dust
They orbited Orange globes
In search of
Juicy gems from which to drink ~
Drunk and heavy now,
They swam lazily from
Bloom to bloom
In the viscous afternoon
Coaxing the aged
Spices of the Sun
To dislodge and drift
Slowly to the Earth,
Settling silently in heaps of
Orange blossom snow

I am the borrowed time giver
I wait by the edges of beds
I prop up the corners and smooth out the wrinkles
I'm also the turner of heads

I am the lone sea breaker
My whisper it shepherds your dreams
You have awoken on a
Distant shore, it seems

I am the voice of antiquity
Tethered to leaves on the wind
I am the cloth that covers you
When you have sinned

I am the borrowed time lender
Your hope, it rides on my wings
I am the broken mind mender
All I can do is offer you these things

Mine is the touch of changes
Though none of them I can claim
I sweep up the mirror pieces
That reflect your shame

I am the blind leading the blind
I have no secret gift
The truth is what you'll find
When the veil you needn't lift

We are the worm food growers
The crawlers, they rule from below
They eat up the dead and squeeze out the living
And time marches on just so

Sharpest incisions never hurt at first
Only the cold, stark shock
The snapshot of gaping flesh
The temporary absence of pain
Lending necessary time cushions
Beckoning denial  .  .  .

Til delayed despair descends
Overflowing through lips and eyes
Bursting blood vessels
Bubbling & burping out of
Tear ducts & cracks in skin
Til, empty now
Nerve endings dry and wither
Mutilated muscles cure into jerky &
LAST LIQUIDS congeal into flaky crusts
******* the orifices
-- Quivering --
As LAST GASSES **** out the
Top and bottom, dissipating --

Silence settles after
LAST ECHOES  .  .  .

Amber Ambrosia
Precipitates Pyrolytically
Condensates Copiously
Onto Open
Minds Melting
Barriers Building
Connections Creating
Decadent Daydreams
With Wild
Living Landscapes

What wondrous wilds await us
Oh, we, the children of the vine
Our naked toes dance through freshly picked berries
Ushering fountains of wine

Bathing in bubbling sunsets
That blend the heavens and sea
Painting the face of the moon with the stardust
That makes up you and me

Players and waterfall drinkers
We swim with the stars in the sky
We sing that the fruitful serve the many
Even when they die

What wondrous wilds await us
Oh, we, the dewdrops of the morn
When sunrise beckons us back to the heavens
From whence we once were born

This silent stewing atmosphere,
Air beginning to reach a boil,
Only smart amphibians jump from comforting waters
Into the oblivion of impulsiveness and
Throwing all things known
Into the fleeting wind,
Breaking free from freedom,
Finding old traditions in new lands,
Erasing memories, and forging new ones--

The silence.
The quiet pitter of precipitating plagues
Upon desert soils
Where magnificent poisons
Of stasis and spoils
Of capitalist endeavors
Piling upon one another to create
Monuments to their golden idols,
Solar winds tearing at biological fibers--
The Storm begins soon.

And I--
A wandering spirit,
tossed playfully back and forth
by the impulses of time and space--
I arrest this bright-eyed idolatry,
Escaping into fragmented mysteries
Awaiting me on foreign soil,
Not away from pain and war
Famine and dismay
Ineptitudes of a dying human race:
But simply away--
where the golden afternoon’s
lazy sunbeams will meet my
smiling cheek
at angles different and unknown.

Mystery within Mystery,

I open the door . . .

It's silence where we
Learn the most about
Each other, about ourselves

Words unspoken are words thought,
More potent than the
Guts of storms

It is the pain and power of the
Sound after shattered glass
Strewn about the floor

Unspeaking

Stares

Necessity beckoning
Broken pieces into
Trash bins

Uncollected memories
Ignored bites of information
Transforming into
Ghosts and whispers
Self-willed inanimate
Matter
Creating and destroying
Us

Inhabiting the space between
Chaos and harmony

Entering the warmth of
Scarlet rivers

Indulging in verdant
Pungency

Soft lips of
Salt and honey
Meet mine

Haplessly embracing
A plate of cheese
And wine

Silent settling spurred
Conscious contrails of
Rebellion--
Subtle synergistically-imbued incarnations
Of space and time
Humming deeply clefted vibrations
In the company of conglomerating waves
Crescendos gathering
Sounds unspeakable
******* down self-carved channels
Recycling
Into
the
Source

--The Great Echo--

Reverberating through infinite probability
Casting shadows like statues in stone
Seen by strobe lights

We play with our feelings
We toy with our heart
We give up our body
To escape the dark

It never was ours
So we treated it thusly
Escape with me now
Do you trust me?

If you do your a fool
If you don't you're alone
It's easier to be human
Than just flesh and bone

Seek ye the empty
Hold not til full
For senseless the senses
Wear us dull

We used to grow here
A sanctuary for our sacraments
We used to know here
A safety from our pain

We used to learn here
Insights from the Other Shore
We used to yearn here
Aching for more

We thought we could stay here
We thought we knew this place
We thought we were safe here
We thought that here we could find space

We lost the fire here
That used to light our day
We lost desire here and
Sought another way

We lost traditions
And friends we used to love
We lost a comfort
That used to be enough

We found a new path
Unfolding up ahead
We found a new place
To rest our weary head

We found a center
From which to radiate
We found a new way
Our thirst to satiate

We looked behind us and
Saw where we have come
We saw with each step
We never left our home

We journey on, yes, and
Maybe change our stance
We never leave, though, our
Home -- this endless dance

As for me, unwritten bites of
Sound and blurring blends of black and white,
The journey up and down made
One wonder
If the players played the game
Or the other way around

Rolling the dice with intentions undetermined
The dance eased on
--Push & Pull--
Marbles gravitating and compressing,
Dividing and merging--
Til cross-eyed observers forgot what they're looking at

Accidents and ignorance
Paved the way
With unexpected blessings
As the seeds of unintended
Consequence
Blossomed
in the Fertile Fields of Fate  .  .  .

Crusts creak and groan
Before seismic tides
Crack them like a coconut
Bubbling up from broken barriers
the Source overflows
Magically mingling
What was once cut off
Enriching and nourishing
The deepest depths
Exchange enticing
Cataclysmic creation
Definition now destroyed
Only Potential remains

The weather's changed
Now and again
Windsocks escaped on
Blustery winter afternoons
Dormant grass and
Sleepy-eyed foliage
Chasing off the cloudless sky
For one last stolen
Dreamy afternoon, when
Unseen ice puddles lurking
Below shortening shadows
Made us quick-of-foot,
But despite the bright and
Biting wind, to no
Sweet destination did
Travels take us
But to find meaningful
Solicitude in all the
Morning's glory--
The world still half asleep
Turning round and
Pulling up the covers,
Drifted lazily back into the
Stoic state of Winter,
Dreams freshly on the
Tastebuds of nectar-giving petals
Bringing warmth to the afternoon

As for me
Flashing flecks of phosphorescence
Suspended in apparent array
Coalescing yet dispersing
Exchanging and churning
Fulfilling and yearning
Digressing and exceeding
Settling and dispersing
Dividing and multiplying

Til accidental overdose on
Logic and reason
Makes mental machinations
Manifest the One and not
The Other,
As if 1 and 2 didn't
Count the same thing

I come into being through
The tips of leaves
And transmit through roots into
The Earth

My planetary patience
Moves mountains
Without a whisper

I carve canyons
With my breath
And digest continents
In my bile

I come out of being through
Knowledge
And return to it through
Wisdom

We could walk the craggedy side-
Walks
stubborn old Trees sending their roots
beneath them to better prop themselves up—
looking out over cascading rooftops and through
our Smog—
so they could make out the orange hum of a
California Afternoon sun reflecting off
the distant ocean.
joyous Willows drawing the lanes of the neighborhood avenues
tried to entangle their dancing threads in our hairs
As we traversed the mountainous sidewalks
onto which our melting 65-cent popsicles dripped
dye-drenched cherrybombs next to our plastic-soled sneakers—
And we snuck past gardens overrun by passionately-blossoming
Vines and wild rose bushes, where the paths changed every day
And wind chimes sang listlessly from sagging walls with cracked paint,
Our backpacks jingled despite our silent curiosity.
Forgetting the things behind us and things ahead,
Sunshine sloshed through tree-tops onto our happy pink cheeks,
all full of sweets,
as we slowly made our way back home,
along familiar streets.

Layers engulf and arise
Like a never ending ascending lasagne
Assembled by that unknowable self
And as the strings pull we dance
But the silent Manifestor continues his work
Without breath or form
Penetrating presence
Reflections gone awry
The echo of a silent cry

till my aching flesh
break my hardened bones
plough my thirsting roots
prune my reaching arms
‘til all that once
I called my self
falls to the ground, gathered in a heap
—to fuel some future fire;
withers away, composting into the earth
—released to fertilize;
dries up, evaporating into clouds
—set free to fly;
leaks out, running off into ground waters
—flowing to the ocean;
rearrange me ‘til the changes
smudge the image,
blur the reflection,
futilize differentiation
between past and present,
here and there,
this and that,
life and death.

Disjointed flashbacks
and coincidences
--regurgitating, bubbling up
surfacing--
faint aftertaste
lingering then fading

Episodes disentangle and defy
Chronology
Without cause or consequence

They return to me like
Sand to the ocean
--dispersing and settling
dislodging and rearranging--
Separate scenes of specificity
Activated by change circumstance
Stirring sensations once
Lost to the churning tides of
Time and Space

Engaging emotions once forgotten
Now set free by the
Endless eb and flow,
Dissipating

Memories, thoughts, dreams
Rising up from and
Returning to
The Void

Exchanging

Manifesting haphazardly
Ever-awakening
The tapestry of
Experience unfolds
Threads of Time and Space
Unravel
And as the pattern
Recycles
The forms change
but the substance stays
the same

Eternal threads
weave the fabric
serrated by
our hapless dance

Quilted patches
coalesce
forming
momentary magnificence

-- Grinding Gears --
-- Flowing Fountains --
-- Beating Hearts --
-- Deafening Silence --
Ride the wave
As it dips and swells
Each undulation
Sparking spinal charges
Sending signals to
Sensational receptors
and
Flooded with
Information and Energy
they Overflow

Eroding away at
Burms of solidarity
Decimating illusions of
Stagnancy
Perturbing the ache for
Fake consistency

And Walls wilt away
Like petals of a Rose
they expose
the Universal Core
turning in
Changeless self-envelopment

Losing touch with the
Complimentary life
We perpetuate the infinite
Chain of pain
Feeding the machine with
Comforting lies

Doubly bound at birth
We take fake solace in
Futility
Nursing our delusions on the
Cancers of
Self-pity and
Fear

Indiscriminately succumbing to
Our own exaggerations
We never would have guessed
That the way out was
Also the way in

As we began to discover
The path to Truth
The mysterious terrain
Necessitated an
Uncomfortable acceptance of
Our inevitable insecurities
and
In the End
Letting go was not a choice

Once I lived as a fish
Without ever making a wish
Once I lived as a lion &
Went my whole life without crying
Once I lived life as a bird
Without ever saying a word
Once I lived life as the Sun
Without ever having fun

Now I'm a man, you see,
And I forgot what I used to be,
But I'm sure I'll lose this form too
And perhaps I'll live on in you

I'm a container for a thousand souls
The voice of the ancients embodied
The strength of their sinews
And weight of their wishes
Holds me and presses upon me

I am a story that's never been told
An epic wrought in space-time
The dust of a thousand supernovas
Feigning to hold the mind

I am the shadow spirit
That lives on when you die
My dormant roots awaken
Behind your sleeping eye

I am a dream of god's and
He is one of mine
Both are a song that's fleeting
But the echo is heard for all time