Friday, September 05, 2014

FAITH

When at last the house is quiet
And day has relinquished its noisy riot
I wade in the deep waters of grace
Not trying to put every thought in its place
And peace, like a love song, captures my heart
And delights my soul, that most precious part.
As I ponder the lives that we live,
I find it clear that they are a gift
That march along at God’s perfect pace
And beckon homeward the whole human race.

The beauty of which I freshly see it
That life gives way but death’s been defeated.
The grave cannot hold what’s been made eternal
And destiny calls this race to relearn all
The myths of the past which tell of great things
Like magic and dragons and powerful kings.
These tales are designed to awaken our dreams

And give us the courage to believe the unseen.

Thursday, September 04, 2014

EARTH SONG

Between all the clutter
Beneath the disease
Above every mutter
You’ll find me at ease
Riding the crest of an opulent wave
Safe on His breast
From cradle to grave.
It isn’t so often,
Inform you I must
These ears of mine soften
And shake off the dust
In order to hear
The song of the earth
Which fills me with cheer
And a sense of rebirth
But when it does happen
I’m fondly reminded
That once all the rappin’
And noise has subsided
There’s more life inside
The silence and calm
Than in all the joy rides
I’ve ever been on.

FOR TROY DAVIS

Your cooperation is requested
But not vested
Stray from the fray you’ll be arrested
Molested
Tried and tested, you guessed it
Verdict guilty, evidence planted
Pardon not granted
Plea bargain just jargon
Needle primed, 
final stay rejected
Poison injected
Eyes dim, Grim Reaper appears, tears 
in his eyes, no surprise, 
The demise
Of innocent men 
not his true prize

IF EVER I SHALL REST

If ever I shall rest
Upon this blessed bed
Without such tribulation
I must admit
I’d throw a fit
Of greatest exultation

EDEN

My spirit’s congested
My body molested
By thoughts of delusion
A cosmic illusion
Water becomes wine
Like diamonds in coal mines
It’s all in my own mind
Let’s pause to rewind
To first manifesto
We come from incest, though
The last fruit forbidden
From them nothing hidden
Quite possibly sublime
Could they have stopped time
To purchase for mankind
A way out of this bind?
Assessing the damage,
Their failure to manage
Their sins by omission
Though cause for derision
It won’t stop the mission.

HOPE

Something’s broken 
just a token
Left behind 
for me to find
Which shows my weakness
At my peakness
I need help from none. 
Now I’m done
Pretending otherwise, never claim the prize
Without a broken spirit- contrite at least
The dough is spoiled by a little yeast
That being my pride and self-reliance
Tired of thinking I’m a giant
But the letting go of that great sin
Has led me to the fix I’m in
Very anxious, tired and fearful
Been undone and slightly tearful
Without my shield, my pretense
Unable to mount my normal defense. 
Naked and bare, I shiver in fear
Waiting in vain for my Hope to appear.
And somehow, in Its loving wisdom
Hope sees fit to withhold some
Of Its presence and provision
Or could it just be my tunnel vision
That cannot see, past my own pain
My Hope, there waiting, to wash my stain?

HIGH SEAS

Pages have been moistened
With the tears of my choices
Keeping life on a string
To Independence I cling
Not with strength from muscle and sinew
But rather a limb that my heart grew
Which reaches out to grab a hold
Of this ship, but like a captain, bold,
In stormy seas soon comes to learn
The more he struggles, the less she turns.

FREESTYLE

Keep it flowing
Based on what’s growing
In the upstairs garden
The beat will harden
In time I’ll learn the cure of words
Shrapnel in the air
Ripping flesh stinging bare
Skin singes 
Life hinges
On doctor’s incision
No precision
Play for keeps 
The reaper reaps
What he doesn’t sow
That’s down below
Work of the devil 
Comin through in treble 
Tones in the ears
Sound disappears
As lighting strikes 
The empire back.
Can’t steal what I wrote 
Promissory note 
Won’t cut it 
Bank’s gonna gut it
Like hogs on the spit
Can’t take another hit
Slit the wrist by the midnight lights
The view from these heights
It’s all great, applause
In sight, it’s a cause
For celebration

SON

Did you know you had no pants on
As you sat there with your hands on
The apple slices you were eating
As if it were your final greeting?
I should have told you that I know
What it is like to watch you grow
But you don’t yet have the comprehension
Pants removed, and free of tension

REPRIEVE

Pain my great teacher
Today I beseech her
To shorten the lesson
Forgive my transgression
But I’ve had my fill for a while
So much I am learning
But the fire keeps on burning
And singes my heart in great style
Let this be my plea, then:
I’d love a reprieve from
The emotional pain I’m enduring
Although I am grateful
To sit at her table
There’s too much hard shit that’s been stirring
My insides are raw;
Like a camel’s last straw
I fear that I soon may collapse
So with her permission
I’ll take that remission
Before something inside of me snaps.

DREAM

In my lover’s arms so complete
She and I dancing, spinning
Grinning.
No words. 
Charcoal bubbles of smoke 
Float by gracefully
Filled to the fullest measure
With the joyful tease of pleasure
Nothing is better than this feeling we share
Pillowing through the midnight air

Surely a love such as this can only come
In dreams and fantasies 
Untainted by reality
With its dark stains of discord and calamity
Constant reminders that this is not home
But how long to suffer in a land that’s so stale
While true love awaits on that side of the veil?

If only to slip into sweet lengthy slumber
And dream such a dream continuously
So that after a while I, unencumbered, 
Envision this, my reality.

Yet now to be ripped from the arms of my lover
And thrown to the wolves without any cover
And naked thus standing, defenses not mounted
I’ll only survive on the blessings I’ve counted
Disdaining the curse that’s gripping my senses
Without any terse or shallow pretenses.

SHADOWS

Shadows cast upon my bed 
Dancing though there be no light
Save for the slowly dying flame
That lingers after wars subside
But battles yet to fight remain
As if the peace may never come
And lovers in repose lie waiting
For the two to become one.
And if I ever see the promise
Offered on that sacred mount
My heart will leap on wingless flight
With cries of freedom ringing out
And flame, once faded, bursting forth
Devouring shadows in the night.

THE PATH

Prevailing winds have shifted
My data is un-encrypted
My heart has been uplifted.
It seems that God has sifted
The greediness from me.
The need to be moving
quickly through life, preoccupied with 
what's next on the list
Not pausing to think
I am on the brink 
Of a natural disaster
My head made of plaster
a slave to my master

But now it's all different
At least when I am hell-bent 
On keeping my feet on the ground
And on placing one foot in front of the other
Not hoping to see how much ground I can cover

No, I'd rather tarry 
in this moment, I'm very
Excited to start
Replaying my part
In the grand scheme of things

BONDAGE

The greatest sin I’ve e’er committed
Was to let myself get fitted
For a straight and slender suit
Which had, attached a bitter root
That quickly fed upon my wounds
and in good time began to swoon
Until, to date, it’s like an oak tree
Which from its root I cannot break free
For seven years I’ve paid my dues
And tried in vain to be cut loose
But the roots are thick, the axe is small
And it’s got me all twisted in a ball.

Wednesday, September 03, 2014

BEING HUMAN

Can I rest in you, complete?
Assuredly no simple feat
For restless I was born to be
With humankind my company
Ever wishing to be better
Accomplishment our fetter
To improve we’re ceaseless striving
Toward the shore without arriving

Monday, September 01, 2014

COLD COMFORT

Please forgive me
should I give thee
a piece of flesh,
fresh
meat for the pyre?
      Faith's expired
God's tired and lame
responses to shame
that haunts us, taunts us
with grace
 and broken promises-
Believable when perceivable,
cold comfort if
    confronted with
the icy cold
wind chilling, freezing rain
constant pain, off the handle
   Light the candle
of despair- I care
less
for your moral complacencies,
        recipes
for success- Let me guess:
you're white and wealthy
healthy and sober,
not hungover
from a drunken orgy?
  Don't bore me
with your judgment, or words
of wisdom.
     It's come
down to this:
let my shit stink
and your ego shrink-
       then think
before you speak
walk a while in my sneaks
sneak peaks, freak shows,
            blows
your mind
with dark thoughts and distress.
  I guess
you should quit talking
and keep walking

                     home.


FADING

Some things never change.
     Rearrange
the furniture
The walls remain
 still stain
my conscience, but since
There's no escaping,
the only sane thing
is to keep refraining
from abstaining
and containing
my pleasures;
conscience no measure-
gave her the slip
couldn't equip me
with tools for survival.
     Unrivaled
in my pursuit
of the rainbow's loot-
Pain's slow to recede
when you've made veins bleed
in all directions
surgeon's election
is to cauterize the wounds,
not soon enough,
tough to repair
a man who's not there
fading quickly to black
heart attack
my deliverance
ever since
I fell under this spell
living hell, hot water
not cooling, no fooling
the Maker
taker of all who bend their knee, free
grace bitter pill to swallow,
hollow leg can't get full
heavy guilt will annul
the forgiveness he offers,
much softer
than the anvil
that will
kill the hope.
  Tie a rope
round my neck
wreck what's left.
  Fallen prey to the lion,
speck of dust blown away
                       off to Zion

Friday, July 25, 2014

DESPAIR

Dreams deferred-
  Not reassured
By the assurance of fate
  Hesitate
    when sirens blare
signaling despair
bullets found their mark, dark-
ness never felt so good
wish i could
   fly away
      stay
at the place i've seen, clean
conscience, all this nonsense
   swept away
by wandering winds
holding hopeful glimpses
of what could be
 
    but reality
like a heavy stone
so soon returns
       burns
the branch of enmity.

did it ever leave?

 reprieve
from nightly horrors-
when sun appears between the clouds
    momentarily
then, lost in shadow,
too soon departs, smell of despair
 still in the air
    the yoke i bear
so willingly.


cruel hoax,
joke's
on me,
how i dreamt so foolishly.

Is this my fate,
this tragedy-
   devil hides, waits
behind a mask of piety?

son of man stands,
his hands
     still torn for me.

Thursday, March 07, 2013

THE AWAKENING


Nothing’s as it seems.
It seems
my perceptions
Cannot fathom the direction
In which I am truly going

Instead they keep me slowing
To languish over milkish spills
And swallow oblong pinkish pills
Which keep the horrish voices still
But cannot give my life the thrill

That it was made for
Before the Great War
Delivered the death blow
But victory comes slow
When you’re king of eternity
Eyes open when it’s time to see

Can’t rush the awakening
Some boots will be quakening
But others will be kneeling
Or dancing on the ceiling
Bodies reeling
From the blows of love
Sent from above

Like a mighty thunder
You best get under
The sacred umbrella
And like Cinderella
Let the magic transform you
The clothes that are worn through
And torn by the wicked witch

Receive much more than a stitch
When the black night falls from the sky.
Now learn the mystery
Passed down through history:
To live we all must die.

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

MY AMERICA

Time to clear the air, take some spare
Time to evaluate the ways we hesitate
And let opportunities pass
To follow the mass
Of people instead of trusting
Our instincts and busting
Out of the mold, risking the cold
Shoulders of others, our sisters and brothers
Who prefer to swallow
The party line and follow
The herd to the slaughter
Political fodder
For the power-elite
Oops, press delete
Rather be spared the treat
of a boarding of water
my resolve likely totter
and my faith in the system
flushed down the cistern, this term
will outlast my will as an outcast,
drinking an empty glass
that’s full of some more crass
statements that alienate
the people of this great

           nation.

NORTHBOUND REDLINE

Squeezing, cramped,
Lowered gazes
Nothing phases
Me anymore
Life’s a chore
And infinity jests
As it flexes
Its mighty arm
Like a charm
My gaze is steadied
And my heart readied
To battle demons
Red, blue and green ones
Seen some in purple too
I.O.U.
An explanation
Morse code destination
Now parked at the station
Meanwhile the nation
Watches from satellite
As from the train I alight.

WORDS

Stain the pages with talk of the ages
Religious convictions that keep causing frictions.
Verbal abuse, you’ve been so profuse
I’ve suffered an overdose of diction.
Ironically speaking, it is quite intriguing
How words speak of shutting up words.
Like fire on fire, it often inspires
a raging inferno at first.
Then, once subsided, each world has collided
and finally runs out of thirst.

JOURNEY

Time to cut loose
Still have that noose
Around my neck
Life is a wreck
Since I’m constrained here
Through some pained tears
Want to fly but
Stuck with dry gut
No juices flowing
Winds, they’re not blowing
My direction
Insurrection
From within,
But through the din
A light is shining
Dimly my King
Comes to view
After a few
Minutes of waiting
Heart’s hesitating
What’s the matter, son?
Can’t help come undone?
That’s my problem
Poets, I rob them
Tryin’ to get high
But only you can fly
You said you’d teach me
it’s so hard to reach me
So we’ll take a rain check
I’ll be at the train deck-
You could say the station-
Waiting for my destination

RESTORATION

Relinquish this life would I readily
For the promise of love that grows steadily
In place of the state of the world as we know it
Where decay robs all things, including this poet
For never to age nor perish we long
As if for the chords of a faraway song
That once we had sung but long since forgotten
Now dismayed and disdained,
blood-stained and rotten
We labor along, hastening that day
When, in a flash, the chorus will play
And there, be restored to the glory once held
Behind fateful journeys that promises spelled

To return to our places of glorious splendor
Seated on thrones with touches so tender
That hearts will be melted in pools of communion
Not Midas, but better, more precious than bullion