Coming up for fresh air

Coming up for fresh air
The land is wide and long
The sky spotted with clouds
Notes looking for a song

Immediate and now
The present demanding
Attention to detail
With full understanding

When the naked woods fence

When the naked woods fence

The setting winter sun

Forests with light flicker

And twilight has begun

Airplanes are heading west

Chasing the time and day

And yet tomorrow comes

It always makes its way

Far from the crowded flock

Far from the crowded flock

Looking for the one tree

That grows out from the woods

Tall and solitary

An unobstructed view

Don an apron of space

See storm clouds coming or

Blue skies without a trace 

With you, my Valentine

With you, my Valentine
New York City in snow
The music, La Boheme
The day wrapped with a bow

St Patrick's Cathedral
Each crevice flocked in white
Snowflakes climbing buildings
Two peas, one pod, one night

Close it and walk away

Close it and walk away

Irretrievable day

In a moment decay

No present or future

Next, a changing season

Love comes without reason

Without you, a lesion

Where there is no suture

Out of the season now

Out of the season now

When we walked through the park

The leaves changing color

The nights becoming dark

Standing at the finish

Nowhere a second start

You are in my veins and

The pumping of my heart

Another era gone

Another era gone

Days accumulating

Into months, into years

Days illuminating

Lowered arm Liberty

The passage is over

Out light, the darkness has

Fallen on this clover

Life now a minor key

Life now a minor key

September 4^th, May 8^th

Dates of melancholy

Reality, not faith

Kevorkian is kind

Books closing before end

On this road to nowhere

No turnaround or bend

There is no forever

There is no forever

Your time now here is gone

A walk across the park

On this, your final dawn

All sounds going silent

Love is breaking the cup

The moon still descending

The sun already up

Looking past and beyond

Looking past and beyond

The troubles of today

A peaceful day waits as

We try to make our way

Is there a sigh and sleep

Waking to a blank page

Our history, humdrum

Our future, all the rage

If silence is golden

If silence is golden

The World is full of tin

Some of us in sunlight

Your light is from within

A quill on the arrow

That travels time and space

Not just generations

The entire human race

Remember the summer

Remember the summer

When we were together

From crocus to aster

Our hearts in a tether

Young and alive, we would

Travel until sunset

Toss out ideas to see

What gets caught in our net

Here in the crevices

Here in the crevices
Perhaps my DNA
Designs me for darkness
And not the light of day

Choosing obscurity
Alive and so unknown
No dates of importance
Just birth and death on stone

The loss of habitat

The loss of habitat
Whether it's trees or fields
The Earth no longer holds
A condition that yields

What I need to survive
The succession of me
The marsh has disappeared
Fields paved, the fallen tree

Not a star in the sky

Not a star in the sky
For everyone to see
Just a grain of sand that
Is washed up by the sea

The indiscriminate
The tiniest of wee
The granular, the grain
Lost on the beach of We

Where are you my old friend

Where are you my old friend
Perhaps at the next bend
I will wait until then
Together we are two

Past the bend, still alone
I feel it to the bone
I'll stand until I'm stone
I long to be with you

This season is ending

This season is ending

‘Though I want to say no

All the leaves have fallen

So it’s time to let go

The next generations

Are given time to grow

Bloom on new wood until

The next coming of snow

Wishing for lullabies

Wishing for lullabies

But the aspen trees quake

While the light of the moon

Begs us to stay awake

It never winks or blinks

As it slowly ascends

Like death tethered to life

That finally commends

I chased a bird that flew

I chased a bird that flew

Far away and above

For an instant, it was

The center of my love

And it left me the sun

That fell below the line

And rose in the morning

To say again, not mine

We are far from the start

We are far from the start

Never thought it would end

As we turn this corner

Our tail and head won’t bend

And so we leave behind

The years, the days, the looks

Glances at each other

Now pages in closed books

We’re not as we once were

We’re not as we once were

Time, distance and time zones

Have kept us far apart

Yet something in our bones

Knows no separation

My heart tugged from your pull

It broke when yours broke and

And filled when yours was full

Time to celebrate but

Time to celebrate but

I'm a party of one

Yet the land has joined me

With the sky and the sun

The birds are delighted

They are singing along

Flying and perching while

The wind whistles its song

Is this a scratch or wound

Is this a scratch or wound

Am I close to the bone

Should I scream out loudly

Or just whimper and moan

Trying to find the deep

Nearer to the marrow

Where the World opens wide

Through an entrance narrow 

No longer relevant

No longer relevant

Pop culture doesn’t pop

Failing to stay current

With the cream of the crop

Being viewed as ancient

My time has come and gone

A fossil, a relic

A long forgotten dawn

Always a narcissist

Always a narcissist

With the havoc you wreak

Thinking Life without you

Is hopeless, pointless, bleak

Your love is not given

Unless strings are attached

But look this puppet walks

Once the strings are detached

Always at this corner

Always at this corner

The World is before me

The future is on hold

Patiently and kindly

Waiting for ships to pass

Fulfilling commitments

Before making a turn

Resuming existence

Preparing for the worst

Preparing for the worst

Every gray cloud, a storm

Each pollinating bee

Part of a larger swarm

An expert in ruins

The path taken is cursed

In every direction

And all soap bubbles burst

Where have all the words gone

Where have all the words gone

The tide is out, the moon

Is holding on too long

No sign of a typhoon

Where’s the rich and fertile

Low hangers on the tree

Staring at the barren

The void, the missing sea

All coming to an end

All coming to an end

Mother, father, my aunt

Our aging cat, the day

Unstoppable, a can’t

Generations passing

Days hardly worth noting

Enjoy the nothingness

That’s something worth quoting

Enough of this pretense

Enough of this pretense

Today was just fiction

No element of truth

Or sign of conviction

With pathetic results

Not anything worthwhile

Mounds and mounds of nothing
But shame and denial

Not playing tic, tac, toe

Not playing tic, tac, toe

Simply walking away

No longer on the grid

No X, no O, no way

Like a moon traveling

From where it once had spun

Or a planet breaking

Its spin around its sun

The final fingerprint

The final fingerprint
Are these the final words
Are these the last actions
Before the past tense verbs

From the womb to numbness
Giving life but not love
Even the last touch is
Delivered with a glove

These senseless religions

These senseless religions

Beliefs cannot be law

Just because it’s written

Doesn’t free it from flaw

There are rules to nature

That shalt not steal or kill

Godless and logical

Than faith can move a hill

Drowning in the vastness

Drowning in the vastness

As big as time and space

While staring at the pores

That stretch across my face

The Universe expands

My understanding less

No nearer to the truth

The answers, just a guess

Not much thirst for the here

Not much thirst for the here

Nor much taste for the now

There is nothing to reap

After years at the plow

Leaving nothing behind

No real value or worth

Inevitable death

Insignificant birth

Where are the buttercups

Where are the buttercups

Like my childhood, they’re gone

In this one day of Life

Now more twilight than dawn

Remembering when we

Held them under our chin

The more butter we liked

The more gold on our skin

Definition of me

Definition of me
A thread of DNA
The pressure of a thumb
Against my spinning clay

The patterns of the iris
A single fingerprint
The poetry published
Is merely just a hint

To see the World again

To see the World again
Without knowledge or proof
The beauty of dreaming
Before bubbles go poof

With the eyes of a child
Still puzzled and staring
At the wonder and awe
Without reason glaring

Here again the distance

Here again the distance

Steps between life and death

Circles of time racing

Until the final breath

Gardens of hopes and dreams

Each seed not a flower

Too late to plant a tree

Never see it tower

Dreaming of long distance

Dreaming of long distance

Further than I can see

Past the mountains, the clouds,

The sky or galaxy

As far as yesterday

Beyond my reach or touch

Possessing all of time

Doesn’t add up to much

Here another sunrise

Here another sunrise

Another day unique

The morning dew and fog

Cover the hillside peak

Celebrate the instant

The blossoming of now

The exhilaration

Before the sunset bow

Insignificant Life

Insignificant Life

Even decades destroyed

By the pressures of time

The moments we enjoyed

Like lockets of fossils

Irrelevant debris

Along with the battles

And triumphs we decree

Living with exclusions

Living with exclusions

Can’t go here, can’t go there

Avoiding fixed turnstiles

And always splitting hairs

Can’t speak to people that

No longer share your view

And closing books before

The stories can conclude

They say just give it time

They say just give it time
Or only time will tell
Here I am still shouting
And no one hears my yell

My loved ones are passing
The end, beneath a stone
Not bothered by weather
Day after day, alone

Losing its relevance

Losing its relevance

Its importance fading

Rebellion retarding

Blinding light now shading

Simply discarded like

Generations, decades

And designs in fashion

Seems only time pervades

Put away the questions

Put away the questions

The dogwood is blooming

The sun is high above

While rain clouds are looming

Along the horizon

Soon the rain will fall, so

Hurry in the garden

And tend to what you know

Into the abstract me

Into the abstract me
Past the known and order
Throwing sparks in the void
Surpassing each border

Letting go of the past
Tomorrow is a marker
To reach, shed light but then
Head into the darker

Wanting the familiar

Wanting the familiar
Rereading the same book
The well traveled road home
Your eyes and thoughts, your look

No taste for the foreign
The exotic grows stale
Again the northern star
The floor, its grain, its nail

We have reached the top and

We have reached the top and

The world is at our feet

Heads high with a sense of

No failure or defeat

We will wait for sunset

When we begin descent

Looking back with pride and

Over-the-top content

To never look forward

To never look forward
And able to forget
To live in the moment
Without plans or regret

In a breath, in a blink
Smell the air, see the view
Hear the hum, taste the Life
Feel the wind passing through

To see the world again

To see the world again
From the eyes of a child
Once brand new and pure not
At all unsure or wild

The wonder, amazement
Simple joy found in time
Once innocent and small
No terrorists or crime

Layer after layer

Layer after layer

The sediment of years

Here again the marker

That never disappears

A fossil memory

An imprint caught in time

The joy, the happiness

When we were in our prime

The why or the wherefore

The why or the wherefore

The rain is subsiding

The searching for answers

No longer residing

In the heart or the mind

The sun is coming through

The day is beckoning

To forego any clue

A blanket on the day

A blanket on the day
The cloud cover is still
Time can be heard ticking
Future to now to nil

No sense of hierarchy
Randomness and ruin
Imperfection lurking
And chaos a shoo-in

Is there some higher plane

Is there some higher plane
A greater sense of me
Can I expand, explore
Strike a different key

Or reach a higher note
Beyond my skill or scope
Does it take belief or
Perseverance and hope

Racing for finish lines

Racing for finish lines

That don’t really matter

Making calligraphy

Amid the paint splatter

The days, chipping away

Without brilliance and light

Slipping into darkness

The silence, out of sight

On the edge of changing

On the edge of changing

Forward, not looking back

A point of no return

Dipping the brush in black

Hoping for the future

Around the corner turn

Even if there’s failure

A badge of courage earn

Searching for a white page

Searching for a white page

An untouched shoreline beach

Wanting a new knowledge

A depth to deep to reach

Discovering a new

Chemical reaction

That cannot be reversed

Once put into action

At the pilgrim moment

At the pilgrim moment

The start of Life, natal

Embarking on the path

Until the last fatal

Trying to understand

The veins rushing with blood

Wanting for clarity

Ending up in the mud

Scandal of normalcy

Scandal of normalcy

The courage to be true

A builder of bridges

For the masses, and few

Wake the sleeping giant

Try to enrich the poor

And can living with less

Feel like living with more

All this lamenting for

All this lamenting for

Time forgotten, once tocked

The endless mysteries

Never solved or unlocked

Look, the first butterfly

Another busy bee

In the moment breathing

Not been, or was, just be

Again the daffodils

Again the daffodils

The tree has earned its ring

Magnolias blooming

The beginning of Spring

No time for remembrance

So much yet to unfold

The demand for action

And new Life to behold

Only writing echoes

Only writing echoes

The stripped screw is spinning

Yearning for a new voice

And a fresh beginning

Foraging the future

For clues or just a hint

Striking the great unknown

As if it were a flint

To capture the carrot

To capture the carrot

Destiny is complete

To look back at the past

On two steady, firm feet

The journey, the chasing

All in front of the eyes

At last the embrace of

The most singular prize

What is left to be said

What is left to be said

Maybe how hard it has been

Rolling with the punches

Taking it on the chin

Or feeling abandoned

Plainly misunderstood

Your love has conditions

It’s should have, would have, could

Avoiding this feeling

Avoiding this feeling

Ignoring it exists

Forging onward, upward

As this anchor persists

Suffocating the thought

But left gasping for air

Looking the other way

Just becomes a blank stare

Hide it in the ocean

Hide it in the ocean

Get it out of plain sight

Somewhere without shadows

Or any source of light

Just make it disappear

This failure, this doomed fate

Pulverize it, burn it

Make it evaporate

Our arms out of reach and

Our arms out of reach and

Our tired voices are spent

Though the times that you spoke

Never knew what you meant

Still longing to hold but

Reality sets in

The magnet once there has

Vanished into air thin

Just one way to fix it

Just one way to fix it

To let it fall apart

And pick up the pieces

To build again, restart

A better foundation

Calculated design

With nothing haphazard

Misconstrued, out of line

Over my shoulder, I

Over my shoulder, I

Will find myself alone

Glancing back, not seeing

The love that I have known

Moving forward with time

One can never go back

Racing in the lightness

Between two points of black

No knowledge of this limb

No knowledge of this limb

Branching from the same tree

Distant on the trunk that

Gave life to you and me

Growing in different

Directions from the source

I face the morning sun

You chart a western course

Months before the planting

Months before the planting

While the tress are still bare

In April when the sun

Is starting its long stare

We cross again in time

Arriving to renew

The commitment to Life

A future to pursue

Growing old, forgetting

Growing old, forgetting

All the names and places

Memories once cherished

Fading without traces

What year is it, what day

How many weeks ‘til Spring

Forsythia blooming

Leaves on pin oak trees cling

Trying hard but failing

Trying hard but failing

The weather won’t behave

Tomorrow is useless

No courage to be brave

Struggle after struggle

And nothing to be got

Just moments after death

Indifference, forgot

Cannot find the haystack

Cannot find the haystack

Or the needle inside

Somewhere far below in

The water ocean wide

Passengers on the plane

That will never arrive

Loved ones losing hope that

They are safe and alive

There is no melody

There is no melody

The notes no longer flow

Instruments are silent

Not a whistle blow

While words become useless

No meaning and no rhyme

Jumbled cacophony

And not in measured time

Healing in privacy

Healing in privacy

The rings beneath the bark

Facing the morning sun

Holding onto the dark

Not showing any wounds

All internal bleeding

No sign of scars or scabs

Or the pain receding

A Grand Canyon of years

A Grand Canyon of years

Here, where there is no sun

Chasing the horizon

So unfulfilled, not one

In the absence of Life

Your Life, that is no more

I am living, waiting

Here, at your final door

A blank canvas, a cloud

A blank canvas, a cloud

A fog that disappears

Painting the town red as

The evening moon appears

And before the paint dries

The sun begins to start

A new day to chase dreams

Without a map or chart

Another place and time

Another place and time

Going back just to see

The beauty passing by

Early rings of the tree

Unlike the stars and stones

Or the moon we admire

Our lives are full of change

Inception to expire

Airplanes disappearing

Airplanes disappearing

Borders under patrol

Ice caps slowly melting

As far as the North Pole

Quietly the cat sleeps

Curled up and confident

Their world at this moment

Is complete and content

Waiting for the darkness

Waiting for the darkness

The sun beneath the line

All day mending pieces

Dreams fallen from cloud nine

Longing for tomorrow

Today all used and spent

The sun sets like a dirge

The twilight, its lament

The past follows me like

The past follows me like

Shadows beneath my feet

No matter if I run

They will never retreat

Must I live in darkness

I will never forget

Each step in the future

A resounding regret

Too many coats of paint

Too many coats of paint

What was the first feeling

Lost inside the layers

Of loose chips and peeling

The brushstrokes on gesso

The inspiration new

The lost fresh expression

The color, tint and hue

In this diversity

In this diversity

A fingerprint is mine

Unlike any other

Across all space and time

Yet insignificant

Trying to leave a mark

Numbers are infinite

In the darkness, a spark

And so we start again

And so we start again

Leaving winter behind

Pushing ourselves forward

Into the sun to find

Another beginning

Letting go of the past

Looking at the future

Where our wishes are cast

Where’s the inspiration

Where’s the inspiration

Another moon rises

Stars look the same in a

Night without surprises

This spectacular world

 Its awe becoming stale

Weary of the grandeur

In a night that is pale

Winter’s white envelope

Winter’s white envelope

Slowly coming undone

The seal coming loose from

A longer lasting sun

The snow disappearing

Icicles are falling

Weather growing warmer

The next season calling

No more the daily bread

No more the daily bread

Today another hole

Where are the words to sing

Blank pages on the soul

Calendar days passing

A week, a month, a year

This breath yielding nothing

A change, a thought, or tear

Enough of the future

Enough of the future

The time is now and here

Shrugging the shoulders at

Tomorrow’s dreams not near

Moments at this moment

Breathing reality

At this very second

Alive and feeling free

Tripping over the rungs

Tripping over the rungs

Reaching, empty handed

Everyday defeated

Feeling coarsely sanded

Turn around, retreating

No prizes to be won

Blade of grass or clover

Another setting sun

So this is not the day

So this is not the day

The world revolves again

The question still remains

If not today, then when

The sun has disappeared

Until the next new morn

Some day will be the one 

Sure as the day you’re born

In the loudest silence

In the loudest silence

Generations that came

Before us and lived are

Now numbers and not name

Hanging pictures on webs

At this moment, this noise

Clanging into silence

Like outgrown children’s toys

Creating a distance

Creating a distance

Of space and time and yet

It has found me again

Will I ever forget

Yesterday is present

No future without debt

Able to overcome fear

But not true for regret

Losing relationships

Losing relationships

Like letting go of hands

To allow the drifting

On seas between the sands

To look back, remember

Moments in the weather

Yet the weave unravels

That held us together

Empty and still searching

Empty and still searching

The landscape rushing by

The sun making shadows

As it crosses the sky

Destination is home

Where loved ones live and wait

As the evening unfolds

Time passing until late

So slowly descending

So slowly descending

Are we all pin oak trees

Holding onto our leaves

In a cold winter breeze

No use surrendering

Where is finality

Another day is here

Rejoice or penalty

Here among snow rollers

Here among snow rollers

Days are getting longer

Shadows on the white snow

Slowly growing stronger

Nearing February

Again the birthday tune

Another year ahead

Is coming all too soon

Asking for the answers

Asking for the answers

But the wind keeps blowing

Dirt on my shoes is proof

Of a Life not knowing

Trying to move forward

Always back to the birth

While each step the dirt is

Pulling me back to earth

Here is this tiny niche

Here is this tiny niche

In the smallest of space

That doesn’t fit dreams or

Allow things out of place

Discarding the excess

Only to make more room

Even budding flowers

Are discouraged to bloom

All this repetition

All this repetition

Not off the beaten path

Yet it adds up the same

No matter of the math

Searching the infinite

Finding only weather

And puzzle pieces that

Do not fit together

From graphite to diamond

From graphite to diamond

Fluid feelings now stone

A shrug of the shoulders

Once a chip on the bone

From childhood to old age

The breast acquires a shield

Old wounds have stopped bleeding

The broken heart has healed

Forgetting the future

Forgetting the future

Not dissecting the past

Staring at the shadows

The winter sun has cast

Feeling January

The purity of snow

My soul is undressing

Naked from head to toe

Nothing in front of me

Nothing in front of me

No focal point or goal

All these years of pressure

No diamonds out of coal

The air full of living

Moments to moments thread

While looking left or right

Not walking straight ahead

Holding on to long notes

Holding on to long notes

And again the refrain

Like retracing footsteps

From the crawl to the cane

Rereading Life’s pages

Still utter confusion

Compulsion for asking

When there’s no conclusion

Here in obscurity

Here in obscurity

At the base of the cone

Searching for Life’s meaning

Amongst all the unknown

After finality

Skin falling from the bone

The only mark left is

A name chiseled in stone

Night is unraveling

Night is unraveling

Slowly losing its thread

The sun setting later

As it heads off to bed

Doors waiting to open

Fast and furious pace

All because of the tilt

Of Earth in outerspace

Crossing the great divide

Crossing the great divide
Leaving behind the blue
Entering the yellow
The great elusive hue

Planting the flag firmly
Head up and shoulders back
Living Life in brightness
Until the final black

To hit it out of bounds

To hit it out of bounds

Ignoring the fine lines

Not racing for the lights

But for stars still unmined

Reaching past the artists

Nothing derivative

Something futuristic

But almost primitive

Deciding to move on

Deciding to move on

Entering the doorways

Allowing for change to

Change the now and always

Finding new directions

The arrival unknown

Not following patterns

As the moment gets sewn

Searching for the white clouds

Searching for the white clouds

Looking for the pristine

Or the bluest of skies

Or grass greener than green

Dancing to the silence

In the moment at last

Inhaling the future

And exhaling the past

No time and no deadline

No time and no deadline

The sunlight is setting

The evening is empty

The past, no regretting

Two souls slowly slipping

Into a quiet sleep

The world keeps on spinning

As the moon takes a leap

Distance is destructive

Distance is destructive

Horizon dividing

The stars may be common

With their light abiding

But the land is too wide

How the miles separate

Our strong magnetic pull

No longer permeates

Just another New Year

Just another New Year

New resolutions wait

For success or failure

Here at the starting gate

We try to shed the old

As if there’s a new page

But the page is not new

It just happens to age