Face of time
As a river flows to the sea
It’s joined by tributaries
Experience and relationships
Give it strength
Passive changes etch destiny
As seasons attend in turn
Bearing gifts of water and earth
That sustain the face of time
The river itself sustained
By wind and sky
T2001-2007
Nancy C.
I couldn’t tell you
I was in love with you
Every moment together
Encounter or thought
Never ended for me
Rides home at night
When you dropped me off
I didn’t want to go
You had a home
And so did I
There was no hope
You went to day shift
I couldn’t follow you
Because I loved you
I’ve loved you ever since
So now you know
T2002-2007/2020
Common sense
Smart tells us
Two is more than one
Intelligence teaches
Common sense
Is generally correct
Wisdom precludes
Too often
People won’t use it
T2003-2007
The dids and the didn’ts
It's a good thing
Going back to school
Hard to study at your home?
Perhaps a library card
You can study there
Some will covet your success
Their lack isn’t your crime
A sinking boat saves none
Watch out for undertow
Success must be selfish
Before it can be generous
Cousin to 'haves and haven’ts'
Is the 'dids and didn'ts'
Someday in reflection
You’ll be someone who did
'Could of' is a myth
Perpetrated by the 'didn'ts'
Your decision is sound
Modest pride is confidence
You’ve earned affirmation
Take a bow
T2004-2007
If you die
Part of me
Will turn colorless
I’ll miss times together
Seek you in places
That no longer exist
How could they?
I’ll wish for missed times back
And more times with
If you die
I’ll cry on both sides
Inside and out
A moist smile
Will remember
A tender scar
That pulls at the sun
T2005-2007
Until you die without
A soul doesn’t die
All at once
It erodes over time
Degradation feeds
As a parasite on the host
Until one day
You wake up dead
Wondering where you went
Do you think heaven
Is filled with China dolls?
Did you think it was
A place for perfect souls?
God welcomes all souls
Weeps for troubled ones
You become God’s smile
By asking to come home
Place doubt in the liar
Not in God
There’s still hope
You’re worthy of God’s love
Until you die without
T2006-2007
Sensuous
Gentle surround
Your thoughts unhurried
You consider and absorb
Deliberate and respond
No words wasted
Difficult or unkind
Just artful simplicity
All that moves
Is the clock too fast
I attend my day
With fond reflection
Of the morning’s mirror
I won’t confess
Or ask your name
It’s my secret
But I adore
The insatiable
Sensation of you
T2007-2007
Snapshot
I allow my heart liberties
Inappropriate as actions
Dreams really
Steal a moment
Fall in love for a lifetime
Picture our children
And life together
Watching in silence
As you become everything
And pass in an instant
I live for memories
That you’ll never know
T2008-2007
Woodwind
Soul of the flute
Searches the room like smoke
Dissolving walls into sky
Cattail ripples below the dock
Paint colors of sunset
Jungles of grass call from shore
Planks are weathered and hot
Reaching low in reflection
Deep into shadow’s soft whisper
Of time standing still
Each breath an image
Drifting back to the room
T2009-2007
Struggle
The light I seek
Rises above as a kite
From a broken string
Upon my decent
Into this darkness
Roots and worms
Steal my breath
Bind my limbs
As I spit dirt
I defecate and kill
Toward the hope
Of reaching mediocrity
It’s too much to ask
Too much to dream
It’s ugly to be me
That’s why no mirrors
T2010-2007
The jar
I dip my pen
Into a jar of human emotion
Pause in wonder
Can I go there again?
What armor will be lost
As ink strikes paper?
Will I withhold?
Can I allow such thoughts
Such secrets to be betrayed
By my hand?
I sense regret
Of confidences lost
Never to return
Incrementally exposed
I fear to one day find
The jar empty
T2011-2007
The one I await
When the music stops
Will I be alone?
Will there be a hand in mine
Someone beside me?
Will it be the right hand
Or just the hand I was dealt
A shelter from one?
Would it be such a crime?
I think so
A theft of trust
A selfish cloak
So if I choose alone
It’s because I can
The one I await
Will be someone
I won’t be able
To be without
It will be a decision
Beyond my control
Compulsion
That seeks no shelter
Makes me run in the rain
And defines who I am
T2012-2008
Heaven’s reflection
In silence you drift
Slowly away
I never once said
I need you so
Not out loud
Not inside
I didn’t say goodbye
Still can’t imagine it
Want has a grip
I struggle to break
But that’s my lie
I don’t want out
Out’s cold
I embrace
The pain of chance
Yesterday’s dance
Heaven’s reflection
Faint as a leaf on a tide
That’s gone out forever
Not impossible
Just not possible
T2013-2008
What price for peace?
Father’s murder
Mother’s bondage
Daughter’s innocence
Forced conception
The theft of you
Would you deny
Your family or creator?
Unspeakable evil
Happens every day
Somewhere in a world
Very different than ours
People in fine houses
Behind high stone walls
Say it can’t happen to them
It only happens to those
Who once lived in fine houses
Behind high stone walls
And now have no mouths
T2014-2008
Metamorphosis
A man owns the emotions
That owned his youth
T2015-2008
Dido
Listened to your words
Ripped at the cellophane
To unwrap my future
Searching for a heart
That left the door open
Your pen is blessed
You threaten and sway
Fragility painted coarsely
Broken glass emotions
Disguised as ordinary
Your signature strong
You probably hate hearing
For me it’s been five years
Why is it
Love promises hurt
And we fall harder?
Molten fools gold
Burns wanting absence
Given any warmth
Thank you for that
T2016-2008
Arsenic kisses
Great world kneels before us
Serves drink in pewter goblets
Fills gray water with formaldehyde
Kills our friends with wheat gluten
Paints children’s toys with lead
Poisons mother’s milk
A test perhaps?
You think?
Flesh-eating disease
Consumes our souls
Once a nation of will
Now a nation of putty
Bending nation of change
Screaming nation of madness
Stumbling nation without feet
Without foundation, or cause
So many ideas
Don’t play well together
So much to watch out for
For those who can’t see
So many alarms
Fall on deaf ears
An ocean of words
For voices without mouths
Followers study example
Leaders don’t
Yet they steady their hand
On the pulse of the past
T2017-2008
Anna
Searched through the closets
Scrutinized every shelf
For a poem for Anna
A little piece of myself
Full on charm and precocious
It’s now a tidbit past nine
She has a sway as she sings
Of the love on her mind
I found it pointless to dig
Like a dog for a bone
Such a child so precious
Deserves a poem of her own
She has many a reason
Not to shine for the season
Yet she smiles just the same
As a heavenly star
Who’s awaiting her fame
So thank you sweet Anna
And please always be true
To the ‘special’ you bring
To a world that loves you
T2018-2008
Paranoia
If you think about it
Everyone’s out to get you
You’re right to believe
The universe found you
It’s not personal
Intentional or conscious
Giant gears mesh
Life’s timepiece ticks
The pendulum swings
Our moment’s waiting
Ready or not
Here it comes
T2019-2009
Muttley9
My puppy doesn’t care
About world affairs
Or earthly concerns
Matters of weight
Or matters of state
Quite simply
He looks at me
And looks at his plate
To see if his day is ok
T2020-2009
This girl
Your eyes found me
From across the room
You didn’t look away
And neither did I
Your smile is lethal
And your eyes
I didn’t say but I knew
It was a surrender moment
What did I want?
Perhaps it’s safer
To let you order for me
Time stood between
What I wanted
To exist in presence
Of the eyes lips
Face hair and words
That made up
This girl
T2021-2009
Ice
Some walk on ice
Others trapped below
Struggle to breathe
The bible isn’t the ice
It’s a flotation device
It stops your sinking
It must grasp
In order to hold you
Preserving life
Jesus is the searchlight
Faith is a lifeboat
That carries you home
God’s always looking
For you
T2022-2020