Realizations

Friends are given the key To the catacombs within us Where we fear to tread They can illuminate our darkness If we are willing Come lighten me I bid you come For I have not the power Wisdom or strength Alone I am darkness \ Terrifying admission that Wishing for self-sufficiency Doesn’t make it so I need more than I am More than I will ever be

Two River Stones


Two river stones intermingle
Meeting by currents or fate
A timely arrival together
Neither too early nor late

The waters agitation
Like life, can rub the wrong way
The stones, smoothing each other
Imperfections fade day by day

Such friction of interaction
Semiprecious stones in the wood
Molded in similar fashion
Changes them both for the good

Perfectly paired together
Silver stream reflecting the sun
Life flowing by in a torrent
Two stones, far better than one

Nature and God sparked the union
A perfect connection sublime
Imagining far-reaching wonders
Accomplished only with time

The Muse Unveiled

More that has been known
As been lost
Than can ever be learned again
In a million epochs

Blank page
Crumpled and thrown in a corner
Filled with jaunty angled thoughts
To amuse, entertain or distract
A narrative
Comedy
Tragedy

Left blank
Or burned
Lost beneath centuries of doubt
Fear paints strange brush strokes

Age falls on us quietly
A comfortable assassin
Keys lost and rusted

Gleaming in an unknown world
More determined search needed
Answers not forthcoming

More given then can be believed
But not at our bidding
Coming and going
Like the tide

VULTURES

Oh the perching, waiting harbingers of death and decay.
Why do they wait behind me?
Unobtrusive and unyielding
A contradiction
Who eats the carrion eater?
Who buries the mortician?
Who will pray for the priest?
Who will revel in the senseless?
What of the observer?
Who watches?

Haunted

He came home from work just like any other day. His face looked a little strained and his eyes betrayed his thoughts as he walked in the door. "What's wrong hun?", said his wife Anne. "They let me go...some bullshit about downsizing. I don't understand, good times or bad, there is always a need for accountants." he said.
Gary had worked for a midsized accounting firm out of Cleveland the past ten years, since he had graduated from junior college. While he wasn't flashy or particularly articulate, he was very steady and workmanlike. Just the traits you would think an accountant would need.
He settled into his recliner in their small living room and flipped on his television. He wanted the noise more than anything else, it helped him think. Anne knew he would need some time to sort things out and then he would come to her and discuss what they were going to do.
She was a good wife, calm and supportive. She knew Gary was a good man and that things would eventually work themselves out. She had seen enough of her mother henpecking her Dad to know exactly what not to do. She retreated into the kitchen to fix dinner while his mind whirled.
"Why? What the hell are we supposed to do? Did I DESERVE this shit?", he thought. Gradually Gary worked through the sting of the dismissal and began to try and see things logically. The company HAD been going through hard times. They HAD already released three junior accountants before this fateful day. Satisfied that the fault didn't lie at his front door, Gary began to plan.
First things first...he needed to update his resume and post it on the internet to get some job offers. They had enough in savings to hang on for about three months if they were careful and Gary was ALWAYS careful. He would just have to handle the jangled nerves of an uncertain income until something broke his way.

On Tornadoes

The songbirds cried
for all who had died
during the screaming of the mimes

These demons sleep
in shadows deep
as the world
falls on hard times

What sense can be made
of a senseless blade,
the wretching pain of despair?

This world a knife
that cuts out a life
when your usually most unaware

The Egotism of Meaning

The wilderness called out
The old man answered resigned
His face grown long
Shadows deepening the etching

A wretched day lay ahead
Full of realizations
His mind picked the scab
The sameness wore him down

Purpose seems to be lost
Going through the motions
Desperately looking for a sign
The egotism of meaning

Woods brought him no peace
Emphasizing his smallness
Trekking a path through deep green
His insignificance grew

The sun burned through the haze
Sweat ran down the back of his neck
Aimlessly walking deeper
Till the woods swallowed the path

Marching in deepening growth
Drawn to the center
Not knowing why
Unable to stop himself

The clearing amazed him
Huge and round, impossibly lush
He stood blinking
The forest embraced him

A smudge of white caught his eye
He walked to the edge
To see a lily where it didn’t belong
Alone and proud it stood

Life always finds a way
Growing without thought for meaning
Part of the immense living stream
All connected without and within