How brief

"how brief how brief!"
the old man cried
"all die
all by the Styxian way
will cross"
(his eyes a mirrored madness)
with sadness did I touch
his hand
"sir do not rush your time,
stay and tell me of
your life"
"is yours not enough?" he laughed
but still I tried again
"please tell me of your
younger days"
then with a piercing gaze
he looked me in the eye
"will you add sorrow to despair?
but sit down in that chair and
hear of broken hearts,
parted ways, and
the love of Arabelle."
then I sitting heard his tale
which someday
I may share
but beware:
you may find yourself
in the story I heard there

the real life

don't let the "real" life
bring you down
for when you turn around
you'll find there's
other views
the child within you dies
when from your heart
the magic flies
for there it used to burn
like glowing steel
but no! "grow up
none of that is real"
(and so they fool us into
thinking we're not allowed
to feel)
how long since
you felt the
heart-expanding wonder?
lightning and the storm
a dragon on the thunder?
the real is a perspective
respective of times and
peoples, places, wrapped up
in imaginary graces
as true as you
and me
grasped first in what the
aching heart sees

Stay here with me

Stay here with me
These lips drip with
Giving truth
Up on the leaning roof
Beneath the autumn stars
How far you drove here
In your car
To recline against me
When I breathe your
Name into the sky
Please don't pass us by
Oh perfect moment
Oh star resting on her
Graceful finger
Be my witness
Burning for a billion years

we sing new stories

we sing new stories
(far from holy books)
by mountain peaks or
shining brooks
we breathe ourselves
between the pages
gone the cages of
un-holy systems
no more the victims of
another's vision
we have inner sight
brightly glowing with
an earthly light

we sing new heroes 

from all peoples for

all people 

by Earth and love the 

heavens shining in

our eyes 

our cries the 

howling winds 

our tears the oceans 

feel the motion of 

our bodies the 

living spin of stars 

so far from old 

beginnings 

within and with each other 

singing 

new stories

Among the Multitude

Among the men and women the multitude,
I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,
Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband, brother,
child, any nearer than I am,
Some are baffled, but that one is not—that one knows me.

Ah lover and perfect equal,
I meant that you should discover me so by faint indirections,
And I when I meet you mean to discover you by the like in you.

-Whitman

when did you cease

when did you cease
the passage through
this shadowland and
to our forest home?
hand in hand upon the
fen and moor
no more the fiery hearth
to warm our night-graced
flesh, still cool from
starry air
with care our loving words
beneath the heaven's stair
fingers through your
gleaming hair
til words failed the
lover's lips
you said you burned
for me
and I believed the
shape your mouth made
afraid to miss
a single part
when did the
ceasing start?

The Way

they sing

they sing
celestial harmonies
but i see a single light
a single sight
so far away
it barely touches my
wondering gaze
away with
cacophonic chorus
the steady eye of
Horus watches its
priestly servants
within the
silent hall
now raising songs
beneath the dimmer
light
a sacred sight
still forms the
blessed call

up here

I sign your name

cast upon these mountains
your glowing face
laced by summit's snow
sunlit graced by
timber growth and
hot spring flow
upon the middle slopes
cast there also longing
hope to join the
ancient peaks
(I am the one who seeks
a higher shining pinnacle
beyond earth's
vaulted ceiling)
kneeling by a craggy pine
I sign your name upon a
wind-smoothed rock

On poetry

“For we are not pans and barrows, nor even porters of the fire and torch bearers, but children of the fire, made of it.” – Emerson

Rise and shine in Calgary

if I had the words

if I had the words
perfect-breathed and
light upon these
martyred lips
would you ride the
southern winds
time-tossed before the
tumbledown days of
youth and broken
memory?
where shrouded
waiting haunts my
burning marrow
gale-blown before your
shimmering face
infusing Beauty with
beauty's avatar
how long and
how far before 
night takes these words
from me?

where forest

where forest meets sand
an ocean crashes in our hands
along the coast of never-been
a white-capped dream
keeps me company
how could love be
such a multiple singularity
this sunny vision
uninformed by reality?
free to gaze and smile on
endless miles of golden sand
hand in hand or running
through the foaming wave
will i be brave to
keep this in my heart?
will i falter with the news
tomorrow brings?
i will sing an
impossible song
kept strong by
stone and paper
the wind between these fingers
a love that lingers in
this aching heart
everyday a new start with
an ancient love