Poetry -- Part 1

1. Beyond (1996)

   Wakened, I choose to love you
   and ask for nothing.
   Whatever I give is free.
   However much I hope you love me,
   I will not plead.
   But I will
   set you above all others,
   see and pray you in the light,
   and entice your company,
   for ever, for always,
   by my days and within
   my solitary nights.

   ---

2. West Virginia (1996)

   I would choose
   to slide under you
   and never wind
   another line
   or rhyme or tale
   into the blaze
   of this comet's
   trail.

   ---

3. Haley's Dream (Triage) (1996)

   I'm the angel on your shoulder.
   Pushing the other ones aside, I whisper
   spinning tales of magic mystery in your ear.

   Swirling, stretching, diving sheening
   colors through your mind,
   I smooth away the darkness
   and the catacombs of pain.

   When you feel a soft caress
   Slow sliding on your skin,
   There I am.

   That tickling tingle in your toes?
   I'm playing with you now.
   That's not the wind!
   I'm running, dancing in your hair.

   Stay awhile. Rest with me.
   There's music everywhere.
   Time for love, time for peace
   for the covenant of
   souls.

   ---

4. Seal (1996)

   I am not mine
   nor have a voice
   asserting my will,
   claiming a choice.

   Consummated, consumed
   I'm a thought in your mind,
   a beam in your heart
   from a coupling of kind.

   Inured by vaccination,
   upon my arms a seal,
   I circumscribe this island
   where passing travelers kneel.

   Within its boundaries echoes love.
   It stills my heart to stone.
   No tourist tramp with scrip or toy
   will ever call my wasteland home.

   ---

5. Relentless (1996)

   Don't ever leave.
   Be in the trees for me.
   I want to feel you in the ground,
   warm under my feet,
   firm for me.
   I want to breathe you when I wake.
   Like the temperature of the day,
   please stay.
   Be in my mind, talk with me.
   Be in my soul, God is here.
   Be in my body, crawl through every cell,
   flow through every opening, every pore.
   Take all of me.
   I've never been here before.

   ---

   
   
   

   ---

6. once when I loved you (1997)

   once when you loved me,
   the world shone,
   people were good,
   I was real,
   you were real,
   hope and faith
   were more than words,
   and God was
   in me,
   in you,
   in what we said,
   where we were,
   what we did,
   and for a second
   I believed
   in all I saw
   and felt and heard
   of you,
   of me,
   of God,
   of perfect
   endlessness,
   eternity.

   ---

7. While dealing (1997)

   Suddenly here,
   I pull you to sleep,
   close against my dreams,
   for soft sounds
   that waken
   this sweet morning.

   You're on the beach,
   reflected in a friend's lagoon,
   reaching through cascading words
   from our abandoned shores,
   whispering still
   against the tidal rush.

   Too soon again
   you'll become
   a statue of stone,
   Shiva shrinking to mist,
   lost as I catch
   lodestar tears
   to barter heaven
   for a smile,
   a grin.

   ---

8. One more love song (1997)

   You are such magic for me,
   and I have no poetry
   that quite explains
   this mystery,
   but I would stay
   all my life
   and be your wife.
   You're the other
   half of me,
   and I've no choice
   but to let that be.

   ---

9. All my amens ... (1997)

   the fondness of a calming touch,
   humor light as air,
   a cooling chime of words,

   sunsets in regal crimson,
   violet flame,

   sea waves that burst
   like angel hands raised up
   in prayer,
   fireworks of water
   praise
   in sprays of starred hosanna
   bowed to sand
   before a guiding God,

   the signing, lifting sigh
   of limber rhyme
   entwined

   in care beyond holding
   or form

   ... are for you.

   ---

   
   
   

   ---

10. Surviving heat in the center of the sun (1997)

    Wheels grinding,
    warning,
    straining heart,
    fading, warming,
    binding
    dark.
    Mind-splitting
    morning,
    spitting poetry,
    blinding.
    Grab me for the fall.

    ---

11. Forgiving nature (1997)

    Shipwrecked
    on the shoals
    of our realities,
    I have grasped,
    overcome by waves of you,
    for the pieces of my craft,
    struggled not to drown,
    feeding on myself, on us.
    We are each
    the scorpion and the frog,
    fighting to ford a river,
    crying,
    pain-drunk,
    going down.

    ---

12. crucible (1997)

    demons around, surround, abound me
    shapes askew
    the counter's screwed, blued
    NO, I'm tattooed!
    reflect a witch
    Bitch!
    Goddess of Satan
    possessed
    I call your name
    like a chant
    my poem
    like my song
    a prayer
    doze so angels
    slide
    dance with devils, drifting
    on the ledges of my mind
    painting magic
    hieroglyphics drawn
    meaning tales
    a verse, a line
    to that,
    your
    white
    light.

    ---

13. My Background Song (1997)

    I'm writing a letter to you,
    commentary,
    explanations,
    jokes,
    remembrances
    that started so long ago.

    Events and friends intervene,
    then the script resumes.
    Here's a phrase,
    a thought you threw
    and drew an image
    swimming in my mind.

    Where have you been?
    What does it mean?
    Stop this endless note.
    Concentrate on other things.
    There. It's gone.
    I'm who I was before

    when sidling up my back
    I hear

    the hum of you once more.

    ---