Requiem for Thanks

Cousins shouting
Dog got mauled
Mom plays rock band
Gram's appalled
Turkey won't cook
Turn oven higher
Computer crashed
Stove's on fire
Aunt sings loud
Discordant chant
Dog attacks cat
Who pees on aunt
Firecrackers lit
Smell like smoke
Tell the police
Just a joke
Shopping crowds
Avoid the mall
Curry was
A sorry call
Leaving now
The house is sold
Got to pack
Goodbye gets old


...
(more coming!)

Cling Tight

She looked down at him and thought
I can feel the storm inside you
And it feels like home
So much joy and fury wrapped in one infinite
Compact point of space
Elemental power held in two small hands
That hold my heart just as tightly
I never thought
I could love somebody as fiercely as I love you.

Addicted to Fall

It's addictive, this season. Cascades of leaves in a sharp pointy rain smelling suspiciously of memories, and cold nights where the sky dips down to kiss the earth with the barest tease of ice. The heavy sun and the slice of silver moon both get into your blood, one chillingly, achingly cold and the other heating every single nerve, both singing different songs in your veins.
There are no other night like these, are there? Nights when the dying full moon casts itself on the undersides of the wispy clouds, throwing shadows through the darkness above. Nights when it is so still that the stars don’t even twinkle, but steadily exist, sharper in their shining than cold white steel. The silence so absolute that a heartbeat echoes.
These are the best of nights, yes?

Halves

You whistle when they tell you that you’re not allowed to talk
And dance from place to place because if you can run, don’t walk
Stop your tracks and speech if, say, the sunbeams catch your eye
Other just can’t credit it—and you can’t explain why
Running just to run—there’s nothing quite like it, I swear
Leaping from a cliff to feel the wind whip in your hair
Sitting wrapped in stillness to bid goodbye to a full day
Or gritting your teeth to stick it out when you want to run away
Knowing when to speak and when the time for words is past
Too stubborn to give up a friendship if you can make it last
Dancing and spinning outward if you trust the hand you hold
And playing on the playground though they say that you’re too old
Serenading the crickets and the moon with your guitar
I’ve seen the many halves of you and, I like the ones you are.

Time Bearer

He slowly made his aged way
Towards me. He moved stiffly, leaning
On his staff; his hair was gray
I knew why he came, his appearence meaning
Another year of mine had passed away.

When I was young I strained my eyes
To see him, and it seemed he so slowly came
That a thousand years I lived from sunrise to sunrise.
My summers long, and winters just the same.
And I hardly noticed him in his oddly familiar guise.

But after several years of mine
I'd handed over, to send him on his endless walk,
I noticed that to a faster pace he was inclined
Slightly less eager to pause on his way to talk,
A new hint of sparkle in those eyes that had been blind

And as I danced through the passing years
Which he came faster to collect,
My steps slowed by many joys and tears,
His sped up. I began to suspect
That as my youth faded, his appeared.

As as my hair whitened his turned to wheat.
Steps as elastic as mine were slow,
And now our meetings were bittersweet
As he swiftly on his rounds would go,
My steps as shaken as they once were meet.

At the last I had no fear--
I walked to meet his child's self
To give to him the gift of my last year
And seeing him grasped that there I saw myself
But while mine were mostly blind his eyes, my eyes, were clear.

Foresworn

When death must come before dishonor
This honor bestowed to the unborn
Circumstances and all that follow
Leave only dead, or those foresworn

Like Eagles

The sky in your face
...Horizon at your feet
Hold tight to your courage
...'Lest it try to break
One step only left
...Between the edge and the sky
And yet you will find
...It's a step you must take.

An instant to pause
...A deep breath to take
The catch in your throat
...The rush as you fall
Singing the cold wind
...That pulls at your hair
Your heart in your eyes
...As you give life your all

The hard, jolting pull
...Like the sound of a sail
Feathers unfurling to catch
...The last light of day
And your heart lifts again
...As you rise on the wind
And your wings bear you
...Swiftly away.

Isaiah 40...for they will rise with wings like eagles...they will run, and not be weary...they will walk, and not faint...

Silence

Stripped of daylight's harsh conceit
In a lonely world, as I search for proof
That other tired hearts still beat
The pull of the moonlight is bittersweet
Where it flows in a pool above the roof

No soul disturbs the brooding dark
Except by need, or necessity
Only cat's footsteps to remark
As I search for proof that there's a spark
Of others alive in this midnight sea

Fugitive Dreamer

I too have felt a fugitive's fear
Terror of footsteps drawing near
A hunter's tread on the forest track
Bid you flee and not look back
'Lest your nightmare should appear

Beating wings and heart's distress
Pulled down to the earth to rest
Hidden deep in leafy mold
Protection not just from the cold
Above the world on the rocky crest

And yet, safety eludes the night
The woods below disgorge a light
Voices thunder from the dark
So sure are they to close their mark
Who silently gasps, shrinks out of sight

The crevice is cold, the wind whips high
Sequestered I hear my guardian die
They swamp the ledge--I hold my breath
Their heavy boots resound with death
One pauses, turns to catch my eye

Chilling fear snatches my breath away
Knowledge that I'll die this day
A single second left to act
Freeze still, my liberty intact,
Compassion, before he turns away

Still shocked to stillness by his eyes
My capture takes me by surprise
Assassin's hand a hammer sledge
Suddenly flung aloft from the ledge
Wings beating frozen starlit skies

Immortality

They rode off into the clear midnight
Into the sunrise, into the pouring rain
Towards a hard fight, a quick death
Or a victorious finish; this immortality
Had a hard grip on their souls
Whether for freedom, or true love,
Or the heady rush that only battle brings
Still, whatever the reason, they gave themselves to it
Gave in to fate, stronger than questions
Honor that cannot say no
But thinking, I wonder, did any of them regret…?

The young one, hands toughened but not yet
Stained with blood he has no right to
Looking back from his horse towards
The place he called home, the ones
He leaves for
The old one, bidding farewell to long summer evenings
And masses of laughing grandchildren
Scrambling to climb towering trees he planted
The strong one whose last sight
Was of his wife
Hands caressing the life she carries
Do they regret the path of immortality that
Carries them away?

I wonder how their stories ended
And I wonder how many of them returned
And, of those who did, how many
Decided immortality was worth it

One Shot

We only get one shot at this life
Only so many trips around the sun
Too many times to watch the sun set
And wish the day had just begun

A precious few days to take a chance
Only a few chances to take a bow
Tomorrow is the moment for that, right?
But the only one you're promised is right now

Only so many days, even less nights
To wait for the sun to rise again
And pray--thank God for one more day
Of sunshine and laughter and friends

Sing for You

I want to sing, but know my voice
Is not equal to the task you’ve set
And yet I’ll lift it anyway
Praising with my soul until my
Spirit dances free
To be one note of your joyous laughter
Echoing eternally throughout
The very arch of heaven, where the stars
Rejoice as well
Sometimes I cannot tell if they are shining
Or smiling or simply trying to show
An ugly world that
Though we feel alone, abandoned
Light will reign again
I breath “Amen” and throw my head back
Spread my arms to hold the day inside
But I cannot hide the way the sun
Reflects off of my soul
The joy that you made whole and new
And so
I'll sing for you