Speak

curious, the assumption
we have things to say.

let us ominously juxtapose:
we are too bored to stay,
too busy to go.

entertain this for a space.
what things have we to say?
truth? as told
by Kennedy or Keats?
laughably i propose
we continue to juxtapose:
speak beauty to power!

no, no--call this unintended consequence
of our ancestors' lofty dreams for what it is.
the educated masses remain illiterate:
despite our many means to say them,
we have no things to say.




october 2013

Salutation

Time cycles on; a grey fall afternoon approaches

several years hence

in which the leaves will carry on the wind

our many current cares forgotten.
  

Live in that crystal time

where the troubles of our many morning horrors

are but stains upon some long-discarded dress.

Disasters come and go; let love, and strength, and grace

remain--let life be sweet, for all the time between

is either sweet, or nothing.

September 2013

release

"go live your life--"
and like a plate-glass shatter
let shards fall to nothingness,
new insignificance:
future's dust, from which
this current joy
escapes!



june 2013

channels

one wide street runs in a marble city
beneath some layers of crossing paths:
lofted boulevards, casting shadows
of a permanent demeanor on the road.
early morning is crisp and still.
this chiseled channel, cut into place
by urgent human rivers long since dry
speaks dark and lonesome things
to the dusty traveler crossing through.
now and then a glimpse, a brief mirage
of some slim motion, far and small--
menaces: a clinging relic
kept vital, here among such silent ruins
which busy Life abandoned long ago.
and abandons still. the dawning city
settles back into its shaded peace.




june 2013

rejoice!

when a thing is bitter

midst the swim-world hallucination

as dark times perceived descend: then

my skeptic's sword is raised in your defense--

doubt! ever doubt, and 

more so when the ground is hard!

cast your doubter's eye upon the darkness,

scoff the self-appointed sour side of things.

seize blind joy, relish in the strength of innocent 

oblivion!  for what can they do to such as we?

what can they do to us?

we need not acknowledge 

these unproven marks we see upon the wall.

omit this common wise dismay!  seize joy 

and foolish doubt: for cold and bitter ground

the skeptic's blade will ever turn.

January 2013