Do You Follow

I follow my eyes

And my eyes lead me nowhere

A vast expanse of gray and disease

I have seen hundreds or thousands of these

Like clouds always moving without soul, without cause

Alighting wherever they please

I long for the softness of something still and not aimless

Something holding what I have released

It comes in the shadows, it flees between breaths,

Between whispers of rivers and leaves

School This Morning

I went to school this morning

Ushered in by angels

Placed my hand over my heart

Saluted while a river was running

Question word reverberating 

No hands upon the clock

There were no bibles only storybooks

No weeping only smiles

Love like a blanket covered these hills

Green and rolling out my life

Will thrills on every page

And monsters rainbow colored

A river swiftly running

And no hands upon the clock

Amid the sands of time

Something hooked and horrid took hold

Someone running

Someone running out

Darkness came, a jackal

A jackal lucid in the night

A smile from a cage of tombs

A river swiftly running

Someone running out of blood

Someone turning off a light

I went to school this morning

Beautiful things turned into tar

A star fell into the vortex

A river running out

I went to school this morning

And all history gushed out

Smile

Dogs do not smile

At pictures of other dogs

Nor plants at images of plants

We in the sea

See something sublime and infantile

In the passing of fish

That show teeth like ours

As we swim continuously toward

Irrelevance 

City of Ghosts

The church bell rings hollow and loud

Across the city streets

A gust of wind comes up to hug

Anyone it meets

            Once there was a love for me,

            A love for me, almost

            All swallowed up in time for me,

            Here in the city of ghosts

I knew the avenues by name

The signs swing in gaslight

Holmes and Watson cast their shadows

Deep into the night

            Once there was a love for me,

            A love for me, almost

            All swallowed up in time for me,

            Here in the city of ghosts

Trees and spires pierce the sky

Underneath the crescent moon

Specters climbing to the stars

Will find each other soon

            Once there was a love for me,

            A love for me, almost

            All swallowed up in time for me,

            Here in the city of ghosts

Absence of Color

In the winter

When the raw emotions

Stand out in the cold

Will you still love me knowing

That you are now alone

You came to me

When breath was sweet

And every image danced

Colors were illusions then

For you always in black

Stand your ground

And eat the snow

Till purity seeps in

No you will never freeze until

You have all that you lack

Dreams and bones

Were all we had

Even as our time seemed full

There is no wool can keep you warm

Till feeling reaches home

Sorrow

No elegance ever there was

Like sorrow

Balances the world upon each shoulder

Justified and dignified

With sorrow

Holds me as an arrow

Flying upstream through the marrow

But hold on to tomorrow

You will be there

With sorrow

Sweet of sound and pure of taste

Perfume of life and afterlife

That is the truth,

The certainty

Of sorrow

Gull

Honing this tool

In the waves, in the tide

Is a cause flying straight

Through the wind

To the soul where the world

Flies away at a word

Makes me whole, takes me down,

From the birds

If the World Was You

You are afraid of the dark
Because you are too full of light
And I would keep you in this sun-soaked place
I would hold you with all of my might


     If the world was you….
     If the world was you….
     Why can’t the world be you


You smile and the stars all align
You laugh and the rivers rejoice
And I would see only those eyes
And I would hear only that voice


     If the world was you….
     If the world was you….
     Why can’t the world be you


          But I must go out in obsidian night
          Shoot holes in the sorrowful moon
          I must deal with all of this darkness
          I must live in the ruins too soon

     If the world was you….
     If the world was you….
     Why can’t the world be you


You live in a world that spins stories
I live in a world that deals blows
You go where the rainbows all follow
I go where the wind never knows


     But if the world was you….
     If the world was you….
     Why can’t the world be you

Behind with Everything

Behind with Everything

I see three minstrels singing

And I want to join right in

They’re handing me a guitar

But I’m behind with everything

The girls are out there clacking

In high heels and wild wigs

I want to jump right on ‘em

But I’m behind with everything

            Gotta write my novel

            And I gotta pay my bills

            I gotta walk my doggie

            And I gotta take my pills

            Looking for a moment

            When the Lord gives me some wings

            I’m so wired here in the Village

            But I’m behind with everything

My neighbors whoop it up all night

Tomorrow they’ll sleep in

I look at them and want to crash

But I’m behind with everything

            Gotta write my novel

            And I gotta pay my bills

            I gotta walk my doggie

            And I gotta take my pills

            Looking for a moment

            When the Lord gives me some wings

            I’m so wired here in the Village

            But I’m behind with everything

When the morning comes I’m moving

Can’t tell me to pack it in

I’m a force of nature swooning

And behind with everything

2012

Gravity

Kind of like God
Gravity just is
Beyond Einstein’s reach
Beyond the stars
Pulling the substance of life
Into an eternal river
Are you ether?
Are you blood?
Are you the Creator’s plasma?
What pulls you to me
And me to dust
This dragging down
Of all I love and trust
Gravity rending my clothes
And my life
An astronaut on the moon
Whose module has departed
I and my gray matter
Will be this dust
Someday

Water

Water
How I love you
Warm on my body
Cold in my throat
Miracle of life you are
I just a boat on the sea
Floating endlessly on water
Every cell of my body
Is filled with you water
Before the factories and wines
Distilleries and machinery
And all the convoluted systems of man
Spinning in constant turmoil on the wine-dark sea
There was water
Forming
And rushing over
Me

Everyone

So much in a soul
Is impeccably crafted
The Creator’s hand drifting
Inside everyone
Nuance and feeling
Wild imagination
Each an uncharted island
Awaiting exploration
Every one with a story
Every one with a song
Here where shadow dances
Eternally with light
Tell me how can anyone
Hate anyone?

We Don't Like to Think

Tidy little squares of ham stuck in plastic
Curlicues of turkey all squiggled in rows
Patties of burgers stacked neatly in freezers
We wolf all these down in one week of our frenzy
We don’t like to think of the world behind Wal-Mart, it seems

“It’s a horror!” “It’s appalling!”
Shoosh! It doesn’t belong
Better to savor the world we created
Because we know we are superior
Within our minds and our walls

Satiating our palates and sluicing our pennies
We cover all needs in one romp through the store
We don’t like to think about it at all
We don’t like to think
Better leave it alone….

But the machines go on slicing
And dicing the rest
And their lives are spent looking at steel blades coming down
In cages just big enough to move the key limbs
We don’t like to think about it at all

Move in another pallet
Appease another palate
And fire up that grill
We don’t like to think
We don’t like to think

We don’t like to think about it at all

We don’t like to think beyond the Wall

A Trophy

The boy was presented
For Christmas a paper
His father’s picture
A long black box
And then a shiny heart
Background of peculiar royal hue

Hangs from a trophy

Hands and feet
Later appeared pictured in odd places
His mind hangs on a trophy
Little league champion
Soon a rifle will be
In those hands where the bat is

Beautiful Exception

Be the exception to my rule
Make me feel like less a fool
See I’ve been going to all this school
And learning
The wrong things

I see you span your wings
I hear the way you sing
You make me forget everything
Beautiful exception
To the rule

With every object falling down
Like the moon, you stay up proud
Breathing with no oxygen around
Beautiful exception
To the rule

And when the stars have all worn out
You will shine there without doubt
The light the world can’t do without
Beautiful exception
To the rule

For Ken

So often I wonder how
The Judge arrives at these decisions
He is more a surgeon:
Incision in the bloodline
Took you away too soon
You so blessed with grace
You so bound for glory
You so missed by the world
Because you gave so much too it
You are dancing on the clouds
Painted happy like the man in the moon
Laughing at these questions
Singing a new song
Meeting new judges and new angels
Or resting, now, perhaps