Thursday, June 25, 2015

The State of Your Heart

What is the state
of your heart?

Has love overtaken,
or has it forsaken
and left you afraid
of a fresh start?

Is your heart in it,
or do you prevent it
from being pierced
by Cupid's red dart?

What is the state
of your heart?

Remembering love
is not enough,
but are you ready
for emotion this sharp?

Or is your fear
now so dear
that you refuse to play
upon love's angelic harp?

Look long in the mirror
at your own graying face
before you answer or
move from this place.

Kairos passes by quickly
leaving behind remorse
and regret at missed
opportunities.

When lady love bends her
light in your direction,
should you even pause
long enough to wonder?

What is the state
of your heart?

Monday, June 22, 2015

Even If....

Even if love hurts
it is worth it

Love comes with
no guarantees
there are ups and downs
beginnings and endings
falling in love and
pulling ourselves out again

We live
we learn
we love
we burn
bridges back to
places we
no longer
care to go

We laugh
we cry
we give up
we try
and when we
are lucky
very lucky
we even manage
sometimes to
love until we die

But even if
love turns to ashes
even if our hearts
lose their gold
love is always worth it
for the ways that
it enriches our souls


Friday, June 19, 2015

Non-Binary

Until there was you
I never knew
there was another
way of being

You taught me that
my binary world
was a world of
false choices

There are more options
than zeros and ones
blacks and whites
boys and girls

You inhabit a universe
of richly appointed paradox
where male and female abide
in perfect unity within the one
and grammar rules are rendered
meaningless for explaining
the non-binary gendered

You help me remember a time
when God was non-binary
dwelling in the houses of both
the holy mother and father
and the twain were as one

In their own image created God
male and female created them
and humans lived in perfect Eden
the dyad existing as monad
in a non-binary verse
antecedent of any curse




Sunday, June 14, 2015

Velcro ®

Assisted living center,
interior early afternoon,
an old man pauses
while strapping up
his velcro ® strap shoe.

He looks at his wife
of many years
across the room,
and thinks about
their time together,
a long trail of joy, loss
success, failure, fears,
and smiles as she
buttons up her dress.

"You and I are like velcro ®"
he shouts so she can hear.

She gives him the look,
a slight shake of the head,
a shrug, and he understands
without words she is asking
what on earth he means.

"One side is roughed up fabric,"
he says while walking to her side,
the other shoe held in his hand.

"The other side is full of little
hooks, barbs and spears."

He pulls the velcro ® strap
across the top of his shoe,
making a ripping rasping sound.

"Neither side is perfect,"
he says now standing next to her.

"But it is the imperfections that
hold both sides together. It is
the imperfections that cause the
strap to hold and stick."

She looks at him and smiles.

"Our imperfections are what
made us a perfect match for all
these many years, and brought
us to this happy anniversary day."

She leans in and kisses him.

Just then a knock on the door,
their daughter come to drive
them to a celebration of their
decades long love.

The man quickly pulls on
his other shoe and tightens
the velcro ® strap,
then hand in hand they walk
through the door,
the man having
completely forgotten
both of his socks
laying on the floor.




Kissing You

Kissing you
makes me smile
and forget my worries
for a while

The sparkle in
your deep dark eyes
skips my heart
I am hypnotized

Joie de vivre
and fireworks too
all because
I am kissing you


Saturday, June 13, 2015

First Firefly

I saw the first firefly
of the season tonight
and it reminded me of
when you kids would
spend warm summer evenings
laughing loudly and running
through backyards
and lamplight streets
catching fireflies
and making lifelong friends

Holding the glow in your tiny hands
you marveled at how nature created
wondrous and mysterious little
stars that flew on invisible wings
through youthful summer nights

And I marveled at how lucky
I was to have my own little stars
sitting in my lap and laughing at
silly things said and done
and placing tiny hands inside
the hand of their father
who held on to his children
and wished on flying stars
that it would never end


Tuesday, June 09, 2015

Color In My Life

Suddenly
life is filled
with beautiful
new colors

Diversity
of people
new shades
of love

Realization
that my life
has been all
too colorless

Hopeful
that my new
box of crayons
will not break

Exotic
exciting
Aphrodite wearing
caramel skin



Sunday, June 07, 2015

First Kiss, New Lips

First kiss, new lips.
Next chance for new bliss?
Who knows?
God moves in mysterious ways.

Sublime beauty,
a beautiful mind,
so very gracious,
graceful and kind.
Power beyond me
held my hand,
and made me shiver
with just a glance.

How lucky can
one man be,
to hold and angel
and feel her heart beat?

How lucky can
one man be?


Friday, June 05, 2015

Inherited Faith and Amazing Grace

I have spent a life time learning,
a whole life time yearning
to discover the secrets of God.

Immersed in the world's religions,
studying the mystery traditions,
trying to see divinity in a rock.

The further I get from the
Christian faith I inherited,
the more clearly I hear the
words of truth spoken by
the man we call Jesus.

In Buddhist teachings,
one must learn not
to grasp too tightly,
or believe too stridently.

Belief is like a boat,
said the Buddha.
It carries you across
the river of life but
you no longer need the vessel
when you reach the other side.

I have been blessed,
of that I am certain.
How else to explain
the successes I have made?

Those successes only came
after I consciously decided
the move beyond the boundaries
of my inherited faith
and instead chose to rely
on beautiful and most
utterly amazing grace.



Intrusion

You intrude on my life
when I think I am over you
disrupting my balance
wounding me anew

I carefully constrain
the events of my days
making sure there is
no hope of our meeting

But chance intrudes
as do you
when I least expect
and I am shaken asunder
as the love I keep suppressed
like a rumbling volcano
threatens to erupt

Five decades of living
and losing love has never
gotten any easier
nor less hurtful

Still I keep pushing forward
what choice do I have
moving aside the memories
and hoping that today will be
the last day I am bothered
by a coincidental intrusion



Thursday, June 04, 2015

What Does It All Mean?

What I intend
when I compose
my poetry
is far less interesting
than what you
make it mean
when you read it

So don't ask me
what it all means
don't count on me
to have the foggiest clue

Instead ask yourself
what you think it means
and then ask what
the meaning you make
says about you


Condensation

Time condenses on the
glass house that is my life
like water droplets on
a glass of iced tea
sweating on a table
on a hot summer day

The condensation carves
tiny rivulets on my face
leaving behind furrows
and wrinkles that remind
me of past loves
past lies and
all the mistakes I
have made

Still the draught of my life is sweet
honeyed by the essence of
beautiful women I have known
and the beautiful children and
grandchildren I have grown

As time condenses
ever more quickly
and my life drips away
I find pleasure in the
emptying of my glass
and the gradual vacation
of my living vessel

I savor the remaining
drops of life as the sweetest
I have ever swallowed