Poetry & Lyrics

come and find me in the hallway
beyond the breathless corner
where darkness pulses ripples
of permission and desire
come and find me in the hallway
do not dive into my eyes
but lock your bigger hand onto my wrist
making this […]

For this is the passing of night into day
the falling of age into grace
the lines of the face melting like clay
And this is the roll of life and its course through time
and the ebb and […]

Do you know what I hold in my hand?
Not your life
Not your hope
Not grains of sand that are indicative
of the fact that you stand upon the beach,
a man expecting to radiate into the universe
spinning dreams […]

Tell me you saw it coming
with the clouds that trapped the sun
did the glacier leak
did the ice cap weep
when the last big bear was gone
was it a groundswell
an earthquake
that fouled the final lake
or was it […]

Wheat
like rods of gold
in the fields of your youth
once glowed
stood tall
waved in the breeze
and hid your wonder like kernels
needing water and sunshine
and the unmitigated madness of summer
to burst them like popcorn
to herald a new day
with […]

Not like we haven’t done this before
opened the door
followed him through
sat like ten Buddhas with nothing to do
not like we haven’t done this again
lightened the load
shouted out ‘when’ to
marine guys and soldiers and
colourful men
with Waddington’s […]

Line your heart with celebration
sell your soul for free
drum desire throughout your bones
until they boom like megaphones
that you’re in love with me

Drift your net in contemplation
run without your shoes
smell roses in the wintertime
eat a grape […]

If you could love as I do
If a song bird could settle your soul like twilight
If you wept for the tug of a rosebud mouth or
trekked tough trails in awkward shoes,
hung another’s pictures in your […]

Oh lover
find another
take cover
move along
go back to the rules again
I’ll be your fool again
write you a song

If you’ve got tension
I’d like to mention
you’ll never find a shot
to inoculate you against
whatever it is
I’ve got

I […]

He was a man of wisdom and grace
a man with a pint full of panic
He was a man who tried to change place
but never managed to stand up
His was a toolbox of softness and love
His […]

Do you hear the crows
at the top of those trees
they’re watching […]

Shabby, she prayed her hands
in mock pursuit of something dreamed
Alone, she coughed
to clear her throat of the taste of failure
Crying, she upheld her arms
and gestured at the high god
to do something for which
nothing could be […]

I’m not worth the effort
I’m not worth the fare
I’m only doing doughnuts
I’m strictly wear and tear
I haven’t purchased anything
that costs too much at all
I rarely dance or dream or plan
or settle in a chair
I’ve gotten […]

The reason I am striding
with the integrity of internal knowingness
is because I am rebuilding the doldrums of my existence
out of piece-meal artefacts
and the general inconsistencies
of living without understanding
anything at all about
God

The reason I am growing
at […]

What do you do with this desolation,
this roll upon the roof?
Where do we find the jukebox judy
who dances billy-hoo?
What do we say to the helpless people
who keen and wail and regroup?
Change the skid?
Flip the lid?
Put […]

Boston Marathon Murders:
The Ferocious Undertakings of Rotted Minds
and Tepid Souls

Un-amalgamated Destruction seeks
the lowest common denominator
in men, in backpacks,
and in the hospitals where the wounded lie.
Unbidden, unwatched, unwashed, alone,
he seeks intemperate soldiers for another man’s destiny
and […]

It’s hard to see the changes
that have happened since we met
the way time rearranges
the things we had to get

Life flashes
catches us in the eye
life flashes
grabs us on the fly
life flashes
then it passes
but we try
[…]

What is my life but this
kite snagged inside the mist
illusions of endings
fast times that don’t connect
how do I seem to you
some people never do
what is my life but this
shooting star that everyone missed

But tonight, tonight […]

God is a single braid down my sister’s back
fingers threading ribbons
a dotted track that leads to things
I cannot stack in neat piles
of coins and schemes and printed reams
about cracks in theories of this and that.

Perhaps […]

From the far gone beyond
and the hot bump beneath
from the undaunted long
and the growing heap
from above and behold
and below and by friend
he comes regardless
of smoke or ken
From the smoke in the stair
and the hand over […]

When a person indulges another person
in the secret wishes of his desires
he does so knowing full well that heaven and earth
are one united compendium
of dust and bitter apples

When a person fiddles with matters
beyond his comprehension
he […]

Train whistle worrying through the wounded night
coyote hurrying in the brittle light
my fist curling into a fight
where do you go coyote blue?

Saw your tail sweeping the hickory hills
salamander swaying on the window sill
tainted pills to […]

He hid the blue of her answer beneath the green of his hope
He washed his hands in the sands of her timelessness
and picked up purple promises along the path that led from her house to […]

Hustlers, hecklers, wisdom-crackers,
hero-worshiping sycophanters,
lonely poets, pondering fellas,
chatter boxes and joke re-tellers.
Lady-celebs with silicone augments
slinging sex and nonsense comments.
Hyperactive urbanistas
with tips on lattes
from bored baristas.
Holy-quoters, pissed-off voters,
lefties, greenies and Kickstart totallers,
presidents with hidden missions,
and office girls […]

he wouldn’t run away from your sunny days
he wouldn’t rush the thought of drowning
he wouldn’t put shutters on your April haze
he didn’t like the sound of foundering
he’s up to all his tricks in his usual […]

I felt the loneliness this time
like I didn’t feel it before
like it was my new best friend
like it had the key to my door
I haven’t felt this overlooked
since I was seventeen
and I pressed the phone […]

Snake wraps round twin towers
winding its way up
(this a stealthy helix)
while wrong flies in on wings of righteousness
praying for death

Wife carries a terrible tiny bundle—
toothbrush and comb from bathroom cabinet—
and joins a line that snakes […]

Time is a heartless hammer
It builds a ladder from my longings with rungs I cannot reach
The years drift like calendar pages
while footsteps of toddlers spin the world
How many cats have purred on how many porches?
How […]