early morning barefoot walk
hear the drumming ocean waves
smell the scattering of kelp

see whiteheads floating out
hear the squawking gulls
hear breaking waves seething ashore

feel cold sand crunch neath toes
burrow them in for a little warmth
you and your board are primed for briny sprint

Floating like flotsam in the space-time-continuum,
tethered only by a gossamer sense of self,
how important could I be?

I dropped it in the wishing well
May it sink straight to hell
Inside my heart an anguished yell
No romantic knell of wedding bell
Only an engagement ring fell

you stole my heart like an eagle
will you take it to your aerie
to rip in shreds and devour
my final ecstasy

shadows erasing sunfilled day
inking in the night

did not hear you come
footfall of a butterfly
love comes silently

I must confess, I've always loved you from afar.
Obviously, not far enough.
No, seriously, I dream of you.
And that's the only way you'll ever sleep with me.

was it, is it
worth it

scratch deep my surface
know a furnace roars within
fear my eruptions

dewdrops on dead leaves
windblown seeds on rock debris
not everything grows

dewdrops on dead leaves
windblown seeds on rock debris
not everything grows

dewdrops on dead leaves
windblown seeds on rock debris
not everything grows

yesterdays, crumpled, tossed away
littering my life

Near cool running waters,
I contemplate life’s stream.
With two caring daughters,
later years have been a dream.

After months, my wife went under,
cancer stopped her flow.
To the end she was a wonder,
her family in safe tow.

I miss her at the river side,
and in every little eddy.
She navigated with sailor pride,
her course was always steady.

I was supposed to be the captain,
but relied on my first mate.
She sensed my skills were latent,
and so kept our vessel straight.

When I reach the final shore,
and cinch the mooring tether,
She’ll greet me at Neptune’s door,
with eternal sailing weather.

With this ring I thee wed
Until I'm dead
Did you hear what I just said
I must be out of my head

Oh lunar beauty don’t go
You rarely visit in the day
You’re often gone when I awake
You shine when I’m away

You dance among the stars
While I must dance alone
I seek your reflected wisdom
So we can share heaven’s throne

We’ll rule with blended passion
From cool blue to heated yellow
All on earth will benefit
From despondent lass to hopeful fellow

I’ve loved you from afar
I know our worlds align
Please don’t ignore my plea
We're fated to be divine

solitary bird
winging across ashen sky
every nest gone

Like wild horses,
we race together across vast plains.
When summer comes,
we graze joyfully in flowered domains.

In winter’s rains,
we nuzzle neath protective cover,
a cave, a canopy,
just a love and lover.

We’re a team,
we’re a pairing,
no one’s controlling us,
no reins we’re wearing.

It’s freedom we enjoy,
untethered by superficial rules.
Our hearts joined in courage,
not in herds of timid fools.

tree winds rustle through
the bleakness of the winter
the sound of dying

The gray sky weeps because the summer sun
waved goodbye with sunburnt hand
Now, winter reaches in with icy fingers
to numb the land

All the summer bounty will be washed away
by this winter’s rain-sloshed earth
Giving birth to months of dearth

So too my love you have deprived me
inner warmth even as you depart
Leaving me with shivering heart

Is there good reason for such dreadful season
Do you plan an annual return
Lest I learn to fathom what you yearn

Tell me what I need to do
To retain the heat of you
Are you just a fair-weather friend
Have you brought our summer to an end

First, there is the inner world,
a wild electric universe of neurons
that miraculously grasps the reality of me.

Then there is the world of you and me,
an intimate involvement of emotions and senses;
a world within worlds, where I long to stay as long as possible.

And, of course, the world of family and friends,
whom I view in imperfect reflections and impressions,
in prisms of biased, fragmented judgments, memories and feelings.

Then there is the world of others, most of those like distant planets as Pluto, are assuredly not what they first seem to be.

All these worlds are shaped by my perceptions, schooled by unfinished studies and ignorant appreciations of art.

Am I totally adrift in these universes? Should I cling to comfortable worlds where I can find solace and absence of fear?

A comprehension of these various worlds is unsettling and beyond my limited ability. I am spinning and orbiting among dark energy and dark matter and I will never fully understand the light.