So this is the watermark
The stranding after the deluge
Tidal storms recede
And I am wreckage on your shore
Gulls hover
Strident cries they scrabble
For cast off sparkling trinkets
Dead flesh
Winging requiem for a life unlived
Slip the yellow tape boundary
Drape daisy chains and platitudes
Across my fractured hull

Would you find wild beauty
In weathered wood
Barnacle scars
And the echo of measured surf
Set this longship by the sunstone
Radiant light when skies are heavy
Sullen with winter chill
Would you cleave to the beat
Aegir’s heavy hand on your prow
The moon pull of open water
The tease of salt spray
On full lips whisper my name
One more time
Quiet
Voice across the deep
And I will breathe

Will you simply wreath
My memory
“ see the line of my people back to the beginning
Lo, They do call to me”
Cast the fire and plot the stone ship
Pebbles skipped cross brackish water
My legacy sinks
Little rippled terminus
Wont shred butterfly wings
Or froth the wild tides
To the maelstrom
So this is the watermark
Strand my heart
With one spilled tear
TL Boehm
09/03/2014

The missing grain of sand
Saline manifestation in my eyes
An absolution of temporal dreams
The heart of pearled treasure for you
Fetid obstruction in an oyster like me
Hold your breath and crack me open
Debacle on the half shell
Consume me whole
Still you hunger for more

These castaway dreams
Crest on pleasured seas
I abstain from riding the wave
Licentious churning toward the shore
The foaming wasted lap my ankles
Stolid salted earth am I
This dearth of passion
Fervent birth of deeper meaning
Too strenuous for my limpid mind
Heavenly sounds
This ground bound child
Deafened by the strident cries
Of whispers and lies
The clarion gone
In the wake of troubled seas

Swirling connotations and inuenndos
Languish warm and wet on shifting sand
Fleshy emulations of inspiration
Bleed out on the beach
The weight of wicked words the crush
The convulsing rush of life that ebbs
The linchpin thins
Blistered skin slips from brittle bones
You die alone
Soul shipwrecked
This missing grain of sea spray sand
Dissolves in sightless eyes
This purging dirge an echoed requiem
A timbred bliss
Oblivion
Ephemeral ebbing lunar blue
As I drift away
From you.....

TL Boehm
062608

A furse of birds
Fragile wings that bring
Rising chaff
Of ground cover dreams
Litanies and lamentations  
Half hearted singing
In the sanctuary
I am the echo of a soul
Shallow voice breaks the silence
In hallowed halls
Like poetry thrown up
Dry chalk scritti on dusted shale
Persona non grata
I stand pale
Naked before you
Muffled pulse of an average life
I am the trickling stream
Wishing for waves
Gentle breath across the surface
Scattering ash and expectations
Borrowed words spring from fingers
Slip my grip and flit away
Like color bleeding from empty sky
At the end of day

TL Boehm
061408

Skeletal babies too weak to cry
Hollow eyed mothers
Fractured families scratch pits in fallow ground
Earth and hope
Dust scattered chaff
Rice in bowls for ***** hands
And hungry mouths
Cracking smiles optimized
"Mister Christian" done a good thing
Sign your name and look away
Feed a family of four for the price of a gallon of milk
Minimize your guilt
Clinking trinkets in a rusty bucket
Change the channel
Change your mind
Envision God and mother Africa
Doe eyed and grateful placing the crown of the faithful
On your generous brow
While another woman silently screams
Integrity leaking
In the baptism of red earth
And *****
She sleeps outside tonight
No shame for you the miniscule
Separation of virtue and flesh
The seeping reality
Scarred body and mind ravaged to feed
The baser needs of a man
Who will no longer have her
Worthless animal that she is
Brittle field unripe for planting
Seeds of life burst the seams
And she only dreams of a day
Unstained.
Untainted
Waste no meditation on the knowledge
She won’t bring another child into THIS world
For you
Insular in your indignation
Recoil at the colossus of poverty
Knuckled clicking at your heart
While you coddle your conscience
With spare change offerings
Consider dignity
At what price
Small sacrifice to you
Another mother sentenced to desperation
Crosses her legs and prays
While her integrity leaks away

TL Boehm
061108

While I am not addressing well intentioned givers - or Christians who donate money to worthy causes - I am often deeply disappointed in those who "throw money at" a situation - and then consider the minimal effort sufficient. Yes, we need to feed hungry children, but we also need to educate young males on the difference between a wife and property. We need to help women who's bodies have been ravaged by constant famine to take better care of themselves before, during and after pregnancy and we must destigmatize conditions like *** and fistulas that cause women to be shamed and further abused. This poem specifically addresses birth related fistula - a condition in which the bladder or colon is torn during a difficult birth - usually attributable to other conditions like constant malnutrition, immature (underage) mother or a baby too large for a safe vaginal delivery. The fistula results in incontinence for the mother....

See the two agencies below for further information. or google fistula foundation - or clean birth kit.  
www.fistulafoundation.org
www.path.org
Peace

In fertile fields
Fragile blooms heavy with seed
Swaying lucid dreams
Coupled with a whispered destiny
Do you believe?
(Father forgive me for my sins)
I listened
Pulse quickening to the promise
Carried on transparent beams
the angelic rush of lesser light
Left me sightless
Blind witness to the culling
Harvest put to flame
Only aborted dreams remain
(My life ends where yours begins)

Fragrant flowers consumed
Emotional holocaust of volcanic ash
Scorched earth your cordial offering
Death is the memory of a smile
Shadows pass across your face
(Along this fractured path I race)
I let your passion burn within me
Fury, vengeance and rage
Your forever promise ever hellish
Echoes in my smoking soul
I let the sun set on my anger
(Falling far from perfect grace)
Let you shackle me with my own actions
My guilt a noose to snap my neck
You the author of defeat
another broken soul for your unholy altar
(resurrect this child from this dead end street)
I cling to life in the balance
Waiting

silence welling in the aftermath
Crescendoed message resonant
let go...let go...
Is there oblivion in the release
(place my spirit to worship at your feet)
Falling away from everything I know
The old man shatters within
(wash away my every sin)
(my life ends where you begin)
TL Boehm
05/29/2008

Tendriled nightmares coil
Writhing blind knots
Restrict my inner vision
Peripheral blurred neuroses lurk
Morbid melodramas spin symbolisms
Of a tragic ending
Beyond the memory of moonlight
plaintive note of hope recedes
In the saturnine breeze
I am Lost to lower oscillation
Vestigial presence of the divine
Inert
My racing pulse thrums a dirge
for the waning day

You are the fulcrum
Levo mihi per vestri lux
The arbitration of angels
My inner spirit luminesces
Hope regains her tenuous place
I turn my tearstreaked face
To the memory of light

Amo Deus perficio lux
EGO mos orior iterum

TL Boehm
052608

Lift me with your light
Like God's perfect light, I will rise again

I have learned that blood and bone
Are no assurance of love
That the parents who should protect you
Forget you
In the wake of their own unspun lives

I have learned that the newborn life
Once cradled in my arms
Won't consider my sacrifice
In the wake of unbridled rage
Love is a hollow lie

I have learned that I am a monster
Murderous and cruel
Selfish and judgemental
Producing bitter fruit
That withers on the vine

I have learned that the world
Doesn't love a dreamer
War and tragedy churns
In the belly of Babylon
The meek are weak expendable
Casualties of circumstance
Destined for demise

I have learned there is no sanctuary
No refuge from the malice
Washing over me like sleet
On a winter day
My heart is cold stone
I am lifeless

I have learned that intoxicants
Only fuel the ache
magnify this emptiness with
shallow platitudes
The flavor of the day
Scraped off the spoon tomorrow

I have learned
I still don't know how
To give up the little dreams
In the silence of my soul
I gather them piece by piece
Hiding them from myself
For fear I'll do me harm

I have learned I should love myself
I have learned....I don't know how to love
TLB 05/20/08

Will you carry on
Over open water
Will you go
Toward the rolling shore
Will you fly high
Ever rising spires silent skies
Rush of wings brings you home

This is the moment
Smile and cry
Goodbye
Will you leave me for ever
Little girl no more
Sail far from this troubled shore
Broken wings can’t fly with you

If I could be your light house
Shining bright for you
But I’m only the mirrored darkness
Reflecting torment we go through
One faded image shattered
By the stones thrown from passing years
Bruised and broken on the highway
Washed away by blood and tears

Will you carry on
Through windswept waves
Will you go
Til you find your way
To a harbor safe and dry
Spread tearstained wings and fly
Until you find your way home….

Leave me lost
I stand sentinel
On this troubled shore
Alone
© 04/01/2006
For buffi and beth

His matriarch set off in the brilliant burn
Pre-monsoon summer skies as she flies
Home to Big Blue and strawberry fields, rolling sand dunes
Studded with peaches and cream stalks full corn ears
Past the gunmetal  hulls - Motor City madness
Send that cheap crap back to China
Import ratchet dreams that obsolesce faster than a preteen’s
Boy band crush
We left our polite goodbyes on padded benches in the Sunport
Trekked the cement labyrinthine path back to the car
Sprawled myself out in the backseat
Marinating in my bipolar haze of relief and regret
Two weeks of my soft under parts presented  
Respect for the Alpha who never hacked up a rabbit
At the mere sound of my keening cries
Sate the pack tomorrow I’m off the forest floor
In all my ears back, feral, foaming at the fangs glory
Salient thought abandoned on the crest of a stressed induced migraine
And the whelps yipping for pricey coffee with caramel drizzles

She broke my bleary eyed unfocused reverie
Wrangling two carts corralled by bits of ragged twine in the parking lot
As she ferreted through her peculiar tinsel adorned collection
Scraggly plastic wreaths, sad ghosts of Christmas past
And her grizzled locks wound round a red velveteen door decoration
Muted hues against her transient mantle
I caught myself looking away…
A triad of flies buzzed her presence
The dull thrum of something important forgotten
She shuffled to a center table
Arranging dusky floral skirts and kohl layered clothing
With hands caked with cracked black grit
Fingers studded with grimey chunk costume jewelry
Dug at the lid on a generic bulk bowl of noodle soup
While baristas and capri clad patrons skirted her table
As though they were restless waves
Fleeing before the power of God across the Red sea
And me ******* spun fat from the top of an overpriced iced concoction
Without pittance in my pocket
Caught myself staring…
Waiting….
For someone else to do the Christian thing

Is that how a Freak rolls?
Tongue lolling for the opportunity
When crazy plants itself
In the high backed chair in front of you
And pops open a styro container of “stroke in a cup”
Do you flash that cash wrapped round a tract
Put a hand on her weary back and pray
Do you simply look away
Caught up in awkward indecision
Uncomfortable in your urban bubble
This is latte day at Starbee’s for God’s sake
And she never put a hand out for help
Or spoke a single word
As if a bag of Oprah’s cut leaf tea would
Change her world.
Or yours.
Pride goeth before Christmas wreaths, and shopping carts
And *** metal costume jewels

Under the cool blur of my ceiling fan I glance skyward for answers
Offer a smattering of plaintive prayers
For matriarchs
And mavens with dull velveteen bows in their hair
For my children
For release from the pain at the back of my brain
And the constricting grip of entitlement torqueing my brittle heart
God breathes in moments missed
When we simply look away…
TL Boehm
08/21/2014

He was born from spring rains
When new leaves unfurled
Heady sweet mimosa and willow
Filling the air with peaceful green
Lacing the ground in spinning shifting patterns
Scattered sunlight as drops dripped from trees
Knee deep in rivulets bubbling and rushing
To my back door.
He called me out to play

I ran with him hand in hand abandoning
The mundane four walled pristine
Plaster world I passed as real
Feeling cool fronds brush against my hungry cheek
Neck tilted
Back arched
Swallowing the droplets as they trickled from
The branches
Unmoved by the rushing water
The thunder
Spring rains turning to the deluge
Of a summer storm
Innocence swept away on the furious current

Now I dream in green
Fervent unseen passion
Masked by my lack of reaction
Yet the back door stays open
As spring rains drip from leaves
Rustled by a gentle breeze
Could it be that he...
Comes calling me to play

TL Boehm
072206

Run to me my broken child
And I will make you whole
I am the one who loves you most
Who breathes life into your soul
Run to me my broken one
And I will set you free
I’m here with strong arms open
Turn around and run to me.

You lie sleepless silence shattered
In the broken glass of your day
Your fragile spirit tattered
Your hope is swept away
In the deluge of delusions
Frustrations born of pain
But I am no mere illusion
Caught in a drop of rain

On my knees at your feet
I lift your tear soaked face to the light
I am your fortress your retreat
From terrors in the night
I am your warrior, your peace, your path
As your world tumbles down
I am shelter in the aftermath
You will not crash you will not drown

Let me hold you safe in my arms
Put your weary head against my breast
I melt the ice I keep you warm
This pulse of love beating in my chest
I have loved you before eternity
And after time stands still
You are beautiful and whole in me
I love you now and always will

Just a love note from your “Father”
082206
TL Boehm
you are loved beyond measure. Treasured beyond belief

I watched the mama's desperate
Wiping tears from babies eyes
I watched our old ones suffer
While our heads were filled with lies
From the safety of my dry land
I watched the waters rise
But my heart was torn and broken
Tormented by the cries
Of a city put through hell
While the hope of a people dies

I listened while my nation
Played a deadly game
Fearless in the face of creation
Too lazy to take the blame
While parents and sons and daughters
Died in the street without a name
Tides relentless covered families
But nothing washes away the shame
Still lives hang in the balance
Some things will never be the same

I feel the desperation
Of thousands of shattered souls
Who trusted that salvation
And protection was the goal
Now scattered, lost and lonely
Too far gone to ever be whole
And the sum of the lies they've swallowed
Is bitter poison that takes its toll

And yet I still believe
What sparks the heart of a man
Beaten down a thousand times
And yet the warrior stands
There's a place beyond survival
Where the spirit reclaims the land
I still believe in the love and life
Sparked in the heart of a man
TLB 082906

Would you kiss me
Gently
On the back of my neck
My collarbone
Whisper soft
A feathers’ touch
Would you close your eyes
Breath to breath
Linger
Lost in the moment
Embracing each taste
Sensations
Sweeping down my spine

Stopping
Before the mundane
Mechanical act of *******
Leaving foreplay
For the desperate
Communicate your forever love
Not your temporal lust

Just seal me
With a kiss
Goodbye
To keep me
Until the time is right
For the two of us
To be one.
2006 TLB

La Luna lifts from the cosmic abyss
Pinioned in stellar skies
For a moment or two swept away by you
Sparkling life lit up in your eyes
Carry me away from anywhere
To that special hideaway called you and I

Cool Luna's fog sweeps round me
Spring night a bluer hue
You sitting there, soft breeze through your hair
Falling in love again with you
Take me away from the chaotic day
Lose my self in eyes so blue

I catch my breath and I
Close my eyes wish I could fly
As moments sweeping by
La Luna lifts in ebonyed sky
TL Boehm
050407

I have a dream
The gentle tread
Cool marble beneath my feet
Sweet succulent scents laced in the lavender air
Velvet curtains parted
You there
Stretched out supine
A banquet of delights
you are mine
The rustling flutter of garments
Let them fall
Echoed wetness
Your hands leave their ghosts
On glistening walls
Cascading flurried ringlets
Tendrils of hair
Caught up in the excitement
Of you
And me unsullied
Pristine between Egyptian cotton
and whispers of skin
Place a kiss on the altar of we
This love begins
you know
I have a dream.
TLB
05/17/07

Maya Angelou
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me. - Maya Angelou


Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.

I am uplifted gifted
When thoughts and prayers have drifted
From lonely hearts to heavens ears
I am the child wild
The severed ties nowreconciled
Sealed with a mothers tears
I am beyond the sum of earthly years

I am the beat the heat
The caress so soft and sweet
Chasing terrors in the night
The chaos haunting taunting
Defeat that stands there flaunting
I'm armed for the fatal fight
I'm a soul that's built for flight

A phenomenal woman that's me
Reflecting only what I see
The measure of your destiny
Giving the love that sets you free....
TL Boehm
100706

Today I found myself...chaotic
My soul the rogue wave
Rippling the placid ocean flow
Destruction a force multiplied
Swept away by the undertow

        Shh...I calm the waves
        Your restless soul
        I make you whole

Creation torn asunder
Ferocious surf
The thunder
Of a heart apart from you
Damage I cannot undo

        I cast the lines
        To draw you near
        Its your heart I hear

What angel in heaven cries
Sundown light slipping from ravaged skies
I lie powerless in the ebbing
Life of dreams slowly die

        I give new dreams
        Unquenchable light
        Illuminate your night

Cast ashore
Wrenching breath
I fight no more

        I am your breath
        Your living water
        You are my daughter

Writhing fright
This fear of death
This prison death

        Don’t struggle let me
        Hold you near
        I am the death
                            of fear
TL Boehm 2007

No bits of lace and ribbon
No flowers for your hair
Just tiny trucks and airplanes
Toy soldiers everywhere
No ruffly pink cotton dresses
Pearl buttons sewn with care
Just big Tshirts and faded jeans
That’s what you’ll choose to wear

You won’t understand the love and ache in my heart
As I help you grow up to grow away
Bu I would not trade you for a ray of light
In a life of black and rainy days

Hey there rock and roller
My little toy soldier
I watch you dance alone
You’re my ray of son light
But one day you just might
Burn brighter than I’ve known
Will you still be dancing
When you are grown

Rubber scorpions in your pocket
Mario world in your dreams
Catching stars and crashing cars
A warrior on the TV screen
Pokemon are the only monsters
And when you fight you always win
Will your real world be as cool a place
As the digital ones you’ve seen

And I offer up a little thanks for you
Every time I close my eyes to pray
Keep on dancing to your song boy
You’ll never grow to old to play

TL Boehm
9/95  3/17/99  10/25/99
For Fred Boehm " watching Fred dance…

She glides across the ice
Circling sparkles
Skates shush across the floor
Shimmering spray
Lights that play
Lithe dancer aloft she spins and soars
Gentle hips swing in the crystalline breeze
Pirohuettes descend
Tattooing lines
Etching ice pristine
Canvas clean
Sacred movement
Soul designs

This life is a fragile dancer
Clad in fluttering sunset hue
The rushing blood of a sweet romancer
A flood of colors in twilight blue
2006 TL Boehm

Pressed between the pages of an old diary
An age lightened rose
Lies soap bubble thin
A claret echo lingers in once vibrant petals
Like the smudge of a first kiss
On a clean shaven cheek
Does the rose remember the blush?
Of the first love
Does it remember the warm wet earth?
That held it close
The scent still clings to its petals
Does it remember the morning dew?
Trickling down its leaves
Like droplets of liquid laughter
Spilling from my eyes
As I held it to my face

First love fades
Like the flowers crimson hue
But this rose
Like a dear old friend
Remembers

TL Hughes (Boehm)
1987

With light steps
And joyous hearts
May you walk together
In the light

We join you in celebration

May you dance through life
As new leaves
Led by gentle spring breezes

May love lift your spirits
As birds carried aloft
In turquoise summer skies

My you be to each other
As soft mountain rain
Refreshing the soul
And bringing new life
To barren ground

May you capture your dreams
With rainbow lariats
And set them free
Within your souls

Now you have the secret of immortality
Entwined in bands of gold
A promise
And the spirit of two souls
Made one

TL Hughes Boehm
5/5/89
For Camille Dombrowsky and Ruan Bacigalupa 6/10/90

Your love is a line
Tattoed down my spine
The pulse of a tentative touch
This pain is an art
I play my bit part
When you leave and I miss you much
Your mark on me
Indelible
I close my eyes and see
Your soul is a beautiful picture
Superimposed on the skin that's me
Indelible
My baby.

Write my life with your ink
I cannot think
Of a better way for the page to unfold
Each line a caress
This gentleness
Of a love story in flesh be it told
Indelible
The name of the story we write
Your soul is an epic masterpiece
Written on my flesh at night
Indelible
That's right

Indelible
Your mark on me
Indelible
Sketch my destiny
Each stroke
Set me free
Indelible
This tattooed line on me
13107
TL Boehm
© 2007

Cerulean breeze
on an indigo night
You flung starlight
on my stellar path
The aftermath
of lovin' on my knees
My aim to please
Falls short between wrong and right
Walkin' out my denim days
And flannel nights

Azure eyes
Serpentine disguise
Took fruit from you any way
Coiled yourself around me
In the middle of a powder blue day
Never felt the strike till you were gone
Poisoned by your midnight song
Skin bruised by scales so tight
Walkin' out my denim days
And flannel nights

I am your china girl
Your cornflower field your summer day
And you are my river flowing
My blue moment slipping away.
Walkin' out my flannel nights
Trippin' down my denim days.
TL Boehm

I have fallen in to your words
Fighting the rip tide emotions
Plunged beneath the surface of your thoughts
Struggled breathless against the flow
That is you
I have fallen from my petty dreams
The roaring sound of waves and sand
Just an echo in hollow eddies
You swirl and rise with the tide
If I am only safe harbor then I am sane.
I have fallen from grace
On my face in the surging rivers of despair
And found fragrant waves of you there
Amongst the quiet shoreline
You leave me clean
I have fallen...into you.
TL Boehm 11 15 06

I want to make you shiver
And touch your very soul
Want to bring you to your knees
Show you a love that makes you whole
But I cannot till you ask me
Till you loose yourself and your control

I want to take your darkness
The blackest places in your night
To break the glass you’re staring at
And dazzle your eyes with perfect light
But I can’t change your line of vision
Till you move your eyes to my sight

Its my will to save you
My delight to set you free
It brings me intense pain
To see you shackled in slavery
But I can’t unlock your chains
Until you let me have the key
Just give me your open heart
Let me in just accept me

Why do you turn away
Nothing could stop me from loving you
Nothing you can do or say

TL Boehm
12/02
12/27/05

Got no use for aggression
Racial prejudice or abuse
Blamin’ everyone else
For your sorry self
Is a waste of breath a lame excuse

One day you’ll have to stand up
Face your Maker all alone
And all those losers wh
Ran around with you
Will fade away, you’re on your own

Got no use for whinin’
Spare me your tale of pain
We all walk the road
With a heavy load
We stumble and fall then get up again

One day perhaps you’ll listen
Your Maker’s burden is easy and light
You could share the weight
Yet you hesitate
Getting it wrong makes it feel right

Get up reach up get up
Stand your ground
Rise up fly up step up
Keep your ground
Step away from yourself
Step up to Him
Stand on Solid ground

TL Boehm
12/02
12/26/05

Now that we've seen the true depth of evil
The cunning agents who wield the power
Set in motion machinery of destruction
The insidious shackles of war and death
Washed up on our shores
The crone in our own reflection
Can we abnegate the course
The blind rage that sets our mouths casting stones
Can we truly love as the so called righteous sanctify
Other lies
We condemn men, governments, religions
We ostracize, prostelitize, criticize
Until our eyes don't recognize
The dignity of 63 lives
Born into a world forever changed
By the sacrifice of mothers and fathers
Sons and daughters
Serenade the heroes who did not falter
In the face of demons and ashes
Falling glass and jet fueled funeral pyres
With the apropo of excellence they chose
To stay...to fight...to climb the stairs
The true bane in the battle is the heart
So scorched it cannot care
For 63 lives in the balance
63 sets of ancient eyes and smiles of a child
It is time
To rise

TL Boehm  
Originally written 9/11/06.
Celebrating life.....

ABC NEWS - 9/11 babies five years later - google it

Wanna lay you down in the moonlight
Let the wind in the pinon sigh
Make love with you till the morning
Underneath an amber sky

Child of cobalt waters
Soul of the northern lights
Won’t you let this southern daughter
Keep you warm in the desert nights

I hear your voice roll through your body
Like thunder in a summer storm
An echo that wraps around me
And the silence keeps me warm

I still smell your skin on mine
In the morning when I’m alone
I still see you through closed eyes
And I feel love I’ve never known

Wanna walk with you through life
Share the darkness and the dawn
For you are the words and music
And the meaning to my song

TL Hughes Boehm
1/29  2/27/88

You cannot be what you want to
You cannot stay who you are
You'll never get there from here
You'll never get that far
    
     The loop goes round and round
     The sound on autoplay
     The noise is loud inside my head
     I cannot get away

Who do you think you are
Why do you even try
You came into this world with nothing
And with nothing you will die

     The loop goes round and round
     Plays inside my brain
     The loop is a noose around my neck
     And around my ankles its a chain

Don't believe it don't recieve it
The loop is a deadly lie
Meant to put you in the ground
When you should spread your wings and fly

     You are precious beyond measure
     You're a priceless gift to me
     Break through the loop inside your head
     Let love set you free...
TL Boehm
02/05/06

Matthew 19:5 …a man shall leave his mother and father and be united firmly to his wife and the two shall become one flesh…

Are we simply stardust
Celestial fallout somehow sentient
The connection that effervesces between us
Happy accidents
Or is there that spark of the divine
Helixes and Holy angels
Spin a different plane
Eternal DNA
Existence beyond physical
This side of forever

Sacred accretion
Boundaries blurred
Do I begin then where you end
The weak made strong
Sight to the blind
And love the ultimate healer
For hearts torn asunder
Broken parts made whole
Bound by ties that set us free

I cleave to you
Under sparkling stars
Gentle passion envelopes us
Pulse and breath as one
You surrender pleasure to me
Wild moments sublime
We scatter seeds of immortality
Fertile earth
Breath over water
A single spark in darkness
And the universe
begins anew
TL Boehm
11/3/07

These breathless moments

Dreams flutter boundless

Pinioned on stellar winds

Constellations rise in indigo eyes

And I pull in spinning

Euphoric aspirations glow

In vertigo as the accretion heats

Birthing a new universe

I am astounded by the light



Interminable epochs

Found me comatose

At the divination point

The juncture of the void and life

I dance the staccato steps of departure

Memory of thin skin disappears

Beatific vision shimmers

In glistened entreaties

Lacrimae sunt arma femina.

Console me with forever

The emulation of flight defines me

Zenith in your twilight skies

On Heaven's breath I rise

*tears are the weapons of woman

TL Boehm
2/22/08

Descant of light

The raconteurs of spring
winging whispered sonnets
chase the woollen winter malaise
from silent skies
fluttered hush of doves
herald the nirvana of dawn
Shadowed palette of dusky hues
muted blues spun somber grey
give way
the subtle brush fades
to the rush
of insatiable light
the alchemy of day
and night
Dismiss this imbroglio
melancholy thoughts
Bitter vignette of lamentations
words chilled expire on lips
disappearing wisps
My spirit lifts
in the blush of sun
dancing across pristine paper
arias burst in the illumination
scattered saffron pollen
blessing multiplied
my hands industrious
I lift my eyes....
The avatar of hope supplies
this descant of light
04/12/08
TL Boehm

May be you see my life
Across miles and years
The gentle rolling hills and valleys
Verdant earth that ebbs
And flows
Summer grass cool beneath
Wearied feet
Lazy sunsets slip soft and smoky
Rest for another day
Quiet against my breast
Breath measured
I treasure you
Sheltered in my embrace

Is this your love
Blinded to the rifts
The ragged cliffs
Barren and ravaged
Weathered scars
Torrential rains and landslide chaos
Define me
Canyons so deep
Light never descends
Do you find beauty
In my weathered soul
The rush of ascent
As you fly from this valley
Pinnacle bound
and breathless
Love is rarified air

I am your oasis
In the shifting sands
Drifting dunes and valleys
I shimmer in your love
Your mirage
A vision of shelter
Beautiful
Forever....
TL Boehm
051308

If I could speak
I would spill these lamentations
cloistered sins and secrets
whispered vespers for wretched dreams
Retching sentiment
this malignant manifesto
a macabre mantra
eats my skin from within
transient refuge for temporal treasures
inexorable moments carry life away

tick tick tick
the seconds scurry
flurried ineffectual supplications
demigods of affluence
the cacophony of the machine
I spin within
cogniscient of my myopia
the funneled tunnel vision
drips from the end of a pen
furtive verses on paper
fading ochre moments
somber drops of ash and bone
poetic exorcisms
of wicked things unknown

phrenetic
sensibilities trickle
spilling life
black and withering
is the gain worth sacrifice
crackling fat of dreams
too costly
this shallow palette
self obsessed
eyes gouged out
hands shackled
to the reality
the immortality

trust the dust
the dust becomes me
soul focused on decay
spectre death
devouring this unsparked spirit
If I could speak
truth into your heart
would you
believe.....
in anything more than what you see
I trust the dust and dust will be
the remnant me
TL Boehm
042508

In the solace
Drifting transient
Before the dawn
Quiet light
Scattered sentient thoughts
Dreams lift on gossamer wings
Effervesce on heady winds
Like milkweed fluff on a summer day
From the narrow path
I stray

Lost in thoughts
Consuming
Stones thrown from distant shores
Placid surface
Fractured
This undertow defines my mind
Spinning evidence of chaos
Purpose slips away
From the narrow path
I stray
  
Fogbound vessel
Aimless deadwood
On a restless sea
Storm tossed
Lost and anchorless
Victimized by riptides and eddies
Uncharted course each sunless day
From the narrow path
I stray

TL Boehm 040508

starlit spectre
on crescent thoughts descend
the lonesome days I spend
apparitions disappear in daylight
Like whispered promises
of friends

celestial solace
nocturne's daydream
on pinioned wing visions stream
the sparkled rush of lovers hands
cross silvered sands
mercurial stream

Cast away imagination
Set to flight in ravened skies
the ghost of hope now flies
shh don't wake me
to the harsh light
I despise.....
TLBoehm
032808

chiaroscuro moment
molten chords
in golden glow
titian ringlets cascade
from linen shoulders
as your hands bring liquid color
to idle black and white
chorded words of three parts
Not easily broken
Ebb and flow as breath over water
a shift in timbre
resonant teak fettered in silver
heady scent of resin and balsam reeds
echoed drones the cantored dance begins
Taking flight the quiet arias rise
coursing low over open moors
Eyes veiled green
a fog shrouded shoreline
We leave transient prints
In damp sand...
Sonorous notes
From kilted pipers
A flash of tartan on thistled field
Drummers pulse the motion of life
You raise the standard
This ancient song is yours
and mine.

Open eyes to desert sky
Burning blue and empty
As fresh pages fall un-inked
on thorny ground
Only the ache of a melody remains
Lost refrains
broken notes in my DNA
Inspiration drifts away

I used to have a recurring dream of me, and two other friends - in a recording studio with the complete sheets of music in front of us - which we were singing...and when I wake up...I can never remember the song.
03/2008
© 2008 TL Boehm

“Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto.”

The witching hours between
Onyx nightmares - and dreams that sparkle at first light
Find me catatonic amongst my secrets and inuendos
Ragged shell
an insinuation of skeletal existence locked
Emotional rigor mortis
Hushed, suspended and supine
Stasis waits, hesitating
For the thrumming drums of life
a message of motion
sensual resurrection
That whispered music
melodic song my confidant
The rush of blood
This exhalation across lifeless lips
Speaks nothing into the void
So I do not breathe
In my skin that crawls beyond darkness
Recoiling from oblivion
I thought you loved me
Yet you are without utterance
And my heart breaks straining
For a note of music
and the silence ringing in my ears
A regretful requiem
Careless undertones
mimic this rumor of survival
Suspended I am
Unsung
TBoehm 022008

© 2008 TL Boehm

Everywhere I go
There I am
Casting shadowed glances
This periphery of lies
And smiles that grace the face
Gazing out from my mirror
Is it fear or something sinister within
Where does the image end and the girl begin

Everywhere I go
There I am
Cracked lips pursed in condemnation
Glass refracts the dissonance
Of this existence
Etched memories in skin
Furrowed face and furrowed mind
Beauty lost when the world is blind

Everywhere I go
There I am
Familiarity a festering wound
From love to loathing I’ve come undone
From creation to forever
Everywhere I go
I am my destiny
I can’t get away from me
TL Boehm
01/22/08

© 2008 TL Boehm

If I handed you the knife
Let you cleave flesh from bone
Spilling blood
And broken promises
Fragmented thoughts
Fall where they will
Would you crack the marrow
Leave me dry
Pain the only release
In pieces of me consumed
Death is a shuttered room

Singing Psalms
Your Pollyanna mantra scatters rainbows

And dirges to the troubled skies
Revel in the celebration
Of a slow descent
Skipping stones across poison water
Wings of paper cannot save you
From the fall
Rushing pulse in my ears echo
This empty shell
Illuminate my way to Hell

Screams in silence
Lady Desperation

Behind my weary eyes
Ties another knot in the cord
Hold on a little longer
Let the words
Fall where they will
Vain resurrection of the faithless
Pain is the only force
Along the course with me exhumed
Sanity is a shuttered room
TLB 012208
Sometimes there are too many 'me's' in my mind

© 2008 TL Boehm