Treadmill

Beads of sweat breaking
Drops forming waiting -- to fall
Ev'ry step a feat
Ev'ry second a beat -- eats away
Running, running in place
Trying, trying to keep pace
Failing, failing to gain ground
Dying, dying with ev'ry bound

Purose I have, but almost forgot
This run this pace is all I've got
I step, I slip, I -----


Keats
12-20-10

Disconnect

Had I not been there myself I wouldn't have known
How sensation had flown
 from my heart,my soul
It's absence left a gaping hole.

I found myself unsurprised, desensitized, anesthetized
I saw myself unconcerned, undisturbed, unperturbed
I responded to a call to battle Atropos
She prevailed, I lost

I fought valiantly, my breath for hers my hands on her heart
I gained ground and gave the muscle a start.
The Lady of the Shears redoubled
And I could hear her whispers mumbled
     in my heart and mind
"You have failed, she is mine"

Breath faded, beating ceased
Pupils dilated, the ghost released
I watched as life drained away
But felt no loss, no dismay.

Of course it was my mind and engaged intellect
          that initiated my disconnect
I understood their tears, their loss, their pain
But within, the memory has caused no stain
I have no pain, no pangs, no sadness
But just a plain and echoing emptiness

Keats
December 16, 2010

Boo!

You scowl and project an aura -- dark
You brood, you growl you bark
You bring your pointed teeth to bare
To do what? Was your intent to scare?

You have no idea what it means to fear
It's less about blood and more about tears
No calculation can distill fright
No pigment black can rival night

Will you care to know me my world without colour
Will you know my mind, my horrors
I give fair warning and wish you to see
That my mind is not a good place to be

You pretend and pose to be some kind of devil
Naive little worm, you know not of evil
Do you see now,will you try again, will you dare?
Before me, your trite acting cannot compare

Your demeanor is but Wonderland's Alice
But I am beyond the Jaberwocky's malice
That's it runaway, show your cowardice true
Go before you hurt yourself ---Boo!

Keats
23 November 2010

Pane

Locked within this empty room
Only one view from this spacious tomb
Nothing but walls of gray
No hint of night or day

In this isolation I'm driven mad
Your presence the only joy to be had
Not often enough to keep me sane
Made worse by the presence of the pane

It's a joy to see you through this glass
This accursed transparent solid mass
All I have is your sight and sound
This pane more obvious when you're around

The pane such a terrible pane
It hinders our contact, it's my life's bane
I long to touch you and kiss your precious lips
But this pane disallows even touching your fingertips

Have I not suffered enough Milady
Shall you still add to this malady
Do you revel to see me time and again
By keeping me imprisoned behind this pane


Keats

Tired

rest without refreshment
perked with no energy
sitting still, yet unsettled
unconscious in a dreamless worthless sleep
adrenaline burns like octane
fast, raging but short lived
lethargy haunting in my waking hours
the Sandman wins over caffeine every time

Keats

08 November 2010

TARDIS

I am alien, yet I blend in
I'm small without and immense within
You can see me and not recall
An obsolete Police Box with faux blue walls

Within I have a lonely man
A traveller of time and distant lands
We go hither and tither through time and space
Without family, home, or kindred race

To know me you need to climb within
I am more interesting beneath my skin
To the few that dare they see the truth
That I am no ordinary booth

If you care to try, I'll show you the stars
More than any adventure you've had thus far
You'll need to see past the ordinary
Because inside is the beauty of me



Keats
05 November 2010

Solitude

One Sunday she came
T'was high noon, yet overcast
The sky a welcome gray
The air a dewy wet
A gentle shower, a misty spray

In my abode no soul but me
In blessed solitude -- free
The telly's off, the phone is silent
A dog plays across the garden

Suddenly she's here
My friend, my dear
How long has it been, since our last time together
Your arrival is perfect, so very clever
My dear solitude we are alone
Surrounded by a cool shower in monotone

Stay a while, though not forever
Stay with me in this perfect weather
Come soothe my mind till we conclude
Our rendezvous dear solitude

Keats
31 October 2010

Lens

Looking in towards the center
Gazing into my soul
Refracted in a crystal orb
A lens.

Converging rays of introspection
Pencils of light in phase
Illuminating the image under the haze
But there is consequence in the rays

The longer I stare the clearer I see
Allowed by the beams' intensity
The lens for my heart it clarifies
The core of my soul it magnifies

Blemishes in the ghost I find
Muck to which I paid no mind
Repulsive stains I clearly see
Removable only by cautery

Nnnnnghhh!! It burns! Too hot it seems
The irrisistable power of the beams
Once used for seeing,
now searing
Once used to learn
now burns

The heart's lens is now aglow
Compels me to cringe from things I now know

Keats
30 October 2010

Filament

Life is not the sum of our parts
In death we still have our brain, our heart
Nay, tis a hallowed, scarlet, filament
that consumes our life
It glows with use, with effort, with strife

For good or ill it burns away
In use or disuse it approaches decay
All have a measure of this pow'r
Nothing delays the inevitable hour

Waste not your time O man,
to meditate on a mountaintop
Tarry not with lore of karmic harmony,
crystal orbs or ink blots

Life is no wheel, 'tis a spiral
Numbered are your days, finite, final
Simply live with honor, not by morals from rote
Powered by your heart's filament 'neath your undercoat

Keats
29 October 2010

The Bards’ Curse

Feeling is fleeting emotion a breath
Sudden quick ephemeral like death
But I hold the power to shackle you in phrases
Raw emotion imprisoned between phases

Completely surrounded, cocooned by tropes
Your power encased in swift pen strokes
From heart to mind I entomb in paper
Feelings confound no more, so clever

But the captured feelings, they seek their vengeance
Even when bound, they seek my penance
I thought them powerless, in that I err
In truth, the page preserves their power

Each time I read my written verse
My vaunted power becomes my curse
For the pain I once imprisoned there
Renders me beyond repair


Keats
27 October 2010

Display

Despondent on the curb, hands in pockets
Collar high, head down, soaked in the rain, walking
No sense to take shelter already drenched
No cover, nothing over only water and sky

People in shops, in restaurants, warm
Comfortable talking, laughing, shopping warm
Simple matter really
Get in, step out of the rain - silly

I have no reason to go in
Nothing to buy, no need to dirty the floor
Only to track mud and grime
On my way I will be
To be a soaking spectacle I wish not to be

Rain falls harder as I go my way
Turn on the next corner, no desire to stay
Through a hole in the clouds a shaft of light strays
To intrude in my periphery, the glimmer of the display

A perfect jewel, a pendant, an amethyst
My gaze through the glass distorted by my breath, a mist
Hurriedly, sleeves wipe over the misted window
Eyes stare, time slows
Specteres of imagination, memories of the unreal
in the mind stirs
The jewel amongst events in a life of fiction --
the image blurs
Perchance, finally a reason to shelter from the rain
But surely a jest, the purchase may signify a loss not worth the gain
And another reason is more plain
Empty is this billfold on my chain

Pull away
From the display
On this cold rainy day
Trudge, walk away
‘Tis torture to stay




































Return another day
With currency to pay
Greeted by dismay
The bright jewel of that rainy day
Is no longer on display

Keats
03-16-09

Marshmallow

Sweetness, softness and joy
Enclosed solid cloud
Puffs of white or twirls of colors, pastel
A mystery of ecstasy in this confection dwells

Gentle sweetness, softness divine
In my mouth slowly melting, the pleasure is mine
Soft and light
Puffy and bright
Your simple joy, great comfort it brings
No sharp tanginess, no spicy sting

Fond memories of marshmallow remains
In the dark, by the sea, in a ride, in the rain
Wherever consumed
Erases all gloom
Simple pleasure, in my being treasured
Marshmallow, an experience without measure

Keats
June 2009

Pearl

I’m a grit of sand intruding
Within this organism
Finding a place, within this space
Hoping to belong

However carefully I tread
However lightly I roll
I cause the membrane to be red
A contaminant to this hole
I sit in place, no further movement
Remaining stationary, no involvement
I dare not move here I stay nestled,
Cause nothing to stir till all is leveled

Yet even my stillness causes you to stir
Drowned in iridescent nacre
Layer upon layer you build my shell
Separating you from me as well
Your irritation
Has caused my evolution

When at last you open
And I am released
I am a pearl
And you are deceased
I return to survey what was done
Empathy, attachment I have none
The oyster that formed me, I was never part
And pearls acquire only beauty not a heart.

Keats
19 October 2010

Truth

Show me what you've got.
Show me what you know.
All the stuff you have within
Not the draping on your skin

Bare your mind
Unleash your thoughts
Do not spew quotes
From books you bought

I tire of smooth cliché
As any simpleton can read a play
Tell me your rough unpolished raving
Reveal your desire your wish your craving

Hide not behind euphemism
Let truth and candor defy all –isms
Speak your mind our thoughts connect
Make it plain, all pretense reject

Pomp bores me
Flair repulsive
Form without function
Is thought without action

You see everyone else has tried excess
But it’s all cut and dry, nothing else impresses
Strip away all frills remain austere
For the purest of all gems is clear


Keats
18 October 2010

Clichés

It happens for a reason
Which is?

This too shall pass
Not soon enough

It happens to the best of us
I’m not the best so why did it happen to me?

If at first you don’t succeed…
…you’re doing something wrong

(Stupidity is defined by continuing to do something you know doesn't work)

Practice makes perfect
You can be perfectly wrong

You’re time will come
And go

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover
But by its price, author and popularity

The early bird catches the worm
It pays to be a lazy worm

An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure
Doesn’t the guy who found the cure get any credit?

That which doesn’t kill you…
…can cripple you for life

Sticks and stones may break my bones
But words can make you mental

Why does it have to me?
Who do you suggest?

Good things come to those who wait.
So the early bird thing is not good now?

What goes around comes around
Like syphilis?

No pain no gain
Except weight

Money can’t buy happiness
You don’t have any idea how to use money do you?

Haste makes waste
Yeah just check out the early worm

Live life one day at a time
How else?

What you don’t know…
Can kill you.

It’s better to have loved and lost…
Like hell it is!!!

Keep your friends close
Keep your enemies to a minimum

Aug 24, 2010

Stars Die

I walked upon a jet black night
Staring upon flecks of light
Then gazed upon a scene of sadness
As a star died away in blackness
But behold two more, no three, now four
Death tonight had an open door
Five stars died and left the sky
Like five tears from your cheeks now dry
Whoever caused your pain
Is guilty of twice disdain
I’ve been told when one breaks a heart or wets an eye
Stars will die when a pretty girl cries

So weep no more, despair no further
Your falling tears commit murder
I’ll kiss them dry before they fall
To keep the stars upon their wall
To this end I save the stars,
By keeping your heart free from scars
Let me steer your heart from sadness
Keep your eyes in eternal dryness
I’ll take the charge to fill you with mirth
Learn your value my dear, know your worth
But nevermore weep, and nevermore sigh
Because stars, pretty girl, will die when you cry.

Keats
28 January 2010