Portrait

We don’t take pictures of each other anymore.

Where did the dimensions go?

Am I someone you don’t want to know?

We shutter to the next frame

in this self-promotion game.

Narcissus and Echo lure my friends

to short distances

mistaken for great heights and necessary ends,

and as the surface wavers,

the clock impatiently ticks.

We deserve to expect more:

An unknown knock at the door.

A surprise of unspeakable grace

that can only be read on an other’s face. 

cautionary turn

Deep in the maddening crowd,
the lads kick a hooligan pass,
but you've started missing.
Not just the ball,
but the sound,
the throng,
the hum of vibration,
the energies of attenuated distance.
The overtones that require stillness,
near-silence,
the frequencies beyond grasping.
For, there,
you will find her,
them,
it,
all awaiting the grandeur
of your finally perfectly unique entrance.

Diplomacies of Black and White (poem)

When every touch mesmerizes,

(surfaces forever gleaming

in the rays of one's projections)

do not take the dark samsara

emanating from life's tragedies

for the alluring cloak of night's mystery.

For, although one is given

and the other chosen,

(which is which being your jurisdiction)

that would build pleasure

upon another's pain.

Refrain from judging rage

against the dying of the light

too harshly,

with its gauche angling

like awkward adolescent limbs.

Rejoicing in one's moments

(those homespun webs of significance)

delights all

if you can cease to

insinuate

victory.

The Undermine

(written 1/29/08)

Winds of change are blowing,

kicking up leaves,

stirring this nest of tragedy,

sight overseen.

Kicking up logic,

forethought mistrusted,

consistency shallowed

and heartstrings busted.

Leaving me a desert,

the kindest desolation,

the chattering lies

of chosen isolation.

Wait for spring, child.

Rains come with patience.

Worth the wait beside the mesas

where it's been long believed

that dust harbors tricksters,

their havoc to be silenced

in the still calm coolness

of inner shade.