Once in a lifetime
If you’re lucky
You get a second chance
At love
How it happens
Why it happens
No one knows
But the powers up
Above
Life’s twists and turns
Run parallel in the universe
Fate and destiny hold hands
To bring loved ones together
Dearly departed team up
In Heaven
Guiding what appears
Happenstance
Improbable
Impossible
And yet volatile passions
Transcend eternity
Until the ultimate moment
Of consummation
A deep breath
Of longing
Brought together
Like lightning
Illuminating the sky
In a flash of brilliance
That will last forever
Towering over
Time and space
No longer a momentary
Ember
But
Transformed into a glowing
Fireball that consumes
Every fiber of the
Lover’s beings
Granting them love
And happiness
And an ending that will last
Forever

Empty laughter
Often fading
Among the trees
Of the nether-fold
Nirvana forsaken
Amidst the storm
Of the infinite
Paradoxical anagrams
Representing the
Vortex of time
Leaving in isolation
The magnitude
Unfulfilled
By a destiny removed
Renamed yet unknown
As a symbol
A metaphor
Held in an ironic
Twist of fate
Longing for the impossible
Parodies etched in paradiddles
Refocused without rhyme
Now forsaken
Amid the Pine Barrens
Of time

12/12/18

Spring songs appear like ghosts
Hovering over the horizon
Happy memories
Playing in fields of daffodils
Golden rainbows
Mixed with stripes of hyacinth blue
Amber shadows projecting skyward
Against the rays of the rising sun
Time stands still as trees blossom
And fauns scamper among daydreams
Everlasting solitude of rebirth
For the dawning of a new day
A new season
To be remembered through summer
And into fall
As ruminations linger
Filled with the memories of spring

4/22/19

I look at the sea
As the sun shines down
And the glare stings my eyes
But as I watch
The sight comes clear
And all the ocean’s beauty
Comes alive

Here I sit
Seven stories up
Safe and warm inside
For the sea is cold now
And sometimes angry
But it will be warm and calm
Again this spring

So I look at the sea
As the sun shines down
And I dream of the spring
And when spring comes
I wish you here
To share the ocean’s beauty
With me

This is the 2nd of a set of three art songs for soprano and piano called Three Landscapes - the other two poems are by Edna St. Vincent Millay

My Darling
I was so hopeful then
First it was
Home for Christmas
Then it was
Home for New Year’s
But you never came home
Except in my heart
Where you’ll live forever

Sunrise wakes the day

While dozing rejuvenates

The mind and the soul

Where does time go
And yet remaining
Every Saturday
Another week

Flying by
Yet standing still
Looking forward
To another dawn

In the distance
All the longing
Soon resolved
By a pocket full of weeks

Fireflies
Leaving a trail of
Bioluminescence
Following a path
Known only to
Fireflies

I look at your picture
Your eyes glow
Your smile brightens
Your beautiful countenance
Frozen in the time of a photograph
The apples of your cheeks
Lighting your eyes
Which search deep into my soul
And still reveal
The wonder of yours
Filled to the brim
And waiting to burst forth
Yet containing itself and hoping
I look at your picture
And see the love
Buried and longing
I look at your eyes and the smile
That takes my breath away

There once was a man
Who thought he’s a comic.
He didn’t need logic
‘Cause still he dreamed on.

He’d open for this one
And open at that.
On sidewalks, in nightclubs
If they’d pass the hat.

He followed his plan
And eventu’lly made it
On cruise ships and Vegas
He moved right along.

Through ups and through downs
And fights with his agents
He fought and he battled
And weathered the storm.

And now he’s retired
From stand-up and show-rooms
And calmly announces
As comics move on.

There’s a saying
Time waits for no man
Time can be relative
Or a revelation
Time cannot be extinguished
Or diminished
When waiting
Time feels elongated
Like watching the grass grow
It levitates
Holding itself suspended
In a reality of its own making
Transforming itself as if static
Standing still
Yet time ticks on
Like the striking of Big Ben
And the universe moves
At its predetermined pace
While we poor mortals
Suffer the interminable seconds
Of the atomic clock
That stands still
Only in our consciousness
Waiting like Pandora’s Box
To be opened
And return to its natural pace
Of sixty seconds
Sixty minutes
Hours…days…weeks…years
Waiting for time
Time holding a new reality
Time demonstrating its ability
To transfix
Transfuse
And open new vistas
Only time can reveal

Feeling the wind in your hair
Holding the sand between your toes
As the tide washes over your feet
Holding your face to the sun
As shadows cast themselves on the pavement
The remnants of the day a golden glow
The early dusk drinking in the twilight
The twinkling stars invading the heavens
As the moon caresses the sky
And the clouds drift by
Like a blanket covering the earth
And you sleep the sleep of a baby
The innocence of tomorrow
Held for a moment and then let go
As the gentle breeze drifts across your face
And carries you forward toward your destiny

5/29/19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

Forever embracing the moment
Holding on to glass hands
Crystalline clear
Bending light
Into rainbows of incandescence
Prisms of starlight
Held in suspended animation
Focused solely on perfection
Gathering dust into clouds
Like cotton candy
Pink and blue
Spun sugar confections
Trapped by centrifugal force
Yet free to puff
With gossamer wings
Into ***** of fluff
To melt on the tongue
In muted simulation
Of irresistible forces
Drawn by magnetic cohesion
Into one

4/29/19

Osgood the owl
Is three inches tall
A constant companion
Even though he’s green
With yellow eyes that watch me
From morning ‘til night
And faithfully sits there
‘Cause he’s made of stone

Crossing the ocean
Is more than just miles
Or depth to the bottom
It’s battling sea monsters
And waves that try
To scuttle your ship
Only love can conquer
The daemons setting their sights
On the rarest of feelings
When truly aroused
When the heart and the soul
Join forces and become one
To take on all comers
And conquer the darkness
Like a knight in shining armor
To rescue the damsel in distress
And carry her off to Neverland
To live the plethora of youth and joy
That only true love can bring

I wander the yard
Listening to the wonders
Watching the sun rise
A woodpecker in a tree
Finding peace with the soul

Heroes come and go
Life-long battles with day-dreams
Opening new doors
As flexing muscles abound
Under golden canopies

Following the day
Passages open pathways
Through the yellow dawn
In step with wind-swept moments
Following the path beyond

3/25/19

www.brucelevine.com

The road of love is long
Filled with potholes and bumps
Along the way

Do you know what
I like about
Being old?
Senior Discounts!
I love to walk
Into the grocery store
On Wednesdays
And say:
YEA! – Old People’s Day!
And get
5% senior discounts.

Reading the blogs
Is a perpetual challenge
Wondering why something is there
Wondering if the author is scared

Are they writing to write?
Or writing for reason?
Or are they simply compelled
Just to put something up?

Fashioning fancy after
Reader’s approbation
Extending a handshake
To comments not meant

Reading the blogs
Of writers prolific
Joyous new wonders
A daily dose of cheer

Writers keep writing
And upload your treasures
The universe awaits you
To savour your gifts

6/2/19

Scanning the channels
Seeking a killer
Parading suspects
Hiding the crime

Alibi answers
Hidden conundrums
Follow the money
Follow the dream

Answers, evasions
Questions outnumber
Double jeopardy
Sequence defined

Will he or won’t he
Sisters forever
Cross examination
Bargains declined

Bad guys remember
Good guys will haunt you
TV detectives
Never outshined

Myst’ries unraveled
Killers detected
Final decisions
Filling the screen

4/30/19

After years of torment
Emotional agony and
Loneliness
She’s Going Home
Undreamt of joy
Reveals itself
As the love
She never thought
Would exist for her
Has taken hold
Of her life
A love so deep
So strong
That it could
Only have been
Sent to her
Now she knows that
She is reborn
And soon they will be
Together
One heart and one soul
Joined for eternity
By love
She is
Going Home

A yellow crescent moon
That overlooks the landscape
And hyphenates the stars

A special day
A wondrous day
A profound day
A day filled with happy moments
Of hope for the future
A day filled with sadness
And reflections of the past
Opening a window
Turning the key in the lock
That closes the door
And opens on the other side
Of the ocean
A chasm crossed physically
And metaphorically
A lifetime ahead
Filled with hope and dreams
Love and laughter
A special day
A wondrous day
A profound day

11/22/18

Happily never after
Is a tale too often told
When dreams have been discarded
And faith no longer bold

The empty trough forgotten
Amid sorrows that never end
And hope that travels nowhere
With messages one cannot send

The broken line of pavement
Erased by years of rain
That once had been a highway
But now a road of pain

If happily never after
Is all that’s left ahead
The tears remember good times
And life’s an unmade bed

The hope that self-renews now
A chance for dreams to come true
Is worth another mem’ry
A life ahead that’s due

3/7/19

www.brucelevine.com

Ten years of anguish
Ten years of sorrow
Ten years alone
With people all around

Three flights up
In an empty bedroom
Devoid of any loving
Devoid of human touch

Living each day
The life of a servant
Practicing retreating
A shell of who she was

Hoping for a savior
To end the mental torture
Never even knowing
If saving could exist

Gone the years of passion
Gone the sacred hours
Gone the hope of union
Replaced with empty tears

Filled with silent moments
Filled with tense emotions
Frozen in a time warp
Of mem’ries now forlorn

Only dreams to guide her
Only chances taken
Happy ever after
An illusion or a dream

Destiny’s encounter
Hope on the horizon
Born of years of longing
For fate to intervene

All the empty sorrows
******* in a ribbon
Thrown in wicker baskets
Never to be retrieved

A simple chance encounter
A simple little entry
Changing lives forever
Passion now renewed

Reborn by fate uniting
Two souls on the horizon
Destiny providing
A platform for their love

All the empty years now
Gone, a pure reflection
Of love and time dismembered
By one who can’t conceive

Happiness has found her
In one ecstatic moment
The simplest solution
Right before her eyes

Safe and warm together
Love that’s profound now
Now the new beginning
So long ago conceived

With happiness forever
And dreams now reinstated
Where emptiness had once resided
Rekindled by their love

No more empty sorrows
No more lonely hours
No more trials and torment
No more broken hearts

Only joy and laughter
Only new beginnings
Only happy mem’ries
Built upon their love

Home needs no explaining
Home is where you’ll find her
Home that fills her *****
Home now fills her needs

One and one are one now
Never disunited
Loving hands unfolding
The future now conceived

With hope and love forever
Safe and warm inside now
Home to last forever
Love her sacred creed


10/31/18

I am a devout foodist
I celebrate every holiday
That involves food
I’ll try anything once
Except grasshoppers, ants
And other creepy-crawlers

Dinner is a sacred point in the day
Not just a repast or fuel for the body
A joyous time to be savoured
And reveled in
To be rekindled on the tongue
Throughout the evening

Foodism is open ended
Open to all of those
Who desire to luxuriate
In the pleasures of the gastronomic
Who feast with their eyes
As well as their taste buds and stomach

Foodism requires no special meeting house
Restaurants, side-walk venders and home
The approbation of the culinary skills
Praise for the chef
All uniting under one umbrella
All celebrating foodism

6/1/19

Happily never after
Is a tale too often told
When dreams have been discarded
And faith no longer bold

The empty trough forgotten
Amid sorrows that never end
And hope that travels nowhere
With messages one cannot send

The broken line of pavement
Erased by years of rain
That once had been a highway
But now a road of pain

If happily never after
Is all that’s left ahead
The tears remember good times
And life’s an unmade bed

The hope that self-renews now
A chance for dreams to come true
Is worth another mem’ry
A life ahead that’s due

http://www.leaves-of-ink.com/2019/04/happily-never-after.html

The tree of life
Takes a circuitous route
Stumbling its way
Toward destiny

He waits
Days go by
Weeks go by
Months go by
Years go by
Promises unresolved
Time passes
No fulfillment
New hopes
New rejections
Once remembered
Once forgotten
Trying again
Putting it out
Painful reminders
Past encounters
Understanding
Confusion
Resolution
Waiting
Goals
Goals­ forsaken
Timeless reminders
Forever hopeful

6/9/19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

Where do you go
At the end of the list
As paperless paper
Remains on the roll

Standing with nothing
However refined
And entry forever
Forever declined

The faraway mountains
The tears never shed
Forgetting tomorrow
No more the bells toll

Not asking or crying
As time marches on
The list one remembers
Forever is gone

3/1/19

www.brucelevine.com

Deloris Duck
Doesn’t quack
Her quacker is on the fritz
She’s made of stone
It should be known
A green duck doesn’t mix

The tapestry of the mind
Filled with golden threads
Like the orbits in the universe

What is a marriage?

The joining of forces;
A partnership;
Equal standing in the corporation
Of life and love.

Writers pooling ideas,
Scientists testing theories,
Two people sharing.

Marriage is not the contract
Or the piece of paper;
Marriage is two people who love each other.

And when their souls mesh,
Intertwined and inseparable
The piece of paper
Codifies their love
And shouts to the world –

We love each other
And will ‘til eternity!

8/21/18

Striations
Gradations
Filling the atmosphere
In stillness

Pink
Mixed with
White and gray
To almost holiness

Fallacy of fate
Languish
The unknowing
With helplessness

Testing the tide
Pressing forward
Through fear
Of loneliness

Watching the idle
Wither without them knowing
Through vacant
Wastefulness

As the nouveau riche
Luxuriate
In ostentatious
Lavishness

And society’s
Double meaning
The self-inflicted oxymoron
And the selfishness

Promulgates
The stagnation
The paucity
Which ends in emptiness

Now that you are mine
Sent from Heaven to be with me
I am yours forever

Where I live
It’s so quiet
You can hear
Grasshoppers
Blow their nose

Grief prevents momentum
And sadness sustains limbo
Seconds become days
With relentless stagnation
Fate playing tricks
In ways unforeseen
As calendars remain
Fostering the season
Lessening reality
In intangible ways
That heightens the dogma
Of grief

Once in a lifetime
If you’re lucky
You get a second chance
At love
How it happens
Why it happens
No one knows
But the powers up
Above
Life’s twists and turns
Run parallel in the universe
Fate and destiny hold hands
To bring loved ones together
Dearly departed team up
In Heaven
Guiding what appears
Happenstance
Improbable
Impossible
And yet volatile passions
Transcend eternity
Until the ultimate moment
Of consummation
A deep breath
Of longing
Brought together
Like lightning
Illuminating the sky
In a flash of brilliance
That will last forever
Towering over
Time and space
No longer a momentary
Ember
But
Transformed into a glowing
Fireball that consumes
Every fiber of the
Lover’s beings
Granting them love
And happiness
And an ending that will last
Forever

11/11/18

Wind blowing the trees –
Waiting

Rain pelting the roofs –
Waiting

Warnings – fear – panic –
Waiting

False alarms and near death situations –
Waiting

Tree limbs, branches and twigs
Scatter the lawn now
Tearing asunder
A long standing dream

Follow the plan – follow the leader
Running to safety or so they believe
Storing up water – storing up food-stuffs
Counting the days they’ll all do without

Fixing the time, it can’t last forever
Praying they’ll all see the very next dawn
Watching the wind – moments of calmness
Gusts overtaking those moments of ease

Clouds overhead as dark as the night now
Following shadows cast off on their own
Ev’ryday fears amplified grandly
Leaving all thought and reason behind

Lightning and thunder – power lines bursting
Freezing the time in a moment of light
Tracing the tempest with photograph mem’ry
Timelines projecting the hurricane path

Watching the day creeping by slowly
Hours of watching and waiting to come
Watching a squirrel scamper up tree limbs
Looking for shelter from the eye of the storm

Faith has no boundaries
Parallel lines drawn on a grid
Parameters circumscribed by time
Space divided into quadrants
Floating in new dimensions
Through quantum reality
Phantasmagoric illusions
Steeped on a platter of platitudes
Of today and tomorrow
In a paradoxical state
A pantheon of importance
Holding the self-righteous
And the self-esteemed
Forever in their egoism
Parading toward their own destiny
Leaving shadows in their wake
Reinventing the future

5/21/19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

Here we are together
Holding on to each other
Intertwined
In the union of love
Sharing not only our bodies
But our hearts and souls
Inextricably mingled
Like a force of nature
Naked and yet clothed
In a garment
Woven in Heaven
Only available when
Two hearts equal one
Mathematics discounted
Only the reality
Of our joining as lovers
Fulfilled by our passion
Which can only be
Overwhelmed
By our love

Blue cobalt in a sea of gray
Brings stability in times of torment
And holds the everlasting surrender

2/21/19

www.brucelevine.com

Forty miles to go
Sunny day to share
Start and stop
Signs often flop
Company profound

Finding food to eat
Lots of stuff to see
Roads to try
Not knowing why
Getting lost and found

Silly things to find
Happy thoughts compare
Hills to climb
Goals are refined
Calories rebound

Looking over things
Books to skim galore
Bric-a-brac
Don’t miss a rack
Clothes to try renowned

Perfect finds in store
Seeking a new home
‘Til next week
When hide and seek
Memories compound

5/25/19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

The end
Is the beginning
The next piece
The next moment
The next chapter

The end
Is movement
Moving forward
Moving backward
Moving wherever

The end
Is transitory
Tracing progress
Tracing moments
Tracing journeys

The end
Is a signal
Guiding airplanes
Guiding steamships
Guiding lifelines

The end
Is the ending
Holding loved ones
Holding mem’ries
Holding forever

(This was released on Leaves of Ink today)

Folded forever
In a blanket of love
A fishbowl of virtue
Crystalline clear
Peacock feathers
Spread in a bouquet
A colorful rainbow
To tie ‘round your finger
A constant reminder
Of constancy declared
Held in a blanket
Soft as cashmere
Warmth everlasting
A comet revealed
A tail made of stardust
A magical space
Forever a blanket
To wrap you with love

6/7//19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

Never argue with a foodist
One never wins

The pantry that’s now empty
The larder not refilled
Refrigeration required
After opening yet unfulfilled

Shopping the supermarket
A grand prix of rolling carts
The mounds of provisions
That overflows human hearts

Never-ending virtues
Of foodist inspiration
The lovely contemplation
Of meals that ever last

6/6/19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

Frozen in time
The sweet embers of a charcoal fire
Linger in the mist of the day
Hovering in the air
Holding fast
While clouds float over the horizon
Making their way in a journey of the unknown
And caterpillars parade across wet grass
Marching to a tune unheard and unsung
And yet pervasive
In the momentum of the illusionary
The myths and legends wrapped in pink ribbons
And fairy tales come to life
In the land of their own making

5/14/19

Where do rainbows go
After they fade away?
Is there a land of color
And parades of chocolate cake?

Do leprechauns go bowling
Or skate in pools of rain?
Do milkshakes last forever
In a never empty glass?

Why does raspberry sherbet
Melt upon the tongue?
And is there always laughter
Where tiger cubs go to play?

Are stories to remember
When gray hair covers heads?
Or does childhood last forever
In the hearts of those who’ve understood?

5/28/19

www.brucelevine.com
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07485W4Q1

New tomorrows
Sprinkled with uncertainty
Hopeful yet unknowing
Born of some spectral happenstance
That unites souls
Without knowing when or how
Looking in the mirror of time
And seeing infinity
Holding hands at the crossroads
Without questioning which way to go
Knowing the path to follow
Uncertainty gone in a tornado
Swirling in the core
Opening new vistas
And new tomorrows

The narcissism of today
Makes Narcissus
Look like a fraud
Selfies to commemorate
The slightest triumph
Like combing one’s hair
Meeting a friend
A celebrity, a sycophant
Another narcissist
And because the human arm
Doesn’t reach like a giraffe’s neck
The selfie stick was invented
To capture every golden moment
Of the Narcissist’s life
Cooking breakfast
Is an event worthy of self-praise
And transcendence for posterity
On Facebook
Self-esteem no longer comes from within
From accomplishments
From goals conquered
But from a cell phone
Held at arm’s or stick’s length
Pointed at one’s own image
Like Narcissus at the pool
Gazing at himself
Until he died