Ticket to Paradise

That old flowered Volkswagen
once so starry-eyed
I must have lost it there, that ticket
to paradise, somewhere
on the dirt back-roads
the way we would always go
to the fields, the desert,
the parks, yet time took it all away
the way it does, letting go
of your hand, when you
hardly even notice,
as somebody asks you
will you meet me on the edge?
and you slowly answer only to see
that no one is there
not even the girl with strawberry cheeks
and ruby lips, only her fragrance
and you knowing
that no one ever smelled
like her, and just a moment ago
you thought you were dying
but my silver strings were just for her,
that song that promised to go on forever
she must have let go of my hand, she must have let go…

White Necklace

 

The sky is silent today
and without the sun, the gray stone darker
the flowers withered
and every minute is heard falling
from the venerating statues
with bowed heads
Angels and saints, their hands lifted forward
as if calling to comfort in their images
yet this world no longer exists
although the earth caresses us
as if we are its own
like a white necklace
now lying alone under the clouds
that swirl in their secret order of procession
chiseled by the shadows
of our dreams
to linger and fade in the books of time
until that last breath of forgetfulness
where the dunes blow to sand and back again
but all matters no more
for the bowing grasses do not weep anymore than the stars
so worshiped once in their promise
though the earth forever deaf to itself
never knew us in its deep sleep of eternity

Dandelion Dreams

 

The crystal windchimes
Of dandelion tones
Are like mantras
Soft shimmering dreams
Mouth-blown
Upon the wind
As the sunlight dances
In prisms of color
Golden-lipped beauty itself
That love so deep
In the rushes of the heart
Never to be forgotten in time
Ethereal hues of radiance and ecstasy
To a symphony crafted in the white flowers of summer

The Beautiful Captive

 

What would be the poem
Of matter,
If not consciousness?
But, it is something more than a brain
That witnesses
Ice-storms
Where Japanese maples
Turn into glass figurines,
Or that remembers
The heaven of childhood,
And its trees
Once climbed,
The fragrance of intimacy 
Forever stained upon the heart
Or the beautiful captive 
Like a butterfly pinned in a velvet box
Never awakening to the infinite sky within

Ecstasy

Ecstasy is that which is left
when the bondage
of duality falls away
and ideologies
no longer have purpose
as time ceases to have meaning
in the moment’s
immortality
that which is all
there will ever be
though now the awe of existence
can be seen in the void
left by the mind
that passing vessel
no less fleeting than the body
in the knowing
that there is no imperfection
in this world of seeming suffering
except for the eyes
that think themselves apart
from all that is
lost in an illusion of good and evil
gods and anti-gods
duality’s fruitless dance
not seeing ecstasy is all there is
where there never was anything to judge or forgive


A Whisper in Time

Rose-colored reflections glitter
in fragile
and delicate petals
as they paint the wind
of a passing day
while children hold the sun
in their hands
their memories forever a sweet stain
with hues that happen
but for a moment
only to be swept away
as though a fleeting heartbeat felt more than others
a whisper in time that is remembered long into ancient afternoons

Tears of the Sirens

 

Though you are lost to the world
by their song
think not
that the sirens
do not shed tears for thee
for their nature
is not
by choice
but more the hypnotic iridescence
of haunting beauty
as nectar
is for the bee that drowns
as the sirens cry
in that moment undone
where the young hearts of gods so fair should die
against the dreams of mortal whims
for it would be easier to ask
the wind to cease
or the seasons to leave the leaf alone
but their song is that which you love most
until it is no more

Empty Vessel

The rain falls
with a sound of selfless applause
its ambience
but an infinity of splashes
as though a hymn
to the evening
bringing with it a peacefulness
that slows the pulse of my eyelashes
as I become lost
in the soft blur of aqua
and blue-green rivulets that flow
down the window
against the last light of the sunset’s hues
every image an aesthetic reflection of absolute spirit
within each that knows it
holding the never-ending weave of eternity in its embrace
like a kiss without beginning or end

Beautiful Spirit

One in all and yet all in one
like the early morning
dew drops
hanging like jewels
from the leaves
and beading on flower blossoms
for in one are the reflections
of all the others
infinite in each like an eye
seeing the empty impermanence of existence
though immortal in the inner-knowing
that the many reflections are but one in a beautiful spirit

The Eternal Dance

In the Awareness known only to Itself
And belonging to nothing
Without name
Or form
The eye is rescued from nonexistence
Called to this life
To awaken
To the One True Self 
Within
To forever dwell in contentment 
And the freedom of its emptiness :
The clear space
Of pure seeing
The unchanging awareness
That sees the eternal dance of transience 
As everything comes
And goes
In eternity’s ecstatic hymn
The one flame
In all hearts where the beauty within is found
The majesty of Infinite, Immortal Being