Hide and Seek

You will find it, 

beloved. 

It hides 

under flame-dressed logs 

and in the whisper of leaves. 

It dances 

below the waves kissing the shore 

and sleeps 

between dusty pages of dignified tomes. 

You will find it 

wrapped in a child's laugh,

nestled under white blankets of snow. 

You will hear it 

softly murmur, 

calling your name between dreams, 

until one day, 

you will find it 

buried in your pocket, 

or wrapped around a tendril 

of your hair.  

You will find it.

You will find peace, 

beloved. 

And I will be found there, too. 

Benediction

There are as many 

reasons to dance 

as there are 

raindrops 

in the darkening sky. 

Throw your arms open, 

look up

and receive 

a blinding benediction.

Stargazing in Daylight

Loving you is like 

stargazing in daylight- 

like emptying my canteen 

into the wild sea. 

I love you 

like the white shirt 

dyed blue,

like the blood 

too deep in your veins 

to paint your cheeks 

pink. 

I will never, ever stop, 

but you-

you, my darling-

will never, ever know. 

Poetry and Prose

You are prose, 
          I speak in rhyme.

You, a stopwatch, 

          me, the time.

You are forest, 

          I'm the beach,

You, the sinner, 

          hear me preach. 

You are parked cars, 

          I'm in drive

You are flying, 

          watch me dive.

You are ink 

          and I'm the page,

You, the actor, 

          I'm the stage.

You're the lamp, 

          I sit in dark,

Abandoned road, 

          but I'm a park. 

You are green, 

          and I've struck gold,

You stay young 

          while I grow old. 

The Kindness of Strangers

I am not afraid.

I have lived enough to see

kindness in stranger. 

Increase Love

Men's lives are not their own, nor so their art,

for having made a thing that once is shared,

the viewer of the craft possesses it-

in truth or memory it is interred.

A man who has but one friend loses much

when he departs, same too the well loved soul.

No man an island, our lives reach too far:

the impact of a life cannot be weighed

until the presence firm is swift removed. 

The hole that stay bears witness to the fact:

Men's lives are lived so they will increase love. 

Wait for What

Loosen these bonds, go ahead, 

cut me free,

Tired of being tied down, 

I can't breathe.

The breeze on my face is a phantom, 

I'm winded

No air in my lungs, 

tailless donkey, I pinned it.

Time passing slowly,

a clock ticking backward-

don't bother calling

you can't have the last word.

You Oughta Know

You should know:

neither time, 

nor distance, 

nor screams 

nor silence,

not desperate actions,

nor discouraging words-

there is nothing 

you can do,

my darling,

that will keep me 

from loving you. 

And when, 

at last, 

you have resigned yourself 

to this eternal truth,

I will be right here,

waiting for you. 

Two Sides of the Same Copper Coin

Pillows drenched in damp graffiti;

arms so empty, hearts so needy.

Begging sense of senseless hurt;

wrap beloved in the dirt. 

Horrors seen by unaged eyes,

seen, unseeing, in midnight skies.

Once again, the peace is broken-

sometimes names are threats, unspoken. 

Helpless hands are wrung and twisted, 

What's the moral?

             Guess we missed it.

Tar Tootsie Rolls

Allow me just a moment 

for some momentary weakness; 

give me just a penny for my thoughts. 

Forgive me for my frailty,

I know showing my shortcomings

is a game that isn't won as much as lost. 

Pardon my self pity,

(I know misery becomes me)

but I fear it's making itself quite at home.

Excuse my indiscretion,

I'll just choke back indignation,

My skeleton is jelly more than bone. 

Do No Evil

Do no evil that good may come, 

no end the means would justify.

The drought may kill, so too the flood,

so beg no water from the sky. 

The hand unbitten still will feed,

the horse's mouth may gift again

burn no bridge that waters cross;

who once was foe may grow a friend.

Peanut Butter and Jam

Metaphors built me 

like Hoover built dam,

Similes smile, 

peanut butter and jam. 

Preposition this ending, 

split us in two,

We'll contract together, 

no me without you. 

Marooned

Marooned in a sea of verse, 

adrift with no oar. 

Reading between the lines,

leaving the core.

Awash in the imagery,

drowning in ink,

I'd float to the surface

if I just stopped to think.