AWAKEN THE LOVERS

Awaken the lovers,
the ones we left naked
and alone, curled
like vast wildernesses
around their hearts,
and ask what they discovered
traversing the silent knowledge
of their dreaming.

The world calls for them to sing,
and soothe these confused voices
speaking out in fear and hate.

The world calls for them to laugh,
like children, at the boundaries
we imposed upon our minds.

Awaken them,
the ones who abandoned the
procession through the valleys
to dance with the mountains,
and ask what they discovered
wandering the timeless shores
of the bewildered.

We call for them to kindle
our shared vulnerability, so
we may cross the territory of despair
with playful courage and
a deepening clarity.

We call for them to reveal
the strength transcending barriers
and the fearless understanding
dormant beneath all symbols of
power and oppression.

Awaken them,
the lovers kept secret
behind our masks
of doubt and cynicism,
and ask what they discovered
traversing the silent knowledge
of their dreaming.
 

UNEXPLAINABLE

something
about this place
seems so familiar,
a cool ocean fog
and a soft hint of rain,
yet each time I stand
with my back to the sand,
the horizon is
never the same

vastness
comes knocking
from every direction,
the sky digs deep
into my brain,
if you ask me
what it might find there,
I could not begin
to explain

 WHO BEGINS

Who begins to dance
in the street of umbrellas,
after years of just casually
avoiding the rain

Who begins to laugh
at the curtain unfurling,
the audience bewildered left
immersed and restrained

Who begins to walk
the path down through the valleys
where the stream meets the lowlands in
a nowhere prolonged

Who begins to breathe
the last fragrances of dawn
into lungs full of cobwebs and
ineffable songs?

EXCAVATION

unmasked,
unprepared,
unveiled and
undeclared,
underneath and
undiscovered,
the unbroken,
unimpaired

unfading,
undermined,
the untamed,
unrefined,
the unchallenged,
the unforeseen,
the unspoken,
undefined

HEARTBEAT
Alive and encased,
embodied and embraced,
our voice was ingrained,
the source was untraced,
our laughter restrained,
and endlessly chased,
now peering out from
the impenetrable sound
of a heartbeat
in the abstract crowd.

WHEN A HAND CLOSES

when a hand closes
a scar appears
calling out for
the one who knows
to remember

but it forgets
and a storm is formed
then the wind scatters
a hurting world
across the skin

it forgets
and dreams a confusion
where a man mistakes
the art of living with
an act of killing,

then as war breaks out
it collapses down
with exhaustion
slowly beginning
to remember

it hears again
the voice of the loved one
echoing across
the shared gulf
of co-creation

it remembers
a leap of faith
across a chasm
of ever-changing
vastness

and it remembers
the quiet moment
after the eclipse
when a hand opens
to reveal the gift

SOMETIMES

sometimes you hide
in a crowd of strangers
like the sun disappears
in a clouded sky

sometimes I find you
when the mist fades away
as the crowd dissipates
when I close my eyes

but sometimes I’m lost
in a whirlpool of thoughts
and I follow your trail
through a restless mind

until I escape
my fortress of doubt to
traverse the clouds and
let my heart unwind.

IT SITS

It sits there,
between two elsewheres,
concealed from view
in the space forgotten,
but not lost.