East
Graceful
Light gathers
At the horizon
A cloud like a soft grey dove

A slowly growing symbol of dawning peace

Whole with hope and full with light
Shimmers like a rose
At the horizon
A new tree
The Moon
West

Soft pearl grey
Dark I cannot see the stars
I am in a cloud

I think you knew
Long time ago
They thought you knew
And now they know

Where would means wouldn't
Yes means no
We know who knew
I think you know

Sometimes I wake up
And I forget where I am
It almost doesn't matter anymore
I am always where I am

Nothing is more
Exhilarating than
The moment you begin
To understand

I'd flow right through the table but for
the electrons
in my hand
it's all so
strange
I can't explain
I wish that I could understand

they each think I
am on the other side
not anymore

here in the center
all I see
is two long rows of swords

out in the open
with the others
I could stay forever

this will not be a gauntlet
till you learn to come together

What is darkness?
Teach me with your light
What is waking?
Teach me with your night
If we were not afraid
There would be little meaning to the phrase
It's going to be alright

every time you turn away from me
into my waiting hands falls one more stone

I carry them no matter where I go
now I have almost more than I can hold

and when one day it is too much to bear
I throw every last stone down in the sand

but when you give a sign to show you care
I walk right back to you

with empty hands

I feel like
the sky
one moment before
the lightning strikes

knowing it will go through me

that I will be
electrified

only not knowing
what it will hit
or from which side

When I was young my belief was strong
But one day I thought I had been told wrong
And I decided I had been deceived
That was the day I no longer believed

And for a while I tried to look
I found lots of gods in holy books
It seemed these gods were all the same
One light
Many shadows
Many names

And though I studied, though I tried
I found that I could not decide
I thought these books must all be wrong
So I did not believe in God

But I kept looking year by year
I even prayed
God, are you here?
If you give me a sign I'll see
Tell me your name
And I'll believe

Until one day I had a thought
What if it's not that kind of god?
What if it rules but not by fear?
What if it moves but does not hear?

I don't believe God thinks like us
But something has created us
Unbreakable, we call it law
So powerful: can this be God?

It does not know the ones it rules
It is not merciful or cruel
It is not good, nor is it bad
It does not smile, does not get mad

It made the Moon, it made the stars
It made us just the way we are
It made the tree, it made the dove
It is below, it is above

And though perhaps mistakes were made
I don’t believe I was deceived
I find I have always obeyed
I find I have always believed

And I have questions all the same
How many gods, how many names?
Shadows enough to fill the night
Ten thousand shadows and
One Light

So many years
My people wandered
Far and long and wide
They roamed

On foot and wheel
And wing and sail
There always was
Somewhere to go

They knew the wind
They knew the way
They knew the sky
The stars
I know

I look up the same way
Today in my new place
And I am home

how translucent
existence seems
like a memory
of a dream

echoes of echoes
that become
an inarticulable hum

the time it takes
until we know
reality
moments ago

feels like thunder
and makes me wonder

is it ever really now?

Today has been
A beautiful day

I walked down to the island
In the middle of the river
And climbed a tree
It began to rain

The Sun was high
It started to shine
And a low little rainbow
Came over the horizon

I walked home
Listening to Beethoven
On my headphones

The raindrops on the trees
Looked like diamonds in the light
And on the other side
I saw another rainbow
Much higher in the sky

And now the sunset
Has painted all the clouds
Gold

I think that tonight will be
A beautiful night

I do not belong to you
It is not your choice
You don't get to speak for me
I have my own voice

If I stand up and speak my mind
Do not be surprised
This is not under your control
I get to decide

Every poem is
One tile
In a mosaic
If you read them all
You can see
The picture that they make

we change our plans
hold back our hands

with all our strength
and force of will

we hide away
another day

we tremble
and the Earth stands still

I try to build
a castle
out of diamonds

flashing in the Sun

but they are smooth and sharp
and do not hold together

tzak                  
tzak
                  tzak­

the castle falls apart

a dangerous sky
it is raining stars

I have forgotten who I really am
While trying to find out who I should
Be
I think it's time that I take a step back
Find myself in the music, in a
Tree
Always searching but too busy to look
It's time I take a moment just to
Be
And maybe lose myself in a good book
I think that this is where I will find
Me

Even if nobody
Understands your words
I am glad that you chose them

Even if nobody
Understands your poems
I am glad that you wrote them

Remember when we
Turned against one another
Those days are no more

And I feel joy
That you are my friend again
And I am yours

Even at the very end
I will be with you
Forevermore

The willow
Sways with the wind
The Earth
Slow dances
With the sky

I am a wave
on a stormy black sea

I am a branch
on an infinite tree

space within space
time within time

two mirrors reflecting
infinite timelines

we have danced
a million kinds of madness
under the same Moon

Even in the strangest sea
I know I can float
Adrift on uncertainty
I am full of hope

It is raining
The sky is grey
The wind is blowing leaves
Off the trees
Scattering white petals
Down the street
But the Sun is shining
I promise
Just a little further
Than we can see

Humans are humans
Forget this
Take someone's
Humanity away
And forget
Your own
Humanity

watching arrow after arrow
fall from grace like countless sparrows
I don't know what I would do
if I should ever shoot the Moon

I would gain much greater glory
if I could chase closer quarry
but I aim beyond my range
so nothing ever has to change

my soul is electricity
it never stops
moving

if it did
it would fall
into the nothing
that everything is full of

and fill the void
with its

infinitely
deep emptiness

Could someone ever love me for exactly who I am?
Quite possibly, but I still have my doubts
For this to happen I would have to share all my secrets
I don't know if it's worth it to find out

One day I will find someone who I want to show my soul
Someone I want to stay with till the end
Someone for whom I am willing to rethink all these walls
And ask myself this same question again

today when I was with my friends
I was kind of
unkind to them

I know I didn't mean to be
I did it all unconsciously

I was too harsh
too critical

too negative and cynical

it was an echo of the way
I'd criticized myself all day

that's more than a coincidence
that seems more like
cause and effect

I think
the way I treat myself
becomes
how I treat someone else

that felt like an epiphany
though it had long been clear to me

that how I am treated informs
the way that I treat
everyone

it's crazy that it felt so new
to realize

I'm a person too

and that when I
am cruel to me

it just inspires more cruelty

why should I set myself apart?
if my compassion is complete

then I should treat myself
in the same way
that people should be treated

if heaven is just
a dream that we dream
a final escape
from reality

a place that we go
in the mind
>  >  nowhere  <  <
in the lightning storm

will I meet you there?

hidden knowledge
second sight

infrared
lower light

feral heat
that burns you bright

in the snake pit
of the night

I wish I could be there with you
so many times
and many ways

I just want to
reach out to you
but I know
it is not my place

a place where you would lie
pretend to care
and one day break my heart

and if you asked me to
I would be there
but for the grace of god

all the world
the words they wrote
cut and pasted back together
pirate troves  like  ransom notes
libraries of stolen  l   e   t   t  e  r  s
we  threw  our  lines  to  the  wind
some we cross   and some we blur
where our words are wandering
writing                       over
all the world

sun spider
weaves her pattern on the sky
the world in her web

your silence
moves me
further away from you
and closer to
him

I will resist
not for you
but for me

he
is poison

Words are like threads
Pulling our heartstrings
And drawing our thoughts
Lifting us higher
Like marionettes

Words are like threads
Twisted and tangled
A Gordian knot
Whole worlds bound up
In what people have said

Words are like threads
Holding up guillotines
Arrows pulled taut
Only a sentence
Until it is read

Words are like threads
Closing the circuits
Connecting the dots
Weaving bright tapestries
Inside our heads

I look and see God far away
I look and           see God near
I look and see                      God everywhere
       Its shape is                            a perfect sphere  
And though I do                            believe in God      
And though                      in God I trust
I believe we don't        understand God      
And God does not understand us

words have feelings hidden within
they can crash and clang like cymbals
glitter and twinkle like crystals
tingle and prickle like thistles
whisper and hiss like the wind

caress my heart
and brush apart
this impervious surface
you make me nervous

hush
shut up
shush

just a crush
such a rush
so much

touch me like you deserve this

when our number's up
we go where souls find slumber
in a run-on run of none and not and nothing

where the sky is broad and high
and deep and humbling
where the tumbleweeds
come dumb and drunk and stumbling

and the pick-up trucks are rusted
done and dusted
in the dusty sun
that stuns dunes and drumlins

stone strewn with rubble
some forgotten struggle
where the temples have crumbled
and the gods have been humbled

wind grumbles and mumbles
like some drunken slumlord
at the gutter rats that huddle
in his muddled penumbra

and the threads that time is woven of
are tangled and jumbled
like vines in a jungle
and rhyme and reason teeter and tumble

and the stunning starry sky
falls down and stumbles
lays a stone on the tomb
of the lost and forgotten

when our blood is dust
no us and no other

no struggle
no trouble

just a lot of nothing