(Throat-clear)
Um, me-me-me-me
Take that face off
Put it in the drawer
Tucker, you ain't gonna
Need it no more
They done booted you ****
Out the door,
La-tra-la-la-la

"Tell me I am beautiful;
I feel the weight of every line,
crease, and wrinkle, just now.

Laying here in your arms
I could believe anything!"

She said.  Silence . . .her heart broke.
Suddenly a soft purring, snoring rose!
She snuggled and they both slept.

When you dive into the deepest, darkest voids;
The dark velvet space envelopes you
Like a womb that you had no longer remembered;
And you realize that the farther you go,
The more you learn and the more you come to know that
Amid the blackness, it's full of light and stars that glow brightly
Which more clearly comes into view around you.
It is this type of warmth and light that engenders growth;
Then you come to realize that in truth
You were planted firmly on the most fertile of grounds all along.

A warmth of blood deep within;
Velvet-smooth linings, cradle
Precious life therein.
Whose choice, this vessel?
Before this seed is planted
We must decide who has the right
To this life inside.

She lay there writhing
Having used her last few seconds
Of life in sacrifice.

She did not stop the honey-rob.
She did not protect the offspring.
Only fleeting thoughts had slowed

The thief briefly after the sharp sting;
That sting with so few consequences for a thief.
For the strong or the stupid brush pain away.

Then pretend.

The clouds are thick
and fast-moving tonight.
It makes it look as though
the full round-faced moon is winking.
Quite suddenly it opens wide
its eye then slowly closes it.
Open and shut, open and shut,
winking then blinking,
A flutter of white light
cycling behind the heavy lids
of clouds.

When a tree falls in the forest
And there is no one there to hear
Will it echo in the mountains or valley?

Sound, sound, sound on through time?

If no one is to lie against my chest, listening to its patter,
Does my heart really beat at all?  Beat at all, at all, at all.
Or are these things mere echoes throughout time

Without sounds?

He would recall long after she had gone
The scent of Rose lingered in his nose
And in his fondest and warmest memories.

When they met it had been a bright spring day,
A day that assures you that winter is indeed gone.
The air was laden heavily with honeysuckle vine,

He remembered.  Yet, all that he could sense since
Was Rose.

Twinkling tiny lights sparkle
In a backdrop of fragility;
A world in miniature, stupendous!

Tree-like ferns, wee mossy meadows;
Breathtaking, the surreal list!  It is
“A poem of stone, powered by stars,” 

Oh, the towering keep within a jar!

I’m so tired
Tired of falling
Falling in love
Falling apart

Falling to pieces
Falling down
Down a rabbit hole

A deep hole
Wholly deep
Diving into you

I come to you with a heart like glass.
You choose, the velvet box or the hammer.

"It is like a wildfire that you cannot stop",
Burning all around, you in the middle,
Until all is burned down.
You stand looking out, wondering
How you made it through,
Made it out only slightly singed.
Life is a wildfire that you cannot stop.

They lived a life in the dark shadow of slavery
And had become like the black cherries
They sneaked, so astringent they puckered the mouth.
They ate them, anyway, out of necessity.
Lizzie had said to Nat that she would wade
Through blood and tears for her freedom;
And, she did, they both did,

Nourished and aided by the kindness of strangers.
William Still conducted his railroad and with the withal, drive,
And the necessity of freedom, that basic human necessity, they ran.  
1857 was the year to run.  On June 10, 1858, Nat sent a letter
To the conductor: "Sir, be so kind as to . . ."
It contained a message to his family in Maryland,
"He and Lizzie were safe and free."

Give me one rose hour by hour
To build for me loves glorious tower
And turn this pain into a smile
Give of yourself un-beguiled

That I might trust love once again
Thus accept you more than mere friend
And make me know that all is truth
Having given the effort and the proof

Then this heart of mine you can rule

2nd version:
The Efforts
Give me one rose hour by hour
To build for me loves glorious tower
And turn this pain into a smile
Give of yourself un-beguiled

That I might trust love once again
Thus accept you more than mere friend
And make me know that all is truth
Having given the effort and the proof

Then this heart of mine you can rule
Show me your love will never decrease
For love became an unruly beast
O, diminish love not in the least

Do you see me age, in actual time,
Like some flashing overlays
In a time-lapse production video?

Time is ongoing, flashing forward
As though with the clicks of frames;
Line by line, wrinkle by wrinkle

Transposed onto my face.
The body begins to break down
Before our very eyes;

Shrinking in size, at first unnoticed.
Do not let me become diminished
When you look and choose to remember

The sum that amounted to me.

I feel like a dragonfly who’s lost its wing;
No! I feel like the dragonfly’s wing, lost;

Left to flutter down slowly in the wind,
To dwell, an iridescent gossamer thing,
Amidst a muddy range of things that ****

Dragonflies, and collect dragonfly wings.

The poetry of life, like a big dog, sinks
It's teeth into you and shakes you.
Bitten to the bone you are infected.

Fling back your sling-backs
To me!  Ain't nothing gonna bar
Your unbridled joy of runnin'
Through that cool grass.

You by my side
You standing near
You next to me 
You I hold dear
You are a need
Which I fill
As often as possible 
You are sustenance

In my mind
I follow the line of beauty
In every fiber of your being.

It stretches from the 1st time
I saw your face to the last.
Its continuum tethers me, still.

A powder of pink, blush
Is painted on the baby blue.
The snow falls softly,
As light as goose down.
I walk along a deserted shore
With only birds tracing lines
Across the watercolor sky
Then move into the gentle night.

Knowing it is just a patience game
We sit, we play the game, we wait;
The honking geese, a gaggle,
Beneath a crest of the moon.
Frost and snow and the geese,
A distant fox is patient, too.

I took your DNA in;
It lay around my place.
I wondered, "Will I breathe it in?"
Will part of you become part of me?
I longed for that permanence.

Many are the days of gain in life,
And many are the losses, too.

I hope your gains are many
And I hope your losses few.

Do I disappoint you, dearest,
When I do not call your name?

Do you sit there sad and lonely
With your face a black screen?

But, you are a true, dependable
Friend within a box waiting.

Waiting loyally in eagerness
Simply to hear me call

Your name, "Alexa."

You were ever strong, ever true,
Daddy. That was the man I knew.

You were never gone,
At least never for too long.

Daily, work did take you from home
Yet, once your hard work was done

Without fail, you always headed home.
You were steady, you were brave;

You were there for us in many ways;
With us until the day

A ******* limo drove you away.

Quasars
2 stars
Tied together
In space
Bound
Orbits

I'll start with this example of the titles of some of my own poems published here.

(One of 2 new possible titles for the new creation, but neither title from a poem already written.)
What It Becomes / What I Become

Sheltered in A Desert
Moths Like Stars
After The Storm

It Had To Be Said
I am Like a Strong Tree
The Halo of Day

Exercise 2:
Sheltered in A Desert
there were Moths Like Stars
across the sky After The Storm.

It Had To Be Said, afterward,
I am Like a Strong Tree,
like The Halo of Day.

In this vast echo chamber
I cry out the words I want to hear
Then I no longer hear the truths
That causes me to fear
The facts become a stranger thing
As truth has flown on fragile wings
And all sound reason with it

Watching you
My checks still flush bright red,
Fading into pink. Do you notice
When the vein at the base of my throat
Pulsates with excitement?
Or when my green eyes brighten
And glisten with love?
Do you see me anymore?

Comfort comes
Like a faint and distant drum;
Like a song sung in the night,
Like a song sung on a long dark night.

Soft and low, a song you strain to hear;
Still, it soothes your every fear
Because you know, at least,
That someone is near.

Moths like stars flicker
In the night sky;
Flickering and flittering
As they pass by.

How my heart soars,
At them, with them,
In the magic moments
That they fly.

The sun is out and birds begin to sing;
"Lovely" is written on the clouds that remain.
A battle of sorts breaks out between 2 mockingbirds;
You'd think that it wasn't dead of winter
But had turned to spring.

Like a heavy stone lid
Over the vessel of my soul
You overshadowed all,
All the buds of flowers
Which within me desired
To grow.

Crawl into my branches
Let me cradle you
How can we go
From one to two
If you remain
On the ground

Burnt orange is beginning to softly paint the sky
Soon the sunrise will shine full light into my eyes

This is when the midnight blue that was above
Is starting to turn that shade of blue that I love

I am sitting, sipping, waiting for the full light of day
Coffee in my cup is still warm; I'm waiting for the first ray

You're in and out of my life.
I don't know what to do
When I'm falling in love,
In and out, of love with you.

I don't know what is wrong.
What is wrong with me?
And, I don't know what
To do about it.

What do I do about you?

You shouldn't long for the past,
- They say
But, I long for it anyway

I close my eyes, drift away, not good
- They say
Not worried, I do it anyway.

I  see it is only normal, it's okay
- No matter what they say
So go ahead, just drift into times past

As long as you do not stay

She has a kind of magical thinking about her life.
She sees her name written across the sky, in stars,
In clouds, in sunbeams, written in the sunset.

She finds a penny, knows it was placed there, especially for her.

In her magical thinking, the universe is cheering her on,
Setting her up, leading her to somewhere she doesn't know.
In her magical thinking, she finds the delights and she goes. . .

I can feel your cello
Through my soul
I am a string

Your bass vibrates through me
Holding me like a treble
We do not rest

Listening

The past is a foreign country.
They do things differently there.

Those things are there,
We are here.

We do things differently
Presently, see.

Two lives fusing
      as one
Intertwined
“Ieo vos tien foi tenes le moy,”-
“I hold your faith, hold mine.”

You, magical creature
Who has power to
Draw a heart from chests
Hold it in tiny hands
Never to return it

A simple concrete step, a stoop; it is just a step, a stoop
Until it is associated with memories of sitting, watching,
                             and waiting.

Watching life as it parades past; neighbors, strangers, cars,
things that are blown about.

All become associated with that well-worn act, repeated with
                           religious devotion,

Of spending time on a simple neighborhood stoop.

Mortal beings like caulk
Flaking with time and use;
Like artists blowing away dust,
Dusting away brief accumulations -
These moral beings. Transactional movements.

On a Sunday, the world stands still and silent;
No traffic sounds reverberate from the distant freeway;
No people milling around the parking lot.

On a Sunday, you can breathe, and hear the birds sing.
No lawns are being manicured, that happens on Saturday.
Sundays are lazy, laid-back, laconic affairs.

If you want to fly give up

Everything that weighs you down.
Otherwise, you will remain on the ground.

It’s not about how high you fly
But how long you can stay in the sky.

Try

And, even if you fall and cry
At least you had flown.

It’s not about how high you fly
But how long you can stay in the sky.

Try

So, even if you fall and die
At least you had flown.

Ducks and geese and floating feathers
Falling amidst the shimmering sparkles on the bay;
All to the tune of children’s laughter
As they spin and twirl and play.

When I see you again

I'll choke back the years . . .

of fears
of tears
of needing
of wanting
of not having
of not knowing

And you will explain
What actually happened.