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THE
GRAND TOUR (1986)
I watch
drifting in an empty void
of experience and wisdom
and I see
through endless perspectives
into which my thoughts are taken
and I wonder
what of the realities that I see?
these islands of thought pass before me
within reach
limited and incomplete
I let them be
A
MAZE OF MANY DOORS (1986)
I was dreaming then
though not asleep
when I roamed the halls with open eyes
and did not see
I noticed on occasion
the careless people I walked into
and it seemed to me
it had to be!
that they were headed
toward empty places I was leaving
and I laughed at them
and they laughed at me
I knew where my path had gone
and I turned and wandered on
to look for happiness that was not there
behind the doors of many colors
that I did not dare
open
A STOLEN
MOMENT (1986)
Once upon a cool, summer night
I roamed the woods so starlit bright
Content to play the watcher's role
I watched the moon begin her flight
As I laid down beneath a tree
The stars shone far as I could see
And all reflected in my soul
As I in them, and they in me
A brilliant flash, a blink in time
As life achieved a perfect rhyme
But soon I lost the moment's whole
It stole away, the perfect crime
Then more I watched while deep in thought
In hopes to find that thing forgot
Which faded to a distant goal
And left my pow'r of words to naught
So even now I watch the sky
Though days and months and years pass by
To find the light that dwarfs the sun
And join my soul with it as one
WITH SILENT
VISION (1986)
I watch with eyes turned inside-out
on lines of endless depth
and scan the surface under which
the changing forms and patterns play
as the static fades away
The laws by which the planets move
I know within myself
they move me on the winds of change
and hold me in the present day
while lost in words I cannot say
I watch the static fade away
WITH CIRCLES
IN CIRCLES (1987)
I watch the sun repaint the skies
but winds of time soon close my eyes
and blow the sands away
With footprints in the sand erased
I never noticed in my haste
the habits, behaviors,
and resteps thought new
and circles grown larger that always trace through
So I sail the windblown sea
with sails high above the water
and eyes on the sky
until they fall once more
as near horizons would implore
for my attentions
and ignore me
SUNSETS,
TIME, AND TIRED HEARTS (1988)
Tapestries
and a million candles
cast hazy shadows of ballroom gaiety
and stories of stories of stories
once
The stone alone stood in empty defiance
against time
against the prophecies of destiny
against the ravages of the kingdom
and only the sounds of a hundred laughing people
held the weight above their ears
Even the ivy and mosses
refused to grow upon the castle
over so many years
Now the people leave
with backward glances as the fires go out
and the light dims to a somber hush behind them
After so long
so long
and when the last one is gone
the halls will stand dark for the first time ever
and heavy walls will fall with a mighty anguish
and the ivy will slowly grow
with cleverness and certainty
THE HUMAN
COMEDY (1990)
How bittersweet
this life we greet
with open arms to meet it
And when the years
of pain and tears have gone
we sadly leave it
I'LL HAVE
A BLUE SKY WITH BREAKFAST (1991)
A jar stands
drawing attention into itself
The lemonade takes in the light
and keeps the color selfishly
making itself brighter
But as the day turns cool with evening
the empty jar lies forgotten
reflecting distant clouds
that follow the sun to find other pleasures
In emptiness
beauty shines forth in prisms of discovery
and the mind turns
smiling
toward new things
THE MOMENT
FOUND ME WAITING (1991)
The water falls softly
upon the roof
and I sit rocking in an open space
watching the world rest
beneath a grey curtain
The house sits dormant behind me
waiting for the world
to move again
I leave my thoughts
my tomorrows
and games in my closet
content to watch the rain
and my heart goes out to birds
perched quietly beneath the leaves
of tall trees
and deep underground rivers
that lead the water
into timelessness
WHILE CHILDREN
DREAM (1991)
Hearken to the mysteries
So many hidden eyes that sleep
like prehistoric beasts waiting in the dark
We stumble
this eye open, that one closed
while a thousand thousand worlds
live and die around us
They rise, they fall
and could we know them all
we'd go mad at the least of them
Beware the idiot child profound
who dresses up for show
and heed those voices beyond you
We are not what we seem
THE GREAT
REALITY MACHINE (1992)
Beyond the frail shelter
everything is as is
no single no resounding
Within
the ticks and the tocks
of a thousand and one clocks
the Divine bound
behind the purity of stained glass
See there!
Poets, priests, and lovers
sitting at the window
all the while writing the unwriteable
on matchbook covers
Ah, this frail shelter
How so many marvel at the architecture
and think the world of it
It is a tale told by an invalid
THE RAVEN,
AN ALTERNATE ENDING (1992)
(with fond regards to Edgar Allan Poe)
With my eyelids slowly sinking,
I beset myself to blinking,
and I started thinking,
"Will that bird e'er leave my door?"
But the bird continued talking,
in its own uncanny squawking,
staring at me, as if mocking,
with the one word "Nevermore!"
From my wall I claimed a rifle;
there I stood and thought a trifle,
with great hopes that I might stifle
that black bird above my door.
And I stared with grim complexion
as I aimed in its direction,
to silence the insurrection
that I wished to hear no more --
then I shot that pesky raven
down onto my chamber floor!
Blood and guts, and nothing more.
WHERE GODS
DARE DREAM (1992)
The stars of monstrous size
hurl themselves across the skies
through every moment in perfect form
and once in awhile
I see them
How wondrous
that the fright'ning power of it all
keeps these stars from falling
and the complicated paths they tread
o'erwhelm the thoughts
within my head to silence
before the deafening grace
O! I tremble to think
what Gods ought fear
of things far beyond here they shrink from
of things awesome and horribly true
of things yet to face
I am afraid how truly near they seem this night
those places where Gods fight and play
But beneath the skies I'll rest my eyes
to wait for day
and dream a humble dream
LEVIATHAN
(1995)
At air I gasp
like fish, and grasp
above a restless sea
And only for
a few feet more
Icarus I will be
For in the deep
forbidden sleep
that each dark shadow brings
There swims despite
her loss of flight
a dragon without wings
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