When I hear people say
" I want to take my life back to a time when it was much simpler."

I follow up and ask,
"Why in the world would you want to live such a simple life?"

I for one, would prefer to struggle,
find a present solution and cope—
Life is never going to be plain Jane and easy.
Ask yourself, when did something good in life come easy?
If we find truth and acceptance finding the light in darkness we will find success.
If we let ourselves dwell in the past letting it control us
Mourning over what once was and what could have been
We waste days, months, even years trying to relieve the grievances of the past
Dwelling, descending, succumbing, ignoring the realization that

Life moves on within a duality—
Warm and subtle
like blood pouring from a wound
And as cold as the hands
that swing the blade.

It looked like heaven
was just beyond the clouds—
lucid voices from afar
spoke words of tarnished beauty.
Bearing an aura,
drawing me close,
offering comfort and solace
as a keepsake of the imminent.
Where my faith lies
I am unsure—
and here I stand
searching for meaning
unsure of the cause.

Even though you linger
Through my thoughts
I know now,
Finally—
that it is over.
The black and blue XNY watch you bought
Has stopped ticking,
It has died—
Our time is up,
Wont you run along now?
It seems I was never
Worth the ink and paper anyway.

Even though you linger
Through my thoughts
I know now,
Finally—
That it is over.
The Olivetta's ink ribbons
Have dried up
And no longer will those keys strike,
Embedding your ink onto paper.
Our time is up,
Wont you run along now?
It seems you were never
Worth the time of day anyway.

I know now,
Finally—
That it is over.
Run along now,
Run along and don’t look back
I was never worth your time anyway.

I do not miss those that are alive
for the opportunity is still present
to be within each others presence.
Where as those that have passed
are left to live in the past.
They have lost their place in this world,
while those that are alive
still strive to see another day.
I feel it is my duty,
my life long perpetuity
as the loved and the beloved
to assure those at rest live on.

Little people
Fill a big world
Celebrating small victories
Reveling in their simplicity,
While bigger people
Struggle to weave
A world of their own
Celebrating  the  victory
Of a war won In its entirety.

I am retooling myself
Into the man, who honors integrity with daily exercise,
Into the words of a poem, a new stanza added daily,
Into the notes of a song, yet to be complete,
Into the symphony p, a theme that lifts, soaring above the commonplace,
Into the jewel multifaceted,  colors deep and husky,
Into the essences of love, always learning, dispensing hatefulness,
Into the fury of a great warrior ennobled with heroism,
Into the dexterity of fingers that dispense living kindness,
Into the vibrancy of an orchid, born from tiny seed and falls soil,
Into the vessel science and technology constantly reforms, evolute,
Into the words of a book before his eyes, before closing time, clutched with purebred pride.

during my worst times
on the park benches
in the jails
or living with
******
I always had this certain
contentment-
I wouldn't call it
happiness-
it was more of an inner
balance
that settled for
whatever was occuring
and it helped in the
factories
and when relationships
went wrong
with the
girls.
it helped
through the
wars and the
hangovers
the backalley fights
the
hospitals.
to awaken in a cheap room
in a strange city and
pull up the shade-
this was the craziest kind of
contentment

and to walk across the floor
to an old dresser with a
cracked mirror-
see myself, ugly,
grinning at it all.
what matters most is
how well you
walk through the
fire.