Little Yellow Sailboat

Signature

2009-06-28T19:15:00.003-04:00

Feast in the tireless echo of words gone down
a thousand years before, in the scraping of wood
on rock

Painted pictures that meant something once,
now, a mystery for modern day
translators

Somewhere distant, they sat together
alone in a cave
to recall the progression of time

In the imagination, before there were
descriptions for catastrophe
or accomplishment

There's the code, follow it across
the repetition the repetition
look now, the tiny tattoos everywhere

Scars all over these finger tips
screeching lifeblood, the signature
the forgotten

2009-05-14T21:32:00.000-04:00

Refraction

2009-04-20T18:18:00.004-04:00

The window lets in the air riding down the heavy worn coast
Salt trapped in the membranes, the sandy berms, the tall grasses
Transplanted reefs, underwater worlds, rubber tire fantasies
Running my fingers along the bottom
My hands cut on sharp edges, dirty shells scratching all over
Where there once was, is no longer the same ever after

Split a thousand sides down, time line
River rolling roller coaster, grind
Beware the control of tides
Meant to be wild seafarers,
Retract these holy nets, sifting through the debris
floating out there in heaven

Hands upturned to the glimmer near the surface
Cold friends of whale-grazers, seaweed snakes, micro-whatevers
Kicking desperately on empty density, vast nothingness
Unknown, the ties wrapped around broken tree blooms
Holding on as to not drown down
Where no light bounces through anything refracted

Gold Lines

2009-04-09T15:23:00.000-04:00

Stage

2009-03-29T14:36:00.006-04:00

A heavy footfall on an empty stage
the canvas blank for the taking
sunken rope twisting round the grips
A linear tale told in the remembering

Gusts of stale air sinking slowly down
the lights now, the lights reflect off the plumes
and in the dusty, cobwebbed haze

a voice projected to the rafters
to the gods and the sinners who will hear
Token affections and dime-spun phrases
separate singularly between bleeding eyes
swords that will draw a picture perfect scene

Climb now, the anthill
Reach again, for the trees
The hare is hiding, and mother is hunting
for her babies, starving and blind

Bound by the stage, the universe intact
in imagination in sacrifice
the hands come dusting and the curtain drawn
with weeping flowers flying through the air

A drama unfolds in feigned reality
The backdrop a ruse
All the happy pretenders.
The stage, a plot to bury us under.

Bricolage Collage

2009-03-18T17:17:00.001-04:00

Fury

2009-03-11T21:17:00.006-04:00

six thousand jagged pieces
splintered
throbbing, robbing

the third eye
triangulating
the tree's roots spreading
underground round

slide down
the mountainside
make a mirror a magic tide

lift the skin until it
snaps back again

hear a familiar voice
on the invisible line
a crosshatch pattern in time

the gristle and grime
all the holy men have gone
to sleep

and in the shadows lurking
a silver tune bellows below
murmur in the chest

and the rest
a story for another day

burning the cinders
the fury and flame

pink black and braille

2009-03-10T18:09:00.000-04:00

One after the other

2009-02-20T22:01:00.004-05:00

The field is long enough to disappear
into the distance reaching the illusion of
the horizon, a golden hue

the sunlight paints the reeds
and hay wound tightly
is scattered across the land
one after the other

a splintered beam hangs off
the broken wooden fence in
need of mending
or the gentle strokes
of fresh paint

plowing through the thicket
feet stomping down footprints
in the soft upturned soil

heaving breath shooting out
under the pressure
move faster

all fall down in the fields
a chameleon's head turned
towards the heavens

eyes closing now
with another head
resting against
a chest

flying together towards the constellations

gold squares

2009-02-19T19:21:00.000-05:00

Clairvoyant

2009-02-13T22:24:00.002-05:00

Clairvoyant
Why don't you start
you
need to be better
to see the future

to perceive two steps ahead

to understand a bigger picture
everything for you
limited

on a single track

while we mend broken
things
sewing things
lovely things

outrunning
the dominoes falling
before they catch up
like a wave

juggling with one hand outstretched
and one hand
tied to the side

a stronger threshold for pain
than you

weight bearing loads
heavy on slim shoulders

Untitled

2009-02-13T17:27:00.001-05:00

Hounds

2009-02-10T23:02:00.002-05:00

Sitting uptight upright
straight on the steps
the columns with lurching eyelids

blinking tick tick ticking
casting shadows flicker
zip cars zip by zip
the median meandering

across and sway
heavy like weights
hanging on the end of a string
attached to his eyelashes

careful steps between cracks
boardwalk bricks wooden
slats splintering
the ocean air corroding
the chemicals

fumbling balances
hands forever outstretched
along the invisible bubble
in the level

delicate now
I see the possibilities
hounds come running now

gathering scents
a thunderous thumping
tribal hands hard now
on heavy chest
breathing
bellowing

a stupid happy grin
and blankness

this is.....

2009-02-07T21:33:00.001-05:00

Following

2009-02-07T13:32:00.004-05:00

The shadows are marking invisible
threads on the white walls

rotating round and round
dangling sparkle
by threads of
iron and steel

a compass the guide
wind winding blowing
shapes that will
never repeat unique

space overspun
in glorified ambiance
the thick track

treading grooves
waterfall and back again
the bars crisscross
a hatch pattern

in the deep dirty earth
mounds like body parts
emerging and digressing

slip in side slide
between
glass and wood frames
without ceilings

its source shining down
to amaze us again
while we look up
vacant
in our own worldly wonder

imagine an infinite explosion
and the light streaming slowly
cast over everything
precious and semiprecious

buffed to a shine
a little leash
to make us submit

to our following

the gold square

2009-02-06T22:05:00.000-05:00

Thumb

2009-02-06T01:15:00.003-05:00

My balance bound in a stride uncertain
Tipping topping toes
My fingers graze the contours of the unseen shapes

I imagine the scene before me
a wide expanse of green fields
and I fall to the ground

in a tizzy

the tall grasses
my cushion in the tall grasses
the tall grasses

I see shapes in the sky
I touch it with my fingers
drawing the outline
with one closed eye

a breeze rushes through
the atmosphere and my blowing
strands of hair

there's color there
in the space behind my eyes
what I spy in the daylight
descends
transforms
a mask of its double
in the darkness

its likeness in the hollow
faint and drift towards
the unconscious

a swirling unease
the catapulted delight
bellowing broadly

the warmth of the sun
shining down again

Pink Railroads

2009-02-05T12:03:00.001-05:00

Impossible

2009-02-04T21:03:00.002-05:00

She had dreams
of doing things
she could only imagine
in real life

Flying like superman
off tall buildings
Swimming in rough waters
and basements flooded

My baby's in the corner I have to save her

Tricycle became bicycle
Double dutch wasn't a mystery

How to figure out this mess
How to figure out this mess

She dreams the impossible
But I was holding the winning ticket

I listened to the numbers
the code
My hands trembling and contented silence

but the dream hasn't bled yet
to the storm of the waking world where
a tornado the stuff of nightmares
creeps around corners
and all I want to do is sleep

Jump Rope Collage

2009-02-04T16:24:00.000-05:00

Etching

2009-02-02T23:34:00.002-05:00

I could settle in
to this comfortable place
wishing for the years
to consume me
blankly

Free
and bound by
all your words
cascading
digging trails

Peering inside
the dusty windows
empty bottles
and dried leaves
all but forgotten

I'm pulling you
up by your
hair
and fingertips
lingering prints
etched in my eyes
burning regret

1.20.09

2009-01-20T20:41:00.001-05:00

Lauren's Poem

2009-01-10T16:14:00.001-05:00

In delicate and languid movement
She slips beyond the
Lightness all around, drenched
And floating on the banks of
A reservoir

The crosswinds bound her steadily
Like shackles in the dead
Heat and cold, trapdoors
Slamming down one after another
Breathing heavy and hanging on the line

Uncover
Skeleton keys for
The unlocking

The house is settling
Tender wood creaks and aches in the wet
In to the crumbling and overturned path

So still and patiently
She cultivates with bare hands

Firespark a shamanic vision
Take witness
In this sacred space

Planting seeds in increments
Roots spread wild by their nature
Reigning in
The overgrowth bound
By ties tethered tightly
Reaching far, invading
Cutting in to her path

She speaks

To the haze of imagination
Rising again to the surface
Touching everything
From her world’s edge

2 Days Ago

2008-12-05T21:48:00.002-05:00

Swiftly
I was walking
through doorways that
led to ten more

nothing was locked
and windows were everywhere
yet I

grazed each wall
tenderly
searching for an exit

i was set as a stone
in an interior courtyard
where outside was inside

No one was chasing me
no guns pointed
or knives shining
my house was like a prison

and i just wanted to be free

and there was no way out for me
in the dream
i had
two days ago

dream space-- almost done

2008-12-05T21:44:00.001-05:00

Contrary

2008-11-20T12:55:00.002-05:00

Swing between steps
inside and around
gently provoke a reaction

a touch or a glance
leading into a direction

pressed up against
the careful meeting
everything measured and
internalized

the heat rising against
a cold surface
making ripples electric and
hypnotized

the elegant rumor
spread savory
across a flame

a diminutive presence
wrapped up in chivalry
the hearth, contrary intuition

Ice Palace on black

2008-11-19T19:43:00.000-05:00

Adrift

2008-11-14T18:42:00.004-05:00

I sat in a dank and crowded room
with a man of wisdom and words
who drew parallels between

the searching and the saved
a delicate conversation
over cups of coffee and

tips left in clinking change

he took his pen and with
the same stroke
created a circle atop a circle

atop a circle

with each rotation
I somehow some way
saw some thing

varied

as he narrated a world
and history belonging to him
and also to no one

a separate sea
coming together to save them

there was no difference between time
and energy
the lines ran their course

linking between motion

a living body of text
that would guide a people
for years spanning
a thousand and more

sacred paper
dictating a prologue
to the birth of humanity

adrift on seeds floating
through the sky and
scattered throughout
the fields

the ceaseless crops
of newborn hope

the book of transitions

2008-11-09T22:28:00.000-05:00

Patched

2008-11-06T18:44:00.002-05:00

The leaves are falling slowly
like a million kites in the sky

against the sidewalk
and the puddles
soaking up the last

of the season
the debris and dirt

it's back to number
crunching

to calendars and no light

but we're looking
continuously

for a burst in the pipe
an overflow
of ideas

to warm us on winter nights

making sure to mind
our idleness

with busy hands
and heads computing
the next big thing

I'm sitting
trying to remember
how to make
the tattered pieces
into a spirit enlightened

by time

pushing pulling
until everything is patched over

526

2008-11-06T15:13:00.000-05:00

Threshold.

2008-11-06T01:58:00.002-05:00

I'm sitting at the edge of a rock
spinning

and watching as the threshold opens
into a meandering wave of
polarity

searching for a manner
in which to guide
the needle north

as it tumbles out of control
spinning

fixate now on familiarity
in this unfamiliar terrain

slide against the grains
that oppose you
digging further deeper downward

banging our heads together for
a mighty solution
that will alleviate
all these worries
cascading

a thin sliver
is all that separates
us

my fists are closed and ready
my feet firmly on the ground
waiting to pounce

a victory in sight
and defeat in the rear view
spinning

determined to break through

Splash

2008-11-01T22:19:00.000-04:00

Ripple

2008-10-28T23:19:00.002-04:00

Bouncing off spectrums
refracting light
in the shadows and
back and again

Crumpled paper
in a heap
in the corner
like a stack of lost hopes

in numbers and odds

down to exact times
cuttings
remnants

made anew

the vibrations coursing
through my aching bones
my spine and wrist

scratches against the hairless
skin

falling out all over the floor
picking up the scraps
and throwing them away

to end up in some other form
and it starts all over again

Under the Big Top finished

2008-10-22T13:34:00.002-04:00

Graces.

2008-09-16T23:28:00.003-04:00

When I was little
I used to draw pictures
of spaces

like homes
in my dreams

someplace safe

though
I don't know exactly
what safe looks like

is it a gun or bars on the windows

or pair of arms that
could hold me

I see

running water through the living room
and fish swimming around

my personal ocean

windows that span
floor to ceiling

so that the world outside
isn't so external

like melting
away
through the thin skin
of glass

trailing all the way to the
ends of the earth
and back again

in one continuous flow
of energy

every inch of the shifting plates
the trembling crusts
my playground

no place foreign
every language spoken

faces familiar
and friendly

every animal my brother or sister
every emotion driven by instinct
primal
not overburdened

by filters
or society

a place to lay my head
down on a soft pillow
or the fur of my cat
the shoulder of my mother
or the chest of my lover

dreams that don't haunt me
or cause me to cry
days becoming longer

in the field
with long grasses
I lay with legs stretched

staring at the sky

trying to extend myself upward
to the heavenly bodies

to the furthest reaches
to the next dimensions

only to return to this body
the only home I understand
completely

Dream Space

2008-09-14T18:31:00.000-04:00

Sparks

2008-09-14T01:12:00.002-04:00

Out of sheer exhaustion
endless nights feeding
on junk and pills

unable to sleep
but for a few choice hours
between bouts of indecision
regarding what to do next

i drag myself out of bed
after spending an hour
daydreaming of sleep

and stand in a cold shower
rubbing my eyes together
so hard

like i'm trying to scrape
away all the layers of membrane
that have been defiled
by what was witnessed

rubbing so that i could see
boundless explosions
of yellow stars

fireworks that look like pixelated
explosions of electrified wires
that were also veins

i see possibility in the darkness
and wish for sleep again

Under the Big Top

2008-09-13T15:09:00.000-04:00

Ramble

2008-09-12T11:51:00.003-04:00

All of this incessant talking
sometimes it needs to end

let's sit
with our fairy tales
and our monsters
in sweet silence

and imagine

in the same urgent cry
for something better than
chaos of an ordinary kind

the ice is crashing into the ocean
the seas rise above my head

and i am unable to stay afloat
without
a helping hand to carry me

the magic is somewhere
to be found

in the written word
a love letter
a summons

bridge common bonds
and reveal an opening

for the spirit to be
liberated vindicated
exonerated
contemplated

after passing
friends gathered round

but who will walk through the gates
as a true companion

who can we depend on in this life
not to disappoint us so greatly

that we lose all sense of hope

I try to look forward
but struggle against it

like i'm running through dry sand
my feet scorched
and skin blistered from the
deadly rays

ice palace with ice carriage

2008-09-10T21:17:00.000-04:00

Delineate

2008-09-09T20:34:00.004-04:00

drawing lines
down our backs

etching words into
skin

revealing complexity
through breath hot against breath

an implosion
wasted away

caving in and buried beneath
these feelings overcome

chills sent along fingertips
a head grasped in frustration

a cry bellows in my chest
and i am spent

Scrap Map

2008-09-09T11:17:00.000-04:00

Boom.

2008-09-07T15:36:00.004-04:00

strike down these doubts

this evil that permeates every ounce of anything good and pure
it's all too much to bear at the moment
i feel frustrated and not in that good way

the drugs are speeding underneath
and i'll burst if the pressure isn't let out
through a dull slow drip

because anything more than an explosion
might pull me into its grasp

don't think bad things
the bad things might come true
you don't know your own power, you aren't aware

of how
far
these steps take us

and one gesture could
pull on something to unravel
and then only bareness
remains

so exposed and vulnerable
for everyone to judge by clips and pops

the wind carries us away from
this place
and I float in the sonic boom

after Steve Schick's Percussion Concert

2008-09-06T20:20:00.000-04:00

Floating

2008-08-30T22:03:00.002-04:00

the floating worlds steamrolling endlessly through

the crashing forces
pick me ups

of quotidian life

buzzing alarms and birds speaking in foreign tongues

breakfast on the table,

get the kids to school

faith is a poor bargain in times of desperation and conceit fuels forward
trickling down the sides of walls

stomping footfalls buzzing eardrums echoes off the tree bark

radiowaves transmitting at a constant rate undulating

breeching the surface beaching hatching forgetting

Undulating Wave

2008-08-26T19:51:00.000-04:00

Space

2008-08-15T01:09:00.000-04:00

I imagine the world opening up into a hole
into itself
into the core

like those drawings of
grids
templates and astrophysics

falling under over beyond

emerging as new life
mother child
struggling for freedom

a sequence unfurling
a repeat a mistake
simple decisions

the boldness and the unrelenting
awash in color
instantaneously lost

bound in ritual
gnawing at the edges
tearing ripping receding

exploding into a past tense
coming up for air
through a vacuum

a space

Polynesian Flower

2008-08-14T17:45:00.001-04:00

Memory

2008-08-12T10:06:00.003-04:00

We drove down by the waterfront past the small boat harbor where my grandparents kept their sailboat when I was a child. Where once there were empty fields there are now wind turbines generating clean electricity. I think back to those trips on the L'Chaim, the name of my Grandpa's S2 sailboat-- his home away from home. He took such excquisite care of this boat. He cleaned it with a toothbrush. The steering wheel was shiny silver and smooth, and sometimes if he was busy with something-- he would let me steer the boat--a task I accepted with fear and trembling excitement.

Eightfold Path

2008-08-11T23:00:00.002-04:00

Leaves

2008-08-07T21:17:00.005-04:00

Set foot
deep in the undergrowth
with toes bare and sweat streaming
through the wilderness
and the unknown

banking left for glimpses
a passage of light lingering
ties of ribbons
splintering the fallen leaves
again to the riverbed

the water running through
unstoppable
get back to something primal
trace histories across
the survivors

against my throat
raw scraping
of air being forced through
i can't get enough
to run faster

for this place

Mini Flashlight

2008-08-07T17:43:00.000-04:00

The Dawn

2008-08-06T21:56:00.004-04:00

Every single grain
leads down the same path
into the networks

and outside the frame

Until one day he slams
against the headboard
behind the shutters

a ghost in the shadows

As a delusion
of pills and spills
with courses racing

the delicate balance

A heart ablaze
the numbed response
the suffering and the saved

vintage

2008-08-04T17:40:00.000-04:00

Orientation

2008-07-26T22:25:00.001-04:00

Behind invisible walls
and beams of dust and years

sits the fortunate one
alone and whirling

inching closer to a fixed point with
everything moving around an axis

perched at the end of fingertips
looking over the world

as trouble steams through
the rolling clouds, the endless

phases

the interconnecting universes
and spirits conversing

energy accumulates
into a bellowing cry

Mini Paris

2008-07-23T13:53:00.000-04:00

Dialectic

2008-07-22T22:15:00.000-04:00

In a perfect phase of symmetry
hashing out, confines of space
grating into walls these marks of moments

Bare fingernails
to the test of blood
and teeth

This arose out of nothing to reveal
a space divided
torn and placed delicately aside

Let's build these plans
into something spontaneous
with the promise of fertility

I can already see the grid
every step traversed
and reduced to rubble

Thread the hands through
intertwined and infinite
shadowed monsters

restrain
from breaking the
invisible pane

Light Through the Window

2008-07-22T20:22:00.000-04:00