Refections

A wise man's words come back to me-
"The eye sees not itself but by reflection."
I find a mirror and gaze there deep
to see relentless scrutiny
reflected back at me.
Every step in life I took
is traced |ierein as residue
of scars and frowns and smiling days
composing lines and features
of the outward T I see.
"Not yet," it mocks, "how dare you try
to read a book before its time.
Your secret I will not reveal
until your dying hour,
for only when that page is filled
can you alone make sense of me."
Abandoning the incompletion
in my eye that I perceive
I join a crowd of revelers
gathered in the street,
where every eye I now encounter
holds my tiny image freed
from facts that come with knowledge
of the steps that bring me there.
Distortions built from residue
of scars and frowns and smiling days
composing tales from lines and features
of the outward T they see.
"Not here," I think, "how can I try
to see my self in strangers' eyes
that lack the love that I must find
before my secret stands revealed,
for only when that space is filled
can another's eyes enlighten me."
A wanderer on this planet I,
come across a grassy knoll
Where cradled by the earth I lie, still seeking but
pne true refection beyond the realms of fact and
fiction and above me bends the come of sky
refected in my searching eyes.

Times of trouble

For Moses on the mountain top
Yahweh's word was seal of Law,
to Pharoah's grief on death of son
Amon-Ra replied.

When Arjuna from battle shied
Krishna showed him path of light,
and Lamas dream of Buddhas
if restless be their sleep.

Mighty Titans heard tha cries
from flames engulfing burning Troy,
it was Jupiter that Caesar saw
as he fell at Brutus' side.
When Christian martyrs questioned why
an answer came from Mary's child,
and Mohammed guides through deserts dry
his faithful to Medina.

Though 'cross the ages names have changed
an inner wisdom speaks,
so at night, in times of trouble
who will come to Thee?

POETRY

It may come as a single word,
a phrase or an idea
that slowly seeds like crystal spars
a latticework of thoughts.
Through patience see the thousand sounds,
suspended glowing notes
reflecting substance, space and structure
of the shape that now evolves.
Then tease the thread of words
that wind from start to very end.
A garland taut with tension
strung 'cross racing streams of consciousness
sending echoes in harmonic tones,
vibrations of the sum.
Let lens of self release its soul,
and lo, a poem has been born,
engendered by a source sublime,
the art of making beauty rhyme.

Sunset

Argently the azure sea
welcomes the sun back home

Gloaming golden honey bees
in fields no longer roam

Hot orange glow the palm leaves
and wave as if to fly

Bloody crimson dies the day
and soaks the painted sky

Languid lilac creeps into
the space 'tween mountains' knees

Pale green the sand lays jaded
by what it always sees

Passion purpled sea and sky
embrace and intertwine

Somber blue the shadows sigh
as starlight sparkle chimes

Ode to the Shadow of Immortality

Know that this my diamond
is built with many flaws,
inclusions of ambition,
of pride and hope and fear,
with intentions of nobility,
of endurance, fame and art
alive in monumental heaps of stone
or a hand print on a cavern wall
to stay the motion of the stars
toward oblivion.

I join the quest of countless minds
since eloquence embarked,
seduced by glow of fiery brand
of immortality,
to embrace the living Universe
ablaze against the silent Dark
consumed to cast that sacred Light
on one eternal page,
unblemished by this mortal voice
that language bound must whisper,
from ashes faintly call,
confined to casting shadows
of Thy shadow in my thought.

The Sentencing

The guilty man stands in the dock
with shackles on his limbs,
the courtroom wears a muted hush
as lawyers ply their trade
with words of fear and innocence
and mercy and remorse
as flying pens strive to record
the details of the scene.
The lawmen men look upon his face
with hardened steely gaze,
the crowd shares thoughts in whispered tones
and shuffles restless feet.
Condemnation in the air
is joined by sorrow's rending cries
heard through tear stained handkerchiefs.
The prisoner notes with a sullen stare
the tableau set before his eyes,
in heart he even feels the hate
of the murdered victim's kin,
but the only words that breach his ear
and penetrate his mind
are spoken by the man in black
who grimly seals his fate.
All else is but untextured sound
to a man upon whom is pronounced
the final sum of his accounts-
"I sentence you to^eath".

Basic

Though luxuries I never had
once well fed enough I was
to contemplate the world without,
seeking beauty and morality
and the promise of a future.
Now shriveled, shrunken stomach hangs
untouched by food
for many days,
its need immense
with emptiness.
In this strife torn land
from a roadside ditch
my hollow gaze discerns the shape
of soldiers straggling by.
I know not why the bullets fly
over fallow land
where winds of famine
bring carrion fowl
to join the dance of death.
A crust tossed from a passing truck, a softness white in the ochre dust. Swollen tongue parts oiBted lips, entrails twist sawtooth edged, entire being in vice like grip of jagged pain, my universe is hunger.