Any tally

would seem 

too small

to sum 

the rich life

of Richard Pahl

a wordy epitaph

would scarce suffice

to praise his quiet will

to live it twice

friend mentor

farmer and father

husbandry was his

sheparded wealth

he went whole hog

and built a house

of love and logs

a cabin instilled

with his essence

of unbidden kindness

brewed joy and sugared time

our memories enshrine

his renaissance spirit

with smoke and wine

and an enjoyment of Jamesons

second to none

and so to him

a prince of men

we raise

a glass to drink

saying

with a sober wink 

both alas and amen

good rest to you

merry gentleman

i want to be

that rising roil 

riled foaming 

mouthing

chaotic white noise unregulated

roisterous released

unwavering ascent peaked toward

repeated dissolution

I want to roll in the curl

of the wave counterpane 

tasting the brine

of recent exertions

ceaselessly restless

unsettled roamantic

a peripatetic sea

planet trapped

in a soiled bed

perforce moon moved

breakers ripplets and combers

curling non-finite undulations 

salaaming salined

moiled adorations

to the shore

whose tidings and timings

wait upon

no man

The thunderheads

trajectile energy forking

to ground

arcing unrestrained

electric unrelenting

dynamic night dynamite

dynamo blue halo

explosive strobing

cloud foddered

aerial atmospheric artillery

Brain hibernation banished

by the beaming sun

doldrums undone

by longer days

insights razored by the rays

mind fog melts

from snow to dew

ideas awake and renew

The ventriloquist twists

the words I hear

the magician’s tricks say

I saw her

the marionneteer strings

me along and the threnody

put me out on a limb

while the musician  sings

the melody of

the puppet of love

From that opera pulpit

the high priest in vestments

preaches giving eternal testament

dams my soul to contentment

but no matter who pushes or shoves

my head’s in the oven of 

the puppet of love

In my quondam toothless youth

before the quandaried bites of habits

I drank the kool-aid 

and called it truth

and fell down the holes of rabbits

whose tales were dangerous and vituperous

filled with bogey thems

that threaten us

but now behind my hedge of teeth

I frown at righteous smiles that 

lie beneath

the fear and reviling on another’s face

for it is a race we are running and 

not winning

and it must finish by beginning

to lace on the shoe

of the others moccasin

and foot the bill of dotaged hatred

before another generation gums

the old saws anew

a thousand years ago

As today

The turmoiled world

filled with baseless intrigue

And  implausible plots 

Was Believed eagerly 

by hoi polloi idiots

The empire toppled

From within 

Rife with moral bankruptcy

And petty sin

Baffled as to why

They lost their lot

Along with their reason

Preferring senseless treason

To seasoned truth

personal gain

Subjecting all to a

World of suffering

Loss and pain

Umasked they ranted

Pitting petty freedoms

Against greater good

A plague on their houses

Ensued blamed of course

On the Juden 

Willingly possessed by 

the demon demagogue 

Demi-god

The seasonal emergency

tender deeply rooted

shooting shaking off

dehybernating

determined pullating

warming to germination

reciting the primary

ripening spell

indelible recurrent

in full flower

profligate

withering the brumal

sumptuary laws

bedewed with mist

and demur morning light

the pricked bud blooms

into the blossom picked

The moon shines

The sand to snow

And intones dunes

Of shone shadows

To drift shoreward

Silvering toward

The watered phosphor

fire water

opaline moonshine

inebriating shimmerirridescing

pellucid peripheral

semifluous liquidating

superficial lava

the harvest moon at three quarters

and I newly seventy 

both a little past prime

yet her rising rosy passion

still mets mine

a summer well wisher welcomer

languishing in the last long

verde velvet aired days

the black furred nights

and the long perspective

of  slow evenings

slathered in butterlight

when equal and eager

wanton we’s eyes

flirt and pant

passions spate

senses potent spent

in real time

A consensual commingling

coalescing the mutual plasma

Of caressed familiar senses

Into the ultimate consequent 

Simultaneous seminal

spasmodic crescendo

condensing the

Momentary Removal

of individual divisions

Into a singularity of passion

senescence

a pine dawn

sea  brine sunset

granite summit unscented

mushroom moss and. musk

cloudburst coming

night damp

frosted snow

pheromed rote of

synapse non-sense

candied vaulted away

safely deposited

in the memorybank

aromatic

olfactory

satisfactory

now the fragrances

all make sense

a complimentary nosegay

of summer scents

the magic carpet ascends

upwelled on a woven melange

early burgeoned scents

Loaded and aerialized aromatics

cloying to excite romantic acrobatics

in the featherbrained, harebrained

and hive minded that swarm

in newly warmed air and earth

hypnotized to stigmatize, 

pollinate, devirginate and

fertilized by the fervored

astigmatic multifaceted vision

of the single minded

give bloom to blossom

chaliced in 

the waterlilies cup

the ruby damselfly

astride the jeweled drop

does not break

the surface tension

a phalanx of water striders 

scattering before

the bow wave

dimple dare

flying colors

airborne blossoms

Ariel iridescent acrobats

breeze ballerinas

fluttering water color 

silent wind chimes

winging painted

Searching for change

With beached pennies

As thoughtless recompense

Poor pickings wavering

between tidal

plebeian commonsense

And belligerent defense

With warring marring

Ebbing Intelligence

Ceasing shelling

The air is blue

And so is the sky

Something catching

Slips  in your eye

A plaguing question

To do or die

The dreaded reply

answered everywhere

As Everyone’s heard

And Spread the word

Join the herd

Amidst the mounds

Between 

the mists of now

and the Morning of time

The preternatural sounds

Of anklet bells of copper reflected in skin

And bracelet shells

Dancing feet slapping

beating to knapping’s

hard clap refrain

Flinty points

Big medicine regalia of

Hand and eye

Several souled

Invisible and fluid

As Underwater panthers

Only these elevated

Funerary Monuments

remaining ways

To realms of the dead

Ogee gorget

In cowards skins

The sham shaman

bellows buffaloed

belligerent

the sharks flimflam

shaming truth

putting us all

on the ironic horns

of his delusional dilemma

a life of luck

destiny deluxe

when all the dots 

pieces and puzzled

shards uncross

align by design

and love is in the cards

adding unbidden rewards

unassumed acclaim

demure hidden

the die as 

yet uncast

the mettle still unset

self assured conferring

and confident of

inner treasure

the stars 

all fallen

unseen unfollowed

in skies of

lack light black

by no foresight guided

no one way back

the squid ink voids

any fluid thinking

we all blink

at the abyss

or are we

winking

down the slope to silence we slip

thoughts twixt mind and lip 

muddled and mixed

lost in crossed translation

revelations unintended

leaving true intentions unmended

misconstrued and wounded 

eroding hard won trust and favor

for uneasy truce's 

empty banality

of forced niceties

when to mend what is needed

is to hear and be heeded

If we are not mindful, the mundane can be mendacious. Investing daily routines with rituality can compromise preternaturality. While personal hygiene, organization and good habits are commendable, they can quickly assume and usurp an individuals delicate sense of wonder. Regimes of behavior can substitute for "stimming," to numb the overwhelming assault of outside influences. Unlike creative passions , immersion in superficial stimuli submerges engagement with reality under a wave of suppressing distractions that seem soothing, but evoke no Pneuma. Empty divertissement detracts from the seeing of our self-darshan. Opportunities for wonder are ephemeral and fugacious. Quickly lost and unrecognizable if we are not poised for a peek through the doors of perception.Replacing the innate fear of self discovery with the same intuitive curiosity about our personal abilities, encourages confidence and engagement with both our genetic and numinous quiddities. In turn, it engenders wonder at all human and Gaian iterations.