MEMORY (SET)

If you heard it just once

You would give up all that you are

For one night, for one set of this

Memory riddle if you please

If you saw it, glanced at it

It would take you and squeeze all there ever was

Within you and beyond your draw of comprehension

If you understood it

It would betray your usual sense of self

The oddity in all you seen with your pretty brown eyes

Tonight as if any other is going to arrive

It shall confess into the crowds

What is glaringly crystal and smoky and ever more to you and all present

If you offered it a day and grew with it

It would ride you like a hurricane

If you felt it a pinch longer, the longest 15 minutes known to man

It would punch you to your knees & happily you’d kneel

As if receiving knight's honor and grade
This set of pulses will alter tomorrow, today.

3.26.12 

Blood-Line

Children of men we are

Water brothers by time

I could not tell whether it was just yesterday

When we learned our first knot

Push and pull, see and halt right there

What is a bloodline?

It snakes through many mountains

Reaches the sea, holds in a barrel

Steams a shirt and makes a cup of tea

For every moment we laughed, shared and sailed

I thank you and hold you against the sun

In each drip I know you are there,

In all that was, is and will be, a part of you exists

Life is but a moment we get to live,

I stand tall; I knee to the cold ground and fold a flag.

You taught me how

From across the state line, I am there

Man of honor, heavens wait

Our last hoorah hasn’t rung

The silk in the bloodline is now and always

Below a vessel, underneath my eyes
Life is but a moment that I saw through your mind.

12-27-11

For Eda, when his friend passed.

Tremor (Subway poetry)

In a moment in which I can count to five
I saw your eyes flicker they minced me into a tree trunk
Stepping down from a height now only known
As cloud nine and so it is
Feet on the ground, again
I remember the next day, morning after
The tremor that ran through me
Like a knife through water
I move into the next eve
Knowing it’s full of heart.

11-30-2011

Untitled

Here and now I stroke your hair

Slowly as if to memorize each strand

I run the tips of my fingers down your back
Kiss your lips for the last time
Help you into the canoe that awaits
Push you off into the water and turn away
I can hear you saying "take care"
I cry and say to the one inside

"I will always love you but run on, your life is elsewhere"
I will keep a piece of you that the water will not wash away
I stand at the ocean for what seems to liken to years
Turning around, seeing your boat clinking the horizon
Now it's just a boat
An hour ago it was my life.
Live, let live
Love, endure, and let go.

9/2011

Frozen Lakes, Be Mine

Today is the day

I rise in swiftness

With a glaring purpose

Slide across the lovely stream that is solid

Frozen lakes, be mine, be always

This time, again I am a child

Hear the bells that make way

For the horses that pull snow away

Let’s collect the images of the shoe marks
Lucky and cheery may we become

Make a memory, this time of year

It’s magical, for you, for me

It’s a sudden kingdom of white

Twelve words, twelve moods, twelve months

I will see you here again, frozen still

Smiling holding a branch in your hand

Rolling the snow into large mounts

Use a carrot and a cone don’t forget

To make a nose, a mouth, so the smile

Greets everyone who passes by

Today I remember that frozen lakes

Are as alive as we all are, creating a protective layer

So we can all stop and enjoy the moment

Today I rise into every winter of my life

See the plane of white?

Come and share this time

You too, little one,

I see your antlers have not grown in

Once you slide over a frozen lake

You’ll realize the beauty in what stands still

Tall and white today and here on out

Frozen lakes, be mine, be always.

Snowy Ghost

A couple of nights before Hollow’s Eve

A snowstorm swept through the streets

I don’t know who you are in this life

Or what your scent conveys to me

Perhaps the lightness of a freshly brewed white tea

Very clearly I see the pearly whites

Shining like the fresh dew on a summer morning’s grass

I see you smile, over and over

I hear you laugh with a full heart.

Through this crazed October weather

Through the falling of the snowflakes

Weeks and weeks earlier than they are welcomed

Down on me

They say it’s a rarity

The sleet swooshes under my feet

I look up into the crowns of the trees

Their heavy branches, making a plea

Those lovely trees that line down my street

And while observing it dawns

It’s as if all might came down

Through the snow and thunder

I can see you smile.

10.30.11

I Married You In My Sleep

Even though you’re worlds away

I must inform you today

The day we parted I married you in my sleep

Walking on snow, like on water, following

The Sami people around the Arctic Circle

Reindeer in tow, the most beautiful place on earth

Platinum white hair is everywhere, snow on the ground

I squeeze in between two warm animal bodies

I married you in my sleep

This time of year when the snow falls even here

I think of you not seeing the fluffy heaven petals

Dancing on your hand, disappearing into a twist,

Water drops till they evaporate

Kind of like you in the morning of every new day

I married you in my sleep

How different it all seems to be

Our worlds, our realities

Yours a full day ahead of mine,

But I have all I could ever need

I married you in my sleep

Like a feather on the floor

Swept with one motion of a broom

Just to escape it

Since the motion of the brush gives it

Power, wings of flight

My heart has played its latest trick

No ifs and buts, you are always with me

So why the cruel joke

Instead of bedding my dreams

I keep my insomnia company

The day we parted
I married you in my sleep.

10.29.11

The Silent Warrior

You remind me of the spring wind

Moving the tree tops, weaving a dance of life

You are like the summer rain

Moving at an constant that is still

Your scent – it claims the room

When you inhabit it, they all

Feel your presence, even though evanescent 

Gently you lay down your laws of charity

I speak for a majority when I say

The depths of you most will

Never have the pleasure of knowing

You win battles by wit-full intelligence

Which affords you splashes of silver

And rainbows of gold

You walk slowly but tall and steady,

In every measure

It’s as if following a Queen’s procession

During a yearly parade

Carrying a fire in your soul

One that feeds many

Like a sunflower always following the sun

You are water and earth

Strong yet pliable and ever nourishing

You remind me of a mountain sage

For lessons leave your lips so often, and patiently

Today I honor the warrior within you

For I can see a battle approaching,

As always you will bravely face it

With unwavering courage and immense endurance

And limitless love that knows the far horizon

Yet looks down at the road and keeps walking

You are like the wind, swaying the treetops

Uniting them in the dance of life.

Written for my Latong, Rowena on her birthday 2011, 30^th of September.

My God Is My Vow (Lillian)

Today I have walked into the horizon

Following God, my vow and my path

Tomorrow I’ll lay my head and rest,

One final time

With my flame burning out, I spare you my words

My God is my vow, and it’ll always be

Come to sit with me for an eve, for a moment

And I send you to another sphere,

Forgive me, let me go and remember me

In kind, I will know you for everything

As I know you today, you shall be with me

Forever.
My God is my vow, and you my son, are my prayer.

For Lonnie as his mother passed and was laid to rest on 9/15/11

When Tomorrow Doesn't Have a Face

As a rainbow through a cloud
today you know my voice
my face remains
a mystery
walking and talking by the sea
shan't be
I am the melon and you are the seed
one after the other a whole but never
side by side
first you and then I
tracing the steps of one another
Colors through darkness of a cave
I write on the wall in the dungeon
and you etch shortly after
when tomorrow doesn't have a face

8.3.11 by LT