Agonizing details

Agonizing details
Surgical precision
In the end, meaningless
A pointless incision

Asking reality
To find the back burner
Allowing dreamers to
Become a self-learner

Where do our dreams go that

Where do our dreams go that
Meant more than anything
Unkept promises to
Ourselves that didn't sing

Having to stare hard at
Trivial things at most
Cheering small successes
Knowing the dreams are toast

Not Life of pure wood grain

Not Life of pure wood grain
Many knots in the wood
Branches bold and broken
The continuous could

Markers, forks in the road
Extensions of the self
Now planed and varnished and
Repurposed as a shelf

In triangular time

In triangular time
What has, what is, what will
Seeking a sense of pi
Past a chipped windowsill

Bodies falling apart
Tulips and peonies
Basking and then bursting
Life’s aging injuries

I am my child’s adult

I am my child’s adult
Product of my own youth
My second set of teeth
After each missing tooth

The flower on the stem
A fall blooming aster
Coming into my own
Being my own master

Matches without a fire

Matches without a fire
Without flames or a blaze
Wandering lightning bugs
In twilight’s purple haze

Gather the pine needles
Unravel the sewn quilt
Pile on the syllables
Of words that Life has built

This is not an echo

This is not an echo
A tide returning back
The light on the moon that
Would otherwise be black

It has the strength of thread
Holding buttons to cloth
Viscosity of glass
Changing slowly as sloth

In decimal places

In decimal places
Urging for completion
The abstract washed ashore
Survival’s secretion

Simplicity of space
Environmental one note
But fearing the pasture
And nothing left to wrote

Inside these rail fences

Inside these rail fences
The wild cannot be tamed
The spirit of the Art
Outside the picture frame

In the rigid routine
In the sameness of day
The progress of the stars
Beyond the Milky Way

Approaching a frontier

Approaching a frontier

No chicken and no egg

No fruit, or seed, nor root

Without a stem or leg

A cloud from the ethers

A belief in a nod

Creating in darkness

Without a sense or God

A century of life

A century of life

Seasons blooming, sweet fall

Winters of wonderment

Summers of great recall

Love and contentment with

Fads and fashion flashing

And after all these years

Look who still looks smashing

Accidental future

Accidental future
Destination mishap
Is mere discovery
Than a loud thunderclap

An unmarked entry to
A world both fresh and new
A new landscape, new sky
A newer shade of blue

From an older poem

All that I have witnessed
And never once arrived
From faulty to perfection
And in between derived

A concrete conclusion
Where nothing really grows
So truly, what is Life
I conclude no one knows

Choosing to ignore can

Choosing to ignore can
Be the same as neglect
Not participating
And only to reflect

Glossing over subjects
No hug, no helping hand
Not asking questions or
Trying to understand

Not a sense of maybe

Not a sense of maybe
Find the affirmative
We cannot have madness
All of us have to live

Marginalization
Or living on the berm
Is unacceptable
The answer yes if firm

Why prove this once again

Why prove this once again
The equal sign the same
Crazy is still crazy
No matter what the name

But a rose is a rose
So why not stop and smell
Prove the better good than
Keep finding there’s a hell

Willing to change myself

Willing to change myself

Replace parts or upgrade 

Look at a piece of art 

Question the intent made

See people’s points of view 

Maybe alter my stance 

Open my heart so wide

To surrender to chance

So much trepidation

So much trepidation
Terrarium lifestyle
An orchid, not an oak
A spring and not The Nile

Bravery in thinking
Actions do not follow
Chewing thirty-two times
Before every swallow

The loss of my siblings

The loss of my siblings
The algae bloom, red tide
The past, our youth and love
All gone by the wayside

Lack of sincerity
Sharing a minimum
Not seeing eye to eye
Their time a premium

Autumn wakes up early

Autumn wakes up early
Sleeps in the afternoon
When summer is playing
Its dissipating tune

Jazz players are leaving
The last snares of the drum
The violins are here
No conductor, just hum

This is about blue sky

This is about blue sky 

About flowers that die

As clouds keep passing by 

The heart so wide it breaks

So little is pristine 

Yet beauty in between 

Creates the perfect seam

Like crests above the wakes

This, our solemn duty

This, our solemn duty
To find humanity
And find ourselves briefly
In this eternity

And in this solemness
The impressionist paint
Realism, abstract
All loud sounds will grow faint

Is this just residue

Is this just residue
Surely not a statue
Is it timeless yet new
Or holding onto straws

There's less sand in the hand
And more to understand
Can smaller things be grand
The Overwhelm, the pause

To go the full distance

To go the full distance
Even if its an inch
Success is the same for
Leaps and bounds or a pinch

The great ability
To change from within
Even if the contrast
Is only paper thin

The riddle has been solved

The riddle has been solved
The equation unknowns
Were not calculated
But turned over like stones

And stones are exactly
Precisely what they are
Can't change and only fall
Can't climb towards a star