white blazes

the weary darkness of my soul

my eyes turned to light

teaming moments of trauma

like teeth dug in my side

i would run but that is all i’ve done

i would sit so long as to bring an early death

but this all a moot point at the end of the day

so i wonder in my thought as i survey

 The deliverance meets me here

wedged in the movement of this town

wheeling around in distance, the birds—parrots mostly

squawk by to the dazzling skylight

The gray bleeds orange

surf wax, whiskey and the tree tops my company

i listen again, to the arid evening turning to this night

beardom has tested my thoughts and times I hold sacred

We are older here with hast taking its toll

blood and its marrow

holding to the ground

i think with the old garden

The deliverance meets me here

in the cold sweat of the day and dusty toes of twilight

we walk shy amidst the tombs

and the deliverance meets us here. 

windy scenes of the aftermath, gripping huddle of the survivors

and hollow sounds of excavating misfortune 

here in the scattering the claims lay heavy

weighted by time and the erosive distance from event

the pieces lay bare

glimmering under the bright sky, held by the cold ground

they congeal as i look over them—hoping they hold

in the resemblance of memory, bursting in light

a scene so subtle and yet new

the wick is silently breathing in

it’s afraid to end its humble moment

when light filled the room with praise

And the calm clear orange fluttered in space

oh vexing brightness time not concerning

you bend with the wind and collect at the heights

giving what you must and what we all see

exposing the depths and the ways we might be

decorate the sounds,

and dance the rhythms that send you…

beyond these shores,

into what you don’t know no more…

i went back, to boyhood moorings to find where the tug holds rootage

i walked long to stand next to this tree blown by the fall

there is: 

no fruit to its branches

no temptation

no edenic fauter 

achy, old, desolate and wanting

while winter is coming back, slowly taking everything the years gave 

freezing tears and halting hollow hopes.

so, i’ve thrown hands to the skies hoping like this tree

that spring melts frosted fists

that future walk-a-bouts find reckoning

that the tested paradise of our youth blooms, even now

tell’m the stories

of the arid open plains and cut ridges of the knife edge

of the tops and bottoms torn between solum soul 

and the beating burning trees lost behind you

tell’m the stories

of thick airy space and the blazes that bend through wind and wilds

of the fearsom twitch—gut held to the ground by thunder

tell’m the stories 

of gone and given

risking in all forms

filled to the brim

following the firey insides of the woods

torched in beauty

screaming praises

Leaf piles crunch and my hands are cold

an ol’timey Saturday is ready to unfold

Glimpse the sun feel the air and walk about

don’t shower just roam and whistle out loud

The fall is dying fast but I’m slowing down

crawl’in  draw’in waid’in through town

Looking from tree tops out over the fields

hoping this season is going to yield

Something new or even old as I think away

this moment all of time but not this day

living the song i’ve been trying to sing, with no melody to hide from

put to the wind of reasoning heavens and the thoughtless bribes i took

up in the low-grade teeming hells, moments happening all at once

i give eye to my lonely toes trying to walk, but oh so crooked 

dancing days to the glim beat of hope tempered in the strut 

the swagger of  a full town—settled now in the fog

tuned to the times running on love like its a song 

Love coming to me rushing like cadenced tunes

shuffling thought into one direction, holding me

I walk alone pushing through the calm streets

the breeze biting my coat as I feel my feet warm to pace

Streetlights on this old route are dim, letting night be

the darkness separates and the glow washes my weary eyes

I walk along the skippy deer and they open their odd gang

the face-off brief and an utter silence ensues, holding me still

No cracking leaves only my frozen fists and numb breath

beat to the timing of it all, fullness giving whole glimpses to life

I wander now no way to go but with the hallowed space I’m given

the rushing patter slows me to a stroll, love quickens to hold me

the skies well 

yawning to begin the day

eyes full

the living drips a drop

of sorrow

achy pipes wind through the house

echo the morn

love pours its glass and i awake

driving the heart deeper in the sea

vast and open, the way my hands fold

while this brick is comfort settling me

bringing this kid to where the cobble is bold

and bitter tastes fly their flag, its torched

in the empty space between the columns

in the streets we walk desperate and scorched

with insides vaulted by the pressing slums 

leaving this green place is like leaving forever, again

seeming wake of rain drops, sky full and hidden in mist

I go ticking the tock unsettled in pain, wondering where it all ends