Woodblock poems

dragons and seas
bridges mending broken lands
mountains flowers and trees
small houses and pale hands

Sad Dunes

Dubious gulls cull together

Without the sound

I know they are around

Hopefully forever



Across the marsh they fly

Floating on inside the sky

When they stop I know I will die

Nothing lasts forever



Two gulls dominate eastern winds

Pursuing each other over again

Unknowing pair of lovers

Stuck in an unfitting end

tonight there be demons

tireless and on edge
we have heroin veins
fallen off the thin ledge
full of hate and disdain
we bend truth to our will
let narcotics enslave
but it's all in good fun
from our hearts we deprave
the beautiful green sea
we light mountains afire
how we loathe what we lost
our own soul we bemire

we stand at the crossroads
and cry out for support
when nobody answers
we begin our extort
give me anger and fear
give me cups full of beer
give me lust give me rage
like animals encaged
give me fists give me blood
throw my dreams in the mud
for I'm tired of life
let me please end this strife

we don't know His mercy
or understand His gifts
our lives are so hollow
our perception adrift

there's a fight going on
outside every day
peacemaker or a pawn?
your own path or the way?
give me hope give me love
give me grace from above
give me calm give me light
give me strength in the night
in this valley I walk
full of uncertainty
lions stalking the lambs
surreptitiously

caterpillars

you are right now, extant
like a butterfly and I'm all ants
just one touch
of your lucid, pixie dust
might just be too much

one flap of your wings
the wind starts to change
what will be can't be
a glass heart and red stain

she seems fragile and wrong
a scream from a mute
a bridge built strong
deep down the taproot

finger to chin, eye to eye
i know what's behind that smile
and it doesn't begin with why

we laugh and cry
singing songs of our youth
because we know no better
vicious and uncouth
together

wings witheld
cover me in your dusty mosaics
lay it out tonight
where we sleep

When there were Ghosts

when you leave a part of you remains
scents from where you've been
the aroma of you hair
weightless on the air
i still hear the sweet sounds
from your mouth when you're not around

even though you don't know, I'm there
the coolness on your skin before bed
deep inside your blue-green eyes
the chained virgin of your wild side


you want what I'm not
a spirit fierce and whole
unskilled in light of your lies
the majesty of your feral eyes

just down the old wooden dock
could be the perfect spot
dancing in each others arms
to the sounds of the night
the moon and her modest light
Then the clouds open up
heavens waters unchained
we sit beleaguered again

so many spirits undressed
before we really know
to fight for what really matters
someday you will tell me
to fight for what really matters


our hearts are far apart
the grand road toward meant to be
where you once were meant for me
swallowed in God's great sea

Only half asleep

speak to me from your heart
walking down train tracks
to another dead end town
more lights and larger frowns

thinking of how you must have felt
sitting there hugging yourself
yesterday was a mile away
one song makes it today

we traveled at high speeds
going down fast
it was never a wonder
that it didn't last

so these empty roads that lead
to the next somewhere and something,
where there's bound to be
another you and me,
are full of broken dreams
that got lost to their destination
where no one missed them

no questions asked
you would only lie to me
so speak from your heart
for forever we depart

this unbalanced lullaby
sings me to sleep
what broken dreams
wait for me?

frost at midnight

who knows where love comes from
all that was known is we were young
discrete discussions between stars and sun
on why and how you are leaving

i hear the words as they leave your lips
remembering the accidental sway of your hips
the movement in my hair from your fingertips
another notch in the handle

maybe the winds in winter do blow
where we live the only snow
rests in the scene of a watery globe
next to the shells and sand dollars

so far away where the sun sets
taking with it the last of our regrets
floating on in this salty sea
fading away as far as the eye can see

carbon

we made our way through downtown
talking and laughing all around
you said the most outlandish things
about the plight of the polar bear
it all meant so much to me
to have someone who tried understanding
just another week night
more time to try to get fried
i just had other things in mind
tired of worrying when you passed out
and the doors you hid behind
fast forwarding through wasn't meant for you
giving up on what giving up means
misusing that which stores your energy

I can only hope someone hears your stories
that your dreams meant something
i don't know if you acheived feeling nothing
if that's what you really wanted
from those of us who know
it's a particulary lonely way to go
in the bookstore
see the words as they pass
until the last runs out of gas
that's what we're waiting for
aren't we?

the Hawaiian shirt and the wake

smashed metal and wounded tree
drifting off to sleep
smoke flows from open holes
up to where we meet
she it was who filled your cup
that gave you heavy feet
with her smile you fell in love
a beautiful aesthete

lost in the euphoria
wrap your arms around her
you dare to risk the slightest kiss
and smile when she turns away
face flushed, you can't remember what to say
her voice shakes your confidence
working on your transience
in blood she toils her decadence
so much it makes you sick

you drive home alone
a lonley road to hold
it's not until you're at your lowest
when she finally calls you home

oh Morrigan, you love her so
what depths you go to fill your soul
your friends will toast you in the mourn
tears drowning the forlorn

kept

two souls converse
under the sparkling lights of the universe
strumming heart strings in flat chords
open e memories and sharp words

listening in disharmony
to a symphony of mysteries
like a drought takes the water to a lower level
she likes instruments of fine fettle

her words are a threatening smile
the kind that linger while lost in guile
one look at me and her mouth turns down
pulled under water until i drown

anywhere other than this metal for me
run for the relative safety of trees
if this is so precious it better not be
her love

waiting for time to begin again

love, like blood,
runs through mainstreams,
necessary cellular regimes.
if you have the inspiration
towers can be built
as an abbreviation
from one mind soul spirit to the next.
though the study is complex
one tiny number throws
the balance.
this, they say, is accidental,
to disagree, to hate
depending on how many days late.
the response to stimuli
as long as it is out of mind
another joke played on fate.

the heart, she still pumps
a rythmic red river of progress
just like a lightning strike
in perfect conditions
they said brought life
now vanquished

superstar lament

you seem so huge to me
walking along the orange grove trees
life like songs sung on ocean liners
and airplanes as they hit supersonic
a pampered soul to be sure
lonely, yet far from demure
no matter how larger than life
you still can't talk her down
from trains to barbed wire
stage lights mistaken for a crown
she might be high-fired china
wrapped in fine black blankets of night
mirrorlike snow drifts upon starlight
adrenaline fix when the race starts
enough to start another thousandhearts
you said, "Tiyuri to win, perfect dozen to place"
remembering the lines etched on her face
in movies we shy away from reality
I can't think of a place I'd rather be
other than green fields and castles
or front row to see
if it isn't you
we want more than this scenery
more than bravery
more than what you are willing
to sell for a magazine
even though she disappeared
life like words flood the sound
on the edge of the roadways
to see where you hang around
don't let anyone near
and know that when we fall asleep
you're still the last voice we hear

the breaks

falling snow eludes me though I know
at one point i could no longer see the grass grow
a scene as if from a memory
that same frore that runs her through

two feet on this earth
hands in pockets and coller up
anything to attempt to stay warm
as that girl will freeze your blood
until there is no where to go
like blue shores or lava flow
to escape the remaining cold

or, deciding that the mind is still trying
to claim that pleasure is induced by lying,
the fault may not lie in california
great shakes caused by giant mistakes

is there anything worse
than the ocean pulling
you further out no matter how
hard to try to swim
that feeling before you know that
the last breath you take will be
the sea

fabled

walking round the lake
waiting for the setting sun
going down in arizona
til the singing birds are done

you can take a trolley to see
roads i know from memory
hanging moss from old oak trees
from bike rides to wounded knees

i can barely remember my home town
and the houses down on stevens street
family I had never known
the boy they came out to meet

my heart still sits in Oxford square
next to Count No-Count's eternal stare
his sordid life and long affair
still float around in disrepair

lift my eyes and I behold
who I really am
the nail scared hand is mine to hold
saved by the blood of the lamb

the tomb

all we could ever want
is everything we can have
and if we were to have it all
it wouldn't be enough
so toil and toil away
through the wind and the rain
try to keep as high and numb
as your skin can take
please take and take away
in the end only bones remain
maybe ask yourself why the
vast dark unknown scares you
so much that only emptiness
keeps you going
oblivious so much that falling
in love with a gun , that dream
killing bullet, is the tonic for life
why is it we were made to suffer
beaches or a beutifual sky
alone with the stars at night
or someone to share our smiles
how long before we know that
what we should be scared of most
is us

the fruit of shutter speed
one trip of many
we stopped to take a picture
of an old abandoned building
off the main road in the sunlight
with timbers falling the sun shinned through
you'd never know by looking
at the black and white photo
the sand keeps turning
though the structure isn't standing
being brave in the ambient change
remembering the sights that remain
if only for a little while
i can swim in this memory
with my eyes shut and floating
on the reminiscent ocean
I am a minor bird
hearing the deafening sound
and silent is my song
the wrong key upsets the slightest will
it's my fault all along
the sea is gone from where i land
the earth hot where i touch the sand
feels like a triumph
when all we have are pictures
of broken buildings
no longer plumb

Langston Street

the beachhouse, the light tower, the open sea
adept in the digression of equality
so sings my heart in apt abundance
let the rain drops fall on Langston Street

see this broken spirit does not move
o master of brutality
cannot you stand for some compassion
or do you not know what that means

pride and hunger pumping blood
upon man's ghastly deeds
why should those who need not fight
or walk crowded in the streets

she dreams of love's release
a pillow with a gun beneath
who deserves a warm embrace?
we can always leave this place

not part of what is not whole
yearning so much to be
accepted by the ones she knows
not knowing anyone she sees

his generation was not so lost
where did those souls deep as rivers lead
lost and apathetic nation
is there room for trouble up on that shelf?

songs

lovely anima in robes made of mist
walks away slowly as if she'll be missed
frustration of feelings often renewed
discarded people and both of them lose
asleep in your arms will we ever wake
tried to believe what I knew to be fake
you walk away never knowing the truth
a mixture of pain and tormented youth
so if we could choose how to feel, would you?
drowning your sorrow in ocean tide blue
sea sand gives comfort that most wouldn't know
we hear all the songs so that's where we go
tempt nothing inside with amative ways
coin flip for lovers but we know who pays
feel pretty skin deep our heart will still show
she caught the wind, now which way will she blow

breathe in deep and the laughter will not sound
lost time forever now look what you found
tell yourself everything that you stand for
will fly away with you as you shut the door

you can't choose the person you find to love
whimsical gift sent from Father above
tortures you now that you know he is gone
he was never really there all along
the pain that you caused amended by now
planets still spin and the stars shine somehow
you took a gift never opened away
left a paid penence and all by mistake
hopefully joy overflows from your smile
trucks entering highway every mile
memories fade but hang on for a while
missed but not missing

old highland churchyard

the moon is full tonight
of all that causes life
to get immersed in the cold
depths of space

across the wildflower field
glides a horse and his traveler
dark sky at their back
a quiet voice in the clamor

rough skin and learned face
cracked from the rugged pace
of life
and all that passed away

he stops to take a breath
Turkish towel for the foal
McClelland for an early death
and songs from the Highlands

wondering which way the stranger rides
carried on saddled palomino
somewhere there's a land that's right
and there the moon is full tonight

Deserted Allurement

where one may find desolation
solace comes to mind
a simple act of consolation
a simple life left behind

i can hear the city sing
her voice is proud
with a morose ring
as if she avowed
an end to her grief

hearts of concrete and metal
immaculate lights suffer
through endless nights
caught in the brambles
of the city life

I would rather walk
dirt roads surrounded
by live oaks

dance the night away
in the open air
near the ocean

we walk the same road
in different directions
her voice calling you
her quiet calling me