The Future Immigrant

The future immigrant is longing for 

A mystery, a hope, a future new

And so romantic--it's an open door

Into a meadow full of morning dew.

Dissatisfied with where he lives, was born,

The future immigrant will gladly pass

Through deserts, over mountains that adorn

The body of the earth. Her endless grass,

Her flashy flowers, forests full of fear

Are ways to gain the beauty of the way.

For all the future immigrant holds dear.

He has to go, although he wants to stay.

I must admit, his wanderlust I share--

I dream his courage, going where I dare. 

Philosophizing

What questions did you ask today?

Do you live in an ossuary

Of old ideas? Do you play,

Or do you lie with those we bury?

To play with Plato brings perception--

Accepting Aristotle full,

Unquestioning brings mere deception

Of understanding--it's its cull.

But challenge all the thinkers you

Encounter--even ancients bring

Insights--and challenge poets, too,

For there’s always new songs to sing.

Flesh out the bones of mankind's past

And grow in wisdom's sunlit day--

For that is how your mind will last.

What questions will you ask today? 

Steno's Lament

My sister raped by cruel Poseidon, sea

That swirled between her thighs--and I stood by

My sister--so I shared her fate. Men flee

Before my stare, for if they catch my eye

To milky marble they'll become--I stand

Them in my garden, stony sentinel

To warn away the wise and wary. Hand

Of bronze will bring my sculpture garden full

Of mutilated men. And yet, she's gone--

My sister, murdered by a mortal man--

Her scaly torso prone, the light of dawn

Reflecting in the blood that, headless, ran.

My gorgeous, gory garden can't assuage

My guilt, eternal guilt, eternal age. 

The Odin Within

Thought and memory are flying through the sky--
Black-clad ravens which will never die--
Over all of man this pair will fly,
Bringing knowledge to deep wisdom's only due. 

Skaldic mead has quenched my thirst for many years,

Bought by suffering, pain, bane, and tears--

Yet, this honeyed drink has sent my fears

Down to Hell--I brought back up the songs man hears.

Leviathan

The bigger it grows, the larger it looms
The more that our freedoms slip into their tombs.
Whatever is broke, it breaks it again,
Disrupting our lives with the stroke of a pen.
It tries to take over what we only do best--
It should only protect--let us do the rest!
It wants to remove our freedom to choose
Whatever we want, if we win or we lose.
We want neither help nor hindrance at all--
It only demeans, in despair makes you fall.
So, down with the big and up with the small
For more only means less freedom for all.
If it's freedom you want, then don't let them pry,
And listen to me, please hearken my cry!
We need less, not more, or whatever if gives
So push for it now, where each of you lives.
So, down with the big and up with the small,
For that way we'll get a fair freedom for all.

Why

Like cattle rustlers after dusk

Like walruses with just one tusk

Like statues baring just one breast

Like children study for a test

Like artists painting made-up places

Like fast neutrinos leave no traces

Like doves on gloves in love do I

Like all your mysteries of why

Self-Portrait

Perhaps you've read my stories, poetry

And thought you saw me. You are wrong. No song

I've written ever mirrored one degree

With any part of me. There's nothing wrong

With thinking that you caught a glimpse if you

Have read my mind's mere makings over time--

But everything I've written, it is true,

Is true, but not of me, except in rhyme. 

But have I loved? Oh, yes, I've loved--my wife,

My children, parents, friends. And beauty called

To me and set me free and freed my words.

And I have sung of conflict and of strife

And reconciled and called out what enthralled

My heart and mind like diamond hummingbirds. 

The Arc of Expecation

Frustration fills me--expectation lost
Will ground this ship upon the island sands
Or get it sunk beneath the seas, mind tossed,
From crashing on the iceberg. Love demands
Such understanding. Love demands you warn
With time sufficient or you keep your word.
I simply ask you do not leave me torn,
Instead release to know the snow-white bird.

The Oxytocin Blues

 Love's feeling's made by oxtocin--touch
Elicits loves across the brain--my skin,
Your skin in contact--I don't ask for much--
A hug, a squeeze where loves always begin.

And when you pull away, you pull away
From love and pleasure--say you would refuse
To feel as close to me--refuse to play
What oxytocin promises and glues.

Why fight the feelings oxytocin makes?
There's none too tired for love and touch, to feel
What makes us more through marriage--what it takes
Seems small to me, as feelings will reveal.

And yes, this chemistry that's in your head
Comes flooding more when you're nude in our bed.

Punctuation

Panther hiding in the trees
One quick leap you're on your knees
Death is hiding in the night
Death's the demon you can't fight

In the darkness shadows shriek
Strong or prideful weak or meek
All will fall beneath death's jaws
All will bleed ripped by her claws

Death will pad on panther feet
Soul departs you turn to meat
You can't hide in ditch or shrubs
You will feed her darkling cubs

Free Will

The world is full of mighty winds
That blow in each direction--
You choose your wind and set your sail,
Become  the sea's reflection.

The Fool

 A man sits and thinks
Seeing what we cannot see
Understanding what

We can't understand
Knowing the unknowable
We see he's insane

He's a fool because
He sees, he understands, he
Knows what we wish not

Behemoth

 For none to see, invisibly
The giant monster slowly eats
The universe, and ultimately succeeds
Until all matter finds itself
In singularity, enwrapped in space.
No time within, but time will pass
And energy is lost, until at last
The monster, it explodes,
And all will start again.

Liber

 Listen!
Do you hear the sounds?
Do you hear the cries
Of the impoverished,
Of the hungry,
Of the oppressed?
Oh, what we could do
If only allowed:
What they could do
If freedom were theirs.
Listen!
Do you hear the sounds?
Do you hear the cries of joy
Of the wealthy,
Of the healthy,
Of the free?
Oh, what we could do,
Oh, what we can do
When we are allowed to be free
To say, to think, to dream, to do
What we wish,
As we see fit.
But we are not yet free.

Morning

 The sun peaks over darkened hill--
What a thrill!
Slowly chasing dark and stars away--
What a day!
The birds are singing loud and clear--
Do you hear?
Life is up and moving around--
What a sound!
Dew glistens bright upon the grass--
Rainbow glass!
The darkness turns to brighter blue--
All is new!
Now, come enjoy the blessed day--
Let us play!
And enjoy each bright new morning!

Mall Walkers

 Walking around with no place to go
Some go fast and some go slow
Young and old alike go round
Seeing their friends, the old that are found.
Stories they tell, their likes they relate
Enjoying their talk, and rarely debate.
Their joy and friendship overflowing abound
Within all the walkers as they walk around.

Reductionism

As light reflected from her face's atoms
And entered through the lenses of my eyes,
The image was inverted and the light
From the reflection struck the retinal,
Transforming it from trans to cis, which made
A change in certain proteins in my cone
And rod-shaped cells that sent a pulse, electric,
Down to the optic nerve, which sent electrons
Through to the brain to process with its neural
Net through chemical, electric interactions
That, due to previous synaptic forms
Caused more electric signals to be sent
By neurons down the spinal chord to neurons
That sent a signal to the diaphragm,
Resulting in its quick contraction, breath
From lungs that filled with air, released in such
A way that low vibrations then were made
And passed across my tongue and lips that curved
By other neural pathways from the brain.
The oxytocin surged across my neurons.
This happens every time I see my love.

A Drop

A drop of crystal water hangs daintily
From the tip of the jagged, dark green leaf,
Slowly collecting molecule amounts
Of water until finally it pulsates
On the sharp tip before it can release
Itself to fall, an undulating sphere
Splitting the scattered light and scattering
Its colors across the darkling forest
Until it surfaces a leaf-lined pool
And scatters tiny droplet in the air
That come down crashing on the circle ripples
Spreading across the surface like your love.

Significance

 One cannot look into the deep, vast night
And fail to wonder. Who could ever know
Or comprehend or understand its size.
What is it that we see? What do we not?
How far to the edge of the universe?
How far to our nearest neighboring star?
A little over four light-years, so short
A distance--a little less than thirty-two
Trillion miles--distances measured six trillion
Miles at a time. One hundred billion stars
In but one galaxy--hundreds of billions
More galaxies just like it, each surrounded
By smaller galaxies that orbit, each
Containing billions more stars--systems strewn
In patterns of far greater structures. Here
We are, one species on a tiny planet
Orbiting a medium, yellow star.
Who are you in your self-placed, certain greatness?
Who are you in a cosmos where the center
Is everywhere and therefore everyone
Is the true center of the universe?

An Ode to Black

 It's not a bright color like jade--
As a matter of fact, it's a shade.
It's often found in the night sky
And oftentimes I've wondered why
The one thing I pull off the rack
Seems almost always to be black.
Black underwear, black socks and shoes
Black shirt, black pants are what I choose.

I love black cars and long black hair,
A beautiful black starlit night--
It's something that I love to share,
It brings to me such great delight.

For me, there's something you would lack
If you never wear fair black.