It is what it is

Things are as they seem

Trees bow to the wind

Creeks cut the seam

Talk softly and true

Call out what you feel

I'll look for the essence

And bow to my heels

You see, I am quite nothing

I’ve nothing to hold

I live in the wind

And crow with the crows

Up now

A weightless state

Hanging above all the waste

Yeah, make it bake

From the bottom up

And tenderly tend to the flame.

And birds they beat the trunks

Making the hollows a home

Knocks become poems

And they're rapped to life

Live in the claves of night

Low

Sure would like to feel it burst apart

Shot out

Right from the heart

Tumbling with things from my wildest parts

Well

You see, I am quite frankly not myself

Spaced out

Lost losing days

Fumbling for life in the wildest ways

And the sound

Of Cellar door

Sweet as a splayed satin sheet

Free cursive peaks

They're calling me

To sleep in the deep underneath

Low

Know what it takes

Tend it in hopeful ways

If not for things

Matter that lies in the waiting

Lit with the night

Licked with the chattering

Blown out again

To the only place its ever been

Sure would like to feel it burst apart

Shot out

Right from the heart

Tumbling with things from my wildest parts

Well

You see I am quite frankly not myself

Spaced out

Lost losing days

Fumbling for life in the wildest way

But its all ok

Realizing

I am

Nothing

Real

Night trains rattle panes

Shake the thoughts out from

Behind

Your eyes.

Last night was full of sweat

Foreheads swaying in the dark to kings.

Sun shone so early

On these bright young things

Sleeping in the stark

Nothing.

Hibernate for the day

Barefoot slaps on on floors

Low talk

Fuzzy heads.

Heads back when she told them

It’s dull endurance friends

This is how it ends.

Falling through the door

Another day gets closer

Holding onto things

So they don’t move

Laughing at the world

As if it were sober.

It’s all run out

It’s all right here and now

So make your plans

Brave and bright young things.

Pines swaying in a wistful way

Where do the birds go

during a hard storm?

Pushing through some hard fought hours

Without a deep sleep

Shelters without heat.

Inside walls its safe and warm

Radiators pinging on the floors

Smell of old books

Rolling cigarettes and counting.

Meteors in black and white

Wonder if they’ll fall all night

And the songs we’ll hear

When morning comes again.

On the corn cribs

Strung in tandem

Coffee cans hang

For the garden

Come this spring time

They won’t be needed

So they’ll just rattle

Through the seasons

Alone.

We’re longing for something

That never was

We’re longing for something

That never was ours.

Lost

Pieces of it smoldering

In the morning

Swirling

Ashes on a milk white snow drift

Flit across it

In the softest

Whips.

In the tall grass

You can hear it ring

Like a faint brush

Against broken strings.

In this moment

When it blows the nest

It tugs on your throat

With the weight of it

They’re all present here

In this love that remains

We’re longing for something

That never was

We’re longing for something

That never was ours.

Tell me I’m wrong

This isn’t what it is

What I think it is.

Tell me it’s nothing

That it’s all a part

Of my twisted mind.

Please ask me to zip you up

Roll your head left, and tilt your hips.

I’ll fill the air up with buttered toast

To remind you

I’m the only

I am home.

Tell me it’s okay

There’s a residue

A dew of sunlit rooms.

Tell me you’re just away

Out to sea for awhile

But here is always home.

Windows wide in the morning light

We lie perfect

Soft and still.

Darkest dreams swirl in purple streams

I’m coming under

I’m coming for you

With this light.

Or tell me it’s too late

It’s too weathered for paint

It’s too far past the pain.

Or just tell me anything

Anything at all

God its better than nothing.

Rolling on the salted sea

Deep blue skies from a movie scene

Out of touch with the world

The way it’s supposed to be

Far away from here.

Heavy air in the heart of night

Heading towards the neon lights

The way the straps on your clothes

Float on a clavicle

And the shadows there.

Its where I go

When my world gets old

Far away from here.

From inside the windows

Eyes squint to see

Some hard earned luck

Because you gotta believe

It’s out on the highway

And over the seas

This sure ain’t enough

There’s nothing at the top here for me.

Time and it’s fragments

Errands that we must heed

They have to be enough

They have to be for real

And I know it isn’t simple

And I know it isn’t clean

But it’s moments we seek

Moments that we seem to need

Way out here

In the far away.

It takes a bit to brace these feet

And not get swept away by these waves.

It’s always faster coming down

Unfurling from the peak.

And oh, there’s subtle signs

In between lines

They’re on the loose.

Vines choke out the trees

And secrets they keep

Hiding the truth.

These days smell like licorice

Cold air and clove cigarettes.

Saucers laced with silky highways

Brimming with the thoughts.

Of

These jagged things

Hot to the touch

They tumble down.

Stone

So curved and so smooth

From far away

But it’s not the truth.

What a clever look

At a clever time

You didn’t know it, but I caught it

You lit right up

Like I’d never seen

He was singing your so special

So special, so right, so special

When I look at you

So special, so right, so special

And my strings broke

Wait do not wait for some hope or some love

They would be wrong things

They would be wrong

Wait in the stillness and let it be still

Wait in the emptiness

Wait just to wake up.

Racing through the South alone

Magnolias are stacked in silhouettes.

These swamps make the deepest sounds

Whispering good night

Good night.

All the grace lighting up in this place

Like a lullaby draped in some lace

And its easy to see

For a moment believe

That chaos is not in the lead.

Like some straw blown away by the wind

Swept away to some boundless and homeless place

Through time

Through the still of the ages

To the way

To the light of the emptiness.

And we’ll pray it’ll come back in the fall

And we’ll keep moving on.

These things that we needed so bad

They were here all along

We ached for them so.

Its always fleeting and shoreless

Fogged over shifting and formless

Scattered and sloshed in the starlight

Folding on itself without rhythm.

It gives good reason to find it

Hold some loose footing in all this.

Dig in so deep that the light breaks

In this place where nothing stays.

It floats to be drawn into space

Tongues tethered taught to the stakes.

Worn in a track only covered in dreams

Allowing escape from this scene.

Like a gull in the throes of the wind

Circling round with no place to set down its feet.

It folds and floats to the deep

And it eats all our sleep when to tired to fight.

We’ll pray we can let it all go

And surrender control.

These things they can’t break you so bad

If the center can hold

If the center can hold.

It’s hard to get lost

In just a weekend

Such a little piece

A slice of whittled ease

Always turning up

But its better though way down low

Called myself off

Left in bare feet

Sailed the hot streets

Shuffling to heart beats

Snuck a black plum

Let it dribble down sweet and slow

There’s a place

I’m dreaming of

With tangled trees and morning doves

Curtains float

Like a sea of lace and light

When the wind blows

The grass quivers in the breeze

Gently brushing our cheeks

Someone’s chapstick

Dipped to pick it up

Cracked the lid loose

Pressed for 2 loops

Coconut rum

Would you take me to sand and seas?

Someone’s front yard

Under a cedar

Hand under my hair

Slept with no cares

Woke to light scenes

Dancing in and out of the leaves

Don’t get me wrong

This is not a chase

This is not a cheat

Or an escape

But this is not what we came here for honey

Terrified to give it up

Its a fix, its not enough

We both know it’s just waking up to it.

We have this beautiful reason to stay

Its good now, so it’s harder to feel this way

But it fills in and takes up all the holes for the light

And our eyes soon adjust and get used to the night

I see it in my sleep

Its a vivid sight

Like we struck a match

For the fading light

Talavera skies

In the blue and white

Shifting slow

In the heartland

In the summer heat

Find the 3rd lake

Curtained with high reeds

When the waters high

You can make it through on your own

Window Panes

All dripping wet

Beads of rain zig zag in sets

Streaking down in a film of lost regret

If I had a plan already, I'd go

But my space is empty

So I will float above the coarseness

Fold these hands behind my head

And sink into the evergreen shadows

Of this dance

Paste in the corners of my mouth

Tastes like morning

And old coffee grounds

Tastes bitter like late, late winter.

If I can beat the sunrise

Maybe I can divert my mind

From the fields and rhubarb garden

And the days before

My heart hardened.

It’s a hard felt heartache

Over what’s left in the summer wake

The scarves and lattes they just Band-Aid

The cold wind in your face.

I hope its careless hair

And pale bare feet

Sun stained pails

With sunken treats

And a blackbird song

Humming low in your ears

For all your years.

He lives in corners of that old place

In the quiet part of the day

He’s in the slow creep of the morning.

If I can beat the sunrise

Maybe I can divert my mind

To the fields and rhubarb garden

And the days before

My heart hardened.

I hope its careless hair,

And pale bare feet

Sun stained pails

With sunken treats

And a clothes line hung

With old patched up jeans

From all those years.

There’s a place that I know

Where red buildings light up in the evening glow.

Best thing to do is watch the shadows

Take them over real slow.

It’s wasteful

The way you talk so loud

Because I can hear you dear

Without you moving your mouth.

It’s wasted

Here on this one way street

It’s just ordinary, all signs

and gray concrete.

But it’s alright

You’ve got so much to do

You have to get to the place you dream of

so soon

It’s alright

I’m just losing you

There’s no better place than the one that we will ruin.

I’m just a novice here in the fire

we sit through.

I know it’s painful

The the passive one makes sound

And he’s losing you like the trees lose their leaves to the ground.

It’s the season

Colorful and proud

Wonder if you’re in love with the colors

or the idea of having them around.

But it’s alright

You’ve got so much to do

You have to get to the place you dream of

so soon

It’s alright

I’m just losing you

There’s no better place than the one that we will ruin.

I’m just a novice here in the fire

we sit through.

See we’re gaining on the light

Ahead of us

On the highway.

Barefoot with the bugs

You’re feet on the dash

In the glow of the station.

Well it’d be quite alright to stay

And bum around this town

It’d be hard for us to say

if we’d take our regrets to the grave.

Here there’s roots of kin

But the wind has blown me far

To the mountains.

To a buzz and hum of a life

That’s fast

But full of something.

It’s not hard

To see what they need

Its the calm and the easy they seek

But it’s just the same

The same

The same.

Things creak and they shine

To be seen, to be heard

What else if for mystery

Or whatever the word

We have for the emptiness

The beautiful state

For sounds we cannot know

But love all the same