Your arms around a memory,

your heart around the past

your hope around tomorrow’s wish

—your present to recast

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)

It’s always been different

and always the same

it’s all been anonymous

and all had a name

It’s had no beginning

and having no end

the truth lost in playing

this game of pretend

The magic in giving,

what’s been taken is lost

the price of the folly

exceeding its cost

And we search the horizon

never leaving the shore

the waves ever constant

now as then—and before

 

(The New Room: January, 2022)

You can’t fill your dry spots

out of a whisky bottle

Or chase away demons

with a dirty needle

Or change the future

pointing the finger of blame

The freedom within you

—the power to change

 

(The New Room: January, 2022)

Tonight, I became my youngest son,

my oldest son now gone

My youth reframed, new joy proclaimed,

a lost returning song

 

Tonight, I became that little boy,

whose playpen sets me free

All toys reclaimed, no further blame

—to enter joyfully

 

(The New Room: January, 2022)

The only one along this road…

riding shotgun through my mind

Tomorrow waits for someone else,

lost wanderings consigned

Forgetting what the moment augurs,

living in the past

Confirming what I’m most afraid of

—behind whoever’s last

 

(The New Room: January, 2022)

Your memory found me wordless,

too mute to carry on

Trapped between old verbs and nouns,

silence for a song

 

With love a distant haunting,

we mime a tragic vow

What once we had… the good, the bad

—this quietude abounds

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)

Hard to love

—harder to know

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)

You can burn a book,

but never burn its truth

The flames sear the meaning,

tattooed at the root

 

Dousing this sacrilege,

my felony went untried

Escaping with the Muse in tow

—a fugitive decried

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)

What’s in a photograph

in reference to time

The events as portrayed

or what they call to mind

 

Focused on tomorrow,

the picture is lame

Its history frozen

—the future unframed

 

(Dreamsleep: January, 2022)

Religion

a prison…

to fence and restrain

 

Spoken

or written…

 it tries to contain

 

What can’t

be conscripted

or coveted pure

 

The Presence

as given

—freely endures

 

(The First Book Of Prayers: January, 2022).