Summer’s Stay

it is only
by your hand

that i have ever known
of happiness

in the days
of verdant fleeing

further
than could fill the eye

it was you
and i
as nature

sprawling Rosy Fairy Lantern’s light
through Mustang Clovers
endless rows
arose Sierra Columbine
and Blazing Stars
of Indian Paintbrush
lingering
on the lake
along with Larkspur
and Lupine

still
i must confess
the scented prism
of your tresses

mesmerized
my waking dream

unfolding
a golden emergence

in shaded respite
the world would shrink
like boulders slow succumb
to sand

analyzing every aspect
quantum flecks
to speckled skies

all i ever cherished
lay beside me

in the squander
of youth

not a word
was left unheard

as brief
as summer’s stay

[image credit: Ansel Adams]

Fates Since Abandoned

without death
we are nothing

a wintry embrace
long forgotten

grains of mured sand
in an endless descent

adorners of vitrails
neath skies of exalt

the morass of mortality
bound to such frivol

vaunting in vain
for a fool’s validation

regale me with tales
of a fabled existence
with just enough laughter
to stay my own ruin

let us sit on the ledge
where the sea hides the sun
in vigilant view
of our imminence

twinkled reflections
reveal glimpses of youth

lost in mirages
of futures imagined

to think of the fates
since abandoned brings pause

bewildered in awe
as our final breath flees

 

[image credit: Jennie Harbor]

Interim Sublime

there is a ceaseless realm of shapeless shadows
unbeholden to sophrosyne
where once upon a glimmer stood a maiden
a prism so profound sight did beseech

we vanished along violet shores of twilight
her gentle words eclipsed my darkest fears
cradled by a crescent moon once looming
as stardust ran its fingers through our hair

the floor gave way to zinnias of azure
whose depths we dared not ponder as we fell
and for the briefest instance, we were fractals
amid a glowing wall of aquarelle

the sky was soft as snowfall in November
and florid wafts did wrest our every sense
adrift inside of worlds belying wonder
that only eyes of pretense could amend

I knew if I should wake, that I would find her
for all of Nature’s bounty was her ward
and when the sun had swallowed all the stillness
her kiss did linger on forevermore

[image credit: James Abbott McNeill Whistler]

Untold Memories

the world could only end
without you here

where mountains slow surrender
to the ceaseless seas’ entreaty

beneath the spired redwoods
breaching lucent skies alluring

through arid valleys of toiling sun

stretching long onto the virid shores
where first i held you

this land will hold our untold memories

as time permits their essence

in a distant realm of consciousness
we manifest as things once precious

i know that there could be no other way

despite the days adrift
inside abysses of solemnity

the twilight of your kiss cerise
still faults the earthen sheath

[image credit: Rockwell Kent]

Thoughts of You

hey
I been thinkin’ bout you.

moments still descend from oleander into onyx
persistent, linger thoughts of your rapport
I walked along the line in languor
like the thousand days before
in the canyon where the sky once spit out fiery metal

the faintest breeze aroused a rustling
as I neared the elm-thronged clearing
ghostly remnants haunting rubble
in the durance of unrest

striking me with urgent ponder

rain-soaked midnight kiss of winter
need to stay time’s sifting sands
fumbling through love’s confessing

though none were tantamount
to the exigence of your return
spurned without the solace of your gentle disposition

I stumbled looking downward
as I searched the desert floor
looking for a mote of Mother Nature
I could capture in a bezel
of her bounty’s afterthought

my mind began to wander
through the endless roads meandering
each one holding hollow hopes

your hand in mine
the empty skies
adust with burning amber
if we could, just for one moment
steal away beyond the sunset
where no worlds would lie between us
I could see my woes and worries
vanish into nothingness

alas, my otherworldly aster
seraphim of wistful winds
this distance belies reconcile
and I have yet to find an answer
leading to sufficient ends

[image credit: James R. Eads]

Reverie

my longing for thee
hast spanned the ages
formed whence mine eyes
felleth ‘pon the first star
heaven e’er hungeth before me

in the dawn of incarnations
dormant layeth mine heart’s behest
driven by duress tormenting
sated only by thy touch

happenstance at times denied us
sorrow then spurred conflagration
all consumed by thine impelling
left bereft skies turned to ruin

in reverie with ardor singeth
harmonies of our reunion
by the virtue of this plight
we walketh ’til the sun’s retire

 

[image credit: František Kobliha]