It’s time to be real, time to face facts
We all love a drug, we all have our pills
We all choose addictions to soothe our ills
Trying to forfeit the pain life exacts

Things that we grasp only briefly distract
Behaviors we love that cannot fulfill
Popping bad habits instead of real pills
Making wrong choices, spurning their impact

Devices, entities, actions, can ****
All of creation mayhap abused
No matter your choice, regardless of thrill

We conceive our own monsters
By our own selves we are used
Pills only widen life’s fissures

I am not a rainbow
With easily labeled bands
And though I shine with colors
I don’t come with tidy strands

I am not a how-to chart
With columns intersecting rows
You can’t match up A with B
To know which way I’ll go

I am not a machine
With a function for each purpose
I do have buttons you may push
But don’t expect programmed reactions

I am a kaleidoscope
Each twist will change your view
It will take your lifetime
Before you’ll know my hues

Swiftly flowing in its placid journey
Passes towers of arboreal green
Irrepressible current coursing free
Tranquility so rarely felt or seen

Then the current engages violence
Grinding boulders in its angry freefall
Only Death travels here seeking credence
Even the stalwart in this fury stall

None will escape the current’s crashing flow
Its watery claws seize all that are born
Who, carried through paths both severe and slow
Learn of peace after beaten down and worn

Do I ride and wrestle the current’s wave?
Or pine and wish the current were a grave?

My dreams were filled with frightful things;
Warblers riding ravens' wings.
Obsidian bodies flocked in rows,
Walking slowly over trees.

Stiff dead children sailed dark seas.
Warblers riding on their backs.

The ravens marched in close formation,
An army of dark purpose,
Taking warblers to the shore
To ride their grim escorts.

What frightful things must abide
In this gentle heart of mine
To summon images like these.
I dare not try explore.

I stood on the porch tonight and stared into the heavens
The mild darkness and cricket melodies
Took me captive and I couldn’t move or think
The fingers of a midnight breeze tickled my edges
The night was like wine and unlike times before
I drank without objecting, without fear
Of what it would do to me
I should have resisted because before I was aware
I hunted for the Infinite, tried to perceive God
I attempted to span the universe with a thought
But even those twinkles of light are each
More massive than imagination
And I was left to question the sanity of this creation
How do you find a thing your mind can’t define
What can my spirit do when its perceptions
Are limited to five mortal senses
There must be more to life than just existence!
And just as my oceans were getting beyond restless
The midnight breeze and cricket melodies
Beckoned me by name and stilled my waters
And in their voices God said to me
“Child, when you look for me
I will always discover you.”

It’s the Sabbath day
Jesus lays entombed
There was no other way
Because forever loomed

It’s the Sabbath day
God has paused his labor
Hardest work was yesterday
It took him to death’s chamber

It’s the Sabbath day
The Devil knows he’s lost
Yet still attempts decay
To ruin what we cost

God chose to be salvation’s slave
Enemy take warning
You killed Christ on Sabbath’s eve
But Sunday morning’s coming!

A wolf sauntered near the flock
of innocent white sheep,
and in that cunning mind he thought
"I think I'll have some fun."

He loudly bayed behind a rock,
and sat with toothy grin.
And let his laughter thunder loud
to chase their panicked run.

The flock of innocent white sheep
shot straight into the air.
With startled hearts they ran about,
save one too slow,
was trampled unknown down.

Innocent sheep with minds so dull,
felt a body under hoof.
At once in heart they all believed
they had felled the big bad wolf.

No longer innocent, these sheep,
turned with eyes red glaring.
They every one chose a stick
and killed their brother there.

The wolf had not expected this;
jaw dropping in despair.
He thought aloud while running off,
"Of blood this time I'm innocent,
and blessed I'm not a sheep!"

The moral of these verses,
you may have early guessed,
those sheep aren't sheep at all,
but really you and me.
Wolves will bay, snarl and snap,
so that we'll fear for life.
Instead of racing for ourselves,
pick the weaker up.
It's only then we'll cease to be
a flock of mindless sheeple.

I read a poem today by Jack Gilbert.  It was called
“Failing and Flying”
and sold me a new paradigm.
He drew an analogy between Icarus’ skyfall
and divorce.  Remember Icarus?  
He flew with handcrafted wings high into the sky.  
His elation was so great it melted his wings
and he tumbled to his death in the sea.
It feels tragic, that he flew only to fall; just like marriage feels tragic
when love takes wing only to crash and burn.  
But as Jack Gilbert wrote, “anything worth doing
is worth doing badly….
…Icarus was not failing as he fell, but just coming to the end
of his triumph.”
He described the last fond moments with his wife,
and concluded his marriage was not a mistake.

I often weep for awful events in my marriage; but the marriage itself
is no mistake.
It’s my triumph.
I really don’t want to fly only to fall.  But if I must,
our flight was never a mistake.

I don’t know how to meet people
I mean, how do you just walk up
To someone you don’t know at all

What if they ignore my greeting?
What if they look at me funny?
What if they become angry, right?

That person could be important
In charge of a huge company
Or own a major football team

Chances are they’re way too busy
For someone as small as I am
I just can’t handle rejection

Then one afternoon in a store
A salesman walked right up to me
He said “Hi!’ and then shook my hand

The salesman didn’t have a clue
Of how I would respond to him
And then it settled on me like

An elephant waiting for food
That’s the best way to meet people
Say “Hi!” and leave the rest to them

Sometimes,
I’m lonely and want you here.
Sometimes,
I get nervous and need your words.
Sometimes,
I’m terrified and long for shelter.
And sometimes,
I get restless and desire something wild.

Sometimes,
I feel laughter and want to share.
Sometimes,
I’m happy and want to fuse it in you
Sometimes,
I’m content and rest in your embrace.
And sometimes,
Life glows because you are here.

Sometimes happens all the time.
And all my sometimes,
Have you in mind.
Together, all my sometimes
Equal all the time.
That is when I need you.

Return to me, my angel of life
Let us dance heart to soul
Let the rhythm of our one pulse
Merge with the singing
Of our one soul.

Return to me, my angel of beauty
Let me swim in your heart’s cry
Let me soak in the depth of your eyes
We, grafted when saplings
Only grow as one giant cedar.

Return to me, my angel of joy
Let me gift you the one thing I own
Let my heart settle with whom it belongs
Deep inside your treasure chest
Locked for only you to possess.

Return to me, my angel of sorrow
Let our tears form the same river
Let our agonies heal our wounds
Gashes that have torn us into
The abomination of two.

Return to me, my angel of paradise
Let us dwell in the garden we tended
Let us bloom together among the roses
Our blossoms so brightly hued
The Sun will worship our love.

Let me make love to you
With my eyes
Follow every perfect curve
Caress each lovely fold
I want to soak up
Your beauty
Travel along your legs
And study your fingers and toes
I will worship the contours
Of your cheeks
And let the softness of your lips
Tease me into ecstasy
With my eyes I want to love you
Carry you in memory
To fill my thoughts
When you can’t be here
For all of you is perfection
From when we met years ago
To this moment
Much has changed about you
But not one thing at all
You are always perfect
So let my eyes adore you
Let me drink you in
So I will never forget
One perfect detail
Of the body that carries you

I don’t know how to say
But I ache to try
I hate I talked that way
It wasn’t from my heart

Sometimes I let my feelings
Run my motor mouth
Instead of simply thinking
Before my tongue’s in gear

If I could plug a speaker
Directly to my heart
Then you’d hear it singing
Music you impart

So now I leave this note
My apology
My sorrow is from hurting you
Please, my Love, forgive me