Oh, pale faced oracle

----
Oh, pale-faced oracle of the night,
with shallow stars draped in finery
Oh, harkening witness of my plight
whose lips are crested by crimson light

Who else should know us,
the wolf, cries, but does not carry
the weight of reasoning upon its back

And neither does she,
upon whom my silent cry dwells,
without burden carried in her gait

Yet I should fall trembling to my knees
reckoning shackles tight to my chest
passion borne upon the winter breeze
then swept away in the tilting freeze

-----

My everlasting optimism

---

I used to climb trees when I was younger
and from those heights, I saw my life
unfolding with splendor.

The wind, it shook against my leafy loft
but still I stood and rose above
to delve into my thought.

And from my pensive perch I discovered,
that one dream I now recognize
you, the one uncovered.

Then, within my heart, up-stirred a desire,
so strong, burning flame devoured
all other whims - now higher.

I stepped my way down from that tree one day,
I grew up and saw my world change
but always you remain.

And now that you stand before me so close,
my life, explained, with your embrace,
no longer tied to woes.

I wonder though if all dreams did fade
if you would return to what I once had,
my everlasting optimism -
as if you never were

-----

Of foreign tongues

--

S'il vous plait, mi
lover's heart folds
Perdon! Perdon!
Hello, goodbye
the skylark cries,
"Oi, Oi"
And I hear the horns,
blaring out tribal
bonjours
But cross the rhine,
A window-pane:
"Halo. Doner."
and promises of
dankutschen,
"Halo. Doner!"
dankutschen,
halo.
danke.

-----

My would be lover...

---

My would be lover
what if I asked you of love?
would you say you knew it once,
perhaps even twice?
did your lips utter those three clicks –
I.
click.
love.
click.
you.
click.
to every man you met?
I. love. you.
I speak to you and ask of love,
and I wonder if I hear you
say;
“I love you,”
or rather,
I.
click.
love.
click.
you.
click.
as you did to the last one
you now seek to
forget.

----

Just a great line...

Not a poem, per say, but a line I thought up and didn't want to forget as I am wont to do:

"Ah, love, what a broken promise you turned out to be!"

There. It's written. Now I will have it in the future.

To Arnold

-----


I am quiet tonight,
the world which seemed so bright,
so various, so new
now exposed by dawn's light
trembling, tumbling within
and in desperate flight
I turn back to the night
old, familiar friend
and wait now for the fall
to begin once again


-----

Tombstone

------

The soft autumn gloom remains there
dripping on the drooping dews
the smell of pine in the chill air
and plummets on the valley fair

I heard a great sycamore fall
felt the shudder against my chest
the wind carried the solemn drawl
of past regrets, of ghoulish calls

The sea nearby in roaring gait
restless, soulless, dreaming braces
tie twine and string to death's due fate
teasing movement, orders me, “wait!”

And though I'd choose to leave that place,
that rumbling, torrid whirlpool heart
the haunting lips of that voice trace
the confines of my inner space

The stone that stands in ground alone
the same seen many years ago
the bold, type-face, and chilling drone
of amazing grace, and her death,
tombstone.

----

She must have been loved

------

We do not think that we might die
We do not think at all, really
We breathe, we move...
from want of excess
to want of scarcity
Never balanced, always tipping
over the edge
Until someone walks by our tombstone
and says,
"She must have been loved."

Fluctuation

------

Lay lo! the crashing gates
of winding darkness drawing near
come to us who wait.

Did you? the banner bard,
spoke of dreaming decisions at night
and whispers fading.

Hear ye! who wouldn't choose
the way of the warrior over the defeated
and drink blood aplenty.

For he! who said the world
was bright and real and round and full
knew nothing of it.

In us? are two spirits
the poet and the scientist
fluctuating fog

----

"You Sung a Song"

“You sung a song”

-----
“You sung a song”

You sung a song as I drew near
amidst my foggy edges drear
and tired words became alive
and hired hearts again did strive
the passion found between us there

The world outside was nearing dark
but deep inside, warm was the hearth
in sudden peaceful pleasure lay
gone the crusting remains of day
the world not privy to the heart

And as the time eclipsed all thought
When words gave way to dreaming wrought
by night and dawn's approaching glare
by toil and sweat's demanding wear
Imagining my lucky lot

Oh, day, which broke for the first time
Upon that wintry morning fine
I saw a light and hanging limb
The snowy steps implanted dim
'round the lamppost saw a bend

I wondered should I take that turn
Or take another, or adjourn
this winter walk within the wood
and capture some warmth, if I could
with what little worth I had earned

But something seen within that place
Held the promise for broken grace
that comes to a man like me but
once; breaking the burdensome rut
expanding man's humble space

So I took that first step forward
Into the path that moved toward
love that envelops, then expands
love that develops, then demands
perfect attention, dreaming blurred

And now I wake and hold you close
And watch the flick'ring flaming dose
of passion's whick fading to grey
but still, I am prone now to stay
enraptured in you and in prose
linger a moment longer, here.

-----

The starry night unfolds itself to me,
The wood, it seems, to be a great wide dome
Opening and unfurling to the sky
A beautiful mystery to describe

The bubbling brook beside us wails,
Melancholic, yet natural in its trails
We feel its wet upon our toes,
We feel its beat upon us grow

The cataclysmic clash of light on dark,
Of lampposts illuminating the wooden bark
It shines upon us through the cracks
And breathless, we are left to gasp

The beauty amidst the terror of night,
Reveals itself to us, but rather than in fright
We see the single, perfect moment there
And upon it, lingering, we stare

Two people, under a starry night it seems
Would not be such a special thing
But in the darkness it is hard to hide,
The beautiful imystery, we describe.

------

Of Apocalyptic Things

----


A bunch of drunk kids
barging in at 4:00 a.m.
yelling and screaming
at the top of their lungs
I imagine that the end of the world
is a lot like this
and playing music
as loudly as
they can.

----

Time stops

----
You were singing,
I was there
Words still floating,
in the air
Your eyes piercing,
through me
Your words cutting,
past me

Time stops,
no really, it did
Time stops,
I don't know how
Time stops,
And in that moment
Time stops,
everything changes

Before I saw you,
but now I see
you

----

The greatest pain of all

-----

I have seen the world anew,
then watched it fall from grace
I have spoken in thunder
and wept in pouring rain
I have entered in silence,
where only sheep await

I have walked among people,
who failed to see my face
I have spoken to wise men
as they spit, in disgrace
I have come into the world,
but with no favor met

I have pressed the thorns against
the crown of my torn head
I have borne the pain of all
who later cursed my name
I have seen the world crumble,
only desolate remains

But nothing quite so painful,
as unrequitted love

---------

Gone!

--------
I hear the crash of thunder
like a thousand little gongs
announcing the arrival
of the end to lifelong songs
I hear the footsteps crumbling,
the ground beneath their feet
I hear the smell of burning,
choking as they meet.

Gone! the wind comes
and sweeps away the desert street
Gone! the sound calls
and lingers to the crowning beat
Gone!
to whispers in the alley
Gone!
to shadows in my dreaming
Gone!
Gone!
Gone!

Gone!

--------

Would I

------


Would I have the whole world to give,
Yet it wouldn't be enough for us.
Would I have the stars and the moon instead,
still fate's grasp would linger on.
Would mountains rise from the earth, no -
Would the sea rise and fall and cease to be,
still, my love, would it not be enough.

Would I spent my whole life searching,
I would never find such solace,
Would I relive that night, night after night,
for the rest of my life, it shouldn't be
Would fate exist and heaven declare it true
I still wonder of me and you.

Would I have stayed there...

Never left. Never gone.

Would I have traversed time,
Until that fateful moment when I said goodbye
I should wonder that maybe then
we could be together.

Would I never have left, what might have been.


----------

Caffeine

---------
My caffeine-addled brain,
My coffee bleeding heart
forming black stains on
the mahogany table
seeping through
like weeping,
like falling
drip
drip
dri-p
dr--ip
d---rip
stop.
-------

On Darkness

On Darkness
---------

There is a blue light
outside of my apartment window,
So that when I sleep,
there is never pitch-blackness
But, instead, ever pale
blueness
But I guess blue
Can also be another
sort of
darkness.

-----------