Oyster The oyster sits and waits, cherishing its pearl. It cannot know, cannot imagine or fear: it sits, awaiting hungry starfish, oblivious to the scuttling gypsy hermit crabs always moving on. Oyster or Hermit Crab A quiet place to rest, he asked, wisps of string dangling from sleeves rippled bu wind. The forlorn look of furrowed eyes tearing in breeze spoke wonders witnessed, treasures taken easily as pleased. Bright, eager pupils now hide in movements slow but strong, sampling bits, thirsting sips to fill, savoring draughts drunk before too deeply to enjoy. While again the spirits pour the spirit soars again to fill the sky. A boy is asking for the time, but it's not his or mine to give while the old man pours his wine. He's pouring out things his memories sing, dreams of yesterdays, the friends he last saw laughing off to war, their glory and their graves. He called life a clown jumping up, falling down, but always game to play, and he hoped he could live long enough yet to give us his wisdom for our ways. We'll drink this wine and soon will sleep; it somehow seems that soon our dreams will be complete. PagesNEW 1/17/97 We turn pages at our table, focusing our past, reliving faded hopes and dreams in memories long pressed. Shamrocks mix with pictures: friends and teachers, teams and bleachers, dear old preachers, status seekers, mixing like dried leaves exploring wind. We hope to hold these moments forever in our hearts, so we trap and treasure dreams and schemes, then tuck our time away. We think we've locked our pleasures frozen into time, but the sweetest savored tastes of wine remain within the mind! The Passing Crowd 1/10/98 It seems I've known you forever though we met just yesterday. Time can prove to be so slippery, forever passes in a Day! Somehow I found you in the passing crowd. I recognized your light standing out among those all around. Now I want you for all life! I wasn't even looking. I'd given up on trying. I knew I would stay lonely all my life. But then you walked up to me and said, you said you knew me, and I began another life! I spent all those years just waiting for love. Now I fear it's at my door. How can we know it's real, my love? How can we know for sure? How can we trust to Fate, my love-- we've been hurt before? Yet we must have faith, my love, or you cannot be mine! I know we'll never answer all the questions that keep rising in our minds. I know I need not answer any questions to know I'm doing right! I wasn't even looking. I'd given up on trying. I knew I would stay lonely all my life. But then you walked up to me and said, you said you knew me, and I began another life! Pictures of You 1/11/97 I don't really know you, I don't really see you. My pictures of you are in my mind. How is it that I feel I know you, why do I want to keep looking for you? I see you each morning, I see you each evening. You raise my feelings-- I've been so blind! How could I ever have lived without you, and how long can I keep waiting for you? I dream of your lips, dear, I dream of your eyes, dear, but all that I dream, dear, springs from my mind! How can a fantasy lover be real as you, and when will this waiting be through? Playing Field 10/13/98 I think the world must be a playing field. We cherish illusions that are so unreal, pretend our lines are so important, feel we own our lives--it's just time we steal! The lawyer in the traffic is a millionaire feeling like a barber, cause he trims his share. He's always been a gamesman, not always fair, and now he's trying hormones to preserve his hair. Everything has always been a puzzle to solve, but he escapes the consequences that evolve and he somehow thinks it doesn't matter: he won't be looking down the revolver! A housewife leans across the sink, balancing cigarette and sipping drink, looking out the window, trying to think while the smoke drifting makes her blink. How did it ever get this way? She played in all the plays, and she had planned out all her days, but then the dice rolled the other way. She thinks of all those girls she knew who grew up and knew what to do, turns on the TV so she won't feel blue, then relaxes with imported brew. Her child curses on the way to school because he thinks it's the thing to do, and his friends know that he will play the fool if they tell him that it's cool. After school they may stop at the store, dare each other to make a score till one or other takes the floor to show that he can do it once more! Then it's matches, pass the smoke-- what matter if you reel or choke! Though you smell you won't be blamed, because you know Mom smells the same! Mom is waiting for lawyer Dad with a kitchen knife in her hand, cutting a roast in an alien land-- her mind's nowhere near where she stands! She used to think of gowns and roses, sweet children standing in precious poses, but her thinking fell out of focus: now entertainment is all she knows! So now she sets her eyes on the games: every day they are the same. They're so exciting! It's just a shame we all can't play life like a game! See you tomorrow on the playing field among the people almost real. Twist a dollar, light a cigarette-- somehow we'll escape our neglect! We can drink, and we can smoke: that ought to be enough to give us hope so we don't have to try another way or maybe face ourselves another day! Poker Come on, baby, to my table-- make some money while you're able. You look you know what's going down, and I've the fastest game in town! Throw your chips into the pot and try to give me your best shot-- I sail this ship the best I'm able with frisbeed cards across the table. The air sweats smoke above my head and six cylinders filled with lead in a pocket press close to my heart with a ready hand close to start! Maybe, baby, when we're able, we can get a plank from this table, but now let's just play our cards-- you play me soft, but I play it hard! You're showing me a generous spread, and where it grabs me ain't my head! You look you know what's going down, and I'm the fastest game in town! Throw your chips into the pot, try to give me your best shot-- I'll satisfy you best I'm able, if you'll lay it here on the table! Your fingers raking across my back seem less surrender than velvet attack. If we come together, heart against heart, can you keep it up to try a new start? Maybe, baby, when we're able, we can get a plank from this table, but now let's just play our cards-- you play me soft, but I play hard! Prof 11/18/98 With scientific care proceeding, stained frock coat and hair receding, the young old man sits, then he paces, eyes alight, while his mind races. He knows that his discovery will be the next to set man free and profit will be guaranteed, for everyone will want to see. So he came from his laboratory extraordinary, to breathe the air a try. He announced he had found the key to eliminate all misery. He held a powder in a vial, held a power so, so vital, it seemed the seed of living dream, the destiny to which we strain. In his hand the vial gleamed, through his head the visions streamed and in his mind he was a king newly crowned, about to reign. The flasks around his laboratory trumpeted his royalty: it was so evident to see he was reborn to be a king! The beakers bowed with curling lips, the scales tipped as if to slip, the faucets stopped, without a drip: just one burner remained lit. The lab enshrined his majesty, his mastery of chemistry, an altar to discovery, testing ground for inquiry. Now each night he'll close his eyes and see the stars write his name across the sky. Memory will come to life: he'll be alive, he will arrive. Promises 11/14/96 looking in your eyes, I see promises: beauty, happiness that special light within illuminates your eyes and mine caress your cheeks, every swoop and curve, and venture into eden in innocence we intertwine we fall, entangled whispered secrets we exchange as our skies begin to rain and we embrace closer, closer seeking, dreading, our movements rush and pause, pulse arace reaching for the exquisite brings us here Raindrops You are so beautiful, your words so sweet they bring raindrops to my eyes! You sing a song for which I've longed so many years! I know we cannot touch, but still it means so much just to read your words! Perhaps someday we'll see each other's eyes, be free to be what we can be! Vision of Reign Downing about our heads, it is spottering onyone's foot on every step. The specially wee ones try puddles' sizes, see how big isn't too, toetip testing the muddies, though. On one Wetnesday near here bold Billy Bulli jumped unjudging and doone and doone he drooped sizing small the way below only while above became unseeing mon gliding by his weigh, visioning looking-glassland mad patterns, March airs untasted, and touching December's freeze when reaching forewords through illusions udderly dispursed. Silence resounds the quiet notes one sings alone to life. Two gentle hands return the light to too long sleeping eyes still dreaming morning glories, even to the night. Now no boy to splash his way and reach to touch the sun today, newborn he cries the breath of birth brought from the center of the earth to see the sky. His loving eyes caress the stars. Release 3/27/98 I see you in the morning silhouetted on the sun, hair streaming in a halo as we break into a run. It's so long since I have seen you but the memories won't fade of our time and our sweet love, and the joy that slipped away! I came running to embrace you, arms spread wide to grasp you tight, and then I'm suddenly alone in my room in darkest night. Why must my dream always escape me and why must I always wake? I need, I seek your sweet oblivion to release me from this state! The Shadow of a Smile 10/6/98 The shadow of a smile across your lips, the flicker in your eyes can bring me bliss. I don't know how we came to be: that will always be a mystery, but I never want to be free of the shadow of your smile. The melody of notes that frame your voice, draw me back to you-- I have no choice! You've raptured me into your spell, beyond the scope that words can tell, and I am so glad that I fell in the shadow of your smile! Your presence in a room ignites a light, and all eyes turn to you: you burn so bright! You always seem to light a star, inspire hope to reach so far. It's just a part of who you are. Oh! The shadow of your smile! The Shaking Spoon 9/24/98 The nightmare froth in shaking spoon held over twisted matchstick is boiling from the cities toward children pinned behind their shreiking parents. The white distills to clear, liquid drawn in fear the first time. (thought) I will never be the same marks the end of childhood, freedom, maybe life as another shining star is lost in cloud. She Calls 9/21/98 She calls to me, sweet memory of nights long swept away, a perfect ghost whom I need most when evening's shadows play. The love we gave was never saved: true love is always shared. And gentle touch still means so much to ease those many cares. But memories can only tease now that she is gone. Though I know why we said goodbye that does not help me on. To Shirley 5/15/98 O Shirley, how I remember your touch, your loving, timid tremor when we made love in December: that's a jewel I'll always treasure! All the world was frozen cold, clear, bitter winds to make our eyes tear, but you warmed me with your smile dear. How I wish you still were mine, dear! Now I see your eyes, you're a spirit perished love a-haunting me I hear your sighs and I fear it is the closest I can be. I know, I know you loved me! O Shirley, I never told you that I loved you so. It's too late now to call you-- I have to let you go. These emotions--I wasn't ready and confusion twisted me to deny what I was feeling, what was bonding you and me. Now I see your eyes, you're a spirit perished love a-haunting me I hear your sighs and I fear it is the closest I can be. I know, I know you loved me! Shouting Into Silence 11/6/98 It's so long since we talked my emotions feel a little crossed! on the internet we don't intersect. do you just not want me no more do you think I'm trying to score or have I become a bore I think you just don't want me no more! There were silences when we talked. I never thought that was a prob now we're out of touch and it hurts so much! do you just not want me no more do you think I'm trying to score or have I become a bore I think you just don't want me no more! Signals 1/4/97 Sending out signals broadcast into void, asking if there's anyone, anything to matter. The energy is pulsing, pouring from machines, channeling through wire miles, tweaking to a scream! The world keeps running faster in cybernetic race, pushing toward disaster, collapsing time and space! It's only a matter of time, and it's all bound to come down. If we run out of seconds there'll be none to go around! Since We Met I do not know you but you show me a passion's spark of what could be. Since we met you changed me so-- I dream of love I could not know three weeks ago. How can I show this precious gem, and when? I thought I did not need, thought my life was free, but you awake new life in me, open worlds I could not see, and you are always with me: you are always with me! Sitting I'm sitting here trying to forget old men in sackcloth, swaying old men in sackcloth, singing songs in catlight, madness in ways we wouldn't wear, trying to forget. Skater 2/26/98 Now I see you as a skater gliding bundled on the ice, moving with a grace so carefree through the fading rays of light. I was suffering and wounded by a world contained in walls until I drew up and I proved it-- I could stand without a fall. Now I watch you in the moonlight dancing cross the glassy plain, sometimes silhouette by fire light, and I know a moment's pang. I know I'll never know your beauty, never warm with your sweet love: we will stay separated, surely. My only chance with you is gone! We seldom know where we are going-- don't know where until we're there. If we just knew what we were doing perhaps we would be prepared! Now I watch you as a skater flying free upon the ice, and memories are all that matter-- I no longer have a choice! Click Here to Go Back to Joe's Poetry Page
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