ABOUT THE POET...

COPY AND PORTRAIT TO COME...

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SUMMER SOLSTICE

Spring gives way to the seasonal fire that is summer,
and Bacchus returns alone to rest before harvest, sleep
off his stupor on the cool coastline
after nights of fervid wilderness,
after the temporal abandon of the maenids,
after falling at the breasts

and earthly hungers of mortal woman,
in her wild natural state, too
grounded in body to reach the crown of Gods,
too green to pick off the vine,
too heavy in heart to lift him to light.

In the wild, Dionysus succumbs to desires,
and sunsets become darker for his moans.
Now he pines for his own kind,
for a deity rising from the depths,
for the calm of an elixir that sobers and soothes.

He waits for her between body and spirit,
his Goddess of the risen sea.
She finds him nearly spent
like a starfish found between the sea and shore.

There she draws him into her kindred clasp
where he yields to her healing,
as they are lifted up by summer breezes.

Then the God of the libertines rouses, rises
as Venus breathes and breathes his mortality down the wind.

---

GOD SACRIFICED

I.
Another day is done
its music has ended.......

My generation went away
in search of what we had in hand,
looking for what we owned already.

But hope is a branch that grows with time.

When we looked in the pockets of night
we found the hours we have known.
Yet the laughter of minutes became sobs
and the time we've lost will never be found again.

II.

I pray the young ones will rebel
against swallowing our tired culture, as
we drink down dreams of affluence and assets
at the cost of our humanity, which we give away
out of habit and fear.

Society buys what masks pain and despair,

Society buys Prozac, and there's a God that's dead.
America sells Pepsi and there's a God that's dead.
In the hands of false patriots and prophets, God is dead.
On the corporate road leading to third world rape, God is dead.
On the faces of the sheeple that follow the leader, God is dead.
In the name of freedom and democracy, God is dead.

Between lies and tyranny, poverty and greed,

in a night soaked with blood,

God died of our overdose.

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GIVING LIFE TO THE LIGHT

(Dare alla luce)

The night is turning
morning is heard........

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HARMONY OF TAO

(music of the macrocosm)

What melody rises tonight,
that circles, spirals, merges
with the echo of my soul?

A cacophony of the cosmos!
I am drunk on the universe,
liberated into vastness, moved
by the heavenly cadences and bodies of light.

Far off in memory,
I lived in a silent refuge of the familiar,
closed off by the earth's everyday.

Tonight, I awaken in the realm
of unusual tones and notes,
awash in another rhythm, where
the sounds of stars
surprise and soothe me, where
the music of moons and spheres
orbits my life, composes
a new song.

I step out to this space,
breathe deeply,
open my lungs, and sing.

---

MASQUERADE

(the masks of Venice)

Minstrels and poets are writing checks
as Venice dies
drowning in a store window
with the canal at her throat
and unbearable pain at sea level.
Her fantasy bought and sold in every piazza

as tourists seek among vendors their orient.

Venezia Hotel is open to the masses.
The Doge changes residence
and Pulcinella cries in the arms of Naples.
The Harlequin dance of the Gondola
is just another expensive ride
or a wind up toy adorning memories.
San Marco is without question,
the name of a pizzeria.

Brighella hangs his head
and the port of Marghera fumes with rage
for those of us who've lived Venice.
Regret bleeds from the slash in our souls
as we sniff her hot August breath.
As Colombina takes her last,
Scaramusch is brought down on his knees.

The Carnevale is over ladies and gentlemen.
La Serenissima is dead,
her destiny leaving in plastic bags.

Il Carnevale e' finito.e
Andate in pace .

---

PREY

I see in you
the hope of ships reaching continents,
the far away things of my homeland.
I see in you

the impossible,
one drop of morning mist
on two blades of grass.

And I see in you
the shadow soul searching for sunlight,
the longing of one who thirsts and hungers
to be discovered and taken.

I move through your eyes
like in a forest filled of night,
and I possess the fire of a hunter
to burn down your defenses
bite your flesh,
and bring you away
my captive.

---

LAVENDER, BREAD AND RAIN

Earthly and heavenly things are the same divine.....

Once again,
only a clearness remains.
Fire obliterates all lips,
all kisses find their way into the air.

I lifted my cup to parched mouths,
breathed the sky of so many places
and little by little,
learned the wholeness of earth.

I adore the world of flora and flesh,
and see no difference
between trees and man,
herb or animal.
Nature's music connects each dancer to the other.

Breasts caressed become
like peonies fragrant and lush.
Lavender oil feeds the soul
and skin holds both in sacred embrace.

I find no division between body and spirit,
between healthy or ill
empty or full, damaged and whole.

Love becomes bread or a thread,
becomes sun, water, or wind;
can nourish a planet, a desert;
a tree, or a man.
Love mends a torn life,
or a wing,
fixes a rift between friends.

Love transforms pure its vessel.
The heart is healed, and heals
a country, a mind.
It uncovers roots,
stems, blooms,
clears the lungs, the throat;
gives the divine its earthly note.

Once again,
I make my way through thirsty mouths,
feel the fire of all forests burning,
and quite suddenly
become the rain.

---

ROOTED

I know the light beyond a thick forest.
The sun is always present in the sky,
though hidden by brush and night.
Can you see how a darkened path leads out?

I see the sun waits up ahead
but you carry the weight of trees,
and cannot bloom into these hands
the dreams you want to grow.

My hands will uproot you,
and feel this lightness of mine
unclench you from the ground,
then shake you
until a blossom falls between my breasts.

I can carry it there.
I have light enough to keep it alive.

---

SUMMER SOLSTICE

Spring gives way to the seasonal fire that is summer,
and Bacchus returns alone to rest before harvest,
sleep off his stupor on the cool coastline
after nights of fervid wilderness,
after the temporal abandon of the maenids,
after falling at the breasts,
and earthly hungers of mortal woman.
In her wild natural state,
too grounded in body to reach the crown of Gods,
too green to pick off the vine,
too heavy in heart to lift him to light.

In the wild, Dionysus succumbs to desires,
and sunsets become darker for his moans.
Now he pines for his own kind,
for a deity rising from the depths,
for the calm of an elixir that sobers and soothes.

He waits for her between body and spirit,
his Goddess of the risen sea.
She finds him nearly spent
like a starfish found between the sea and shore.

There she draws him into her kindred clasp,
where he yields to her healing,
as they are lifted up by summer's breezes.

Then the God of the libertines rouses, rises
as Venus breathes and breathes his mortality down the wind.

---

UNTETHERED

Is there no confine to the heart's pain?

My oceanic emptiness was testing patience,
but parting obscures love from its spiritual ecstasy,
and the only respite for a drowning heart
is the hope of discovering its berth,
of finding the moor of its completion.

I shed a tear for every morning his body
does not warm my side,
and then close my lids,
shutting the storm to rest for a time,
perhaps for more,
to dream of a port that awaits.

Inside the depths of these raining eyes.
there is no limit to love's domain,
but under the blackest sky
the only light is from the only star,
and the sun is embraced by its predecessor.

I open my eyes to save myself,
search for shore,
to reach for someone I miss
but haven't met.

The sole guide is the soul's compass,
which points eternally in the direction of home.

---

VENUS AND MARS

Mars...
What do you know of the ocean?
I live with intense sea surrounding.

How much of your fire
will I need to warm me during dark times,
in these deep waters,
so we may fuse instead of orbit, and
how will you keep me illumined
when the moon is new,
is not visible?

For this, you war with the Gods,
while I move and inspire you
to bring flames above the head of Neptune.

You are a star exploding in sky,
a planet battling Mercury for my attentions.

I notice suddenly
how your rays stun the waves at night,
how ripples of light shine my way,
that I may reach the shore
warmed only by you, and not the morning.