The queen she rides

Her horses to a new day

The wheels they are pulled

Old and grey

Vicious onslaught

No time to stop and ask where she’s going

or why

She wouldn’t be able to say anyway

The juggler he sweats

Knives in the air

In the seconds before they fall

Catch his despair.

It is tattooed in his eyes

Like a childhood scar

It is longer than this minute,

Deeper than this hour.

the old crone

in the moon she knows

she has watched this show unfold

before

like the wise hills and the sage grass

in silence she mourns

the passing of this misspent hour

Leave residue of my obsessions

paper trail of run away impulses 

lessons unlearnt, decisions taste the same as yesterday

a broken clock that won’t move past disaster

reality seen from the wrong end of a microscope

convex, blurry and distant

radio static

layered over the words you say

hold me down so I can watch my steps

its too tempting...to float away

Irresolute moon

Aches to save

The children drowning

In waves it creates

Wild earth spins

Off kilter, hurling

Draws the ground out from beneath our feet

This morning the mood has caught me

Smell the news on dancing breeze

Winds of change

Bring seeds carried far from trees

The world was reshaped

While we spun dreams

Reconcile, Recalibrate, Realign

Reclaim our balance

And catch this next wave

*based on the line "the currents will shift" from Pearl Jam's Oceans

Irresolute moon

Aches to save

The children drowning

In waves it creates

Wild earth spins

Off kilter, hurling

Draws the ground out from beneath our feet

This morning the mood has caught me

Smell the news on dancing breeze

Winds of change

Bring seeds carried far from trees

The world was reshaped

While we spun dreams

Reconcile, Recalibrate, Realign

Reclaim our balance

And catch this next wave

*based on the line "the currents will shift" from Pearl Jam's Oceans

I write poems

because I must use metaphor to carry the word

lonely

when it is too heavy for my tongue.

If the echoes hold nothing but the sound of my own voice

I must learn to say things

filling enough

to sooth an empty stomach and a cavernous heart

on days when there is not enough food or love to go around.

My voice must be soft, and warm

comforting like a mothers hug

Pulled from her heart by scratched knees and mud stained cheeks

so I can wrap it around my heart

warm blanket

to keep the frost away

My legs can not shake

because the past is only one step behind

fingers grazing ankles,

waiting… to claim me.

And I can not run

Because the future is asleep in its bed

And will not wake till tomorrow.

All I can do

is…

endure.

I stole your metaphors

and built my understanding of my life

You saw yourself as darkness but I grew

in your light

Ten years later at the other end of the sea

I've weathered my storms

and I look back to see

Pieces of the lifeboat

that had once carried me

Farewell, brother in arms

Your voice will be the speed in my arrows

And your words the strength in my shield

Tapping of keys

Whirr of the ac

Coffee diffuses steam

Between us silence breeds

Rhythym, telling a story, hand movements express, draw me in

something to cling to.

the depth of a voice, pitch rising and falling, words, drawing closer together then further apart

the crevices in the poet’s voice are footholds I grasp at

I am grateful

for something to cling to.

Still. Kind spectacled eyes

Orange robes, words paced, tone uniform

Expiration like waves washing away from sandy shore

Focus, permeate my senses

Something to cling to

Piano notes swirling form marble pillars

holding up the sky,

beams of sunlight created by violin strings

wrap like ropes around my wrists, wrench me away

from currents pulling

into the depths of my thoughts

where sunlight does not permeate

and all is dark and still, untouched by perspective

I will be fine

As long as I have something to cling to

I chase peace

I want to follow it

to the great lake of words

I will sit by its edge

I will plunge my arms, elbows deep

in its clear waters

I will sift for words, fish them out

Hang on as they try to slip free

Words that have too much substance for my hands to hold

I will place them together

watch as meaning upon meaning unfolds

I will be caught breathless by the beauty of my own creation

I will sit back in wonder, my place among the Gods claimed

I chase peace

That lochness monster

that big foot

I know, I know it exists

I have seen glimpses of it

Reflections in lakes and footsteps in snow

Gone as soon as I turn my head for a closer look

Water rippling, reflecting mellow afternoon light

Mischievously gurgling forward,

Reclaiming the secret I seek

I chase peace because I only exist while I chase

and it is the holiest of grails