Your knowledge is one thing
Your faith is another

Sometimes even the greatest scholars are not the holiest of men

Even when you've become ashes
Your life laying in ruins

There is one proclaiming
"Those ashes are mine"

Let the light
be the truth
to the horizon
of our thoughts

He walks over fresh made graves
Across the grass and flower beds
Wearing a trench coat , leather black
Shuffles across the railroad track
As he approaches you
He tips his hat and how are you
In gravely words of choice
With his whiskey voice

I saw him down at the pub
Drinking Guinness eating subs
With two eyes on everyone
Never turning his back on anyone
Orders up a whiskey straight
Raises a toast ,"To all my mates!"
Left the Erie Half Crown by the plate
With a whiskey voice

The bomb went off with  such a boom
Smoke and fire over loomed
The police and firemen running everywhere
He stood in the shadows over there
Long before the screams and shouts
Had died down before the doubts
The man had long disappeared
With his whiskey voice

Kisses are live coals
Hugs and tugs and
squeezes are part of the
anticipated goals
Flesh upon flesh ;
extends the exhilaration
Tongues duel for supremacy ; thrusting
in *******
without a doubt of the efficacy
We live dangerously as the gasoline of love
With sparks of anticipation
bursting into flames
that shoot high above
We are consumed
in heat
becoming the orange tinged ashes
cooled by tears
as Angels weep

Skip a line
Try Titan like
Maybe your cloud
will shroud your
desperation
in fear
As lost as
the speed of light
Warped !
Bent !
Falling into a
worm hole
Arriving at the center
of a Black Hole
. . . so captivating

I scramble my words like my eggs
Sometimes they are whole
Sometimes hardboiled

I pluck my words off the vine
Super fresh only in my mind

Sometimes it is potted meat
Some call it instant karma

More so lately all my words seemed canned
So it is with words of spam

Half buried
under sand
Snag in rotting
clothes
Maggots
feasting on dead
flesh
Somehow
so out of place

East Bay , Panama City , 1962

My heart fell off her shelf
hit the hard floor
of life
shattering all my
dreams
and all the cracks
fell apart
and it seemed
to be only a ghost
of a chance . . .
or none at all

Whose to blame here ?
After all I opened the door and let you in
Whose crazy idea thought this is finally
my search come to an end ?

So all my hopes are swept under a sea
estranged where all the monsters of my past reign
Below the ***** paws of
dragon flies shame

Out you **** spot !
You're getting in my way at HP !

If my words were to glow
If they like a mighty river to the equator flow

As mighty as sequoias grow
Aspiring to stand and hold their ground
Would my words reach as high
Could they turn to and astound

When I look to find
the fire that others tell
I choke on the smoke and heat
that their breath of words exhale

But my words fall as hard and fast
as Autuum's Mourning Doves to the hunter's blast

With some only wounded in their pending plight  
The ending to fledgling desires
Denied of the right to flight

Do not fear death . . .  
. . . . fear eternity .

.

You !

Long time ago . . .

Indigo . . . ha !

What a name


There on 22nd street south

. . . Midnight's Voice . . .


Remember ?

We were young . . .

real , mean and lean . . .

invincible !

or so it seemed


Those nighthawks in the night sky . . .

diving in the lights

And those inside the bar
looking for a light

It was "Us" and "Them"
and anyone else foolish enough to join

Money was short
but we always made do



Red Mountain . . .

Vulcan . . . before the cage

Jones Valley . . . down below

Everything was up
turn around
and come down


God I loved that Mountaim

. . . it vibrated in magic

Long live the magic . . .

that I've lost


Living within but without

. . . how I wish you were here


________

Tribute to the early 1970's
Birmingham , Alabama

Vulcan - the largest cast iron statue in the world . Made in the image of the God Vulcan sitting on top of Red Mountain . At the time open free to the public 24 hours a day with stairs going up to the top of the head where a 360° balcony overlooked Jones Valley down below . Later so called improvements imposed a hefty entrance fee , an elevator replacing the stairs , and a cage built around the balcony and only open from 8 a.m.to 5 p.m. seven days a week . All of which ruined the magic of seeing uninterrupted views , sunrises and sunsets , stars and lights of the valley below .

Midnight's Voice - a bar downtown Southside where bands played

Nighthawks - a band from Washington D.C. that played often at Midnight's Voice

Indigo - Vietnam vet . I don't know if he was crazy
before 'Nam' but he sure was after . Real name was Ray . Could play one hell of a guitar especially when he got together with Mike McEachern .

It will always be . . . (us , us , us , us , us and them , them , them , them , them . . . after all we were only ordinary men) Pink Floyd

I have fire inside my bones
It burns like red hot stones
It is as wicked as glittering gold
I am ****** sober cold

I breathe the breath of fire
I take liberty with desire
I singe everything touched
Overheat your slipping clutch

My heart turns molten steel
Poured out into my will
My footsteps leave a smoking trail
As I tread back home to Hell

Woman on all fours

Satan , whose name means adversary or opponoment ,
stands against us in every spiritual battle .

The only thing worse than having Satan as an adversary . . .
is to have him as a friend .

A progress in the works

I found out a long time ago
The woman you want
you can't have
Now that I'm older
the women who were Killers
are now just fillers
that I don't want .

I was in pursuit
of empty phantoms
and thus emptied out myself .
I became a seeker of worthlessness and became as worthless too
I was raised by the bounty of my glory days
But now I am starving through and through
And I have defiled the hands that once guided mine
A realization that only comes with the passage due to time

My ego does not lie
For my ego is the lie


I was astonished
then horribly afraid
at the total desolation
of the phantoms in my
head

Everyone has their fifteen minutes of fame
They carry their torches high
while going up in flame

The ashes of the past
become the hope diamonds of tomorrow

As one ages time flies by even faster
Yet they do less and less before they are put out to pasture

If you find a hole inside your soul
It's where your heart once called its abode

You vanished all too soon
I turned around and you were gone before new moon

I can almost touch your smile
I guess I'm living in self denial

You left us in silence to our grief
Death came out like a hooded thief

It's rare to have known someone with no ill will was spoken about
Now the light inside has taken flight , Heaven bound I have no doubt

Leaving us with everything that was you
The love , joy and happiness ; the moments we all knew

As I look at the stars tonight , at God's creation
I am reminded that everything has it's place ; surely all it's fascination

And I hope I see you again when I reach my final destination
Then there will be no more goodbyes of desolation

Take the boy and girl out of the mansion
Turn off the tide
Raise dust and hordes of locust
American in demonstration
American in consternation

HALLOGEN eyes illuminate the way
Youth tastes great
Sweet on the tongue
Before turning into bitter bile of disappointments

Saw the dead branches off the Tree of Life
Fertilize the tree of Good and Evil
Rake up the leaves of fallen dreams
Once bright and green

. . . looking forward to Sunday off

There are little rocks
Big rocks
and boulders

There are crushes
Dilliances
and full blown romances

Just as the seconds
are
to the minutes at hand
that make up the hours of our lives

How sad are the days that rock every moment
of defiance

Even diamonds have  a rough start before they can be shaped up to shine

Where will I be
in the end ?
Helplessly tethered
to lands end ?

My spirit yearns
to soar
To rise above
the shore

Not to be
bound down
Like a clown's
frown

Beauty as always
costs truth
As old age
steals youth

Fly like a feather
on eternal winds
Pray now that the journey
never ends