Playful

Music makes atmosphere

As playful vocals spin outward
Chasing ears and catching smiles

The soulful symphony of one
Extends to all who pass

(Written while listening to Kuku perform on the pier at Old Town Alexandria, VA)

Affectionate Almighty (A poem)

Affectionate Almighty
Extends trembling arms
Grabs hold of the wayward
Envelopes divine progeny

Enamored Eternal
Melts at lover’s return
Infidelity forgiven
In forever’s embrace

Unburned Bridges

Here I stand
The last man
Centered atop
An unburned bridge

All others
Have jumped off
Or run to shore
Now it is I alone at apex

With torch in hand
I consider options
Of setting arch ablaze
Or extinguishing the light

Another choice
Moves my hand
And smoke arises
From the cuff

Clothing consumed
To ashes at feet
Leaves me uncovered
A spectacle all the more

Risk Intimacy

To risk having
Is to risk losing

Not having as I would a possession
But a having that is knowing
A having that gives, suffers, loves

That ownership makes
Losing not only of other
But of self

A loss of part of me
Found only
In community
And solidarity
With you

Yet even in that dying
There will be birthing
As in your absence
You will persist
Forever forming
Me

I will risk for you

Sacrilege

Is it sacrilegious to disagree

With a most honorable brother

Whose martyred blood hangs over every word

Posthumously printed

 

I ask because I sometimes wander there

And risk the heresy of arguing

With one whom so many revere

Including myself

 

For though I refuse to be the accuser

I cannot be the nodding head

Who refuses to question

Even the most saintly

Encounters

I met Joe Hemphill today at the Revue in Fresno. These are the encounters that I live for and I am blessed to have met another local poet.

Exchange

I pick up my own stone
In anger I deem righteous
And out of my pain
Cast judgment

But in the quiet
I hear the truth

That glass hearts
Violently exchanging stones
Only breed brokenness

And from Grace’s throne
Flows a water
that turns glass
To flesh