When neural pathways stream from point to point
Their stream creates the power of a mill
And when they come to scars, such scars anoint
The pathway as it tumbles down the hill
The hill is just a metaphoric mount
Dismounted, I survived to think more thought
The pathways I create will surely count
As if they stood for something cheap I bought
Did I buy life? I know I paid a bill
A bill I was presented at the door
A door that opens outward on this mill
And once again I learned what cash is for
Again I hear the wisdom flood my brain
It flows in neural pathways, mostly sane.
Engaging With My Post-TBI Self
May 27th, 2024The Nihilist of Hamelin
May 27th, 2024The piper has been paid; the rats are gone
But rats are smart and hungry; they’ll be back
We know the night is followed by the dawn
But every brilliant day will fade to black
The cycles of the universe reveal
That opposites do more than just attract
The universe is like a turning wheel
The folks of Hamelin learned this simple fact
Both rats and children come and go in time
It seems as if it's fated thus to be
Perhaps there is a moral, most sublime
Perhaps the universe will set them free
The universe continues to go round
In quiet cycles piped without a sound.
Blake’s Elohim
May 27th, 2024Rama Pines for Sita
May 20th, 2024At times I see my Sita in the sky
At times I see my Sita in my dreams
I know she’s far away, but I must try
To bring her back, no matter how it seems
My time without my Sita is like Hell
Naraka would be better than this life
But more than just a story made to tell
The world is always better with my wife
I’m every man who’s lost a precious gift
But gold and diamonds never will compare
To my dear Sita, who I want to lift
And show the world that she is good and fair
I need my Sita with me, by my side
My precious Sita, oh, my precious bride.
Hebron Maple Festival
March 16th, 2024A festival that celebrates our town We're Hebron, a community of friends The maples here achieve a great renown And every year we hope it never ends The sugar from our maples is so sweet It flows when trees are tapped in early spring It flows like friendship flows down every street It seems to make the people want to sing A festive song, a festival we love We welcome all with hope that always grows Like maple leaves on lofty limbs above Through which the joy of maple syrup flows The winter snows will melt and go away While Hebron’s Maple Festival will stay.
Gentleness
March 8th, 2024I watch the maples sway across the street The wind seems gentle, tinged with gentle rain The gentleness of morning is complete As gentle dreams of reverie remain The reverie of gentle autumn days Remembered in the winter times of chill I wonder if a maple tree that sways Remembers when it used to stand stone still The memories of trees are like the wind A paradox with roots that wait for spring A memory no weather can rescind The maple tree has other songs to sing I watch the maples watch as I compose A gentle song as gently I repose.
Jabberwonky
February 26th, 2024As odd conditions find their tongues are slit
Like fiendish fangs they drip with mothered blood
If born with light they start before they quit
Eternally what bombs becomes a dud
Explosions of conditions draped with fur
Expressions make the most of rancid dawn
Untold by children told to be unsure
The offer states the honor which has gone
We find the bitch of all we might expect
As heinous scars of rotten-rendered-meat
While more than this is what we recollect
And recollections hold what gods repeat
My mistress finds a place to don her hat
While screaming faithless fiction to her cat.
Surreal Surreality
February 18th, 2024I watched Surreal suck cobwebs from my eyes
That bitch knew how to blend the disks of time
He painted worms like carnal squishy thighs
And only cared for things that wouldn’t rhyme
Like god-below-confusion camping out
Where sultriness enjoys a drink or two
I’ve seen Surreal behave like Holy Doubt
He knows what Holy Doubt can often do
My God, My God is this what Dreamers feel
I Am My God, I Am The Fucking Word
Confusion leads to everything Surreal
True visions run the risk they might be blurred
So blurred in blood the veins of time congeal
As cobwebs dance with God who is Surreal.
TNT Is Meant To Be
February 13th, 2024For Valentine's Day Every good love story needs a good sonnet. This one is for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce: ----- They found each other somewhere in the light A metaphor that knows just where to look To see beyond the limits of plain sight A simple story in love’s storybook She sings her songs of love with dulcet voice A song becomes much more than what she sings The words of love become a lyric choice Like songbirds know the tune of precious things He must have known true love will know it’s true It overcomes uncertainty and more It seems to know precisely what to do To show the love beyond love’s metaphor And now together they are TNT An acronym for what was meant to be.
New Sonnets
February 5th, 2024This project composes a sonnet from one line each of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. (whichever line speaks to me upon reading the sonnet) Sonnet Number (line number in that sonnet”text”) New Sonnet 1 (line 7 “Making a famine where abundance lies, “) To make a famine where abundance lies We need to disregard the way we live If no one ever starves then no one dies If no one asks, does anybody give? Abundant lies exist where people seem To be enamored by abundant words Where poetry is more than just a dream Where poets flit about like little birds They peck the ground where seeded words are spilt The poets think that they must peck to fly And so they peck and eat in abject guilt And then regurgitate before they die The metaphor of words as seeds proclaims That poets too are known by other names.