A yellow crescent moon
That overlooks the landscape
And hyphenates the stars

The tree of life
Takes a circuitous route
Stumbling its way
Toward destiny

Van Gogh pervades the air
Mounds of color
Broad free strokes
Freedom unleashed
I look at his work
I look at mine
Starry Night
Am I an extension?
A continuation
In the process
Toward a final goal?
Toward freedom?
Removing the shackles of history
Preventing in his lifetime
The glories remaining unsung
Canvasses unpainted
A chance encounter with fate
And yet I watch
As my hand swiftly crosses the canvass
And I wonder
Would I be here?
Would we all be here?
Are our lives enriched
By his struggle?
Do I face a blank, white canvass
With his eyes?
Do his shadows become mine?
Does the light reflect
As he saw in Arles,
Transcending time?
Enigma
Un-defined
Holding the ghost of reality
Penetrating timeless vacuums
Unable to escape
Unwanting to escape
Unanswered questions
Of metamorphosis
Of passion and devotion
Passed through the ionosphere
Permeating the atmosphere
Filling the crevasses of his life
Of our lives
Of my hand and eyes
Seeing his brush-strokes come alive
Transmutations founded at the precipice
Of a cliff’s edge
To linger in other hands
In my hands
Holding a brush
Dripping color
Blown by the winds of time
Inheritance
The future untold
Perseverance
Preoccupation
Permanence
A legacy of searching
Fulfilled in eternity
In a single drop
Of color

11/20/18

Feeling the wind in your hair
Holding the sand between your toes
As the tide washes over your feet
Holding your face to the sun
As shadows cast themselves on the pavement
The remnants of the day a golden glow
The early dusk drinking in the twilight
The twinkling stars invading the heavens
As the moon caresses the sky
And the clouds drift by
Like a blanket covering the earth
And you sleep the sleep of a baby
The innocence of tomorrow
Held for a moment and then let go
As the gentle breeze drifts across your face
And carries you forward toward your destiny

5/29/19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

Do you know what
I like about
Being old?
Senior Discounts!
I love to walk
Into the grocery store
On Wednesdays
And say:
YEA! – Old People’s Day!
And get
5% senior discounts.

Empty hours
Now filled
With joy
Everlasting

Frozen mem’ries
Held still
In time
Remembered

Future glories
So close
At hand
Remaining

Time forsaken
To share
Our lives
Forever

11/29/18

The road of love is long
Filled with potholes and bumps
Along the way

Crossing the ocean
Is more than just miles
Or depth to the bottom
It’s battling sea monsters
And waves that try
To scuttle your ship
Only love can conquer
The daemons setting their sights
On the rarest of feelings
When truly aroused
When the heart and the soul
Join forces and become one
To take on all comers
And conquer the darkness
Like a knight in shining armor
To rescue the damsel in distress
And carry her off to Neverland
To live the plethora of youth and joy
That only true love can bring

Where I live
It’s so quiet
You can hear
Grasshoppers
Blow their nose

Time standing still
Suspended
Waiting
Held in the hand of fate

Looking for an outlet
Paradoxical
Ordinary
Searching over the promontory

Reflex actions
Uncalculated
Unchallenged
Illusionary

Momentary illusions
Categorized
Uncategorized
Passing through infinity

Wakefulness balanced by daylight
Playful
Joyous
Reacting to surroundings

Catalytic motions
Profound
Unexpected
Holding onto forever

4/28/19

The tapestry of the mind
Filled with golden threads
Like the orbits in the universe

A special day
A wondrous day
A profound day
A day filled with happy moments
Of hope for the future
A day filled with sadness
And reflections of the past
Opening a window
Turning the key in the lock
That closes the door
And opens on the other side
Of the ocean
A chasm crossed physically
And metaphorically
A lifetime ahead
Filled with hope and dreams
Love and laughter
A special day
A wondrous day
A profound day

11/22/18

Ten years of anguish
Ten years of sorrow
Ten years alone
With people all around

Three flights up
In an empty bedroom
Devoid of any loving
Devoid of human touch

Living each day
The life of a servant
Practicing retreating
A shell of who she was

Hoping for a savior
To end the mental torture
Never even knowing
If saving could exist

Gone the years of passion
Gone the sacred hours
Gone the hope of union
Replaced with empty tears

Filled with silent moments
Filled with tense emotions
Frozen in a time warp
Of mem’ries now forlorn

Only dreams to guide her
Only chances taken
Happy ever after
An illusion or a dream

Destiny’s encounter
Hope on the horizon
Born of years of longing
For fate to intervene

All the empty sorrows
******* in a ribbon
Thrown in wicker baskets
Never to be retrieved

A simple chance encounter
A simple little entry
Changing lives forever
Passion now renewed

Reborn by fate uniting
Two souls on the horizon
Destiny providing
A platform for their love

All the empty years now
Gone, a pure reflection
Of love and time dismembered
By one who can’t conceive

Happiness has found her
In one ecstatic moment
The simplest solution
Right before her eyes

Safe and warm together
Love that’s profound now
Now the new beginning
So long ago conceived

With happiness forever
And dreams now reinstated
Where emptiness had once resided
Rekindled by their love

No more empty sorrows
No more lonely hours
No more trials and torment
No more broken hearts

Only joy and laughter
Only new beginnings
Only happy mem’ries
Built upon their love

Home needs no explaining
Home is where you’ll find her
Home that fills her *****
Home now fills her needs

One and one are one now
Never disunited
Loving hands unfolding
The future now conceived

With hope and love forever
Safe and warm inside now
Home to last forever
Love her sacred creed


10/31/18

There’s a saying
Time waits for no man
Time can be relative
Or a revelation
Time cannot be extinguished
Or diminished
When waiting
Time feels elongated
Like watching the grass grow
It levitates
Holding itself suspended
In a reality of its own making
Transforming itself as if static
Standing still
Yet time ticks on
Like the striking of Big Ben
And the universe moves
At its predetermined pace
While we poor mortals
Suffer the interminable seconds
Of the atomic clock
That stands still
Only in our consciousness
Waiting like Pandora’s Box
To be opened
And return to its natural pace
Of sixty seconds
Sixty minutes
Hours…days…weeks…years
Waiting for time
Time holding a new reality
Time demonstrating its ability
To transfix
Transfuse
And open new vistas
Only time can reveal

Now that you are mine
Sent from Heaven to be with me
I am yours forever

Once in a lifetime
If one’s lucky
True love reaches out
And grabs your soul
And if that love dies
Without understanding
You die too
And the hole in your heart
Seems irreparable
You drift through the days
Unaware of life passing by
Hope tarnished
As rust devours iron
Until it disintegrates

But if fate and destiny
Are truly sitting
On your shoulder
Watching and waiting
For that other heart
That needs healing
Waiting to bring two souls
Together
Knowing that their destiny
Is woven by the hand of God
Into a tapestry
Interspersed with stars and clouds
And pink sunsets

The hole that seemed irreparable
Magically heals
As the heart fills with love
Then overflows and a second heart
Forms as a reservoir
To hold that love forever

Fate and destiny have conspired
To bring two souls together
And turn them into one
And take them on a journey
Through the ionosphere
Past Saturn’s rings
And on to the outer edges
Of the universe
Giving them a love
Unheard of in time or space
But lasting forever
As their destiny is revealed
And their fingers intertwined
Tying a love knot
Of life
Breathing together
Dreaming together
As only one soul and one heart
Made up of two
Can exist
Doubled by the power of love
And given a second chance
By destiny

9/2/18

There’s a saying
Time waits for no man
Time can be relative
Or a revelation
Time cannot be extinguished
Or diminished
When waiting
Time feels elongated
Like watching the grass grow
It levitates
Holding itself suspended
In a reality of its own making
Transforming itself as if static
Standing still
Yet time ticks on
Like the striking of Big Ben
And the universe moves
At its predetermined pace
While we poor mortals
Suffer the interminable seconds
Of the atomic clock
That stands still
Only in our consciousness
Waiting like Pandora’s Box
To be opened
And return to its natural pace
Of sixty seconds
Sixty minutes
Hours…days…weeks…years
Waiting for time
Time holding a new reality
Time demonstrating its ability
To transfix
Transfuse
And open new vistas
Only time can reveal

Osgood the owl
Is three inches tall
A constant companion
Even though he’s green
With yellow eyes that watch me
From morning ‘til night
And faithfully sits there
‘Cause he’s made of stone

What is a marriage?

The joining of forces;
A partnership;
Equal standing in the corporation
Of life and love.

Writers pooling ideas,
Scientists testing theories,
Two people sharing.

Marriage is not the contract
Or the piece of paper;
Marriage is two people who love each other.

And when their souls mesh,
Intertwined and inseparable
The piece of paper
Codifies their love
And shouts to the world –

We love each other
And will ‘til eternity!

8/21/18

Happily never after
Is a tale too often told
When dreams have been discarded
And faith no longer bold

The empty trough forgotten
Amid sorrows that never end
And hope that travels nowhere
With messages one cannot send

The broken line of pavement
Erased by years of rain
That once had been a highway
But now a road of pain

If happily never after
Is all that’s left ahead
The tears remember good times
And life’s an unmade bed

The hope that self-renews now
A chance for dreams to come true
Is worth another mem’ry
A life ahead that’s due

3/7/19

www.brucelevine.com

After years of torment
Emotional agony and
Loneliness
She’s Going Home
Undreamt of joy
Reveals itself
As the love
She never thought
Would exist for her
Has taken hold
Of her life
A love so deep
So strong
That it could
Only have been
Sent to her
Now she knows that
She is reborn
And soon they will be
Together
One heart and one soul
Joined for eternity
By love
She is
Going Home

Spring songs appear like ghosts
Hovering over the horizon
Happy memories
Playing in fields of daffodils
Golden rainbows
Mixed with stripes of hyacinth blue
Amber shadows projecting skyward
Against the rays of the rising sun
Time stands still as trees blossom
And fauns scamper among daydreams
Everlasting solitude of rebirth
For the dawning of a new day
A new season
To be remembered through summer
And into fall
As ruminations linger
Filled with the memories of spring

4/22/19

Going backward to go forward
Finding my true identity
The hidden core
That represents my reality
Overgrown with twists and turns
Carrying me in wrong directions
Swimming upstream
Pummeled by the surf
Battered by rapids
Working on goals
That seemed long forgotten
But only frozen by cryogenics
Waiting in the wings
Hoping to be rediscovered
Looking in the mirror
To another dimension
Past the vortex
That remains transitory
Fleeting moments pointing the way
To look backward
And go forward

Half way to the stars
Finding true love forever
Golden days ahead

Grief prevents momentum
And sadness sustains limbo
Seconds become days
With relentless stagnation
Fate playing tricks
In ways unforeseen
As calendars remain
Fostering the season
Lessening reality
In intangible ways
That heightens the dogma
Of grief

Forever embracing the moment
Holding on to glass hands
Crystalline clear
Bending light
Into rainbows of incandescence
Prisms of starlight
Held in suspended animation
Focused solely on perfection
Gathering dust into clouds
Like cotton candy
Pink and blue
Spun sugar confections
Trapped by centrifugal force
Yet free to puff
With gossamer wings
Into ***** of fluff
To melt on the tongue
In muted simulation
Of irresistible forces
Drawn by magnetic cohesion
Into one

4/29/19

I wander the yard
Listening to the wonders
Watching the sun rise
A woodpecker in a tree
Finding peace with the soul

Heroes come and go
Life-long battles with day-dreams
Opening new doors
As flexing muscles abound
Under golden canopies

Following the day
Passages open pathways
Through the yellow dawn
In step with wind-swept moments
Following the path beyond

3/25/19

www.brucelevine.com

Empty laughter
Often fading
Among the trees
Of the nether-fold
Nirvana forsaken
Amidst the storm
Of the infinite
Paradoxical anagrams
Representing the
Vortex of time
Leaving in isolation
The magnitude
Unfulfilled
By a destiny removed
Renamed yet unknown
As a symbol
A metaphor
Held in an ironic
Twist of fate
Longing for the impossible
Parodies etched in paradiddles
Refocused without rhyme
Now forsaken
Amid the Pine Barrens
Of time

12/12/18

He waits
Days go by
Weeks go by
Months go by
Years go by
Promises unresolved
Time passes
No fulfillment
New hopes
New rejections
Once remembered
Once forgotten
Trying again
Putting it out
Painful reminders
Past encounters
Understanding
Confusion
Resolution
Waiting
Goals
Goals­ forsaken
Timeless reminders
Forever hopeful

6/9/19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

Raisins on the radar
Blips up in the sky
Momentary fragments
Dissecting the nebula
Into quadrants of infinity

Paradoxical parodies
Of timeless interventions
Parading down the highway
Toward the Main Street
Of all life

Opening credenzas
Containing empty virtues
Of Delft and Meissen statues
With layers of brocade adornment
Pretensions held up to the light

Fascinating sorrows
Measuring despair
With candles unextinguished
A world in disrepair

A bastion of hollows
Carved in granite heights
A tempest once devoured
Retains the kernel within
To reignite with a teardrop
A Phoenix full in flight

3/26/19


www.brucelevine.com

Wind blowing the trees –
Waiting

Rain pelting the roofs –
Waiting

Warnings – fear – panic –
Waiting

False alarms and near death situations –
Waiting

Tree limbs, branches and twigs
Scatter the lawn now
Tearing asunder
A long standing dream

Follow the plan – follow the leader
Running to safety or so they believe
Storing up water – storing up food-stuffs
Counting the days they’ll all do without

Fixing the time, it can’t last forever
Praying they’ll all see the very next dawn
Watching the wind – moments of calmness
Gusts overtaking those moments of ease

Clouds overhead as dark as the night now
Following shadows cast off on their own
Ev’ryday fears amplified grandly
Leaving all thought and reason behind

Lightning and thunder – power lines bursting
Freezing the time in a moment of light
Tracing the tempest with photograph mem’ry
Timelines projecting the hurricane path

Watching the day creeping by slowly
Hours of watching and waiting to come
Watching a squirrel scamper up tree limbs
Looking for shelter from the eye of the storm

I am a devout foodist
I celebrate every holiday
That involves food
I’ll try anything once
Except grasshoppers, ants
And other creepy-crawlers

Dinner is a sacred point in the day
Not just a repast or fuel for the body
A joyous time to be savoured
And reveled in
To be rekindled on the tongue
Throughout the evening

Foodism is open ended
Open to all of those
Who desire to luxuriate
In the pleasures of the gastronomic
Who feast with their eyes
As well as their taste buds and stomach

Foodism requires no special meeting house
Restaurants, side-walk venders and home
The approbation of the culinary skills
Praise for the chef
All uniting under one umbrella
All celebrating foodism

6/1/19

The end
Is the beginning
The next piece
The next moment
The next chapter

The end
Is movement
Moving forward
Moving backward
Moving wherever

The end
Is transitory
Tracing progress
Tracing moments
Tracing journeys

The end
Is a signal
Guiding airplanes
Guiding steamships
Guiding lifelines

The end
Is the ending
Holding loved ones
Holding mem’ries
Holding forever

(This was released on Leaves of Ink today)

John the fish
Lives in a dish
He couldn’t
Live in a bowl
He’s made of glass
And before you can ask
He’s mostly blue
And says
Good morning to you
As you carefully brew
A coffee for two
And start on your way
To have a good day
Remember the fish
After breakfast delish
A hug and a kish
He made you a wish
To have a good day
This evening you’ll play
And if you follow his way
It will all be okay
So remember to thank
Though he’s not in a tank
That trusty old friend
John the fish

My life is a wire
Forced upon me
Not by choice
Not by desire
But by obsolescence
Of former technology
No longer viable
No longer available
And yet it too
Had its own lifespan
Before the next technological epiphany
Superseded it –
Out with the old – in with the new
Armageddon

And is my life better?
Categorically no!

Simple became complex
Reliable became subject
To the whims of technology
The internet’s slow today
The program’s out of date
The compatibility declined
The system’s down
Functionality at a standstill
Armageddon

Go wireless
Go Bluetooth
Go further down
The layers of Hell
The layers of the Inferno
The labyrinth
Of keeping up
With the newest of the new
Keeping up with the Joneses
No longer humans
Keeping up with Microsoft or Apple

Pre-order
Post-order
Out of order

Spending money
On the gift that keeps giving
In the name of technology
The rich get richer
And everyone else poorer
Waiting in line
Camping on the sidewalk
All for the gadgets
All for the glory
Of holding the latest update

As I suffer
Their hypocrisy
Their purported need
To make the world better
Faster
Easier
Save the trees
Repair climate change
More and more technology
Force it on us
Like the slaves
Forced on the ships
Out of Africa

No more human interaction
Text me…
No more time
Social media…
Games
Addiction to technology
Armageddon

The narcissism of today
Makes Narcissus
Look like a fraud
Selfies to commemorate
The slightest triumph
Like combing one’s hair
Meeting a friend
A celebrity, a sycophant
Another narcissist
And because the human arm
Doesn’t reach like a giraffe’s neck
The selfie stick was invented
To capture every golden moment
Of the Narcissist’s life
Cooking breakfast
Is an event worthy of self-praise
And transcendence for posterity
On Facebook
Self-esteem no longer comes from within
From accomplishments
From goals conquered
But from a cell phone
Held at arm’s or stick’s length
Pointed at one’s own image
Like Narcissus at the pool
Gazing at himself
Until he died

Where do you go
At the end of the list
As paperless paper
Remains on the roll

Standing with nothing
However refined
And entry forever
Forever declined

The faraway mountains
The tears never shed
Forgetting tomorrow
No more the bells toll

Not asking or crying
As time marches on
The list one remembers
Forever is gone

3/1/19

www.brucelevine.com

early evening sunsets
pink and orange clouds
holding hands with moonlight

Happily never after
Is a tale too often told
When dreams have been discarded
And faith no longer bold

The empty trough forgotten
Amid sorrows that never end
And hope that travels nowhere
With messages one cannot send

The broken line of pavement
Erased by years of rain
That once had been a highway
But now a road of pain

If happily never after
Is all that’s left ahead
The tears remember good times
And life’s an unmade bed

The hope that self-renews now
A chance for dreams to come true
Is worth another mem’ry
A life ahead that’s due

http://www.leaves-of-ink.com/2019/04/happily-never-after.html

I looked in my closet
And discovered
That I went back to
Who I am

I tried being what I
Thought I should be
Wanted to be
I changed my wardrobe
I changed my hair
I thought I looked
The part
But playing a part
Doesn’t mean it’s real
Reality
True to oneself

Oxford shirts and jeans
And haircuts may not
Make the man
But they go a long way
Toward going back to
Who I am

hidden dreams of glory
soaring over trees
flocks of birds on an august morn

Faith has no boundaries
Parallel lines drawn on a grid
Parameters circumscribed by time
Space divided into quadrants
Floating in new dimensions
Through quantum reality
Phantasmagoric illusions
Steeped on a platter of platitudes
Of today and tomorrow
In a paradoxical state
A pantheon of importance
Holding the self-righteous
And the self-esteemed
Forever in their egoism
Parading toward their own destiny
Leaving shadows in their wake
Reinventing the future

5/21/19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

I close my eyes against the sun
Then barely open them.
A new view comes before me.
Is it reality?
The trees are bare;
Barren limbs against the sky.
Are they reaching for Heaven?
What are they doing?
What are they telling me?
Is this an epiphany
Or a transitory vision
Of trees against the sky?
Bare limbs,
Barren branches.
I close my eyes against the sun.

3/19/19

www.brucelevine.com

Here we are together
Holding on to each other
Intertwined
In the union of love
Sharing not only our bodies
But our hearts and souls
Inextricably mingled
Like a force of nature
Naked and yet clothed
In a garment
Woven in Heaven
Only available when
Two hearts equal one
Mathematics discounted
Only the reality
Of our joining as lovers
Fulfilled by our passion
Which can only be
Overwhelmed
By our love

Gliding through the mist
Glorying in the morning
Grateful for the day

You and I will have our dreams together
See the world as pink and green together
Knowing that we’ll always be together
Feel the morning, rise upon us
Hold the feeling, all wet with dew.

You and I will spend our days together
Moving right on through the maze together
Playing games and making plays together
Happy endings, ever after
Like a story, we’ll spend our lives.

With time for holding you
And time for loving you
We’ll make our dreams come true
You and I.


Originally used as a song lyric in the show Marriage and Other Happenings in 1983

Here we are together
Holding on to each other
Intertwined
In the union of love
Sharing not only our bodies
But our hearts and souls
Inextricably mingled
Like a force of nature
Naked and yet clothed
In a garment
Woven in Heaven
Only available when
Two hearts equal one
Mathematics discounted
Only the reality
Of our joining as lovers
Fulfilled by our passion
Which can only be
Overwhelmed
By our love

Scanning the channels
Seeking a killer
Parading suspects
Hiding the crime

Alibi answers
Hidden conundrums
Follow the money
Follow the dream

Answers, evasions
Questions outnumber
Double jeopardy
Sequence defined

Will he or won’t he
Sisters forever
Cross examination
Bargains declined

Bad guys remember
Good guys will haunt you
TV detectives
Never outshined

Myst’ries unraveled
Killers detected
Final decisions
Filling the screen

4/30/19

Once in a lifetime
If you’re lucky
You get a second chance
At love
How it happens
Why it happens
No one knows
But the powers up
Above
Life’s twists and turns
Run parallel in the universe
Fate and destiny hold hands
To bring loved ones together
Dearly departed team up
In Heaven
Guiding what appears
Happenstance
Improbable
Impossible
And yet volatile passions
Transcend eternity
Until the ultimate moment
Of consummation
A deep breath
Of longing
Brought together
Like lightning
Illuminating the sky
In a flash of brilliance
That will last forever
Towering over
Time and space
No longer a momentary
Ember
But
Transformed into a glowing
Fireball that consumes
Every fiber of the
Lover’s beings
Granting them love
And happiness
And an ending that will last
Forever

11/11/18

Tom Turtle ran a race
He’d never lost before
But in the name of love
Came from above
Joe Rabbit beat his score

Tom was glad
This time not sad
True love had won the day
And though he lost
A race it cost
He gladly had his say

This time Joe
You weren’t a foe
The message is loud and clear
Two lovers brought
From Heaven taught
To hold each other dear

And from that day
They’d laugh and play
A perfect atmosphere
For love to thrive
Each day alive
It wasn’t a show
And on they’d go
Forever aglow
With happiness every day
And joyously they did say

Thanks Tom Turtle
You lost the race
But through your grace
Love can erase
The sadness you must face

Tom Turtle replied
I am alive
I’d happily lose ten more
For love like yours
Means more than scores
So go on your merry way

And live your life
Free from strife
And here’s to you both
I raise a toast
To love and laugh each day

You have each other
I’ll soon recover
You’ve opened the door
There needs no more
You’ll now discover
Destiny brought you ashore
You’re both in love
From Heaven above
For now and forever more