My God (excerpt)

And I pondered through the valley in the death dance below, and thought, Here comes the wilderness 'just over that rim'. I saw the rays rising upward and took in every breath in every step as long as I was in there, so help me God, coming closer every second. It was pink and orange and yellow and deep sea blue. How soft melancholy can be when your body is finally at ease. I'll always remember this place of being, because it was here I lost and found myself again...and again.

Love Poem

I wish you were here.
I wish you were here in front of me.
I wish you were here in front of me and I'd stare into your eyes.
I wish you were here in front of me to stare into your eyes so you could stare into mine.
I wish you were here in front of me to stare into your eyes so you could stare into mine and say,
I love you.

Grow Again Brotherly Love

And then again, a few weeks later, there I found myself on a Pennsylvania turnpike cruisin' to The Doors, the late great Jim Morrison croonin' to the shadows of my mind, to the lost simple thoughts that have seemed so hard to find. The ones in the back that never get to surface. "Find your true life's purpose", I heard, and "TRY TO SET THE NIGHT ON FIRE!"

I'd slowly been coming back to me this trip, returning from somewhere older. Everywhere I went I had run into The Doors, beckoning in their subtle and obvious ways thru city street lights. "Better black than blue", they always seem to say. There's a great musical spirit as I careen thru the gentle Pocono Hills in the last hours of a late August day. The Sun is soft and guiding and in its great blatant purpose shining across the valley down below it leaves only shadow on magnificent green trees. And that's where I'm climbing out and up a new mountain; on my way now thru the lovely curving humps of all things, knowing. "Grow again."

The Sun shined thru a thin white giant cloud with a black horizontal stripe across its face.

This Old Soul

This old soul
has got something to say:

I remember the times on back in the day.
I recall your look when the wind used to say,
"HEY! Ya ready for this shit?!"

Tree House (Verse 1)

Go away,
just to find the words to say,
Stay at home,
and you'll never be alone.

But ya gotta know,
there's one way to be free.
Stay and go,
there's one wind in the tree.

Goodnight

I am the rider in the night.
I am a moonlit canopied sight.
Can you hear me coming down the lane?
You can't see me through your pain.

You are the dust I am unsettling.
You are the scenery I am forgetting.
Can you bear to watch me go?
You are still there, where I'll never know.

I am the rider in the night.
I am your fever full of fright.
Can you deliver me onto your door?
You can't unlock it anymore.

You are the window I am peering.
You are the footsteps I'm not hearing.
Can you live within yourself so long?
You won't know me when I am gone.

You keep on building up your walls.
There's no room for me, that's all.
I'll keep on riding through and through,
On the other side with thoughts of you.
'Cause someday you'll see it through the fight,
Your galant steed is bathed in light.

Life

Life.
A pattern of work.
and love is but a cloud in the sky.

Love is the best thing around,
and Life is what we make of it.

WILD

The wild is where I go - it's where I know,
And your fragrance keeps its shape.

When the buzz of time meets the end of a line
and all species flow and rhyme.

The wild is where you'll yearn to be - someday,
when things play out and file into order.

When you're looking passed the looking glass
and your buildings start to crack.

And you smile. Because you breathe it in.

We Will Shine

There's one time I remember

when we were both in heat,

You were amongst the able

and I was lost in beat.

But we got tired and love lorn

we were true to a Winter's day,

and we were buried on the avenue's

pavement's judgement's day.

And '50's diners always remind me of how we coulda been,

apple pie and ice-cream; life on the road; a rock and roll sin.

There was one in a country mile
Out on the main drag, I never thought we'd be bookends again.

There's a lotta life between us now,

We have songs to steal.

The Sun sings blue to the sky,

a raining love revealed.

Look up and we will shine.

The World Is Turning

"....and I hope it don't turn away....". Kids search for signal around camp, handheld out and pointing skyward, heads down while I search the clouds for new weather. They flip their lids when they see one bar and I hope I don't lose my legs. I'm one of the older folks, ripened at 28, and I just added $20 to my cellphone for my voyage back to our gravel pit campsite. Even I wonder if there'll be coverage. One thing I know for sure: I ain't gotta call Her collect.

Setting Forth To A Sea of Green

The Old Poet's Waking

The old man's heart woke,

no longer in love with treble and bass,

without weeping or laughter.

In the true bewilderment of soul

he went out beyond any seeking, beyond words

and telling, drowned in the beauty,

drowned beyond deliverance.

Waves cover the old man.

Nothing more can be said of him.

He has shaken out his robe,

and there's nothing in it anymore.

There is a chase where a falcon

dives into the forest

and does not come back up.

Every moment, the sunlight

is totally empty and totally full.

A Year With Rumi: May 6