sight
(c) 2002
drown me to believe
stars walking circles in my head
undressed with a falling wind
i can't trust you to be real
even as i shiver with
your fingertips soft on my palm
take me anywhere you need
bury me in your safest place
write your name in the frost
i look out the windowpane
sorrow seems a dream
head bowed hurrying past
hold me above them
hold me sweetly warm
blind me again inside your hand
don't let me look out
and see who you are
sagittarius
(c) 2002
he was running from it all
sprained his ankle and had to lie up somewhere
it was a desert night and the stars were out
the stories of a dozen ages spread open
and he noticed so many were running too
fleeing gods and judgements and lovers
and other terrible powers only stars could portray
he didn't know all the stories
but he remembered being told one
the archer and the scorpion that stung his heel
even in death they had to be divided across the sky
never sharing the same night
the helicopter woke him from the past
blinding eye turning to search him out
he winced as he scrambled to his feet
dust and gravel loose under his hurry
the searchlight making his shadow dance
with the unreality of a dream
boxes
(c) 2002
pinned up for display
locked inside a glass case
calm professional manner
bedside chat and a quiet hum of machinery
we swapped pleasantries
crisp enunciated banter
ever wise to the wiles of fear
i don't have much longer to live, she told me
i accepted this with a nod
and a hand laid on her shoulder
fate draws nearer to claim its own
i drew the curtains shut
tempted by the usual envy
but my fate has a further need for me
i go down my checklist
enter the next glass case
and meet the next soul i am to free
note
(c) 2002
I opened my eyes and stared into a revolverpoppyseed
(c) 2002
pills spinning down the drainconsolation
(c) 2002
talking students at a broken home cafe
wearing many hats
gallantry under masks
can't wound me under my armor
no one sees, there's no need to worry
we sit and trade concerns
back to the fantasy of simple wrongs
injustices done and forgiven
largesse of a hero
a hand up from the victor
dusted off and dressed in new clothes
service of the new enlightenment
sipping cold coffee with a glance at the clock
waiting my time
watching my chance
getting to know you so much better
vapours
(c) 2002
angels and astronauts play a little power game
can't trust either at the controls
so let's strip them both away
try our hand at piloting this thing
brave the course and fall into a heavy star
can't be any worse than the guidance we've had
swallowing light to taste its source
caught in cellular latticework
bars and latches casting striped shadows
this holding pen bound by four walls
space and time and fixed reality
but i'm telling you there's more
subliminate and chase after the flow
leave your baggage behind
cut free from substance
or you'll never catch up with the light
custom
(c) 2002
breed your killing machines
a wasteless land
sufficiency for export
tidy cut for the future
set it aside, put it away
mark your share
enough for everybody
streamlined and slim
calm waves and a new moon
the boat sleeps
set the trap
wait your chance
your prize is near
dont spring it too soon
let it fall into your hands
a sweet cold breeze
and lights on the shore
door
(c) 2002
an angel on my doorstep
here to take my heart in her palm
doorbell rings, i am undecided
she radiates through the peephole
ice pure hands cleansed in blood
beckoning to take one step and fly
heaven awaits me past this door
my feet feel leaden and her wings look frail
touch the knob, cold smooth metal
i give it a turn
and hope its locked
salt
(c) 2002
dust with memory's taste
fingerprints of her lover's hand
a pillar of salt raised
teardrop by teardrop
a token of his penitence
sacrifice to the god he sought
words he valued more than love
obedient and ever faithful
but to what?
gulls scream behind as they leave
lowlying fields and farmers' huts of clay
she sees smoke brooding
chaff burned after the harvest
sweat dries on her lips
she knows nothing of what grows in the hills
wastes and voices of the wind
dry and waiting for gods less cruel
it couldn't hurt to look back
one last time
Wetware Revisited
(c) 2002
Hash of lines like a scrambled image of plenty
Bountiful harvest of lust and mortality and
This stubborn wish I have to rip it all aside
A part of me remains cold and calm amid this drug
Of illumination and prophecy
Like a tombstone left behind in the joyous rebirth
Its purpose anulled in a chance quirk of god's design
Angels circle above this sole part of me
Seeking to scavenge what can be gleaned
But their disembodied information flows by too soon
They flit once and find the next curiousity
The next remnant of this once upon a time
While the rest of me plays this same game with them
And doesn't really remember what all the fuss was about
Shrugs and moves on
Caught in the rapture of the data stream
exodus
(c) 2002
green topographies play like an echo
images i'd memorized for the colony
water falling through mountains
winds coaxing waves to the shore
the rockets' ignition revives me
one last time before i enter my ark
plasma streams from my dying star
weakened -- wounded by time's arrow
she had given me life in her youth
consumed herself to breathe into me
even now her fevers bloody the sky
send pulses through me
stir the wind through my hair
i wait one moment more
watching my sisters climb past that sky
distrurbed pollen makes me sneeze
and the air suddenly seems cold
bringing back those memories
i can't place anymore
shadowbox
(c) 2002
when the ravens die
and cold white blankets the stars
i'll find you immersed in
the light of the fallen moon
catch a dragon and fly
drink its breath and your hair flows free
loosen your grip and reach out
sand streams like pearls
between your fingers
senseless you forgot you couldn't
feel
you touch
but we fall
raining like starlight
again
circumlocution
(c) 2002
left the light on
shines through my window
tell you a story how
i saw you here
when the crossroads were passed
blood through my heart
fell like snow
cold at your touch
your face frozen
mask holding me with your stare
"my room is upstairs"
not until
i turned the light on did
i remember
i am alone here and you
are forgotten
Tide
(c) 2001
Follow the retreating tide
Can all things be forgiven
Cross the deserted line
We fought so hard for then
Follow the light in the sky
Lost without my restraints
Gravity pulling me through life
Ocean held captive to the rain
Can I be this afraid
Knowing you died in your war
I roam the halls you made
Was this what we were fighting for
Follow my face in the mirror
Can I be the conquest I made
Along the shore we once could hear
Victory of moonlight over the waves
Morning
(c) 2001
And here I saw your face
Music in the afternoon
Remembering shadows of a moon
Straying to foreign place
Lost in the mirror of your eyes
And here I touched your hand
Autumn's songs rushing through treetops
Wnting the moment to never stop
Knowing the daylight's demand
A price paid in lies
Gift
(c)2001
An unwritten song
Minds sharing
Given winds to scour
Waiting to belong
Silent weight bearing
Valleys within the flower
Sky above all
A well of prayers
Two given eyes will gaze
Clutching before a fall
Rain rutting ground bare
Torturing unnumbered ways
Stay to drift
Beneath the storms
Between the surface
An unspoken gift
A pathway of thorns
Make this purchase
Currents enter a stream
Flowing minds into one
Wind through lace
How old does this seem
Pooling into the sun
Gazing at your face
Touch
(c) 2001
I sit alone
In the midst of emotions
I'll never know
She lays me down and whispers
Softly things I'll never hear
In my mind I can kiss her
And all the songs I used to know
Moments we once lingered
Left behind so long ago
Who is he
This man I was
Speaking to me
The night we played in the rain
I sold myself to her forever
Why have I lost her name
She lays me down and whispers
Softly things I'll never hear
In my mind I can kiss her
She touches me and disappears
Meaning
(c) 2001
Fractal order
Heartbeat or birth and death of galaxies
Walking toward a treeline
Neurons pulse with falacies
Is god a river
Where hunters stop to drink
Clear water behind my eyes
Maybe it's more than I think
Antiseptic solitude
Vastness of the ship overreaching
I play old games in a museum
Missing lessons as I'm teaching
Heartbeat not my own
Rhythm expanding with the dawn
Flowers in color-scented bloom
Intoxicating otherness closely drawn
Drinking deep
Stars and their liquid faiths
Neutrinos passing their distant course
Drawing into themselves newer wraiths
Learning
(c) 2001
You know it hurts
But I love you
Return my thoughts
Never be my fool
You know me
Once I knew you
A world set free
Never be my fool
Infatuated learning
Old words blurring
Broken sounds so true
Once I whispered to you
Storms empty the sea
Lost more than I can be
Newborn soul in you
Never be my fool
Between your raindrops
I sought shelter in you
Touch me my heart stops
Never be my fool
Did you ever really love me
Could you love someone you never knew
Lost with me in dreams
Never be my fool
Soulless searching
New words learning
Ways of expression
Long to share direction
Enter the pathways of me
By moonlight find what I can't see
Help me to help you
Never be my fool
Further
(c) 2001
And then I went crazy
Windows opened to the sky
Gloving my feeling
Sheltered from my lies
And then I fell as rain
Siphoning underground
Together breathless we came
Mist amid the cloud
Cold bleeding a river
Harmless stone passageways
Scarred somehow in fever
A broken scream of somedays
Adrift to the daylight
Heat entered my form
Winds lifted in flight
And then I was born
Verses At the Grave of the Incredible Mothman
(c) 2001
Who was there to save you
What was in your thoughts
When you stepped off the edge
You thought no one was like you
Untouched and uncaught
Standing high upon the ledge
Where were those you saved
Why did you assume a debt
How could you owe anything
Born into realms darkness craved
Your truth only a threat
Worlds in your mind shining
Who convicted your soul
When you prayed in a garden
Those tales we were told
Of your reasons and your fight
We followed but we couldn't listen
Where we would push you
Why you let us come so close
How were you repaying us
Obligations you once thought true
You already knew the ways we chose
Somehow we lost your trust
Verses At the Destruction of Weybridge and Shepperton
(c) 2001
They came across space to topple a church spire
Not to destroy the law but to fulfill it
Smiting us with steam and hellfire
Finally giving someone a world to inherit
Prayed not so long before for salvation
Of forging ourselves pure to greet the unnamed
Will of the flesh lures to damnation
Born again of spirit what should we regain
Saviors have come to free us from choice
Set us above the animals we kill
Mark us apart and speak with our voice
Lead us out from these lands we till
Hand of the beast arm of a saint
Build our suicide pierce our shields
Cleanse from us the carnal taint
This bond known with the beasts of the fields
Battlefields clamoring in prophecy
Prayers of universal destruction
Feeding within our minds like leprosy
It takes the will of all to press the button
Verses At the Grave of Friedrich Nietzsche
(c) 2001
Poetry died with God
Your colorectal flora died with you
Now these holy hallways you plod
Damned to a Heaven you didn't know was true
Peaceful inexistence you secretly prayed
Deity of self nailed beneath boards of a tree
On the third day you still rose from the grave
Your apostles carried on and did not see
Touch your hands feel your wounds
Stigmata you fervently denied
Join the multitude among the tombs
Quietly saviors in all our own minds
Verses At the Grave of the Judeo-Christian Deity
(c) 2001
Were you able to freeze a stream
Have stars to guide us across the sky
Did the forest yield its paths to me
Wind in all its voices question why
Did you enclose storms between us
Set them loose with the twitch of a hand
Wring the wealth of the sky to trust
I might somehow learn to understand
Did you set our seasons into stone
Quicken life into the fallen herds
Carry me to our forgotten home
Give me the sky to hold as words
For you did I come out from the sea
Accompanying you through brooding walks
As a gift would you return to me
What I lost to become an ape that talks
The Day I Joined the Circus (based on a true story)
(c) 2001
Traveled a long way to get nowhere
Still the seasons pass me by
So many faces for any to care
Permutations of a single life
Stars eat their consecrated throngs
Draw me inward a worshipper
Baited with dreams and night songs
Given the moon needing to love in return
Slow evolution across my heart
Wax and wane me through my changes
Write my thoughts before you depart
Eclipse me in the dark of your phases
Awoke a slave bound and moving
Ends like my beginning so distant
How many years until proving
Earth is just another carnival encampment
Spoken
(c) 2001
Would you seek the sky
Come let's find a world
A grove all our own
A new place holy to us
Naked seeing in the pool
Gentle waters gentle touch
New songs we teach each other
Would you speak the truth
If you need me to lie
Tell me to try harder
Pull me into your eyes
Give me the stolen place
Guide me if you know the ways
Lose me if you can
Would I break the surface
Ripple across your thoughts
Keep me safe from your secrets
Touch me like the sky
Made into water search me out
Maybe I can find you
Heal
(c) 2001
sing
joy in my words
life in my hands
cleanse
free me from darkness
dance everlasting
light
courtship and fireflies
join me in a forest
feel
run barefoot soft grass
endless meadow voices
feast
upon your words
souls touching
rise
climb to the sky
soak into the stars
peace
joy in my silence
life in your eyes
Above
(c) 2002
Wind through my veins
Separate the blood from mind
World-colors clouding blue
Embody impossible souls in Coriolis storms
Twisting to find release
Movement
Chances taken
Recombinant happenstance
Gods of the small worlds
Enter me and fill my fingertips
Cells caught in the inrushing of days
Finding
(c) 2002
From the head of the trail
I could see the day
All my wisdom had failed
But you show me the way
Breaking blue above the night
Your breath fills me, soothing
Dawn opens your eyes
Shadow pools
My instincts unreasoning
We don't have a goal
We lay together to watch time
No reasons left
I stop questioning why
Garden
(c) 2002
Moonlight traces leafy patterns on the wall
Waking I might see your face in memories of dreams
Half-touched, slipping away the way certainties fall
Or hear your voice in the first storm of spring
Outside new leaves rustle, unknowing in their possibilities
Life within life, still finding how far it can grow
Rain starts to patter like a hundred wingbeats in the trees
I step into the moonlight before clouds darken my halo
Rainbeads burst into my hands, shattering their hold
Onto my face, my shoulders, my arms outreaching
Foliage sways with the weight of the rain and cold
And below my feet roots grow outward seeking
Before the Storm
or, On the Hazards of Turning Haiku Into Free Verse
(c) 2002
fingerprints of my years alone
tree rings grow slowly
I watch the horizon for rain
the crops might fail this year
ravens circle in a black zodiac
counting phases of the moon
no new answers after all this time
some days I go back to the city
many buildings are still standing --
hospitals and museums, some homes
I root through the gardens
where the dunes haven't buried them
at night lightning flickers low over the distant hills
and dead leaves rustle in the breeze
Verses At the Grave of Richard G. Hollon
(c) 2002
swords of angels pierce my heart
my body falls behind
light fills my new flesh
oceans below me as I learn to fly
fire within finally unbound
contained since the first spark
opening wounds to finally heal
memories swept free from the dark
worlds rise now at my feet
I hold them within my radiance
new generations learn to love
newborn souls given a chance
God As Victim of Arizona Car Crash
(c) 2002
mischance on the dusty roadway
wingtips trailing to fine finite ends
heat haze lifts my perspectives
dustdevils work the loom of another day
down lower the details blur into separation
rock to sand and the scent of creosote
the cohesion crumbles through my fingers
the wind scatters the ashes of my creation
uprooted along the floodcourses by dry years
sand loses its coherence and sifts away
hourglasses spill and snake across the blacktop
I can only fly higher to renew the sky with tears
The Night Simone Became a Virgin (based on nothing in particular)
(c) 2002
it wasn't her idea, to be honest
Joe said one thing and they were out the door again
running hand in hand to find the end of the earth
she was tired by the time they finally left the habitat dome
a few hundred meters into the forest she called a halt
Joe rarely said much, but he was silent now
throwing glances back over their new trail beat through the ferns
it happened too fast for her to really note any details --
the attack raised little to mark its passage
a rush and a fall, Joe's body ripped away forever
but it really hadn't been her idea, not her idea at all
Music Inspired By the New Motion Picture
(c) 2002
there will be day upon the night
carry me away to the shore
caught between time and the sea
beneath the sun's frozen core
nebulae drift soft rain upon my face
stars rupture and seed the sky
holding the orgiastic energy
head thrown back in a soft cry
there will be warmth upon the depths
elements congeal in blind urgency
the first cell begets its twin
a new starmap drawn of ecstacy
turns and fate begin to form
proteins swarm in pulsing gloom
as mist settles in from the waves
I touch your hand and watch the galaxy bloom
Lies
(c) 2002
how far away are you tonight
torn between heaven and hell
you tell me I've seen this before
eyes open
growing in your womb
beneath angel wings beating
you find words for me again
whispering secrest to the priests
waiting at your oracle
telling how different it would all be
but I didn't believe
not then
when all I could hear was your wings
beating
beating
Dominant Traits
(c) 2002
The way she asked the question
Narrow mouth, breath held
As if she is afraid the air
Around her is contaminated
Thoughts of jagged corruption
Mingling abuse and pity
Lingers in his mind.
Silent -- clockwork hours
Climbing walls to reach his stars
Out in the dreams beyond
His sight's grasp, shattering with his touch
Raining around him like a caress
Of elementalized emotion.
Fingertips probe the remains
Blood of futures still growing
Freeze with foreign insight and
Ways of flesh, testing its surface
Fissures caught in sightless rush
His mind feels their cutting
She finds the answer
Milky Way
(c) 2002
You set off through the hills of west Mexico
And wandered where all your dreams have gone
You were afraid to ask how we got so old
And why the rest of the world got so young
Stars wrote a song there above the pinyons and grass
Calling you to follow their helical pathway around the sky
Truth was less important when your spirit was glass
Ghostly translucence, facetless in black light
Before the morning came you'd left your eyes far behind
Burned by the sweet sinuous pain of a million lives
You warned us not to gaze into the sun with the mind
As we drove the tortuous road back down to paradise