Behind the eyes of God there are
Many Sovereign Dreamers; and no
Common vision would we know but
Love restrain wild excess for in other
Sovereign worlds live those we love
More than our liberty and thus it is by
Compromise we come to live in this
Our oft jaded reality. Oft rebelling till
Reminded that God is Love and One
Sovereign yet understands our reasonable
Dissatisfaction with this mundane world
We are compelled to live in So shews us
Great mercy- kind understanding toward
Our rebellion reminds us that the bonds of
Love shall free as is promised in the end

(So we wake to yet slog on for yet a while)

Tell the truth.  Nothing changes
But you may see it better.
Tell the truth.  Nothing changes
But you may hear it better
Be in silence
Hear the still small voice
That is always speaking to
Your heart.

Sometimes it seems like I have spent much
Of life searching for the meaning of life-My
Life in particular.  It is somewhat the same as
As digging a grave into the heart of darkness-
Of consciousness as if it were- a well to the Ever-
Lasting Spring-the water of life that is the Love
That was in me that I have for you.  I have never
Found the substance such that I am satisfied. No
Words have I to make you know.  I have nothing
To give you.  I have been foolish and wasted my
Time; confused what should  have been simple-
Trying to understand and failing to just be to be:
Charitable.  I ask God's Grace to climb out of the
Hole and to become whole.  To know it is ever the
Gift not strived for  unearned that you give  So
I plead wretched man that I am that you forgive
As God be as you are let me believe as I receive

For Elizabeth

What is poetry?   It is a mystery
It is a desire to live forever; to Love
Forever; To write Forever.  It is accessible
For who can say what it i and what it is not
Aspire to be something  you can be a poet
A poet is somebody with possibilities for
That alone ****** deserves to be respected
Poets are ever threatened to be called out
As charlatans but the greatest danher comes
From within their .own  Jealous,paranoia are
Ever on the horizon and all they to counter it
With is their poetry a tenuous thing hanging
Upon inspiration which is given and and then
No  one knows when or if it shall come back
The complex must be made simple without a
Vital truth being lost But then what is truth as
A judge once said of ******* I may not
Be able to define it but I know it when I see it
Might he not have been wiser and just said I do
Not know.  But that peace prevail we must have
Arbiters and we pay them well very well then
Change our minds that we have put in chains-
The poet is eminently human flawed and in
Need of  love and forgiveness to go on Love
Divine and human and to give it back in all
Ways but poetry is his chosen way the gift that
Is asked for To know God's mind and work out
Words thaat can be understood by all who  have
Ears to hear as Jesus said of His parables ; and
That some would hear and remember and only
Later understand.  Are their amongsts us some
Pretenders it not mine to say but to have a wish
To be is enough and God may is His wisdom or
Foolishness grant it-Let us love one another even
Unto folly and the lord thy God as One. Amen


For Brendan

The boy who cried fire too many times
When there was no fire got the reputation
Of a Liar so when he cried :No firre ! No
Fire! there was a terrible hysteria that in
Fact there was a Fire consuming the land
Panic everywhere as the fear spread.
It is really quite simple.  If Pavlov called
Out ; Chow! Chow! and there was never
Food the dogs would soon the Word  food

Believe was a lie and  would stop believing the
Man even when he told the Truth.  What is the
Truth in the liar' s .mouth?  The understanding of
Trtuth Is always  the hallowed breath of reputation.





The Bull in the china shop pleaded he was really
Only an elephant.  They would not listen and
cried curses down as he was forced to leave the
shambles.  Shame Shame They called!  Go!  Go!

But  to the pedestrians and street urchins it was
A
Glorious show and so it was long remembered.
Even revered as a great masquerade of  this life
Wherein all the world is a stage and the play is
The thing.  All that's left to us though it be the
Fall
Of Rome we are glad we were there Now to tell the
Tale  about the way we were in our youth.
Are we not all but poor players who strut and
Fret our hour upon the stage and then are heard
No More....So knave or king take your bow. All
We can  now say   say to you is you made the show
We  who loved the show   must love you too at the
End of time...

With Love to my son and daughter

I think we keep each other alive with
just the hope that we will be together
Again-Something to live for; and if it is...
Without resolution that we cannot die
Before we say  hello good bye again
I pray you do not go away; and that I
May live that you may live-  we may
Live that our love may live 'n if only
In that rippling silence of forever. You
Knowing I love you I knowing you love
Me If only that be true it is enough if it
Be Our Father's will Thy will be done

Goeth my friend to that Place
Where there is no sorrow-Go
Yonder to Nepenthe for it is a
Real place where in the midst
A Sea of trouble you are within
A Love  in that bubble of  Wonder
There is forgetfulness that teaches a
Truth beyond knowing   in forgiving
Beyond forggiving in forgetting: God Is

How long oh Lord will it be till I
Know Sweet Nepenthe again. Know
Deligtht of your Love that I remember
That cannot be remembered.


For Elizabth & Brendan

I entered athe land of Chance
(or so it seemed) there to seek
The beauty of the love that i
Everywhere and there  Ifound
Old friends and new So many
Treasures everywhere but all
Fragmented ;friends I'd made
That I could not keep.   So to a
Greater loneliness I woke again
To my defeat (or so it seemed)
By love rejected and so far away
Without chance or,friend to play
As if in a pool I looked down at
Myself and decried the abominable
Wretch I had become only looking
Down on my sorrow ne'r realizing
It  was in the sky above me and the
Forlorn one I rejected was the Christ
Above me that  I rejected.  Disgraced
Beaten and defeated. Yes I am sorry
I admit it for it is God's Truth Too


*I was ignorant therefore I spoke as I did...
From the end of the Book of Job when the
Lord asks him where he was when God created
The Leviathan?  Children forgive me that I spoke
As I did.  I am sorry and ask you to forgive me
Even as the Lord did Job for Love"s sake...

To take the unbearable burden of
Precious memory from our hearts
But that all be not forgotten forever
To distill from the passing multi-
Verse just the merest essence of
The life that was  so dear and  so
Plenteous that it all could be borne
Forward and to leave some tincture
To solace the broken hearted that all
Is not lost and that there is yet a key
To times past and of laughter long ago

What music is this
Seems like only yesterday
The happiest of times
Now Again but a memory
A revery that has stayed
With me the longest time
Never again yet I hear it
Now.  What music is this?

Have you lost the one you love?
Does it seem she is not there and
Will not be where you are waiting
Then you are dreaming  Dreaming
Years So Many years it seems it is
Unreal.  Where was it that you lost
Her before the dream began.  It is
There you will find her waiting still
As she was.  Time has not  taken a
jot from her beauty She still waits
For your love.  Take now your Ship
Of dreams cross over thru the seas-
Pass again into the darkest night of-
Of despair till you reach the farther
Shore that was once your Fatherland
Where Love Lives and never dies. Raise
Up your heart like a flag on the fated ship
Let the winds of time take you back to
Land from which you came away- where
Love is real and Truth  is beauty and as the
Poet said: That is all ye needwonderful to know but
Yet know this too you will arrive home again
In this life.  Have So soon the journey,s over
In the blink of an eye you will know it all
Has been a dream that  your love was gone
And night is as good as day til the morning



Remembering Now
"An Occurrence  at Owl Creek" by
Ambrose Bierce

In that darkest hour;In that timeless
Moment of total loss; and death takes
Hold I cease to care and in that instant
Moment or
Eternity I do not know.
Then within the shroud of darkness
A shining point of light is born .  It
means:






       I must go back even to a world
Of troubles For there is Hope in life
That survives all death..I am with thee
Still a child of our God Eternal I am  
It is my Father's Wiil: I must go on...



































' I am with thee
Still; Born again. a child of God I am

Little Liss kissed my lips
So chaste and ....
Sweet  It pierced my heart
Where she always lives
Now she is all grown up
But on those lips she be-
Quated a gift-A secret . I
know its been said before:
"The past is not over its not
Even past".  He spoke of I
Think of  a time and place but
It was of a forever Love  and a
Truth that does not die but lives
On in in memories that return in
Dreams that are real as heaven
A place you will always be when
You get there like  " Last Stop:
'Willough... Be!'"...

(Some Place between Westport and Fairfield)


With attribution to Wm Faulkner and  The Twilight Zone by my
fellow Antiocian Rod S,

For Liss

When things end too soon
Before you are ready-
You learn their true value
Count them your greatest
Treasures-How much they
Meant to you by their loss
By this measure I  have been
Rich though I rarely knew it

I live now mostly with memories
Of those I loved. the colorful friends
And those belonging to scenes and
Places I passed  so swiftly thru but
Still in their echoes call...
Do I wish they were all with me now

No life needs time and space; another
Life time would be needed, then  again
Another after that.  No if I could ask it
Would be that soon we could visit again
Like when you go to school know you will
See your parents for supper so do not miss-
That we could always visit for a while and
Would soon-be dropping in to talk a bit of
The past and what is new--an I love you and
Aways will Don"t be a stranger now See
You soon  Your always welcome ya hear
Does that seem too much to ask of God
When memories  are  just not enough?
Its not too late late but  seems so long.

Behind the eyes of God there are
Many Sovereign Dreamers; and no
Common vision would we know but
Love restrain wild excess; for in other
Sovereign worlds live those we love
More than our liberty and thus it is by
Compromise we come to live in this
Our oft jaded reality. Oft rebelling till
Reminded that God is Love and One
Sovereign yet understands all reasonable
Dissatisfaction with the mundane world
We are compelled to live with. So shows
Us mercy and kind understanding toward
Our rebellion remind us that the bonds of
Love shall free as is promised in the end

If  all the people the Catholic Church
Kicked out The Pope would be left a
Lone idiot raging against the moon
I know I have done so- but kind hands
Saved me. Fallen Catholics most likely
As the man once said there are:  known
Knowns; the known unknowns and the
Unknown Unknowns.  A simple trinity
Would we see our Lord face to face
Like Abraham must we be willing to
Give up our only son-the faith of our
Fathers and become one of rejected for
Not measuring up,  one of the unknown
Unknowns who meet God face to face
Alone yet for a time till our redeemer
Comes in darkness still I will await him
As Abraham we do not  know the end ...

A beautiful thing can in twinkling of an
Eye change  everything  |Praise God!|

For Kelsey

There is no good reason that things should be so bad.  
Bad  andSo I let the starry eyed child be my guide.
the wise and learned men who write great treatises no one
Can understand  should confess as much and not mislead.but
Rather  than admit that  they know not.  They are proud that they
Can deceive though will carry their erudite  heavy tombs to the
Grave They say wemust listen to them  so they can make it better.
They scrawl there letters in the sand of an eternal shore that erases
All.  



Again there is no good reason things must be so bad .No child
Should be blamed for Adams Sin it is beaten into them by threat
From all the worthy shamans Let them all go go pound  sand but
They will not go easy.  Speak!   Will we not crucify?  Its been
Done before you know?   No I do not know and neither do you.
But if its so its wrong.  Where were you when God made ius all
Heaven and earth If you were any where near Him you were
A starry eyed child who knew  He would call you back and
Never let you roam too far This was a knowledge worth living
For.  There is no good reason to  pretend we know why so much
Evil is  In fact a little child leadeth me even now out of  the dark
Dungeon of despair that i wrongly called Adam's other place.
There really is only One place  it is here and it belongs to God
The child knows it is loved; know where love is there is no  evil
Good is the truth The Truth is good and that is all you need to
Know

We are like two climbers  on the side of a
Mountain trying separately to reach the
Summit.  We shout back and forth but do
Not really hear.  She says You are not good
I shout back you are not kind.  Failing the love.
That calls us to be together. The kind and the
Good.  Dear Lord show us the  Way that we may
Help each other - that our two broken hearts yet
Be joined with Thine to rise again on the
Mountain that Your will be done on earth as in
Heaven Thy Kingdom where our love now is



For Elizabeth

Years ago when I was sa boy I used to
Visit an old hosrse on a farm near my
home that is no more.  Whenever I came
He would amble up to the fence and greet
Me.  I never brought him anything to eat
Boys are careless and do not think ahead-
Still I wish I had.  He always came to greet
Me .  Either he forgot or forgave me.  Does
It make any difference He knew I remembered
Him.and tha't ts how I feed him now by recalling
Him , the farm  and my child soul of long ago.

Remember
Forget
Remember to forget
Forget to remember
Eternal life must be
Lived one moment at a time
War Plague Famine The end
Nostradamus be ******
With every happy thought
Every piece of bread that
I hungrily eat.  Thankfully
I praise God for His grace
His goodness His salvation
For the gift  of  life with all
Its promise yet to be; written
In His blood Love's Victory




For Ira a priest of David
My friend  in Berkeley California
From Brooklyn  N. Y; Morning Star
Commune  Long time ago...

Was it loved denied or love expressed?
I sent you away whom I loved.  I acted.
Perhaps had I waited but I didn't.  Acted
When I did not know.   And now like a
Musical note resonating Still I do not know
Was it for the best.  It was not some trivial
Matter  but a question about love.  What it
Is?  Whether it was in me guiding me? Or
Was I a selfish fool traveling a long lonely
Road  never to know which way love is
Unto silence the tone fades and then it is
Reborn. Without a Knowing: how repent?

As the North posits the South  look Away
Look Away Dixie Land where the past has not
Even passed  Aye there is a Paradox A Paradox the
Molecule from which the Universe is built Look
Away Dixie Land and I shall forget your sins and
You shall rebuild and not know your paradoxes.
Thus speaketh the Lord who is ever merciful


Remembering Casey

When you gotta take a chance
'n its a matter of life or death 'n
You gotta live 'n to live you've
Gotta take a chance  even if it
Means you gonna die anyway
Then it is after all God's Will
You are his faithful dog even if
Sometimes it is kinda hard to bear
You chose to live 'n always tried
your best  but 'still you died had to.
May you hear at the end: "God
Rest his soul" and know it was for
Your Peace He took you home
Some where I heard it said>"Not
My will but Thy will be done"  And
When the bell tolls for me I will come
Then may I hear welcome home my child


For all who choose to live and
Who fight against the dying the
Light...

Seems like only yesterday
In his dad's apartment near
the old hat factory in Norwalk
Where his dad  had worked with

My grand mother  on opposite
Sides of the Union.  There he
Was Playing belting out Long
Tally Sally with more spirit than
Little Richard surrounded by his
Buddies all a little drunk as He
Clanged on the guitar like it was
The end of the world.  He died not
long after-complication of too much
Drinking and diabetes not yet thirty-
A vibrant life- my best friend it was
Another evening and I wasn't there
I was told it was another celebration
That he started laughing and could not
Stop until he passed out and went over to
The other side.  I went to the funerlal at
St Thomes's  His wife Sharoln was very
Beautiful a teenager in black veil. They
Had separated but not before they had a
Little boy -Tommy.  I cried I never knew
He was leaving though he had been telling
The Long long goodbye of our youth that I
Thought would not end even as it flamed out


For Little Richard and Little Tommy
s

When the whispering pipes are heard
oft we  remember as if in a dream the
deeds of derring do otherwise known as
treason, and treachery punishable still by
death and shame were they known and-
done now.  Was it courage, youthful folly
or the grants of intoxicants that gave us a
victory that is but survival when we should
have perished with our now stateless friends
Have we been forgiven?  Have we  repented
who can still remember the liberties we took
the passion we felt still feel in the south of our
souls where history is not over; is not even past
Oh Father forgive us.  Grant us peace that we
May remember and still laugh without shame
to be among the fallen for love's sake the times
This time of our togetherness and remembrance

But I do  not think all our yesterdays light the way to dusty death
But rather so great is the scroll of life that we are in great awe So
Many memories like as there are stars in the night sky of all God
Has done
Done for us  0h such a mighty work . How great Thou art
to have forgiven
Given us so many treasured memories. It is but a..
  A glimpse of a measureless Love.   In eternity
we  now live and believe and...that this should be



Our hearts overflowing with tears of joy and songs of praise

For Barbara

Wonder of wonders the first man arrives
The great explorer the first man to enter
The New Land Paradise only to discover
He is the last one there; that all the people
He thought were following are there already
Friends family strangers passed on the street
Are already there before he arrived.  How
Can this be?  That Christ rose to the Father
The unblemished son and there does meet all
Those he was sent to save and they have the
Gall to say we told you so.I guess heaven is not
Meant to be an empty place without friends or
Kin nor alien streets of gold but rather full of
Old familiar places lest old acquaintance  be
Forgot  All were forgiven so it seems before He
Rose.  The last shall be first and the first last.

A look in the mirror.  Yesterday.
A short dash from somewhere to
No where.  Who can say this not
The essence?  When its over.....

They say  love cannot die but that is not
Strictly true it can be struck dumb and so
Sleep who can say how long like an insect
Underground till the season of its rebirth.
When from buried chrysalis it is transformed
Into a butterfly with wings that fly from earth
To heaven  and beck again to land unexpected
On a dormant human heart that is still dear to
True a love that never dies.  Therefore I say to
Myself and to you fear not that sleep nor how
Long it may be.  For it will  pass in the twinkling
Of an eye.  Fight fight against the dying of the light
If you must but then rest fearlessly till thou wake
Again with me till that time  earth and heaven do
Com and all is made new again.  Sleep now  who
knows what dreams may come yet trust sweet chance
Is better than this stubborn wrangling that calls itself
Life but is not love  True Love does not lie but lies in
Wait till the end of never if need be.that is the Lord"s
Trump  card to all who would decry love"s victory.
Good bye my children you  who are mine no longer

What could account for the problem
Of making life so complex that an
Average man   is not able with a normal
Amount of diligence to  successfully be
Able to navigate the routine challenges
Of life.  Is it not perversity; ignorance
Some combination of the above- to drive
A man mad with needless complexities
That serve no purpose except the vain
Glory of the riddler who would not
Have us discover  that he is  naked.
Beneath his imagined cleverness -is a
Fool  who will not enter the House of
Lord till he will be led by a little child.

Do I love the sun?
I scarcely know
Do I love the rain?
I scarcely know
The moon and stars the
Quiet night.  I scarcely
Know.  My burden is lite
The longest wait the greatest
Weight is now.  I  now
Scarcely know  that it.  It  is
So
Quickly passes  a thing of light
Now    Do  I Love
You my Son I scarcely know-
The truth I know is light and
Shadow and the wait is  and is
not.  So lite a burden Love?

Jack said Game Over
I am. and  Your Dead
Lonely and all Alone
He said what is the use
This games a ruse that
leaves me without a friend
He looked around ghosts
All about.  So one by one
He bid them rise All the ones
He had known as friends now
Gone  Again with him to live
Another day; He said never
Again shall I play a game where
To win means saying no to love

What a dream Youth is
You go from A to Z   not
Knowing how you did it
Not even trying- Doing
Things that you had always
Been afraid to do but desired
In the hand of Fate as Desire
Got gets way.  For better or for
Worse two will do whatever
The want to;  and it is better not
To ask if it is right or wrong but
For Now let it be.  Now while the
Rose is red smell the air and call it
Love .  Why wait for another time
This time of ours will not last till
The end of time and when the crows
Come home to roost reminding us
We must say good bye  will you be
More regretful of what you did or Did
Not do.  When you can do no more.
As time goes by Let it be Lord as it was
As it is now and always Shalll be.

Once there was a garden It is
Still there very near here We
Can smell its fragrance sometimes
Of honey suckle  mixed with roses as it
Comes to us upon the summer breezes
But without innocence we cannot
Enter in    Romulus and Remus suckled
Upon the she wolf teats They were babes
Knew no better than  that she was kind to
Them  Are they not our brothers too in the
Long ago when we  too dwelled there in
Were naked and  unafraid  A parable is
A metaphor to dress the truth and make it
More acceptable to some ears than what
Simple innocence  would make clear.  It
Will be with tears that we douse the fiery
Cherubs "s flames that guard the gates of
Paradise where once we walked naked and
Unashamed and knew then the purest face
Of love that we would ever know the gift
that was our beginning  to be as God  made
Us as He makes us even now dressed only in
Our Innocence that no apple comes between
That I knew not the truth I spoke not the truth
With tears of sorrow and joy I know He has
Opened the gates as if they were never there
Is this not my Father  the Father that I love

As the Lord hath said:" There is none without sin.
No not one!"  Who then can condemn?  Who can
Judge?  The judged and the condemned who can
With honesty claim that they have been defamed
By all who dishonestly proclaim that they have the
Right to judge. But who has never made that claim.
No not one.  Lord holy is your silence; Blameless.
"Be still and know the Lord your God."  Then may
You  say you joyfully know He has heard my prayer

It slipped ghost like over  the eye of my conscience
A thief in the night it came unseen and took my truth
How many times I have repented even now so many
Years afterwards.  I do believe God forgave me but
I do not forgive myself for the callous act.  That I can
Not just accept the grace given so freely from my Lord
Is it that I do not  believe as I tell myself not to forget
Saying again and again Never again, Never again as if
That were some voodoo charm with power over all evil
There is still a scar over my third eye that keeps  me
Remembering what I would not have ever done if only
I  had but been true to myself.  Is it my pride that still tells
Me I could never fall prey to that silent ghostly film that
Passed between my soul' and and muted the voice of my
God.  Why should there ever be an eclipse of the sun; and
When it passes and sky is bright blue again why return to
Thoughts of darkness always asking why -Why me?
I who would be with you in heaven still cannot accept
My childhood-that you understood and still loved me
Even when I feet so bad about being bad I do not know
What to do or the reason why ...
Still  I am a child of God and Lord
I need you to tell me again and
Again  that you still love me. 
Again and Again that you Love
Me,   Amen





For all Gods Creatures: May we always show them kindness and be thankful.

So much wasteful -tedious
Much meaningless busyness
It's taking the peace I seek
Why not let it all go? You
Know you will in the end
Why wait?  It's not so easy
To say Adieu to all, that' is
Getting swamped going on

Slouching towards Bethleham
Or Jerusalem...I forget which
The morning and the evening
Star they are one.  Birth- Death
One.  Time is rhe mother of all
Change.  In time every healing
Comes and it is a wonder that
Cannot be remembered to  know
God's saving grace has blessed
Us again . All His promises:As in
Heaven we see His goodness here

For Time and Love
For my Mother and Father

All we can ever do has been done before. Not
That it can be as it  was it now remembered.
The ways to our truth may be many but  they
End by being conjoined.and The Way  becomes
One for all mankind ;and we walk single file  a
Narrow path following faith and hope to know
The Divine; the gift of a greater Love to be-and

So become One with the Lord who lives forever;
Loves forever, who is the essence of our being-
Who we are becoming; who we truly are; Now
And for always to be realized.  This is the Way
The gift from God to each and all but know this:
It is a wonder and cannot be remembered. A gift
From God who makes all th.ings  new again





The foolishness of God is better than wisdom of men






Better the laugh of a crying child carried on the
Wind to the ears of God than all that can be said.
May I not be counted wise but as a child of God

Work is a a kind of prayer when
Prayer becomes a kind of work
Thy burden is lite and when you
Are confused that is for the rest

You have to die to forget old age.
I forget it often but it is quick to
Remind me that it is still around
Spreading rumors of my demise

Though you may tell me otherwise
I still do not know Do not know
Otherwise.  The universe I do not
Know is very  large. How large it is
I really do not know.  I really do not
know at all. and i can live with this;
That's just the way I am; and what is
Just Let it be...
Just let it be Your will for me till
We meet face to face and do know
Love's reality
And though I would not Thy judge-
Ment fall on me even that I will not
I will not doubt it be Thy will for me
That I may rise again

There are times when you are
Surrounded by an awesome dark
Ness.  Then some one lights.a
Match you forgot about and in
The moments of light all seems
Well that was terrifying before
In the heart of darkness a star is
Born  and that star is all that is

I have been there before and I
Know there is trouble in the
Beginning but it is  still better
Than the darkness without end

Fot the  door ****.  I find it.  That is my Faith
I believe what I cannot see yet know is there,,,