The Ladder

It is quiet
And the steps outside my house
Climb

Up           
                Up
                                Up

Into the moonlit sky
I can lie there
In sweet damp grass
And see the charcoal clouds
Moving against eternity –

black

I am searching
Where are the eyes
Of the one I cry for?

I would scream
                                                But
It makes no sense

Just get up and start to climb

One
Step
At
A
Time

Each
Step
Into
Time

I am searching
Climbing my Babel
And getting nowhere

Will you come down?
Reach into the now
Burn away this mortal coil

I DEMAND IT!

So I keep climbing
My scream is echoing into the vacuum
Moving ahead of me
Searching for my origin

Where?

To a point unseen

Why?

The ladder tells me nothing
But one thing –
That it is…
and so – I am.

 

Hammer of Blood

Cry light of Dawn
And
Race across the morning sky

Wash away the grey and black
Painting this dismal canvas
In God’s great glory

Color drip from the trees
Unfold across the fields
And fill us with hope

There is life after all
This dark death
Smashed to pieces by a
Hammer of blood

 

Walking Away

Who can say
Who will walk into the room
Turn your skin to ice
Look – and shatter it all

Then

Without a word
Turn away – departing
Not even a mist
Hinting that they even
Existed

I have loved dreams more permanent
Beauties cracked from
This split skull –
Full formed and
Bathed in my self

 

Gemini Twin

Gemini twin
Sparkle in my mirrors
And dance across my grave
Won’t you call to the dead?

Lift us from

The dull
The dust
The parched
The dried

And they say:

“You would have preferred the dark to this cruel light”

They were right – but I am alive
And I was once dead

There is that…

 

Rain

Drop of rain
Perfect circle fly to the heavens
Dance with the millions
Merge and mingle
One and many

Then
Heed the call to earth

Fall
Fall
Fall

Let gravity pull you
Stretch you

Do not fear the end
Your obliteration is life

 

Reach

There will be hands
That strain to bridge the distance
Only to fall back into themselves

Crying

In the end
Folding themselves in prayer
Touching fingers
Tip to tip

Remembering

 

Re(a)d Wine

Haiku 1 – …from the block

Bright green leaves moving
Over a golden beauty
Subtle and sublime

Asleep in the sun
Adam breathes as God weaves Light
While sweet Eve rises

Haiku 3 – Spirit

A Breath of air moves
Silently through the desert
All it touches lives

Haiku 4 – Blue into Blue

Blue looks into blue
He sees tears, smiles and himself
Eternity waits.

Father 1

Looking into the dark I see…
Emptiness.
And yet –
I know it is not void

There is a hope

A
                Yearning
                                                Love

There is Father crying out to His creation

Father 2

Father speaks
And
The world becomes

Man speaks and the world breaks.

Father 3

Father watches Man
Man comes and Man goes
Father hurts with His love
And Man still goes
And goes
And goes

There is nothing in Man
But
Father is patient…Father knows.

And then –

David.
         Killer.
                Adulterer.
                          Crier in the dark.

And Father says –

Here is a Man after my own heart
Here is a Man after Man’s own heart
Passion, passion, passion

And Father says:

He is who I will be –

Only I will perfect him
He will be perfect in me.

Crier In The Dark 1

Lambs and goats moving on the rocks
Child watches them

Lambs and Goats barely exist
Child loves them

Moving
                Living
                                Birthing

Lambs and goats pay little heed

Child guards them –
                             Fiercely

Learning in loneliness their need
Learning in loneliness his need

safety, provider, guardian

Trust.

The lost ones cry to Child in the dark
Child burns through Lion and Bear – Saviour

Child learns from lamb –

And he becomes crier in the dark
Arms stretched upward
Pulling God to Earth and demanding –

Save Me!

I Am

I am
More
Than a
Shadow

More
Than a
Phantom
Past

I am
In
Memories

You
Will hear
My voice
In laughter

You will
See my
Tears
In rain

Moonlight
Shadows
Race through
Trees
And I am
There

My lips
In the breeze
Brush over
And
Through –
Caressing

I am
Rays of dawn
Pouring
Across the room
From window
To
Bed

Look
And there
I will
Be

You
cannot
Miss me

I am
More than
An echo
Of past days

More then
Remembered

I am
I am
I am

And

I will be again.

Dad

Young man grows
And feels the emptiness

Something missing
Someone missing

There is a black shadow
Fading in the darkening hour
There is a shoulder
Without the guiding hand

A no one with power
To say –

“You do not want to be me”

Hands

So much has been made
Of
The kiss,
The caress
The intertwining of two
Into one

Me –
Nothing is more electrifying
Than the first time
Hand touches hand

Fingertips brush fingertips

Like souls leaping across the breach

Signal Returned

Words once streamed
Spiraling out of the depths
To paper

And it was said –

They were beacons in the night
Searching for life

Then – nothing.

Now the dust stirs
A signal once sent out
returns

And it was said –

That the truth was found
halo’d in gold
May it continue – everlasting

David & Bathsheba

David’s eyes dance across the rooftops
And land upon the golden beauty

David cries for the need
Falls to his knees
And he prays

“God help me”

David looks to the beauty
And lives for the moment unending

Her eyes are trust
And deep oiled olive wood
He stares forever
And he prays –

“God strengthen me”

Slayer of bear
Slayer of lion
Slayer of man

Slain by softness

Harmony in curves
Shattering faith
The crack echoes through
Heaven and Earth
And he prays –

“God stop me”

David and Bathsheba
(W)Rapt as one
King fallen into sweetness
Kisses stolen and stolen again
Shepherd’s lamb is in his heart
And he prays –

“God forgive me”

And God forgave.

Why paint your windowpanes black?
Except to draw my eyes inward
To see the brighter light

But the pitch can become…
And the well can fill with dark

Keep watch
The dead ink may bleed in
And poison your soul
Then the pools will drown
And none will be saved

No –

There is shining fire
Blaze, blaze, blaze
And the white is whiter
Against that frame of emptiness

Beautiful windows
Looking through to hidden hope
Yearning to be opened

Beauty crying – “look inside!”