The Failure of Metaphor

What is there left to look forward to?
What else is in store in a life with you?
Would it be like the first light of day?
Made perfect by the breezy sea spray.
Shall it be like a rainbow after rain shower?r
A gentle show of the sun's power.

Are you the joy of a gift newly opened?
Or the wonder of luck that has happened.
Are you the vibrance of a fireworks display?
Or answer to supplication long prayed?

I dare not compare any of these to you.
For your traits I cannot to things imbue
None can compare, no trope will do
None represents your virtues true

I love to be yours and for you to be mine.
I love how our hands and hearts entwine.
I wish for nothing, not treasure nor siren's song
It is simply for your love that I long.

Keats
22 May 2012

Faerie

Emergencies dictate the movement
Responses required within the moment
To take what is needed
And rise to the occasion
The call is heeded
No hesitation

The challenges have come
The battle's not done
All weapons released
All bloodlust unleashed
Expect no quarter no reservation
It only gets harder, more tribulation

Disasters fall with no warning
Preparations fail as shortcomings
No wall so strong to withstand the sea
No monolith so lasting as to forever be

I have responded to all emergencies
And spread myself thin in all the urgency
The challenges came and they've been met
But I've not recuperated yet
Disasters came, I've withstood them barely
All resources drained entirely

I'm sorry, this is all I have left to present
Destroyed, depleted, deficient
All I have, all you see
All this is yours, take it -- take me
Use your magic
Redeem the tragic
Reverse the decimation
Grasp the sands
In your hands
Rebuild my shattered vision

Keats
12 April 2012

One Moon

Alone this night and you’re far away

Whether I whisper or shout, you’ll never hear me say…

You’re there I’m here

Though it’s strange, I feel you near

Will you come quickly, it won’t be too soon

But at least tonight we’re under the same moon

She is perfectly shining and gorgeous tonight

The orb beckons me to bathe in its light

Selene she whispers and tells me gently

From where she is, she sees you, she sees me

So now I look upon that disc in the sky

She told me to look now I see why

Because tonight, for me, she mirrors not the sun’s rays

Tonight for me she reflected your face.

Keats

9 March 2012

Biometric

In a fancy vault I store it
All the elements kept at bay
In that fancy vault I kept it
Locked away

Not watched over by 50 guards
Or kept under lock and key 
Not locked by code or keycard
But by serious biometry

Sealed more than once or twice
Secured and enclosed by three
An eye, a palm, and imprinted voice
No more mistakes no other choice

Safe secured impregnable
No one's gotten to it but you
You looked at me and touched my face
and said to me you loved me
An eye, a palm, and imprinted voice
Twas you that possessed all three.


Keats
12 June 2011

Resurface

For far too long I lay out here afloat
A tragic survivor if survivor I be of an ill fated boat
Rations gone, strength has ebbed and hope has drained away
Laid bare on this tiny craft day by bloody day

The elements know not my suffring nor my fate
Or maybe they do for daily they worsen my state
The waves dizzy me, the sun he bakes me the wind chills my core
But from then to now to when I die more pain they have in store

Countless times I pass into sleep each one could be my last
Amidst the sun the wind and waves my doom approaches fast
And so by fates connivance, wind and sea end my defiance
No will or strength left to call, against the fury of the squall

Tossed too and fro is not what happened
-- more like thrown and dashed
One furious capsized my hope
And made splinters of my boat

Under the waves I gasp for air but breathe the sea instead
And it was the icy water that seared pain in my head
With one more stroke I break the water I finally resurface
And one more wave threw me to shore and returned me to my place

I live.

Keats
11 April 2011

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