Sunday, June 27, 2010

Memory

From a jumbled thought, inscribed in pen.

Not too long ago (or at least as much as my mind can put the pieces of the weeks back together) I could see the side of the mountain ridge from my windowsill. Out past the wood and glass framed box, trees strung themselves in my vision as the mountainside crept into the forefront of my vision. From what I can remember, it was about late May. I could feel the haze of summer growing on the little hairs on my knuckles, while my fingernails gathered dirt from days spent under sunbaked skies. Youth collected itself and set out onto a journey of its own. Careful to live by some principles which I sill hold close (closer maybe); I followed. Springtime, though beginning to paint daylight green, left the branches bare enough so I could manage to see the thick belly and stout neck of the earthen giant sleeping outside the town. July is coming close, everything is still flowing! Without trace but with doubt the branches have filled in the gaps where the mountain could be seen. A wall of exploding verts trembles against my vision and instills vigor in my blood. Passion boils and yells like a tea kettle inside the season. Long walks, pond gazes, and the conversations that sleep beneath the folds in my brain come to mind as I crane my neck to try and get a glimpse of the mountain. All I can see are the low hanging electric lines, the usual cast of oaks, pines, and maples, and a few songbirds that dance to their own music. June is almost over, no matter that the mountain cannot be seen. Let the green make me weightless so I can float amidst the midsummer night.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Birthday Wish

Sweet golden field of my youth
(the only life I have known)!
Today the flowers are brimming with
insects' grace and travelers' leather feet;
both are walking into the day without a thought to drop.
Never have I chained myself to time but occasional that devil
has liked to lock me in a cell.
But a year has passed to see
another regeneration rising from
the cool waters beneath the spring leaves of passion.
I am thirsty, a bit undernourished,
and often times I turn my back on joy.
To be young is to be walking in a thicket of thorns
while searching for a single rose.
To realize la jeunesse is to run
into the forest with open arms as if
to embrace a lover.
Meditation draws on me this morning.
Fresh air of a new dawn
crawls out from the bedside clock.
The calendar blushes with the date;
it is unfortunate how it must tell my age.
On a night raft as the moon will rise,
my smile will rival that big glowing rock.
And for at least one "day",
a thousand hands will grab my arms
to run through the warmest fields I can find.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Humid Dive

Arms, fingers and eyes!
To you I call to awake
from your earthbound sties
to give solace to this life which the thunder did shake.
Storms hold us together flesh tied friends,
this rain treads lightly on our window sill
as each drop meets its own grounded ends,
yet the wind still beats on my head as all words begin to spill.

Dark and humid is the taste of Eris' thrill.
"Why" these eyes ask "must you look to your feet?"
To this I turn my head up and see how the clouds always do move,
all outstretched like the river past many imprisoned street;
the trio too much for these feet to behoove.
Wonder passes through periodic walls,
a dawn for every dusk does prevail
like the sparrows rainy calls
which from all twitters do stories entail.

Young and silhouette eyed though one day frail.
This mirror knows only of portraits in its sight,
but the horizon always is between these tethered hands,
while the looking glass rests in human despair or delight,
in its sight I nonetheless drink in joy knowing this body makes no demands.
The sun peers out now over heat kissed shoulders,
in its pensive light I do not stop to cry
for all the moments that in its light will smoulder;
nor need I dare to ask why.

Reflection melds into the star hewn night and ferns will soon curl out to dry.
Friends of this torso and damned conscience,
they now run out of my front door,
out of the garden's fence
and need they not another reason or moment more.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Into Endless Reach

Days I have sought before;
where dirt would pour between young fingers
to take delight in what will come to ruin.

Now no longer do I seek
rather gain, gather, and always look
beyond what the dirty words of 'good' 'bad', 'strong' 'weak'.

A Sunday sun once called my name as
its heavy hand carved Aztec faces into rock walls in front of my face.
I sat to watch and when fixing my gaze at once my mind fled;
left only with the world before me.

The mountainside where all I knew rested
was breathing heavily and its mane
showed signs of the Robbins-egg sky.
Past the branches which have bent before wind and snow,
hazy light flickered between valleys where no body
could be made seen by towering beauty.

Too much to see for a young mind just yet,
I then turned to the ground.
Yet again was the mountain too much with me.
Ferns and rocks all cried of their tales and
danced in their natural sublime delights.
What had taken place amongst the dirt
showed me as many of my own wondrous tears
as the view over one hundred forests.

After many hours spent with my feet against rocks,
it was time to descend the mountain
(the sun blushed with purple and took the clouds with it).
Emerging from the earthen towers I took a look over my shoulder
to see what I was to leave behind.

No more days will I spend eyes closed.
No to only touching the ground.
Only listening to the birds will leave one wanting.
Only speaking will never leave one satisfied.
So with the mountain in mind,
I will walk with my self open and flowing like a river.

Into the woods of joy, hermitage of present experience I go,
holding the hand of all that is my world and the one
I have yet to know.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Drinking from the Blue Sky (Written on a Walk, Among Friends)

Words all but too soon depart onto
the sea of misconception from the
harbor of bright vision.
Only as much as masts can be raised
does the tongue turn towards lands unknown to latitude.
The wind blows freely today
(fortunate for those looking
to move across the water).
Smiling spring air carries youth with
its world of spiraling truths and rejection,
the sun perches itself on its daydream throne
staring at us as all else breathe the orb in.
As all ships pass through such kingdoms,
as zephyrs sealed a flowing present;
the day held me within its arms and said
“Look, look at the sights before you!
It will always be 'too late' if you only where
to choose to indifferently wait;
those who balance on their heads too long will oft declare
'Too late! Too late'”
I listened close to the sun's rise and fall,
in its blushing orange light I found the voices of those whose words
take their visages' shape.
Moments past became shards of looking glass
as my body became smaller as night grew on its thorn laden vine.
For a moment,
my reflection was cool and clear in the waters of the sky.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Farewell Clouds

Desire in the blue sky
covers whole the tracks of the day.
Raining down comes the sun
reminding me that the world is
only the shape of how it is seen.
Stone carved hills come to mind
when notes of poems and the river
are breathed into a tree-shrouded head.
At both ends of the day burn a present
that at once embodies all the dreams of
a future and past once thought to be no more
than time.
The river below beloved friends' faces
flows at once beginning to end,
like the life amidst the spring air and smiles.
Birds and falling water fill the air,
singing softly the notes of forgotten beauty.
When the footprints of the day no longer linger
the wind will still blow sweetly through new leaves.
Yet, as long as a life remains in the hands of nature
time is but a river;
beyond the burdening walls of time.
At once it begins and ends,
with new life flowing at all times;
remaining all the same to the eye that never looked deep enough
and to the mind that never held the truth close.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

By the River

Desire in the blue sky
covers whole the tracks of the day.
Raining down comes the sun
reminding me that the world is
only the shape of how it is seen.
Stone carved hills come to mind
when notes of poems and the river
are breathed into a tree-shrouded head.
At both ends of the day burn a present
that at once embodies all the dreams of
a future and past once thought to be no more
than unbending rocks.
The river below beloved friends' faces
flows at once beginning to end,
like the life amidst the spring air and smiles.
Birds and falling water fill the air,
singing softly the notes of forgotten beauty.
When the footprints of the day no longer linger
the wind will still blow sweetly through new leaves.
Yet, as long as a life remains in the hands of nature
time is but a river.
They dance beyond the burdening walls of time.
At once all days begin and end
with new life flowing at all times;
appearing the the same to the eyes that never looked deep enough.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Splendor of Hills

Past the highway
over the gravel
into the blue.
To the splendors of pensive youth
the fruits of spring have left lain.

Idol love stands still in growing trees
as some soft faced girl stares forward in her car.
She drives nowhere you would like to visit anyways.
For you, onto the green hills
that hold steady with flooded grasses at their feet.

You set down your bike to watch
all the clouds go by over the hills.
The grass feasts upon your eyes,
clouds watch as you are drawn in
onto the point of infinite shut-eyed young dreams.

It is nearing evening but the afternoon
never seems to have peaked.
So the bike falls over while your own body
tumbles onto the grass along with it.
The sunshine feels sweet, there is no reason to move.

Forget your age,
feel it inside your bones instead.
Cars pass by with speechless faces
who all have their own anguishes and joys today.
Biding the time, you spend what sighs you have left
on the passing clouds that are fed into the sun's mouth.

Skin is turning from sallow winter to
the refreshed brown that those by your side
came down to kiss.
You have been lying on the grass for nearly two hours,
not knowing what you are waiting for.
It strikes you then,
there really is not anything to be waiting for.

So under the comfort of the freedom of angst
you throw yourself some questions that you would
never actually ask her.
Nevertheless, you think the feelings will all pass.

It is nearing seven in the evening as the sky
begins to explode with deep blue.
You are wondering if she thought about the way you walked today.

Hopping onto your bike to climb into your room again.
The ride home is hard, you are choking on a breath full of hanging words.

You cannot fool yourself, you know why.

Body and Storm

Passing heat rises from black earth
yet soon the day will die in its own visions;
as night will soon give birth
to all window-sill thinkers' sunlit inhibitions.

Laying softly to shut heavy eyes
the rain still knocks on the front door.
When waking from harmonious sleep, nature truly reveals what it implies.
Though the mind takes place all but once
the wind will still blow after all flesh has dissolved from the core.

All is changing in a constant realm,
even when the eye only can guess what it sees.
Be it not body nor soul that is tonight's pensive helm
for the clouds' wrath will illuminate how they please.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Song from Alongside the River

Beneath ambition lies a bone ridden corpse
tossing around in its cell.

On the tree of empathy there are
the parched roots below it,
reaching further into the soil for its
share of the earth.

And inside the windows of these hundred houses
are faces I may never see.
Comforting like the warm moments called “spring”;
I know that I may never see the whites of their eyes
or know the first letter of their last name.
It is not that we all have forgotten,
rather we have never known.

Tomorrow the sun will rise.
Clouds pass through and go above
the town's rooftops and low lying visages.
Luminous glows and untouchable words
will turn our heads even more the day after.

When footprints are washed away
more will wander on the same path
as it has done for the thousands of human summers.
The prospect of lost steps does not vex me.
I walk now for my own way forward,
knowing that those who walk after will
know their way back.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

The Breeze Feels Just Right

The day rose and the skin on my arms
was beginning to boil as the magnolia trees
opened themselves to the gracious morning.
Distances and words are busy
being shoved into my head,
but the burning inside my chest
is screaming with a sown mouth.
Stumbling into the sunlight,
thinking that she is right around the corner.
No,
it is only my shadow that
had caught the side of my eye.
Riverside bike rides are making nests in my bone
as midnight paces in my mind leave vacant space.
Full again with patience,
waiting for a day that will not be seem.
Merely dancing to a song that
nobody can here.
Still riding my bike
trying not to look out of the
corner of my eye.
Walking out the door on the brick patio
means more than a breath of air.
Among warm days is the laughter
that makes me open my window.
Birds fly above
flowers grow below
and the river flows beside me.
My eyes never gaze into vacant space;
there never is truly any to be seen.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Bird

Outside a rainy day window
is a bird perched on a power line.
Pinkish hue on slick feathers
while rain drops cut fall upon its beak.
Staring straight into my room,
it wonders who is inside these warm white walls.
The window gazer sings his songs about the human,
asking why he sits on a chair inside.
It turns its head left to right,
and back around to look at the orange sky.
Amidst conifers, phone calls
water and temperate breezes
it turns again to look at the same tree
I always turn to on days of worn weather and
dead thoughts.
It could fly anywhere it pleases,
come and go alone or
with another song singer.
It could stare through any window,
feast its black eyes upon all the trees it could reach.
Long neck, bright beak, flushed feathers;
it chose the view in front of me.

On the Way Down

Falling down face first into the dirt
while the wind brings the fog into an early spring heart.
Brought deep below the surface from
wishes held too high above a head,
he only wishes to hold his dreams
in between sun-kissed and sweat soaked arms.
Impounded by thought and long sought stares,
his eyes never met the light at the end of the
snow storms and blank gazes.
He forgot how to forgoe forgetting,
knowing that it is never really possible.
Falling off the cliff and
the rain was coming down slowly.
Out of the gray fog came a reaching arm,
only to pull the broken son from the rocks and
canyon cliffs of tomorrow.
She too knew,
it was all too much.
And knowing this, she knew what strength it took
to lift a heavy soul up from the depths
of the emptiest riffs in a life.
Staring into the words he gave a soft soul,
both arms and voices pulled each other up from
the past's ashes as the young man
was falling through the cracks.
“Just do not let go,
remember what you said.”
Recalling plain and well that
he still never learned to forget,
both walked away from the ruins and canyons.
The sun began to rise,
tomorrow will be coming soon.

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Worn Away Veils (Through the Water)

Waiting besides brick walls
has finally set into brimstone.
Watching her eyes fall into herself
as she smiled with the sun shining upon her,
on a cloud freckled spring day.
With laughter she revealed what is behind
the faint painted morning veil that I myself
carried with me.
Breathing in flames and bleeding green leaves
I pass her voice over my tongue to taste
the words that cannot reach my throat.
She laughs somewhere;
in her sneakers buried into the dirt
eyes submerged in what holds to herself.
If only I could see out of the decrepit old veils
and into her eyes.
This old mask in front of my face only
turns my eyes back into my head.
Time has come to lift so I can see
what she has been gazing at while I have been
staring too long into the cool waters of
warm days to come.
A mask will be too much to bear as escaping heat
will again crawl from my skin.
Hot blood is rising slowly
my pockets are being emptied
and all that is to gain are
visions clear like long awaited water.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

"What Are You Doing Tomorrow?"

I saw the picture of us all in the sunlight. It was faint, but a remainding reminder of what was once everyday life. The warmth of summer air was a gift, and as I would wake up with the sun shining on me I was always reminded of great moments to come. It is getting close to a new spring again. I wonder where all the old phone calls have gone, where all the heat stricken roads have finally led to, and to where endless nights have found themselves. I looked back down at the picture on my phone. It was hard to swallow all the nostalgia as it tried to shove itself down my throat. Sighing was no good, and all that came out instead was a mute breath. My head ended up in my hands as I thought about everyone I spent a night with, all the places seen, everything that has been left unsaid. All the smiles inside me lit up the 8 P.M. dusk. I closed the picture, and my eyes followed suit. My window was open, and my room was warm as sweet notes were reaching into my ears. Beautiful days were in the back of my mind. For a moment, I was timeless.