Achille’s Heel

This is the slow motion Of my Achille’s tendon unravelling. Dimly I am aware of something wrong of terrible, horrible things impending and that this is gonna hurt. Again. SNAP! Scream. Pain and agony. My leg! Ambulance on the way. Stay calm — it’s going to be alright. You’ll get medical attention. Sirens and first [...]

Fragment 001

Here in my cabin in the woods I feel trees leaning over me Rain coursing down their trunks, A sad splishing of water Pooling, making wet mud Stirring load, packing leaves Measuring time patiently.

Realized

Three nights I have lain awake Storming through half-sleep dreams And possibilities, thoughts, Mental magical carpets, Half real, half realized; Doors half opened and swinging Smooth computers peripherally Analyzing and verifying Believing yet incredulous Of the panoramic impossibility. The stark lightning of imagination Energized and rampantly naked; Leaping obstacles with merry, nimble feet Barely touching [...]

Fire and Frogs and Falcons

Oh how I wish I still had my voice Full of fire and frogs and falcons, Wisdom, water, and wedding songs. Something is quenched within me now, No time for me to find out how, To prevent this erosion of my character. Once upon a time I thought I’d never stop I wrote until my [...]

The Pier

The pier is flung out past the surf Into the deep water Like a sleeper’s unconscious arm Idly hanging over the edge of the bed. Sunlight scuba dives for the flickers Of schools of little fish And warms the top of the waters – Where the seaweed loosely hangs Like bead curtains or piles of [...]

Untitled Poem #201

Good to know that I can Still move the pen about On the paper with some semblance Of poetry – I think it’s gone Or going the hopeless boat I’m rowing is taking on water At the stern and I can’t look Forwards because it’s a rowboat You face to the rear Lend me your [...]

Brooding Lies

Tonight the Frogg lies brooding Pulling his lilypad up to his chin Trying to suppress his inverted grin From wrinkling his forehead into furrows Deep enough to plant the weeds That spring from pressure seeds. That water which is like time Still flows through the swamp He’s caught cat-napping without his bilge pump Up to [...]

A Million Books

I wish I had a million books, Not a million bucks Or bionic looks, Just books and Bibles And bundles of paper And the time to read And loan them out To my neighbors. Recommending and reading Between covers I’d tarry And give copies away Like a hippie’s library. Pass them around And get lost [...]

Untitled Poem #200

I love you even though We fight and fuss And make a mess Of each other. You forgive. I like that. The clouds were herded Past the pier, Nearer the horizon Than the beach; The sun water colored As I watched: The Van Gogh of Our galaxy.

Icarus Splashed

Icarus splashed when he hit the water. I was there; I, too, fell As he fell, when he fell, Feathers flying all around me, Sun hot, wax running, Sweat beading my brow. He said to me as he regarded the water: My father wasn’t strong enough To pump his arms In those leather strapped wings. [...]

The Blessed Heart Sacred Moon Wanderlust Spelunking Club

I am the sole member of the The Blessed Heart Sacred Moon Wanderlust Spelunking Club and I lead myself through the Scottish bogs under a sky liberally sprinkled with the Milky Way galaxy. Wet shoes and grey spirits, feather boa fog tendrils bathing my sock-tops, no compass points me to my Holy Grail. Two kittens [...]

Living a Steady Tautness

Sort of a beautiful frantic hustle Trying to be effortless; Carrying motion into motion From mailbox to appointment To bank to work to a kiss. At home to sleep to wake early, Relax for a moment, Gather those thoughts, Hands around a cup of coffee, Half-finished for a lack of time. A free moment should [...]

An Ill-Made Candle

you almost caught your room on fire with an ill-made candle; but forever with me is the image I have when you explained that you rushed it outside burning your hands naked and dripping from the bath and dashed it to the ground. all I came by to see was a broken ceramic plate and [...]

Hush

you asked me once upon a time if I could hear the speech of the sea. I said yes and that was where are agreement ended; you heard eulogies, laments, cries of change and supportive flesh, the echoes of watery hands drumming on cliffsides, rolling rocks into its stomach, a maelstrom of creative fury controlled [...]

Dolphin Daughter

A dolphin explodes from the water because she is the daughter of the foam that is flipped from her grey tail flying skywards and seawards, spraying dents into the surface of the sea. she plunges back under the covers of the ocean to meet the others, dolphins which, not caught in tuna nets, are free.

One Chickenshit Poet

I can imagine the surf in my hair and the chill of the air, when I stand up from the water so I don’t go into the ocean. because I’m a lilly-livered chickenshit. I’ll walk down the cool tarry sand and pretend that I’m under a wave; trying to feel the slick water bead on [...]

Musings in the Night Aire

perching like a poet – I found a table and a bench tucked away on a second story walkway of the Arts building just for me. a yellow magnesium light shines down on this paper turning letters into dancing figures that say something important to me so I can pretend I am a poet. a [...]

Black Jack

I and when the madness comes she creeps around the corridors, pausing to stomp on cats’ tails pausing to drive in rusty nails and slam subconscious doors behind my eyes. II it would be easy one day to fall down and stay, not moving, wherever I was and not respond to my rescuers; to get [...]

Zambone Machine

why do my dreams lay siege to me as if I was a fortress of stone, a dragon unconcerned with men’s matters, a river who just picks up the bones of foolish dreams who jump the chasm and fall to drown in icy water, for I move the other cliffside at will at each new [...]

Dazzled Dizzy

I have no gilded card to send, no quill to write beautiful words that still say I’m so sorry. sometimes the daybreak dazzles me dizzy but it has never been as beautiful as you, Dawn. and what have I done? crushed the wings of an angel like brushing powder from a moth’s; I only wanted [...]

Another Song for a Cure

when the sun sets and the lights come out in the beachfront homes I walk alone to clear my head and cut the sting of the thoughts the end of the day brings they swim alongside my walk, my pace a school of dolphins who splash my face; I don’t always enjoy what they do [...]

Struck Dumb

sometimes things will strike me, strike me, strike me solid with a beautiful thought. I thought that all these things were really real but now I’ve blinked and they’re not. that’s just my lack of faith, of faith, of faith in what I truly believe. I believe in the movement of drums in this music [...]

Another Poem that is Untitled

I know that something’s changed, my bear’s stomach smells like you again but I’ll yell to myself. you come walking through my daydreams as if you were some travelling Indian who I must chase off my land. my hair’s getting long and in my face; both yours and mine, they’re red and brown like all [...]

I’m Out Walking in the Rain

This is to tell you that I went walking in the rain. I’ll be back in a little while, after I follow some leaves down the sides of the streets, after I watch water-drops shoot like stars through the streetlights and after I dance a jig with the water pouring from the raingutter.

I am Adopted

Adpoted, I adopt my own ideas About who my real parents really are. My mother; ocean and spring rain; the dew On grass stems sparkling, a field of stars: All water, blood that courses past my eyes. My father – rocks and wood and muddy bones, The mountains laid behind and raised before, All sturdy [...]