Wednesday, November 22, 2017

letter of gratitude

to all you wonderful artists, writers, etc.
i have not written or shared my words in this
venue for some time because i was beginning to
get the feeling that my heart, my soul, the spirit
of my words were maybe not garnering the eyes of
the diversity of readers in a more common place.  

many of you are so much more talented than myself
in this writing format of communication both coming
from an academic side as well as possibly in the artistic
realm with words in general and sometimes i would get
the impression that my contribution was viewed in such.

my words come directly as i think them and directly from
my heart and soul. they speak of what my eyes see, what
my ears hear, what i sense, all in the realm of that common
theme called ‘Love’. i enjoy expressing my love of this life
through my words, my music and enjoy all of your works
and words for they touch me and fulfill my sense of being

i now, utilize a more general social media conduit for the
purpose of possibly connecting in some small way with
those people not necessarily in the coterie of artist, writers,
authors. i have witnessed that there are consumers of my
words in this venue who are touched without the predis-
position of academic or artistic judgment but just ‘touched’.

i guess this is my way of expanding my wings to experience
the wind that had not flowed underneath them for sometime.
selfishly, i herald this experience in the open environment
that so needs some creative injection with a sense of kind
energy that may, but for a moment, distract from a less
than kind and loving environment.

i wish to let you all know that many if not most of you
have inspired my words, my heart and soul, my being.
gracias for sharing yourselves with us who are in need
of continuous creative stimulation and inspiration. Enjoy
whatever celebrations you all participate at this time
of the year

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

sadness of hate

sometimes the tears come
and they fall unceasingly unbeknownst
of their cause, of their pain

there are wailing cries and moans
of deep hurtful pangs and shards of
distress piercing a heart in chains

seeing life’s descent with mournful
loneliness in the souls discontent when
in love’s absence a void filled with portent

eyes watching in horror, heart racing in angst
is this life’s ending sorrow with no more
Sunrises to witness, no more of love’s embrace


Wednesday, September 20, 2017

sleepless

cicadas and crickets charm me in the night
when my eyes can’t seem to close to sleep
as my thoughts race through and about
with no cares of my body’s need for gentle rest

their cadence is not so dissonant
in the dark and cooling breath of night
as the solitary darkness provides the score
for this nocturnal ensemble

i do so wish to sleep and dream of my laying
on a dandelion, daisy and sunflower pasture
while hummingbirds drink of their nectar
and miracle ‘mariposas’ don their dance

with this reverie of a restful playground
i close my eyes to nocturnal aviary sounds
and through my open window, feel the titillation
of the cool night air as it sooths me finally to sleep
sweet dreams


wings on timeless space

the feather-winged ones manifest
of what our souls are and do in a
world of earthbound tethered beings

they fly and soar in the space where
clouds reside and trees and mountains
hover high to touch the sky

the wind knows of their wings and lets
them ride and play in its breath of air
and look upon the setting sun eye to eye

a lunar face smiles watching them cavort
amidst its darken veil and lights the night

to shine upon their fancy beauty in display 

Saturday, August 26, 2017

oh Luna, in my heart at night

oh Luna in my heart at night
i hear your face is sometimes small
and round sometimes large and cloudy
and sometimeswith a smile and bright

sometimes you change your colors
with the makeup on your face
you go sometimes without it
and then you dress up in
orange-yellow in the dusk of night

there have been songs i’ve heard
written for you and about you, some
melancholy though many are of love,
when two walk hand in hand on grassy
knolls and watch you smile at them

i’ve read, in brail, poems written of you
by Shakespeare, Keats and Shelley, of how 
you make ebb and rise the ocean’s tides,
how you touch the mountain tops by day
and light the sky, at night your beams kiss
the sea and silhouette flights of osprey

i wish that maybe just once i could see the
beauty you bestow upon those eyes that can
see, your breathtaking reflection you mirror
upon the beds of Sea

in my next journey, i need no longer imagine
but actually see you kissing the Universe’s sea
and in that light what mundane heart is left in me,
love poems and songs written, will set me free

marellano

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

wherefore are thee, love

Love is a vagabond
it is transient and a drifter
may be present one moment
then journeys elsewhere
but always present somewhere

the bounds of its presence
can be intense and blinding
but by its absence, so too,
can it be scathingly brutal

in Life, Love must be present
if not, Life will not thrive for in 
the absence of Love, its warmth
and nurturing, it's giving and sharing,   
it is the nutriment of Life

sometimes Love is seen from afar,
can be heard, its scent smelled but may
not be felt because of its distant vicinity,
too far from the reaches of the heart
and not accessible to its embrace

Love need not have words, unlike
hate which must be learned, Love’s
essence is of universal vibrations
that is manifest in the sunflower that
raises its petals to feel the morning Sun,
the river flowing into the arms of the sea,
the rain when it bathes the Earth, the Tree
then wanting to grow like the Mountain
that kisses the sky and the Wolf when it
howls at the Moon, the Eagle’s screech
whilst soaring in the face of the Sun

all this is of Love without words

Saturday, August 5, 2017

when love finds you

when love finds you, the
heart flutters, breath quickens,
eyes glisten under stars
tiny beads of sweat fill the
palms of hands
an unexpected smile evinces

walks on river banks
become memories of
purple blossoms and the waft
of lavender filing the air as
tiny ripples underneath the
river’s water sparkles like
diamonds falling from
the Sun’s rays
                        
the verve of youth
resides within again
and the angst of aging dissipates
into the cool night’s breath
as the lightning bugs
dance in the air

the song and the poem that
the spirit of the Universe recites
… be still my heart
let mine eyes capture the
moon beams kissing the sea by night
and let me feel the warm fingers
of the Sun as it lays them upon
Nature’s breast, by day

so when mine eyes shall close
to rest onto that eternal nocturne
sleep, let me dream these life made
memories that sated my soul,
with my partner’s hand in tow
you know, the one who filled
my heart with Love

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

i observe the night

supine against the foot of a tree, i peer
upward to the black canvas sky of night
watching the stars hazy light moving in
and out, breathing the night’s cool air

cicadas have decided to chide the quiet
and stillness of darkened sleep reminding
there are some who are nocturnal and
stay up to watch the Moon’s display

i hearken in a stream of thoughts and
memories of the day that’s passed with
wide eyed reverie, not of dreams, while
my heart palpitates slow, fast, slow again

i wander into a euphoria where the cool
air titillates my skin and the waft of night
fills my lungs and mine eyes behold the
darkness and my heart dances with my soul

i feel in touch with the spirit of Earth
as the feet of the tree supports the chakras
in my spine while parsing its stillness and
quiet in its wisdom, sharing it with me


Saturday, July 8, 2017

wisdom gentle and free

…i
wish
to see,
hope to
touch and
 smell, hear,
to taste and to
learn about life, to
.…. become its verve

..someone once said to me
you seemingly are a wise man
quickly, i stepped back and said
..i am but a student in his infancy

wisdom, it cannot be explained, but,
..if one observes the tree stand sturdy
then sway in the wind and the eagle fly
overhead watching us and the mountain
stand grand, quiet and still, there, one will
then observe, witness where wisdom resides

so then if i cease to wish, to be, and escape my
‘self’ to become the tree, standing sturdy and free
to let my ‘self’ fly above to observe the mountain top
 just maybe, what is called ‘Wisdom’, will then find me

                     what is gently without gentle
                        or softly without soft and
                          heartfelt without heart
                           or lovely without love
                                the day does not
                                  begin without
                                     the night

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

awaken with wonder

open my eyes from my ‘querencia’ of sleep
feeling crisp cool shards of night air seeping
through a slightly cracked window that separates
me and the restful cove of my abode from the twilight
and the dangling of night stars and their goings on

so now the rapid movements of my eyes underneath
their blankets closed begin to adjust, to cease from the
dreams that sought shelter from the skirmishes of Life’s
awaken and chaotic restless of the day as i hear the
canorous voices of my feathered friends perched on
trees and bushes just outside my window pane

i peer outside and notice yellow daisies stretching
their yellow petals up, up to touch the fingers of the
morning Sun and so too, the white daisies doing the
same, for it seems there will be enough warmth
and sprinkle of golden rays for all

and the poppies flaunt their purple and maroon
bulbous derbies they wear atop their long sinuous
stems while they also show the daisies that they too
can play amidst the gold and orange canvas being
painted by the Sun’s hand

a hummingbird shutters in to drink the nectar beads
sparkling like rainbow prisms from dew left by the
edges of the night’s eyes on petals of tiny white and
crimson bells tolling their scent and sweetness alongside
the lilies and tulips also dancing with a blowing changing
breeze from an awakened Nature’s breath and sleep

the day begins of this, sharing a new beginning to the human
spirit, allowing it to witness the aesthetic of life’s assay and
to be embraced so to assist in its wanderings through the day
with a smile of wonderment as the soul captures the joy of
what may mitigate the toils of the mundane travails, today 

Saturday, June 24, 2017

convictions of heart and soul

when you asked me to soldier for you
and asked me to raise my gun for the
true convictions of this country and 
those deep within this patriotic heart 

it is i who will do the soldiering and
i who in battle, if not the body the soul
is lost and it will be my love ones who'll
carry pain and suffer, who'll pay the cost

tell me what it is your country stands for
in morals, ethics, integrity, human kindness
in a flag and its anthem and when it asks of me
and others like me of this ultimate request
does it give worth to the toll of humans lost

when i am sent into another sovereign land
to impress upon them that their convictions 
are seeming threats to my children, my family, 
my home by the virtues of their heart and hand

yet if we can learn how to speak to each other,
change the mindset  of, that, 'killing is the answer',
then our flags could fly in the wind of  understanding
our anthems would play alongside with one another

if we gather our voices in harmony harkening in
praises of the uniqueness of each other’s land and
recognize our differences realizing what separates
us are only the mountains, the oceans and the sand

we are all born with eyes, legs, and hands, the
same red blood runs through them when awake and
while asleep, sharing the air we breathe, the water
we drink and consume the gifts that Nature reaps

until we realize that knowledge is the answer to the
hate and an empty heart's woes, and to those who try
to lead us into a darkness, we shall shun and ignore you
for Love is the answer, let it reap within our tattered souls.



*for Magaly Guerrero's: Beautiful Freak's Fest, 2017

Friday, June 16, 2017

eagle eye

see me and see you,
we are one
we are not two
you are me and me, you

for a moment stay quiet
and listen to the silence
if you close your eyes 
you'll see the vibrations

be witness to your breath
listen to your heart, listen to mine
for in our surroundings
we are one

i am the eagle soaring
and i tilt my crown and look
down onto and atops of trees
upon the faces of mountains
and the flow of the rivers
running into the seas

the golden warm eye watches me
then turns crimson before it rests
upon the edge of my Earthly abode
pulls a blanket of darkness over it
and then flicks on pinpricks of
lights onto and upon my sky as they
twinkle around the moon, the night
watchman’s eye

i stop to rest my wings.
unfurl my talons onto my nest
and then reflect upon my flight
where my dreams are of the tops
of trees, the mountain faces
and the flow of streams

from their rest, my eyes will open
once again to revisit another day’s 
sojourn as i spread and flap sinuously
my wings to dust off the stiffness and
yet salvage the soaring memories
caught in the web of my feathered
dream catchers

i twist, to and fro my crown to
stretch and loosen, ready to soar
so that i may create more dreams
and i tickle my spine up on the hanging 
puffs of cottons from a blanket of an 
azure sky riding the heavenly wind
until another day's end 

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

love's value love's worth

hate and violence, i disdain.
love, i cherish but to what end
does its value diminish
when the object of it departs

love, when shared and reciprocated
by another's heart has great worth
but when death devours it, it leaves
the untenable toll of dearth

the sun rays kiss the flower by day
at night it hides away and the
pedals sleep in the dark and dew
as if there never was the two

when the tree sings with the wind
rustles about the notes in Spring
yet when an angry storm comes
uproots it, wherefore, their song

aesthetics captured by mine eyes and
no longer present my heart can’t find
a love once there, now dissipated
into another journey another time

so what value is love if it avails itself
to this void, filled of anguish and of pain,
does the soul truly remember its worth
when so cruelly departing of this Earth?


*a purging/catharsis; tragically lost a friend a week ago, she was way too young left behind two
  todlers: very tragically lost an aquaintance two days ago way too young, he has two young'ns:
  yesterday morning lost a good friend to cancer, I hope she left without pain

Sunday, June 4, 2017

night's onyx eyes

and so i stare into the black onyx eyes
on the face of night as i peer outside my
window. the night stares back at me,
dark and cold through my window pane,
i cannot sleep and so i do vigilance upon
the darkness of its face wondering if it
is as lonely as it seems in the cold sunless
sky out there?

a tiny light looks down upon me from
high above and i wonder if it can see
me from that distance the way i see it.
i stand here on this large earthen rock
floating amidst a black space we call a
universe and I, being but a tiny microbe, 
for does this twinkle of an eye see me
and recognize my vibration, my soul?

and when i, dressed in this incarnate temporal 
attire, no longer am i he who stares out onto this
sea of darkness for my soul has journeyed on
joining the universal spirit where all of life goes, that
which came before me and all that will come after,
and now i reside as this dark face that stares back
in through the window into the face looking out. 

will i recognize the face staring out into my onyx eyes?

Thursday, June 1, 2017

mi amor

if my legs could not walk  
the wildflowers waving in the wind
rivers and streams, the forest
mountains and seas would only from
a distance exist for me

if mine eyes could not see
the azure sky with cotton clouds,
reds, purples, yellow of foliage, 
yellow gold of mornings, crimson dusk
dark of night with twinkling stars

if mine ears could not hear
the rustling of trees squirrels wrestling in them
or the wind whistling at the short dress of spring
cardinals and sparrows, robins and starlings
the screech of hawks and eagles, howl of the wolf

if i could not smell the lovely waft
of the persimmon and rose, the sassafras
and mint, pine of conifers and the lilac
that kindly soothes in through our open
window pain as we sit in each other’s embrace

if all of this i did not have
my heart would still beat with desire
for my lips to taste the warmth of yours
and a smile would still evince upon my face
for this, the love i have runs deep within
my soul with yours till the end    



*although thirty years together, my lovely wife and i celebrate today our tenth wedding anniversary.
  i wrote this for her this morning.

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

heavenly dreams

the indigo face of the sky
with its powdered cheeks of white
gives way to the gold and yellow
of the Sun’s warm smile

and the wind's breath is barely felt
for the tree will have none of it, standing 
still listening to the Cardinal and whilst 
at its rooted feet, a child sits with mommy

softly the child asks …”mommy what kind of
flower is that…”mama says “,that’s a lily”
and the child asks “Mama, and that one”
…”that’s an iris”…” how about that one, Mommy”
…”Oh, that is a purple tulip” and the child asks
“ Oh, mommy look at that one it’s beautiful, what
Is the name of that one”, mommy restlessly says
“ that’s a poppy that will help us dream” and child
says…” they look so much alike, do they know
their names”? …mama with a smile says…”I don’t
think they do my little one, we name them
so that we know which one is which but they know
we appreciate their beauty”, and the
child then asks …”does this tree know that we’re
lying here”…mama, ”oh yes”…” where did daddy go”
child looks up at mommy… and with a solemn
breath and a discreet tear, mama whispers in her
ear…” daddy had to go to Heaven and talk to
God and ask Her if we can come and visit”…
“do they have lilies and tulips and iris there, mommy”
“Oh yes my child”, mama somberly attests…” they have
beautiful ones there, my child .” when will daddy tell
us what God said, mommy”…“daddy will tell us if we
close our eyes and lay down here quietly and let him
speak through our dreams”

a soft wind begins to blow on the denuded stems of the
lily, the tulip, the iris and the poppies as they sway to
and fro and the tree looks down to witness their sleep
and the indigo sky reflects on their skin as the warmth
of the Sun’s kiss begins to cool on them as the pedals
of the flowers grow inside their bellies

the noir of the night with the twinkle in the eyes of stars
and the wink of the moon say goodnight to the resting Sun
and to mommy and child who lay at the rooted feet
of the tree watching over them as they dream their
heavenly dreams