Swimmer

I face the wind;
Currents of time
That score my brow
With textured text;

Memories that run
Downstream toward falls
That plunge headlong
Into inkwells of darkness.

But with nib of sustenance,
And thoughts once fought,
I break the surface
Of blackness to light.

Where each stroke I take
Reduces life’s liquid
To a mist, as it changes
From text to thought.

And with my arms quiet,
Devoid of the motion
That once pushed at rivers,
I bathe in the now still wind.

Hammered Fate

The anvil’s smith
Dreams of clouds
As he hammers steel
Into iron bars.

With each bellow
Of his breath
Clouds billow
Into arid hydrants
Fueled by will

Too weighted
To move
They weep
In vain

As molten tears
Sear the earths
Encrusted plain;

Forged harbor
For a sea

That will

Never

be.

Moneychanger

The circles fall...
the clang
of change...

so many choices

reflected
in columns of light

held
between hands...
in custody

weighing...

what value
am I

today

Michelangelo's Astronaut ( for Jason )

Overture:

He made the transfer with a speed undefined
From the mountain to the capsule, to capture his prize
A blackness beyond dark, his eyes held a mystery
But the mystery got clearer as I looked in his eyes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

His cradle at birth was filled with sensation
An object prepared for complete transformation
For this gift cast in flesh from divine intervention
Was life’s chemical moment for free will and intention

His stillness reverbed under swaddling white
Where the garment he wore prepared him for flight
Without any motion, or wave of the hand
He promised a journey to a faraway land

He pointed his finger, up toward the stars
Suggesting “hold tightly!” onto gravity’s bars
As the countdown began from the number of seven
He promised we’d reach, his Sistine in heaven

The touch that he sought, in a galaxy far
Meant travel at risk, from the points on a star
But the trust he displayed from the birth he was given
Came forth with a burst; a child who is driven.

Moon Sailor ( for Matthew )

With a grunt filled with power he was thrust to a height
A mountain of pigment, pink in its light.
A pedestal round, his first stage of life
A challenge to balance, his left with his right.

He stretched himself upwards, a reach for his moon
Unaware of the knowledge it still lay in the womb.
Moon’s glow now in embers, its purpose fulfilled
His gesture fanned light on the walls that were tilled.

Luminosity responded with a nova on site
Producing an image of his shadow in flight.
The light now ablaze projected a curtain
Of shadows describing that notion for certain.

Nourished by fluids awash in a sea,
It maintained its flame with intensity,
But the passage to flight inscribed on the site
Reflected the need to accept nature’s light.

An heir to chemistry, a quartet of song,
The elements it blended, no longer belonged.
This knowledge brought forth the need to adjust
And relinquish its power to the force of the thrust.

With his torso set rigid; rocket to sky
His gesture spoke clearly to the spirit of why.
Limbs poised at the ready he sprang to the where
Like a periscope surfacing and kissing the air.

He stretched once again; full length of his girth
A record of measure; his place on the earth.
Then suddenly, WHOOSH! he punctured the air
With lips that were blue and the need to be there.

Now the length of a dinosaur, all the way to his head
He grabbed once again for the moon overhead.
As his lips kissed the sky with the force of a flare
His lips turned to red, and he knew… he was there.

Drummer ( for Lance )

Like the air that orchestrates chimes
Or rides on the waves of a cymbal
Beneath its surface; there is rhythm

To beat at the air to nurture a wind
To echo the blows that are nimble
Beneath the gesture; there is rhythm

But the air that gives life to the gesture
Is a gesture unto itself; seeking wind,
Direction, and pulse; there is rhythm

A Slice of Life

A smile is layered across the horizon
In response to the promised day; a confection
Of goodness atop the earths crust.

The heat of day moves in circular strokes
Leavening the surface in preparation
For the moment; each ring a step;

A walk in pursuit of a purpose unknown.
Even the trees cannot be assured of the height
That is needed to reach their full potential.

Coda:

A galaxy of halos ring,
Resounding in triumph,
Each movement a designation
Without end; complete… still…

Before Columbus? ( for Carol, my love )

Like the bird that rocks to and fro
Beak getting wet with each cycle
She touches the brush gently into her sea
Of pigments spread out in a row

Her torso now upright, brush held afar
She starts out to feather a stroke
As she enters the door to her world in waiting
She finds it only ajar

A peek with the bristles uncovers the key
For the crack in the door to be widened
So she turns to the left of this world in waiting
With the poise and assurance of mastery

As she touches again with confidence
Her sea with it’s liquid still
Her wrist spins in circles and gathers momentum
To challenge this guess of assurance

The world to her right, now ready to submit,
Stands hovered on its axis of wood
Awaiting the touch from the sea below;
This galaxy of colors in orbit

As she moves to the ready to do just that
She freezes in a moment of pleasure
Looking out at the sea on the tip of her brush
Comes the wonder of a world that’s flat

Family Tree ( for my father )

Geneology
Of
Battles fought

His
Salivating beauty

Etches tributaries

Across
An
Armored breast

Scribing
Mirrored images

Of
Palms

Upon
A steel bib;

Intaglio

Of
A life

In reverse

"...??..." ( dedicated to my parents: Herman and Terry

I.

Two
Questions
In quotes

One
Will be
Answered

The
Other
Won’t…

II.

Characters
In unison

In
A tempo
With
Time

Fall
In
At attention

To
Acknowledge
“I am”

III.

Both
Face
To the west
As
Light descends

With
No promise
Of
Tomorrow

As
Everything
Blends

IV.

An
Unanswered
Question

Remains

In
The dark

While
Fate
Plays
Its hand

In
The form
Of
A lark

V.

For…

The shapes
Have
No ballast

While
Standing
Aright

And

There
Is one
Who
Will stumble

And

Enter
Nights light

Coda:

The question
Since
Answered

Revealed
Its words

In
The mystery
Of
Language

Often
Unheard…

Accepting
Of
Chance

They
Came
To
The dance

Partners
In
Waiting

For
Fates
Silent Bird.

Light Catcher

I.

Cut

From
The same
Cloth,

Serrated
Edges,

Fingerprints

Of
The tailors
Shears,

Frame

An
Image
Born
Of light;

A
Century
Removed

From

The
Daguerreo-
Type


II.

Rectangle

Within
Rectangle

Reveals
An object

Of
Precisions
Delight

III.

Geometric cube
A basket
Of air

A
Butterfly net
Strapped
To a pair

Of
handlebars

Holding

A child
In
There


IV.

Cycles
Of Light

Through
Measured squares

Form
A cocoon

Of
Luminous
Air


V.

A
Garment
Resplendent

Designed

Without
Wool

Prepares
The
Young child

With

A
New
Vehicle.


VI.


The
Armor
Now
worn

While
Not made
Of
Cloth

Will
Guide
In
The journey

From
Butterfly

To moth.

Streetcar

A current of lines with wheels honed
A city’s gondola on cobblestone
A melody sung in the wake of rain
A song in motion with no refrain

A rider in step with the hum of rhyme
An exit in space to the fate of time
A view of the heavens from underfoot
A blackened carriage was undertook

A lapse in memory as to speed
A crawl to safety was in need
A dampness cold he did behold
A wonder that he could grow old

A sense of wetness he will always carry
As a symbol of fortune’s corollary
Aware that water had a role
As baptism did upon his soul.

A Garden

A heavy step laden with rust
A trip and a hop, a gust of dust.
A stone upturned, its root reveals
A hardened tear, not yet annealed.

A stone now loosened from its source
Awaits to see what gave it course.
A kiss of dust then brings to light
A shadowed figure’s fated plight.

A flash of heat upon its face
Affirms a fate of salving grace;
As this tear , once borne of stress,
Accedes to a garden of aridness.

000,000 ( in memoriam to the Tsunami victims

Neptune's
splayed brush

punctured
the seas'

aqueous
palette

begetting

a
monochromatic
wave,

a
celestial
tide,

of
fleshtones;

admixture
of
the pigmentation
of
a
selected generation

entitled:

Empyrean Permutation