Forward into frontiers

Forward into frontiers 

Empty handed running

Staring miles ahead in

Both cloudy and sunning

Still higher fruit unripe

Destinations dangling

Journeys without courses

With arrivals spangling 

Youth when clouds were thrown nets

Youth when clouds were thrown nets

Keeping me from the stars

I held myself back from

Treetops let alone Mars

And now the clouds throw nets

Like rope ladders to climb

I granted permission 

To myself in my prime

Yearning for a never

Yearning for a never

Stopping short of mid-hope

Backtracking to safety

Up the slippery slope

No greater or less than

Accepting the hard math

The equal sign is truth, no

Matter the varied path

Where do birds go to die

Where do birds go to die

Their wings do not ascend

No carrier pigeon's

Death notices to send

If not for reflections

Of open land and skies

In glass panes, I would think

That a bird rarely dies

In this spreading white light

In this spreading white light 

Out of focus snowflake 

Overwrought world spins with

Both sunset and daybreak

Too connected for peace

Unsocial Walden’s Pond

Our minds should be rural

Fully wooded and frond

Suffering the details

Suffering the details

Like children out of place

Animals in shelters

Misaligned outer space

There’s nothing on TV

This traffic light is long

Are we out of ice cubes 

I bought this for a song

Vastness becoming small

Vastness becoming small

Dismissing ventures far

As some extravagance,

Needless or just subpar

 

Staring out windows at

Stars or the busy street

Looking left and right where

Mars and the stoplight meet

Inhaling tornadoes

Inhaling tornadoes

Only to keep the peace

Absorbing earthquakes and

Ironing out the crease

Denying emotions

Celebrations or grief

Accounting for actions

Not outlined in the brief 

Fingerprint, seed to tree

Fingerprint, seed to tree

Is life an unravel

So much seems predestined 

As we rock to gravel

From the choice of journey

Blooms we self-discover

And the love in seeing

The blooms of another

The colors are fading

The colors are fading

Our memories are bleach

Like the flags on the moon

All white and out of reach

The head of a pushpin

Coordinates of here 

In the saturation

Before the disappear

Rope then braid and now thread

Rope then braid and now thread

No hope of jazz or dance

Abandoned postage stamps

How small the world of chance

Looking at the blank spots

Behind and up ahead

Breathing seeing breath in

This moment frozen said

Dignity that digs deep

Dignity that digs deep

Porous from the first ring

Neither stature or size

Given title nor king

It isTruth as a verb

Maneuvering the course

Crowded intersections

Non derivative source

Wi-fi tower blinking

Wi-fi tower blinking

Like a land-locked lighthouse 

Highway hawks perched high at

Every other farmhouse 

No rain and no sunshine

The cornfields without corn

The sky without blue and 

Clouds like sheep clothing shorn

The Given slowly takes

The Given slowly takes

Trees too early for fall

The threadbare and worn or

The shrinking of a tall

Beautiful peonies 

Spent flowers are dropping 

Petals like playing cards

With no way of stopping 

Deconstructed abstracts

Deconstructed abstracts

Van Gogh stars unravel

Thumbs up and out but thoughts

Unwilling to travel

Out of the reach of calm

Winter season question

Give it time for answers

Too many to mention 

When the wind stops blowing

When the wind stops blowing

Or simply passes through

When the sky is cloudy

Or cloudless and all blue

When the day is ending

And night has its debut

When day has an encore 

I am thinking of you

Yellowed pages aging

Yellowed pages aging

Rippled unprecedent

Title read, pages skimmed

Summarized testament

Beaches with umbrellas

Battle sites quiet hills

Misery and meaning 

Gift shops and postcard stills

Momentum unwanted

Momentum unwanted

Nor open-and-shut case

No checkered flag or clock

Signs of a finished race

Lover do not sleep well

Do not burrow so deep

That dreams deflate and break

Fences where sheep can leap

Coward to speak out loud

Coward to speak out loud

Thoughts buried surfacing

Clouds forming in clear skies 

A weather worsening

Striving for Stoic strength 

Exact time, feet grounded

Altering my outlook 

Far from the unfounded

Such rubber and rubbish

Such rubber and rubbish

Graffiti on paper

Hollow like a ship’s hull

Or empty skyscraper 

Plasma replacements and

Type O blood transfusions 

Compared to eight lines of

Poorly drawn conclusions 

Exclamation points up ¡¡¡

Exclamation points up   ¡¡¡

The sunflower field stems

After the party and

After their yellow gems

The past and the future

Meeting beneath this sky

The present split second

Time curves containing pi

Here for you, gravity

Here for you, gravity

As we let balloons go

We’re treading wet cement

Where statues start to grow

With lost shoes and lost socks

Our toes must find the grass

Here for you, carry you

In time, this too, will pass

Tragedy averted

Tragedy averted 

Are we in a clearing

Out from pylon forests

And gripping wheel steering 

Are we catching our breath 

Circumstances stacking

In a moment of peace

Reduced to weed whacking 

Self-reflecting frankness

Self-reflecting frankness

Assessing my mistakes

Seeking approval and

Not letting off the breaks

Broken boundaries found

Then struggles to be free

Gaining independence

Building fences in me

Aging in the footnotes

Aging in the footnotes

Outside myself seeing

The long landscape sloping

And the season fleeing

Unable to get back

To a place I am from

Coordinates as small

As a small pitted plum

Flying monkey hang-up

Flying monkey hang-up

Not playing telephone

The walls are far too thin 

And you don't come alone

The Sybil Cyrano

Deadly oleander

Let the prostitute wait

And cease this foul pander

Guardrail accordions

Guardrail accordions

This derelict dreamer

On the edge of abyss

Private party screamer

Scared of the losses that

Feel like redwoods falling

Inside my emotions

Your emotions crawling

Where do the oceans meet

Where do the oceans meet

The North Star, north to us

True darkness, one blank sheet

The honesty in sus

Definitions lapsing

Our nameless and unknowns

Not liquid, gas, solid

Or blood, our breathing, bones

High above the city

High above the city

Beneath a cloud layer

A decimal of pi

Staked by this surveyor

Water towers anchored

Like hot air balloons stalled

Flat roofs, picnic blankets

If autumn hadn’t falled

Happiness does not ask

Happiness does not ask

It is not a question

It's not a what if, nor

An award or mention

The morning tablecloth

Solidification

History happening

Without the narration

Yesterday like bedsheets

Yesterday like bedsheets

Pulled high up to my chin

Dreams not premonitions 

But torn curtains and thin

Brighter tomorrows wink

But the cog grits its teeth

Yet another pillow

And a tooth underneath 

Crescendo collapsing

Crescendo collapsing

A volcanic funnel

The keystone falling or

A caving in tunnel

Wonderful now worry

Compassion and caring

Out on the limb hoping 

Buds will be declaring

Once in calligraphy

Once in calligraphy

Lettering now is print

No expression of self

Even speech without hint

Market and drug store lists

Your days notching and spent

The service counter World

Here at the dime and cent

Evident and punching

Evident and punching

The belts on our foreheads

Barefoot in brambles while

Exhausting all insteads

Gray areas steeping

Darkness giving up white

Surrendering options

The facts stacking in height

A returned letter or

A returned letter or

A fallen bird feather

Sentimental keepsakes

Keeping me a tether 

A crowded attic heart

Turned empty nest aerie

Letting go of moonlight

To find transparency

Out on a curvature

Out on a curvature

O’Keefe clouds standing still

Distant woods are ruffles

On the shoulders of till

Yet time became unknowns

Worry is care shaking

Answers formed as questions

Difficult in making

Falling drapes on windows

Falling drapes on windows

April flower missing

Words without sentences 

Lips not touching kissing

Summer solo picnic

Autumn gravity tow

Apples, leaves and cornfields

Falling like winter snow

In a great forget a

In a great forget a

Paradise precipice

As it once was before

The impending abyss

And before the great wake

Years gemming left to right

And around like a crown

We were royal in light

No want of a tough skin

No want of a tough skin

Building up a callous

Porous to particles 

Dawn to borealis

Bullied for my own good

That was their admission

But it was their way of

Granting their permission 

Stay far from the creases

Stay far from the creases

And further from the edge

Don’t disappear my love

To sediment or dredge

How can I comfort you 

Lift darkness and bring light

Illuminate beauty 

From within your own bright

Little dreams on paper

Little dreams on paper

Ephemeral heart strings 

With hopes as immature

As a newborn bird’s wings

Big thoughts in a small world

Before the anvil years

Kites and stars, boats and seas

Innocence and endears

All this rain all these days

All this rain all these days

Water rises but land

Like a heart absorbing 

More than it can withstand 

It’s not as easy as

A little thread or salt

Consider passing life

When it is Life’s default 

There is a wall we climb

There is a wall we climb

A flat Earth sea we cross

Arriving by stork and

Leaving by albatross

Each of us in known time

Are toe rings on footnotes

Running until outpaced

Then climbing into boats

Such a rare orchid with

Such a rare orchid with

Roots dug deep around bricks

Blooms like red kimonos

Taller than candlesticks

Both Nevelson and Neel

A bohemian chic

Montreal to Key West

Bloomingdale’s to boutique 

Expanding universe

Expanding universe

Fewer and far between 

Days growing shorter now

From dawn to twilight’s gleam

Time is of the essence

What is essence of time

Pulling, pausing, passing

A meaningless sublime

Girdling this lovely one

Girdling this lovely one

What is the need for this

An early ring barking

My sweetheart, let us kiss

We will be together 

Each nightingale to lark

My arms wrapped around you

But they cannot be bark

There’s a future unhad

There’s a future unhad 

An unopened present

We gifted ourselves for

A time thought evident

Only one sunflower 

Dizzy dancing in grain

They’re cutting down cornstalks 

In the imminent rain

It takes two steps to leave

It takes two steps to leave

Or one enormous leap

It is not radius

But circumference deep

Looking both left and right

For a new postage stamp

Home is where you arrive

It is not your base camp

Proud of you, proud of you

Proud of you, proud of you

It echoes when unsaid

Small tornadoes taking

The doors off the homestead

Roaming for comfort in

A harsh World without

Survival is staple 

And stronger with each bout

My fingers inside yours

My fingers inside yours 

My head inside your head

Your thoughts are flooding mine

I am breathing your dread

Are you sensing my might

Fueled by desire and angst 

Join the urgency to

Kick to the curb or shankst 

Jumping the autumn leaves

Jumping the autumn leaves 

Swerving to miss the tar

The knotty sycamore trees

Ending before the far

Memorial pin oaks

American flags in May

Cigar trees just beyond

A slope and a highway

No solution living

No solution living

Barefoot in the land mines

Fast pulsing on the front

Staring as the sun blinds

Naked on the surface

Vulnerable neck veins

Open to obliqueness 

And permanence of stains

After all the before

After all the before

Noise permanently sealed

Movement now flash lightning

And good company peeled

In a lasting moment

The swell like fog rushing 

The whispers from a choir

Eye of the storm brushing

What we are thinking is

What we are thinking is

The Life we are living

Addictions, depression 

Happiness, forgiving

Setting my course on change

The apple for acorn 

Catching dreams not chasing

Not too old to be born

Beware the lustrous pearl

Beware the lustrous pearl

The great irritant one

Beauty formed by layers 

Upon layers of spun

Don’t overlook the stone

It’s coarse exterior 

Inside may be a gem

Far more superior

Observing the living

Observing the living

Here with a bleacher view

Locust tree confetti

From the last party threw

Contemplating constants

Change has the longest tooth

Hope in the hydrogen 

In osmium, the truth

Breathing in the moments

Breathing in the moments 

The light is standing still

Saying we’ll remember

Always, always, until

Tomorrow comes and brings

Unknown shallows and depths

We cannot lose sight of

Each other in our steps

A broken pinwheel rests

A broken pinwheel rests 

Near the edge of a wood

No wind can make it spin

No life can have him stood

Falling leaf wallpaper

Eternal wallflower 

The soil black walnut stained

And the hard earth devour

Broken afternoon light

Broken afternoon light

In a child’s small drawing

Falling walnuts and leaves

A single road crawling

Between cornfields and fields

Of sweet peas and horses

From mansion to marker

Hard truth and of courses

The future day by day

The future day by day

The plans that fall apart

By a surprise detour 

Of the medical chart

This is just a friendly

Reminder to arrive

Fifteen minutes early

And they’re late forty-five

Witnessing each other

Witnessing each other

Unwritten journals kept

Deep pockets personal

Between each slept and leapt

Sun over sun, the days

The committed stances

Our best seeking better

Deep roots, higher branches

Thoughts out in a canoe

Thoughts out in a canoe

Not meant for the ocean

Just a placid passing

Like the moon in motion

Star strands of lighthouses

To navigate the dark

The canoe disappears

Not far from its embark

Not enough alphabet

Not enough alphabet

Unable to translate

A sneeze, a cough, the scream

Spellings do not equate

So music or movement

The crescendo elate

The abstract finger paint

Thin air in thicker state

Love takes no convincing

Love takes no convincing

It makes no future plan

It’s presence like iron

Like a Crosby Beach man

It is stem, not flower

And it cannot consume

It is longer lasting

Than either fruit or bloom

I am not an ostrich

I am not an ostrich 

Or build castles of sand

Any knowledge of me

Is not keys in the hand

There is a walk to take

Untethered strangers know

Before the gathering

Fall like raindrops or snow

Our pressed pages thicken

Our pressed pages thicken

We become more sparrow

Foregoing the seagulls

Definitions narrow

Slabs of experience 

And still little is known

The oceans awaiting

If these wings had just flown

Egg and sewing needle

Egg and sewing needle

The simplistic beauty 

Fundamental basics 

Of purpose or duty

Yet we are not anvils

We scramble and threadbare

We change our hearts greatly

Come triumph or despair

Two sunflowers in grain

Two sunflowers in grain

Invisible time steady

We gifted and exchanged

With open hands ready

Annuals and happy

Not chasing yesterdays 

Look another sunrise

We turn our heads and raise

Kind to each other’s dreams

Kind to each other’s dreams

We’re thoroughly Thoreau

Even when earthquakes bring

Cliff sides to our plateau 

In the wet and stormy

Stevie Smith has us pledge

I am here, you are too

When off centered or edge

The word not strong enough

The word not strong enough

Capital letters fail

So many songs are written

The sentiments just pale

Too many details or

Perhaps a special one

When all the words are said

And still not nearly done

Dipping in abstraction

Dipping in abstraction

Amongst the broken shapes

Precision and measure

Left me wanting escapes

Spheres leaving the corners

Never knowing a fit

The constant continue

And design not to sit

The day is far wider

The day is far wider

Than the horizon line

Stretching from church steeple

To corporate bank sign

The sky is much higher

Than this early rise blue

The stars gone to hiding

The sun nearing debut

In some strange dialect

In some strange dialect 

Only spoken with eyes

Identical children

Little chance of disguise

In cross-pollination 

Two flowers without roots

Saviors, servants, soldiers

Halos, right hands, in boots

Not close to the center

Not close to the center

Still beauty abounding

Back against the fences

With treetops surrounding 

Sometimes answers are as

Simple as do not know

Accepting this now as

Late as an onion snow

Prior and prediction

Prior and prediction

Neither can be controlled

The budding of moments

Are better to unfold

Clarity and planning

Necessary and yet

The tangible is verbs

Not past tense or sure bet

Lost and wandering as

Lost and wandering as

Time watches with an eye

Wiser than my own and

Somehow I still get by

I am learning not to

Breathe life into a stone

And I am to blame when 

I find myself alone

Too narrow a focus

Too narrow a focus

Avoiding any road

Blinders are blinding me

The corridors implode

Arbors are dotting soil 

Cornrows are scratching lines

But the sky unending

Defying these confines

Time is still, holding breath

Time is still, holding breath

This moment a painting

Beneath the sycamores

Your head in light, sainting

A promised forever

Stillness begins to shake

And this is our always

And cannot be forsake 

In this great expansion

In this great expansion

The collection of sand

In the granular just

A few memories stand

Pages now paragraph

Routines lost in the crease

So much is traffic then

Suspension bridge release

Here we are defectors

Here we are defectors

Weary of emotions 

Unable to partake

Without self-demotions

Questioning the commands

To respect your wishes

Deny our self-respect

Bare our hearts to squishes

The painted light returns

The painted light returns

A passing friend’s visit

Saturated colors

Common now exquisite 

Life again worth living

Stones like silver dollars

The gradual walk, our

Souls nomadic scholars

An ordinary glance

An ordinary glance

In perspective, near still

The thaw, the plough, the bloom

The harvest overfill

And in the spun of years

Circles and ellipses 

On the why axis ‘til

The turning eclipses

Without my permission

Without my permission 

Like one gooseneck loosestrife 

Planted and pervasive 

Slowly choking out life

Sweet bobbing and nodding

White purity, finesse

While its roots are grabbing

‘Til you’re under duress

My own tectonic plates

My own tectonic plates

Once again have shifted

The sense of steady mass

Pushed down and uplifted 

Changing with the changes 

Build better foundations

Should another seismic 

Alter my relations

Searched for vitality

Searched for vitality

Found quietness instead

Buried treasures plateau

Where single thoughts are wed

In the drenching of rains

Or the drenching of sun

The puzzle of me forms

Peace by peace, one by one

Beyond hieroglyphics

Beyond hieroglyphics 
Into the realm of dance
Without words these feelings

Invite movement from stance

Stepping into the swirl

Past the edges of still

The volcanic abyss

Creating lava spill

Hollow trees, fairy tales

Hollow trees, fairy tales

Dead mothers young again

Swing sets and school teachers

And plastic soldier men

Upside down pineapple

The early in the late

The layers of decades

Flipped over on the plate

We have rich memories

We have rich memories

Although places are gone

They are our red blood cells

Our souls earth, they are lawn

They can’t be unknotted

And cannot be unwrote

Stories for some, for us

Riddled secrets to quote

Spring flowering redbud

Spring flowering redbud 

Without the redwood rings

Brevity in brightness

Not stature more time brings

Changing for need or want

Accepting the unknowns

Knowing a thin trunk is

One step above from stones

They are shouting at me

They are shouting at me

Asking for the fulfill

Born but not reared, they are

Time suspended until

Soon markers of regret

Not even souvenir

Buried with a birthdate 

And dash but no end year

When the rivets wrinkle

When the rivets wrinkle

And experts disagree

Hobble before hovel

Protect the filigree 

Paper airplane travel

Grace resides in your feel

Envelope destructive 

Emotions under seal

The Earth is a juggler

The Earth is a juggler

The sun and moon are tossed

And there the North Star fixed

To aid northerners lost

At my feet, broken plates 

Spun off companion rods

And careful replacements

Until unbalanced nods 

My chromatography

My chromatography

The brown begins to part

Red anger leaving green

Then blue sadness departs

Left here in my yellow

A blinking sunflower

A fortunate wisdom

Stemming without bower

Perfection is crumbled

Perfection is crumbled

Wrinkled and balled for waste

Fractional percentage

Subtracted from the base

The judgement of roses

That sunflowers escape

Be kind to yourself and

Change your inner landscape

Emotions in order

Emotions in order

And thoughts have found their slots

But the self keeps forming

More connecting the dots

I’m always unfinished 

Still drafting and sketching

Open experience 

Scratching before etching

In a timeless effort

In a timeless effort

Once modern, now antique

Books, art, films and science

Even the words we speak

Fires, giant forest fires

Out, but the land beneath

Transient witness yet

The constant we bequeath 

Two chocolate milkshakes

Two chocolate milkshakes

Melting on the boardwalk

Beneath the twisted limbs

Just missing outline chalk

Some late tulip wilting

Not escaping the sun

Then jumping to their feet

When calling 9-1-1

So much sunlight passing

So much sunlight passing

Little on Earth landing

We keep turning, turning

Seeking understanding

Relationships tangent

Countless strangers unknown

The background of our days

More cloth than what is sewn

Magnificent and not

Magnificent and not 

Both boastful and disdain

The flooding or the cleanse

The full spectrum of rain 

The striving and lurching

The unreachable post

Wanting to be better

Fulfilling life the most

The curved line of green trees

The curved line of green trees

Above, a bowl of blue

Highways scratched on landscapes

Both crisscrossing and skew

An eastern sun rising

The fog, morning bed sheets

The corn more than knee high

Cool air, before it heats

In the great vanishing

In the great vanishing

The soul on my shoulder

We gifted each other

Now gone, I am older

Seeing with our eyes closed

Feeling without touching

Love like light, filling space

With no need of clutching

In a bent, past the bend

In a bent, past the bend

What cannot be undone

Broken limb or words said

Bullet shot, hit and run

In a show of great strength

A weak crease created

A breaking book spine in

Time disintegrated 

Not paving these dirt roads

Not paving these dirt roads

Marked by success and fails

Traveled with purpose but

Dissipating contrails

No matter my focus

Circumstances come fast 

Altering my course much

Like a loose boom and mast 

Bare-bones, necessities

Bare-bones, necessities 

The pair of shoes well worn

Left here on the furthest

Of days from being born

The courtship with living

And the date after date

Without matrimony 

Mere engagement and wait

Unattended sunset

Unattended sunset

The ombré of darkness

The funnels of past days

The commas between larkness

The solitude of walk

Steps fighting gravity

But in the end the pull

To horizontally 

Useless thoughts residing

Useless thoughts residing

No dots left to connect

No brightness in darkness

No pieces to collect

The wind will not take and

The oceans cannot claim

No gravity or cloud

No description or name

In unchartered clouds a

In unchartered clouds a

Slow vessel of safety

Propelled by a shaman

Maneuvering safely

Great guidance from sinking

Two buoys forming one

Bonded by love and trust

They will port in the sun

All these golden bars buried

All these golden bars buried

Beneath plastic flowers

In a finite field for

An infinite of hours

The sound of the highway

Finds no audience here

The stones slabbing spirits

Marking the disappear

Moments pulled like phyllo

Moments pulled like phyllo

For full transparency 

Seeing the circumstance

I knew inherently 

Pulling further until

The holes begin to form

And with perfect vision

I see the misinform

Ancient religions ring

Ancient religions ring

Their God never responds

Painted ceilings of saints

Other silent beyonds

With dim candles burning

Failing to blaze a trail

Too many prayers left

At the kneeler and rail

Certainty unbalanced

Certainty unbalanced

The pedestal rocking

Rotation is spiral

Tall strangers are knocking

Predictable todays

Can have surprise outcomes

Fractions of fruitions

Hardly ever lump sums

Taking X to cradle

Taking X to cradle

Unknowns can fall apart

But if they don’t, I’ll sing

A lullaby of heart

Someday they may find prism

And what we know of light

Will Roy G. Biv, or else

Will rock all day and night

Gigantic obstacle

Gigantic obstacle

I burrowed underground

Turning inside out and

Emerging newly found

Beyond these decades wall

With my third set of teeth

A wiser survivor

No need to dig beneath

In these my last chapters

In these my last chapters

What is written is wrote

No need for editing

What was said is in quote

Regrets and loveliness 

Things I would change and not

Growth and understanding

Have led me to this spot

Remembering a small

Remembering a small

Moment that has grown large

An insignificant 

The dingy became barge

To others, no meaning

Even I near forgot

Like some old name or face

That echoed until not

Time is without rhythm

Time is without rhythm

Is does not tick or tock

It has no ocean tide

Or the hands of a clock

It has no thickness or

Color or any shape

Time moves without movement

And has no shadow scape

The consciousness rising

The consciousness rising

A warm front from the west

A revelation of 

The solar plexus chest

Playing hooky in Life

Is merely excursion

Plankton to prophecies

Overwhelm immersion

At the end of a dream

At the end of a dream

When hope becomes happen

At the roots of rainbows

The cocoon to satin

Experience exalt

The great climatic orge 

The rim of a hillside

On an echoing gorge

In a longing languish

In a longing languish

Remembrances ringing

Returning to center

Empty handed wringing

The wealth of wonder waits

Discovery imbues

The full weight of questions

Yet more answers to choose

Melancholy purple

Melancholy purple 

Triumphant surrender 

The white flag solution

The remedy render

The battle cry swan song

Neither stalemate or tie

Just sad happiness to

Wish well and say goodbye

At the start of absence

At the start of absence 

Without an orchestra

Free from the rapture of

Sensory plethora 

At the end of ripples

Beyond the rings of words

Left with staring upwards

Just blue skies and some birds

Beneath a single star

Beneath a single star

House lights lit like fireflies 

Hillside whales caught arcing

In the ocean of skies

With chords tuned to nature

Conversations begin

Starting where we trailed off

We chorused with the wind

Forty and fortified

Forty and fortified

Internal change has reigned

The goal of potential

The wisdom I have gained

Recognizing others

Their joys and woes I feel

The love for another

Community congeal

Justice is not blind but

Justice is not blind but 

There’s another lost sense

It can’t smell it’s own shit

Strong unyielding fragrance

Faith cannot become law

Religions full of hate

If God gifted free will 

Why do we legislate

Does time have gravity

Does time have gravity

Or some measure of force

A pull forward on a

Moment to moment course 

Is time a constant or

Like light it can be bent

Or is time a circle

Arriving where we went

Heartfelt ephemera

Heartfelt ephemera

A few words like whispers

Scripted on thin paper

Feelers like cat whiskers

Such a loveliness tied

To the likes of gift wrap

Discard of a party 

Home star on my soul map

Less than an asterisk

Less than an asterisk 

Not even a short pause

Or the glint of a glance

We are here just because 

Perhaps we are too close

To view spherical shapes

They could just be pixels

Of far greater landscapes

Spring is sipping summer

Spring is sipping summer

On this beautiful day

Loose shouldered bodies walk

Along the Franklin way

Graduate caps are thrown

A new generation

They themselves are sipping

World rejuvenation 

Fissures in family

Fissures in family

DNA is not glue

A swamp oak in dry soil

It cannot, will not do

Too many clay pigeons

And constant contradict

Their deaths are not sainthood

And surely not verdict

Truthful root, no grafting

Truthful roots, no grafting

Strange flower, stranger fruit

Nothing falling far from

And not following suit

I see you seeing me

Like birds without feathers

As if we too are marked

Promising togethers

Half moon and northern star

Half moon and northern star

Memorial weekend

Soldier Michael Bouchard 

An undying beacon

This Vietnam bracelet

Reminds us to embrace

The fallen, the many

Their names we won’t erase

Easy to see foolish

Easy to see foolish

My own ways corrected

Drawn conclusions sketchy

Right answers rejected

And the heart blundering

For invasive flowers

Experience masters

Gained wisdom empowers

We’re braided together

We’re braided together

Our ends apart then meet

Both loosely and tightly 

A wave or handshake greet

Like Pachelbel’s canon 

Or Ravel’s bolero

We venture and not coil

Forward and not narrow

How did I end up here

How did I end up here

Do all the roads converge

A funnel or black hole 

Or the great water merge

Is it all a circle

Denominator one

Arriving again here

Regardless of begun

Finite in this Ever

Finite in this Ever

Loose threads becoming knots

Tomorrows not todays

Anew amid forgots

All my love to my loves

Our hearts color blending

We were brave together 

Our borrowed time spending

On a day inside out

On a day inside out

Vines and sunshine curling

Paintings without frames and

Troubles dropping pearling

The body dam breaking

Arms branching, legs stemming

The wind in the ruffles

The Earth’s skirt unhemming

New York City sinking

New York City sinking

An Atlantis again

Atlas shrugging lower

An Atlantic mayhem

The hopeless Rapunzels

Scrapers scraping too high 

Poseidon in subways

Cab drivers Captain Bligh

Adjacent to this thought

Adjacent to this thought

Is a heartfelt meaning

Compassion on compass

On point, open, leaning

Flowers bending for sun

And saturated roots

Weather variations

From sandals to rain boots 

In the Greater, there’s time

In the Greater, there’s time

Why does it mean so much

Big Bang to climate change

The Universe and touch

Close and growing closer

Scratching, has it sped up

Glass half full or empty

When it feels like a cup

Cleansing my own soapbox

Cleansing my own soapbox 

Wishes becoming welts

Detecting obvious

Like missing loops for belts

Chasing imperfections 

My own flaws, evidence

Yet there is always Hope

Achieving elegance 

After the lever pull

After the lever pull

Destiny dictator

Irreversible go

No sooner or later

Without my permission 

Swim parallel to beach

No survival servants

Existence is an each

On a plateau hoping

On a plateau hoping

The plain remains a plain

No mountain climb or mind

Unable to explain

In this generous now

The albatross alive

The Red Sea walls apart 

And Moby Dick survives

Ephemera hoarding

Ephemera hoarding

Someone else sought beauty

Pulling the cart forward

And passing it to me

Delighting in glimpses

Like sunken Titanics 

These frozen timepieces

Once living gigantics 

In darkness feeling light

In darkness feeling light

Tomorrow still folded

Today without tumult

No marker, unbolded

This overture to sleep

A deeper darkness waits

A lapping night ocean

That a dreamscape creates

Visit a hospital

Visit a hospital

Gain a new perspective 

So many suffer more

Pain is not selective 

The whoosh of emotions

My getting in their heads

I want to hold their hands

And crawl inside their beds

Chase the impossible

Chase the impossible

Paradise in peril

Fragility ego

Niag’ra Falls barrel

Reality checkered

Single lane renaissance 

Heaven until it’s not

Then moving van response

The years in the attic

The years in the attic

Anger in the basement 

My foundation is strong

My heart an encasement

Front door, back door, window

Exits out, the chimney

Squeeze beneath the woodwork

Self-propel is in me

Somewhere in the swirling

Somewhere in the swirling

Between pigeons and saints

Sunlight briefly breaks through 

And outshines the complaints 

Victims or praise seekers

Either gauze or applause

The survivalist says

Sense of self the one cause

Empathy confluence

Empathy confluence

Watercolors or paint

Purple, orange or green and

Boldly vibrant, not faint

The continuous mix

Celebrating the blend

Primary is primal

And modernism the end

Borrowed false happiness

Borrowed false happiness

Returns empty handed 

Chatter louder than truth 

The rough wood needs sanded

Wants grossly exceeding 

Normal Goldilocks craves

Imitators are not

Free from others but slaves

Into the greener grass

Into the greener grass

Sparrows for moments land

Then gone like lost buttons

Clouds clearly understand

A kiss is all and much

My wrinkled heart I press 

And words speaking forward

Letters without address

Clouds on kite strings crashing

Clouds on kite strings crashing

Broken but groundbreaking 

Life spent marching trenches

Reality aching

Little time for beauty

Balancing awl and awe

Transcribing my journey

I am the real macaw 

Here in a subtraction

Here in a subtraction 

Lesser and fewer days

Entangled with air filled

With questions and delays

Crop driven finish lines

Unattended races

Content with sparse movement

These crumbs my mere traces

Anything new is new

Anything new is new

No matter star or speck

The heavens astonish

So too, the water fleck

More brave to say yes and

Pursue the wide unknown

From external vastness

Back to the marrow bone

These reluctant shadows

These reluctant shadows

Still here when light is gone

Like clouds in asphalt fixed

In outlines loosely drawn

Intangible touching

A Pollack masterpiece

Movement but not moving 

Even with elbow grease

Masculinity threat

Masculinity threat

Simple as a feather

Are they not the snowflakes

In social change weather

A man is a man, no less

But couldn’t they be more

If pink poses weakness

There is no inner core

I am here but not rock

I am here but not rock

Say it, we must say it

Soon no hands on the clock

Display it, convey it

Fall in love with a cloud

Know it is not terrain

Temporary out loud 

Cirrostratus or rain

Pandering a ponder

Pandering a ponder

The past needs gravity

Broken tightrope graveyards

Forgotten cavity

Reminiscing remorse

Reverse the drawbridge now

And let the cradle fall

Recollections and bough

Why the Juliet knife

Why the Juliet knife

A loss greater than self

The anchor sinking boat

Wall collapsing with shelf

Importance misplaced with

Sacrifice and despair

Crusade the inner one

Before beyond repair 

Bleakness welcomes me with

Bleakness welcomes me with

Canvases painted white

Needing another coat

The pentimento might

Shouting out the echoes 

Where can an answer hide

The moon parts the sea in

The ocean coda tide

You are so lovely you

You are so lovely you

Both of us finding gold

In pans full of pebbles

Together we’ve grown old

Only wishing the best

Simplicity of stream

Merrily merrily

Our Life is but a dream 

Decades losing meaning

Decades losing meaning

New generations land

Looking upwards not down

On shoulders where they stand

Stories separated 

Emotions now cement

The tree keeps on growing

Despite this hard lament

A page already pressed

A page already pressed

When all options were void

In a narrow crosswalk

Dodging an asteroid

Future mountains of youth

Insurmountable rise

Intermittent plateaus

Mistakes, chances and wise

Alarming surrender

Alarming surrender

And with no sense of scale

The sinking and sunkness 

The wrought iron impale

Encapsulated space

Butterfly to cocoon 

Invitation to time

To deliver too soon

I was a cliff dweller

I was a cliff dweller

No passage into space

The wide world widely framed

Ungiving, robbing grace

Thoughts dead ended beckoned

Had I not broken stare

Finding feet in clover

Not climbing steps of air

Hearts beginning courtship

Hearts beginning courtship

Dancing candy apples

Winter’s weakened powers

Still rearing and grapples

Yellow dandelions 

Soon grey galaxy stars

Getting caught in a breeze

Like bees fleeing from jars

Wringing April storm clouds

Wringing April storm clouds

Out from under bat wings

Into a wide space of

The emptiness of things

Each stepping day colors 

Blooms rising from a tomb

Pushed like a rushing crowd

One doorway from a room

Off from the straighter line

Off from the straighter line

In the here on a curve

Blind past and future and

Necessity to swerve

Accepting the moment

So many of us arc

Straight lines tangent but we

Set off again, embark

Seeking simplicity

Seeking simplicity 

Today gathering light

This evening counting stars

And here, the rhyme of night

Outside complexity

Find a wandering hum

The flight of bumblebees 

And the absence of drum

Blistering exactness

Blistering exactness

A carpenter’s wedges

Painted clouds versus clouds

My thoughts Rothko edges

Abandoning borders

Past the petulant why

Upward and outward where

Huginn and Muninn fly

Still murky after all

Still murky after all

Rose hip years not rosy

What ifs now why didn’ts

Stark truth versus posey

A borrowed happiness

Returns empty handed

Forfeited days stacking

Not moving and candid

Another boxing day

Another boxing day 

I take the center ring

To only fight myself

A right hook then a swing

I own my own actions

It will make me better

My awareness penning

A self-addressed letter 

An evening together

An evening together

No searchlight can find us

In between folds of night

The day just behind us

In this moment we fit

Like walnuts in a shell

Us two slowly waltzing

On this coil self-propel

Adults throwing tantrums

Adults throwing tantrums 

Want surpassing judgment 

Too many cliff dwellers 

Waiting for some nudgment 

Any travel inward

Should lead you to a coast

And those only inward

And not outward are toast

No clouds just atmosphere

No clouds just atmosphere 

Church steeples breaking blue

Not a bird up above

Commuters honking through

In this break just breathing

For a minute or two

To marvel this moment

Before my work is due

Much of Life is silent

Much of Life is silent

Bulbs breaking through the ground

Wafting wishes, the clouds

Still fields, Earth spinning ‘round

To get more out of Life

Should I stop my shouting

Find solace in silence

And not din in doubting

Where are the beginnings

Where are the beginnings 

The sun is setting fast

Left tying up loose strings

In lieu of lines to cast

Fresh days are fermenting 

I’m craving building blocks 

There are wonders waiting 

I wrestle with the locks

Beyond indifference

Beyond indifference 

Like the thought had no birth

Or fell off the edge like

Some ship on a flat Earth

Not over my shoulder

Not in my veins to clot

What was I speaking of

I already forgot

No fireworks and no flares

No fireworks and no flares

Nothing above treetops

Foraging and combing 

On good days finding crops 

Masses and consensus

For zeniths, eagles high

But snails outgrowing shells

Overlooked or mere sigh

A romanticized eye

A romanticized eye

That never comes to blink

While beating the yolk the

Egg washed buildings in pink

Heaven at upper floors

The Earth, a busy street

This defines me with soles

Uneven on my feet

At base camp looking up

At base camp looking up

Remembering thin air

And my capacity

I’m here now and not there

The recoil of my spring

The release of my band

On a south facing slope

Determined to find and

Overwhelmed by others

Overwhelmed by others

My yellow bleeding blue

Walls and ceiling swelling

My windows share their view

Extracting from the green

Finding daisy center

Send signals to my roots

Until the next enter