Wednesday, September 30, 2015

with a faded old newspaper
and a jar of magic dust
I'll make us a boat
to sail the stars
swim with the comets
and dock at the moon
get lost in the reef
of Saturn's ring
where nothing here
will mean a thing
to explorers of galaxies 
too distant to chart
when the darkness
is only the waters that flow 
closer toward the light
and imagination 
the wind we catch
that billows our sails
and carries our hearts

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

from last night

there was so much I tried
to tell you tonight
but my head and my heart
made a hypocrite of me
and the truth was
there was no one truth
to tell
but only sentiments
and longings
to die of thirst
rather than poison the well
on the days my hands
feel unclean
or than muddy oasis 
with tears from spite
when water has been
denied

Monday, September 28, 2015

meet me through the swinging door
on the bare board wooden floor
of a tavern called Valhalla
ask me to dance or I'll ask you
just so I can step in close
let the story of my eyes unfold
slowly through the mascara 
and the smoke
and a song from a whiskey jack throat
of a Hank Williams never met the end
of this or any road
and I won't have to ask your name 
cause there's no truths or lies
to how reality should best be tamed
when we've both left the world behind
when it don't matter any way
whether we're the damned 
or we're the saints
or just the ghosts from inside a dream
dancing through some wayside weary 
backwoods heaven
under a burned out neon sign
that used to read Valhalla


Sunday, September 27, 2015

let my heart be like
the slowly opening eye
gently in the force
of syzygy 
that wakes up at
the dawning of the night
to remember the secret
of living with the stars:

that light must be embraced 
but also let to pass
to bear forth the sacred
of the source
to return 
illumination


Saturday, September 26, 2015

you were keeping time
dancing through
my heart and mind
sweet tangible as fire
spilling forth like warmth
in showers
of radiance belonged 
to stars
from places 
this world can never
cool with night
but only make 
more bright
 
and the days
I couldn't see
what your spirit
does ignite
are only the days
I forgot to open up
my eyes
because you were there
before you were
and when you're not
you're dancing still
as fire in the heart
combusting doubt 
to truth of dream

Friday, September 25, 2015

the stars picked up
what I forgot
and held it in their light
so that what was not
remembered
was
and did not go away
into the vacuum
of what gets lost
inside the black holes of
the dark side of 
the interverse
and when I opened up
my eyes
they sent it raining down
to consciousness again
the transcendence 
of the cosmic stream
that ebbs and flows 
connecting all through us
that hours may forget
for what the hands of time
are powerless to hold
but the loss of recollection
can never fade away
Well then, I guess this one does not want to wait, but says it ought to be posted early:

I just want to 
watch you fly
shine through 
the darkness
like distant fire
with light that inspires
wings to unfold
across the sky

if time is relative
it's in relation
to what takes
each moment
to make the choice 
of mutual orbitation
in the way the stars
have danced

and practice love
not as a kite


Thursday, September 24, 2015

I was the curious girl
who plucked the hands
from the face of the clock
like wings from off the back
of the helpless fly
just to say I could

but when they fell 
like ashes that 
could not go back
I learned the price
of impulse without
the understanding
and tried in frustration
to put the mark 
to time again
with the ticking of the heart
when all the spirit wanted
was a place to live 
outside the confines
of laws wrote to this world
to make me a girl
with sight to see
transcendent of the days
gone by

yet I's too scared to scatter
the human perceptions
to the wind
for fear I might forget
where I had been
and where I've yet to be

but when the tears
fell past my cheeks
lamenting what was lost
imprisoned in the box
of finite cells on calendars
all locked into the day
they touched the pile of ash
of what was plucked
and on the floor
and reawakened 
the fragile of the broken hands
to wings of dragonflies

that spiralled through the dream
to take the music of the heart
to flutter in your chest
with promises that time is freed
not from the careless whims
of a child set to discover
how far it is that she could go
but from the woman 
who gives these 
moments wings
and lets what love will be
alone so it may learn to fly 

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

I sang with a voice 
that was always mine
but had yet to be
unearthed
from the damp soil
of my subterranean heart 
like a seed that suddenly
bloomed up 
through my throat
and turned me to a willow
in the breeze
bending to touch the earth
and reaching with longing
for the sky
cause no one remembers
how to hear the songs
of trees
but the ones still
living in the stars
and when the song 
was not enough
to call you to the dream
I placed my voice
inside the woven veins
of a single golden leaf
then blew it from the limb
and sent it on the wind
that every bare branch
against the sky
or leaf found under foot
could be a hope instead
for what seeks its way to you
and what will bloom again
for the chance to draw you
to the dream




Tuesday, September 22, 2015

contemplating the
calculations of love
the equations lovers make
factoring involuntary 
chemical reactions
with practicality 
and what the payout is
love letters and years and poems
and someone better to be
without having to go
inside to purge the 
darkness out
roles to star
that lift us from 
the insignificant
we've been programmed
we have to be
without a story
that lifts us from
the whole
but I don't believe
there's a reason 
in everything
only a meaning that can
be found in all
so when I stop to think
of love that's factored down
with nothing to account
for what the gains might be
I see not the hopelessness
of all that's missing
from the page
only what is clearly there
distilled to all it needs to be
I see only love

Monday, September 21, 2015

I surrendered to the dream
when first I closed my eyes
before the tranquil found the flesh
when the heart called out 
for a dangerous kind of night
for a mermaid who thought
she could lead a marching band
all through city streets
like asphalt could turn 
to waves and foam
and traffic jams to schools of fish
just a girl with a fearless wish
to go beyond control
transcending what the real calls real
with stars that would burn so bright
they'd outshine the neon skies
but the fanfare was not the place
to find the music or the light
inside this kind of dream
so I held my breath and sank below
to where the maestros make music
in the stations of underground
beneath the feet of passersby 
who catch only the notion of the notes
through the vents but cannot hear
the clarity of the sweetest sounds
that float like ghosts invisible but free
but this is where the songs await
for those who dare to go below
the surface and the common seen
inside the tunnel where songs composed 
are written in the blood of dreams
and starlight can best be found
in darkness behind closed eyes
and surrender to this dream

Sunday, September 20, 2015

I love you like the night that first
the stars drew up a girl's fresh eyes
and poured their distant wonder
into the curiosity of her heart

I love you through the silent clouds
that mask the constant of the light
without questioning what the stars might see
from where they stare in distant dark

I love you like persistent heavens
restore the girl to woman's heart
that reasons all amazement down
until the light strikes curious into her eyes 
that thirst for wonder still

Saturday, September 12, 2015

no one stands eternity
at the wall
who doesn't dream for
the folded arms of gates 
to open one day wide

no one stands on the other side
without wonder laced 
with envy for each bird 
who takes his flight 
for granted past 
the great divide

no one stands through silence
and all the sun and all the rain
to sing with songs
that bricks blunt dull 
with the thickness
of their mortared hide
without music in their heart

no one stands 
at the wall 
of impossibilities
who doesn't love
what's standing on 
the other side
when there lies
a whole wide world
where they could be

Friday, September 11, 2015

I never meant to hurt you
I only came to offer love
but somewhere along the way
self-preservation asked me to survive 
as the sky fell on my head
like saying there's no sky at all
could stay impending doom
like refusing to wish on stars
would mean the brilliance
could not fall down
from the heavens up above
like there was anything
beyond these words
that could be enough surrender
for the moon to see the dim light here
pleading from the atrophy 
of this malignant heart
trying to prove its love

even a bird with broken wings,
if still she finds the courage to sing...
somewhere in her heart she's free

She Commands the Tides



she commands the tides
that can carry 
a man to sea
not to drown him
in the depths
but cradle in the bay
and wash him with 
the gentle kiss
of waves that fall like
children's dreams
as rain to pillows
soft as tears
mercy trickled
from the stars
that know
what heavens see

she holds the moon 
between her hands
the way she takes
his sailor's heart 
as life that beats
inside her ribs
to save him from
the ebb that goes
and hold it from
the tide

and when the storms
come rolling on
and swimming
wanes too weak
she sinks below 
the surface here
beneath what men perceive
to pass enchantments
to his mouth
to teach him how to breathe

she mutes the songs
that sirens sing 
and blunts the edge
of sharken teeth
with half the warmth
of woman's love
and half the passion
of the fire
enwrapped inside 
the dragon's scales 
that guards the girl beneath

she dives for treasures
through the dark 
without the dread of depth 
to dig below
the sands of time
for memories lost
when came the wreck
and all the pearls 
named for their love
they surrendered 
to the sea 
to keep from buccaneers 
to keep from pirates' reach
she brings them to
the surface now 
to string in strands of hope
of precious on a future's thread
to keep them both afloat

cause she's commander
of the tides 
and holder of the moon
the mythical reflection
that only can be seen
when waters calm
to eerie still 
and all is fantasy 
imprisoned in the far beyond
and locked inside 
a distant dream