Foothills

The physics
of metaphysics …
the part I like the best

Where symbols yearn
as planets turn
—new twigs to build the nest

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)




A Picture

Imagery and symbols
are worth a thousand words
Why poetry is lauded
but prose routinely heard

To paint each word intrinsic
as dawn brush strokes the day
Each verse leaves time uncanvassed
—mortality at bay

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)


To Heaven And Back

If birds couldn’t fly
they wouldn’t sing
The world would stop spinning
and bells wouldn’t ring

Wings are their freedom
the sky their excuse
To heaven and back
—all hearts are infused

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)


The Road Less Traveled

Does the truth
of the world
lie in common
experience

Mathematics
and philosophy
forever
say no

Innovation
and discovery
fight shared
understanding

One should always
be wary
or forever
—forgo

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)


Bearing False Witness

Death by omission
death by nature
Where evil misleads
—deception grows

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)




Lock Step

Poets
miming
poets
The blind
leading
the blind
Mud
stirring up
from the bottom
Concealing
a likeness
—in kind

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)


****** Dreams

Creating something
as yet undiscovered
Consciousness battles
—as memory attacks

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Conation

Have you tilted the axis
on a new tomorrow
Have you changed with intention
— the direction of time

(The New Room: February, 2024)



Round Peg — Square Holes

The poetry of mathematics
— oxymoronic at best

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)





Robert The Bruce

War is won
before the first battle fought
Willful intention
the enemy caught

Decision a crossbow
empowered by choice
The spirit retracting
— a conquering voice

(Stonehenge: March, 1987)


Apate

Captive of emotion
— prisoner of deceit

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)


Crossing Over

Attending his own funeral
no tears were exchanged
No grieving or mourning
— but memory remained

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

In Memoriam

People won’t remember you
because of your money
The human spirit bereft
by your dollars in vain
History won’t revere you
because of your tokens
Your legacy built upon
— prescience ordained

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)



Blood Trail

Don’t get ****** into choosing
both sides are bad
The Left or the Right
their massages sad

The Right tries to promise
what Leftist’s sublate
Two sides to a trap
— where lies are the bait

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)


“What Simple Folk Do …”

Only inside ordinary things
is the extraordinary released
Baptized new day after day
eternity unleashed

Only by embracing what’s common amongst us
as Arthur knew so well
Can we move on to where it starts
beyond heaven — beyond hell

(Memories Of Camelot: February, 2024)


Making Our Bed

The silence of death
lives in the future
Sleeping with memories
— of yesterday’s past

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Answering The Past

I tell you what
you ask me why
Inside this ring
of time disguised
Two hundred reasons
passing go
Retracing steps
— of long ago

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)



Forever Now

Make your bed with today
no one’s promised tomorrow
The present is visceral
its moment at hand
Repeating itself
in joy and in sorrow
The instant eternal
— forever Divine

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)



Lost To Oneself

What do the years mean
when they come to an end
Their number a folly
if hearts cannot mend
A month or a decade
results but the same
‘With feeling abandoned
— a life spent in vain

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)



The Moment Blessed

The future
can be avoided
the present cannot

The past but
a door prize
to what you have not

To live in
the moment’s  
eternal refrain

A blessing
self given
— again and again

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)



Calling Us Home

Drawn into the light
arms open wide
to hear
that song again

Which ushered
us here
replaying clear
— by Angels from within

(1st Book  Of Prayers: March, 2024)



A Choice

The grey winter
of dismal intention
recurs with a vengeance
— until you say NO

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)

Returning
to a sleep
reality abandons

You become
what you dream
—so forever sleep well

(Dreamsleep: July, 2023)

Rays Of Light

Information contextual
never absolute
Naked in isolation
relative and moot

Inspiration celestial
gifted from the throne
Sending rays to light the dark
— truth to stand alone

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Science

One step
forward
two steps back

Look around
you
see the facts

Sky scraped
cities
health care gods

Obese
on drugs
gender fog

Ghetto
masters
children ******

War
a plaything
religion owned

Information
but a mask
to hide us from the truth

DNA
and quantum theory
— kills the Golden Goose

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)


Dreamsleep

No words into boxes
all Muses set free
Not quatrain or sonnet
or limerick for me
The feeling’s unleashing
the verse as decreed
Whose words birth inside me
— unspoken in dreams

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)


Feelings

They come to
me vacant

No plans
to deceive

In silence
they wait

My words
— to conceive

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Abeyance

Raging
against the machine
Dying
in the light
Counting
the hours till darkness
Waiting
— for delight

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)

Storm Clouds

I wanted to speak my mind
until I changed it
I wanted to write a book
without the critic  
I wanted to fall in love
until I lost her
I wanted wealth and fame
— without the thunder

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)


Cosmic Shelf

A Shooting Star
In A Mason Jar
Preserved And Waiting
So Near — So Far

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)

The Weight

Some carry the burden
early
Some carry the burden
late
Some carry the burden
deep inside
Some carry the burden
— of fate

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024)


Circuit Bard

Neurons
are mindful
And fire
as healers
Defying
the symptoms
Igniting
— the cure

(Dreamsleep: July, 2024

The quicksand of anticipation
— the fire below

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)


Chameleosis

A changing experience
— is not an experience of change

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)


Dark Feelings

Captive of emotion
— prisoner of deceit

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Mariah’s Return

Mistral wishes
blow hope
to tomorrow

Intention
most sacred
— ushering wind

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Cupid’s Bow

Indifference
and hatred
are blind
— but not love

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Godot Waits

Minding his business
biding his time
Dodging the bullets
— fate preassigned

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Divinity’s Wind

Masters of War
Victors of Time
Sultans of Glory
Martyrs Sublime

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)

Beyond The Nothingness

If the Universe vanishes
music remains
Each note but a memory
—forever refrained

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)


The Treasure

Life as a system
sits proudly alone
Unlike any other
secure on the throne

Not physics mathematics
or music can steal
What living the treasure
—of nature conceals

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)


Amor Est

How can you know it was love
—how can you not

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Dead Calm

Without friction
there is no motion
Without motion
— creation stops

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Abeyance

My pen is searching
for its guitar case
a place to sleep
when the writing’s done

To rest in the dark  
between flowing moments
of what might be coming
— and old verses sung

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Nowhere To Hide

The haunting of our memories
never to escape
No continent wide nor ocean deep
— will shield us from their ****

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Falling Into Silence

For years
I’ve had an old man’s body
Today
an old man’s mind

The past
a memory ever haunting
Tomorrow looming
— in decline

(Listening To Paul Simon: May, 2024)


Shadow Dancing

Making everyday life poetic
doggedness abounds
Separating wheat from chaff
— harder than it sounds

(Dreamsleep: May, 2024)


Again New Orleans

Waking up from a dream
inside another dream
inside another dream
inside another …

(Listening to Wynton Marsalis: May, 2024)

The music of passion…
it comes from within
Untouched by tomorrow,
it lives to begin

In corners of darkness,
through fits of despair
It waits like a songbird
—to sing out a prayer

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

Present Unwrapped

Plan for tomorrow
live for today
the moment redeeming
future caches

Say what you mean
do what you say
the circle enclosing
— truth on display


(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

Palace Rules

No worse enemy
than an ex-friend
No better friend
— than an enemy turned

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)




Empty Promises

Caring not much
for what I haven’t seen
Deaf to those voices
still trapped in between

Caring not much
for what I haven’t been
Each promise stays empty
— not kept from within

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)



White Buffalo

Can you …
Know
without thinking  
Win
without beating
See
without judging
Cry
without pain
Speak
without stricture
Come
without staying
Wish
without hoping
Share
without claim
Hear
without language
Curse
without malice
Hunt
without preying
Rule
without reign
Fly
without plumage
Dance
without music
Love
without taking
Die
— without shame

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

I rest in the memory
of things that I’ve loved
where time is not finite
below or above
These pockets of joy
hold the key to my fate
as the dreams of my father
in slumber gestate
To live past tomorrow
diving deep in the past
with time still a ******
the moment to last
And rise resurrected
each day with the sun
knowing fortune awaits me
—when sleep again comes

(Rosemont Pennsylvania: December, 2021)

That voice
from the wilderness
Nearer
than far
Close distant
reminder
We are
— who we are

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)


Looking Back

One final look
one final stare
The face looking back
the face of despair
One final time
one final shout
Reflection an echo
— reflection a rout

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)


Jumping The Shark

You can’t time a moment
by counting out loud
Or cross the horizon
not leaving the crowd
Or relive a memory
retention unclear
Or keep the Muse captive
— as silence draws near

(Dreamsleep: March, 2024)

In the currency of dreams
—you can never make change

(Dreamsleep: January, 2021)

Love entitled
hate defaults
—buying back the time

(Dreamsleep: July, 2022)

Forget the past
—and the future is lost

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Roaming the prairies and fields
of confusion
Coursing the oceans and lakes
of delusion
Resetting my compass by the
northernmost star
Journeying inward
—where near meets the far

(Dreamsleep: October, 2021)

A therapist skirts the edge of lunacy
like a priest engages sin

An evangelist disavows poverty and fear
like a snake that sheds its skin

Together they paint the corridors black
with a promised light to come

Their patients and converts alone in the dark
salvation zero-sum

(Dreamsleep: March, 2023)

Harder vison
softer rhyme
Lion tamed
—tomorrow thine

(Dreamsleep: April, 2023)

Words serve the meaning
and not the form
To awaken the morning
in spirit reborn

Each phrase as created
each couplet of verse
In praise of itself
—the structure to curse

(Dreamsleep: June, 2023)

Were you invited
to the party
Do you paint
or write or sing
Have the voices
come to visit
Did new feelings
lodge within
Were you courted
by seduction
Has your soul
become entranced
As you sit alone
and wonder
Will this be
—the final dance

(Dreamsleep: October, 2023)

The end layers over the beginning
in contours of time
Blanketing the middle
in consorts of connection
Rescuing the lost from themselves
—saving the foundling’s parade

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

Most miserable
when she’s happy

Most shameful
when she’s proud

Most prescient
when unconscious

Most distant
in a crowd

Most forthright
when not speaking

Most giving
when denied

Most secret
when she’s telling all

Most dead
—but still alive

(Dreamsleep: December, 2021)

The infancy of evil,
infirmities youth
Children surrendered
—caught in its truth

(Dreamsleep: November, 2021)

The further out your writing goes
—the further in you are

(Dreamsleep: December, 2023)

Evolution changes
the mind of man

All insight martyred
for wider scans

The magic filtered
as books proclaim

What facts uncover
and time disdains

Evolution fosters
a weakened soul

Each process stifled
the gist untold

Forever whittled
in narrow canes

Tomorrow empty
—the past defamed

(Dreamsleep: August, 2022)

From The Coal Mine …

Liars …
early prophets
of impending doom

(The New Room: February, 2024)


The Moment Shared

We often forget
wrapped up
in our own drama
— that everyone feels the same

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)



Circle Game

The purpose of war
is peace
The guarantor of peace
— is war

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)



Crucibles

Moss
hides the message
Whose altar
ascends
In joy’s
adulation
The pilgrimage
— ends

(1st Book Of Prayers: February, 2024)



I Bequeath Thee …

Birthing a memory
o’er future and past
To carry my words
inside others to last

Birthing a memory
o’er time and space
To those still unborn
— my welcoming grace

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)



Four Steps

Incinerate
all kindling that burns
Articulate
the knowledge that yearns
Reciprocate
before it’s your turn
Elucidate
— each lesson hard earned

(The New Room: February, 2024)


True Fortune

Good health is loaned
— but never owned

(Deamsleep: February, 2024)

You can’t wash away loneliness,
it lurks and it spies
a stain on tomorrow
where destiny cries

You can’t keep what’s been stolen
or find what’s not there,
alone and deserted
—the soap of despair

(Dreamsleep: November, 2021)

I am not
me
We are not
us
They are not
them
And here is not
there

(Dreamsleep: March, 2022)

What can’t be forgiven
must be forgotten
Memory the catalyst
for sorrow and pain

The future endemic
its danger befalls us
Salvation escaping
—reluctant to change

(Dreamsleep: January, 2023)

Fire burns hottest
that burns below
Centuries rage
heartache’s grow
The coldest cold
blows just above
A gripping blizzard
—wrath ungloved


(Dreamsleep: August, 2021)

A Poets gathering...
party of one

The darkness invited
—words zero sum

(Dreamsleep: January, 2020)

Life when it’s tragic
a forced similarity
Spreading like water
—flooding the plain

(Dreamsleep: April, 2022)

Heaviest is the heart
—that wears the frown

(Dreamsleep: May, 2022)

Blessed Quietude

Audibly
  we rise
and fall

But Silence ...
is the language
of God

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Lost In Place

The past
is never where you left it
Tomorrow
— delegitimizes today

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)


Groupies

Liking ...
sometimes better
than loving

(Keith Richards: June, 2024)


First Step

Standing at the crossroads
and knowing that you’re there
Going left or going right
coin toss or a dare
Pushed by fate determined
into sorrow, joy, or pain
First step taken tells the tale
— of destiny proclaimed

(Dreamsleep: June, 2024)

Trying to defend
what you cannot describe

All life on the edge
—to affirm or deny

(Dreamsleep: May, 2021)

Darkness endows the small
and the ordinary
with poetic power
Falling with the fallen
rising with the chosen
Reaching for
forgiveness
—and the absence of pain

(Dreamsleep:  September, 2022)

Titling a poem
or naming a child

Which process harder
  the future beguiled

“A Rose Is A Rose ...”
till maybe it’s not

Called do they answer
— once dubbed and begot

(Dreamsleep: August, 2024)

Standing on the edge of forever
walking the tightest rope
Looking down into tomorrow’s abyss
devoid of any hope

The bottom rushing toward me
if one mistake is made
A footpath to a broken dream
too numb to be afraid

My past missteps surround me
daring me to jump
Reminding of what I can’t forget
this roiling morbid funk

But one last chance is taken
as I step outside myself
Shedding the fate of snake eyes past
—new cards the present dealt

(Dreamsleep: May, 2023)

Living Well — Dying Well
precepts of destiny
bookends of fate

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)

+  —  

Patience and time
Courage or fear
Pleasure then pain
Smiles and tears

Future and past
Joy or remorse
Vision when blind
Blessing or curse

Borrow or steal
Praise and then blame
Life unto death
Loss or a gain

Reason and anger
Random or fate
Plussing the minus
— open the gate

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)



Body & Soul

Disease …
robs you
of your health

Dementia …
robs you
of yourself

(Dreamsleep: February, 2024)


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