Tag: poetry

  • It’s a strange world

    It’s a strange world,
    made of echoing emptiness
    pulling itself together,
    like Baron Munchhausen
    pulling himself out of the swamp by his hair.
    You cavort through it,
    creating it as you go,
    a cartoon character
    picking up tracks from behind
    and laying them in front
    for your train to keep going;
    an oblivious demiurge
    sensing the world into being.
    Every time you make a handstand –
    you stand on the edge of the precipice.
    Every time you laugh –
    you laugh in the face of death.
    It fills me with awe,
    and joy,
    and terror,
    and utter amazement
    at the strangest thing of all –
    your ability to see this world as rock-solid.

  • Realism

    Courage is always beautiful
    and courage in the face of overwhelming odds – doubly so.
    That is why there is such an acute, poignant beauty in realism.
    Seeing things as they are
    and nevertheless
    making choices based on who you want to be –
    what can be more brave,
    more beautiful,
    more pointless?

  • The fence

    I am forever sitting on the fence:
    precariously balanced, too intense;
    the pull to fall on either side – immense
    but if I fall, hence falls my common sense.

  • 300

    Three hundred broken promises ago,
    when life was fresh and full of joy and woe,
    I thought the world was mine to love and grow.
    It wasn’t. And it’s almost time to go.

  • Louvre

    Art is always revealing.
    The more dignified are the robes, the more naked is the fear of exposure.

  • The Shadow of Death

    “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil” (Psalm 23, ESV of the Christian Bible)


    Death always rides on the back of the living,
    unnoticed and unobtrusive,
    but ever-present.
    Sometimes we become aware of it
    through a shiver down the spine
    and sudden tightness in the chest
    that catches our breath
    and holds it.
    But then we breathe in –
    a deep breath of relief –
    and forget;
    those who don’t
    become insane
    or insufferable.
    We forget until the moment
    it’s time to turn our back to the world,
    take our final bow
    and let our death face it.

    Huastec statue from the Tampico region (México), artist unknown;
    displayed in Louvre Museum, Paris, France

  • Transformation

    When the heavens are reflected in the depths –
    throw a rock, watch the transformation.
    Isn’t it more fun than mere reflection?

  • Work of Art

    “Art is never finished, only abandoned.”
    Leonardo da Vinci


    You are a work of art, you are my voice
    combined with yours, a self-creating song.
    I will abandon you, but not by choice.
    You’ll sing the song yourself before too long.

  • SWALK

    I don’t believe in fate
    and yet my fate is sealed.
    Before I knew myself
    you sealed it with a kiss.
    I fought my self and yours,
    but open wounds re-healed
    until the flames of pain
    extinguished with a hiss.

    Alas, secure fate
    went quickly off the rail:
    you sealed it with a kiss
    and dropped it in the mail.

Free Web Hosting