Tuesday, April 26, 2022

nothing left

a kiss was placed on blushing cheek
breath came shallow and quick
time stopped as arms embraced
tears became laughter and back again
until there was nothing left
but the dream


2/25/2011

Thursday, April 14, 2022

flights of fantasy

alone in the forest
the sound of one hand clapping
a peal of thunder lost amid the crash of trees falling
anonymous in the onslaught of time.

voices crying to be heard are drowned out
by the thunder of the hooves of the panicked herd.
yet i heard the sound
alone in the woods
the sound of one hand clapping
keeping time with the rhythm,
the beating of the wings
the flights of fantasy

man and mind, nature and time. 


2/4/1991

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

the edge of time

i stood at the edge of time and wondered;
if i ever crossed over, when would i return?
reflecting back i saw a million images
along a line unbroken,
a million points of light, each alone
yet somehow still connected.

each awaited my next move-
would i break the chain?
resolutely i crossed over, embracing my future.
it seemed significant then
but, after all, i had done it a million times before.


6/23/1990 

Saturday, December 18, 2021

hushed whispers

when they thought we were asleep
the elders went to the place of hushed whispers
to tell their stories and sing their songs.

but we weren't asleep
and we would carefully sneak to just within earshot
and we would listen and memorize the words the elders spoke
so that when we became old
we could share the same stories and songs.

of course when we became the elders
our stories and songs were different because the world had changed,
but we repeated them in the place of hushed whispers
as the young ones listened intently.


12/18/2021 

Saturday, December 11, 2021

another day

the waves of sleep wash over me and i drift away

to run aground on the gentle shores

of a distant land and another day.


there i will find my memories,

in the land where i found you,

on the sand by the sea with the wind and the surf,

in a place known to only the few.


i left my songs and my poems there

by the shore of that gentle sea,

that you may one day find them

with your memories of me.


    10/25/1990


 

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

dust

quietly alone
i brushed away my dreams
and sent them, like spores, drifting across the meadow
where they found you
and became real again.

6/4/1991


Sunday, June 20, 2021

helpless memories

my memories waited for you.
they were young and hungry,
helpless and alone,
like fishermen calling out in forgotten voices
lost in the tossing sea.

i feel their resignation,
their passion for a better fate.
i taste the salt of the sea,
or maybe a tear, leaving with unspoken regret.

eventually the memories will grow old.
they will fade in the calm waters
as the winds leave to stir other seas.
still, they will wait.


6/20/2021

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

the full moon dance

 

the moon was full, so we danced

until our feet no longer hurt.

we danced until we fell, exhausted,

into each other's arms.


the wind was gentle that night.

gentle like a poet's song.

gentle like the memory of your hand

resting softly on mine.

the sun returned, hesitant yet insistent,

like a child waking from a dream.

 

11/18/2017

Monday, April 26, 2021

distant dreams

 

and i would dream distant dreams
of things that could not be,
knowing full well they would all come true
if you dreamed them too with me.

our laughter would echo and thunder
through valleys thick with pines,
over mountains, meadows and oceans,
across the sea of time.

and we would see as children then
and travel to distant lands
until the morning catches us
waking in the sand.

6/2/1991

Thursday, March 18, 2021

more

 

eight o’clock blankets

on six-thirty floors,

your eyes open wide sighing

more, more, more.

sighing more.

 

your nightgown is sleeping

alone on the chair

and laughing you ask me

how did it get there?  sighing

more, more, more.

sighing more.

 

you want me for breakfast,

i want you for lunch,

time is in motion

each moment at once

sighing more, more, more.

sighing more.

more.

more.

 

sighing more.

 

        7/23/12

Sunday, February 28, 2021

the kiss

 

a kiss brushed against innocence like a present

neatly wrapped for a Christmas morning.

the children, full of anticipation, are unable to sleep

while their parents downstairs worry about the bills.

there are so many bills.

 

perhaps time has imagination after all,

or at least energy.

its incessant plodding and the clocks always ticking, ticking,

drowning out the sound of your heart

but not the words you whisper.

such sweet words.

 

time fails when we are together.

we slip between it like waves through the rocks.

another kiss then until tomorrow,

when it awakens like an angry sky,

uncertain witness to our night.

 

3/8/12

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

in the emptiness

 

my bed, when you are away,

is empty and cold.

your scent fades from the pillow

like the last hint of a mountain echo.

i draw the blankets tight around me

and dream of your soft skin;

the love in your eyes.

 

i know you are asleep

dreaming your own dreams,

your hair a dark storm,

your breath measured and deep.

you reach out for me in the emptiness

and i am there.

 

                11/19/11

Monday, February 8, 2021

without metaphor

they say a poem without metaphor

is really just a personal anecdote,

empty, like a boat run aground

on an unseen sandbar,

its crew gone, seeking other fortune.

 

you and i walk down to the marina

and find a bench where we sit and watch

as other boats are captained in and out

of the harbor.  Their crews cast

dismissive glances at the hapless boat.

i wonder though if they aren’t secretly glad

not to be sharing that fate.

 

seagulls circle above like paparazzi,

annoying, intrusive and unwilling

(perhaps unable) to leave.  Eventually

the sun sets and the sky explodes,

a shower of gold and red.

 

and our eyes, then our lips meet,

the poem complete.

 

12/13/11