There she was covered in her mother’s nourishment.
The doctor removed the cord and freed her spirit.
The nurse fussed, wrote, cleaned, and wrapped her in her
Gender’s color.
Being experienced with first timers she bent and adjusted my arms
And hands creating a cradle to place my daughter.
No crying, only a dove’s coo. Eyes like Caribbean seas stared up as
She nestled in soft and sweet as a chick.
A bell sounded.
Cathy looked on sweat glistening and spent and smiling.
That wonderful smile, her smile
In a moment my eyes truly opened.
Just a moment.
Such a moment. There she was covered in her mother’s nourishment.
The doctor removed the cord and freed her spirit.
The nurse fussed, wrote, cleaned, and wrapped her in her
Gender’s color.
Being experienced with first timers she bent and adjusted my arms
And hands creating a cradle to place my daughter.
No crying, only a dove’s coo. Eyes like Caribbean seas stared up as
She nestled in soft and sweet as a chick.
A bell sounded.
Cathy looked on sweat glistening, spent and smiling.
That wonderful smile, her smile
In a moment my eyes truly opened.
Just a moment.
Such a moment.

My brain sits on a bed of white-hot embers,
        Feverish with nightmares of failure and loss.
My heart is a furnace burning in passion for a love no more.
She who’s cool body wrapped mine and moist kisses quenched
        the blaze is gone.
Her tender soul and ethereal ways now watch over from so very far
        away.
My soul is ashes.
Above flies a phoenix.
Many eyes look up filled with awe and inspiration.
My flames are fanned by the mighty wings.
          I’ve become the fire. I will burn forever.

Between my dreams and reality,
Lies the lens I peek through
And capture my illustrated story

I travel the back roads
Running to places I cannot return to
I am not lost

When
            Did will be
Become would have been?

Gathering the fragments of shattered lives.
We must enter the chaos
Follow Dante’s path into the fires
Where innocents are dragged to the molten evil,
Boiling in the dark caldrons of the abominate soul
We are not born of heaven
Yet salvation can be ours to give.
Fighting deep within the chaos
Finding each lost soul, embracing the disparate
Even as our minds seek solidity
Battling the chaos of the unanswered why

Standing in shock, emotionally pummeled,
My life a wooden house washed into the sea,
Lashing waves peel the clapboards and the sea takes it.
The fabric of my being slides in tatters over my fingers.
She bundles the strips and ties them to a kite made of prayer.
Hand in hand we watch it rise.
I see everything I had leave as I grasp all I need.

The glowing cross
Framed in black skeletons with
Tattered green flesh flapping in the wind
It guards the fall
Beyond, the peaks where fire rises
Lighting the sky
Bending knee, bowing head
God is here

Low gold sun
White angels float by
Do I grieve

Blood red sky
Fire in your eyes
Comes the storm

When we enter this life, we cry.
If someone loves us they smile and laugh, we took our first breath.
When we leave this life, we cry.
If someone loves us, they frown and cry, we took our last breath.

Five, seven, five, held in
Syllabic prison, save me
Subjectivity

On the verdant field,
Where stone flowers grow, spirit
And human rejoin

Ah revelation.
Morning sky opens, red, gold
Pen falls from my hand

Today I saw a flower,
A rose,
I did not look at the rose,
I saw the rose.
A yellow rose just opened,
The petals straight in a spiral,
Slightly flared at the tips.
“Beautiful” is subjective,
Who am I to label the rose?
Seeing the rose,
The intricacy of creation,
An explicable force,
That formed the rose,
That formed me.
I was filled with wonder.
Awe,
A sense of belonging
All this I would have missed
If I looked at the rose.

The sound of the clink of two bottles,
I’m transported in time and space,
Sunday morning throwing out Saturday night.
Hot summer’s nights with friends in the backyard sharing stories and dreams.
Giggles dribbling down from children pretending to be asleep on the big bed.
Snapped back,
I’m graveside,
Early morning throwing out yesterday.

She took the tip in her slender fingers.
It glowed as she drew a breath, her red lips forming a kiss lighting her cigarette.
How our love ignited into a blaze on the embers of past romances
I ***** the **** out

I am surrounded by the beautiful mosaic of people
Each fitting into their place
A harmonious tiled portrait of kinship
My sides do not run true
I am alone

I am very afraid to face tomorrow.
I am very afraid I won't face tomorrow.

Susie and Jim fell madly in
Make believe love and swore their devotion before a
Make believe god standing under a
Make believe arbor beneath a
Make believe cloudless, azure sky, a
Make believe Van Gogh golden sun.  They moved into their
Make believe dream house in a
Make believe community of the young up and coming. Their
Make believe children went to all the best
Make believe schools, pre through advance degree.
Make believe friends filled
Make believe weekends hosting
Make believe parties.

One day an ethereal mist creeped under the simulated
Wooded front doors with the frosted glass windows.
Strange feelings of a different world filled all with an uneasiness
Some remembered growing up being told of “reality” but dismissed it as
They got older as a scary story children were told to behave.
Reality touched make believe.
Like matter and antimatter,
Annihilation.

“That’s it?” she said.
Careful not to fall off the twin bed she rolled on top of me.
“That’s just sad.”
I cupped hers cheeks in my hands and moved aside here
Raven hair.   There were clouds in her cerulean eyes
I bought my lips close to hers and before a long soft kiss, I whispered it’s only
Make believe

Locked in the embrace of our new romance,
We lie on a pile of yesterdays,
Soft as fallen autumn leaves.
All about us are vivid crimsons and golds interlace with dead shades of brown.
We kiss each other’s wounds and share what we have learned.
We hide from the rumor of tomorrow under love’s covers,
Beneath a sensual quilt of joy, beauty and passion.

Once I feared dying
But I have died, bit by bit
With each loved one lost

Kissing my ear,
A warm whisper circles my heart, warms my soul.
Sharing,
Understanding,
Comforting,
Healing,
The loneliness of time dissolves,
Distance is meaningless, we are together.
Our own oasis in the day to day petty pace of strangers.
Already in a dream, I close my eyes with new found peace.

I want to explore,
The breadth and depth of you. Souls
Joined eternally

Turtleneck days.
Red and gold autumn in the quad.
Coffee house intellectualizing,
Song and poetry open mic with 3 cord guitar.
Passing a joint in the alley.
Greeting the dawn on the floor of an overcrowded 3 story walk up.
Where has it gone?
A soft contented sigh crosses my chest,
As she stubbed the last embers in the empty breakfast dish,
And sunk deeper into the bed.
Her head nestled on the pillow,
Her face framed in salt and pepper silken curls.
She stretched out her arms and *******, still round but softer peeked over the sheets.
I lowered to her lips,
A soft moist whisper at my ear,
Where have they gone indeed?

I’m raised on Christian salvation and
I’ve no argument with the good news.
The fisherman of men has walked upon troubled waters.
Plucked me out and I’ve spat bile, standing by his side.
Yet I cannot abide starched preachers,
Finding loathsomeness in scripture,
Bringing me to my knees
Slapping the back of my legs with a yardstick,
That measures me an undeserving wretch,
I am part if the majesty of creation.
I take my place along with
Beast, fish, fowl and botany,
In the beautiful mosaic of life.
As the artist smiles placing the tiniest brush stroke,
Enhancing his masterpiece, God sees me.
I belong.
I deserve.
I am saved

You’ve touched my body
My heart, my soul, casting a
Mesmerizing spell

We were great friends who
Fell in love, lost our friendship,
Then fell out of love

Your love flows as a
River through my soul, filling
My deep emptiness

I am a son and
Husband, father my roles in
“Life”, a one act play

We are midwifes to death
Acting like little gods
Changing what is right and beautiful into abominations
How can the hand that strokes the mane and scratch the chin
Deliver the blow
Little snots press into holes begrudgingly poked in sheet metal prisons
Trying to escape the scent of terror
They feel the warmth of the sun they’ll never lie in
Legs that ache to bound across verdant fields
Will be force to wobble one short distance
Pleading eyes tell us the butcher’s knife is not the cruelest cut
Plates are full
Is there enough drink to wash it all down?

Something important
Put on your emoji mask and
Tell me truthfully

I lay amongst the yellow chiffon flowing about your knees
Blue and gold play between the leaves
My cheek cradled in your soft palm, scented with meadow and wild flower

I reach up entwining my fingers in a silky web of flaxen hair
Lowering your head, I am flush with anticipation as you sultry breath reaches me
My lips raise to meet yours, sweet and moist as strawberries

I drink deeply of your wine
My cheek brushing your breast
Eden is open once more

Our love has reached heaven and made it so

Your leg lying across mine woke me
Your body sweaty against me
I see you face in moonlight shadows lying on my shoulder

I dare not move disturbing you
Disturbing a moment as perfect and brief as a single snowflake
As wonderful as a first kiss goodnight, you taste in the morning

We met at cross roads of our journeys
I took your pack, you took my hand,
We’ve been traveling together for bit now.

In the dark, your breath a warm gentle breeze across my chest
I know not who authors our stories, the chapter of you and me
Will it be a finale chapter for one of us or will you take your pack at the next   fork

Now, this moment

I will not move

I can speak of a warm buttery sun dripping into an azure sky
A cool mint green lawn rolling on down to a cerulean pool, white clouds swimming beneath the surface
A billowing quilt of wild flowers settling on an earthen bed
But I cannot tell you how beautiful a day is

I can speak of my fingers running through chestnut brown hair, soft as spun silk
Eyes sparkling like sunrise, and as comfortable as a sunset
Velvety skin against mine causing delightful trembling along my body
But I cannot tell you how beguiling you are

I can speak of my soul joining yours in a celestial dance
A wanderer who’s journey is ended
The precious gift of you
But I cannot tell you how much I love you

There are no words

None

You’re a realist
A wanna-be soulmate, a
Lie that stole my soul

Rise, greet your new day
A joy to receive knowing
It’s given in love.

Come to me at dawn
We will rise, embrace the day
Come to me at night
In the dark hours, with my thoughts
Leave me as I am

Pink and white petals swirl on a breath of spring
Alight upon a verdant lawn
We stroll through a Tomikichiro’s masterpiece
Buds that stretched their leaves at dawn open in arrays of colors
I choose the prettiest to place on your flaxen curls and dub you the queen of May
Humbly I fall to my knees, wrap my arms about your waist
And lay my head against your bare stomach
You wrap an arm around my neck and stroke my hair
Skin as warm and soft as down
The scent of a field of flowers after a spring rain envelops me
I lie you down in the grass and our minds give way to sensual discovery
The Cherry Blossom trees toss their petals like rice at a wedding
Our souls are pledged
40 springs have come and gone
40 years, each day of each year a blessing
Someday my love, hand in hand, we’ll walk the field
You’ll wear a crown of flowers
I’ll lay you down in the grass.
The Cherry Blossom trees will toss their petals like flowers on a grave.
Our souls forever pledged

The unlovable loved
The fallen lifted. Embraced
Christ unending gifts

Be it soon after twilight,
Or before morning bright.
Whenever it is dark, it is night.

On Easter morning,
I stood in prism light lifted on hymns of glory
I thought how Easter is based on death
How life lies between the quotation marks of birth and death

I’ve known the gutter and a home
Fellowship and adversary
Victory and collapse
Love that made me a better man each day
Love went away leaving me incomplete but blessed

Now little cherubs dressed in spring scurry about hunting for treasures
Moms and dads with guiding hands
Onlookers, clearing their throats and point fingers

Jesus, perfect and loving, gave the greatest sacrificed to save us all.
This I do believe
I do not believe Jesus now waits at some distant future
To embrace us and guide us to our rest

Jesus is by a bush nudging a plastic egg a little more in the open
He celebrated each up and got me through each down
He is the essence of spring, a world newly born, life renewing.
How does one say thank you for just a gift?

“Thank you”

From the living well
God offers all the ladle
Each soul to be quenched

I found my spirit with broken wing upon the grass
Cupping it in my hands I cradled it
And laid it in a shoe box
On a bed of Shredded hopes and dreams
I did not know from where or when it had fallen

I recalled my eyes squinting up at the sky
It soared so high above the clouds
Always too high to see
But the tug on my heart
Like a kite string in my hand
Pulled me upward

I knelt near the wounded bird
As he pecked at his bedding
Not to rearrange but reconstruct
I gave the lush plumage a long gentle stroke
My hand was cold and numb

He sang to me
A song of yearning
Of passing through white clouds
And water droplets drying in the warm sun
Cerulean sky fading into indigo
Oh but how his eyes did sparkle
Singing of floating among the stars on spread wings

His psalm ended
Tears burnt my cheeks
My heart was broken, my soul lost
When an abandoned child deep within
Cried from the shadows of my mind
You need only set him free
Lift me and together we’ll watch the majestic fight
In awe and wonder
As we did before the fall

I brought the child into the light
My soul felt reborn
It saw the world anew, as I came to know
The child I let go astray
My spirit did so rise
Looped three times about our heads
Then rose up, soon out of site
But still firmly tethered to my heart

Let my heart erupt
My spirit will rise above
No longer tethered

It seems a given
Humans are flawed Thankfully
My dog is lenient

Three maidens from a long sleep did rise
Their skin as white as winter’s snow
They opened eyes that sparkled as rippling brooks in morning sunrise
A potion from the colors of wild flowers gave their skin a radiant glow
With voices light as a gentle breeze
A song they sang so sweetly
Lyrics they learned from birds singing in the trees
A passing stream gave the melody
One is birth
Another hope
The third love
Their time is now to touch each life
Open your heart, your spirit to renew
Like frost in the spring, they melt away yesterday’s strife
Close your eyes, open your soul, see the world anew

I gave you my heart,
My soul, You did not ask. Still
They’ll know nowhere else

I have no verse today.
God’s in heaven, angels watch
What more can  I say