Pastures

High grass pastures at morning
were my soul's palette
my eyes on wide to miss nothing
I cleaned my brush on dew wet thighs
and allowed the spider threads to settle where they might

Nothing knew the mornings like the meadowlark
and what she said in her song
was an invitation to mysteries below the grass heads
step too close and she would rocket to the sky
and take the secrets with her

Even then I dreamed of you
and the pastures you traversed
sentient footsteps that cared where they fell
a conscience that could overcome the unconscionable
a line of sight that matched the meadowlark's

I've since traded the pastures for mowed lawns
yet kept my dreams of you
but my palette has faded to monochrome
and you have taken wing beyond my horizon
and fly in patterns I can only imagine

Some day I'll walk afield
and spy a feather from our past
and as I twirl it between thumb and finger
I'll be reminded of the moment that I first loved you
and I'll drink that memory deep into my being

Blinks

You always spied the mirror
I tried so artfully to hide
and started the reasons for my rhymes
from their under grown coverts

I sneaked upon you only once
and it was my own self discovered
you didn't care you were being followed
you had foreordained my toothless bite

I've remained in your shadow
just beyond your heel's reach
able to interpret your blinks
and know when you are true to yourself

The leaves that dance in your wake
the tears that quiet your dust
your questions I am not afraid to answer
are why my name still passes your lips

Now

You have to ask
who has hung the lanterns
what path is being promoted
is the prize what you've dreamed
or is it you

Does anyone understand
that two hearts can beat as one
when the search is shared
and the end defines the means
as a common thread of need

Why the temptation to covet the loaf
when a slice would surely suffice
We realize our realities are flawed
but in so doing
we remain attached to the possible

When the chance presents itself
I want to walk with you
and not say a word
I want to be beside you
as you determine what is real

I don't expect you to trust me
after all I only speak my mind
all the pretty voices
flatter your future
mine is limited to now

Just Behind The Clouds

I've met the test of porch steps
on a moonless night
when the difference between real and belief
hung with the moss
and stirred in the breeze

Was I ever more fluid
ready to take the shape
of my imagination
and be the specter
that lived within me

But always behind me an unlocked screen
a sanctuary so real as to preclude the truth
what I couldn't see didn't matter if I could run inside
what I couldn't touch wasn't really there

Sailing

The horizon is of no particular interest
to one navigating the saturnine sea
between faith and trust

Words

You let me be a poet
and don't laugh at me

I'm only trying to tell you
that my heart is bursting

It must be like wearing shoes
one size too small

Your feet don't feel the pebbles
but they resent the laces

The Face Above The Crowd

It's easy to drift with the current
to be part of a reflexive flow
It's a task to stand on your own
un-beholden to the desire of the crowd
and the measure of its standing

It's not who you know
that gives your life meaning
but who you are
and unless you are true to yourself
you are nobody

Those cloaked in the fear of their inexactitude
seek the security of sameness
those who can return any stare
have no need of any skin
but their own

A Small Measure Of Peace

I watch the seasons pass
from the shelter of my mind
not out of reticence
but to keep my soul from escaping
into a perpetual winter
a total capitulation
for a small measure of peace

I've seen love in the bloom of Spring
emblazoned with the fire of passion
be quenched by Summer's torpor
to languish into the chill of Autumn
and become the dead of Winter
kisses frozen in the moment of rejection
temptations that are only words

Words as lonely as sleep
where dreams mock continuity
and promises of the other side of the pillow
are as hollow as the head that rest there
I pace the floor in regard to its evenness
but find no balance
I've lost touch with the gravity of my situation

Shallow Waters

Shallow waters
wind rippled
multi-silvered
I cannot see my reflection
it is lost beneath the surface

Thoughts and Prose

While I drift in this malignant tranquility
sole to ankle in a soup of thoughts and prose
for which there is no market
others watch from bolder climates
oriented upon stars I cannot see
their laps open to a plenitude of patent largess

I know more than I can express
and that inability is as wounding
as any criticism I might endure
I don't want to be smarter than anyone else
I only seek to gain the knowledge
that will allow me to understand who I really am

Spirits

Inchoate memories, remnants of feelings
that sang in chorus to hymns of wonder
dance like desultory dust devils
over the bones of forgotten poets

Shelter

Deep within the sheltering thicket
amidst the rubble of disconnection
I hear the drone of omnipotence
the chorus of creation
from which there is no hiding

There is also another sound
the vestigial rhythm of what I have lost
a constant reminder
that life without passion
is as bland as death

What I Remember

What I remember
is the wonder in your eyes

But most of all that your hands
felt what eyes cannot see

I loved to watch you explore the new
with every sense at your command

At once tentative as any creature
in the stretch between life and death

Yet with a relish that mocked the possible
and drank the glass empty

What I remember is watching you
and being content

Rain

These summer rains sometimes warn with creeping thunder
and sometimes take us by surprise

Like an imagination chasing random memories
and finding fences that have no gates

There is no balm for a blistered past
no tonic to fortify against the future

We're either wet are dry
yet always one becoming the other