Until Tomorrow is Today

Each reality of today
Was someone’s dream of yesterday.
Perhaps unknown,
Unfelt,
Unseen,
A feathered angel lost in sleep.
Stealth shadows from another world
That slowly seep into the mind
And brighten with the daylight’s touch
Until tomorrow is today
And we can see her rosy cheeks,
Feel her warming gentle touch,
Hold the hope that she inspires
And taste the nectar
In her kiss.


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…Perhaps To Dream

Do I want?

Will I go?

Could it be?

Might I know?

In my sleep,

In my mind

Thoughts abandon

Fleeting time.

Rounding corners

To arrive in

Places where

Sweet hope survives.

Softly sliding

Into slumber

Where no fearful

Giants lumber.

Lying by her

Gentle stream

In solitude…

Perhaps to dream.

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Dreamers

Microscopic snapshots of
What might have been,
Could someday be.
Whimsy’s kite of fancy
Lightly fluttering on eagle wings,
Looking down as I look up
So desperate to keep control.
Time stands still as dreams unwind
To endless possibilities.

Let me follow where you lead.
Let me rise above the clouds
To go,
To seek beyond horizons
Past the stars and galaxies,
Passing gates and boundaries
To find Nirvana’s honey well.
Knowing that when I awake
It will be so…

It will be so.



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Watching the Freak Show

Now, I'm no raving beauty, it's true,
But there is one thing, for sure, that I know.
The freaks are alive and they live everywhere,
And they never fail to put on a show.
They travel the halls and they frequent the malls
Aimlessly roaming the streets without fear,
And I wonder and ponder as they pass me by
Is it possible they own a mirror?
If they do, do they use it? For I just can't see
How they hope to be understood.
Do they stand there before it and think to themselves,
"Damn it all! I'm looking good!"
It seems that they've really gone out of their way
To tickle the fringe of the truly absurd.
My thought is to laugh, but I hold it inside,
And just shake my head... Don't say a word.
Oh! To be different! To stand from the crowd.
To totally be so unique.
The price that you pay to have people say
As they point at you, "Look at the freak!"

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111 Applies to EVERYONE for 2011! Try It Yourself!

Baltimore

Charm City, they have named you.
It seems quite apropos
To anyone who's ever taken time
Enough to know.
Birthplace of a nation's anthem...
Home to Ruth and Poe...
Gleaming blocks of shining marble
Lined row after row.
Born of maritime profession;
Nurtured by the seas;
Gateway to the mighty Chesapeake.
Tall ships filled your gracious harbor,
Laying off their bounty,
Resplendent in their glory,
Bold and sleek.
Gobs from every point and every corner east to west
Revel in your hospitality.
While those who know you best of all,
Those who call you home,
Know full well your place in history.
More than just a crab house by the harbor,
You deserve a place of reverence in the book of time.
Only now, your head held high, the world is taking notice;
Baltimore, a city in it's prime.

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Frozen

Could I but capture this blissful moment
Frozen in time, I would.
Were you to bait my soul to surrender,
It would be well understood.

Seeking caresses of your midnight flower
Leaves me in ecstasy’s wake
Taunting my senses to new heights of freedom,
Challenging to elevate.

I was but callow, shallow, emotionless
Prior to the being of you.
Fighting off daylight, shrinking to midnight,
Living in deep shades of blue.

You are my gulf stream, killing off icebergs,
Leading me to pristine shore.
All that my frozen heart needed to thaw.
Filled…
Never wanting for more.

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Shish Kabob

Life is just a shish kabob,
Little this, little that.
Skewered, seasoned, marinated,
Grilled and eaten on the fly.

Finger food to tempt the tastes of
Every epicuric yen.
Flame-fired fuel on a stick
To please the palate and the eye.

Savoring the flavoring as
Drippings splatter on the coals.
When it’s offered up to you,
You take it without asking why.

Tiny tidbits.
Eat this… skip that.
Pass those on to someone else.
Compliment your gracious host
Before it’s time to say goodbye.

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Unexpected gift

Life can be hard and
Often fate lands a cruel blow
At the worst of times,
Driving hard toward the precipice
Of despair
With lemming mentality
Begging to end.

Praying for miracles
Real or imagined
Reaching for fragments
Of hope to hold onto.
Making a wish on
The first star of evening,
Patiently waiting for
Grace to step in.

Who would have guessed
Or even imagined
The answer of answers
Was there all along
Wrapped with a ribbon and
Ready to open.
You…
My unexpected gift…

My friend.

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You Are There

Witness... You are witness...
You are fabric...
You are there.
The truth calls out your name from
All directions... Everywhere.
Fact has found you one with nature,
Naked, unaware.
There's no crying, no denying,
Face it!
You are there.

Where did you think that you were headed?
Some far off distant isle?
Peeling grapes and coconuts
Or living a life of style in
A villa near to coastal waters
In the south of Spain?
Where no one stops to ask you favor.
No one gives you pain.
Oh, if it could only be...
But life seems seldom fair.
Where you are
Is where you are.
Face it...
You are there.

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Candles at Sunset

The last few strands of sunlight
Filter softly through the window sheers
To leave angelic patterns reaching hands
Across a darkening room to
Touch the tips of candles flame.

Seated near a windows frame
You catch a glimpse of setting sun
And wave goodbye until tomorrow.
Beckoning the favor fair of
Earth and air, flood and fire.

Keeper of all vigilance,
Symbol of all faith.
Offering a beacon to the
Lonely wayward wanderer.
Patient at the journeys end
To guide the weary home.

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Ode to Coffee

Marvelous liquid
From marvelous bean...
Heavenly flavor and taste...
Luscious aroma...
A pallet's delight...
A sin to consume it in haste.

Amenable to
An enhancement in kind;
A sweetener or
Maybe some cream.

Sipping the nectar
Of nature's creation;
Inhaling the scent
Of the slow rising steam.

Starting the day
With an eye-opening burst,
Or topping an evening's repast,
There's nothing like coffee
To satisfy
From the first drop to the last.

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Wake Up and Smell the Morning

Crisp nocturnal air comes creeping
In my head as sunrise beckons
And the night bird sings its pleasure
Welcoming the coming day.
In the kitchen, no denying,
Coffee lifts its aromatics to
The membrane of my being,
Treasure served on silver tray.
Crispy bacon, toast with jelly,
Luscious melon on the side.
Cornucopic feast of fancy,
So much more than I deserve.
Keeping with the rituals of
Staunch traditions eons old,
Nourishing our temple to
Obediently serve.
How can you lie silent when
The dawning calls your name?
Wake and smell the morning
Sweetly joining in the game.

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The News

Sometimes I believe that
The whole world's gone mad.
Sometimes I think it's just me.
I look at what's happening
All over the globe
And I just can't believe what I see.

It's not just those things
That occur far away in a land
I can't even pronounce.
More frightful by far
Is the neighborhood news;
The scandal the newsmen announce.

A child caught in cross fire;
An innocent victim;
Life ended before it begins.
Old folks cheated
And robbed of their savings
By people they thought were their friends.

The list is the same
From Maine to Montana,
From Moscow to Kalamazoo.
No wonder at all why we get so depressed
From simply watching the news.

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What Is Your Hurry?

Vexed by the tide of the swamp which surrounds us,
Hurrying, scurrying all in a flurry.
Often forgetting to look where we're going,
Blind to the obvious, too much to worry
About. Catch the train or the plane,
See the man down the lane,
Take a pill for the pain before it slows you down.
Make a date just for two,
Keeping objects in view,
Just too much to get through,
Keeps you wearing a frown.
Is it not a concern
When the mind cannot learn
To put details in limbo and push it aside?
Tell me true, what's the rush?
Why the maddening crush?
Who gave you this bronco to ride?


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Lessons

I don’t know why I listened to
That voice inside my head.
It kept telling me to take a chance on you.
It’s a lesson that I learned too late
To help avoid the pain
And winding up a broken-hearted fool.

There are lessons to be learned,
Bridges to be burned,
Keys to turn to open every door.
But something in my mind, leaving logic far behind,
Always keeps me coming back for more.

You said it was over,
You’d found somebody new,
Like you did a dozen times before.
But when it didn’t work out,
And that one ended, too,
You came running back to me and asked for more.

There are lessons to be learned,
Bridges to be burned,
Keys to turn to open every door.
But something in my mind, leaving logic far behind,
Always keeps me coming back for more.

There must be some limit to
What one poor heart can take
And somehow pick itself up off the ground.
Someday I may find it and
You shouldn’t be surprised.
You’ll look for me and I won’t be around.

There are lessons to be learned,
Bridges to be burned,
Keys to turn to open every door.
But something in my mind, leaving logic far behind,
Always keeps me coming back for more.

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Survivor

I often wondered which of us would
Ultimately outlast the other
In this snarling war of words where
Reason is a casualty.

Grappling like jungle beasts who know
The tactics of our foe
And seek to slash with razor teeth
All semblance of reality.

Can’t remember who was first,
Don’t recall the reason why,
Only know that it’s been going on
Far longer than it should.

Pass the blame from left to right
To left again, and on it goes.
Don’t know how to stop it
If we should, if we could.

No way to resolve the difference.
No hope to revive.
One moves on and one is left
Struggling to survive.



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Wingless Dragons

Oh, mythical, mystical creature,
Daughter of whimsy born on the wind.
Why have you banished yourself to seclusion?
Why have you chosen to shed your wings?
Yours was a time that begged of a challenge,
Quest for the Grail, a fight to the end.
No second-guessing or thoughts of collusion.
Giving no quarter, not even to kings.
Higher than mountaintops you soared with eagles,
Holding dominion o’er all that you see.
Taking at will to fulfill your desire,
Fearing no predator or enemy.
But fate was not kind to your wheel of fortune.
Your day was challenged, time ran its course
Leaving your storyline sadly unfinished,
Leaving your grieving heart filled with remorse.

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Reflection

Reflection brings epiphany.
I always thought there’d be more time.
It doesn’t seem to be quite fair,
The things we could have, should have shared,
The simple things that loved ones say
That help to get us through each day,
The loving care,
The being there,
The guidance when we’ve lost our way.
But time goes by and lives get filled,
And complications settle in.
Before you know it we’ve grown older,
If not wiser near the end.
The things I should have,
Would have said,
The emptiness it leaves behind.
I would have said “I love you” more,
But I thought there’d be more time.

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Bilge Water

Chattering, clattering,
Nothing much mattering,
Ceaseless profusion of audio splattering
Eardrum to eardrum
Wistfully scattering all that is new,
Newsworthy or no.
You know the one,
Jittering, twittering,
Much like the hummingbird
Jumping and flittering
Flower to flower,
Sliding and slithering
Gulping each morsel to
Make itself grow.
You stop to listen
All in your dithering.
Cannot believe so much
Aggregate blithering.
Just so much bilge water,
Nothing for keeping,
But nowhere to hide
And no cliff for leaping.

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