I watch him from afar
From across the bayou
He lies and sits next to
The building on a ledge
It is not his true home
It is his summer home
I guess as I watch him
Sleep all day, lie, and sit
Lie and sit, and stare
It appears that he sees me
As I see him seeing me there
On his roost, day after day
What is he thinking
When he sees me watching
Does he envy my comfy space
Does he wonder about my life
As I wonder about his life
When he is not there I worry
Has something happened
On rainy days he's not there
And I hope he has a dry place
Is as safe as the homeless can be
Does he panhandle nearby
Does he make enough to eat
Are others kind to him
Is he a ******* or insane
How can he sleep on cement
Long hours go by, he sleeps
Where will he go when it's cold
I wish that he would just go
Out of sight out of mind
But he will haunt me a while
Even when he's no longer there
But I wish that he would leave
My heart can't take in his pain
He has already filled it up

There they go
The true ladies of the night

Walking the streets
In a protective routine

I hear them laughing
I hear the banter

Out there, down below
My balcony

In the dark of night
Before the dawn's light

They stroll circulative
Calling out occasionally

What wicked deed
Is their goal in darkness

They are the walkers
In our retirement village

I have limits
For I am only human,
Imperfect in body
And with a feeble mind.
I reach for the stars
Anyway.

I like the strings you pluck.
They sound through me and feel
Like a low hum.

I love the rub of friction
As you squeak quickly to move
Across the bridge;

Or a bow sawing back and forth,
Vibrating in my jaw.  Running
Down into the soul.

I stretch out my wing;  
The Pin you placed seems
to be holding.  Your Mercy
was the thing,
which held me aloft
until my heartbreak oft
had been forgotten,
until my diaphragmatic
flight had gotten
ground free.

In the garden of delight
At the eve of dusky-night
-Twilight holds no grudge

The brush had been light
You had seen him in his flight
-Lights dimmed, everything buzzed

Hoping that he'd soon light
You hoped he'd light on you
-Before a shark bite you get a nudge

Ah, tender kisses on the skin
Are just a prelude to the sting.
-Blood smudged

You do not see the criminal.
You say to me,

"You only see stuff that fear allows me to show."
You are the tongue of mass ******.

What was the motive?
In another cell a complex code casts you the victim.

We tie our lips up in knots
In order not to name the truths we know.

Who decides what beauty is?
A trend-setting, shallow puff of smoke?
Here today, gone tomorrow narrow thinking?
Taking with them what ideal supposedly is
As volumes of Truth go unread by the self-appointed.

Judges are too often bought, paid for by industries.

Each ones true beauty is purposely hidden.
For corruption is a filthy film over minds,
While truth is purity, bright and honest.
Rub fists into blighted spheres to clean them, then
Go, let your mind's eye begin to see more clearly.

I can smell the heat of the day
The off gassing of materials
The decomposition of grass
I smell the earth drying in the bake
         of this southern sky.

A bright sun heated this ground and we richly sowed in fertile soil.

Spring was full of possibilities, which we now enjoy in summer produce, so luscious.

Ah, as tasty as sweet melon and as fresh as scent of cucumber love is.

And we have seen that the bounty we receive is equal to the worth of our toil.

When the sun begins its rise
And as it moves into view
Rising higher in the heavens,
It grows in its spectacular glow
And it sprinkles golden dust
On everything it touches.
It is a magical period in time,
This golden hour, which belongs
To the sun and its glorious rise
And is then gifted to us.

The staff was shocked.  I being the
Only patient to ever do yoga stretches
Afterward on the gurney,
My recovery time was cut in half.
Now to deal with this pain!
Writing my Meditation . . .

Wings spread
Wonder flies
Into eyes
Across faces
Into hearts
Minds explode

Swallows soar
Insects hurry
Into beaks
Savored flavor
Swallows swallow
Each Sustained

It is often true that you
Must sink to the bottom
Before you can rise upward.
Swim!

Take one moment for your anger
And one more for your sadness,
And another for your regrets.
Then two more move past these,
Then strive to let it go.
Only then will you regain your joy,
Your love, your life, your true purpose.

"I can hardly wait
(My friend the diabetic)
to taste the poison."
He takes seppuku serious;
So many sweet things are here!

Soft gentle breezes
Rain paints color on petals
Green smells the grasses
Drifting across many meadows
Your hand has the sweetest touch

Glass bottles and other whimsies,
Sparkle in rows on windowsills.
Around the world there are tchotchkes.
These little booms of whimsies live
As blooms of plants die.
Is that their secret?

Springs and spirals cling and climb.  
Ever upwards, ever onward day by day.
Greening our everyday lives along their way.

Twinkling tiny lights sparkle
In a backdrop of fragility;
A world in miniature, stupendous!

Tree-like ferns, wee mossy meadows;
Breathtaking, the surreal list!  It is
“A poem of stone, powered by stars,” 

Oh, the towering keep within a jar!

In my mind
I follow the line of beauty
In every fiber of your being.

It stretches from the 1st time
I saw your face to the last.
Its continuum tethers me, still.

You are frozen in time,
As though a bug in amber.

Awaken from your slumber
Before you run out of rhyme.

For Rumi us reminded to awaken!
Dawn's breeze is not to be forsaken

Because it has secrets to tell you.

Winter ended up six feet high and weighing down on us;
With a brief sun came the melt, which only hardened everything.
Now, in the continued thaw, we are washed away.
But spring drinks heartily to gain the roots of what is left;
And we happily give way to its hopefulness.

Look, listen, strive, and grasp at the depth of all things.

There is a depth of sadness in you that hurts my heart,
And the lack of desire therein to seek and to find pains me.

Where there are shadows there has to be light illuminating.
Even in those depths of darkness, there are degrees of dark
Light plays with light and darkness, layer upon layer.

In music there are highs and there are lows as it flows.
Crescendos and decrescendos.  Adagio and allegro.

Fortississimo and diminuendo.  By degree pianissimo
Largo and on and on and on it goes.  Life is the same.
As all this wonder comes together there is harmony.

Plumb the unfathomable depths of the art and song of life.

The mockingbird heralds
Each new sunrise.
This morning unbeknownst to it

Man declares it to be
A whole new year in its life.

So, sing on my friend.
May we enjoy many more days
Of your lovely song.

My trust is left as fragile as a spider web,
Yet, my love was as strong as a single thread,
As strong as a steel girder in one of your buildings.
When you hurt me, it seemed that the dark night
Would never stop trembling within me.
I was left to sleep outdoors with our children.

My heart lay in my chest bruised and wounded.
For a while it was black and putrid with hatred.
This was not the man that I knew so well,
Fell in love with, happily married.  No, some
Evil "other" put poison into the vein to overpower.
As the fang bites deeper and they secure the grip.

The bite perfected with each attempt, at first
That which was only a snag of a fang held until
Both fangs could drip a poisonous brew into you.
Threads of the web slowly broken by her design
To envenomate and poison a "forever-bound" love.
She said, "Let me free you from the web.  

Here, taste this."

You are like the weight of an object picked up.
Like the endless depth of a jug when filling.

In these moments of surprise, one briefly falters,
Questioning their understanding of actuality.

We measure the breadth, the depth, the weight
Of all things encountered.  And you,

You speak and I hear beyond the words,
Then I am crushed by the weight of your wisdom.

I love the sky, sunrise and sunset, so much
That at times I can hardly breathe.

Only when we’re brave enough to explore
Do we find the breathless moments.

I love you so much that I am forever breathless.

When the veil of mist hangs
Across the pastures and fields
The day is dawning gradually
Turning all things to color.

The sun swims in these pools
As a diver swimming slowly immerges
Out of the depths into sea-blue light
And begins to see clearly.

We feel the brief touch of cool mist
Before it can fully dissipate
Leaving us to immerge into our day
Warmed by the touch of the sun.

This new day breathed its first breath.

True love does not vary
Nor change like shifting shadows
True love remains ever in the light
For all to see its honesty

A love that maintains its vow
To love, respect, and cherish
It does not alter or "bend
With the remover to remove"

Love is everlasting and true
Real love is yielding to the other
It does not possess, nor smother
It trusts because it gives it to receive

Love is the very soul of equality
It does not reveal but protects intimacy
Love grows with time and with maturity
True love by all is easily seen

Only fools poke out their own eyes
Mistaking true love for hypocrisy
True love is from celestial heights above
And lights the way to unfaltering love

Tragic poets were often mocked
By comic poets during dramatic festivals.
Some travestied more than most.

They write to record.

Frequently shocked by the heresies
Put into the mouths of powerful men,
Many, too frightened to begin again

Commit political suicide.

She has a kind of magical thinking about her life.
She sees her name written across the sky, in stars,
In clouds, in sunbeams, written in the sunset.

She finds a penny, knows it was placed there, especially for her.

In her magical thinking, the universe is cheering her on,
Setting her up, leading her to somewhere she doesn't know.
In her magical thinking, she finds the delights and she goes. . .

The crow calls out to say,

"The sunrise is on its way.
Hurry do not delay.
Go, look, and see.
The beauty of a sunrise is free.
You do not need to pay."

I no longer go to the museum.

Ducks and geese and floating feathers
Falling amidst the shimmering sparkles on the bay;
All to the tune of children’s laughter
As they spin and twirl and play.

I cannot express the elusive feeling
that flits across the branches of this memory;
A brief song of just a few notes twitter.

Suddenly, I am in a grassy field or I am sitting high
on tree limbs in the pecan orchards of my youth;
I feel the sun's warmth filter down, moist air softly on skin.

I search the recesses of the grey matter in my head
to find the exact expression for the fleeting memory
I want it to come back to me so that I can come back to it.

"I have never been content with being Amy*."
Her words break my heart because she is Amy.

She is killing herself in the loudest way possible.

Amy would sell her soul, she would sell yours, too.
Men fuel her habit of huffing her "duster".

Amy is not a *****.  She only sells her body.

-In the style of Mark Nepo

I do not need to legitimate our hard-fought struggles.
My only wish was that you hadn’t given up on wanting
To continue this love after all the years and all of the things,
The things that had bloomed.  

For you found at the end in your dying bed, you could never stop.
"What I hold onto of you tumbles" from my heart into the depths.
"Like something that slipped through my fingers."
And I often scrabble to collect it.

O, these remaining echoes of you
My distant Bell, calling me to worship.

All things turn golden at sunset.  It is
The nature of daylight at day's dawning

That the start & end should be mellowed.
Yet, that distant bell reverberates

And echoes on through time
As I kneel at your alter,
Straining to hear echoes of you.

Give me one rose hour by hour
To build for me loves glorious tower
And turn this pain into smiles
Give of yourself un-beguiled

That I might trust love once again
Thus except you more than mere friend
And make me know that all is truth
Having given the effort and the proof

Then this heart of mine can rule
Show me your love never decreased
For love became an unruly beast
O, diminish love not in the least

On throughout all time.

Give me one rose hour by hour
To build for me loves glorious tower
And turn this pain into a smile
Give of yourself un-beguiled

That I might trust love once again
Thus accept you more than mere friend
And make me know that all is truth
Having given the effort and the proof

Then this heart of mine you can rule

2nd version:
The Efforts
Give me one rose hour by hour
To build for me loves glorious tower
And turn this pain into a smile
Give of yourself un-beguiled

That I might trust love once again
Thus accept you more than mere friend
And make me know that all is truth
Having given the effort and the proof

Then this heart of mine you can rule
Show me your love will never decrease
For love became an unruly beast
O, diminish love not in the least

We eventually parted

It was like a scarlet letter
Pinned to my chest
The kind pinned on
The type of lady
For one's pleasure
And all of the rest

Yet, happy they were
To partake in secret
Of their wares for sale
But my love was not
Free for any to take
It was meant for you

To the end of time

Through lessons learning, at times hard,
The young man makes note within his personality,
Files it away for later days to work on.
And he continues with life with only a flicker of recall.

Sometime during his 60s he flips through the files
Seeking to amend some deficiency there in
And finds the file on his lack of patience, his lack
Of understanding, his deep-seated prejudices.

Thus, he sets to work.  By the end of his lifespan
He is at long last a decent enough human being.
So late.  But too late?  Those who come to know this man
Think only of the loving, patient, and open-minded man
Which they see before them.  Redemption is sweeter than pride.

The salvages have been cut away
And all has begun to fray
The fabric-cutter now holds sway
In the fabric of so many lives

It started with one tiny thread
With what somebody wrote
And then somebody read
The fear then grew and spread

Like some great moth-ridden cape
With in which massive holes gape
Your minds have now been *****
As many fear the ultimate date

When the fabric-cutter begins
To trim, first foes, but in the end
The woeful trim of even friends
When all is cut away at bitter end

Hence, not even he will have the win
Nor protective garment.

Lov-v-v-ve, the word on the tongue
Vibrates as a bee does before it stings
"With love's light wings
did I o'er perch these walls."
Then, the fall.

Deat-th-th-th, an imagined voice of serpents
"Th-th-th", as it slithers upon the dust of earth.
O, precious love & life!  O, sting, life's dearth.
Did those lovers prove Love's worth?
When oft you straddle walls you fall.

Lif-f-f-fe, even the sound is ephemeral,
A mist.  Just as the object is itself.
Not unlike a mystery book on the shelf
There is death within all of us.
Though for some, early, the fall.

Dream about it,
Then pray for forgiveness,
Why shouldn't you?  I do.

Just a bite of the forbidden fruit
And the poison would rush in
Throughout our veins

This is a study in futility
For neither of us will bite
Even to die in one another's arms

In the furnace of my mind
I burn to light up the world
With heat expanding a universe.
In pages unfolding I whisper to "Open,
Come in and see.  Inside you can find me
And so many fascinating things."
Expanding, expanding, and hurtling forward
Our world is there before us all.  If only
People would not think so small.

The gabber-jaws
Come for us all
Peeking through curtains
Watching us as we live
Wanting something
Juicy for certain
Something to give
And to give
Gabber-jaws seek
Anything clean
They can turn *****
To use in elevating of self
Looking for your secrets
Big or the small
The good or the bad
They do not care a wit
They'll proclaim all
Just waiting for your fall
To climb your body
And be seen by all

With this look
I give myself away.

With these words
It is much the same.

What I hide, I hid
Within a poem,

Without giving much away.

And so it begins, the greening of spring
On still as yet cold ground.  Shoots bursting
And unseen buds developing in hidden places.
The greening first begins in the sheltered spaces
Along the walls, in unnoticed corners.  Nursing
Its offspring that had clung to life, it is given wings.
The greening of spring now takes its annual flight.
Thus, soon this secret work will bring all delight.
Yes, how could I not extoll such an inspiring sight?

Burnt orange is beginning to softly paint the sky
Soon the sunrise will shine full light into my eyes

This is when the midnight blue that was above
Is starting to turn that shade of blue that I love

I am sitting, sipping, waiting for the full light of day
Coffee in my cup is still warm; I'm waiting for the first ray