Stand Still

the popsicles melted that day

it was a hot day, a blistering hot day

when the popsicles melted

I always wondered why we didn't sit in the shade of the tree

instead we stood on the street corner waving at strays

stray cats, stray dogs, and passersby, all the strays of the town

even a circus clown

the popsicles melted down our arms

down to our elbows, the juicy sticky goodness ran

it ran faster than the cats and the dogs, and faster than the cars

in that hottest day of that Month of that year

the hottest day I can remember

not July or August or September, it was May

the popsicles melted that day

I said, stand still

Impossible!

Time, stand still

Impossible!

Earth, stars, moon, stand still

We can’t, we can’t, even if we wanted to

we can't, not even for you!

She stood still, but as still as she would

on that day on that street corner, it was impossible

yes impossible

no matter how fast she stood licking her popsicle

yes as fast, as fast as she possibly could

she couldn't stop time from taking her popsicle away

on that hot day in May

In Love and War

What part of the earth cries for peace?

OVER HERE!  

OVER HERE!

OVER HERE!

What part of your spirit falls to war?

OVER HERE!
OVER HERE!
OVER HERE!

haters of mankind

why do you devalue life?

the sacred loving

Men, Women, Children

the precious bodies of life

hold these cries near you

Together ~ A Poem of Peace

Do not shun do not turn away, do not resist, we ask to stay

Our land, your land, a will to care, in strength we all must share

As we bury our dead, pray to acknowledge the fields we all tread

A million steps across this land, one day in hopes we walk hand in hand

Do not turn your back to us, sons and daughters, live in peace we must

Summer Night’s Dreamscape

Night looms and creeps, and slithers and slinks, the night’s cold fingers hold fast the arm of dreams, keeping at bay my wishes and longings, pleading to come into play - tortured and pushed and pulled, torn from the feathery night, my ballast of ancient seas’ triumphant pasts.   

My heart thumps and beats out rhythms, calling throughout the night, yes the music of the night - come here, come here, come here.  I close the window and draw the drape, stay hidden beneath the pillow and in cover of darkness’ fate.

She turns her face in my direction, and throws her hair towards the dark, go there, go there, go there. Tears, the oceans’ salt is bitter to my tongue, capturing  the old and the tired, but not the young - go away, go away, go away, I say.

She goes away and I dream of you.  I toss and turn, I weep where dreams are harsh, and you are there, I despair.  Night, black night, put away your armor to fight, leave me at peace, at peace, at peace tonight.

Sleep pulls, I fall, the piano plays a tune, a call, cars race across the tarmac, tires squeal and rumble, beating out the rhythm - the night, the night, into the night where rhythm sings of the night.

Love, Lost and Found

Love, you are my love, no other love in the world or in the sky, or the heavens, love; you are my love I have found.

Love lingers, comes forward, backs up, grabs me and shakes me until my teeth rattle.   Love, the calm before the storm, the gnawing anguish of the inevitable pain in the gut, the mind, the heart when you leave, my love, you will inevitably leave, again.  

I’m so tired, standing still, hearing of more killing today, not a day goes by; vacant, dark, shadowed without love; war, the uncaring, heartsore, tired eyes filling with tears; not to love again, and again, and again.

My heart falls, in hearing, in caring, becoming unnervingly stoic, ambivalent, complacent; standing still, to receive again, to love again, to be found and filled, again; love the boundless energy of one heart, two hearts, a world full of hearts.

Oh, if only to love you again, to bring war to an end, again..

Consume

With or without dreams, you consume me into the air, the night holds my hand into the soft floating dreamscapes of fright, you consume me into the harsh light of day, crying out loud, singing, you consume me - take me away, high, higher, the highest and tallest building, mountain, take me away, consume me - take me away to the edge of a bridge, a lake, a tunnel, a cave, your hand is there touching, consume me - take me away, pressing, pushing, nudging, going forward to live or to die, by all means consume me.

Tiger, My Tiger

vibrates thinning air

fans swaying with solitude

shallow weeping  heard

My Tiger leapt from above

fed on salty tears

soft light swirling dry sawdust

kissed sleepy moist lips

War

death takes its toll, again

when will it end?

Shoot to kill, do you hear me?  Shoot to kill!!

Don’t miss, yeah, don’t worry I hear, the enemy is near.

You got that straight?

I heard you, shoot to kill!

Down in the hole, look out for the mole!

I got the fucker, I got him good!

he’s the enemy, don’t forget!

I won’t forget!

It will never end

they will never forget

I’ll Be There

I feel your heart, I hear your cries, I will reach out and touch your tears as they fall, they fall

not a day goes by

tears fall from your eyes, let me kiss them away, away, I will kiss them away each day

not a day goes by

I will hold out my hand, your hand in mine, in mine, take it, hold it, feel the strength that you need from my heart, feel my hand in yours, feel my lips kiss your tears away, away

not a day goes by

Eyes

I see you when the clouds hang low, I see you when the ground is covered with snow, I see you in the evening, I see you in the morning,  I see you in the day when the fields smell of new mown hay

I see you in my dreams

in my head

behind my eyes

in the dark

walking

running

sitting

But most of all, lying in my bed at night I look up and see you standing there

Aware

the keys feel warm under my fingertips

the air outside is cold

I write

tonight

through the open window

a helicopter is heard

circles overhead

wakens the dead

Twice Loved

What lingers across the chasm of blue, she asked.

Only the thought of you, was answered.

A touch followed the surface of the balcony rail.

She followed the sound of a footfall, the light was pale.

the house gave signs that signalled foreboding

it moved, it creaked, it groaned

in a house that cannot be owned

Darkness falls in great clumps on the pond

across the chasm, across the lawn

two hands touch

caring too much

breath quickens

air thickens

bombs burst

lips thirst

shrapnel flies through the air

cries out in the dark

Ilana are you there?

echos a name, a memory

lost across the sea

Longing ~Haiku

pealing bells ring clear

every night your voice comes near

calling home I hear

Through doors and over cockle shells to walk, long and arduous a climb to the wall, battles linger until daybreak.

dark settles on need

longing footsteps heard, and freed

crimson shadows bleed

Nostalgia Marches On

curved highways crisscross our paths

jagged cliffs teeter

us on the brink

byways merge

lanes converge

long distance severed, worn with age

time stands still

only for the youth, time flies away

old is worn, burnished as brass

locking in time, in dreams, in memories, in clouds with feathery wings of birds

long lost, long gone, locked in a revery, a dirge, a song

pain seeks revenge, masking space between age and grace

allotting increments of fashioned jokes and laughter

marching on to someone else’s beat, hoping again to meet

anger slammed against my heart

meant to hurt, as only you knew

expectations shimmered in dark pools

no end, no horizons, no jury

numb, as the tide is sure to ebb

as sure as a snowflake melts

as sure and the sunrises and sets

as winter turns to spring

as spring turns to summer

as summer turns to fall

as falling leaves die, blowing in the wind

across narrows, across divides

then, standing still, a hush, a silence

falling, falling, falling

waiting, waiting, waiting

someone comes along, sweeping up dried broken hearts

Dance

she dies a thousand deaths

she lives again

skies fill with rockets

so many more days

heaven opened

earth sang

orchestras played

she danced

and danced

and danced

Pain

….then the sword plunged into my back, sending the tip though and though

out from eternal hell, out through bone and sinew

forward between ribs and veins and muscle, all tuff yet yielding

out through the front of my chest, bleeding

pour the colors of red, crimson, deeper than night shades of darkness

cries out, my breast…
Pain!

Peace and Love

lay down your swords, you man of war

lay down and answer for your sins

man of war, he who ministers the mistreatment of earth

he who strips the land, root by root, to barren field, raw

he who cuts down with killing knife, all dead from life

he who squanders the trees and fields of blossoming nature

he who takes the life of creatures of youth and of old, once free to roam

Listen now! give back with time we do not have

Listen now! do not wait, do not walk away, give back with your blood you took with greed

give back with your sweat, trade with your tears for the tears you stole

give back and sew the seeds, plant the wheat and the corn and the beans within rows

spread the fields with cows and sheep, the range to spread wide with nurtured fruit trees spread throughout the hills and valleys,  the stalks with golden hues, give back

do not take again, do not kill the innocent, the givers of life

do not trade blow for blow with unsheathed arrows and knife

with bare arms you will give back what you have stolen from time

over the millennium of suns let it rise and set in peace, on goodness,

over the decades give wealth back with love and caring for one to another

from this day forward

from this day forth

until the sea meets the sun

until the sun sets no more

Finding Love

Love strokes the ego, the breast, the mind and all the senses

Love alters passages, trails, and pathways

Love seeks to care, to share, to spare

Love frames a picture, masks a painting, takes out memory and shelters in storms

It puts out fires, quenches desires, makes believe, holds your hand

It covers hurt like soothing cloth, salve, a balm

Into the far beyond, into the conscience labors, floating away on clouds of gray

Love is everywhere, it seems, love unfurls its masts in streams

Control is gone, free spirit arises and cheats the best, it takes the heart to full arrest

Love blinds, coerces, shames and bludgeons your dreams

You do what has to be done, you try again, a war to be won, growing stronger, everlasting

Where blue birds sing in the rain, where buds bloom in the spring

A beautiful love, an earth swell, endures the test at last

Shadows

The words lie under my fingertips, my eyes close and there you are.

Hanging taut through twining tendrils' soft moonlight, Jasmine soaked with scent of floral bouquet, unspoken but known, never seen but felt, the heady tug, the cloying petal captured upon day's heat, seducing by night.

Sweetness.  She walks behind, she hides, she lingers; she waits and then slowly enters the room where no one is waiting; she slips her slender presence quietly into unsuspecting arms.  Do you hear me, do you see me, do you feel me cling to your shadow and follow you around?  

She whispers.  A fragrance am I, a sweet fragrance of youth who steals your heart. 

Holding on to the night, I love you more than life, you are dark, the mysterious muse that satiates hunger, thirst and gnawing desires, tiger, oh my tiger! You are there, you are near...I love you more than life. Wake now, into open arms, the arena, only sawdust between us, walk.

black as the night

sitting, slipping, sliding into the basement, the lower half of night, of hell.  lights out, candles snuffed, the smell of old wicks and candle wax float through the cracks and empty spaces dull with blackened, tarnished hands that lie still in the lap of night.  silence is pounding like sea storms into eardrums, reverberating a deafened, aching void, a void that eats up the night like a hungry ghoul, a vampire sucking the spaces away to neither sit nor stand. hanging are portraits of those who passed this way before me.