Lovelorn youth vaults
to her death  -  river bed
grants forgiveness

- fr

A set of verses finished,
assigned to paper  -
though read, now or later,
remain strangely incomplete  -
neglectful of some
important addendum.
   There is always
an undefined
element missing  -
as if the soul were not
properly emptied
onto the page  -
always an
elusive sun-ray
gleaming just outside the
poetic endeavor
that written words
can never fully capture.




- fr

River as persistent
as the enduring ******
for self-preservation -

Carving by currents
and flowing within
a necessary course

Determined
by ancient
inherent law.

Oblivious to danger
and ignorant of doubt
it is perpetually unconcerned -

The river carelessly
generous
without discrimination -

Ever sustaining
trees, grasses and
underbrush shelters

Home to life in its waters
and nourishment for those
that come to the banks

Never quarreling with any
human imposition
be it sport or utility

And always providing
the perfect primordial
music for meditation

Always offering
an immaculate lullaby
for the tranquil restorative
of sleep.


- fr

Barring a robin
nothing sacred
at the vacant church

- fr

Newspaper, radio, television
Regurgitate
- by choice or default -
Gory deeds, misfortunes and
Dark tendencies
Of humanity.

Contrive justifiable
Dwelling exit.

Respite on curbside
In sweet, cleansing
Early morning drizzle...










- fr

When the dimensions of space
Again come to confuse
Your perspective
And time is used
Once more as a gauge
Of what is lost
And what is unborn
And you find yourself
Driving deeper
Into a nothingness
Disguised as life
And the projection
Of your dreams
Into reality
Seems but a dream itself
And all that you
Are within
Must assume the shape
Of all that you see
Then should you
Think of Love only
             - and blink.

- fr

Rock as blade -
mountaintop punctures
cloud cover



- fr

River glides
perpetually
beneath ice


- fr

Blissful happiness
when the mind
is evading thought

Is absolute hell
to whom thinking
is bliss.


-fr

This is my narrative  -
     writing only
     to clarify for myself
     a conception of the world,
     my own self-conception  -
This should hold no value
     outside of me....
Save that all narratives
     seemingly overlap
     tend to meet and embrace
     seek interaction
By some unconscious urging
     or primal need.








- fr

"You are a lost soul,
       a fool destined for hell-fire...
  Such is the fate of those
       who do not believe the Word of God..."

"What evidence do you have,"
       I asked,
"that this is the Word of God?"

"It's The Holy Bible, for Christ's sake!
       The Word of God -
       everyone knows that -
       it says so itself!
  How can you be so stupid?!"

"What evidence...?" I asked.


- fr

Dig maniacally
with fingernails
to Earth's core

Proceed banging,
bloodying the skull
against the iron sphere

Still, the question
"Substance?" remains ringing
through pulsing headache.


- fr

Agreed, that love is attraction
    - though not only surface sensual,
      as you maintain,
      not only toward the external -
But that sweet involuntary pull is
      also inward for expansion;
      for interior sifting
      and resolution.
Love is primarily attraction to
      unexplored depths
      of the self.




- fr

This woodland
differs by lack of
Nothing.

Backward on the road
lies the stifling Void -
granted safe haven
behind complex cosmetics -
crass trivialities -
and labeled
"the real world."

Here, in the forest,
there is only
Incorruption.

No effort
is required
to breathe.


- fr

Hushed void within
absorbs stillness without -
overarch of stars


- fr

Biscuits and tea -
abstract girl entertains
Victorian ghosts





- fr

Ease into silence
healing reprieve before
life's cacophony





- fr

Concepts are only
     in the mind
     and after the fact  -

Love occurs
     here and now
     as dynamic action.

Simply discussing an
     idea of love
     is classroom dissection
     on a corpse  -

Love is
     the living, breathing
     impulse
     to the inquiry.





- fr

Flash of enlightenment
When, pained and struggling,
You at last reach the
Subterranean chamber
And find the Psyche juggling
Christmas cookies and
Chainsaws.






- fr

Why no choir
singing now of blessedness?
fawn by the brook

- fr

My home.  Behind dumpster.
Live there.  Sleep with gravel
     tearing my cheekbone.
Get work sometimes  -
     not enough paycheck
     to move out.
Food, cigs, quart of beer.
Money spent.

Need to use facility.
Some businesses just say "no."
Others have restrooms that read:
     "Customers Only."
But money spent.

Go back home.  Behind dumpster.
Doin' my business.

White car pulls up.
Officer steps out.
"Urinating in public."

Fifteen dollar fine.
Fifteen dollar court costs.

Thirty dollars
     for *******
     on my own home...






- fr

Paint a picture for me -
Brush strokes in elephant blood
     of corrupted soil and
     toxic waterways,
     sunless air hanging over
     bombed-out orphanages -
But create with these elements
An image positive
In tone and direction
Framed by youthful vision -
Paint for me a picture
     of possibilities -
Convince me there is a way out...





- fr

Subconsciously, perhaps,
You knew from the beginning
This point would be attained  -
This awareness
Wherein
I would question and
Ultimately disprove
All you have ever believed
As truth  -
And, in the process,
Rewrite and recreate
Myself.



- fr

October 15

Seated bedside at
my father's corpse -
with whom to philosophize?

Las Cruces

Red deep in purple
sky fire illuminates
last rites at sunset

July 26*

Death weeps in despair
eternal battle futile
desert rose blossoms



- fr

A particular preacher
Delivered the words
  Love your neighbor as yourself
Using the commandment
As an empty axiom
To establish religious superiority;
As a knife in the gut
Of non-believing neighbors.







- fr

These atoms the earth's -
       not mine -
This life force carries on
       without my conscious control -
All universal law is
       perfectly executed
Minus any command from me -
       and yet I embellish
A focal point
       with end all egotism.


- fr

This is not the mentality
     by which we were schooled -
This sense of nothing
     solid about ourselves -
Nothing permanent, nothing stable
     to lovingly cleave to -
That "I" is only a
     transient idea of "I"



- fr

Because we are earth.
Because we are not here
And nature over there.
Because it is a dysfunctional mental habit
To conceive of ourselves as separate
From the flowing energy of the planet
- the air, water and nourishment -
That we transmute to our own energy.
Because we set aside a day to recall
How dangerously mistaken it is
To treat as a lowly inexhaustible slave
One that is both single-minded parent
   and sustaining comrade,
Worthy of love and respect.



- fr