Poor One - with audio

audio link

When you're a poor one
Nobody loves you
When you're a poor one
There's no one to care
When you're a poor one
Everyone is above you
When you're a poor one
You may collect welfare
When you're a poor one
To be sickly is common
When you're a poor one
Idiot's your name
When you're a poor one
You're ugly, downtrodden
When you're a poor one
 Living's your game
When you're a poor one
Your Stomach is empty
When you're a poor one
The world is but pain
When you're a poor one
You weather winds wintry
When you're a poor one
You're cold in the rain
When you're a poor one
All you know is desire
When you're a poor one
No one sees you as human
When you're a poor one
You warm by campfire
When you're a poor one
You sleep where you can
When you're a poor one
Your wealth is in heaven
When you're a poor one
You walk with cold feet
When you're a poor one
Your life is unleaven 
When you're a poor one
You hate man's conceit
When you're a poor one
Lost dogs hang around you
When you're a poor one
You give them a name
When you're a poor one
You own what is with you
When you're a poor one
You hide on a train
When you're a poor one
You steal what will feed you
When you're a poor one
You eat handout meals
When you're a poor one
G-d's always beside you
When you're a poor one
Death's kicking your heels
When you're a poor one
Life is quite lonely
When you're a poor one
You have little mirth 
When you're a poor one
There's happiness only
When you're a poor one
 Buried in earth.

Ode To Summer - audio link

audio link

This is for roses, and junipers
All things that grow

For mint and dewy clover
To days and nights going slow

Dandelions, and  Daisies
Kisses under moonlight's glow

Sun in the trees
Hot afternoons,
Sugary Ice teas

Cold lemonade
Warm friendships
In the cool of shade
For all little children
Who run in the glade

Buzzing bees
Sunflower seeds

Cows that say
Moo to passersby
Corn that cracks
In the damp blue sky

Robins and Geese
Hawks and Blue Jays

Windy flaxen grass
Oats a whistling
Old pond, green moss
Turtles and frogs listening

Rain falling fast
Crystal clear
Coming down at last
Far and near

Ice cold springs
Ringing through the forest
Tiny cricket sings
With cicadas and locusts

In ferns, under the bottlebrushes
Lay warm moose and calf
Red Foxes jump in the deep rushes
While squirrels run off to nap

Forest green, antlers crest,
Hidden creatures eyes
In hedge, hole and nest

There out to spy,
To play,
To feed,
To rest

Shorts, Fragments, and Thoughts

JOY
Joy is a bunny hopping about
Inside one's breast
Joy is bubbles of laughter
Waiting to escape a smile
Joy is light turned into breath
Shining out with each sigh
Joy is brightness unhidden
An uncontainable energy
Joy reaches beyond the stars
Unfathomed, is it's power


POTATOES AND EGGS
Potatoes and eggs (big breath in)
Sniffin in a whiff
Breathin in the goodness
Knowin I'm gonna have more
Than what the Doctor says I shouldes
Sour cream and muffin
One banana, orange juice
Down I am stuffing
Mmmmmm, mmmmm!
Yummy, yummy!
I just wanna say
Thank you mummy!

A BOOK
A book is to be read
With some tea
And some bread

Hid like a crook,
In a nook,
In a bed

With a fire nearby
A tear in your eye
Like a granny

Of wise quiet mind
Then comes slumber
Gentle and kind


THE PINE TREE AND THE LAMP POST
Tonight I chanced upon a pine tree
Chatting with a lamppost dressed in black
I'm trimmed straight and lean
The lamppost said
I'm somewhat in between
Said the pine
With that they swayed and chuckled gustily

KITTY

Pretty kitty kit cat

He’s so little and fat

He’s a pretty kit, kitty kit, kitty kit

Pretty kit kitty Cat

Pretty Kitty Kit cat

Orange and round just like that

Friendly purring on my lap

He’s a pretty kit cat

Pretty Kitty kit cat

At the window mewing this way and that

Eats his food then takes a nap

Pretty kitty kit cat

Pretty Kitty kit Cat

Long fur upon his back

His tail it swishes and swishes it swishes

He’s a pretty kit cat

See him crouching in the yard looking pouty

Spying out a lizard or a mousy for his mouthy

He’s eating grass, then goes stalking on a sortie

Finding feral felines for a garden brawling party

Pretty kitty kit cat

Chasing string and swatting a gnat

Pouncing on a cricket, stopping to chat

Pretty kitty kit cat

Pretty kitty kit cat

Stretching in the sun laying flat

Scratch his neck with head cocked back

Tell him he's a pretty kit cat, for

He’s a pretty kit, kitty kit, kitty kit,
kitty kit, kitty kit, kitty kit, kitty kit,

Pretty kit, kitty kit, pretty kit, kitty kit

Pretty kit, kit-ty cat!

PEGGY
Peggy Peggy Peggy
Lovely shining Peggy
Dancing for donuts
Smiling for reggae
Turning and twisting
Sunny and smiling
To fun just insisting
Giggly, sweet, beguiling
Jumping with bounce
I love you pretty Peggy
Every little ounce

CAW CAW MR. CROW
Caw Caw Mr. Crow
Looking for a bit of cherry,
Perhaps some bread-crust,
Special sun-arrayed foil,
Or a peanut shell
For tender morsels
Sumptuous delicacies,
And shiny relics
Such as these
You always come
In evening dress,
Black Coat and tails
Day or Night
Such stately manner
How very proper
You are sir
Caw Caw Mr. Crow
Caw Caw!

ALL THE SONGS
All the songs in the willful wind
Belong to Him Who created them
All the songs in the willful wind
Belong to him who lets them in

The melodies that play within

Hearts of loving kindness bring

Ringing joyful dances to begin

Fiery storms raining precious gems

ENCRYPTED WORDS
Encrypted words
Flew like Humming birds
In the heart of the Louvre,
Aujourd'hui et toujours mon ami
Ideas like melodies
Kisses spent in kind
Make admiring minds
Want to see
Flower and buzzing bee
La vision de l'art
Vie, amour, printemps a nouveau... ,

TRUST IN LOVE
Trust in love
Love in trust
G-d is love
Give to love
Love to give
Love and live
There is peace in love
A gentle urging to kindness


NOVEMBER SATURDAY
Looking at the windowsill
Candles fluttering warm light
There is great pleasure being inside
Thinking lazy thoughts
On this November Saturday
These rich and drifting moments
Are a gift from on high.


WRECKING BALL
I've hurt someone
Now like a wrecking ball inside me
Again and again each memory
Of the people that I've hurt
Slams and hollows this one out
Like an old abandoned building

What a conceited ass
I have become
My hands reach out
All they find is rubble
My nostrils fill with smoke and dust
Ashes and sulfur are my accusers

Tears lay choking and thrashing
Somewhere deep within
Damn the cold stillness
In the granite quarry
Of a pride cramped belly

A balloon filled with putrid air
A glove with no hand to take it
A cloud without rain

As my silence groans

In the growing darkness

Of empty words and

Broken promises

Trampled love and

Shattered relationships 

Echos, of what was,

And what might have been.

ROLLED FORTH IN PEACE

The notes
Of the rock-band
Were frayed
And clashed
Until they shook
My whole being
In seeming
Reminiscence
Of the earthquake
Earlier that day
But all the while
My heart
Like many waters
Of the oceans
Rolled forth
In peace

SLIPPING SANDS
When slipping sands all turn to stone
When all there is to know is known
By reason that we may not cherish
All in this world will perish
No stone or ground left unturned
Every life, and every home
With crackling trumpet sound
The mighty heavens shall abound
Messiah is come in Glory!



FRAGRANT INCENSE
Tired shadows fled away
From the flowering pink Dawn
Dust spores collided and collected
Landing with a deafening silence
On the Venetian blinds and bookshelves
Sunlight broke in through the window pane
To offer a warm coat and a cheery smile
The room glowed as if suddenly alive
Awash in yellow and refracted colors of the rainbow
My soul felt like hot maple syrup
As I read God's words eternal
Outside the wind mocked and howled
Inside a spirit gave thanks and sang praises
Rising slowly upward like a fragrant incense


GYPSY
Gypsy Horse
Shiny silk auburn
Sleek liquid marble
Passing thunder on the earth
Born of a grace and wildness
Pensive, restless, rippling dignity

TINY DANCER
There came a tiny dancer
A twinkling in my eye
Kind words were sent a prancing
More comely by and by
The air was light and fancy
Fair music was her hair
Fierce winds her fanfare coming
Her farewell sweet breezes were



QUIPS and TIPS

OCEAN AND FLOWER
Even the mightiest ocean
Soothes the ear and
Humbly licks the shore

Every Orchid
No matter how beautiful
Starts in the dirt

PASSIONATE INTENTIONS
A good thought is a fair and noble flight
But a good action is virtue
Emotions not expressed in day to day life
Are often expressed in dreams
Don't hold back your emotions and
You will sleep better at night

Passion is most well expressed
When love for another is given action
Self love, on the other hand
Is only a dim reflection of this
Like the Sun and the moon
Both are necessary


WHAT WHISPERS THE WIND
What whispers the wind
To leaves that tremble
What says the rock
As waters fall

Beauty whispers the wind
Gushing, rushing, sparkling
Beauty, sounds the stone.

NEW BEGINNING
A new beginning,
When one is finished
Takes faith
Continuing on
Requires Hope
These allow the flower
To stand again
After the storm
And lasting fruit
Falls from the tree
Of Love

RIPPLE
A planet cannot change orbit
Without effecting the universe
Even though at first
the change remains unseen

THE COCK CROWS
The cock crows
Nudged by the unseen
So that the world
Might know
That all
Have been cared for
During the night


DESIRE ASK ASCEND
Food loses its flavor
When there is no one
To share it with

As stones are for skipping
So words are for winning
The heart of a lovesick soul

The biggest mountains
Are climbed one step
At a time



EPIGRAM TRIO
The man undressed
Is distressed

Teachers seldom do
What they teach others to

(ON COMPUTERS)
The green grass won't grow
Where the green glass glows 

PLUS ONE
Life is a serial to be consumed. 


REFLECT AND REMEMBER
The greatest plagues
Attack not the body
But the mind

Memory is a dancer
Just beyond my reach
So it is I am learning to dance


LIFE AND LIVING
Death comes soon enough
No need to lie and wait
One block falls another is set in its place
A baby is born an old man dies

Swimming in the tides
Is not a task of leisure
It is however one way
of telling the live fish
from the dead

STAGECOACH
Discipline is a carriage
For a noble heart

Courage is grease
For the axle of calm

Love is the driver
Guiding and encouraging

Faith is the passenger
Borne the bumpy ride

Hope is the horse
Pulling us forward

Inspiration is the Creator's hand
Providing water, food, rest and strength.


THE ANIMALS
The fox once caught
Will try to convince
His captor that he
Is the one ensnared

A pig for a sty
A ring for his nose
A laborer wallowing
In food and mud
A slaughter

The old bear
Will not leave the trash
Unless shot
He dies a slow
Ugly death
Yet allow him to live
Again and Again
To the trash he goes
Close by the house
Until one day
A life is taken

A lions life
Is a lonely one

LIFE AND LOVE
Life an love are free
What we do with them
May cost us our time
Patience and many other's help

ON WRITING
Writing is a type of mania
But without those less desirable
side affects of other self indulgent
behaviors. It helps one to shed the
straight jacket and washes cool
The burning fires of the soul -
Refreshing ever those musty places
once trapped deep within -
Those subterranean soundings.

Playhouse - with audio

 audio link

In memory of the old Stephens Playhouse the morning after it burned to the ground.
Shakespeare's Tempest had just finished the eve of the fire.

Playhouse
Theatre and Smoke
Storm and Fire
Cold and Heat
Spirit and Passion
Heart and Soul
Tempest and Players
Play and Playwright
Senses and Substance
Time and Season
Change and Moments
Ashes and Black
Dew and Green

Monday April 14th 1980

Okoboji - with audio

audio link

The sky tonight is fabulous,
Already, three shooting stars have crossed the heavens
Looking on further a small plane is sputtering and going down.
The updrafts from the lakes are famously deadly,
The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly and many like them
Have fallen from the skies here
And more than the music has been lost.
Okoboji folks tend to be generally happy,
Blond haired blue eyed Viking roses.
As the fair and ruddy work the land, they are offset,
Like the placidly dripping hot cloudy and sunny blue heaven days
Set against the violently black tornadoes and sickly
Green faced electrical storms as if sent from the devil himself,
By the midnight colored Romany Gypsies, who pave the roads,
Work carnivals and sell used means of transportation.
The land here oozes earthy, perspiring
Gopher, mouse and loon filled plains
And it's fresh lakes and air,
Covered in green trees and corn fields,
Are wonderful and refreshing.
There is always a breeze blowing.
Sometimes when looking across the lane from the ranch
A social party of cows can be found grazing.
A little down the road is a farmhouse on some property.
An old woman is there, happy and full of life,
Painting the house, riding the tractor plowing the fields,
Shooting groundhogs, and providing lemonade for young dandies.
The farmhouse stands like an old wise man
One might read about in a fairytale.
Gray faded peeling paint to match
The enchanting drifting gray of smooth dead trees,
That draws one's whole being into them at a glance.
Dancing, whistling, whispering, shushing;
Wheat, barley and oats add blowing rhythm to the scene
Majestic twin silos stand watch over the house and barnyard,
And seem to be spying on the people; secretly, silently.
It is indescribable the way the sky loves the land here
Embracing or fighting with mauve sunrises,
Red lavender purple sunsets, angry dark storm clouds,
Only to be broken up by bright yellow humid sunshine.
And just when the mind tells the eyes and soul that
Perhaps one should start to carry on with some activity of the day;
Colored urgent by that social tempo, time,
A person find that he or she has been somehow brush-stroked
Onto and into the textured canvas of the landscape.
Part of the self embraces and absorbs the experience
Taking lusty breaths, while the child inside explores
With energetic saturating, seeping curiosity it's every sensation;
Swimming in lakes, running on dusty roads,
Floating in the flowing grasses, tumbling through the breezes,
Chewing on a weed while laying on the table like horizon,
And feeling the smell of the lands damp dark
sand seeded soil flee, falling through dirt leaking hands-
SIFFFFFFT ....................-
Ah,
Turn and walk away,
The moment is over.

Perfect Little Neighborhood - with audio

audio link

I know of a perfect little neighborhood
With perfect little streets
Well walked I, the flowered paths
Perchance there a perfect one to greet
But all with averted eyes and minds
Smile vacantly and follow their lovely little feet
With cleanest clean and whitest white
Each one carries along
All ideas correct and right
In saccharin solace they then retreat
To perfectly well kept topiary haven
There to capture smugly
All that can be taken

So quiet and unaffected

By all that lies without forsaken
Well studied and boorishly dejected

But like hollow Museums. they crumble under
The great fenced Mausoleums, memorials to self
And  Barbarians rush in to plunder
 Nero rakes in taxes, from the sexes, and x’s shelf
Setting fire to our lives
With finest ornamental matches

Telling many lies, like annoying summer flies
But the perfect ones don't seem to care
Like bees in trees of well honeyed hives
They would not know of despair
For ones so perfect, so good, so fair
One look might be just too much to share
Untouched by life's tawdry carnival
Having hearts dull as old porcelain sinks
Silent as sharp mandibles of a carivore

Their oversized carts loaded up like Brinks
Counting coin in broken piggy banks

Oh, No No, do not be so cruel
To break in when their minds are napping
With hellos and non-relevant happenings
For you are there and we are here
Those are yours and ours are these
So be off now, get far away please
Away from the well perfected
Do not infect the affected
With your lower cast disease.

That Queer Bird - with audio

audio link

That queer bird
So absurd
She keeps her heart
Quarried in broken thought

Depart down the gizzard
So cold Tis like a blizzard
Full of rocks and cheesy holes
Frightful to onlooking souls

Busy eggs tunneling
Dizzy legs rummaging
Clockwise in concentric circles
Ever tighter cranial miracles

Flap your wings to catch a gnat
Force feed the chicks this and that
Great birdbrained urgency and yearning
Makes for lots of twisting and turning

Could make a coo coo bird cock-eyed
Fortunate you see from out each side
Yet Henny Penny could not tell
She was not nearly schooled so well

As this fastidious Popinjay
So much learned, so much to say
Welling thus ever upward
With inards wending froward

Bustling activity to spend the bird
Squawking clatter shields her word
Blinded by, hell and heat you see
Not your average chickadee

Trumpeted, brassy, Scythian, bright
Little clamorings of chicks in flight
She stands imperious to the wild peels
Of would be proteges' frightened squeals

Trampled on by her clumsy feet
Scratched like flint in retreat
Bones snapped like whittled matchsticks
G-d save, from her, their tiny necks.

Photos - with audio

audio link

I saw the photos
A forgotten past
Me mother's
Childhood home
Tears came
To my eyes
But there
They stopped
Mother's gone and
I'm no child
Something's
Gone stale
I know now
What I did not then
All humanity suffers
It should not
Need quantifying
Know only that
It must touch all
Young or old,
Spring and snow
You and I
Everyone
We know
Will fall
And die
To see it now
Where that
Flower grew
Is a shaking
An awakening
To others who
Came before
Who lived
In places
We never knew
But now
Discover only
In shadows
And in shades
God Himself
Must laugh
At our
Dim view
Backward
Through windowed
Photograph
Only slightly
Less tangible
Than our
Future's past.

A Time for Reflection - with audio

audio link

When I arrived at court,
I expected, no feared,
The king and queen to be at death's door
However, to my surprise,
I found them both very much alive
The king was gruff,
Full of frowns and forgetfulness
He never spoke unless spoken to
The queen often spoke her mind
In measured words
Loving, fearful, angry and kind
Gentle was the royal egress,
As the handmaids came and went
The king and queen slept and read,
Turning in each page
Waking thoughts and dreams
They came no more to court,
But held fast with guests
In the inner chambers
At court were royalty,
Courtiers and knaves
I was to dine with princes and
Join in much merry making
Yet sadness was upon the kingdom,
The estates lay unkempt
The fields grew fallow
The pale of broken hearts
Veiled many a face,
But love and youth prevailed
With chirping birds in the treetops
To create a sometime betterment
In the dreams at rest.

End of Day Awakening - with audio

audio link

I have found at the end of day
Beyond the night of sleep to lay
Til whence begins the morn

The most assured way
Of winnowing in the play

To rid one's self
Of responsibilities' faces
To fondly love in far off places

Kissing ruddy lips and cheeks
On mares in meadowed peaks

Held captive in dreams
Awash in dawn's blessed air
Sheets and sunlit streams

Brow and hair
Limbs drawn near

Till opening eyes go there
Pleasant images adrift surmising
Are taken back to the center

Like a Jasmine's fragrance rising
Into clouds of coming winter.

Troubled Sleep - with audio

audio link

Billows blue
Rushing onward
Down below
Looking skyward

The prize now eaten
Soul feels beaten
Blankets wet and heavy
Like sand at the levy

Rocks, stones, boulders drop
Falling and rolling down
Plunging over top
Turning ever round

Now overcome
The truth in sum
From the lion's teeth
Is hard to face

Dare not to write
For cruel slight
In clarity speaks
Of one so weak

Hungry soul, inverted mind,
Into self, in every place
To care, to give, to love in kind
These to grasp inside his face.

The Sign - with audio

audio link

The birds fly toward the sunset
When they return I know not

I asked for a sign
From the One on high
I found then the place
Where the Peregrine slept
That prince of freedom
That traversed the
Sunrise heavens
Beyond the peak of day
Lay broken now
In the bushy green shadows
His lifeless talons
Still clutching the tender branch
As if at life to hold
The splendor of his royal coat
Remained undiminished
As was his glorious winged form
So, I buried him
My daughter marked his grave
Beyond the estates and gardens
Not less than 3 loved ones
Flew away
Each one
Greater than most
Each sweetly fruitful

So this is the message then,
Even the greatest among us
Those that we wish to emulate,
Are plucked from the stock,
Tree, bush, field and vine
We to then,
Who, either lowly in visage,
Or climbing to the stars,
Will be harvested
When ripe and
No amount of mourning,
Ceremony or memorial
Can make clear the eroding,
Extinguished life
Save that which is
Eternal and unknowable
At this time

The only certainty
This proclamation brings
Is that with every rising sun
Many countless stars
Drift beyond
Our gravity and view
Until we are invited
And taken in
To shine
In that community
Of the unseen
Forevermore.

Sleeping in the Clouds - with audio

 audio link

Melting, melting
In and out of sleep
Like a rock thrown
Into the slow and deep
Like the pebbles
Back down
The mountainside
On a silent Harley
Blue Electra Glide
Up and down the
Slow motion scene
Thoughts and Whispers
In my head careen
Till the buttery bumpy
Jet engines scream
The G forces
Press my mind
Like soft rubber
Ice cream
Slinky neck
And brow so low
Floating into
The eye of blue
Cold air hangs about
All to cover
Like frozen dew
Then scratching over
My consciousness
Comes the tin can voice
Of aft attending stewardess
Thus the Time is traced
By the dull yawning roar
Speed and splendor embraces
Ethereal snow drifts
Blowing cotton Graces
So turn me now
Like a New York
Spinning door
Hold my soul
As my spirit soars
In the mist, thoughts
Lay on the floor
While In my fist
Lies the grist
Of this
Sleepy
Awakening.

On Family - with audio

audio link

I would steer my ship on board the prow
With that woman who has grasped my soul
Took what I offered and gave me children

Rather than bath in the seas
Of uncontrolled stormy wanderings
To desolate places of isolation
Entertaining and sustaining loneliness

She reached from beyond my place
Plucked me up to maturity in
Safe harbor where the world could wear off

In that solemn peace
I found awareness
With greater warmth
Of connected-ness

Moored to those
Who teach something greater
The giving of oneself for mate and kinderlas (children)

O how is it that this tired selfish one is so blest
Only God Himself knows
But in your arms and
By your side I am healed

My breath I take from gazing
Upon the smiles of my children
The stars in their eyes cause my heart to beat

How has this dream become my life
Many thanks offers one
Whose words cannot match the task
Of uttering such to the Holder of all things.

Opera - with audio

audio link

There comes next the steady roar of the great falls within
Seldom seen, seldom engaged these days
That underground river, from the aquifer of creativity
A force from which I came and to where I go

Until that day there is a shadow of such
Here in this life, most wondrous of opiates
That bathes the soul and takes it to the heights of Orion's country
Then plunges down through the fiery earth's core
In the sun's flares and the ocean's green and blue depths

You are loved, constellation of this constitution frail
To you many visit and are captured all in all
By your flames, heroes live and die in the heat
Then carried with the vapors, we rise again
With wings that do not wear out or fail
Even while in the bonds of fleshy sanguine clay

What can vanquish you that plays the human soul
With your caressing torrent of sound, song, colors, lights, blood and emotion
Leviathan, Gaudy Beast, Opera is the wrong name for thee
For you are not the stilted thing that some suppose
By those sleepy authorities who propagate your Via dell'Amore

Resounding with the force of life in the deepest heart of man
Your name can only be uttered in dreams and cannot be recalled in waking
A Lunar whisper from behind the Northern Lights
To call us back to the creation of all things, raw and untamed
'Til the spinning pulsars cast the soul back at speed of light to ourselves once more.

note:
This Opera thing, must surely be some foretaste of a glory
Yet to be revealed and beyond the realm of the known cosmos.
When I first heard Luciano Pavarotti, and Leontyne Price,
I thought heaven must have opened and I was hearing the voice of angels
come down upon lowly humans.

Vegas - with audio

 audio link

The drumbeat of lights
Hit upon the hearts
Of all who swam
Through the sea
Of turbulent sensation
Ping, Pop, Bing,
Ring, Tatatatatatatatatat!
The sounds like waves above
Pressed down
Then ebbed away
In a steady rhythm of tides

The smokey zeitgeist
Waded in and swirled
To flow within every breath
In pale inky silence
While each sensual statement
Expressed in procession
A play for passion
The Statues ached and cracked
As they blindly drank in the show
Naked and unfeeling like lost souls
While the crowds alternately
Bled and wept in tormented ecstasy
Or collapsed in brokenness and dejection

As in ancient times,
The spirit of forgotten Rome
Galloping, and cavorting now
Along this ocean-less shore
Draws in the wayward hordes
To give us milk and nourishment
From wolves boasting the breasts of a goddess
Like Romulus and Remus
At Lupa Capitolina
Only to cast them off again
After the games and revelry
To make war and plunder

Fountains of coins clanged
As they showered down
Like little metal birds
Pudda ping, pudda ping ping, ping ping, ping ping ping
Filling unholy grails
Fabric gold, satin dress
A plunging back line
Like an Athenian Arch
Eyes crawl down along
A neck fine and rare
To a vanishing point
Dark and unrelenting
There many dreams
Have found their rest

From the vaulted brush beaten sky
Ancient pillagers looked down
Upon reflections in a polished marbled plain
Those of the caught up,
And of those calling out
Lions, Warriors, Senators,
Caesars, Victims, Martyrs all
Till another, and another
Should fill the eyes and soul
Again and Again
Along the Appian Way
Like an overwhelming fountain
Upon an endless thirst
Aqueducts overflowing

Candied lips, dazzling eyes
A turn of the hip, A stab of a heel
So fair a skin, So keen the smile
Rounding away on a beautiful thigh
Coming back once again
O Those generous seekers
A shoulder bared
To catch a sigh
For the gaze of a Venus
Atop a sculpture of cream
Beneath the flowing flax
To the curves clinging well
Of all that ripples
Breathing in the night

Here, is capital gotten,
Stolen, spent and lost
In the wealth, and hearth
Hounds, and snares
Cats and cops
Politicians and kings
Perspiring, and expiring
Here, in the crowd,
A wash of humanity
Cries out veni vidi vici!
While asking, E tu, Brute?

There, in the fangs of hunger
Lay the hind and the prey
Bathing, Sinning, smiling
Laughing, living, blooming Moon
Waxing, waining, dying twightlight
Sweltering, melting asphalt Sun
Crying, loving, lusting
A Bloody city, a Cathedral 
Of Angels and Demons
Of the Living, and the Dead
Of the lost, at once -
Exalted and Lifted high
Or Beaten and Cast aside
Set up and knocked down
A Great Unholy Host
The Intoxication
Of Vegas.

My Old Norse Poem in Deutsch - with audio

audio link

Ich reise, ich reise, und leben tragen
Aber ruhe finden ich nicht
I travel, I travel, live and bear
But rest I cannot find

Warum und wo geht das spöttische Geschrei der Raben fliegen
Why and where go the mocking cries of the raven

Wie kommt es, dass Krankheit , Gier und Tod sollte so laut,
So dreist und ohne Reue zu prahlen
How is that disease, greed and death should so loudly boast,
So brazenly and without repentance

Sie haben sich durch die das Schwerkraft,
Ein Horizont  der Dunkelheit getäuscht worden .
They have been deceived by the force of gravity,
A horizon of darkness.

Aber keine Angst Kleinen sein Denn ich sage euch ein großer Tag steht vor der Tür
But be not afraid little ones, for I tell you a great day is coming.

Wann Die Himmel erschüttert werden
und das Universum wird wie ein Fanfaren Glocke schwingen,
kündigt eine neue Geburt , klingelt ein Erwachen
When the Heavens will be shaken
And the universe will resonate like a clarion bell,
Announcing a new birth, ringing an awakening

Wisst ihr nicht, der Tag der Freude?
Ja, ich wieder sagen, es kommt !
Wann alle Menschen frei sind.
Know you not, the day of joy?
Yes, I say again, it comes!
When all men are free.

Das werden wir im Meer der Sonne wohnen
Und in das morgenlicht
Unsere glucklich ewigkeit werden wir finden
Diese neue Tag ist heilig und Heilung
We will live in a sea of sun
And in the morning light
Our happy eternity we will see
This new day is holy and healing

Gesang inmitten der Engel und heiligen Wesen
Im Hause des Allmächtigen
Singing in the midst of angels and holy beings
In the house of the Almighty

Siehe, dann und dort , wie fortold wurde,
Hat unsere helle Morgenstern auf uns angestiegen
Behold, then and there, as was foretold,
Our Bright and Morning Star has risen upon us

Komm Messias, der Fürst
Mit ewigem Licht 
So dass die Nacht und der Tod gebrochen werden!
Come Messiah the Prince
With Eternal Light
So night and death will broken!

I travel, I travel, live and bear
But the rest I can not find
Why and where goes the mocking cries of the ravens flying

How is it that disease, greed and death should so loudly to boast, so brazenly and without repentance?

They have been deceived by the force of gravity, a horizon of darkness.

But be not afraid little ones, for I tell you a great day is coming 

When the heavens will be shaken
And the universe resonates with a clarion bell,
Announcing a new birth, ringing an awakening

Know you not, the day of joy? Yes, I say again, it comes!
When all men are free.

We will live in a sea of ​​sun
And in the morning light
Our happy eternity we will see
This new day is holy and healing

Singing in the midst of angels and holy beings
In the house of the Almighty

Behold, then and there, as was foretold, our Bright and Morning Star has risen upon us

Come Messiah the Prince
With eternal light
So that night and death will be broken!

Chicago Coffee Shop - with audio

audio link

They with the snow and winds
Knew not where the when began
At the Great Lake's northern shore
The ice had frozen over
But the sun shown through
Past the forward thoughts
Into the moment new
Voices lively fill the space
Of the traveler's eye
In this place a flush cheek
A guarded hand, a hidden glance
The conversation starts up again
What a very pleasant thing
Being asked to play the game
That winged thing will
Alight for sometimes and always
Sounded in the heart's deepest waters
In the dawning days and days gone before
Fish and Chips with one drink more
Palms touch and fingers clasp
A gush of words, no more than that
Japan, London, New York and Los Angeles
Rained down upon Chicago like wet snow
Focused through the prism of a precipitous view
Then rising like vapor and vanishing into the crowd
Spectators and travelers once more.

Every 7th Day - with audio

audio link

Every 7th day
Every slumbering night
Turn the strong yellow sun
To the shimmer of starlight
The poet cannot tell
What lies beyond the stars
Every deep interior
Contains an uncertainty
That none can see
Of what it is
And what's to be
When we are not.

Billionaire of Youth - with audio

audio link

Once there was a boy

So full of joy

On top of the world

He ran wild and free

A dragon was slain before breakfast

A princess would attend for tea

The world could be taken

For time needed no appointment

His sinews were supple

He was beautiful to behold

In his eyes shown the Universe

Birds spoke volumes of poetry

As they flew through the sky of his heart

Love was breath itself

No hand could arrest his soul

Remember when a blue sky revealed

What kind of beasts played there

In the churning satiny plumes -

Then rolling over in the dirt

To release a blasting steady stream

Of the scattering Dandy-lion's

Fuzzy white universe of stars

Time marched in the Foreign Legion

It's rifle salute did not dare

To trifle with the Robin's call

Nor could it blot out

The Cardinal's red coat

Each breath of air was

Sweet like Honey with

A child’s breast the comb

When yellow blooms of love

Clover and buttercups provided

Equal sensations of vibrant sun

The breeze played the strings upon his head

It caressed this neck and cheek

With a question for a slide

The boy played the seesawed game of childhood

He climbed each green apple tree

To find a pirate captain's treasure

A Robinhood, he snatched black ripened grapes

Of neighboring vines, and lustily consumed

The candied pleasures beneath their dusty coats

Then a dance sprung up from his legs

For the song of the moment

"Be off now 

To every kind of game and

To every kind of friend"

He was a billionaire of youth

A prince in foreign lands

No one spoke a word that

That he sought to understand

Playing at what is learned

Taking what was free

Damming what is earned

He looked with pride upon his empire

But the seasons played and it burned

Time wrought loss and caused the boy to leave

Upon returning the boy saw

That he and the kingdom

Were no longer the same

For everything had changed

The empire of joy was robbed, plundered, gone

So the boy turned away

To adventure in far off lands

He needed to get away further and more often

On ever increasing journeys in search of life

He lived in and through other imaginings

Traveling onward with the four elements

Of earth, water, air and fire

Floating freely high upon entertainment

The boy swam in projects,

Goals and reams of schemes

The future became the present

The past followed in dreams

But much of the now was forever lost

The empire lay destroyed and

No one yet comes to call

There are none fascinated to listen

While shadows grow ever tall

So time bespoke an age of rest

Now moonlight's entrancing dances

Cause the gray sands to glisten

Dimly recalling fortunes now spent

The glory of what was, now lies in sleep

The green estates, succulent orchards and

Dreams of castled lands have been exchanged

For a desert's expanse of rainbow scatterings

With only one thing left for inheritance

This shell of a wind-tattered dusty tent.

The Horse's Ass - with audio

audio link

I tried to lead the horse
Like hard headed mule he led me
That thick souled spirit
Really acts the nag
I would run him on the mountains
Mingled among the mustangs and clouds
But he'd rather in the muddy wadis roam

Yet he carries me well enough and
Tramples on the serpent's head
Once he's had his fill of clover,
Open air, meadow, flower,  stream
Only once broken does he do his master's bidding
Otherwise his backward glance condescends to offer
A bellicose Neigh above the thunderous gallop

Whereas I am left to choke on the dust
Laughing and cursing that which is quixotic,
Unbridled and an utterly human condition
Working out the process of balance
The struggle of life and character

Whether to tear at the wind
With the thoroughbreds,
Run with the stallions,
Pull the plow with the farmer,
Or quietly sit here like an ass.

Wanting Wanderer - with audio

audio link

Long before I read the story of Abraham
I knew that I was a sojourner on this earth
Destined to wander but never finding rest
Seeking out the place to be

Like a crooked block tossed on
A symmetrical pegboard landscape
Both detached yet present
Never fully connected, drifting onward

Having the Love of the Creator
Placed in the center of an otherwise hollow self
My sun of gravity, the black hole of being
Thank God for mercy, lest I collapse inward

The crush of time's weight perhaps life's only refinement
Caught in a web of pedestrian life
I march forward like Pierre in War and Peace
Onward in the snowdrifts of falling years

All the while admiring the one who prays
"Lay me down like a stone, oh Lord
And raise me up like a loaf."
Desiring all that this fleeting life has to offer.

Inverted Reflections - with audio

audio link

Failed to be a man
Failed to understand
Failed to truly see
All that's needed
To make it be
So live in defeats of the day
Till comes the dawn of another way
When to see if he remain
In the kingdom of this domain
Or at least in a land of peers

Not of witless simple turning gears
Not the quiet panic in running sheilas
Nor the dandy Homo sapiens fellas
Then throw out the politically corrects
Along with all Bureaucratic suspects
Only then can the mind turn clear
The heart calm down
The soul shed despair

Yet the spirit shall take flight
Beyond this pallored vale
To transcend and look down
Upon all those choices
Stuck deep in muddy ground
In Terra Firma spinning round
Still, within all that can be

Looking out from eternity
A place of treasured love to see
There a wealth of family
Beautiful sons, wife and daughter
Health, warmth and laughter
Friends, Pets, birds and Orange Blossoms
These upon him are showered
Gifts from above in that same hour.

Fractured Light - with audio

audio link

Swim down around
Deeper still
Murky waters
Blanket well
Feel the swell

Pent up waters overflow
Weighted feeling grows and grows
Ink fills in the darkened deep
Black eel's place of troubled sleep

Come not close
Falling grandiose
Vertigo turning wheel
Blind muted carousel

Cold passing moonlit tides
Soft heavy underside
Apogee apology
Sleeping horizon
Covers me

Stony sleep rolled away by One of might
So comes again life and sight
Extinguishing the dark of night
Enter day's downcast fractured light.

Colors - with audio

audio link

I used to see the colors in my brain
They came to me naturally as the rain
Now they've all turned so very plain
When I look, all shades are blended same
I no longer see the red in pain, and
Wonder can Sunburst joy come again
Responsibilities drive me on
Love for others becomes a singing song
My oh my the day is long
The dark of night vanishes
Invisible when its gone

My hope endures till spring is come
The colors then again are born
In my soul where they belong
Autumn leaves fall to the ground
All the animals know the sound
Of windy breath that turns all brown
Mutes painted prism paradise shown
Fish and birds and butterfly
Each in gentle silence sigh
Till golden sun with starlit dew
Cast rainbow spectrum hues
And so renew.

Critique of the Critics - with audio

audio link

I hereby disclose
That I would close
The door of who knows

Set the locks
Hide prejudicial picks
Stow Electric shocks

Critique the critics
Because to tell
Would bring such hell

From those sounds
Of the death knell

An illustration
In psychotic palpitation

Hispaniola, Anatolia
Africa and Asia
Anhedonia and Amnesia

PTSD, and PDO
MDD, to hospital go

So the cats walk
The feline kind of talk

On fence and wall
Of each black way hall

Till out flies tall
The Starling's urgent call

To stay deep sea spouts
Motions of notions and
Stop the deluge pouring out

Flooding oceans of shouts
From mercury filled mandibles
Of would be rescuing mouths.

Sorting Sand? - with audio

audio link

Picking slim
Lighting dim

Barren plains
Calculating minds

See the path
Check the math

Ask questions
For gestation

Not the why
Here am I
Think so
Bon ami

The what if
Makes stiff

How so
Won't go

To complicate
But Extricate

Regulate
And validate

Round corner
Behind the chase
New beginner
Slowed pace

Or perhaps
Pops and snaps

Machina view
Is it new

What a doll
A confused soul

That's his plan...
Sorting sand?

Morning Meeting, Donut's Dunk - with audio

audio link

Connect the colored dots
Ye little dullards and sots

Worker bees are smallest
The trees are the forest

That must needs be seen
Plastic pawns now begin

Hoping furtively that they,
You see, might know well
Of your prowess, that to tell

Oh to show that scribbled junk
The chaos in your little trunk
Be sweeter than a donut's dunk

So you posture and pose
Then thumb your bumpy nose

From concrete and brick
To fluid stream quick?

Embarrassed not, it's supposed
In your abstract lederhose

Stir up the thick jello'd sully
Focus now ever more forcefully

Struggle through the sudden strain
Of that broken puddin headed brain

Blow out the porthole a cloud-like steam
Some pseudo-intellectual babbling scream

But the attention once gotten
Sordid Horded and brought in

Goes like geese flying south
In the cold of winter's mouth
And it really stunts one's growth

So do not hurry to curry the boss
For little is gained, and much is lost
At such a tawdry, onerous, provocative cost.

Chasing Rabbits, Self Deluded Competition in the Workplace - with audio

audio link

The Climbers ascended
Mountains of words

Struggling for control
Of the tiger wind

Like woodland creatures

Fleeing fire
Chasing rabbits
Through field and bush

Clamoring over one another
Seeking the surety
Of an imagined secure footing
Or transient idyllic conquest

The headless leader watched
And would have nodded in approval
Had he a mind to do so

His Faceless gaze and smile
Focused forward

Content to march
Behind the horses

A lemming of enlightened bliss.