To: The Muse – The Poet (Audio)

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In the moments just before ink marks the page I know that words will fall short.  For who could capture Her with mere paper and ink?  But I am compelled to try hoping that my attempt, though clumsy and sophomoric, may in some small way reflect back  the beauty that I have recognized in Her.

She is new to me, yet I have known her forever.  Even so I have just begun to experience, to comprehend  Her.  She has captured my attention and stirred longings thought bruised beyond rising.  It is now Her face I seek, Her call that I await.  And in the between times I remember, I wonder, I muse.

I remember Her form, Her fragrance, the way She fits my body.  I wonder how it is that she has so easily assumed this place with me.  I muse about the meaning of this dance begun between she and I.

With Me she is familiar.  She is bold but not brazen.  Her confidence is that of assumed kinship and intimacy.  How is it that She feels like Home?  How is it that a raging passion and peaceful sweet rest can co-exist?

She is dainty yet powerful.  I have watched a dull room energized at Her approach.  Men straighten themselves in hopeful anticipation of Her glance or smile, grateful for any small attention.  Women appraise Her, hoping for an ally, dreading competition with Her light.

Her smile is a magic thing.  It is infectious and sensual.  Her mouth shaped in anger is pouty and full beneath a furrowed brow.

Her movement is fluid and natural as a young doe.  She is at ease and alert.  She is finely wrought and utterly feminine, Her spirit at home in Her flesh.

To be near Her awakens slumbering passion.  To be apart calls forth the Poet, the Bard.  She now has claimed Her place in His story.  She is now set apart.  Sleeping Beauty can now awaken, at least for the moments that the Poet can guard Her heart.

But harken to me!  It is a dangerous thing to call forth the Poet and awaken the Princess.  The story will unfold with many unseen twists and turns.  Exquisite will be the rapture.  Exquisite will be the torment.  Yet that is the nature of the play.  Both comedy and tragedy are required.  Such things are always risky.  But perhaps the Poet and his Muse can create between them a place where the songs can live.

Primary Source (Audio)

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I need them not

Repelled by words

Theoretical formulations

Commentary, opinion, drivel

Conjecture about the man

I weary of opinion, reflection

I need to know

Want, require, I demand

The raw material from which the other flows

I need the Prophet not his disciples

I shall make my opinion

And It shall then make me

Reflections

Hall of mirrors

Damn it

Break it

See what remains

No longer image but source

Tenderness and the Real (Audio)

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Tenderness hidden.

Concealed behind the humor, the talent, the success.

Those who know sometimes betray.

Sometimes ignorantly.

Sometimes with a will.

Tenderness hidden.

The betrayal steals life.

But it can also give it.

Illusions shattered.

Only the Real will survive.

Tenderness hidden.

Now uncovered.  Raw, burning, new-born.

Atmosphere sears new lungs.

Life demands pain.

The struggle provides the strength to stand.

The struggle transforms tenderness into wisdom.

AMEN – This is the way of life.

The Space between the Milliseconds (Audio)

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Time drags and stretches from tic to tic.

I never knew there were so many intervals between seconds.

Life lived in milliseconds.

Each hung like a bead on a bitter pasty rope of tepid metallic taffy.

Each one sucks and drains and moves in opposition to life.

Divided, cordoned off.

Source of torment and relief reside together.

Filling even the space between the milliseconds with activity and lethargy.

It is all the same.

Why?  What?  How? Where?  When?

Some direction, something real is sought but not looked for.

This place is nowhere.

In between here and there, this and that.

No joy, no tears.

A place of unknowing, a place of undoing.

I am undone or am moving if at all towards that place.

My soul waits for something.

Some clue, some command to act or to refrain.

Neither come so I wait.

It is hardest during the nighttime.

Long shadows come but offer no comfort.

Chemistry – Feelings (Audio)

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Chemicals released

Rush, ride the red river

Seeking their home

Adrift, moved along the current, the pulsing rhythmic flow

Destiny dictates destination

Seeking their place, their reason

Empty spaces call out

Needing to be filled, fitted, finally whole

Need calls to need

Void longs for wholeness, for rest

Nearness excites, expands

Anticipation of consummation

Almost but not quite

Ecstasy, release, exquisite loss as two become one

Base matter transformed

Energy now rushing back to its source

Flesh now spirit soars free

Yet needing a tether, a link, a meaning

Feeling cataloged, sorted, processed

Needed to know

Dialectic now

Good – Bad, Happy – Sad, Yes – No, Less – More

To act, to refrain

To pursue, or retreat

To hide or to reveal all . . . . .

Longing to be naked and unashamed