Empty dippers above

Empty dippers above

Where do all our dreams go

Falling on deaf ears and

Lost in moon river flow

No universal bees

Pollinating planets

That nudge in their passing

Without touching magnets

O life companion loss

O life companion loss

We never parted ways

I played by ear your song

Before the Monet hays

New to love and beauty 

My heart made room for yours

Unknowingly last day

I played your song from pores

Take me there and leave me

Take me there and leave me

Where sun invites silence

And time is transparent

All one moment science

Healing from the hardness

Still soft with compassion

Then sounds of clocks chiming

Timeline an assassin 

Steady or wavering

Steady or wavering 

Only resting on falls

Eye level with blurred feet

Deadlines like bugle calls

Beneath forward looking

Younger generations 

Arrowheads are buried

Past civilizations 

Hold me stone statue and

Hold me stone statue and

Cradle me in cold arms

Stare at me with dead eyes

False protection from harms

Caress me with chipped hands

Let me pray on deaf ears

I will kiss your hard lips

And wipe your chiseled tears

Too many fingerprints

Too many fingerprints

Shy but transparent Art

The performing dancer

Last apple in the cart

Ships along the shoreline

The Titanic steals hearts 

Mystery has magnets

Life journey without charts

The twilight brush fading

The twilight brush fading

Falling from stone facades

Taking the stark shadows

In the changing of gods

Footsteps are returning

Clouds pulled by western jets

Like zippered sleeping bags

Camping as the sun sets

My youth has grown old and

My youth has grown old and

Not much really matters

Doorstops on the doors while

Resolving the afters

Oak trees are now bent trees

Markers formed on the trail

But never a hiker

Or dizzy donkey tail

In the midst of nothing

In the midst of nothing 

The edge of some abyss

An empty useless hole

Like a drain for a wish

Comes a deep train whistle

Out of the void and dark

Filling the air like moon

Washing me to my mark

The clouds dropped down and hung

The clouds dropped down and hung

The rain not far to fall

Not a bird in sight and

Morning like a nightfall 

Roads less traveled destined

To find no roads at all

No end to signify

Whatever may befall

Forward and letting go

Forward and letting go

Not like a river wide

A funnel to future

A strong focus applied

Exhaling universe

As I try to inhale

Orion’s Belt is bright

Knowingly not to scale

White handkerchiefs waving

White handkerchiefs waving

The garden border set

The gift of our seasons

The permissions of let

No oceans or mountains

A mere slippery bank

No clouds in the water

As we cross in and flank

In a tender moment

In a tender moment

Your feelings enter me

All the seeds then flower

On occasion, a tree

Not looking for rescue

Claiming the only road

Neither of us princes

But surely not a toad

Tangent for a moment

Tangent for a moment

An explosion of glee

Old friends moving forward

Lives apart but still we

Remember and planning

Celebrating achieves

Compassion for hardships

Until next time then leaves

In the absence of dark

In the absence of dark

Shadows stripped from below

Unrequited returns

Two lanes of traffic flow

Out of the conch shell and

Bivalves open prayers

Chords in cacophony 

Community of cares

No hope in tomorrow

No hope in tomorrow

Tourniquets and stitches

Cannot stop time bleeding 

Nursery to ditches

Nothing in my pockets

A scarf around my neck

Here are my gloves, keep warm

There’s splendor in the fleck

How strange as we stare and

How strange as we stare and

Stop the blur from blurring 

We no longer belong 

Interactions slurring

Empty office buildings

Deserted on Sunday

And postcard pictures that

Will never find their way

How the crow kept cawing

How the crow kept cawing

Alarming other crows 

The sparrows and robins

Sitting ducks in repose 

The broken glass and trains

Chimneys huffing with ash

And the earth still moving

The caw not balderdash 

Markers of no matter

Markers of no matter

Have I let the time lapse

The frailty of dreaming

Reality en masse

Still the spindrift glistens

Passing rainbows split light

A moment expansion

Enjoy now with forthright 

A shy clam of a soul

A shy clam of a soul

Give us your under leaf

Let’s be a desert stone

In sun without relief 

But a fern in forest

Without the tree cover

Would struggle to frond if

Exposed in discover

Have we started living

Have we started living

Autumn gravity here

Emptying my pockets 

Time our one souvenir 

There is nothing new had

Is it merely decay

Should you catch me too late

It was all a bouquet 

Underneath this pillow

Underneath this pillow

Nothing done on a dare

Rooflines all lining up

But stories, au contraire 

Many of us struggle

Yesterdays to compare

We author ourselves not

What others have to share 

The two of us in Spain

The two of us in Spain

Phonetically so

Three-sixty weather vane

Where freedom has no no

And in our tango steps

A future friendship made

Our shoelaces cross-tied

And our two hands in braid

We answered each other

We answered each other

A bench lies up ahead

Can we plan tomorrow 

Before we go to bed

Ask again at breakfast

It’s a good place to start

Our hands a sundial

One place and time to chart

Memory push pins push

Memory push pins push

Feelings sidelined at play

Wallflower thoughts are front

And center on display

Cowardliness lions

An uproar is rising

Late for its audience 

Due to compromising 

Children in cages is

Children in cages is

Such a “glorious thing”

Christianity’s Christ

This would not make him king

If you cannot help them

Better to do no harm

Humanity, mothers

Fathers, sound the alarm

It is not one but none

It is not one but none

Medusa’s head of snakes

Miracle mirages

At war with such high stakes 

If we follow fables

What else will we believe

Surrendering power

To someone who can weave

Peace is not standing stll

Peace is not standing still

It is not in one place

It moves after resolve

Critical thinking grace

Scoop the clouds from the sky

South Ferry, Central Park

Joy is exuberance 

Bursts of light in the dark

Flooded with drowning words

Flooded with drowning words

Our sentences broken

Not worth saving them our

Thoughts have changed since spoken

Vanishing epithet

Disappearing ink scroll

No longer on highways

Where we have to pay toll

Out of the populace

Out of the populace

A confluence forming

Marked with the obvious

Of a darkness storming

Is there an audience

Apparently that’s so

And how far is too far

Will anyone say no

The near naked trees stand

The near naked trees stand

Across the flatter west

As evergreens ever

Brooches on autumn’s best

Water towers looking

Like spaceships have landed

The road stretching onwards

White dashed and gold banded

Breaking my own heart with

Breaking my own heart with

Puzzles missing pieces

Nighttime skies with lost stars

Never signing leases

Concentrating on moon

And our feelings of here

Forgiving the future

Before it grows more near

At once in a fury

At once in a fury

Then days fell like feathers 

Soft until layers formed

Furthered the togethers

Not again, not at all

Gray rocks are forming dams

No satellite orbit

Happiness in the am’s

Crying watercolors

Crying watercolors

But feeling dark oil paints

Wyeth washes outside

While Rembrandt in restraints

Tomorrow’s storm coming

Umbrellas inside out

Visibly more muted

Internally undoubt 

Right from the very start

Right from the very start

Cradle me, your baby

The love I gave but I

Was born an injury

Handed off to siblings

Failing draft after draft

Feeling that I was wrong

Because I could not graft

Here at the start of now

Here at the start of now

New beginnings waiting 

The birth of a comet

Or bright star creating

Or just a passing cloud

Or passerby smiling

The same children questions

The age old ones piling

Enlightenment waning

Enlightenment waning

Depth replaced with distance

Sliding on the surface

Path of no resistance 

Curiosity ask

Determination seek

There’s micro to macro 

And redesign to tweak

In the moment scratch spin

In the moment scratch spin 

Gravity always here

Canada geese flying

Heading south on the sphere

In breathtaking autumn

Fireworks of maple trees

Here together forward

Facing the cooler breeze

All the things we love will

All the things we love will

No matter how tightly

Markers mostly matchsticks

Expiring though brightly 

And no matter the care

Or love leaps and bounding

The skirt of apathy

Folds in as it’s rounding

Floating without an oar

Floating without an oar

Four floors above the street

Autumn trees beneath me

Above the lamb clouds bleat

The cars like noisy koi 

Chasing the traffic sign

Here feeling like white sheets

Hung on a clothing line

Dissonant chord dangles

Dissonant chord dangles

Searching for a resolve

How is it the final

Alone without involve

A white cliff, a canyon

A lemur or condor

I am listening for

Beethoven responder 

Mouthful of alphabet

Mouthful of alphabet 

Randomly a word forms

Trying to find meaning

As the abstract conforms

A mental Ouija Board

Or a game of Scrabble

Like taking meeting notes

At the House of Babel

Arrows past the target

Arrows past the target

An artistic bullseye 

The beauty of unknowns 

Outside the sense of I

Cupid and Diana

Have often overshot

Strange loves and elusives

Not found in rings and dot

No in between exists

No in between exists

Prepared for readiness

The stark reality

Of this vast emptiness 

No history to comb

Bank swallows cannot nest

Future had its ending

Present put it to rest

Errors hanging like clouds

Errors hanging like clouds

On occasion wringing

Learning to make changes

Corrections are bringing

The time a quarter till 

A thumb on the stopwatch 

The ribbon waiting is

Just an end, not a notch

Speak to me through the grass

Speak to me through the grass

Or fallen leaves or snow

Can you hear passing birds

Staccato traffic flow

Let’s talk about beauty

Whether you saw it first

When weather calls for rain

I think about your thirst

A Life away from life

A Life away from life

In a land still living

In a cove of kindness

Speaking after sieving 

Where branches have the sky

And roots have room to grow

My soil is not your soil

We share the bees and snow

Happiness does not ask

Happiness does not ask

The cup overfloweth

It is in our mortar

Unaware, no knoweth 

As easy as walking

Happiness is concrete

It cannot be broken

With stomping of their feet

Working dream crescendo

Working dream crescendo 

Dancing on cirrus clouds

With a worn dull chisel 

And ambivalent crowds 

A sense of completion 

From flower to the fruit

A dream in the pocket

Of my overall suit

Come along for the sky

Come along for the sky

Is whole and touching land

Parcel after parcel

Cornrows strand after strand

Wishes are finding words

My hopes for you are grand

Saturday afternoon 

Slow moving hourglass sand

Hopper sunlight soaking

Hopper sunlight soaking

Brevity befriends me

Window frames on doorways

White sheets shifting slowly

Empty playgrounds starting 

To gather active thoughts

Trying to leave traces

Greater lasting than naughts

That was my majesty

That was my majesty

And was left to pauper

Old soul in worn out shoes

Than faddish or proper 

The childhood robberies

I’m too old to rattle

Separation not wake

Abandon the battle

Self-awareness echo

Self-awareness echo

I’m wringing my own arm

The tumbling alphabet 

Spear-headed words can harm

Regretting the railroad

The escalating swear

Sincerely a sorry

In hopes of a repair

Beliefs were not the law

Beliefs were not the law

So luggage of losses

Were packed and mad martyrs 

Travelled on their crosses

And crutches were padded

Walking in ruts and mud

Church is not where they’re from

Steeples raised where they trud

Falling into shadows

Falling into shadows

The underside of limbs

The lines of the mouth that 

Smile when it truly grims 

Into a deeper blue 

Falling off the glimmers

Not seeing the stars

Just darkness that dimmers 

Just past the autumn trees

Just past the autumn trees

Further than I can see

Is it Winter or Spring 

Is it one year or three

Forecasted rain failed and

Now useless umbrellas 

Are buds and not black blooms

Unsung acapellas

In these graphite smudged days

In these graphite smudged days

Still seeking clarity

On the surface no hints

No gifts of charity

Deeper in the dots where

They seem unrelated 

Theories are appearing

Answers are equated

The cornfields are ready

The cornfields are ready

The trees have just begun

Autumn clouds, we all know

Just like the slanted sun

That song reminds me of

An out of fashion day

I left behind because

I sought a better way

All of this must be hard

All of this must be hard

To get here on a bus

Wait in your Sunday best

And not make any fuss

Have medical exams

Find another bus seat

Wait alone for results

With a lonely heartbeat

Fossils and falling stars

Fossils and falling stars

Buried here or burnt out

Little hopes or nothing

Sediments or loud shout

But the sun is blazing

The moon good company

The earth solid beneath

The wind a symphony

Contentment asks little

Contentment asks little

Higher limbs deeper roots

Are unnecessary 

And are no substitutes

Of the cozy and calm

No further than my reach

No pit in my stomach

But feeling like a peach

My head resting on stones

My head resting on stones

Difficult to accept

Bent pennies my two cents 

So easy to reject

And so dreams of distance

And fresh steps in fresh snow

No paths, no roads, no lines

Destiny an unknow 

Stepping back from Rothko

Stepping back from Rothko

Not running into night

A start, here’s another 

Don’t valley when there’s height

Not getting closer to

An end when there is new

Wade not in indigo 

But rather baby blue

Tomorrow we will live

Tomorrow we will live

Promise or mystery

What is broken in half

Still has full history

Caught in autumn sunlight

Still water and a boat

Although leaves are falling

They are still here and float

Wonder briefly wavered

Wonder briefly wavered

While pruning in the sun

Heavy laden seedless

Aging having succumbed

Statues topple rigid 

Expressions still the same

With this thought my wonder

Returned newly acclaimed

The air thick as river

The air thick as river

My island gone under

We are one in the flow

Flagging in the wonder

A long Sunday sunlight

Touching surface ceilings 

A symphonic silence

Of deep water feelings

Replace the canary

Replace the canary

With a trumpeter swan

The Kool-Aid is mixing

And the glasses are drawn

Human nature repeats

Forget never forget

Already forgotten

See the canary sweat

Branches of the plane trees

Branches of the plane trees

Are in cathedral blue

The painted light again

Impressionistic true

We Chagall and shimmer

The first leaves at our feet

Without want other than

More time to reach complete 

More is not the answer

More is not the answer

Just a fork and one pea

A singular moon with

Stars in a waveless sea

After a bullseye why

Raise the arrow and bow

When there is nothing more

Than splitting hairs of know

Serenity pursues

Serenity pursues

As the traffic trumpets 

Cars divide and conquer

Undisturbed my compass

The sun sets yet darkness

Does not blanket this glow

This shy adagio 

Bairn gets nowt but this know

After the laughter threads

After the laughter threads

Are worn out from time’s treads

Attention to Life leds

In order to proceed

Still here as the sun slants

Promises kept and can’ts

Bonsai giant beanstalk plants

Joyous for each indeed

Failure is becoming

Failure is becoming 

Look at my failures darned

Evidence of effort

And in the end, no harm

Not chasing perfection

What is that by the way

Wanting for completion

Of a thought turned to say

Call them sheep or sheeples

Call them sheep or sheeples

Or fish in funnel traps

Clueless even if they

Were given exit maps

It’s not political 

It’s a mental issue

Fifth Avenue murders

Baked in bones and tissue

At times I wonder when

At times I wonder when

Yellow turns into black

Or possibly all white 

In the absence or lack

And if this bowler hat

Or top hat poetry

Will find a modern light

Or disappear wholly 

Eugene just made it in

Eugene just made it in

For breakfast at the church

Art galleries still closed

Too early for a purch 

He likes reading westerns

On a bench in the park

Drinking beer then sleeping

Under trees when it’s dark

Days have to be enough

Days have to be enough

Grass cannot be greener

It’s not tomorrow and

Yesterday, a seener 

So with purpose we plunge

Pactful deep end diving

Moments to be mindful

Buried seeds are thriving 

Under an August sky

Under an August sky

Birds like dashing dreams fly

While the sun is fighting

That time will soon black eye

The Overwhelm surging

Traffic all hit and runs

And each passing stranger

We’re coupling into ones

Arms around each other

Arms around each other

We will stand in the rain

Time is unimportant 

It’s feelings worth refrain

Darkness has no shadows

Abstract painters are light

But here in the contrast

We are living in quite

Foolish me to fathom

Foolish me to fathom

Shelters of protection

Awaits all arrivals 

From lack of affection 

That thoughts of vastness will

Help end short sightedness 

That the greatest ideals

Expand small mindedness 

Tragedy’s marbles roll

Tragedy’s marbles roll

Uneven and unjust

No God and no blessings

So good luck is a must

Prayers to leprechauns 

Stars old carbon and dust

There are no true answers

Strong held beliefs just lust

Not living with dark clouds

Not living with dark clouds

The storms rolled in and went

And continue passing

Yet flowers are not spent

Even with subtraction

Happiness is color

Half of a red rose is

Still red and not duller

Living in the moment

Living in the moment

Alongside the weather

Coins spent or fountain tossed

No why’s or the whether

The presence of present

When the whole world is verb

Sitting still in the flood

A part of Life superb

Again the painted light

Again the painted light

The leaves all dipped in sun

The soft clouds all apart

At the horizon, one

Knee-high to above head

The corn with gold tassels

And small tree patches like

Green kingdoms with castles

Yesterdays in the air

Yesterdays in the air

Without fashion or trend

Just our times together

We thought could never end

And here we are sharing

The wider loom and thread

The promises we kept

Both those we felt or said

Happiness is within

Happiness is within

It’s drawn with conclusions 

It has no physical 

Or lofty illusions 

It is acceptance and

The choice of reaction 

Gratitude and pride in

Whole number or fraction

And for a brief moment

And for a brief moment

Like completing a book

A calmness, a quiet

A short nap in a nook

Question marks are turning

Into full light bulb shapes

Grace glazed our surfaces

From our toes to our napes

Again the butterfly

Again the butterfly

On an unknown hillside 

In a wriggle of flight

On a cursive wind ride

No questions of purpose

No consult, no idol

No destination just

A destiny idyll

In these last traces of

In these last traces of

My old abandoned home

Small fragments collected

From the finest toothed comb

Situations written 

On pages to forget

Recognizing my faults

Moving on to the yet

These rain clouds without rain

These rain clouds without rain

Anger swallowed like pills

Waiting for gray to break

Before a torrent spills

Depression is anger

When emotions are dammed

And then stagnate and stew

Instead of head-butt rammed

Endearing, just buttons

Endearing, just buttons

To fasten folds in days

Orion’s Belt holding

Nothing but our lost gaze

Talking about changes

Inner highway traffic

And blowing my own horn

Autobiographic

Dashing off full decades

Dashing off full decades

And still the day is long

Recent recollections 

Ring and sing their swan song 

The Truth of holding hands

Exclamation points curled

Latitudes east to west

Long longitudes, the world

Living is mere delay

Living is mere delay

Peeling mica from stone

Transparency glistens

The sweating skin on bone

Before the fate arrives

Experience a love

What a waste of waiting

Before the undreamed of

Imaginary air

Imaginary air

Of decades before yet

Here in this light and space 

The same emotions jet

In this never again

I remember the why

But after all these years

I’m thankful of goodbye

Living without a shield

Living without a shield

Or borders as we spread

Waking to adventure

And not judgmental dread

Dice rolling or chess move

Maturity to choose

Success or fail trying

Knowing we cannot lose

The trap of past mistakes

The trap of past mistakes

Leaves futures not trusting

With immediate no’s

And guarantee musting

Little risk or venture

Sensible predictions 

Not pleasantly surprised

Because of convictions

Unreciprocated

Unreciprocated 

Just how would a child know

The shallowness or the

Truth of the silent no

Questioning and confused

The holidays’ mayhem

And the dreaded birthdays

Incompleteness of them

Green wood promises new

Green wood promises new

Don’t all rocks become sand

Delivery to dirge

The quest to understand

Spinning squares form circles

Deep discern the root shape

Fruitless, unforgiving 

Bandits of wine or grape

Out of the World of Art

Out of the World of Art

A Cupid’s arrow shot

Upon impact I pushed

It deeper in its spot

Beyond introductions

Or explanations made

We cross-pollinated 

Like two wood grains inlaid

Ripple not making wave

Ripple not making wave

The applause left behind

Making an impression 

Or simply wined and dined

In rurals of living

With time, hay rolls flatten

And clothes hung on a line

Cannot turn to satin

A seismic magnitude

A seismic magnitude 

Below the crust a quake

No damage made above

Merely a minor shake

But the plates have shifted

Without causing a break

The change was internal

The effects more opaque 

Walnut to nautilus

Walnut to nautilus 

Still turning to achieve

The tighter screw deepens

Both growth and age perceive

The Leidenfrost Effect

Surviving any heat

Wiser the vantage where

Acceptance and change meet

Diluted answers reign

Diluted answers reign

More for function than fact

No empathy empire

Just needs to be enact

Counterfeit money is

Handed out to the poor

So they are arrested

When it’s used at a store 

The perpetual plow

The perpetual plow

The years without harvest

Finally the future

Closer now the farthest

Scarecrows rising as kites

Celebrations of feast

Preserving the plenty

For the long winter fleeced

Nothing fantastical

Nothing fantastical 

Park benches and streetlights 

You’re handsome in blue like

Summer skies on late nights

Busy intersections 

Are framing our brief rest

Nothing settled in stone

A trough awaits our crest

Engaging the twilight

Engaging the twilight

In the lesser contrast

Sun striking tree matches

Lines for starfishes cast

The powers of picnic

Did you have a nice day

Crowns of contentment and

Decrees of a heyday

“Renascence” would not fit

“Renascence” would not fit

On a napkin or slip

And a lonely haiku

Would feel more like a blip

Forty-eight syllables 

Written on store receipts

A thought or a journey

Us here as day repeats

I cannot swim the day

I cannot swim the day

Both words said and unsaid

A full tide coming in

Drowning meant and instead

Should arms become wings and

Red-eye towards tomorrow 

But time has no hurry

And there is no borrow

Under silver clouds like

Under silver clouds like

Billowing satin sheets

We travelled in the arts

Up and down city streets

Ice cream cones mimicking

In front of Henry Moore

The best art is living

Not sold in any store

Graduating daily

Graduating daily

The rising sea of us

Our borders eroding

Reciprocating truss

An isthmus is still there

Braided arms are woven

We've chosen direction 

And weathervane frozen

Looking for the order

Looking for the order

In randomness of trash

My arms reaching out for 

The meteor to crash

Feeling the sediments 

Below the lovely blooms

Continue standing tall

In time it all consumes

Between two nowhere’s the

Between two nowhere’s the

Body taking its toll

Long ribbons of high roads

Looking for a maypole 

Without any fanfare

Breaking through rice paper

Not unlike all others

On this journey taper

Branded by childhood yet

Branded by childhood yet

It is not a tattoo

It is only surface

Therefore did not pass through 

Let bygones be bygones 

Hunger or harvest year

The soil below and sky

Above and moments here

Right in front of our eyes

Right in front of our eyes

Ostriches be alert

Dangers are imminent 

All heads out from the dirt

First the coyotes then

The defenseless sparrow

Only to continue

If not on lines narrow

Holding onto pennies

Holding onto pennies 

Like two hands cupping rain

Old and new currency

From rattle to the cane

A penny for a thought

Now richer and wiser

Us exchanging pennies 

Neither one the miser

Not again, the blood rain

Not again, the blood rain

Without shame, the whole burnt

Wars do not repeat but

Humankind has not learnt

Beware the anagram

Of hatred and its meant

Failure to distinguish 

Facts and truth from a bent

Pick up the confetti

Pick up the confetti

Throw it again up high

Morning after morning

And not utter goodbye

Cast off the remainders

Plant and tend an orchard

Envision open fields

Wild or needing nurtured

I can’t push myself off

I can’t push myself off

The tired sands still pleading

Don’t give up island life

For a mainland needing

Loneliness is not loss

Imagination held

Comfort in changing clouds

Discoveries unshelled

Are liberties leaving

Are liberties leaving

Love is love - no longer

Two plus two equals five

Could it be more wronger 

Hatred is so simple

No questions being asked

Love is more complex and

Is much harder to grasp 

Out of focus future

Out of focus future

And kaleidoscope past

In the moment today

The colors that won’t last

Chasing phantom fortunes

Magazines expiring 

Like clouds, like the weather

And us here inspiring

No distance between us

No distance between us

In the moment making

The striking of matches

The salt shaker shaking

Yet not defined the same

Sodium and chlorine

We reach an understand

An opposing between

Traveling while seated

Traveling while seated

From a fixed windowsill

Engines fill the city

Commuters know the drill

Arriving in abstract

Your words random wind chime

Their order I neglect

Melody every time

Linear until bloom

Linear until bloom

Handshake before action

Acknowledging others

Rather than some faction

Outward hand, one foot in

Do we dance or riot

Is there belief in peace

Or uproar, no quiet

My spoon runneth over

My spoon runneth over

Begin the search for cup

When the corral of the 

Heart squeezes then look up

Unlike a tuning fork

Resonating one note

Feel their orchestras let

Arias leave your throat

After a crescendo

After a crescendo 

On a long cello note

The emptiness of words

Feelings cannot be wrote

A sinking tragedy

The Titanic a boat

I am holding my breath 

In the hopes I can float

Removing grains of sand

Removing grains of sand

Lost on the vast beaches

Like stars thrown into night

So far from our reaches

Celebrating the grains

Obvious in their count

The sinking feeling and

The gravity amount

Thoughts traveled up and out

Thoughts traveled up and out

As far as the next tree

Into the night traffic

In a firefly taxi

Remember our evenings

On the back steps chalking

Up another day with

Our sentences walking

Greatness has a shelf life

Greatness has a shelf life

In the stacks of discard

A pearl rolling out from

Diamonds cut more hard

A rifleless soldier

Charging into obscure

My hand cup of water

Replenishment of pure

Sorry for the sadness

Sorry for the sadness

Not sitting beside me

Branches high in the trees

And every meal for free

Moments perhaps minutes

Like a winter fireside

But eyes outside the frame

And the jaw open wide

Religion offers none

Religion offers none

Clouds are not free of sky

Endless variations

Of who and how and why

Feel freed Stephen Hawking

Your simplicity rang

And some are deaf to the

Frequency of Big Bang

Not big like the night sky

Not big like the night sky

Or ocean ebb and flow

Not far as faintly stars

Or deeper than our know

Nor each and every day

Us counting as they go

Just a swing with our legs

Anchored and rocking slow

In a still afternoon

In a still afternoon

In a near photograph

Children playing without

Surprise, chatter or laugh

A landscape painting with

Snap dragons and roses

Soft framing the artwork

Of statues and poses

Dead but not decaying

Dead but not decaying

A heavy ghost lingers

The need for letting go

Ungripping of fingers

The feelings of forest

Trees that can’t fully fall

Caught on other branches 

Of trees still standing tall 

Breaking self-promises

Breaking self-promises

Allowing fate to rule

Circumstances decide

And consequences school

The renewal of Hope

Little engine that could

Serious conviction 

To making myself good

Dry riverbed with sand

Dry riverbed with sand

Hourglasses emptied out

Time passing and passed up

Silence replacing shout

We rebuild from storms yet

No gold left to be mined

Move on, try not to be

Deficiency defined

Still connecting the plots

Still connecting the plots

To complete your image

Your mascot of love was

Purely playing scrimmage 

Professing your greatness

While my faults all the buzz

You stopped looking for me

But you knew where I was

World fury stealing days

World fury stealing days

In the swirl standing still

Valleys populating

Houses dotting uphill

Ripples make silent waves

Nesting but not nestled

Futures are unfurnished

And truth sadly wrestled

Where is an overture

Where is an overture

Yearning to cross a stream

A river, an ocean

The improbable dream

I’m final act AWOL

Through graveyards and forest

Looking for new life and

Fresh starts that are morest 

Quirks of joy on loose springs

Quirks of joy on loose springs

In all directions sprung

Fireworks, swarms of starlings

Bursts of speaking in tongue

Out of seriousness 

Even potential dark

Happiness in moments

Igniting random spark

Releasing to abstract

Releasing to abstract

Building blocks broken wide

Foundation stones rocking

Frame missing side to side

Peaceful constitution 

Clouds dispersing in sky

At first the sun then moon

Brighten the answer why

So soon the month of June

So soon the month of June

Cottonwood falling snow

Chandelier yellowwood 

Now the youngest of know

Slabs of stones are warming

The brighter green aglow

The tadpoles are teeming

Fawns following their doe

Resources replenished

Resources replenished 

Trees and spaces between

Staring upward wiser

Where squirrels nest and dream

The openness widens

Day into tomorrow 

The sky an ocean dip

The sun yellow yarrow

Were we just sharing air

Were we just sharing air

Did wave or wind persist

People peeling without

An argument or fist

Silent bubbles bouncing

Out of frame and the days

Whatever happened to

What brought our parting ways

Melancholy refrain

Melancholy refrain

Rain rising from the street

Back up to the clouds where

The skies and darkness meet

The weak stemmed peonies 

The saturated green

Red robins robbing worms

Overwhelm to serene

We turn around and years

We turn around and years

Ships becoming lifeboats

Happy for surviving

And the wisdom it gloats

Still embracing voyage

Not resigned to memoir

Inviting the ocean

Southern Cross and North Star 

Internal lightning strike

Internal lightning strike

Knowing the mark was made

Clouds cannot make hard turns

The sky cannot cast shade

But my body thunders

Rain pouring through my veins

Followed by a cold front

And change in weathervanes

Not a mountain or slope

Not a mountain or slope

Touches of forest stretch

A plateau promising

Yawns of a pencil sketch

Sleeping simplicity 

Our self-conscious breathing

Swallows are sweeping both

Our abandoned sheathing 

Twenty-three years ago

Twenty-three years ago

On a Tuesday evening

Meeting with Ray Justice

Just before your leaving

Close to eight o’clock and

Yellowwood tree flowers

Hung like bright chandeliers 

To light the darkest hours

Emptying my pockets

Emptying my pockets

Dreams became souvenirs 

Currency not spent might

As well be boutonnières

Tightening of the belt

And the shoelaces tied

Prepared for day to day

But not should have or I’d 

A before before me

A before before me

Green as the start of Spring

Hopeful as a robin

Or a migrating wing

The wiser eye still sealed

The heart not as refined

Changing and grappling to

Widen the open mind

The contents of the World

The contents of the World

Tsunami in the heart

The calmness of Brahms breath

Turns to Rite of Spring start

Puncturing peace with push

That will not stop until

I find my sense of self

Amongst the overfill 

Enthusiasm’s rope

Enthusiasm’s rope

My old hands are sweating 

Stalling in the climb I’m 

Assessing my fretting 

Adrenaline shedding

Purpose into question

Must chinny up inches

Satisfy ascension 

Rain falling without sound

Rain falling without sound

Blurred reflections in black

As if love was napping

And colors will come back

Time passing glance to glance

Footsteps soft as pale light

Attention to detail

Now lost in some mere trite

Cape Horn’s narcissism

Cape Horn’s narcissism 

Was disguised as morale

I’ve become gray rock in

The Panama Canal

Another Magellan

May set sail and head south

No pledge of allegiance 

Will billow from my mouth

New mornings are so old

New mornings are so old

We are fresh out the gate

Permission to forget

Excitement to create

And again and again

The gallant march and dirge

Fragmentation and forge

Resignation and urge

It was your breath in mine

It was your breath in mine

Concentric circles reigned

Then out of your shadow

My center tree regrained 

And the mark in the bark 

Time and growth helped to heal

Understanding it was 

My empathy and feel

Emerging emotions

Emerging emotions

Like Jackson Pollock paints

Or Mark Rothko layers

Of both boldness and faints

Still feeling the rush of

Abstract and undefined

Waiting for clarity

A Vermeer or refined

In the great compression

In the great compression 

A dried flower fighting

The beauty and scent of

The new and inviting 

Like thin tissue paper

Imagine and feel days

When it was offering

Its nectar and amaze

Grown so tall that so few

Grown so tall that so few

Can climb to trim the crown

Wild and untamable

Live life until sawed down

Avenues like sun rays 

Reach further out beyond

Change with the ease of breeze

Grow with the flare of frond

We witnessed and parted

We witnessed and parted

Perhaps the imprints left

Faded as time washed the

Great reality theft

A fall from a high shelf

Or the pedestal shake

Some events are still as

Fresh as this morning’s break

Someone just beginning

Someone just beginning 

My words not holding weight

Easier said than done

And long washed from my slate

Like Everest calling

Death Valley far away

Strive for the first base camp!

What is it that you say?

Life without normalcy

Life without normalcy

Undefinable roots

Twists in the grain and bark

And misunderstood fruits

Sole intention of be

Having pi in the math

Stirring the elements

To create my own path

Morning with painted light

Morning with painted light

Loose sheets of blank paper

Winter leaves a desert

Across its long taper

First the bulbs then bushes

Then the trees joining in

All the while evergreens

Guard steady with a grin 

No use in worrying

No use in worrying

Like dried blood in the ear

This is not the moment

This may not be the year

Sketchy plans tomorrow

The store in a few days

Rain always forecasted 

Time is never a maze

We reached the horizon

We reached the horizon

From there we could clearly

See all the waiting dreams 

From afar loved dearly

And their beckoning call

Collective whispers shout

We are here and will wait

This is your soul’s about

Swallowing the darkness

Swallowing the darkness

And gardening the bleak

Building daily structures

So Life muscles won’t weak

We are together in

Slowness and in repair

Sketches into paintings

And small steps into stair

In a wider wonder

In a wider wonder

The questions are flooding

And in this Overwhelm

No fruit and all budding

Back to the thinner line

So hard to walk narrow

Reaching for ideals and

Aiming high the arrow

Staring at the eclipse

Staring at the eclipse

The moon can’t fully block

No warmth and no light just

A dark side and some rock

In a brief film noir

The city lights are fooled 

It took me years but now

I am completely schooled

Each day life opens up

Each day life opens up

Be it mountain or plain

Are we not together 

From hectic to mundane

For fireworks and rainfalls

Watching sparrows make nest

Will the red tanagers

Pass through this year for rest

And so what is the worth

And so what is the worth

If profound should be found

Personal victory

Still silent in the sound

And so the ribbon breaks

With no one in the stands

Pure gratification 

The run-on sentence and’s

In a gray April rain

In a gray April rain

On a road heading east

Crossroads bridge above us

No cloud breaks in the least

Cocooning in clothing

Yet, still a holiday

Momentum of moments

What else is there to say

My compassionate heart

My compassionate heart

It came with forgiveness 

The harshness hammered out

Between us, an isthmus 

Sorry for your sadness

And for such a hard blow

What is lost forever

Just wanted you to know

On a red clover bloom

On a red clover bloom

My wings up in prayer

On the foot of a hill

Somewhere in a nowhere

Like a gravestone where time

Has worn away the name

A shout without echo

Unrecorded exclaim

Courting oblivion

Courting oblivion

Slow dancing with one hand

On the backside of joy

At the end of a spand

Requesting a polka

Or perhaps a high leap

I am not a tulip

Closing at night to sleep

Generations and waves

Generations and waves

Between us and eyes fall

We can never be owned

And yet we miss the call

Flowers grow in grasses

Sometimes the stream still swells

The ferns multiply and

Years without parallels

The only blue is sky

The only blue is sky

Riddles left to guesses

The feet are not heavy

Past and future lesses 

Red sunset, yellow rise

Green about to begin

While the world is whooshing 

Saying yes, let it in

Living on the bias

Living on the bias

Without the fabric rail

Like the string on a kite 

That angles to the tail

Not the road less taken

There never was a road

Hansel and Gretel’s crumbs

Not seeds that could be sowed

Across a grand canyon

Across a grand canyon

The river will not rise

In its final sunset

As the waterbed dries

There are answers in voids

The absence of carving

Homecoming to farmland

To thrive and end starving

Permission not granted

Permission not granted

Even with a checkmate

No matter the winning

Self-value will not grate

Rug pulled out from under

Shouts of a sky falling

I know who I am, no

Matter the name calling

A day with finial

A day with finial

The treble clef singing

Blossoms and blooms bursting

Nesting birds upbringing

Clouds still on still waters

Night planes now heading west

Chasing the sunlight while

We slowly turn to rest

Beyond failed momentum

Beyond failed momentum

Magnolias too soon

Dismal expectations 

Not the bright stars but moon

Galileo perplexed

Icarus on the couch

Albatross for dinner

Laughing hyenas grouch

Uninvited sunlight

Uninvited sunlight

On the seat of our chair 

Making great company

Bringing brightness to air

But with this cloud rolling 

Light abruptly parted

No more visits today

The night so uncharted 

A briefness, the landscape

A briefness, the landscape

Became words and then lines

Breathing in the bustle

From highways to the vines

The push of Spring rising

Like hostas in my legs

Sensing new beginnings,

Destinations and eggs

My compassionate heart

My compassionate heart

Left too long on the vine

Overripe and dropping 

Unsuitable for wine

Regrettably lapsing

Tomorrow shows no sign

Of better feelings or

Any hope of incline

A nothing souvenir

A nothing souvenir

Like a worn pair of shoes

As lasting as rainbows 

Deeper than ocean blues

A never forgotten 

A meaning no other

A definition or

An exact twin brother 

Where is divinity

Where is divinity 

Halos are hollow rings

Prayers are merely words

Promises broken wings

Reality ruling

Conquering moments still

Fantasy is fiction

The truth a stronger will

Pure morning is a sketch

Pure morning is a sketch

Spring’s paint brush tip touching

Just as magnolias 

Free themselves from clutching

Prior to profusion

Or late summer bleaching

But in the roots and limbs

Out from nowhere reaching

Feelings pouring like paint

Feelings pouring like paint

Not a color lacking

Their mixing making a

Graduated blacking

But full transparency

By standing in the light

All my feelings mix and

Together they make white

Rhizomes wriggle below

Rhizomes wriggle below

Worse than wild strawberries 

Or the clever clover

Neither design varies

Quiet creepers choking

Boundaries must be set

Like potting bamboo to

Remove the pending threat

Happy without moonlight

Happy without moonlight

Sunny days are aglow

Raindrops falling sparkle

The banished moon, skid-row

Freezing cold in the shade

Or taking the sun’s warmth

Without giving any

Or providing true north

The pages are flying

The pages are flying

Spineless book pages stack

Stalagmites of wood pulp

Tall trees we can’t get back

In the midst of mundane

That clover, a lone oak

An individual 

Appearing like some bloke

The sky does not answer

The sky does not answer

The stars too far to hear

The sun took Icarus

The ground all those too dear

An empty Big Dipper

In the search for greater

But it’s my contentment 

Life as Art curator

Memory oasis

Memory oasis

Have I made this mirage

Covered graffiti with

Watercolor collage

Is it all forgotten 

The full moon a crescent 

Has time distorted time

Chaos calmly pleasant

To turn around and gone

To turn around and gone

Distance already struck

Cowering darkness cloaks

In the forever stuck

Letting go and changing

To imagine then strive

To celebrate and cheer

In this moment alive

Poems are not on the

Poems are not on the

Periodic table

Personal elements

Steady or unstable

They are not DNA

They are glimpses and trace 

And not definitions 

But mere moments of space

The days spent retracing

The days spent retracing

Filled with clouds and downpours 

And evaporation’s

Invisible vapors

Building campfires of thoughts

No canopy cover

New possibilities 

A frontier discover 

Enlightenment beacon

Enlightenment beacon

Seeking nature’s repair

Reemerging season

Forward progress declare

My heart needs a tuning

The world strumming a chord

Cirrus clouds returning

All shades of green restored 

All the bells are broken

All the bells are broken

The dance steps are stumbles

Three-legged race over

Manhole cover rumbles

The background now foreground 

Constellations unhinge

The sun is not setting

Just the world in a spin

Revelry rising up

Revelry rising up

Declaration of we

Our bejeweled bonanza 

Bright as glints on a sea

Our prosperity selves

Generous avenues

Opportunity floods

Beginnings and renews

A pin oak tree became

A pin oak tree became

Twisted wisteria

Before our eyes slowly

With time superior

Yet our hands together 

Constant compassion

Out true love never dies 

Or falls out of fashion

Holding our breath longer

Holding our breath longer

No deeper can we go

A life without sunlight

In the waters below

Past the hammered waves and

Below the squinting burst

Plunging past the pressure

Into the great immerse

In the unevenness

In the unevenness

Unfair play in private 

The tar and feathering

The hijack and pirate

In level playing fields

A witness referee

Then your dissonance turns

To open harmony

Hearing my own echo

Hearing my own echo

Neither I nor mountain 

Changed coordinates like

Tossed coins in a fountain 

The echo on return

Now has lesser meaning 

I opt to duck since the

Mountain refused leaning

Images failing to

Images failing to

Find annunciation 

A foreign language with

Only punctuation 

A pause, exclamation 

The long burning question

The landscape answering

Words just mere impression 

Chasing the long cherished

Chasing the long cherished

The glimmers of meaning

The we definitions 

The objects of keening

Unmistakably us

Our strange flowers blooming

Constellation hoarding

Captive fireworks booming

It is our afternoons

It is our afternoons

I would etch into plates

The reprints and recalls

From sun high to set lates

Clouds and trees in script scrolls 

The roadway unspooled threads

The ease and exercise

From daffodils to sleds

Cornucopia flames

Cornucopia flames

Passion the burning fuel

And love using all names

No arrow, key, or tool

Acres of soil wrapping

Dreams beyond doming blue

Mountains overlapping

Nature is always new