the days
when i cannot bear
to look
into the endless above
i walk with my head bent
i walk with cast down eyes
but i witness rain’s betrayal
in the windows it has left
beneath my steps
and there i can see
the sky beneath my feet
forcing me to accept
the limits i want to forget

and
it was
as if
he
had
never
been

We know
That the aged complain
Like overused joints
Shredded beneath work’s weight.
That politicians argue
In ceaseless circles
Because “we tried that once before”
And the world grinds on
Buried like the dead
in the knowledge of history.

Only the young lead revolutions
Having learned nothing
Of the value of
Having learned nothing.
Only the young change the world
In meaningful ways
Through blood-soaked nights
Toward sunnier days

to be backlit
to be spotlit
is to sacrifice detail
for the sake of crowning corona
step into the minor scale
for the sake of filigreed halo

it’s ok to stand before the blaze
because
sometimes you are seen best
because
sometimes you are known most
in the eclipse

look and see
they all look up as
every eye turns toward you
every eye turns toward me

looking through the window
there is the tell-tale golden glow
of a new and fresh, a vibrant season
a time that brings
the birth of things
as i am given a sunlit and new reason
stepping out with heart-felt seeds to sow
and sitting back to watch our lives grow

all in the brilliance of this warming morning glow
all with the hope of this startling morning glow
shivering in the revelation

sometimes
the best critique
is the absence
of your voice
in the midst
of the storm

sometimes
silence against the wind
says there is nothing
in the other
that matters enough
to notice

and their words fall away;
sandcastles in the rain
washed into the lonely sea
as if they never were
as if they never will be

(to be read while Taylor Swift’s “Mean” plays in the background)

The title of my next collection of poetry will be –

Songs in Blue Minor

Stay tuned.

radiant dreams
of you, lying in the garden
laughing naked with the cats
but singing songs in Blue Minor

delicate mist
fading slowly with the rising sun
smiling as if joy was made within
but singing songs in Blue Minor

a melody
as of the echo of hidden birds
cheering the ghosts of Auschwitz
with strains in Blue Minor

such yearning
like Earnshaw at the eaves
frosting windowpanes with lost love
crying songs in beautiful Blue Minor

you are a natural harmony,
you are the underpinning melody,
the light that casts my Major,
a heart that beats in Blue Minor.

Othello creeps up on me at night
A black moon scraping across my mind
While Lear lingers through the day
Half asleep, but I hear his rough breath
Ragged in the dry and quieter places;
Sick whispers hot in my empty ear
As voices haunt my far and my near

But I hear Portia
Stepping lively in the wings
Bringing mercy unrestrained
Carrying the sun on her shoulders
To cast these old demon shadows aside
As patron Puck laughs and laughs
And kicks them groaning to the pit
Where they forever fall away
Leaving blue sky where once was grey

come and let us welcome
this great and ponderous life
that we might be pressed
like books between heavy heaven
and immoveable earth
leaving us gasping for breath
with fresh, crisp pages
where every old imperfection
has been ironed away
as if never having been –
look! we are newer now
than we ever were before.