Realization

Hot steam shoots forth from the fissures of my brain:
The realization of my inevitable and complete annihilation.
Go! Live! Now!
But it's just hot air.
I stay in bed, and wait for sleep.

Forgiveness

A bitter heart will again be filled with love,
Which is distilled from truth
In the brain.
All that you see, from the luminous sky
To her face from a distance
Filled with patience and with pain
Sends truth through a sieve,
Filtering out the past,
Bringing love to the heart,
Till the cup runneth over,
And you can forgive once again.

Tending a Broken Heart

As I've grown, I've learned to tend a broken heart.
To let it sit despite its yearning cries
For a love that no one can give,
To turn my eyes outward toward the world,
Instead of peering inward at the source
Of my pain;
To coalesce my hope with my doubt,
So that I can find meaning
In all that reality has to offer;
To leave my heart open, despite its gushing wound.
To know that my blood replenishes itself
Through the strength of my bones.

Rain

We both knew the rain was coming.
One of us even said,
"It's going to rain,"
And the other nodded.
Then, when it began, like a million
Angry fists on the porch roof above our heads,
We smiled at each other
Like two lovers headed to bed
For the first time,
Too caught up in the moment with joy
To anticipate anything.
And after all, what was there to anticipate
But more rain, the washing away of the dust,
And perhaps, when the skies cleared,
A rainbow to draw us out into the middle of the street?

The Glass

All through the night she kept filling me up with hope,
Only to drink it down in a single gulp.
Drunk now, she flirts with other glasses,
While I sit here on the table,
My many facets reflecting her pretty face.
Unsuspectingly, an unfamiliar hand
Picks me up from my base,
And carries me across the room.
She fills me to the brim with Truth,
And places me on top of a pyramid of glasses,
The crowning ornament for all (including her) to gaze at.

Ships

This started out as a poem about ships,
But then I realized I know nothing
About ships.
At first I tried doing research,
But my brain was exhausted by
Just the sight of the unfamiliar terms.
So, I thought, here's another
Failure I can write about.
One in a long list.
Instead of sailing away
I am paying my debts
And praying each night
That my ship will come in.

Emotion

We found each other in the thralls of
Emotion, two vessels crashed in an ocean of tears.
Now the tears are gone, our bodies,
Spent. We stare into each others' eyes
Like two bemused strangers.
Where to go from here?
We must go reaching for more
Emotion, to be found perhaps
In the grasping tides
Or the stars.

Romance and Love

Romance without love is a fool's paradise.
Wandering aimlessly through the hills,
One can get lost and starve to death.
Love without romance is more like
The real paradise, partly in that
It doesn't actually exist.
Just look into her eyes.
If you love her, that's enough.

Promise

If I lived a thousand Springs,
I could not find a fuller love
Than this I sing.
Without you, it aches to breathe,
It always seems as if I've lost my way,
And then again I find you
Like a new dawn after a sleepless night.
These lonely hours last too long,
Doubt gags my love-born song.
Where are you? Where have you gone?
I gaze far down the road,
Wait at every door.
Such waiting is not good for the soul!
The pain is great, but I somehow know
You will reappear, smiling,
That age-old promise still holding strong
In your eyes.

Dust

If you go through my trash today,
Most of what you'll find is valueless junk:
Empty bags of potato chips,
Used and discarded q-tips,
And wadded up pieces of gum.
But if you look deeper you will find
Three crumpled up pieces of paper
Torn from a journal--
Three poems, all entitled "For Lucy."
Once these poems had for me the value
Of a treasure trove,
For they stored all of the possibility
Of our love.
But now I see, the love was nothing
But a dream,
The treasure trove just an empty room.
Oh, that love could be naught more
Than a shout from the bottom of a well!
Silenced, and never to be returned.
These papers will turn to dust,
And soon, I will, too.
Be free then, dream of love!
As dust, may you find not only love,
But also, Truth!

A More Distant Star

Maple tree, is it plain to see that
You love the sun
And that the sun loves you,
And those long nights are full of jealous dreams
For the trees on the other side of the world.
And yet, I must ask, do you ever doubt
This love that in winter keeps you bare
And in spring makes you exude life
Through your pores?
Is there not, perhaps, a more distant star
That you sense reaches for you in the night?
And do you ever weep for such a star?
In the night time, in your sleep,
You do.
When the wind blows through your branches
I hear you moan.
And for that I see the star shine
Ever brighter.

For Lucy #2

Madness and love, like dual edges
Of a sword, have thrust themselves
Into my heart.
You hold the blade, and as I bleed
I behold your face, smiling, welcoming me
To a splendid death.
That I might speak these words
With my final breath!
Before this blade entered my chest
I could not reconcile the world with these eyes.
Only in yours, my love, does the world
Become my home,
And the life that I lose
Become a life worth living.

For Lucy

You before me, always, that is
How it will be.
You be my eyes that see
When darkness falls.
You be my feet that carry me
Wherever you lead.
When the sun is within my reach,
You will feel its warmth before me.
You will know the shadows cast
By wild beasts,
And shed your light upon them
Wherever I go.
You will reach the stars before me,
You alone will have the moon.
You will possess me
Before I can possess myself.
And you will shake me back
To life when I am lost
In the realm of fantasy.
Always before me,
Always your hand in mine,
Guiding me, trusting that I
Will have the courage to follow.

Denial

I denied the temptress,
Skipped out on dessert,
Resisted the urge to nap after work;
I said "no" to a friend who
Wanted to get a beer,
Turned away from my lover
When she began to whisper in my ear,
Just so I could be here now,
To tell you that you too
Should wait, keep yourself apart
From what you don't need,
If only long enough to simply breathe,
Or write a poem.