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!
We tap the universal pulse,
the heartbeat fo our time,
always running somewhere else
like lines strung out of rhyme!
Looking for someone--
just a matter of time--
or are we only fearful
of the ending of the line?
I can feel energies
drive this life of mine,
stretching out through everything
to the end of time!
Now I am flying faster,
caught up in the race,
deadlined for disaster,
no possible escape!
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!
Turning the Circle
1/5/97
Leaving home at night,
my eyes arise
to the jeweled sight:
stars turn in circles.
Here we are free
watching their dance
till the night and shadow flee.
I turn--you're still with me.
Now I see the plan, the grand design.
You were always in my mind
but I never knew the words,
thought I never had the time!
In one eternal moment
your eyes and mine grow tender,
we reach to touch forever,
but then the moment passes,
the almost bond is severed
and two sad souls sigh, "never!"
Returning home in morning,
eyes half-closed and tearing,
the sun seems almost thorny:
the stars have turned their circle!
Turning to Steel
The smell of fresh blood hangs on the air
our pioneer fathers are losing their hair
they've earned their rewards, but now don't know where
a man is worth salt: life just isn't fair!
The daily grind burns up mankind,
we're running so fast we don't have time
to stop, think, enjoy what we're tryingto find--
can we ever find our right mind?
We burn the highways and pave the fields,
gulp down coffee as substitute meals
know it's not right--our minds are on needles,
but how can we stop before turning to steel?
Two Faces
I pound, you shake it--
it's not just our dreams we're making!
Scream loud, I'm waiting,
not the guy for understating!
I go around,
I go around--
I go up some times, some down.
Won't ya be a leader,
won't ya be a part--
be yourself, be anyone
and play your part by heart!
We live a game,
we live a game--
though no two turn out the same!
One will be a leader,
each will be a part--
no one will be anyone
above us once we start!
I pound, you shake it--
it's not just our dreams we're making!
Scream loud, I'm waiting,
not the guy for understating!
Unexpect
8/26/98
I never thought
you'd leave me in the springtime
when the air is vibrant
and expecting brand new life.
There was no warning
spoken by the season,
no hint or reason
to suspect you'd fly.
Spring has always been
bursting buds,
sprouting seeds,
world awash in newness.
Clouds stacked
at the world's edge
to promise drinks of rain--
can it be again?
I never thought
you'd leave me in the summer
when the grass flows
underneath the wind.
The heat, the sun, were dry
but there were shade trees
with coolness in their
quiet, sighing glades.
Summer seemed a child's
time for growing, from morning
through the glowing heat
that radiates around.
Now evening clouds darken,
promise thunder:
distant lightning thrills
as it forks the ground.
I hoped you wouldn't leave me
in the autumn
to face chill winds
as they gust the leaves away.
Fingers stiffen even working
with the gloves on,
and the time goes
so much faster every day.
Autumn is the gathering,
the harvest time,
when stalks are stacked,
fields swept clean.
The hint of winter
dances on the leaves
in the silver dew
foreshadowing frost.
I wondered if you'd leave me
in the winter,
when the air smokes frosted
from your mouth.
We gather by our fires,
try to shrug the cold,
ease the pains
of feeling stiff and old.
Must winter be a dying,
or just life lapsed to sleep,
awaiting new emergence in the spring?
The clouds that spread
the sky above
mirror the white mounds
that flow below.
Unity (Open Arms)
I open my arms
to you
my acceptance
my hope
my passion
and dreams.
Unity
how can
one simple word
encompass all these dreams?
How can it be found?
Voyage
8/29/97
If the voyage
ontoward/inbeside the mine
is to begin
we first must burst
the last half-thoughts
we thought we thought
Begin in emptiness:
we will full fill
our time and our lives
with song and still
in honor and in deep devotion
slip silently out to the ocean.
Speak, silent mass,
dare to word what you'd confess,
and revelling in your confession,
ecstatical with mind confusion,
raise us up a new messiah,
hymnist, heretic, better liar!
Follow anyone who'll lead:
he must be a better breed
with the will and want to take
to separate! To liberate!
It doesn't matter who he cheats--
it is we who he will eat!
(Voyage) The Lover
I wrote you songs and poems
while my spirit rose
exalting my illusions,
compounding my confusion!
I fell so deep in love with love
I did not know when you were gone.
You are the sun that sweeps my sky,
you are rain that brings me life--
I will come if you call
and I will shatter if you fall.
I am so deep in love with love
I do not know why you are gone.
You don't want me, you don't need me,
you don't have a reason to please me.
My love is my hunger,
my love is my breath.
My love is my life, and
my love is my death
rising in feelings divine and sublime,
I feel heaven in this love of mine!
My life was so empty before you came:
to see you is sunshine,
I drink you like rain.
How could I live without your love?
You are my life sent down from above!
I remember the dancing,
my headswimming wine,
the roses
The scent of
perfume and your eyes.
My arms held you close,
pulled your lips to mine.
I remember your eyes closed,
how we intertwined.
I remember quick breaths and
sounds between kisses.
How I treasure those
moments I'm missing!
and the dewey grass:
at last, the dewey grass!
The garden so near
the plants seemed to reach
as we met in fire
and you whispered, "Please!"
The garden so near,
the flowers, the dew
offering pleasures
deep, sweet and true.
We reached out as children
to sample sensations,
eager as pilgrims
pleasing relations.
I'm not to blame
for getting the fever,
you're not to blame
for giving it me:
forgive and forget,
so we go together
sharing, not shaming,
keeping us free.
Love, stop your fretting
worrying, wanting:
this place is for getting
love, it's for dancing!
(Voyage) The Hunter
Life is struggle:
I lie in wait
to reach out
and seize my prey.
no escape.
What is this thing called life
but a struggle to maintain
a balance never permanent,
a struggle we sustain?
Life does not come with guarantees
or in all colors that we please.
My mission is to take, to seize
and cull the weak, ignore their pleas!
I am the eyes and feet
padding in night,
panting, whistling teeth
silent in starlight.
My step is hid by cricket creak
threading through the grass.
I arrive in time to leap,
to snap, to kill at last!
Life does not come with guarantees
or in all colors that we please.
My mission is to take, to seize
and cull the weak, ignore their pleas!
Some day I will meet the hunter
who will prove he is better,
more adept, strong as steel,
who will show me he is real.
Then he'll free me from illusion;
he will rest my mind's confusion.
I will find the permanent.
I will reach the fundamental
liberty of emptiness,
feel that cold and hard caress
as existence slips away
while my fantasies are played.
Links to other sites on the Web
Animated figures, lines, etc.
Alternative Media Site
Click Here to Go Back to Joe's Poetry Page
Get your own Free Home Page