The bon mots

of a morning

colorful

conversant with clouds

and the sunny tricks 

of light

that betray

the debut

and ennui

of another

long day

I am

red white

black yellow

and green

you unseen

feel safe

to hate disbelieve

and berate

I want to be spare

not lean

a rashers worth

of the good life

sticking to the ribs

the primal

misapprehension

of my intention

instigated by

the immediate 

amygdalic erection

of the invisible tripcord

to the electric

chicken wire

of your caged 

paranoiac defenses

begs a reciprocal

defencing response

a priori to any unintended 

apprehension my

innocent comment invoked

and disrupts

any sequence

of tranquil rapport

precipitating a recurring

chorus in turn inducing

a redundant stuttering

rendition

of the prosaic

lover’s lament

Whine and repeat

droning

sing songs

of wrong rhyme

and entitled defeat

full of shallow

sentiment and fashion

no lofty loves

or heartfelt passion

jingle singers

nursery cribbing

gibbering frog perfume

Stars failing

to forestall

their falling

marquee their

meteoric performance

through stellar 

crossed skies 

reflecting their demise

in the blink

of hoodwinked eyes

until there is

nothing but night

Long standing 

trees survive

for centuries

by rooting deeply

and lipping sun 

from every

visible spectrum

achieving their

aspirations

by leaving

We rarely

make 100

by chasing

elusive optical

prismatic phenomena

and transforming

the invisible into

the desirable

unrealistic

dream rainbows

As I wend

my way weary

toward home and 

cheery hearth

tired to death

giving the earth

my life for warmth

winter cold

shrew souled

skeletal

An unorotund

less than mellifluous

marmoreal pretender

expounding

stone lines

with lead chisel

sound the branked

and tight lipped

artfully engaging

their shrunken

hearts and skulls

encouraging

tied tongues

toward unbound

dedogmatic dialogue

The joy of after and apre

coital consensus 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

whose expression in the wild

is undefiled by

distracting 

mechanical distortion

Esprit rueing through 

the avenues of Paris

matching stride

for stride

each stall

patisserie

boulangerie

fromagerie

calling for a taste

don’t make haste

savor the

dawdle entendre

pole vault woman

she is worth my salt

if a man can’t lover her

it’s his own damn fault

bullet train mama

she curves up to speed

her boilers glowin’

you can feel her need

Nature’s sculptures

painstakingly born

worn from rain

patiently eroded

free form 

from materials

at hand

rock wood

raw land

purpose suited

resistant but

non permanent

twisted gouged denuded

with thoughtless beauty

by the planet’s potters wheel

As you embrace

on the shore

of your nuptial voyage

facing the consummate joy

of your maiden marriage

still a freshening breeze

cast off doubts for delight

as your twin beacons

unite to show shoals

that would maroon 

trothed goals

run deep in 

still waters

while you can

Who is 4?

Eve is four!(4)

she was three (3)

So give her a happy howl

and a Birthday hoot

soon she will be owl wise and no surprise

smarter to boot

because she is startin’

kindergarten!

Flutes in the lighthouse

to high to hear

the fledermaus 

echo locating

silence

seagullabies

woodwinds towering

in the starless velour

lunacy of moonlit loons

hovering horned owls

mourning doves

transmuted in the unheard

undawned hours

As self absorbing darkness

predictably grays another of

the fast diminishing days

with dimming repetitive motions

that quicksand you into

the emotionally absent mire

of suryph’s conversations

the relentless deceptive attraction

of the snake pit’s rippleless

reflective peace

tempts you into 

touching pitch

In comber’s cadence unguided

they promenade unwavering

from plage to promontory

in unbroken rolling stride

driven to their repeated

self destructive frothing suicide

unrolling restless trolling

trough to peak

hissing broken sighing

endeavoring to speak

of journeys quartering

before the freshing breeze

and the ever following seas

Out of the

carnival fun house

with its distorted

mirrored self images

enswanned again

into the formerly

faithless frightening 

tunnel of love

spun out of control

onto the giddy carousel

to find at the end

your lighthearted illumination

Eden’s chypred air

breathes from her

unbrushed sun hushed hair

the monocled

ragamuffin moon

swathed in tacky

pearlescent scarves

pops pumpkin hued

into the crisp

apple bite 

of the autumn night

over the fringe

of the ice shawls rills

the owl’s snow angel

wings brush the air

knelling for tit mice

and the invisible

winter hare

We are possessed

of an irrepressible

affinity affianced

of a sensual seance

yet heart shrunk and skinless

I sleep untouched

nestless and benumbed

separate celibate

a cellared monk

untempted without

virtue of a virgin

twin within

When winter ending expires

tossing in the white glove

and singing his

swan song

to Spring

acceding to

the budding and tamped seeds

who aspire to the untamed

warmer desires

strive to exceed above

the cramping earth

acquiring quickening from the sun

all require enlightening

by the illuminated

gardener of Love

To brave the reticences

of unhealed hearts

requires trust in

inner feelings

what may enSue

by happy coincidence

or fortunate prescience

comes just in time to

start you anew

Elevated

just above

the care full bed

to a pilotless plane

hovering out of body

enlightened

mooning away

in an eccentric orbit

on approach avoidance

following the lunar radar

waiting for the smoke and mirrors

of the djinn’s

out of the bottle tonic

to mend the unpeaced puzzle

with “the unbearable lightness of being”

beginning to end

the unsuitable period 

of mourning

to live by the billions

a black blizzard

buzzing for a day

dying in drifts

of spent

gnasty

reproductive bliss

The many hatted man

mahatmas you unplanned

an uncannily silk wise

confident confidant

an undisguised dangerous spirit

exposing and espousing

unasked

a life unmasked

expressed empathy

implies a mutual

compass of souls

hand held communications

agreed regard

on a steering star

a kismet kiss

met halfway

by hearts in the

right place

for celestial navigation

Lady in waiting

till year’s end

to be unbounded

anticipating a friend

by noble men

sorely confounded

where is the true way

surely unfettered

when two view

a new day

it has already

been bettered

milkweed seed

freed from your rough

scrotal pod

enlightened by the sun

streaming through your silk

perforced to embrace

the changeling wind’s

enforced direction

choiceless yet seeming

free to propagate

The breath thief

takes you at a gallop

barebacked beside yourself

a ride wild and unwilled

flank to lathered flank

firmly straddled

fingers enmaned

emotions unreigned

leaving you unsettled

hoarse and unsaddled

restless for the steed’s

exhilaration you needed

Held in abeyance

seeing a woman

who says she 

cannot see me

the constant flail

of coarse music

the sly pillory

of imposed distance

beneath disesteem

unable to import

even a goodbye

who can sum

a life

with all its complicated

multiplications, additions

divisions and subtractions

it is an unbalanced, incalculable

equation where though

all our days are numbered

and every thing amassed

amounts to naught

There are too many variables

to fill the absence

why then are we non plussed

to find that

death

the infinite negative

can summon life

Only from

the initial illuminating

grasp of the movement

to the gasp of perception

as it dashes past

does the meteor’s 

moment last

after a spell

under an apple petal

umbrellaed in 

the scented musk

of flushed mushrooms

the season appears

ducks in a row

scatter

in a ruckus

as I approach

a bass 

bent rod bears

the fish augured

to be barreled

fated to be filleted

the reflective lake mirrors

quietly requiting 

the toss antlered stag

against 

the holed volcano moon

I’m in fine fettle

fit as a fiddle

testing my mettle

pot called a kettle

so give me a rill

to jig

and gill to quaff

and fill my big belly laugh

on my lip a tune

of a lass in jeune

and another peccadillo

Ho de Do

for I’m a fine fellow

Tilsit, figs and swans

sunning on the Avon

harvesting the fall

pulchritude of words

wiling away an hour

between scenes

as the thyme on my hands

flies scented away

My fruitcake woman

sweet thick with 

her own special spices

secret ingredients

textured and confettied

with candy

dark as devil’s food

wild as the whiskey within

yet warm and mellow

yellow as ginger

a hunger of Christmas memories

eagerly awaited

made to be eaten

The great white father’s 

devil red skin

and little big horns

buffaloed a golden haired

massacre into a

last stand to amass acres

while dog soldiers

slipping on a trail of tears

ghost danced

scalping last chance

tickets to extinction

Flashes of infrared

and tourmaline

touch the ears and throat

opalescent jewels

share the iridescent

mutable character

cool turquoises disguise

the fear of trusts

russet golds radiate

contained frustration

all the tested mettle

alloyed in confusion

the toughest stone

shielded from herself

repeated intricate

pattern hammered

too thin to continue

reveal immutable features

that abrasion cannot efface

return to the crucible

of will which

refines impurities

relax under the necessary

internal pressures

that evolve diamonds

from deposits of past

depressions

Rely on time’s

pearlescent nacre to lustre

over lost love’s chancre

make a touchstone of your heart

with a partner

and your reciprocal proximities

will lodestone you together

polishing away

both your peculiarities

Poetry

mental notes

human music

played with

voice joy

mind’s eye

learned rote

pass worded

vocable

turns of phrase

Centuries of wind circled

stroking the cliff’s

protecting face

into tophatted 

hoodoo pottery

stippled with seep’s

salty earthen tears

parched worship unappeased

by foot drum thunder

cracked shards

lit by atalatl lightning

upset the magic’s balance

unstacked the odds 

ceremonies cannot

sooth the eroded streaks or

staunch the

stone’s blood

one gust gone

driving the 

ancestors of the enemy

from the living rock

scent of straw hats

cedar chests

and cigar boxes

call of a bittern

cave seeps echoing

geese southing

taste of scallops, corn

and cauliflower

lobster in butter

feel of moss, silk

warm lake water in

moonlight

dancing in thunder showers

creased and 

well fingered paper

smudged from

amending each

imperfect word

from balancing

each line on the

entendre’s double edge

removing layers of

onion skin to

reveal the

perfect idea

A barren boy

without blossoms

having lost them

in innocence and youth

my limbs were stiff and unbending

from a winter in the forest of truth

Now I stand in new found freshness

with a sight full of summer in you

and I’m budding, branching and growing

with a flowering point of view

Well you were lost in the living seas

a gentle breeze snared by money trees

they read your palms and danced your feet

saying to win you must compete

you blew by me to claim the prize 

but you were fooled by my perfect disguise

so you swirled around the lookout tree

and found you were standing next to me

we’ll stick together we both agreed

you’ll be the fruit and I’ll sprout the seed

whistle in my hollows

and ruffle my hair

while freedom follows the path we share

personal prisons

bonds of love

bound by convention

and the glove of

bodily geographies

the permanent 

press of stress

codes of honor

conduct and dress

bars of music

all the social clubs

ethic constrictions

religious convictions

brand names

products of environment

parental opinion

and circumstance

beaten by blows

not ours alone

has thought never been

original or ever 

just a sin

capriccios on

the esplanade

swanning waves

castanets of

lacy spray

the green man smiles

from the hearthside

where the chocolate cat

curls like the flames

the deep of winter

whirls white flakes

while a child

dradles daydreams

the mother ravels

a soft sleeve

sweatered the eve away

the father

spun aloud a story

letting go of his day

that wild whiskered green man

whistled a softening strain

which sounded strange

to the winter playing at draughts

twas naught but an aire

attuned to spring

never the same shore twice

bubble bathed

whipped cream clean

tidied twice daily

scented with pine and brine

treasures bared and buried

culled and curried

by gull and comber

foot prints wiped

at the point of no return

sparrows for a space

out of the storm

warmed by

a light already old

white quiet descending

bending low

the fir’s furred boughs

briefly fossiled

frost fractals

unmirrored in

the fractured 

ice above

the great lake of life

never freezes smooth

thoroughly corrupted

by Thoreau

simply bedazzled 

by Buddha

going nowhere

in Erewhon

once upon a time ago

lived a prince

in a land 

beside himself

he believed 

you were what you ate

so, for breakfast he had 

a goose golden egg

but only got a small fortune

and a hard knock

for lunch he had

cheetah feet

alas the race isn’t always

to the swift

and he was swindled

at a memorable tea

he had elephant brains

but you cannot live

in the past

finally he repasted on

a seven course dinner

soup to nuts

savory whole roasted pig

as the spice of life

is always food for thought

in the end he was only half

of what he used to be

shadow boxing

and you all punch drunk

and judased

every undertaking

pantomimed folly

undertaker’s fodder

coffers of

promised happiness

emptied to the coffins

of stringed fair weather friends

pulling no punches

sparing none

the spoken sparring

sans matadors

trapped bulls charge

inside hedged stones

an uncowed whirlpool

of fury

a statue white stallion

rears gravely

under the coin eyed moon

each hoof beat emphatic

epitaphing a standing stone

night’s dark mares

dolmen free

of apocalyptic horsemen

pale and riderless

stampede to the finish

in the race none wishes to win

steedless and bullied

we stand still 

swords enstoned

in the headstone arena

unmagicked waiting

for soothsayings

and princely pulling

Marry! a mare’s nest

to marry contrary

mores the pity that

more’s not merrier

on this merry go round

the long gong

echoes off the

emotional peaks

each peal striking

a personal note

breaking the moated

sound barrier

from hearer to bearer

appealing to harmonic

accord speaking to 

a muse whose

chorus gathers us

The loose limbed

strut of youth

stiffens to

age’s puppet crutch

gone the teenage 

angst and idealism

replaced by middle age

regret and realism

wild escapades

memories made

slipped to

gratification delayed

trust lost, 

vowed love unfound

elation foundered

to resignation

nonetheless

the ever loving optimist

eats fat chances

savors pit falls and

cooked goose

and has cake too

plucks luck from

world size oysters

and pulls wisdom

from the pearly teeth 

of swine

the froth of new wine’s

truthful message is

never bottled

sagely corked 

or wisely aged

by wizening

Tis all the rage for

the aged deranged

toward anger to rage

spleens vented on

actions provoked

but not prevented

by a history of ailments

in blood

endlessly descending

Beach glass

mosaics ghosted opaque

unbottled shards

of urgent messages unreceived

brittle, broken rainbows jigsawed

shore softened sand blasted rainbows

humpty dumped pieces

ever puzzled 

Snow Job

He started during

the blizzard of ’99

shoveling driveways

porches, steps

incessant snow

covering him uncovering

what was the point while

the whole valley view to

the water was and evolving

pointilist panorama

chaos drifting to silence

distancing him from

the white static turmoil

of life descending

to existence

randomly elected paths

unpredictable

The snow is slow

white as ice

soft falling

deeply drifting

white as ice

hard as marble

deeply drifted

swiftly sleighing

hard as marble

sliding slushy

swiftly sleighing

Santa swooping

through the slow snow

Widow weeds wake

in boxes

set on sills

blossoms coffined

in the bed

lilies laid in

deadly nightshade

and doll’s eyes

closed over irises

bachelor buttons and

faceless forget me nots

grandfather clocks wound down

not ticking in time

to a final knocking

on the one sided door

only half century open

subdued bouguereau figures

haloed in soft saint light

Faeries are exquisite dancers

and, for those who are quizzical

their plies are far from physical

a favorite fling is the happenstance

best when viewed slightly askance

tight rope walkers weep

jealous birds shrill

at their skill in keeping balance

without wire or wing

they appear here and there

waltzing on air with room to spare

but if you hope to try it

gravity will deny it

the best we can wish for

compares favorably with the dinosaur

and yet, if faeries be but in our heads

can we not be dancers in their stead?

How do the odd see

on their classic journey?

guided by old lights

from caged cantoists

whose insightful windows

indivisible by two were

thought to be missing

the odd pain or light

to be scant a few

uncanny grams of gray matter

to make the pound

of flesh needed to

steer the ugly ducks

closer to home

self propelled

pell mell 

down unfurled 

eddied salt fizz soda

boiling past the ribs

siphoned and slingshot

through the surface

slapped on the bottom

and born to shore

A midsummer’s day

all the trees are shouting

limes and olives

while acorns argue

under footfalls

on greenland moss maps

frogs repeat the same 

old jokes

(all the time no one spoke)

and the pond responds

with giggle ripples

and dimples as

we all do the

sun stroke

Possessed by the

spirits of sparrows

brown and blown

bleak by harsh

harvest gusts

a flock of now

superfluous leaves

settle, start and circle

as the true birds in hand

struggle under their

own power

So vulnerable

those simple

glimpses through

twin mirrored

trap doors

left ajar

purposely

for someone

curious enough

to explore 

and candidly display

them for us

Those two swans among the reeds

they will swim

until they freeze

circles ever smaller grow

they must leave or don’t they know

up is the only way to go

Swan’s are silent

they do not sing

but there are other ways of taking wing

free yourselves twin birds of snow

flee your icy prison floe

up is the only way to go

they cannot hear nor will they see

swans are much like humanity

we could fly if not in air

yet we choose not to dare

their ivory wings will slow at last

fighting feet frozen fast

some creatures mate for life

the swan will not forsake

his wounded wife

so they become

a crippled pair

a trout supple

member elegantly

suspended in midwater

finning anticipation

in constant motion

on the brink of balance

dimpling the

surface tension

with controlled rise

release and capture

that satisfies hunger

all in one

liquid breath

Your voice has an

eager catch and 

an air of yearning

while we still fencing

and learning with

our defenses

trust your senses

to the elan of chance

the harp of happenstance

mouth the sounds of promise

even of compromise

admit anything to attain

the attention and contentment

of an imagined home

let us sing 

the prodigals madrigal

and at least

attempt our feast

Have you made

any progress with

your ever present 

inner frown

which has never

granted your wishes

to whom have you prayed

when the nameless afraid

attaches your tickled death

lo, how bent down

over the hollow moon

the punch pleased youth

and even your seventh heaven

is long in tooth

Green man

of the green wood

straw man of withy wood

both bois blanc from

Jack Frost cum

spring healed cum

napes come Learing

mummering the annual prank

moorish boorish 

ranks of men dancers

the beribboned old guiser

his norse hobby horse

Old Tup up the maypole

Jack in the box on top

popping cherries and maiden heads

to placate the horn mad equine ox

scapegoats cuckold old menhirs 

morris dancing on dolmen

chanticleering the son’s return

chanting “blood for the stone”

twining the sword knot

round the nape of the knaves neck

wedding by beheading

virgins to deathsheads

and separating hearts

from sanguine valentines

seeing what the jackdaw

secrets away

gash nosh

meat and drink

fill the flesh bag

to be tomorrow’s stink

day in night out

just to think

Even this

small paradise

has its burrs

but the water is warm and womby

and the milk white beaches

bosom your reclining body

while the sun blinks rapidly

and your leisure eyes

close the days

All corners cut

edges of

unconfronted knowledge

that sunder past plateaus

with upthrust wedges

of wanly uninvited insight

arguing any shallow

abyss where one may

lay in allowances or excuses

the self made nooses

that in other hands

would be chance’s rope ladder

toward hope

used to advance vanquish

conquer and climb

He was a minor gnome

from his eldrich corner of space

in their least his kin

can whim one from beast to man

or worse give you his face

We were spiriting

whispering through the continuum

when just for mirth or

on some small excuse of trespass

we were forced to warp

his looking glass

toward a body called earth

and for what its worth

we are still here

signed with a sigh

Madam and Adam

predictable imperceptible

doming up

yolking yellow to blue

dawning on us

precisely sunny

side up

Insular islandic the

sand surf sky

dynamic fluid framed

tryptic from

peloric clouds

pelagic

lightning terns

strike in

sedulous triads

at the corrupted elusive

fish shadows

the thin line horizon

scalpels the

golden calf

half sun

the day indeed

done

Self importance

is secondary on

the social calendar

to family which is

supernumerary to 

voluntary simplicity

Deer dancing to

the full rondo moon

owlish fowl fugue

questioning 

the lunar whom

loons uulating

the slumbrous lakes

lapping la la lullaby

Autumn’s axe

breaks butterflies backs

frost cataracts frieze

frog’s ponds 

but Spring should surprise

rising redolent where

the ash of winter’s unfreezing

lies reclined and wane

vain glorious in a splashy

green geyser

a frizzante of

mentholated mental scent

fruity infusing

leaving the firmament

leavened and in

warmly welcomed ferment

Sharp winter’s light

hardens the sight

and snaps all shades

to the brightest 

each color sallowed

and flayed 

bone white

no more the humid

summer shaft

that renders hues

so hazy or the welcome

lazy diurnal wash

of verdant vernal

brumal rays though

are bound by

shortened days

drained and divested

of all but white and shadow

this achromate visage 

suits their cold

tuition well

for virgin vision

You cannot see me 

waiting unobtrusively 

a shell held to your 

unhearing ear

listening for a fanfare

blown to your unknowing heart

but I suppose the blind

do not smile at their mates portrait

perhaps you will recognize

our desires as identical

and lift that fearful veneer

that will not allow 

or acknowledge

such chemical propinquity

or let it degenerate into

folie adieu

for the responsibility

of such an intimate vow

rest ultimately

between we two

Long draughts

of strange liquors

tossed off in 

strong airs that

bury the Beaufort scales

Prosit, Tres Forte, Salud

a salute to the storm

counting the wave tops

from the hermitage hill copse

of bare birch that hunches

over the beach

straining to remember

an earlier gale of November

with a weather eye

falling glass

and lowering sky

brandy dwindling in the bottle

come sea go sea

com se com sa

By howling furies all

sleet twixt the thunder 

and squall

Oh the cold 

how it strikes you

right in the eyes

Thank god for the grog

to warm these insides

From storms like this

are born horrid tales

of sailors that follow

a light that fails

Thin red line of lip

curved by cupidity’s quip

nothing dims from dune to dale

what was scarlet now pale

always unadulterated Anne

Carrying catafalque’s

Atlantes and caryatids

unbent under the burden

of their awareness

from above but

unable to find an

earthly purchase

to rest and regain

their former innocence

no longer afraid

of ages changes

needing no aid

to face the wrinkles in time

My thoughts mandlebrot

noveling over

a resounding idea

that does not resonate

in your echoless 

monotonic 

emoticon mind

By  snowy fields and lanes

she keeps the waiting

in candlelight

the sacred altar shines

He suckled the young lambs

upon his knee

even the weary sleep

in peace

he read the stars inside

her dream

but he was blind

all winters long for spring

she kept the vision vigil

sweet chariots of flame

against the sky

he played on the harp

sweet melodies

children and emperors

came to see

he drove the dragons

to the knights

but he was blind

Walking

in a vague fog

living in limbo

misty I’d

Seven bells

said the captain

one horn called the shore

in the fog that enveloped them

closer than 

an old sailor’s whore

Dead head

the muscled muse

amused has fled

abused bemused

what was read?

the place where mind

and matter meet

is indiscreet

thew bound

imaginary men

begging the question

of egg or children

A cardinal brake

signals spring

across the green

light of lawn

Horizon’s marring uncertainty

disturbs the peace of mind

moiling unwavering reason

to insanity

jarring the pax de la mar

with a gritty salt grained pill

that life like the sea

is never still

Our vaunted 

barrel vaulted brains

hold the cure that we

must not keep so greedily vaulted

just bring both barrels to bear

giving shot to the dark

bearing in mind

as we bare our sharing

that we have a care

the barrel’s bottom 

may be bare

The attractive grammar

flattery of floral magnets

causes Commas and Question Marks

to pause and inquire

at their flowery pheromone courts

observed by Painted ladies themselves

overcome by the cologne and color

fluttering with unblinking eyes at

the winged applause and admiration

of nectaring Monarchs 

and their sipping

short lived Viceroy mimics

lured despite the 

advice of airy Admirals

and their Skippers

by publican hues 

and nosegay scent sentences

to become smug pupals 

snug in the novel

reinCarnation caskets

of the Chrysalis Palace

Disingenuous Heroness

pretender heiress

empty avian eyes

calculating shrewd beaked

faux feather head dress

stalking your feathered nest 

In the brainforest

every thought leafs out divining

unlimbering swinging

limbic branch to branch

synapses sway toward

every wet burst of lightening

in the daily sensory deluge

dendrites sort the detritus

brainstorming the unformed

pooling information

without a drop of sense

and with a flash

making sense of every drop

Why does this

horrorshow

have a Spring

broken bough hands

still finger

buds anew

flowers rise 

from graves gone green

en mass

who hates dew

what rage is there

in soft rain when the

air is fresh for all

how can steel

invade flesh

upshot blades

are shoots

and afterthoughts of

winter ever warm

Distracted by

fluted euterpation

lost in sensation