The Contaminated Mind

Trash dumps filled with leftover garbage

Garbage bags filled with pieces and puddles

These puddles draw out into spaces

Spaces filled with black remains

Stains upon white napkins

Akin to other refuse piled in lumps

The waste collects from experience and form

From all the toxic air and electricity 

Running from head to toe

Upon this I know that I have a polluted mind

Taken away from the productive line

Filled with worries of which I have no control

Over the flow of my life and the rhythm in which I live

Overflowing with fears of a new life lived

Why is the mess a strong figure in my eye

It takes away from the blue in the sky

Filling it with murky uncertainty 

Certainly I can change this inhabited space

With the greener liking 

A space where life can grow 

Leaves fold into the soil and build life anew

I must push forward and never look back

Pack all that I have and journey to greater lands

This is my challenge to set free 

The chaining’s of the must terrible kind

And let the trees and flowers bloom 

Replacing my contaminated mind

The Daily Routine

Ah the challenge of keeping creativity alive in my life. As I am pulled to try and sell the art and the creations that have already occurred. It is hard sometimes to step back and try and let the creative juices be heard. So I sat down to try and document my daily routine of keeping creativity alive in my life. So here it is – enjoy!

The daily routine

Wake up in the morning

Make sure to exercise

Work out the arms and the thighs

Get back and get cleaned up

Got to write and practice

Keep the routine up

3 or four hours later

I now sit at the compu-tater

Life’s lines complex yet defined

I make this no place to wine

Letting go on paper what must be done

Seemed like a good idea

Challenging and fun

Poems must be constructed daily

This challenges what I have to say

About beauty, art, and the progress of today

The challenge is not to conform

But to set a new aggressive norm

Creativity must be engaged often

Or else the course muscles will soften

Decay and leave your soul

Looking for someone else to enroll

The creative spirit can be fleeting and gone

So I must capture these spirits in songs

Poems, writings, and other means

Or else I will be left with nothing

Creativity gone and no job to boot

I look pretty bad now in a business suit

Full of aspirations are these writings

Even though my mind is rattled with distractions

I must be real and stay ahead

Better off here trying

Than creativity dead

The Old Car

The old car is still hanging in
making it through Winter’s thick and Summers thin
The AC rattles
the carpets are worn out
But the motor still delivers me to the destination
very devout
The weather is broken in
The locks don’t work and haven’t for days
The radio still sings out a couple of melodies
But when the wheels struggle up the hill it gets my sympathy
on a warm day in June
When the engine is ringing out
In it’s classic tune
Bellowing out like a great monsoon
This is my car and I stand by it
Even though the dollars I’ve paid have been multiplying
But it is a true beauty and I ain’t lying That’s all I have to say about this your car
It’s taken me miles and miles afar
The dream alive when I get down
We’ve toured we’ve laughed we’ve cried
In this cabin we lived our lives
So this car I say cheers
I hope you may live on for years and years

Swollen Hands

Her heart has more love to give

Then I’ll ever know

Her heart has more love to give

And she’s growing old

Time can harden your heart

Break you apart

And turn it into sand

With weary eyes

And weathered lines

No one would understand

These eyes see the world

Felt the knife slide through

Her swollen hand

Call the birds

Forget yourself

Put your ambitions on the shelf

No way to live

Don’t ask but give

Breeding nothing but bitterness within

 –

This heart has more love to give

Then I’ll ever know

This heart has more love to give

And we are growing old

When things get bad around you

Walls falling down too

I know what she’ll do

She will start again

With some new friends

A new life so far from the bends

Make her way

Cutting off the slack

Far away and never looking back

Then one day

She will turn and say

Things were never quite the same

She will know

That in her soul

Pain fades but never grows old

Corporate Giants

Oh no it looks like the corporate giants are at it again
Taking money from the thick and thin
They don’t believe in things like sins
If it’s one more dollar in their pocket they win
Deceit and betrayal are their corporate focus
Taking every little dollar from every little person with a little hocus-pocus
Don’t worry about calling them they already know what’s going on
They don’t much care that what they do is wrong
There is a little hope and redemption from a small voice like mine
I guess it just must be at sign of the time
Before too long I’ll be back at it again
Because corporate profits are the same now
As they were back then
A dollar earned is a dollar saved but a dollar stolen is a dollar played
Corporations love their games and love their dollars
The best I can hope to do is just scream and holler
Greed will continue on regardless of its ambition
It will write a new book the third edition
So don’t forget when somebody takes your money one day
It’s the one and only
Corporate way

People at Heart

People are at the heart of the city Pumping through the veins of streets alleyways tunnels metros and do the skyscrapers
Keeping the towers breathing and vibrant
With no people these artifacts would collect dust and deconstruct
Without these bodies with hearts pumping this city would die
In vacant earth
It is the men and women that keep these skylines alive
The janitor the construction worker
The business man the musician all working for one
Keeping the city alive and well
The streets are moving with people
Pushing and sliding in and out of stores and restaurants
Keeping the city alive and well

Beach Town

Beach town
Summers up winters down
The sun warms the shandy’s in this small town
Rusted chairs and concrete sidewalks
Just happy to be hanging out
Walking around
Up and down the main drag
These warm days make up what winter lag
The small shops open their doors
Returning to business once more
A Lakebreeze keeps you cool
While the wispy clouds coming go
Flags hung high and bright
Prepares the soul for a summer night
Sidewalk chalk and burnt out grass
Loving this sitting on my ass
A little getaway is what we need
Watching the grass grow
From this summer seed

Summer Rain

Summer rain falls mid day

filling the pavements

washing dead bugs and twigs away

cascading on grass so needy

pulling it beneath the earth

taking its fill and nothing greedy

grass blades bend soft with water pose

hoping that the sun will keep it live on loan

but the cloud has filled with pulled cotten clean

billowing the small stacks of steam

I sit and wander

how the world rejoices in summer thunder

for me under the roof i sit and watch

that water falls to the ground

filling the parched holes in the earth

with a simple pitter patter

the wonderful summer sound

Deposit Note

Banks and deposit notes
Pulled up to the curb
Tire scratching the cement shoulder
Reaching and barely hitting the keys
This is just the way it has to be
On a Wednesday
Have to make sure the bills are on time
Lord knows if I am short one dime
It might be the end
Or possibly
The beginning of something new
For now
Just make my deposit
Pray nothing reads Past Due

The Rapid Eye Movement

Europe is so amazing. I have found it challenging to slow my mind down. It is probably a mixture of the jet lag, new languages, and sheer beauty of this place. It is completely new and intriguing. The landscapes are amazing and the stories and history that go with them are simply too much for my mind to wrap around. It is going to take some time to soak it all in. From Paris – Cheers!

All this beauty

All the color

All the tradition

My mind is wandering

Through words unknown and foreign

I try to slow

The rapid eye movement

Creeping faster and faster

Moving quicker and quicker

Around towers and bells

Through fields and mountains

Pools and lanterns

Brick streets and orange glow

These are where my thoughts go

When people are speaking

My lack of understanding

There is no way of having my mind

Make a soft landing

Until I rest at night

Thoughts slow

And slow

Slow

Off I am

To sleep

Just let my mind go