Forgive, Move On

I was so angry with you that

My eyes were crowded with

Unsheathed daggers so sharp

And glistening with ruddy red beads

Of blood that they sullied the sun

And dispirited demons in their duty. 

This momentary flash of ire and ilk

Left a permanent scar on my memory, 

A constant reminder that

Trust can be fleeting

And friendship, sweet friendship

Is often unkind.

 

But anger is often a fugitive phantom,

A prison of darkness where

No one should dwell.

This fickle mistress

Enslaves my bliss

With a serpent’s hiss

From the dungeons of Hell.

I shall not reside

Without pity or pride, 

Though redemption itself is foregone.

When truth finds it’s way

There is naught left to say

But to simply forgive

And move on. 

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Family

Will you be my brother/sister in

The family of man?

Does the role of father/mother

Enter your specific plan?

Cousins may abound aplenty.

Are we all not cousins though?

Twice or twenty times removed

We witness as our families grow.

Fortune’s fate may boldly bless

Our bounty of inheritance

Through chromosomes and DNA or

Simple waves of happenstance that

Tickle as they trickle with

Their fickle fortitude

So nicely and concisely

In select ineptitude.

Whether linked by breath or blood or

Gene or genome as it may or

Simply tied by baseless borders,

Victims of proximity,

There is no escaping

That familiar cliché

That under God’s blue heavens

We are one large family.

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Just Walk Away

Trials and traumas and torturous troubles

Conspire to control without caution or cause

Til the bullies of bedlam come bashing and brawling

Clasping and crushing with crippling claws.

 

Pressuring pulse with presumptive persuasion,

Falling and feeling the fits of frustration,

Weakening walls until will is in waning

Succumbing with sighs to the sad situation.

 

Who will withstand the caustic caterwauling?

Bending and blending like willows in wind.

Who will stand strong like the ornery oak? 

Defiant and distant without foe or friend.

 

Mindsets may muddle in different directions

Seeking sweet solace to foster a friendship,

Weaving to weariness,

Swerving in solitude,

Reaching to reap any kindness or kinship.

 

Breath be a beacon; peace be a prayer.

Find without folly the will and the way.

Basking in bliss as the vision unveils,

Showing the strength to just walk away.

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Knock Softly

Nighttime falls as shades of slumber

Gently creep across the floor

And Sandman, with his magic dust, comes

Tata tap tapping on my door.

Soft his footsteps fall in silence,

Silky his mellifluous tones

To take my mind to blissful sleep

And rest my tired and weary bones.

 

Counting every measured breath to

Feel the rise and sweet release,

Softening each tiny muscle

Until the mind finds quiet peace.

Letting go of daylight’s shuffle

Sinking deep into the night,

Let the sacred nighttime spirits

Guide me safely to the light.

 

Keep the night owl from my window.

Let the band be still their horns.

Tether all the lowing cattle til

The morning is reborn.

 

All the world resides in stillness

In the bliss of nighttime’s score.

So, if the need be I should wake,

Please, knock softly on my door. 

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Joy

For some it’s as simple as

A cold nose nuzzled against a welcoming cheek,

The unabashed fealty of shameless loyalty

And total dependance upon your love.

 

For others, perhaps, more subtle and distant;

The soft brush of dander against an ankle,

Eyes that look up at you searching your soul.

The unkind awakening at 3 in the morning,

The calm healing purr offered soft in your ear.

 

There is joy in the morning,

A new day awakening,

Joy in the evening when day’s work is done.

Joy in the praise that we offer the heavens

For all of the blessings of life that abound.

 

Too often underappreciated

In a world that out spins the swift hands of the clock.

Lost or forsaken for unfettered gain

It suffers in silence, consumed by the past.

 

But joy is a motion that travels in silence

Revealing itself unexpected but welcome.

And those who can relish the treasure it offers

Will carry it forward

To better the world.

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Hope and Imagination

Hope can be a fickle warrior,

Often battered beyond recognition,

Sometimes lingering in the shadows

Waiting for the storm to quell,

Living in a whispered silence,

Waiting for a better fate,

Silent prayers,

Wistful dreams,

Pennies in a wishing well.

 

Just when hope is all but lost to

Shaken faith and circumstance

Comes a hero, unconventional,

To conjoin the frantic dance.

Thoughtful contemplations merge with

Luminous imagination

Fostering a new-found path to

Follow without hesitation.

 

And just like that

Hope is rekindled,

Confidence is born anew.

Choices found from abstract leanings

Lend a different point of view.

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Sunshine

Feel the sunshine as it nestles

Softly upon supple skin.

Taste the warmth,

Smell the freshness

Soothing, healing, whole again.

Banish every thought of darkness

Born upon the freakish night.

Let the rainclouds dissipate as

Sunshine spreads it’s blessed light.

 

Breathe the beams of precious sunlight

Deep into your inner world

As it softens every fiber

Until happiness unfurls its

Golden glow of inner beauty

Offering a precious kiss. In the wake of gentle kindness

Taste the honey

Know the bliss.

 

Though the darkness holds its’ purpose,

Restful slumber, so sublime,

Greet the glory of the dawning

As the sun begins to shine.

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When Never is Now

Certain paths are filled with dread that

You don’t want to ponder about,

And though you know they’re inevitable

You still seek an alternative route.

Never to ever endeavor to go

Down a road froth with danger and woe.

There must be a detour to

Fond destinations,

A safer direction to go.

 

But often it happens, the choices have limits

And “the never” defies common sense.

For the plethora of possibilities

Leaves the world in a whirl of suspense.

 

Faced with the never

The clever and crafty will

Find a way ‘round it somehow.

While the weak merely shrink

To the brink of kowtow

When the never is faced with the now

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Moon Music

You are awake and shining

With your full-face glowing with

That subtle smile

And watchful gaze,

Holding the tides in your calm countenance.

 

Breathing the peaceful rise and fall,

The ebb and flow that sanity seeks,

You create a music so sweet to the ear

That sentient creatures can ne’er resist.

 

Sing me to sleep with your wordless song,

Be the music to my wistful soul

As the world turns without conscious thought

Til tomorrow awakes with the robin’s chant.

 

Restful slumber beneath your watchful eyes

Is the blessing that you bring,

And I will sing to your Moon music

Til morning’s sunlight bids you go.

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The Passing of Time

Sometimes I wish I could

Make time stand still,

Especially in those precious moments

That flood my heart with joy.

Like staring deep into the eyes of

One you really love,

Or wondering at the wonder of

A child with a brand-new toy.

 

Sometimes I wish that time would move

More swiftly day by day

To bring about a promised change

Or reach a cherished goal;

Like when you say,” with time the

Pain of loss will fade away,”

Or, “If you work with diligence

You’ll find that pot of gold.”

 

Difficult to know the truth,

To reach for the sublime.

Difficult to learn the lessons

Taught by Father Time.

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A Party in My Head

Out of the stillness of

Chosen seclusion,

Out of the calm of a quiescent quiet

The silence belies all the endless effusion of

Babble and rabble that boils to a riot.

 

A blatant complacency seals off the borders

Of realms that would otherwise

Fill me with dread,

And I become sated and

Dance to the music of life’s simple party

That plays in my head.

 

Others may think me aloof, at a distance.

They cannot (or will not) in truth understand,

But I hear the laughter come reverberating

From every corner of fantasyland

Filling my thoughts, calming my fears,

A constant companion with nothing unsaid.

And happiness springs like a cat

-        Unabated -

As I keep the party alive in my head.

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No Judgement

First impressions…

          Judgements made

Based on superficial fizzle.

Like canceling the game for rain

When it was little more than drizzle.

Finding fault with fruitless facts and

Inconclusive inuendo

Breaks the seal of common sense,

Brings the score to its’ crescendo.

 

Weeds and flowers stand together

Side by side without regret

Searching equally for sunlight,

Neither in the others’ debt.

Raise the veil of mock suspicion

Meant to mask reality.

Open eyes and open minds to

Visions of diversity.

 

I will meet you without judgement,

Get to know you without pause,

Never hurt you without reason

Or desert you without cause.

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A Slave to the Past

History holds lessons that are

Vital to all understanding.

Sometimes poignant and demure,

Often tragic and demanding.

 

Duty bids us pay attention

To the subtle messages that

Cross the path of wisdom’s truth

In all its’ shapes and vestiges

To carry forth with confidence that

What was then applies to now,

That judgements may be better served

From fertile furrows erstwhile ploughed.

 

But in an ever-changing world

Where knowledge deepens as it grows

The choices seem to multiply

Or take the stage in different clothes.

 

The humble bow in quiet assent,

The meek retreat and acquiesce

But thoughtful souls of brilliance

Put the question through the acid test.

To learn the lessons of the past

Is smart and bright and brave.

Affix the facts to circumstance

And never be a slave. 

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Oceans Deep

How deep are your canyons, oh,

Mighty blue ocean?

How high are your mountains that

Ne’er reach the sky?

How swift are your currents that

Roll with a frenzy?

How still are the depths of

Your sweet lullaby?

 

From largest to smallest

Your creatures abound,

Both strange and familiar,

Both odd and mundane

With secrets and silence

Below your green mask

No mind can imagine

No man can explain.

 

I only can wonder at

Your great expanse with

Eyes on horizons too distant to see.

The depths of the ocean,

The magical myths,

The beautiful fortune of

Her mystery.

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Dobro

Oh, mystical, magical strings

Of angelic essence,

Unfeigned and heartfelt

With truth as your muse.

Wise in your element

Strong in your diction

Your bold intonation

Splintering taboos.

 

Bring me your music,

Your passion, your power.

Sing with your strings til

My heart fills with glee.

Color the canyons with

Miracle rainbows to

Light up the sky

Without apology.

 

The saddest… the happiest…

The sweetest of sounds

Fly forth from your slide

On their way to my soul.

A tear to my eye,

A smile to my lips,

A miracle moment

More precious than gold.

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Ghost Story

Somebody tell me a scary ghost story.

I need to receive an adrenaline rush.

Make it feel real and creepy and gory

Til all of my senses are turned into mush.

None of that zombie trash,

Werewolves or vampires.

I’m not afraid of things that don’t exist.

Tempt me instead with a vision of spirits

So vivid and lifelike I cannot resist.

 

I do believe that the spirit, the soul

Lives on even after the flesh has grown cold.

And when they are troubled,

The business unfinished,

They become a menace

That can’t be consoled.

 

Lost in the haunting of conscience and caring

The angry ghost lurks in the shadowy dark

Waiting to leap and devour his victim

With swiftness of leopards

And jaws of the shark.

You may have doubts, you

May have suspicions or

Other hypothesis pillar to post,

But no one denies the rush that comes freely

From the spirited tale of an ireful ghost. 

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Sing Out

Listen to the robin as

The dawn breaks in the eastern sky,

Calling out to every ear

Residing here in his domain.

Songs so gently sung the simple

Thought can spring a teary eye

As rivers fill to overflowing

Hearkening the sweet refrain.

 

And I am you, and we are they

As every note rings fresh and clear

To open hearts and lift refrains to

Corners far and corners near.

 

Voices sweet or voices coarse,

Voices loud or whispered low,

Voices calling up to Heaven,

Voices reaching deep below

Sing out with joy,

Sing out with glee

In subtle virtuosity,

Sing out to set your spirit free

In life’s magnificent jamboree.

 

Life can bring a breath of spring

If we can teach our heart to sing. So,

Sing out.

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Secrets in the Stars

Infinity isn’t so far away.

It’s living in the nighttime sky

With millions of billions of angel lanterns

Keeping their secrets for only my ears.

I listen intently as they whisper gently

Sharing the wonders as they wink their eye.

Eons of wisdom are waiting and watching me

Hoping to quell all my curious fears.

 

Slowly I open much more that my eyes

To the visions before me,

The secrets they hold.

The miracles they must have known

In their journeys!

The stories unraveling, yet to be told.

 

Fealty unfailing,

Constant in countenance

Finding your way to the breaking of day.

Breathing the awe,

Beyond imagination,

Granting me gifts I can never repay.

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Tall Trees

Looking up to find the clouds

Beyond the waving canopy.

The sparseness of the pale blue sky

Sparkles there among the leaves

With beams of brilliant sunlight

Dancing here and there, to and fro,

Reminders of a distant dream,

A memory from long ago.

 

Sheltering in blissful peace

I hear the robin sing my name.

In language foreign to my ear

But crisp and certain just the same.

He does not mock or judge me here

Among the giants where I rove.

He knows the secrets undiscovered

Here among his treasure trove.

 

And I bear happy witness to

The miracles and ecstasies

That one may only truly find

Waiting here among the trees.

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