Nocturne Eternal

Lay darkly, silently

Ponder not the jagged edge

Turn softly those thoughts against

The way that haunts

Untangle those long bleak nights

Nights of amaranthine naught

Be not sedate of vigilance

In thy pensive thoughts

Embrace the howling wind

It covers the cries

Seek not light to dash out the dark

For there do shadows drown

Fear not the creatures of the night

Become the eyes of the mouse

Divine the ears of the bat

Assume the valor of the owl

Embrace the night, caress the earth

Wake not in fear

But lay forever entwined

With sweet nocturne eternal

How to Spot a Poem

To begin...

Describe the essence in a baby's laugh

Disseminate the message of a drunken preacher's

Sermon on a saint

Whisper to the silence

You find most fearful

Muse over who will be thinking of you

When a certain aroma occurs

Try cupping a sleepy kitten while

Distilling the fount of its tranquil smile

Catch rain in your sleeping hand

Taste it with a pen

Spot the poem

In showing grace for a dying creature

With nothing to offer in return

Only the expectations of the universe

Humming a song with no lyrics

Yet everyone knows the meaning

The undeniable need to cry

Possessing no reason to do so

Spotting a poem is as exquisite as your first breath

And as ruthless as your last heartbeat

All the while finding perfection

In an imperfect world

Black Birds of Autumn

Autumn's crows have fallen out

Solemnly resting on branches barren

Silhouetted in the blushing dawn

Warming their damp feathers

Brooding, chanting their awkward song

In funeral attire, they gawk and morn

The end of Summers sweet berries

Big fat bugs 

Bombing windshields

Pranking the squirrels

Backs to the wind 

They sit and sulk

Reminiscing on gentle showers

Stealing cookies from drowsy babies

Scintillating flowers

Dark sentinels though they be

No admiration do they seek

They only party with their clique

Sharing a joke now and then

That always ends in loud guffaws

Acquiescence

'Acquiescence'

Bring me vellum and charcoal bold
  Then lay awhile in tepid light
Humming and winking
  Fresh and naked as a newborn foal

There used to be music
  Fall and winter spring and summer
Comes now the doors rusty report
  With landlord's cheeky process server

Bring me parchment and indigo ink
  Then clear the table, strewn in waste
No checks will there be drawn
 On this counter of buckets singing with rain

There used to be words
  Cherished and clever
Before this rasping hollow 
  Conch shell echo of airwaves absurd

Bring me wine and honey pears
  But stay a while
Making love on slightly clean sheets
 Knowing the master has left in despair

Hold long the dog-eared page
  The remnant pencil with bitten point
Passages of heroism that no longer cleanse
  You and I in this failing light

Bring me the linen and fine silk thread
  Await to step in the crimson gown
Tunes on the radio acclaim your face 
  Hand in hand with the dystopian dead

Playground Polka

^{There had been}

^{No explanation}

^{Only incredulity}

^{Naturally I reacted}

^{Shoved that flaccid excuse}

^{Right back at her cold hard indolence
I stood in the door}

^{There was no finely polished floor}

^{For her to drop her proud ass on now}

^{Kicking her protestations}

^{Like the spoiled brat}

^{What now! I said}

^{But the silence went on}

^{A vacuous adagio of wind pipes}

^{Her weeping}

^{Could not have been sweeter}

^{So here she will play}

^{Grinding it out}

^{On that lysoled expanse}

^{Her own concrete}

^Playground

^{There it was}

^{Like a sail on the horizon}

^{Getting smaller}

^{Us, it, everything}

^{The door opened and closed}

^{With a loud metallic clang}

^{Let the dancing begin}

'the Eccentricities of Sleepwalkers'

Hastened by the daylight

Sanctioned on the essence of amnesia

Warriors of the mind

Cloaked in darkness

Padding unshod

Armed with a comb

Pursuing the minions of evil

From every tissue of the mind

An indestructible construct

Of pure imagination

Slipping in like children

Among the Johns

Pocket picking the circular jerkular

Leaving like whores

Rescuing kittens

Plucking keys from a river

Sailing the ocean

Plank walking Pirates with teary regret

Peacefully ennobled Saving the ever-loving planet

Returning to bedAnd the essence of amnesia

Taste of Victory

“Choose your weapon” she said,

And so the pacifist and the activist paced twenty,

Turned and took aim.

“But how can I destroy

One who I am obligated to protect?”

The pacifist asked.

“Grow a pair!”

The activist replied.

“Now take aim.”

"If I win it will be said I am a brute”

He closed his eyes,

Taking aim at the Sun.

“If you loose

It will be said you were bested by a girl.”

She said, they fired.

“Either way I loose”

He gasped as a dove fell beside him.

Together they lay dying.

“Who will care for my vines”

He gasped.

“The grapes are my life's work.”

“They taste bitter”

She said spitting back at him,

“Dove killer!”

Introuvable Tears

When first she awoke

She thought she was dead

Darkness and pain

Had seemed to cease

Inside of a moment

She froze like a stone

None would carry her

Nor welcome her home

Down in her heart

A spider did weave

Even in day

She captured all light

Confined in her sight

She wished for the lake

Smothering the day

Slipping away

Stopping her breath

She cheated the chair

Love Like an Abacus

How many times do we recall

Counting the days

Since first we met

The years and tears

Adding our lives on loves abacus

Weighing emotions

Erupting eventually

Like a shaken abacus

How many ways did we avoid

Counting the days

Of silent pain

The cold derision

Counting the good

Subtracting the bad

Exploding in the end

Like a broken abacus

Strange Flower

Oh sweet death, herald of silence
Pale defiler of the impassioned breast

Mocking lover's wounds
Like some wild Heartsease of minioned souls

Robbing thought and gentle touch,
Sweet scent and final breath

Stay the broken heart like that strange flower
Cold and still, casting pale silent regret

Dance to my Door

When will the lonely path we're on

Entwine with hearts & minds so strong?


Will time implode like hunger pains
Will distance parish all our flames?


So till the heat has been eclipsed
To fantasize with prescient lips

Till heat and wild passions soar
Your dreaming steps dance to my door

 

 ~

A distant Love

A distant Love

Sail with your bounding heart
See with your prescient hand
hear with your tender essence
taste with your callow breast

Reach with your vibrant soul
Gather to your aching mind
know with your shining flesh
Swoon for those kisses mine

Pale Umbrage

Perceive the air as loving stories
Where we are bound up in our mores
Conceived in moonlit sweet warm nights
Preserved in days of pale gray ice

Cast into the mist of Winters regret
Delirious Summers of denials cool sweat
While warm embraces defer our woes
Cold earth shall clutch our insentient toes

The Widowed Bride

A tremendous act of kindness, by him brought love about
For on a cold and blustery day the passions acted out

A Sunny day shown down that perfect April morn
'Twas damp with chill, on wintry night a tiny lass was born

Her papa was a strapping lad, who never shirked from chore
Upon her mother's aching heart, they sent him off to war

Their hearts were locked in mindless bliss, that Spring upon the heath
Too soon their deed tore all apart, mid silence bound to keep

With sturdy limbs, bright eyes of gray and hair of tousled curl
Much interest in the child turned, who'd fathered such a girl?

The letters came to cheer each day, upon the sheath, no mark
But day by day each soldier's fall, revealed his beating heart

Sublime the day the war had passed and soldiers all came home
But not for those whose caissons rolled, her secret love be known

For in first days with lists at post of lads who marched no more
His name did cut the paper white, with ink her heart it tore

Still letters made it to her eyes a mystery hand had sent
As only one could even know from whence their passage rent

And on a day as fair as most with child by her side
She wed the deaf mute postman, who wooed the widowed bride