If Sartre was right

and

“Hell Is—Other People”

then

Isolation holds the key

that

opens perception’s door

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

I lost my shadow

in the hills of pain

and wandered in darkness

chasing in vain

 

I lost my shadow

 the sun took flight

morning left waiting

adrift in the night

 

I lost my shadow

wolves distant howl

tracking my torment

whose grief I prowl

 

I lost my shadow

and then my name

connection severed

—myself to blame

 

(The New Room: September, 2022)

Fleeing into solitude

his excuses were lost

eyes pointing inward

embracing the cost

 

Intrepidly deeper

the cave to unmask

as demons and angels

are slayed in his path

 

Alone and rebirthing

both fury and rage

a hero emerges

rejecting the sage

 

Released from self-loathing

all ego begone

polarity crumbling

the right and the wrong

 

From out of the lake

of reflection to rise

a thunder triumphant

o’er truth and its lies

 

To wander eternal

in godlike refrain

old dogma retendered

—his spirit reclaimed

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

 

I should only believe in a God

that would know how to dance

and a devil slain by laughter

—beyond gravity’s wrath

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

I loved it

in spite of myself

chasing the spirit ghost

across distant horizons

offering as payment

the lost finger of fate

sealing a promise

only a child could make

beginning again

what each ending has taught me

living within the moment’s destruction

—hiding what the leviathan demands

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

What is it you know

what does anyone know…

The sand through your fingers

the wind through the years

Last season unturned

the snows of our summer

The answers autumnal

—the valley below

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

Violence though not always evil

—the love of violence is

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

The past and the future

fold into the present

Conceptually vacant

twice empty refrains

No before and no after

perpetually frozen

The ice of indenture

—this moment contains

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

 

Thou asks how far the wind blows

in fact I cannot tell

Or then how high the heavens

my prayers deep in the well

 

Thou asks if love comes truly

to one in greatest need

My answer spoken duly

of romance undecreed

 

Thou asks if truth be spoken

or written timeless down

My speech in patterns broken

unlettered and unfound

 

Thou asks if time be measured

beyond the last refrain

This moment hides the answer

—of that I can proclaim

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)

The end layers over the beginning

in contours of time

Blanketing the middle

in consorts of connection

Rescuing the lost from themselves

—saving the foundling’s parade

 

(Dreamsleep: September, 2022)