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I met a man within the Wood

No body no face yet there he stood

Well sort of leaned on the fading light

And spoke in a voice dark as midnight

“I am the you you’ve held within

Hatred, guilt, half-truths, and sin

I am the you you’ll always be

The path you’ve trod has led to me”

The Moon arose and my shadow twin

Faded a bit and on the wind

I heard a voice like crystal tinkling

Offer me hope, even if only an inkling

“Just as the Moon the Shadow dissolves

Reflect on this and your mind resolve

Your shadow twin here you must slay

Or your path ends here and you will betray

All you wished to build and be

So bury him and follow me”

So there I stood

In half lit wood

A crossroads in my mind

And though I tell

My story well

I leave for you to find

If on that eve I buried deep the shadow I’d become

Or to that darker self and haunted way I did succumb

On the Eve

Take a breath meant to relieve

Though still trapped in the web we weave

When first we practice to believe

Our way is best and so deceive

Ourselves and the memories we’d retrieve

Come now, a moment here to grieve

The scars our words are sure to leave

Should we not rather attempt to achieve

Yes I know I’m judged naive

A space wherein we offered reprieve

From judgement and attempt to conceive

A conversation where we did not aggrieve

Each other’s self and thus reweave

Opportunity to take a breath meant to relieve

Leg Acey

There will likely be no musical of my fantastical farce

No poems of my victory over vicissitudes which will parse

My mental machinations and venial prevarications

Nor dauntless deviations nor multiple mendacious migrations

So here I put forth dead man’s legacy in my own hand

And here I fault you not for declaring I have no leg on which to stand

From an age from the which my mind could fathom words

Were the power of flight to the future like a pterodactyl’s wings are to birds

I wrote or thought or penned or taught that words will save and slay

Enslaved enraged emboldened engaged and here my living words will lay

Feel free to dismiss my foolishness and intone “I’ll be damned”

It must be nice to once or thrice feel a mouth a mind so phonetically crammed

The world’s a stage the player has aged and also hammed

Up his part offered his heart and dash hopes where logs get jammed

So read these lines be not unkind and judge my name a loss

Words sink or swim here on a whim I burn them all as dross

At what cost on what coast do I boast oh most

Certainly impertinently as for this life I’m one of the wholly host

Raise a toast call out the ghost and raise the sail

Whom shall prevail who will assail follow this trail

To the start to the heart within my art

I’ve done my part piquant and tart

Taste and see the good of me

Drunk on words drink to the lees

Sadderday and the Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything

So it had been some time

Since I have conversed in rhyme

The dialogue flows ever on

Here I capture it before it’s gone

Much has changed, much stained he same

So much hope put behind one man’s name

Only one has been worthy of the place

Of him lately so little trace

Here my thoughts, my prayers, my heart

Here may the healing and revealing start

Here I stand against what is unjust

Here I declare what the faithful must

I am imperfect and deserving no grace

But here I stand as witness it grows in the space

Between what you’re taught and what you have learned

Between bridges you’ve built and ones that you’ve burned

Between hatred that seethed and love that has yearned

Between those that you struck and the cheek you have turned

Grace fully received has never been earned

Let those that would hear understand and discern

Here I draw my line in my hand

Here I state what I am as a man

Here I take up the cause of the few

The lives you say matter are only like you

I say these lives are the ones downtrodden

Bad apples don’t get better, but rotten

Stand for the truth, don’t let them peddle lies

Your ears have been tickled while innocence dies

Realize you cannot make one issue your cause

For in winning that point you’ve fallen into the jaws

Of a beast who knew your language and all the words

But sold your soul while you rested assured

Come back to the light, return to what’s real

There is still fire and truth and zeal

95 theses was once a start

I tack these lines upon my heart

None shall die or be condemned

As long as I draw breath I will defend

The right of every child woman and man

To be free and pursue a whole healthy land

If you feel that you might join in this my vow

Post to your own heart what you stand for right now

In words that are flowery or words that are plain

All that matters is one simple refrain

I stand for what’s just what’s fair and what’s right

I will sacrifice what I have and with all my might

I will protect those who need to be brought into the light

I battle my privilege and swear now to fight

Whatever comes next that is not rooted in love

And call down blessings from heaven above

On all my companions who have deeper sight

And march with this army, these Warriors of Light

Tightrope Philosophy

There once was a man who feared not heights but falling

So what did he take up as his life’s calling?

Walking the high wire in the big top, you see

He had to face fear in his way to be free

The first rule he learned was not to look down

The second was smile when you’d rather frown

These rules would grow into how he viewed

How to live life with meaning imbued

Each person you meet may not walk your way

Whether by birth or because they had a bad day

The rule of not looking down here applies

Meet each person with respect and look in their eyes

Perhaps you are offered an opportunity or gift

That is less than you’re used to and your thoughts drift

Toward what is unkind, ungrateful or rude

Do not look down and their kindness exclude

In living these out sometimes he found

That sadness did grow, increase and abound

Not in what was less in what others would do

But in himself for judging what was untrue

But the fact that he saw it brought into view

The need to practice rule number two

Self disappointment or life’s pain and stress

Could change your face by means of duress

Unless on a day when way up in the air

Questioning the choices that brought you there

You have to learn to smile when you must

Not just when you wish to, though it seems unjust

Often others have struggles and need to know

They’re not alone and the best way to show

Is to smile as you struggle but be honest too

Face life and yourself with an attitude you

Could look back upon and later be proud

That by no problem was your joy ever cowed

Smile on through the storms and walk tall and proud

Your tightrope is life, take a bow for the crowd

Tailyfare

Once upon a time
Seems good to start a rhyme
Throw in a damsel and knight
And it may come out all right
If the formula’s followed thus
It may become boring for us
So I have a change to propose
To differ from all of those
For our knight is the one in distress
The damsel his saving mistress
He rides in with words in a hurry
Embroils himself with some fury
She boldly jumps in
Goes to rescuing him
From himself and the cause of his worry
So our heroine is the one shining
And knight is often found pining
For his hero to appear
Or just to be near
For she is his purpose defining

All the Feels

When it feels like
You’ve lost
It’s because you’ve
Likely won
When you feel there’s
Only darkness
It’s because you’ve
Known the sun
If it feels like you’ve
Wandered from the way
It’s because sometimes
A heart will stray
If you feel truth is
Too often hidden
It’s because you’ve seen
It flow unbidden
If it feels like time
Won’t let Love win
It’s because you’ve been
Scarred but loved again
If it feels these feelings
Are too much
It’s because they are
As such
If it feels that feelings
Are not enough
It’s because you’re made
Of stronger stuff
If feelings feel often
Less than real
It’s because you are free
To begin to heal

Epiphany Lights

Have you ever been caught at a changing light
When the moment, the music and timing are right
And it’s as if you can see all the world at a glance
And the outcome of every opportunity or chance
It all seems so clear for a moment or two
But then you rush off because a horn blew
Life used to have moments where one could just pause
But that was back when we allowed for faux paus
Now we’ve constructed from an unconscious need
A device that requires we lessen our speed
And sit for a time and mayhaps have a thought
That not all happiness can be bundled, purchased or caught But must at times be observed and allowed to move on Enjoyed and digested before it is gone
So next time you’re tempted to honk when it’s green
Wait one more minute as they take in the unseen
For when their world is clearer yours will be too
Pause for my epiphany light and I will for you

The Prosperity of Problems

If the ground did not conspire to keep the seed within

The flower could not support itself nor the leaves begin

If the water did not resist the fish as it swam along

The creature could not draw a breath nor exist for long

If the path did not push against the bottoms of your feet

Then you could not advance nor make needed retreat

If the air did not assail the bird, attempting to change its course

Then flight would be impossible and not inspiration’s source

If friction did not check each flint and therefore cause a spark

Then fire never would have been and we’d be in the dark

If wisdom itself did not elude those who did not truly seek

Then fools would prove that knowing was just enough to speak

If love did not duel within each and every soul

Then finding it and knowing it would cease to make us whole

If you cannot begin within these words a truth to see

Then you my friend will be unlike to prosper from adversity

 

Love

From the very center of life’s cove

I swam out and down I dove

And there beheld a dreamlike grove

That glistened, shone, flowed and hove

 

I realized, just then, by Jove
That beauty dwells wher’er we rove

Since that time I ever strove

To seek and divulge each such trove

 

For they surround us drove by drove

And since creation our souls throve

On dissecting clove by clove

The beauty within that life wove