~

A heart so fine in charcoal skies
of breath my mind does see
This captured feeling locked inside,
alone as to believe

For what shall come of morning tides,
along the wish filled shore
In seashell decorated time
to want your love once more

What sent this ship of harbor dreams
to sail a course so lost
As currents bide my every whim,
now simplified the cost

When once the sunrise happiness
did take a weathered turn
For but a few words offered up
in lessons I have learned

My sails, the moon’s reflective light,
does glow an empty grin
Atop the wave’s deserted flight
to want you here again

For this shall be my journey true
in aimless rambled roam
If I have not the love of you
I sail these seas alone

Of courses kept in lock and key,
an island beach does call
Upon this deck on bended knee
Amidst the darkened squall

As life will raise its mighty hand
of you that I do seek
Collapsing firm upon this man
in testaments of weak

Come set these chains that hold me tight,
my body craves the pain
As on these seas of bright moon light
I cry within the rain

When time does dance and hours pass,
I plead these charcoal skies
Explain to me how this can be
in scenes before my eyes

“Take me home,” my heart does call
begin this journey new
For I now live a nightmare’s creed
without the love of you

~

Oh so weak, I lift you by delicate wings,
gently as to not smear the wonder
that does meet my eyes

Softly you rest in my hand,
exploring my skin,
the lines of my life, crooked and scarred

Tiny feet dance
tickling me with wonderful sonnets,
penned by nature herself

As if you can see
my intentions are pure,
for I long to bring you joy, which you bring me

A sweet fragrance on the wind
rhymes perfectly with your mesmerizing luminescent colors,
shimmering in the morning sun

Spread your wings my little friend
for I have planted you a garden
filled with the nectar which you desire

And I will sit and watch
silently as you float, happy and free
amongst the beauty that grows for only you

*Deep within my heart

Your ways
( tes façons )


“Shadows grow so long before my eyes”

In silhouettes of dreams past and present
Deep within my desperate heart,
as I yearn for your love, reaching for my pen,
digging through postage stamps and paperclips

“And they’re moving, across the page”

Producing odd shapes on striped paper,
outlines of shaded emotions and verses
Calling out your name in bold ink
and rhyming stanzas of affection

“Suddenly the day turns into night”

Twilight steps over the horizon
as tree top edges touch newly glowing stars
Peering through curtains of cosmic lace
and flickering candlelight with soft breezes

“Far away, from the city”

Miles counted by minutes can be
a daunting task if I hesitate, yet footsteps in the dark
follow paths illumined by your eyes,
as my need grows for your love…I just can’t wait

*“Mon bébé, J'aime tes façons”

~

I cast my eyes towards the sun,
beyond the darkened fence, the fielded midnight thoughts,
watching, through clouded images, knowing eventually
I will witness the birth of a new day

I reach with my smile in a curved line
seeking a destiny still unknown but written
in verses of future phrases,
which will come to pass…in multi-colored inks of affection

I send my heart on waves of scented mist,
collected from the corners of my world,
flowing free from silent words and favored gestures
of desire’s endless intentions

I hand my love to nature, freely, willingly…
so that it may be delivered amidst
blooming jasmine and truer promises…to you,
before another dawn’s light finds your beauty and you awake

I cast my eyes towards the sun…yet I seek not its light,
nor its warmth…for all I seek is you

~


Here beyond the sandstone crease
Long beneath this fractured fault
I take my bow as tears do cease
Collected in a cardboard vault

Dreamt of moments spent like this
Where the sky does touch the ground
Lost in the horizon’s mist
Following a whispered sound

Walking long of nights and days
Breathing in the feathered air
Changing course in mad display
Seeking but a simple care

When your hand appears the light
Shining down of softened beam
Cast aside and to the right
Read my thoughts of which I dream

Take me from this cautioned place
Show me bright un-faded land
Lead me for I long to trace
Every line upon your hand

As I feel my heart does beat
Now that you have led me strong
With a love I must repeat
Hold me close and hold me long

This may be my dying part
But my life is now fulfilled
Your have breathed into my heart
*And my every fear is stilled

Draining my tears on a mountain of guilt
I built with the fears that held I my heart
Riding this horse now as pale as a ghost
with a sword dulled and stained
Waving in the wind
Falling to my knees

Breaking the sunlight, fracturing dreams
Pleading in voices now deaf to her ears
Drinking the kool aid, the glass was half full
Now I sit empty this nightmare alone
Begging her forgiveness
Ripping apart at the seams

Send me for I deserve nothing less
The white knighted system is nothing but me
Defending her honor with all I can give
Blind the decisions I thought she did need
As I humbly and sincerely
Return that final breath...hoping she accepts

~

On the waves of a dream,
I lay waiting on shore,
a cold beach this night
beneath a burdened moon
crying stardust


I sink slowly
into the wet sand…
pleading with the waters
for answers to shamed questions,
while counting the shades of violet
framing a weeping sky


Thoughts flow like the tides
on an endless journey,
weaving contours and
bends deep within
this sorrow that washes
over me


I watch as these waves slip away,
carrying hopes still lingering
and exposing the loss I feel
fiercely crashing
before my eyes,
in opaque foam


I can barely move,
my body is still,
my breath salted and tethered,
as I reach
for shadows of my memories,
only to find them…


whispering goodbye
*on the breeze

Crystallized moon beams
Fractured light of endless desire
Shimmer on you as our eyes meet
Beneath a canopy of gemstone brilliance
Pearl buttons glisten as fingers touch
Your smile grants permission
Leaving me breathless

Serenity of the night serenades
Our hearts beat in silent yearnings
Lips find your shoulders pure
Your neck sweet of perfumed nectar
A sultry sigh floats wispily to the heavens
As we lay entwined on feathery grass
Exploring each other amidst whispering winds

City lights twinkle, reflections on the bay
Unaware of our love, our moment
Leaves trickle to earth like tiny wings
As I gaze upon your silhouette
Mysterious against this velvet sky
Still beauty falls like summer rain
Drenching my sight with you

A full moon stares down smiling
Happily enchanted by our movements
Lifting and lowering, the dark horizon mirrors you
And still I linger upward at your charm
“I love you” I sough, feeling every pulsation of affection
Blissfully seeking, deeper inside
You peer down of hypnotic gazes

Harmonic moans sing in a sensual duet
Echoing through tree lined vistas
Increasing in tempo, you fall to my lips
Tongues dance to the melodic rapture
Fevered vibrations rhythmically sway
Clutching my arms, head arching back
Your hair like chocolate ribbons flowing

A shooting star trails your murmured gasp
Fireworks ignite within, intensely exploding
Illuminating your smile, your face
I rush to meet you, simultaneous sensations
Quivering starlit ecstasy shines
Collapsing in my loving arms  
As the evening blankets us in euphoria

~

Influences corner me
on a narrow strip of land
falling off into a sea of uncertainty
Raging waters reflecting fear
desperately deep

Toxic tides reach for me,
attempting to drag me under
Spilling breaths on uncharted beaches
I fall to my knees lost…searching
for merely the tiniest thread of hope

When a rope, strung of woven longings
appears, tied tightly around your heart,
hand knotted of promises made
and gasping, I pull myself once again
to the safe haven of your love

~

Picture Perfect

It is within this channeled dream,
along a corridor of white washed hope
that simmering shadows form an outline
captured of a view beyond the eastern fence

I breathe in the mist now lingering
of sunrise wishes, sweet to the taste,
tempting to every desire which amounts to only one
when photographs found are of us

Small pieces of a longed for past,
squares of colored sequences collected in a box
Blue and gold ribbons concealing
each heartfelt moment of what was supposed to be

I hold this celluloid memory close to my face,
your smile leaps from the glossy film
reaching for my heart with lilac fingers
and I open myself…wishing it were so

If only your eyes could see mine,
gazing affectionately at what I hold in my hand,
wanting only to be like this photograph once again
the two of us…picture perfect…in love

~

Unseen

As if I am not even here…
Unseen by everyone, including myself
Not even a shadow exists
of any form that I recognize as mine

Even though you could see me, you don't
Staring through the dotted lines
of where my heart used to sit
in silhouettes long faded…forgotten

My hand before my face is not there
A heavy fog sifts the loneliness
No foot prints in the mud
remain of where I may have walked…untouched

Still I see you…you smile,
not at me, but somewhere beyond
Running through me, an invisible past
reaching for another…who smiles too

As if I am not even here…

~

And I ~ cling to a fortress
of endless temptation
with rings made of gold
and a tree built of life

Faltering corners
in new found dimensions
a little left over
but so very nice

Clinging to them

And I ~ search in a fountain
with quarters for feelings
so far neath the waters
my song sings alone

On sea shells and posters
of rock concert heroes
with hair like a Sheppard
to call the sheep home

Calling to all

And I ~ call to the mountains
in echoes of sailors
with waves in the morning
and snowcaps at night

Floating horizons
alone on the wishes
that winds will prevail
and make everything right

Sailing again

And I ~ lean on a valley
of tree lines and saucers
with cups filled with coffee
to taste when it’s due

With smiles forever
and words down on paper
with love as my meaning
I write them ~ for you

*Please hear my call

~

Framed by affections,
unlocked, waiting...
weathered of vibrant
thoughts and dead bolt
delusions

A portal of desperate
desires and relinquished
pain, for the light
through my cracks and crevices
now shines

My heart is hinged…
eternally by brass pins of endless dreams,
tightly fitting into
the perfect grooves of
your love

Twist with simple ease
my handle, dull and waiting
for the sheen of you
ever bright, glowing
to polish me, to make me
new

Open me, swing me freely,
so smoothly I move
allowing the morning breeze to sift
beyond peep hole shadows
creating a passage
so that I may walk so deeply
into you

~

Parched and dry, this barren field stretches,
I wander…head hung low,
staring at the emptiness eclipsing my thoughts
Brittle blades of grass disappear beneath
my worn out Chuck Taylors,
black and white crushing beige
in slow fashioned footprints ~ blistered dust

“My sanity for some cool water”

When upon my shoulders, reddened by solar intensity,
wet from exerted energy, comes a breeze
as if Autumn has come to claim her colors,
to gather her brown and sepia landscape,
pull the lifeless trees, with little leaf
from the chalk textured ground
taking it where it would suit another ~ for this is my luck

“Take my shade, I beg not, for it is merely a branch”

Like fingers of a silken web’s reach,
a soft caress of skin is not understood, though very pleasant
nature finds me a shiver, a small comfort in this arid place
once crawling with snakes of assorted length, now
green as if lush has just been defined
with sweet air and pomegranate skies
featuring a glow, pristine shades of which I’ve never seen ~ heavenly

“To whom might I thank for such a gift?”

When before me stands, my eyes saturated and lost
slowly focus on beauty, winged loveliness now smiling within my own
personal oasis, which quickly forms in my heart
An angel, a goddess, extends a hand…to me?
My cracked and weathered palm touches, smooth, gentle
her hand as she lifts me, I am weightless, floating
to her, my breath leaves me as I wonder ~ is this my end

“If this beauty shall be my final curtain, let it drop slowly”

A voice of velvet speaks, as I fade in and out of reality
and steadied by her touch, in the sweet scent of lavender and lime,
“I have come to you as a verse, for poetry is thy keeper,
thy words have been heard,” lyrical this voice sings
melodic and harmonious, rhythm’d to the beat of my heart
the race of my pulse, the love of my life ~ my angel

*“Eternal to you I shall write, for your beauty fuels my pen”

~

Balmy breezes capture me,
though struggle I’ll not feed,
sifting on the glowing rays beyond the heather hedge,
walking barefoot,
senses fly,
lemonade the tint…
born upon this early morning sky

Lantana lullabies,
still a faint offering,
relinquish me of moon fed destinies,
setting me free once more
in the golden sheen of the pristine
sunflower sunrise

Soft, a haze does find me in a sphere of intoxicated dreams
swirling about this blue canopy,
this euphoric frame bordering
the tapestries of nature’s happiness

On this day wings sprout,
gossamer in saffron flow
from shoulders soft and bliss divine,
perfect of a vision I do long
to harbor near

For in my eyes again reflects your beauty
and I touch you…
Your smile finds my heart
as I breath in the majesty of my desires,
thanking the heavens once more
for my blessings

~

The sky is burnin'

Clouded flames of heated needs
soaring overhead in blistering fashion
Raging, scorching what hides within…
a distant glow fueling deeply

I believe my soul's on fire

As I feel this longing,
an out of control inferno
Blazing beneath my heart,
searing all that I now find

You are, I'm learning

Love’s tinder…sparks ignited
Standing at the pyre of your beauty
Feeding pulsating embers of lust,
Passion’s combustion in a fever’d pitch

*the key to my desire

Heart String Sorrows


Sadness plays my heart strings

With a bow of rosin’d guilt

Tear drops stain the notes upon the page



Sorrowed cello whispers

Of a soundless worry wilt

Harmonies distorted in this rage



Out of tune concertos

Fall as fractured cymbals blare

Steady as the beat of gathered pain



Broken mirror rhythms

Sit upon the favored chair

Misery in musical refrain



Violin’d distractions*

Born of melodies so thin

Echoing performed apologies



A cappella opus

In a prelude to the hymn

*Composed for you in all sincerity

~

Layers upon layers,
flaking residue...
scraping at the inner walls of my heart,
priming the ruins of my disassembled dreams while
masking off all hope of bleeding out or bleeding on

“Dare I bleed in the color of missing you?”

Scratches filled in with crayon,
vacant hues...
only on or outside of the lines of love
Woeful stick figures dancing to a lonely song,
played by the empty roller lashed to my hand

“Would you dare touch my handprints....smear them?”

Minutes take hours to pass, but who cares,
Que Sera Sera...
the old Zenith finds Doris Day happy,
nice someone can be
stirring a smile within a gallon of semi-(g)loss

“Why is the sale brand in barren tones?”

I cringe at the thought of another moment in this position,
base boards...
bent over and touching up,
flat lining without an edge,
waiting for your voice, your tinted smile...waiting your approval

“Like watching paint dry...”

~

I don't want it anymore (my heart)


This forest of black fern, scraping thorn’d tree trunks
It all looks the same
Tearing at my flesh…ripping wounds upon my chest
Severing slowly
Pain merely a dashed figment of my stoic imagination
Sharp blades twist
Wandering for nights on end as days no longer exist
Getting nowhere fast
Frowning moss grows on the east side of sorrow
Dying north spins
As I hold in my hand this thing that still bleeds
Two parts, gaping
Seeking the perfect hiding spot in charcoal stone ash
Shadows fade desires
This is of no use to me, take it, I don’t want it anymore
It is broken
Rains soften this hell as I dig deeper into the sadness
Buried in teardrop mud
And I sit, amongst bramble and thistle spun chains
Waiting for the end….

~

Maps are folded and re-folded into pocket sized
destinations of our own heart’s desires

Routes become numbers and numbers become moments
as the planning cycle, with yellow highlighter in hand,
presents a “look forward to” scenario

Well beyond windows of curtained belief
and hedges shaped like poetic scribblings calling to me

The sidewalk of chalk marks in hopscotch etchings,
faded from the sun and foot smeared play dates,
leads to that place of affection filled dreams

and I see over the next sunrise a highway,
empty of detours and beckoning openly

to this heart, from another, on windswept invitations
penned in frilly fonts and colors of imagination,
reaching deeply inside and holding tightly

A glance back at what is left behind brings a smile,
for what waits ahead is now everything new

In the grand scheme of things, what is found chiseled in fate
proves that destiny is a destination of dreams, of hopes and
of love… . when that journey brings me to you

~

Butterfly wishes



Times are tough, I know it’s true
As walls keep caving in
Still here, my heart it beats for you
I miss you once again
~
When all it seems to be too much
You’d like to run and hide
Just close your eyes and feel my touch
*I’m always by your side

Caught within a nightmare deep
Broken chains of sad regret
Locked behind these bars of steel
Darkness every corner wept

Walls of stone now caving in
Running at a quicker pace
Drowning in the stench of fear
Lies I wish I could erase

Only but a tiny light
Shines beyond this cavern long
Hope defies my every view
How could one man be so wrong?

On my knees of shredded flesh
Pleading words on weary breath
One more chance I beg this day
Or this end shall be my death

Falling fast and fading far
Pain collects my shattered mass
In a heap my world does lay
Waiting for this life to pass

When a hand appears my sight
Gentle as a fluttered wing
Upon a breeze of whispered air
Warm as any day of spring

Then your perfect face I see
“I’m sorry,” cries my truthful word
“I forgive you” floats my way
The sweetest sound I’ve ever heard

Joy does calm my beating heart
Lifted now I stand so free
Every prayer my mind had found
Answered when you came to me

Lead me for I follow you
Take me from this desperate scene
End this nightmare born in hell
So I may live within your dream

~

Simple short phrases


Taken from the grayest clouds,
charcoal mist collecting my thoughts
Entwining my heart with pointed sorrow
as my stupidity takes center stage to a sold out show

Weakened at the knees, dis-jointed disappointments,
assumptions falter my eyes
Blinded by the sight of one more
licking the seasoned wounds of past regrets

Channeling frustrations with a remote, the mute button not working
Shoe fittings find my mouth, at least in silent words
Crying inside and outside too,
rivers of lost dreams stored in a mason jar…its lid rusted shut

Wrenching my fingers, twisted knots,
lacing fears that are merely a mirage
yet still flourish in desert dreamscapes fluctuating
as camels drink from my oasis on Wednesdays

Then, as if a window opens, words are heard

simple short phrases
tiny syllables counted
in Senryu fashion

and in an instant my heart spins in circular motions
A smile of winged happiness adorns my face,
sun pours through and zephyrs unfurl their sweet aromas,
dancing from flower to flower…to my heart

It is amazing how words can effect us
and all it takes is a whisper of affection, a declaration of caring
from you to me,
to make this moment, this day, this world…the perfect place

I gave my son a wagon
and boy he had such fun
Until I came to realize
I did not have son

I asked about his mother,
he said they called her Stan
yes, she was a woman
had a name just like a man

And then he said, hey mister,
with comets in your hair
Do you have a sister,
and could her name be Claire?

I said, I don’t remember,
what difference does it make?
Ask me in December
That I just can't fake

He looked up at me funny
A squint had found his eyes
Today was kind of sunny
Oh what pack of lies

Well now I must be going
Although I’d like to stay
Albino crows were crowing
The time had come to play

He thanked me for the wagon
and rolled off down the lane
I think to fight a dragon
I just can not explain

When then I heard him sighing
while tiny wheels did squeak
He whispered, no denying
Hey mister, you’re a freak

Fragile wings of stained glass rainbows
Endless your uncharted flight
Still I face the window staring
Praying you fly by this night


Longing in this darkest hour
Emptiness my heart does breathe
Forever more I shall be waiting
Eternally I shall believe