The Myth of Emptiness

When trade winds die, and breezes cease to blow
The sun's rays slice the vault, a brutal knife.
The vast, unending waves, so dark and low
Seem empty, deathly calm, devoid of life.

On cloudless nights, we gaze into the sky,
An infinitely dark and lonely place,
Where mankind has no home, can only try
To think and dream and fill the barren space.

A grieving heart that aches for what is past.
That loses faith, that cannot love, or dream.
Waits only for finality, a Last.
Longs hopelessly to join that Western stream.

Yet all these things, the heart, the sky, the sea.
Are full of beauty, waiting for release.

Wither Like the Grass

One thin man climbs the hill, slipping and sliding as he steps on boulders, grunting as his body hits the ground once again. With the last of his strength, he crawls to the top, and stands staring into the black depths of the water so far below him.

As he falls through the air, a sunbeam bounces off the sea below, and makes a halo around his smooth head, and his wrinkled face. He calls out, in one last fleeting, flying prayer, the soulless roar of a man who earned and fought, but never lived. The hollow cry of a creature who abstained from love.

Dictator's Legacy

A fervent man of pensive mien
Yet wanders through a world unseen
As truth and love both pass him by
And leave him lonely, dark, and lean.

For danger lurks in isolation
When a man, or more, a nation
Lives within itself and makes
A dogma from interpretation.

Beginning

The hot Durango dust
has settled, on the place where she lay.
The sky is still blue,
And the earth is still brown,
Like her eyes, and her hair and her skin.

But she is gone.
And while we search for answers,
And mourn for this ending

She soars.
Leaving the thin, transparent earth
That we call real
And finding Reality and Peace

While we wait, in the dust,
And water the future with our tears
And misunderstandings.


In memory of Daisy M. The niece of my very dear friend, who died while visiting her grandparents in Mexico.

Prairie Phoenix

A fierce dawn rises in the east,
Though the sun itself is setting.
Billowing clouds, black above
But brilliant beneath
Pour across the fields and lift
Into the limitless prairie sky.

The roaring sound of death, a furnace wind
Sweeps across the plain,
Leaving behind it nothing
But birth in the dark, scorched earth.
New life rising from the ashes,
Forced into existence by the flames.

A Long Night

With eyes tight shut
I turn on my memory.
Open the boxes
I'd closed in my mind.

Trace with my fingers
The lines of your face.
Search through reflections
And try hard to find

The feelings I had
When I first saw you standing.
Arms strong, in the meadow
With dirt at your feet.

But time lumbers on
Anasthetic, and heartless
Erasing your features
The bitter, the sweet

Are all gone, and I feel such a stifling peace
As I open my eyes and give up, find release.

Helpless Hero

If you were in danger,
I'd run to your side.
I'd hold you, and carry you,
Help you to hide.
I'd fight all your enemies;
Tell you to run.
I'd stand in your place;
Shelter you from the guns.

And Babe, if they hurt you
I'd take up your pain.
Bind all your wounds
Shelter you from the rain.
I'd give you fresh water
If you were in thirst.
I'd feed you and care for you.
Run to you first.

But what can I do, Love
When you're full of tears,
When all of your dangers
Are sadness and fears?
How can I rescue you?
What can I say?
How can a human
Take heart break away?

I'll hold you and whisper
My love, and I'll try
To give you the freedom
To hurt, and to cry.