Dear Winston

Into the looming dark
My old friend Winston gazed
“Come hither friend and see the light!”
He said with finger raised

So straining hard and squinting then
I saw a glimmer spare
By and by it closer came
Soon it would be here

It seemed so much a phantom
Floating there upon the mist
But as its bearing yielded not
I saw his sat’ric twist

The light was firm embedded
Upon a giant of wrath
And there on either side of me
Were rails that bound its path

I turned to see my world of love
In peril dire and dread
And wondered why I tarried so
When I’d much warning had

Dear Winston strove to teach us all
He only taught the Tao
That sometimes perils come as light
And recognize it now

For soon your group enlightenment
May be your abrogation
There’s never peace where justice fails
And giants presage your nation

*****

Oaken Dreams

What can I say
How the Shining Sun
Through a windowed wall
Lit your frame
And set to motion
Years of daring do
That I might be
The boldest feathered
Or bravest in my skills
But ever short of measure

Yet how now here
This time complete
And after motion set to step
The seeking on the road
That found the wind
Would love my face
With judgment never bared
Or that the rain would succor me
And with the wind show Mighty God
What can I say

That you had poked a hole in me
A wound still weeping
Words and tears
Now issue from that break
To find their way in scattered drops
Staining parchment new and pure
Or trail into that wind
Blown upon and to My God directed
Settled there to find me hence
What can I say

And how the one who bravely loved
Would go to fisticuffs so quick
In my defense yet not enough
Was I to hold the wilding there
Who wandered too close to tall grass
And dragged into that jungle cruel
Called to me not follow
The beasts devouring soul and flesh
Ripping life I could not heal
What can I say

The leaves turn fire
A few times yet in Oaken Dreams
To find this single tear
Brace my cheek in solo trail
That wanders into nothingness
At natures call and rule
No meaning in the line
But gentle sweetness
So hard won that broke upon
What can I say

So now I am at Sunset's door
There that one
Lighted by the windowed wall
Had set my feet upon the road
Still in that natures grace
Found there as a smile
Out of reach and cavalier
Not knowing how that touch
So cruel yet innocent
What can I say


~

The Stardust

I set my finger in the stardust
And traced a winding line
The path of my ancestors
Tracked from the dawn of time

Sparkles winked as the line took form
And glinted in my eyes
Past and future were one and same
Freedom wakened in my mind

Then all my worldly thought of want
Was set upon the scales
Only light and peace remained
The end of all travails

What wonder then, that we are light
And left here all alone
Pray forgive you brother’s sin
As he forgives your own

Then on that day we all repent
We’ll raise our eyes and see
The sky will rend and Heaven return
And we, once more, stardust will be

Going Home Again

We may not go back and start over

No matter how deeply we mourn

For the world we would find

On our journey's return

Would not be the one whence we're borne.

Ochoa

Going Home

I was just passing through my childhood hometown
And noticed the old school was razed to the ground.

The path I had trod from my home to its doors
Was paved over
and painted
and not there anymore.

Nostalgic, I followed the now missing path
In hopes it would take me someplace in my past.

A place where the sky rang with laughter and shouts
And we chased one another in mystical bouts.

Bouts of wonder and fancy, of Kings and their pawns
But the path to that moment was paved over and gone.

And there in its place were realities pains.
The sum of existence in losses and gains.

And the anguish rose up in my throat in a rush
As my sum was the balance of dreams that were crushed.

I stood on that path now paved over and gone
And my tears stained its paint as I wrote down this poem.

Full Moon Haiku

Solstice Moonlight Falls
Blossoms Let Go In The Wind
Shadows Run With Them

Lonely Whistle

When the rain's just right and the wind blows hard
From the south southeast you can hear her whistle
Moanin’ low up Cypress Draw in the dusky air

She’s movin’ on to places strange and far
With a poundin’ diesel roar that shakes the earth
Throbbin’ low up Cypress Draw in the dusky air

I stop my toil for a brief sad moment
Listenin’ hard till she’s gone again
The mem'ry floats up Cypress Draw in the dusky air

Some day when the rain and the wind’s just right
I’ll make my way down to those tracks
And lay in wait down Cypress Draw in the dusky air

If I screw my courage up enough
To grab that box car flyin’ by
At a breakneck clip up Cypress Draw in the dusky air

Then I’ll ne’er look back and ride that flyer
Till the sky falls in and the mountains crash
And just my ghost walks Cypress Draw in the dusky air

The Silence of the Night

I paint the silence of the night
With brush strokes broad and free
On canvas weaved of solitude
In colors others may not see

The sleeping world is mine alone
To fashion as I’m wont to try
But comes the creeping steady dawn
In ribbons on a waking sky

Then as the slumb’ring land bestirs
I set my paint brush out of sight
And wait until it sleeps again
To paint the silence of the night

I remember when the world was new

I remember when the world was new
And dangling from my every breath
Was the wonder of the summer fields
The life called forth from the very mud
Creation of the wind and sun
Our field was worked and the fresh earth turned
My dogs came down from their romp to see
The cool new life from the tillings called them
With musty sweetness on the breeze
I passed the way on the rippling blacktop
Immortal on my Huffy steed
Gazing off on the brimming life
Then from the tillings, the dogs, they called me
"Join us here and cool yourself"
"Roll with us in the fecund briskness"
"Soon the golden fire will quell"
"Then we will seek our solace elsewhere"
"In new mown grass or water spilled"
I laughed a good dog laugh to them
And set it down in the stream of life
Like a fallen leaf or blade of grass
Then on my way and the laugh adrift
The dogs will find it passing
And laugh as well

Nanjing

How I weep for thee
Broken by the tyrant's gore
Align the road in shuffled step
With heads bowed low before

Though you are God Incarnate
A breathing part of that Great Whole
We cannot turn the hearts of stone
Who feed upon the blood of souls

Still that Great Whole is beauty pure
And those molesters, part as well
Engaged in ever winnowing
Dividing into heaven and hell

All ages from the Indra flow
Soon, our fair age will pass away
Then in the fire of all rebirth
We'll rise again another day

I pray that each concurrent flesh
Will in the grace of ages climb
Our acme of the soul attained
And we will all nirvana find

So in that day we use our hearts
To balance wind and wave and sun
Like Camelot in dappled green
No more Nanjing for anyone

Best Friend

I wrote this poem for AJ Strata when his Dog passed away in 2006
Today, my beautiful Labrador Retriever is gone
We are all, only temporary
Dogs are here to help us through

The joy explodes from off the couch
My bitter day assuaged
Though I am torn with worldly pain
My puppy's heart is gay
And like the Savior of our souls
Wicks off the mantle coarse
My dog loves me as He who came
With all its heart and force
But as the passing days wheel on
And to the earth returned
The collar and the bowl remain
And lesson hard is learned
It's for ourselves alone we mourn
For we are left behind
Until the ones that left us here
Return in Glorious kind

Antietam Creek

Antietam Creek

How is it now that we are borne

Upon this wave of sacrifice
Whose lives were bound for greater things

Yet now, we pay the price
And whose firm shoulders turned to bear

The blows for those behind
Into our foe we press ourselves

As fates grim judgment pares the rind
Oh how we think our selves above

Things more eternal than we stand
And bear upon our enemy

With death or life in glov'd hand.
Stand not as what great wind may blow

Fore swear, we say we will advance
Like waves of grain encumbering

The field for sure will be entranced
Against that wind we throw ourselves

For those we have behind
And fates grim judgment pares the rind

Pray Justice, pares the rind

"O beautiful for glory-tale
of liberating strife
when once and twice
for mans avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

Decoration Day

We woke up well before the dawn
Each last Monday in May
And went to all the soldiers graves
On Decoration Day

Then in full dress of blue and gold
With sash and badge and pin
We'd clean and trim and place a flag
For all our fallen kin

Day greater then than Four July
We tallied freedoms bill
And cooked upon an open fire
Till all were fully filled

Then more to point the morrows morn
Each generation train
That those with decorated grave
Have not fallen in vain