Years of my Life

As the years of my life
Roll out like so much spent string
I wish I could have it all again
Each love filled night
Each tear streaked day
It cannot be, it cannot be
What’s it all for, I wonder
if not for suffering’s sake –
I used to speak of freedom
And still I dare to dream of it
But tonight all roads lead to nowhere
To this sad dwindling
As my happiest years shrink like the sun
Far above the sinking swimmer
Let these words be my testament
Let this poetry be my witness
I tried to make life Art
Let Art be the wave that will bear me high again
Into the bright foam of new adventure
What other way could it be than this?

No I

There is no ‘I’ that thinks a thought,

Only a thought that thinks ‘I am’

Meaning, Duty & Suffering

Without Meaning there is only
Duty
Which is Suffering
And abandonment of Duty
Which is also Suffering
In short
Men and women must fill their lives
With every two-bit Cause
Straining sinews to believe
It will end in time
Only the most broken, the most honest
In the clarity of their despair
See that every truth
Is self deception
Every meaning
Deferred emancipation
And justification for the cycle of pain
All hope of future’s gain
A petty tyranny
A broken promise
Repeated endlessly

Pretend you are Forever

A warm wind blows
Dark autumn night
Not yet, she whispers
But soon I shall teach you
Of cold
With leaves that fall
Like widower’s years
And rot shall take you
Worms push through
Even the eyes of emperors
Who thought to rule the world
Let time turn, turn the earth
And in soil once more rebirth
The dreams of men
To rise anew
Have their moment of sun
And return to earth
But for now enjoy
The warm night’s wind
And pretend you are forever

Mayflies

We shouldn’t resent the mayflies
But we do,
So full of life for a season
Long legs and breasts a-bursting
In a few years career and kids will take their toll
But tonight they’re timeless
And we yearn to be with them
Those doors are closed now
Yet do I pick at the lock
So I might be young, again.

Do I dwell

My stories curl around these trees
These house fronts
Ghosts that haunt and twist the bright daylight of this old town
Into shadows and memory
And there, not here
Do I dwell

Hope/Fail

If we fail
If we dwindle and die
It was a beautiful dream we lived
To give all we had
And what is failure really
If it can paint such a story of hope?

Shared Universe

What purpose of life can their be
But to creatively –
And by that I mean honesty
Express that one mean corner of existence
That is uniquely you?

For we are forever worlds apart
You and I
Except when in words
We create a shared universe
To pour all the joys and hurts
Of our common existence
Then we are One

Prefer the Darkness

Wind whips wind ships
Me to places new
Sometimes I think
I prefer the darkness
The treasures lost in snow
I might never find

Snow

I feel a peace and stillness
In my soul
In the sight and silence
Of the snow