… there’s still life ahead
Half-frozen mud, cold bracing air
A wind that makes my neck aware
That leaves torn from the tree will die
These poor gray strays who tumble by
And like the ghostly light I seek
The morn recedes behind the line
Only of chance to risk a peek
At drifting lives
Like yours
And mine
(“Aware” – 11-19-2014)
Along the Cliffs of Dolor
I saw, through mists of rue,
A figure circumpolar
That always stayed in view.
A lurking constellation
That hung both day and night —
Bright sorrow’s steady station:
It’s never out
Of sight
Her world is torn and leaking,
Every cloth and flag and pall —
She lays down on a bed of leaves
To think about it all
To think about it all, and find
She’s on a beaten track —
The world is like a carousel:
It always just comes back
It always just comes back, no matter
How far she goes, seeking:
And there’s not much for her to hold,
Her world is torn
And leaking
the lightest hand across your back,
or held within a deep embrace;
if i could join you in this grief,
i’d cross the coldest depths of any space
i know the light and dark are mixed,
our longest times are still so brief;
and though my love is poor, at best,
i’ll give you all i have to help this grief
the light and dark are mixed and we
must hide our eyes as at our birth;
but let me be a shield for you
if only for a moment on this earth —
if only for a moment on
this earth
There was no one
Until the one
Who filled my heart with laughter
There was no one
Until the one –
And there’ll be no one
After
(“Until the One” – 11-05-2014)
The death of expectation
Is loaded with remorse;
We reach for what’s no longer there,
But catch ourselves, of course
The death of expectation
Is wisdom, some will say —
But any loss is everything
To those who feel
That way
I wake to dew; I know the world’s been crying –
We cover all that up with lights, and noise —
Distractions we’ve no trouble in supplying,
Surrounded by our pageantry, and toys —
For every day’s an endless night to someone;
And dreams lie choked, forgotten, in the grass —
I know the world’s been crying, that’s for certain:
With tears turned into bars of
Wire glass
