Category: poetry

Transformations of the Spirit

A half-remembered embellishment in the spirit of Nietzche

Ocean

Oneness
Cast off at birth
The baby is the ocean
An expanse without boundary
Sensations are totality without name
Selfless, other-less, wordless and timeless…
Until the waves reach the shore and reflect back
And the sensations most struck become familiar
Patterns of light and sound are remembered
Infinity settles into its next selfhood
Crying out with selfish needs
To a motherly world
Cradled within
Oneness

Camel

Polarity
Parental masters
The youth is the camel
Kneeling down to the ground
Pridefully incanting “put a load on me”
Shouldering the weight of cultural fullness
Until burden becomes new knowledge and muscle
Reflexive memories from countless acts of service
Patterns of provision, protection and care
Infinity engaged and sustained in time
Young boys and girls shaped
By values of elders
Seeing only
Polarity

Lion

Truth
Responsibility
Young adults are lions
The heavier the youthful load
The more powerful the culture’s pride
Carrying the light and defending the ways
The frontier’s edge is met with cunning and claws
Where the greatest dragon stands fearsome guard
Halting progress with fires of “thou shalt”
Each scale emblazoned with authority
Only the fearless lion can slay
Expanding knowledge
Transcending
Truth

Dragon

Revolution
The dragon slain
Lions become dragons
The brighter the new Truth
The grander the shrine to protect it
The next generation inheriting the wisdom
Dragons make lions make camels out of oceans
Until the waves reach the shore and reflect back
Civilizations rising and falling in this flow
Patterns remembered and forgotten
Infinity weaving life in death
Carrying on the spark
Of our creation’s
Evolution

~r

Renga/Renga (one)

R/J

Trees in forest fall
Paper calendars whisper
Winter is dry now

Dry hands, dry eyes, dry earth
a sky as cold and clear as steel

Earth mother dreaming
Weaving living forms from death
Gifts fuel and spark

The fuel had lay in waiting
We encroached, greeted by flame

Flame, fuel, earth exhales…
And castles turn to ashes
To dust we return

J/R

Hawks and highways both
Unfurl themselves to the sun
Absorb the new day

Highways flying overland
Asphalt boundless as feather

Feathered silhouettes
Guide us home, through receding
Snow, and carrion

Home inside these walls, our dreams
Soar with their spirit’s secret…

What is a secret
But a path yet untraveled
Awaiting fresh eyes

Anniversary

This bed
She told me
Is no safe harbor
I’ll scour barnacles
Cut moorings
Burn maps
Take back my soul
To give to the wind

Your mind
She told me
Is anchored 
Dragging the bottom
Caught on old stories
Of dead selves
And journeys that
Were never ours

The past
She said
Is gone
The future
Uncertain
Erase yourself
In this truth
Only then
Can our lines
Be drawn again

~r

Lost Forest

A name was quietly erased today.

A name pulled from the records with no added explanation,

A name slipped away from our collective sub-conscious.

Illness gives way to absence, absence becomes prolonged indifference,

Prolonged indifference gives way to questioned existence,

A name is all that ties one to existence.

A name was quietly erased today.

Opportunity Cost

For a simple exchange, my good sir, you may buy:
A slick, polished future, with views from on high.

A seat in a chair so soft and so right,
When you get there you’ll never remember the fight.

Or the things that you loved that you missed on your way,
Up this hill where on top is that big, bright “Some Day.”

You’ve made a fine choice my discerning, new friend,
For a much grander future awaits you in the end.

All I need from you now, to make best come to be,
Is to pay for your dreams with a low one-time fee.

It’s all waiting for you, so act now! Don’t delay!
Success can be yours!
…The price is today.

~r

Swing Set

The joy of creation,
can only be known,
against a backdrop of sedation.

The pains of the artist,
with too much to say,
are dulled through the mind’s masturbation.

* * *

The seasons turn swiftly,
seeds planted… some grow,
while others rot trapped in hard clay.

The life lived tomorrow,
so seductive and bright,
forever outrunning today.

* * *

Serpant selves shedding skins,
twice born in a day,
thin shells and old eyes never missed.

Once catching a glimpse,
of a muse waxing high,
pulling with it the tides of our bliss.

~r

8.1.12 Afternoon

standard rain drops plummet down

the old caress of concrete

embedded in memory

(there is a fire in a park outside the city beneath the bench in the soil)

something emblazoned across the mind,

like a scar buried under legal bound

photocopies

(we fell in love in that flame within the camera you stole)

Coming home

in some way

Untitled

oh how the scores of light so bright
flicker quick and slow down my plight
i need to visit the youth of what
i need to see stretched out so taught

i once knew the way i was
i tell myself i’ll be there again
i’m heading north for to be alone
i wanna heal my mind and my bones

my legs were tired i fell in the snow
took off my pack, couldn’t move any more
slower and slower my thoughts grew dull
i was too far from home, asleep and alone

one dream over and over so dense
roaming the plains putting up my defense
sweet summer fruit no where to be seen
i’ll never taste the air, never breathe in

Time to Bleed

the shadows do the talking
looking at the begging glares
how strange the fallen’s cries
dug down with tar dug down with sound

restless fading tired flights
the day will come for time to bleed
restfull deeds they strengthen
drop down and smell the glow alone

new nights come and claim the calm
their eyes burst into flames
the path that shows the light
must pass revealing the shine

Explorer

opened and exposed
clearer dawns have risen before
spent and hollow how we’ve grown

held up high the truths we’ve heard
caught between the falling eyes and thoughts again

wait no more for now you know
how to feel the breath of wise minds gone astray
hang up the look of emptiness
towards the sky
you see the future smile

as the lights go out
rolling visions hide low and silent
take some time oh how you’ve grown

awoken by the tone of what you’ve seen in the past
cut the time and drinks in half

how long will this last?

Patricide

He fathered them all,
Their blushing mother nursed them,
Balanced them in the gentle sway of her delicate fabric.
As children they loved their Mother,
In awe of the Father that provided all.
From a shared cradle they emerged,
Brothers and sisters.

From above, their Father watched their wanderings.
Illuminating their world with light and life,
As He made His way across the sky.
In four directions His children spread,
Chasing horizons over great distances.
Like seeds on a wind.

The Children of the East, welcomed their Father each day.
The Children of the South, best knew their Father’s warmth.
The Children of the West, danced to their Father’s music.
The Children of the North, grew distant from their Father.
Discovering in the shadows of their Father’s absence,
The cold side of a lonely Mother.

Building walls they turned inward,
Growing pale in their solitude.
Nearsighted through honed dexterity,
Pride swelling with the power of creation.
Linguistic palaces ascended to heaven,
Their father and mother subjugated by name.

They charted the distant stars.
They mapped the earth’s contours.
They mastered inferior races.
They worshiped themselves.
Fair skin easily seared,
By a father made sun.

~r

How Did You Learn To Touch So Gently?

How did you learn to touch so gently?
Able to caress the silence of night,
Left hand as soft as the right.
It must have taken practice,
Sweet and gentle practice.

How did you learn to glow so golden?
I’ve seen this color on you before,
On a beach far away,
The sun setting like a volcano in the sky,
My toes raking through the sand,
As we were bathed in warm and golden light.

How did you learn to touch so gently,
And how did you learn to glow so golden?
It must have taken practice.
Sweet and gentle practice.