IN SIGH OUT

 

In

Sigh, out.

In

Sigh, out.

Breathing roundabout.

Nothing left to do,

I've refuted unfirm views.

And half my brain sits silent,

Like a child with a slapped hand.

And the other side is waiting

For him to come around.

'Cause no longer can he tell himself,

I can do it all alone.

And the child sits around,

Thinking himself unwatched.

Reflecting on happier childish moments,

Printed indelibly in the past.

And my other side waits,

As patiently as the wisest of men,

Waiting for the child to put away his toys,

And take this wrinkled wise old man,

By the hand down the path of life.


 

SINKING

 

It's sinking

It's sinking

We had our pick but we

already knew it's sinking

sinking

We gotta jam on something new

 

Doesn't make sense to work

for anything but today.

I can't help that it's all

getting blown away..

Can only help myself,

leave me alone - I'm thinking

thinking

 

 

NOT THERE

 

The peculiar moment,

a feeling just in reach - then fleeing,

Swept along by the next

less patient notion.

 

Gone and soon forgotten, like others.

But each is captured still, if just in

fragments, and tucked away.... to

nudge the mind - should the

thought come around again.

 

Imagine the indecision

When such a feeling is a tremendous

breakthrough, an opening of a door

* a shining of light *

then fleeing.

 

Now searching, where it was before,

pursuing through a mist the start

of a path long hoped for.

 

Outdistanced, lost again

drifting, drifting

Let the current carry me where it will

and soon I'll wash upon the shore

and start again.

 

TRANSITIONS

 

So many feelings in me

That some might say have died

But I say they're in storage

In time they'll be revived.

 

They're hid away neglected

By days of busy work

They're in there by the memory

Of a love now only hurt

 

Whispering late night solitude

Thoughts a quiet stream

Past embrace revisited

The moment now a dream

 

I wonder now what it is

That tears the folks apart

A moment's unclear urgency

That leaves a yearning heart

 

We run away confused to hide

And seperate out hearts and minds

Cherishing the light inside

And the good we've left behind

 

Life blood feeling deep inside

Nourish me each time I cry

You are the joy that gives life birth

You are all that gives life worth

 

So like a flood it will come out

So naturally, so fine

I know it shouldn't take forever

I wish it happened all the time

 

TO LIVE

 

To live is just to be

In all simplicity

an ear to hear the whispers

an eye to see the subtleties

a nose to catch the gentle fragrences

a hand to feel the tenderness

 

To live is to know

the silence

the darkness

the emptiness

So that all that falls upon your senses

Becomes your food for life.

 

 

PAST LIFE

 

Like falling leaves

the days drift before my eyes,

Carried on the wind as is their destiny.

Down paths of random choice,

Toward the sound of an aged voice,

That reminds me of the sea.

 

Resting now, awaiting

That chill that autumn brings

The fitfull rest that's winter's rest

Before we wake again

 

 

MARY, SO SAD YOU HAD TO GO

 

The early autumn moon rose, past full,

to the east our eyes she'd gently pull.

Tired from the month long chore,

her weary face hung down,

her last breath waits no more.

 

Her leaving served no cause,

except to make those pause,

Who forget that life is frail

and what their acts entail.

 

Young one parted now

the risk was clear to thou?

 

 

STORMS

 

Far off the army of giants edge forth

across the sky

Each crowding to peer above the other

 

Massive, grim

Silent save the occasional crash of a random bolt

 

Sentinals of the cold wet misty night,

No crevice or hollow unbeknownst to the ever searching

icy fingers of your passion's breath.

Gasps which leap up through the cracks of our abode at the

chance to join their trapped brethren in battle cry

when the giants march.

 

And thus the tempest rage, and none too comfortable the

creatures left naked to the fury.

 

But fresh done the battle thrust, the world is new and

quenched, and all asmell with the richest fragerences,

and looking up at the retreating victors, spy we the

brilliant banner of nature's greatest triumph.

 

 

PERCHED

 

Like a child

perched percariously

on the edge of a

magnificant canyon,

we stand stolidly

on the firmness

of our beliefs

 

 

BLANK SPACE

 

Oh, how suddenly things change sometimes,

In ways you least expect,

Your life rearranged completely

By a thing so indirect.

 

One thing is removed

And something takes its place,

No longer there around you

Just the memory of a face.

 

Could it be I'ld feel like this

Without his leaving us?

Would I have taken the time

To think it through enough?

I try to sit and ask nyself

Just how I've really changed.

Then I look inside myself,

Is anything the same?

 

I'm sure that I am stronger now

To speak the way I feel,

And the things that folks don't think about

I will notice and reveal.

 

 

EYE TALK

 

Feather like those words fell upon my ears

she spoke about

Feelings no words could tell.

Silent-awed I hear her

with my eyes.

 

Stretching unbent rays

of crimson light

Slowly sweep a room

in twilight

Briefly casting a day

on a cobweb in the corner

 

We look, both seeing this,

at each other

Thus casting light on the corners

of each other's minds.

 

 

CYCLES

 

Cycles come and cycles go,

Each one has its own to show.

Each one means a lesson learned,

Should that be of your concern.

 

Sometimes chances pass you by,

Other times you let them fly.

Either way I'm sure you know,

Paths of these your life will go.

 

So learn to fly, keep your smile,

Afloat in peace all the while.

And all the times that get you down,

Know of times to come around.

 

Cycles come and cycles go,

Each one has its own to show.

And no man knows the paths you go,

They are all your own to show.

 

 

WINTER'S START

 

Sail on my son, upon your feathered wings

Your soul too young to grasp such earthy things

 

Deep I breathe the autumn air

So rich the peace that's lying there

And as I trod the fallen leaves

I feel a slightly cooler breeze

 

Gold leaves falling,

winter calling

Fledgling stream spills past

the mossy rock

 

Young elk roaming

river foaming

I read the slanting sun

that's nature's clock

 

On I move to warmer ground

Until that sacred place I've found

That feeds the soul and tender heart

And finds me safe at winter's start


 

LIFE MEANING

 

Like somber subtle summer colors

The sunsets flutter down before our eyes

Reluctant trembling specks of brilliant autumn hues

Relinquish life in one silent swooping gesture

Of life's uncertain praise

 

Then why that one moment

Of lingering indecision,

As if it mattered

If you went one way or the other?

 

Long upon the shining sea

Not cloud or saving ship did appear

For days

 

Uncertain drifting flotsam, what great tribute

does the contribution of your life bring

to those less fortunate than you?

 

Not, I presume, great solace.

For by nature we reap only what we sew,

And to quench even the meagerest of appetites,

much toil does ensue.

 

And not, I presume, the answer to the question

of our destiny,

for that it appears is an enigma

to be relentlessly pursued by the generations

as endless fodder for intellectual growth.

 

Then it could only be

to prove that each life

is fulfillment in itself,

each soul redeemed to the ideal it pursues.

 

 

INSIDE OUTSIDE

 

No matter how far I go to get away, I am still trapped, held captive by the bars of my sub-conscious. The radio tries to console me, but she sings to too many and does not sing to me. I look around, but the world stares back in black and white - uninterested. Those who try and understand me now only create their own chaos, and beg of me for assistance. But I cannot help, there are no words to tell.

I ask myself what will help - and I know. She doesn't know I watch her, or think of her now and then. Is it her I need, or is this some longing pulling at my chest? I surround myself with things to ease my mind, but these are mere trinkets in the eyes of a rich and mighty king. My mood is desolate, my mind too solemn to harbor such emotions. But as my thoughts travel the paths of a thouseand adjectives, another shadow enters my mind. Slow and oh so quiet to my thoughts, sleep once again weaves itself among my consciousness. And as only the dim light from the deepest reaches of my brain illuminate my thoughts, I am free from the tortures of worry until once again I open my blurred eyes to the loveless problems awaiting me outside.


SOULSHINE

 

Sleep, Sun

silent slumber.

Leaving us old friend

just briefly,

to see things by our own light.

 

We see ourselves enlightened

when our soul shines

as bright within us

as you do all around.

 

Alas, much as these clouds obscure you,

so do these notions that often close us in.

 

Fog away! Bring forth the shining day!

 


 

PLOW

 

Forever left untouched -

upturned this stone

by the plowshare

A world suddenly changed,

The womb of Mother Earth

laid fresh

New hope of ours for spring

 

 

EMBLAZENED WATERS

 

Emblazened waters

yielding to the patient stones

on which we watch day's end

 

Like dice, strange things are cast

upon the velvet sand by waves

that endless play this game

 

Thankful for the bliss that comes

with scenes like this, and love

We can, the pain before, forget

and see the days ahead with none

 

Tender lady, your love so sweet

With eyes that see things not skin deep

And in your heart you hold a song

I know you'll sing your whole life long


 

EACH NIGHT

 

For a moment the evening wavered

Then settled into dusk

Thus so day's vigil passed

To nightime's shadowy trust

 

Timidly the sounds of night

Joined in humble chorus

And the flicker of the firelight

Threw shadows all around us

 

The juniper and pine trees

The crickets and the deer

Each knows a seperate happiness

And each a secret fear

 

 

COST

 

Words never found still lost

Only can describe

What my soul has cost

The tears now in my eyes

 

I turned to what I thought

a simple act of love

My head hangs low

My back now shows

To the things I still hold true

 

 

CLASS

 

Mumbled sounds drift in from the hall, not disrupting but capturing shorter attention spans. It isan inconsistant sound, not like the fixed pitch of the teacher's voice. It is a casual chorus of laughs and mumbles, giggles and shouts.

And through that hole in the wall, out of the corner of my eye, flash a kalidescope of colors, back and forth they move at no set pulse. But the brilliant colors seem to appear with the giggles and bird like chirps, and the duller, less reflecting hues with the grunts and bursting basso laughs.

Every now and then, a whole crowd of jovial people meander past the door, all but drowning out the teacher. Thus, for a few short moments, the class is cut off, like a neighborhood without electricity, until it is quiet, and the class, caught half sleeping, returns their attention up front.

 

 

DAMP LEAVES

 

In the rain, and the bright

of that street corner light

Outside the bar where the night people go,

Stands a man all alone

not feeling the cold

Wishing his feet could take flight.

 

In his heart is that spark

which just right might ignite

Flames of passion which fuel the heart,

But on nights like these

girls like damp leaves

Smother and leave be the fire.

 

PRAGMATIC OBSERVATION

 

Gone what never was,

Arrived what always has been.

Before, the way to get here,

To come the way to leave.

 

A life of daily functioning,

Mathematic prose.

Lacking none but one thing,

The love it never knows.

 

Mechanical yet caring,

Tender though encased.

A nobel heart combating

Self-inflicted waste.

 

 

BLUR

 

Like a painting,

so delicately rendered in watercolors

are my dreams

So beautiful and dear to me

 

Now rained on and suddenly

run and faded,

undistinguishable

From the dreary miseries

I try to chase away.

 

 

LANDING

 

In those hills above the sand

We watched the last time as the

sun went down on back then.

 

Those times shared together

With those friends of ours

so widely spread about now.

 

Four corners to the seven seas

- so lost upon thee -

Cast upon the fruitful shores

the now.

 

 

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