Which Poem, This Poem?

I look around at all these people and surely they notice me. Surely I am not invisible. Surely too they have their thoughts and feelings and opinions of me, but I… I move unabated, unfettered, and unmolested through the streets and forests as if I’d been noticed by no one. Surrounded by people and not alone, but… I’m not sure. There always seems to be a but, whether it’s a joke or an “I love you”. I take solace in myself, in my writing. Still I yearn for more. How could I help but to want all that I have seen in my dreams? So vivid and so real yet so far away and I remain inhibited by Byzantine bureaucracy and the constraints of having not been born into a trust fund. Easier said than done, I suppose. Let’s get a drum roll going because I have for you something that I hope will make you think. A daily exercise of mind that may help keep you from taking a certain grippy sock vacation. Without further ado:


See Bird

Yes, I just ate

Something to so sate

That hunger, that desire

Something new I hope to sire

There’s a fire

Burning

Hope to never tire

The pages again, turning

Something new I’ve been learning

Where are those wild things

The ones I thought I’d find

I read the book and saw the movie

Feel as though I’ve been out-swined

To lie to a boy

Different than a lie to a man

The man will know, the man will change

The boy?

It is all he knows

And so it comes to pass

These lies are all he sows

How deafening are the calls of crows

Vociferous Cawing

Hear their gnawing

Bones creak and crack

Like so many planks of an old sea-worn carrack

Do you answer the call of the one who knows?

All those shiny pearls now burned to black.

Never Alone In The Woods

I often hike alone. I find peace there in the trees and with the animals. I like to think they find peace in my presence as well. The same peace I feel in your presence, of course. It is nice to hike with people you love, animals you love. You will always find something new on the trail. Even the same trail isn’t the same twice. You just have to look. Same goes for people. If you’re making generalizations, if you’re not really looking, not really seeing… You’ll never reach those depths of understanding that may one day lead you to Elysium, home of the heroes and the Gods. Or perhaps just to somewhere you might be happy.


Peaks and Valleys

Tending to a violet color

Regal purple, never duller

Shine so bright, as a star

Violescent, never far

How many miles can you go?

And still be here beside me, no?

My heart’s cascade, a thousand peaks

Trek through my rivers and all my creeks

Not so hard, to survive

A bountiful harvest, my heart provides

Two hearts, one locus

You have always been my focus

Sit inside this heart of mine

Think not hard, but cross the line

Take this linking as a sign

Always back, and always mine

Back To 513

An area code I never thought would mean so much to me. A place and time I never thought would carry such weight. I love this place, I love this city, and yet I cannot wait for the future. So much light comes to me, comes to us. We need only wait. Without further ado, a love poem:


Like The Sea

Feeling full and feeling warm

Lying still in tandem form

Prepared again for the coming storm

Dream again the coming norm

Sit beside and kiss a cheek

My heart, my hull will never leak

There you are, I need not seek

Safe with you, I need not speak

Sleep with me

Wake up to tea

Only hope that you can see

My love for you is like the sea

Old and storied, like the Aegean

Strong and steady, with you, freeing

Off course but never careening

Only to kiss you, am I leaning

Not enough words and not enough stories

You’re the only one who leaves me speechless

Dreaming of Italy, But I Don’t Speak Italian

In your dreams you can be anyone, be anything, do anything, go wherever you want. Why then, in my dreams, am I me? Why then, in my dreams, am I me and I am with you? Not to Italy, not to Spain, but trees and parks in Cincinnati. A place of hills and dreams tucked so neatly into the cusp of the Ohio river. My heart is here and so far away. Perhaps I’ll even find it again.


A Rose By Any Other Name

Decidedly pithy

Not such a pity

Two houses

You and I

In fair Cincinnati

Alike in serendipity

Find yourself a part

An actor, an actress

We’re putting on a play

You’ve been cast

In iron

Unmoving

Fettered by nature

Much like a bronze bust

Perfection in antiquity

Opposite me

If you only you could see

The part you have to play

Maybe then we’ll find our way

Two leads

Pro-consuls of that fallen republic

There abound the seeds

On a path we find oblique

Slanting at an angle

That makes it hard to speak

Outta Time?

It seems I’ve always got more time. Always got something to look forward to. Never let myself run out of time. The clock is always ticking, or is it? Always seeing a way forward, gotta avoid the obstacles!


Just a Couple

Ephemeral feelings of floating

Wasn’t sure, never sure

Someone speaking, someone gloating

Doctor, please… Have you the cure?

Head spinning

Don’t be late

Little Alice, down the hole, hair is thinning

You, my friend, are missing a very important date

Needed somewhere

Never there

Looking down, a single tear

Sew it up, up the stair

Spooling wire

Always tired

Hear the spirit arcing through

Think of someone, couple’s two