a dreamy night

I remember the nights beginning
a smooth taste
strong nightcap
to take the edge off

a sip of the joy juice
bitter on the tongue
takes the pain by the throat
kept at bay until morning

there's a lot to talk about
not much remembered
abundance of hearty laughter
over everything said and done

I awake at dawn
measuring foggy thoughts
peering through cloudy scenes
from the night before

We tell ourselves stories
Of days that we are glad
Sad
Bad
Times that are hard
When with our bear hands
We scratch through rocks of insanity
Seeking out broken answers
To illuminate our puzzled existence
As the threshold into our souls
Are shut tight by the nightmares of our yesterdays
That comes to haunt our present selves
And threaten the tranquility of our tomorrows
As we dream bitter of the meadows
And the bliss waterfalls at the countryside.

Rectangles spaced around the wall
each below a hook or nail
they're just darker spots, that's all
where paint has not yet faded pale

Easy to guess what once hung there
works of art within a frame
beauty the artists tried to share
perhaps in quest for fleeting fame

But the paintings all are gone
unfaded shapes are all that's left
on the walls they hung upon
which somehow now seem all bereft

Womb To Tomb

We were born naked kicking and screaming
Infinite potential personified and gleaming
Dragged into the iridescent light of a new day

Perfectly oblivious, fabulously ignorant
Unsullied by human intervention
Blissful sublime in our naivety

Held safe against your mother's breast
The womb was not yet vacated
The cord unbroken

School begins and the world rushes in
We are forever altered
Our senses assaulted by the reality of life

Love learns to forgive
friends learn "quick!", to smile,

pain will recall
every step of each mile;

betrayals hold grudges,
as each memory protects;

difficult tasks teach temperance,
while melancholy reflects.

Sincerity sounds truthful,
prepared leaders must leave;

the successful adopt, joy!
While the lonely must grieve;

Honesty can turn gullible,
lust and passion feels right;

grace showers with blessings,
where anger tries to ignite!

(To my father, for being just who he is)

My heart swells up and bounces around in my chest like a balloon
When I stand at my window and from a distance, notice you
“He is mine…he is mine” is all I can think of
When I see you like that…close enough

You keep me going strong, my grand Oak tree
You keep watch over me, my strongest Martial Eagle
What would I have been up to…where I would I have been
If you were not mine…so humble and regal

large white gazing ball
hangs upon nothing
in the dark canopy above
billowing canvas

myraids of crystals
pierce black pillows
at the farthest point
where the water never ends

silver sprayed twinkling shine
staining the glassy sea

Thank you for leaving me enough room
to roam behind the splitting room of departure.

You wasted agony on me, but it was I who agonized
in a burning bed
the fire still between us
when your heart, paper thin with Osho,
too much red wine and calamari (and you said
goodbye to another
woman's daughter),
crushed your life into divinity and fragments
of my mourning veil
swooped down like a lusty
black angel, singing tenderly
the long feather of eternal night

SUBJECT MATTER
You are a shadow now
simply subject of my art
lingering behind
some lines of poetry
but there are times
when suddenly
the ghost of you
stands in front of me
and my heart sinks
again

Hesperides
the beauty light that shines
from muse eyes

faint gleam the garden dreamer
awaiting Erebus
waiting in that dusk
of eternity