Gathered here are all my poems to date. Each “book” is marked by a title in bold print.
Beneath each poem is the audio file for anyone who might enjoy listening to me read it.
Click on the audio link and then click on it again to play the mp3 file.
Remains – For Jerry
One day or night I will leave behind
The objects helping to express me
The smallest possession marking a path
Into the tangled depths of my being
Littered with the clues of a mystery
Why I love or desire anything
Pieces of people scattered like seeds
catch my eye and fall into my hands
treasures taking root in my heart
Cheap or expensive it doesn’t matter
What I perceive is the shape of dreams
I won’t care when my temple is dismantled
Others cherishing parts of me for themselves
I won’t confuse feeling with languages
Thought with the words it constructs
Naked in the dark I’ll love all over again
Listen:Remains
Fragments For a Papyrus
Song of the Blood
1
I sensed the stone of the corridor
but no unexpected turns
no personality other than my own
at its end was the room where
he stood in black relaxed
leaning on the darkness
I cannot understand
how he entered my mind
Listen: SongoftheBlood1
2
Sex like dry twigs scratching
from an immediate shore
I love he who looks beyond
the frame we are in
someone to enter the Mansion
someone who never forgets
this life is not enough
Listen: SongoftheBlood2
3
I want to be where I cannot
distinguish darkness from his flesh
it would feel the same and never end
where there is no responsibility
of light to separate our eyes
we would look into a house at night
at a desk before the window
our blood would still be
there beneath the lamp left on
Listen: SongoftheBlood3
4
More than I fear death I dread
selfishly staining circumstances
where to grow I must perceive
symbols and their purity
The wrist is the hand’s neck
fingers tormented by thought
at work so little to be felt I want
to see them lying back languidly
acknowledging their debt to the body
Listen: SongoftheBlood4
The delicacy of my fingernail
rolling a ball of silver and red foil
across my cracked palm evoked
an ancient queen playing
ball in her court
Listen: Thedelicasyof
My heart stumbles
in a world that knows
only the look of oblivion
at night I wake and stretch
my fingers across his picture
magic cut from the darkness
where I can be all for him
Listen: myheartstumbles
Moon Dinner
For dinner I was served a half moon
I pinched it with my fork and it gave
like flesh light streamed onto the plate
I waited but it did not seem to cool
The wine was liquid starlight
the cost of a single bottle worlds
in which they still burned
in my blood giving their life
My host knew I cared for the moon
so he usurped the night
and wore a cravat which was white
as mist embracing a tomb
I ate the moon and drank the stars
imagining the universe as a dark cellar
fashioned for the feelings it inspires
spirits fermented on earth learning to shine
Languidly I spread myself across a sofa
surrounded by comforting black drapes
as though the universe folds
in time contained by the wound cords
giving them a woman’s shape
The moon is in me I feel
sunlight divided in my thighs
beneath a black dress luxuriating
in the designs of night
Listen: moondinner
I saw stars in the grass
exclamation marks answered with dirt
a lamp reflected against the sunset
like the memory of flesh after death
At night he is a part of heaven
hair growing from my thoughts lashes
brushing the earth from him
so he remains open somewhere
The atmosphere can double a sun
I telescope through dreams sensing
there is no distance between us
my brain a fish out of mystery
Ploughed in our warm palms
lifelines take root in eternity
Listen: starsinthegrass
A shirt torn from the sun
sewn with seconds
darkness in his eyes
where it can behold
his mouth swallows light
but one, we make more
Listen: shirttornfromsun
Ice Age
Since the unnatural rise
of the sun in the West
fingers have been the net
for ideas caught in the head
the hand flies up stiff as a fish
in response to any trend
the hearts of men stand
like ancient vases
in an undiscovered palace
I used to believe
love keeps flowing
yet he will be a stream
just like me suffering
the emptiness of an age
growing so little eternity
Listen: iceage
The pure blue of the sky
is darkness thinned by life
the garden is planted inside
the black and white photograph
by the glass designed to shatter
Listen: pureblueofsky
I man the lighthouse drowning
in the depths of a body
death slowly chars your cards
burns the game away
a black river of colors
flowing in streams of veins
Listen: imanthelighthouse
Like a cat bound for a lap of darkness
piano keys marble slabs and black coffins
dark notes made from the branches
of dead family trees his smile a haunting
twist in the garden of a forgotten Manner
how in one mouth everything is known
a perfected row of headstones
Listen: likeacat
A shirt of humid gray air
buttons of stone
at night its folds resemble
dark roads I can follow
through his soul
Listen: shirtofhumidgray
Event Horizon
Rhythm which discovers
the still core of pleasure
a dream that does not
come but I cannot stop
longing
Listen: rhythmn
Four minutes to twelve
on the night watch
his arm in the dark
hard as the asphalt
lighting a cigarette
his shadow rising
hiding the clock
midnight fallen
in his lips
Listen: fourminutestotwelve
How obsession pretends to magic
how the days keep their pace
without the hour you await
the moon stores passion
desires tug at the blood
but I must bear the sun
alone
Listen: obsession
Unlock the clock’s ball and chain
and the sensing moment remains
electric fingertips caressing
the unknown shapes of forever
light waves breaking in your stare
a temporal shore of the eternal
Listen: unlocktheclock
A voice mummified in vinyl
the collapse of a star
into a black hole
the singularity his soul
around which the universe revolves
Listen: mummifiedinvinyl
Spirit of the Woods
Thoughts in Amber
Sunlight momentarily reflected
on my perfume bottle
so lovely I’m arrested
between one chore and another
burning elements becoming
sand blown into glass holding
amber liquid I dab on my wrists
catching the whiff of a miracle
my heart born out of nothing
Listen: thoughtsinamber
Ode To A Moth
Moths look like the ghosts of warrior kings—
ashes of armor and cloaks of evanescent victories—
burning ideals rewarded by the freedom of flight
determined backs to an endless night,
but even though I tap the glass in warning
they leave no imprint in the darkroom of a frog’s belly.
It is written on a moth’s wings in filigree
one story of all the lives composing me
as I die for the night cocooned in violet sheets
confident I will rise again, mysteriously.
Listen: odetoamoth
Rhyming Reverie
Outside in a warm November
holding a feather-light pen
indulging in reverie surrounded
by showers of satisfied leaves
I’m blessed not compelled
to act only to dream
Yet I can’t forget the air I breathe
dangerously fouled by industries
factory towers burning cancerous
cigarettes coughing up storms
from the plundered womb of the seas
I’m just one more selfish consumer
who believes my soul and earth’s
exist as One eternal
A drifting leaf hits me gently
a dead touch reminding me
hunger and creativity both need
satellite dishes and electricity
we would love to be free of the Grid
to harness and bathe in solar energy
but desires are tangled with affordability
The wind picks up
gusting like my thoughts
as a bird sings a note
constant and sweet
not meant for me
Listen: rhymingreverie
The Atmosphere of Moments
Fallen leaves of our lives’ moments
catch the haunting scent and color
of an old longing and frustration
still alive beyond the mulch
of passing years burying it all
in actual events and circumstances…
Sara kneading dough on Christmas Eve
her cheap Mardi Gras beads jingling
the same colors glowing on the tree…
Lourdes and Mario my sister and brother
on a Christmas Eve long ago
believing when I told them Ken & Barbie
moved in the bedroom to hold each other
magic shining in their eyes reminding me
how much I love their timeless beings…
Abuelo and Abuela sleeping together
as I sat at the foot of their bed
watching Masterpiece Theaters
now they’re dead and lying alone
while I’m still here part of the show…
Cookie caressing the sea turtle
fingertips forging a trail of fairy dust—
phosphorescent algae green-blue
lighting up the dark without a moon—
as it walked slowly back into the ocean
into terrifying black undertows
the familiar corridors of home…
Embraced by time
love is never fully known
Growing older it’s mysterious
mergers of thoughts and dreams
you desire as the sun rises
and sets with alarming speed
beating you with mortality
until you ache with compassion
for yourself and all creatures
until you’re forced to believe
in the tree of your life
its roots theories of darkness
become matter through light
sentences silhouetted against the sky
by day breathing this way of life
exhaling boundless promises at night
Listen: atmosphereofmoments
Sowing Selves
The cold rouses them
goose bumps on my flesh
neat as bundles of hay
harvested across open plains
Thoughts corralled in my skull
rely on incarnation’s landscape
lord of metaphors imagination
defends my heart’s towering love
Centuries pass quickly
I’m dead then lying in a crib
unwrapping fresh senses
gifts of a divine memory
Listen: sowingselves
Poem for Papi
I was so profoundly sad
I walked out to St. Francis
where I laid the pale gold rose
from Papi’s grave at his toes
I knelt there blindly weeping
and when I looked around me
I was seeing everything
with fresh eyes wonderingly
The deep silence of bird song
subtle resonances so soft
from a breeze playing the trees’
bare branches and baby leaves
My white nightgown hanging
out to dry with other clothing
wafting calm and bodiless
awe overcame my sadness
I couldn’t believe I was
home it was so gorgeous
so impossible yet true
Papi might have been there too
A patch of violets drew me
offering a mysterious comfort
with their pure glowing color
hope’s resilient frequency
I approached them even though
I knew they were only flowers
still despondent but less so
exhausted by my sorrow
Turning back toward St. Francis
my breath caught when I saw
a wooden cross
erected in the forest
The sight gave me a real shock
before my reason could scoff
it was only an illusion
an optical miracle
The beam holding up a swing
seemed to intersect a tree trunk
but only from the spot
where I ended up
It was as though I’d been led
to the violet blooms so when
I turned back I would see this
living cross’ striking vision
I obeyed the lure of hope
the color of wild flowers invoked
as a divine frequency inside me
and somehow the forest spoke
I feel now as though a force
something someone my soul
took my hand and led me forward
then lovingly turned me back
to the cross of childhood classes
the faith of my dying father’s hopes
so I could truly sense
he wasn’t gone forever
Listen: poemforpapi
Love’s Secret Forest
Little green eraser size frogs
glued to our windows at night
dining on papery moths
inspired then consumed by light
Rectangular spiders with faces
like cell-phones I can’t dial
but that clearly communicate
the extravagant heart of creation
Butterflies a blue midnight
wafting through the day
like visual fragrances
teasing seconds of paradise
Love-bugs perpetually mating
but themselves never facing
smears of ink on my flesh
disgusted by their commonness
Humming birds fighting each other
for undying plastic flowers
addicted to fast-food nectar
their quantum wings invisible
Trinities of fireflies
spiraled up into the night
as I rested on feathers buried
in violet Egyptian sheets
Here the seeds of dreams
fall to earth ripe and ringing
on the workshop of my lover
rich as the tomb of a pharaoh
with tools to penetrate and shape
nature around his imagination
ancient timeless powerful
A tuft of white and gold feathers
might have been an owl or a hawk
dining on a deadly table of asphalt
while cows lick salt as mosquitoes risk all
to suck the sea from within me
Sipping Chardonnay caressing
my beloved dog’s head daydreaming
I savor the luminous spirit
intoxicating as it reflects
the sunset running ardent fingers
through the dark tangles of a forest
In my imagination lifetimes are
bottled as distilled emotions
labeled with conversations
stored in cool universes
corked with tombstones
dusty with ashes
timelessly savored
Listen: lovessecretforest
Violet Martinis
The end of the visible spectrum poured into glasses
martinis brimming with vanished evenings
where talk and dreams mixed ideally
The arctic lake rimmed with ice overflows
the horizon reaches my lips
and a warm wave breaks through me
smoldering possibilities to experience
The earth is a fat green olive with a red core
floating in space pinned by gravity
the sun stirring us around and around
as we drink converse kiss and laugh
atmospheres our shining irises
our pupils the expanding universe
contracting to learn
Listen: violetmartini
Spirit of the Woods
Tiny purple wildflowers
struck me as special moments
distinguished from others
like grass trod but unnoticed
A hawk gliding silhouetted
above the highest branches
reflects thought’s transcendence
the spirit feathers of language
Squirrels are kin
to my swift mental synapses
intuitive leaps in the mystical
forest of my cerebrum
Deer glimpsed through a window
shock me like sparks of magic
and I sense even my smallest actions
either help nourish or threaten
Tiny butterflies net my attention
their flight so energetic and driven
to their wings hope itself clings
The Redbud by our mailbox
scripts a radiance
my envelope of senses
can scarcely translate
Dear heart,
Everything you feel is real.
Love,
Faith
Listen: spiritofthewoods
The Nine
The Nine
1
We’re wired for game playing
children of an empathic gene
making fantastic fictions real
2
On a stage of infinity
my reflections are me
my body is acting
3
Beauty is the opposite of ephemeral
looking into endless mirrors
not one is true and zero are wrong
4
My mind is the cosmic operator
of an evanescent switchboard
communicating with my soul
5
Still fighting the dread I’m nothing
God a splendid dream we’re having
all evidence to the contrary
6
When feelings are lost in non-sacred conceptions
remember the importance of ritual gestures
helping return us to more wonder-full realms
7
I feel as though I’m channeling tonight
communication lines increasingly refined
between this temporal self and my true I
8
The more respectful I grow
toward the feelings of others
the more I value my own
9
Ideal old age is a cocoon of memories
our heart looks forward to breaking
our being more beautiful entirely
Listen: thenine
Gazing up from beneath bare branches
past cryptic crown-shaped seeds
at a milky morning heaven
my self blurred with the tree
my thoughts rooted in wonder
beneath a skull’s pale firmament
Listen: Gazingup
Last night walking outside
onto our brick drive
a delicate invisible rain
hardening to ice
surprised me with danger
and a presence in silence
The workshop light creating
my shadow in the trunk of a poplar
breath and mist blending
I knew without thought
softly growling exultant
nothing exists outside us
Come morning shining
half moons of ice
clinging to the dark
branches of the poplar
realms of perception
dissolving in Life
Listen: lastnightwalkingoutside
Thoughts are forests
in the light of Mind
We are all creators
in the Dreaming
not mere inmates
of a concrete prison
What’s next is
another Now
Listen: thoughtsareforests
Cradled in deep snow
embraced and safe
not remotely alone
riding a winter storm
at light speed
through inner space
wind doesn’t feel the cold
stroking bare branches
dancing the potent
coming season’s performance
Heaven curves in irises
branches are nerve ends
clouds liquid whites
earth a form of consciousness
Time is forever a present
Listen: cradledindeepsnow
Wherever I am
is a new present
Whatever I become
is love’s home
Whenever change comes
I remain all-ways
Whoever contains me
I lovingly transform
Listen: whereveriam
I can see a face in almost anything.
I used to be afraid I was only childish
now I know vision is all that’s real.
I found a purple pressed glass
in an antique shop in Louisiana
and always drink my water from it.
Sitting on the porch the other day
the setting sun doing everything
in its power to capture my attention
I glanced down into my glass
and in its fluid cathedral of colors
saw ardent eyes looking into mine.
Listen: icanseeaface
The almost blinding white-gold of autumn’s setting sun
seen between undressing trees—life’s sweetest moments,
flashing spirits peeking from behind souls’ dark limbs,
why I’m so happy here where I feel an entire forest of selves
branching from that light often obscured by dull emotions
and yet on clear evenings a radiance mapping darkness
lets me look straight at it while speaking with endless
infinite flashing smiles and stretching encouraging arms
toward my vision of this glorious Host visible for special
moments when the earth turning away from the day’s work
reveals the fiery play behind the make up of incarnation.
Listen: thealmostblinding
What do I see in the deep lingering greens of fall?
The curtains and tablecloths of a chilly banquet hall
where sunshine is consumed and infinity sacrificed
so it might be creatively served on the plates of worlds.
What do I see in the ever-present browns?
The humble cloak worn by Potential
weaving light and blood into the material.
I picked the final stubbornly flushed tomatoes
thinking that growing old must be similar
juices once so abundant they saturated concepts
now I seldom blush beneath a hot regard
summer’s glory sterilized into memories
I cellar and savor against the cold
Listen: whatdoisee
Quantum Verse
We are all as trees
growing in being
our selves leaves
stars festive lights
worlds reflecting life
unending presents
wrapped in space and time
Their cores exploding with possibilities
stars seed worlds in forests of space
sprouting trees conduits of creativity
veins conducting life composing death
birthing colorfully costumed players
water drops embracing untold scenarios
Listen: weareallastrees
Prayer Poem
Skin is spirit turned inside out
sound is darkness blossoming
wearing the jewels of galaxies
what I experience is me and us
every doubt and fear a blight
on the world repressing life
my thoughts need always be
a positive creative symphony
ringing with passion for all
I am part of One and everything
Listen: prayerpoem
Power Outage
An enforced vacation
The gift of a storm
Come out of nowhere
Powerlines torn down
Thousands in the dark
Of their homes and minds
Flung back into the past
And less fortunate presents
My dog doesn’t notice
Our love is his energy
Generators drone the cost
Our selfish comforts exposed
Ancient life cooling new homes
Guilt tells me to suffer more
To sacrifice some pleasures
As if my soul is gangrenous
And I must cut off part of myself
But I feel too healthy to give up
I love the world I live in
Flawed infrastructures and all
The magical power of progress
The joy of learning and sharing
In defiance of space and gravity
I love civilization’s creativity
Not its abusive relationships
I see the earth as everything
through us, its suffering
our need to grow
Listen:Power Outage
Husband
Looking at his face
after love-making
I felt myself traveling
down through centuries
his features a landscape
expressions of experience
the soul’s cartography
Listen:Husband