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Poetry

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(In reverse chronological order from now to 1997)

• Valentine's Love

  But he was mine, she said. He said he was mine alone. // And love? / Between the poet with his lengthy sonnets to Euphrosine / And he who laments of lost love, which of them know / The woman beyond the muse? ...

• Peter

  all we have here / is the steady marching of seconds // and words melt downward / like / so much / jargon just / falling / over each / other // I have to wonder why / we keep climbing these steps when we know / the esc...

• Sketches

  the season is / but a crowd culture poet // historic waves have / steeped in a day // tell him to get / a postcard / and drive the autumn fog / by a vineyard // old ferry music / takes the beat of my café / ...

• Gaze

  And suddenly the thousand children / who have never cared for a word from me, much less / a name, clamber over each other forward, / this chaotic army of little hands and feet, / innumerable fingers. Uncontro...

• Herstory

  He saw old Komarovsky eyeing his Lara / while her clear blue eyes pleaded to him for rescue, / and he turned away. // And later that night she did not stop by / to talk, cry, and light a candle till dawn, / for...

• 1-2-3

  On your 1-2-3 steps I stumble / and fall between the lines. // Some cobwebs still cling / though as old as they are, / they catch only dust / and faded girls. // Memories of skeletons / show themselves in these hol...

• Free

  I speak not / of the grandeur of stars / or how You planted each one in the sky / or how it seems You make every bitter tear / sparkle more brightly and shamelessly than those. // But here in my chair / I know th...

• Your Stars Burn Bright

  When you burned your stars into ashes, / brilliant basalt dust, / I dutifully scattered the fine powder in memory of you. // And they refused to blow off neatly into the wind. / Instead, I squinted and sneeze...

• Road Song

  cherry blossoms - on highways travelling / forty dreary shades of green. thinking of him / well, I've reached him at Riverside, maybe / I should leave a message as he runs / he runs from the vibrating blue ph...

• "Tellement d'étoiles!"

  Mon Dieu! Si c'est un péché d'aimer cet homme, / Mon cœur est déjà tombé: la foi s'exile / De la tête plus vite que je peux la retenir. / Et son regard, chaque regard non censuré / Me touche avec tellem...

• Rain Tapping

  The rain pulled long fingernails / clackity-clack on the windowpanes. / Sullen child running to greet / the dancing / rhythms / outside before the / streets of Bangkok flooded / over. // Those days were / the / days of b...

• Gifted

  Oh! If I could but borrow those numbing fingers, / so quick to caress and silence / my mind's protests. One touch - / on the lips, of course - / never seems to convey sensuality / but the rhetoric behind that / g...

• Touching Water

  There are times / - one of those rare hot summer days / in this little town on the hill / always shrouded in mist - / when I'm sitting on the couch / - one of those lazy-hazy days - / and my legs are sticky with ...

• "Shall I point fingers"

  Shall I point fingers at the weeping crowd / That doth grind its teeth in sorrow? Breathing / In my hollowed grief thou didst torment me / To whisper his name and sully his shroud. // And now with thy cankere...

• "She came in winter"

  She came in winter and remained. The ground soon / Drank the passing of the cold, and later / Caught the fleeting youth of trees that scatter / Memories like marbles. She stayed when the moon / Touched earth ...

• Hello Daddy

  I woke today / and smelled You in the concrete. // Hello, it's been / a while. / How are you? // Smile. / This little hill that shuts / down at eight was covered / in mist this early morning. // The sprinklers touched / ...

• Word Rape

  Devil's dances and streams of words unceasing (Birthed from hushed silence of peace existing between initial grief and calm reticence of afterthought [or anti-thought]) rambling together in tempting l...

• Gray

  He stood in / mist / trying to look "mys / -terious" / the wounded hero of / ha / te dis- / guised as / love. // He was / gray, like / every / other to- / morrow. / ...

• Kept

  If I could / just / [stop] you / right there / for / the shortest / amount / of / time // I would take / each / and / every / breath / and / [preserve] / them / in / warm / bubbles / of wax / . // Only / then / could I / truly / c...

• Janet

  The sounds run / ahead of me, reaching / you before I. Smile / faintly. Greet / lightly. Comments / exchanged - anything / to delay what must / follow. / Thoughts / swim, / speaking of / words / I may / form. / But they that / exi...

• Awaken

  Symphonies played in the blur of darkness / Strike up the heart's frantic dance / Two slits of light begin to form on the horizon / ...

• Honesty?

  Honesty, fly away / It's in your eyes - pretty, / Pretty lies / But the words propel themselves / Forward - a self- / Fulfilling prophecy. // I am sorry. / ...

• Return

  Return to the center / In midst of popular disgrace / Fish me out / Lift me up - save me / Or / Fondle me in your hands / Until gently lifting / Set me off, let me free / To glide smoothly through the air / Weightless / ...

• Release

  I don't want to breathe / I can't / I've strangled you with freedom / Now I'm laced with your words of frustration / I shout. I am impatient / It drives you up the wall / Send me back - / Voice echoes through your ...

• Untitled

  Grip the knife of sharpened edge / Scrape myself clean / Dripping blood I make my pledge / To discover what this means / ...

• What's This?

  What's this? / Stare at my emotions played out across / The screen / Just a spectator inside my body / Describing my emotions: / I want to scream / I want to cry / But oh, wait the / Tears / Are not even under my contr...

• Indelible Memory

  That was the picture / Unforgettable / Her words were castles of / Smoke / In the sky / So grand / They made the tears stream / Or maybe it was the smoke / As it dissipated / (I'm allergic, you know?) / ...

• Dream Deep

  Dream deep, lost in sleep / Recreate reality / Fuel it with the love of you / In memories, never forgotten / Time to move, time has passed / Memories that never last / Still fuel it with the love of you / The you o...

• On Days When Boredom Outweighed Annoyance

  Perhaps everything, perhaps nothing / The view from the window was stunning / Flick, flick - two flicks of your finger and the view / Changed / Testy, aren't we? / I didn't ask for this silence, or the bouquet / ...

• Unspoken

  I looked and knew you were there / You didn't; you were far away from me / So close / I could see you in my reflection / On the glass window - could kiss it / And when you didn't speak / When you couldn't speak / I...

• Puzzle Pieces

  I'm sorry / I couldn't make it in time / Your voice wasn't the other end / Waiting in vain / Somewhere - desperation hoping all / Will return / Fought with her today / Only somewhere in their midst / Sought Him / Betwe...

• Glass Dreams

  ...

• Bring the Revival

  We are the revolutionaries: / Unknown to each other or the world, / Connected in Christ. // We share the Vision: / One of radicalism, / Not of our own interpretations / But by His will. // We answer the Calling: / Re...

• Crystal Tears

  The statue that sits - / Always surrounded, continually admired / Eternally alone. // He drank every ounce of someone's / Flesh and blood / In the creation of his pure / Perfection... // Immortal existence / In one w...

• Eternity

  The bell - sweetly sounding, / Eternally ringing, summons me / To be kissed by the vacuum / Of night, that pulls me from this / Physical existence into the neverending / Depths of Your perfect love. / ...

• Faded

  What has passed, they say / - It should be regarded with / A glance, then quickly, readily / Shut away, like those dried flowers, / Enfolded between the leaves of a book; / Should be shut away - left on the / She...

• Rolling

  So it goes, rolling, / Rolling with such great force / In bursts of energy - like waves / That go. When seeming that the / Force fades, dies, there comes / Another. // So it goes, rolling, / Rolling and gathering s...

• The Diluted Nations

  Gazing far away / Into the open seas / Wondering what lies ahead // Seeing, praying / For the nations // But look / Not just there / Not just across the oceans / But here... // See the nations Diluted / Its peoples separ...

• Waking

  I woke once / To the sound of the wind / Rustling through the leaves, / The smell of the rain-soaked earth, / And the cool air tingling my skin. // I woke once / To the sound of children's laughter / Rippling like ...

• Memories

  "Yes." / That was my answer. / In fact, I would love to, / Couldn't wait to go back. // Just got off the phone with her. / Haven't seen her in a while, / But I still remember her face. // "We'll drive up to Wiscons...

• Search

  Free my heart, / Find my soul! / Let me out of this empty space. / Search for the world, / The part of me I can call mine. // I let myself out of the box / And opened up my eyes to the outside. / Frightened by the ...

• Rain

  Energy / In the air, / Tension waiting to be / Released. // Blanket the sky, / Electricity. / Slow and small, / Falling. / Speeding; / Faster and faster! // Irregular, / Yet rhythmical. / Dancing, / Singing! // "Life!" / They s...

• Wolf

  He is the lone wolf / That hunts in the night; / I hear his howls. / Cries of loneliness / Pierce the night. // His presence felt / But not seen. / Is he only in my mind? // I wish I could be like him, / I know his lon...

• Death

  As the flame is exhausted, / I begin to die... / Retreating further into my shell - / Never to emerge again. // Thus I cease to exist, / For existence ceases with denial. / There will be now, / Only the image borne...

• Moon

  Look, / What do you see? / Isn't she beautiful? / Smiling all by herself. // She never speaks, / Yet you can hear her; / What of that? / Is it her eyes? / Or that pale face? // Wouldn't you like to know / What sh...

• Shadow

  She's running, / Running down a long endless path. / I hear her presence, / Her voice is dancing in my eyes. / Where is she going? / I don't know. // Her footsteps beating, / Constant drumming in my ears; / I hear no...

• Loneliness

  Listening to the silence, / Watching the emptiness, / Singing without a voice; / Loneliness. // Standing on no ground, / Speaking no words, / Whispering no secrets; / Loneliness. // Recalling no memories, / Fee...

• Without You

  Here I stand, / Watching the beautiful sunset; / Throwing streaks of red and gold / Across the evening sky. // As I watch, / I think of old memories / You and I used to share; / I'll never forget them. // The times w...

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