Walk in beauty

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

For Jerrie Hurd

For Joaquin Munoz

For Rich Forster


1
TRAVEL LIKE WAVES

Like waves we travel
feet in the water
swimming away our thoughts
in our pool of selves
sprinkling sparkling shining lights
wondering why life has been
such a long way
with no returns.
We swim ahead
as fishes go deep
in the sea.

Boulder, CO April 10, 2003 – 11:20 a.m.

2
BEFORE I COULD UNDERSTAND

Before I could understand
pain, hunger and loss,
I did what I believed was mine,
even leaving aside
the day, the voices,
the wind, my moments
of little causes, I was,
at a time, the light
on a leaf, the water
over a stone, the moss,
my life past and future.

Boulder, CO April 11, 2003 – 9:20 a.m.

3
THERE LIES

There
lies the mountain
sky and clouds above
time and wind working
together.
All roads take you
ahead.
There lies the mountain,
restless.

Zion N. Park, Utah, April 14, 2003 – 2:52 p.m.

4
WHAT I’VE GOT

This is what I've got
for you:
biscuits and a jar of honey
love poems and some music
pillows and tea.
I'm ready when you are:
no matter how long it takes,
love can face it all.
From the speed of time,
we learn to fly.

Kanab, UT, April 15, 2003 – 5:40 p.m.

5
WALK IN BEAUTY

What I learn is unredeemable.
A new taste
a new smell
a touch of the unknown.
I can wait for what
I've got, eternally.
Stay as it is
as life can teach you
for what you're looking for
has always been with you.
Listen to the steps
of the day.
Lay thoroughly bare
and timeless.
We wish for many things.
Just be what you have become.

Leaving Kanab, UT April 16, 2003 – 10:55 a.m.

6
I WILL CLOSE MY EYES

I will close my eyes
and then I will open them again
as distances fade away
and skies are tainted blue
dark blue from my own moonlit sky.
We will travel until dusk
and wait until it's dawn again.
Walk in your perfect self.
The longer are the days
the longer we will stay
in those open lands
murmuring breaths
taken away from us.
What will remain of time
is time itself
as your heart in mine.

Escalante, Utah April 16, 2003 – 2 p.m.

7
NO WORDS

We need no words
when palms do touch
eye in the eye
we smile.
No words are said
when bodies move
and can hold themselves
still.
No words shall be used
as long as meaning
dwells in the heart
unuttered.

Escalante, Utah April 16, 2003 – 2:30 p.m.

8
YOUR EYES

Your eyes reflect
the landscape
awesome sights
and skies.
Your eyes are never dimmed
and I learn to see
the landscape from you.

Torrey, Utah April 16, 2003 – 4:17 p.m.

9
I WISH

Wish the skies
served you
as it serves the birds.
Wish all roses smelled
the essence of your love.
Wish the boundaries of faith
held you in its arms
and loved you.
Wish time kept still
in your heart
where tears wept
and refreshed you.
Wish life was larger
and yet undiminished
by your touch.
Let life be
fulfilled on its own.

New York, NY April 21, 2003 – 8:45 a.m.

10
NO WIND CAN TELL

No wind can tell you a lie
for there are no lies in the wind.
No tear will plunge
in the ocean,
for the eyes can't see it,
while they cry.
Be whatever you want to be,
and let life be itself.

Newark, NJ April 21, 2003 – 10:48 a.m.

11
LET US REST

Let us rest
for what we know now
for dimless eyes can
perceive what is there
and we are here,
appalled, wintered,
cozily browsing for the next
morning dews,
brewing in the mist
of longed days.

Newark, NJ April 21, 2003 – 11:14 a.m.

12
WE ARE HERE

We are here
in this moment
of grace, thanks
to a glorious
morning, shed of all
shadow, deep in dew,
thrust as the pale
face of nothingness,
its embraceable light,
its glowing dawn.

Newark, NJ April 21, 2003 – 12:35 p.m.

13
TRIP INTO THE LIGHT

What I've learned from you
is here, in this
cloistered shell,
the whimsical perfection for the eye,
a summer shower
on these dry lands,
reveling over the thorns,
my life subdued in murmur.

Newark, NJ April 21, 2003 – 1:00 p.m.

14
EACH SEASON

Each season brings
us something new to keep
and to be remembered.
We pass, but something
always stays
to make us present
and seamless.
Love keeps us there
for all seasons.

Miami-Rio, April 25, 2003 – 5:30 a.m.

15
GOOD TRIES
for John Cuddemi

men rule over time
women over space

whenever they try to meet
they have to go somewhere in between

either time doesn't fit
or space can't bear them

they try to hold on to something
they believe in

but just time and space
can make them be there forever

Rio, April 25, 2003 – 11:32 p.m.

16
SOME TRUTH

In all that is false
there is some truth.
You can't see it
but it's there.
Wherever you turn,
you find truth.

April 22, 2003 – 6:26 p.m.

17
WHEN I SPEAK OF LOVE
for Joaquin Munoz

When I speak of love,
I speak to you.

All skies move unto you
and upon you life is given.

When I speak of friends,
I speak to myself,

as they are nourished
from what I give them.

When I wait for time
to come, I speak of us,

because we bear the light
to be poured on the road,

and the leaves to be shed
away, as time rests

on the stones and riverbeds,
there, also waiting.

April 28, 2003 – 1:00 a.m.

18
AFTERMATH

Nothing will ever be like the aftermath.
After meeting you,
After waiting for you – afterwards.
Nothing will matter as before.
After seeing you I will have changed.
My hands will have a new touch
And my mouth a new taste.
Life will never be the same.
I'll have a new joy
And, after loving you,
I'll be new.

December 27, 2003 – 10:16 p.m.

19
THE GARDEN OF EDEN

Swell the grain.
I die upon my freedom.
Toss the branches alive
stir the ground
and spread the seeds.
We live.
Shadows fall
and the ripples flow.
I breathe.
The garden exists.

January, 24, 2004 – 4 p.m.
20
IF I LOVE YOU

If I love you,
I don't lie.
Wash me wholly
the abundance of my rhythmic love.
Here I am near you,
marigold anointing your skin,
sap of flowers, mistletoe,
the outline of your hands
over my hips.
I may break in two,
unknowingly,
life, the gloss of your speech.
Here I am,
because I'm yours.

March 5, 2004 – 12:02 a.m.

21
THE ROAD TAKEN

When roads are taken
where shall they lead us?

When lives are lived
when shall we love?

When we know the road
love is about.

April 1, 2004 – 12:57 p.m.

22
BEFORE THE SILENCE

Before
there was a silence
I did not know.
A rustle,
slow moving eyes,
visions of hymns,
voices in a circle of fire.
There was a silence touched
by the waiting,
a temple in the stone,
a void of petals,
listening to a ruffling of shells,
wind running through the leaves.
We build a garden
for a last landscape
to keep us forever.

April 17, 2004 – 5:24 p.m.

23
STAND STILL

Let me stand still.
Let me live a day at a time.
Let me love the warmth of your hands
And know the subtle changes in your mood.
Let me be there with no reasons
Until I fall asleep.
Let me laugh with you
When I don’t know why not laughing.
Let me hold you in my arms
And not move.
Time in this stillness of havens
Never ends.

April 18, 2004 – 1:51 a.m.

24
SUBMERGED LANDSCAPE

In which landscape do I submerge
and consent to wait?
All remains after we have slowly
passed.
Nothing remains unconcluded.
Your gesture is complete
even interrupted.
The permanence of your hand.
All things are eternal.
Even what is lost.

April 25, 2004 – 2:02 p.m.

25
NOTHING

You own nothing.
All is air.
You build an abyss of nothings.
You live breathless, always leaving,
a voice silenced by farewells.
They’ll all step on your transmuted
body,
timid flowers, low pitch nights.
We’ll be there beyond the peaks,
dimmed lights sipping the hours.
You pour the landscape into silence,
vivid horizon inside your eyes.
Books, deafened pages,
slip no reflected verses.
Your brief gesture echoes:
alone, the night is built
with no words.

April 25, 2004 – 5:39 p.m.

26
PROMISED WORDS

We promise words
and yield waitings.
Tea cups at night,
sweet dates between the fingertips.
We bite the marrow and the stone.
Life still pulses on the tongue
the length of its caress.
I could tell you anything.
What is mine
dwells freely in your heart.

April 27, 2004 – 1:38 a.m.

27
LIFE MOVES

Life is made of small moves.
One towards the other.
While we move, things change.
Nothing is the same after too long.
It is the same way I like you.
With movement and curiosity.
With love and detachment.
No possessions. No need.
Just trust.
And the heart moves
where there is room for it.

May 5, 2004 – 11:52 p.m.

28
CROSSED LINES

Cross my path,
I walk alone.
Too many fears
are not your own.
Look the shapes
of buildings there.
Life overflows
with rhythm.
I cross the lanes
in a big town.
I share what no
others can see.
In the small hours
horizons lay
undimmed.

May 8, 2004 – 4:47 p.m.

29
SEA BEDS

what a waste of life just to live once.
life duplicates when we add more meaning to it.
we live the depth of seas in a heart of glass.
ride the desert of weeds and plant your soul by the river.
we live a waste of time.
where life searches its reflection upon a mirage.
a face sees the other face.
a life contains the other life.
and the seas cover the depth of the soul, undiminished.

May 10, 2004 – 10:53 p.m.

30
WAYS OF LOVE, AS OF RUMI

The beauty you see in me
is your own beauty.

I am a mirror to you and you see
the reflection of your own love.

My eyes long to see through your eyes.
My heart longs to love through your love.

I long for your light to shine on me.
I cast my own light on you.

Two flickering flames in long conversations.
Two flickering minds longing for understanding.

What is yet to come already lives here.
We are the towers awaiting the battle.

Where we stand, we strive.
Where we live, we love.

We become the words we say
as they were born within us.

Thousands of worlds rise in us.
Our face contains all the worlds.

We drink from the honey,
we dance in the fire.

We dive in the sea of love.

April 9, 2004 – 1:51 p.m.


31
LOST SUMMER
For Tobias and Kristie Hanbury

There's a ring around the moon.
Seamus Heaney

Not everyone sings
the Song of Songs
like a lullaby
forgotten weeds
dampness and oceans
as mountains take you beyond.
I was tempted to say
all nights are over now
rustling leaves shedding goodbyes
your life flowing back to an end.
Let us be dry on the top of shelves
like crumbs lying in the sun
seashells cluttering the waters
no waves wavering us.
We long to be here
and there where eyes meet
and longings are past gone.
Wait for slumbers.
Now we can be still
and rest by the slopes of the earth.

May 10, 2005 - 12:48 a.m.