Drop everything,
except for what you know to be true
You figure it out, you who have
the mind of a god
 
 
 
 

How often I've wondered about
our fate together.
Is it not shared by others
who feel the same way we do?
 
 
 
 

silence spreads its vast net
one word fills the world
let the talkers go on talking
 
 
 
 

rules laws family church state do this think
that it's enough to make your head spin
who gives a fuck what Jesus or the Buddha said
I breathe and live beyond it all
 
 
 
 

close one gate, the mind
escapes by another
it's all the same to the mind
bars on windows, locks on doors
mind comes and goes as it pleases
 
 
 
 

I wait by Los Muertos pier where we first met,
remembering how it was between us then,
and my heart rises up with the waves
as I hear your footsteps approach.
 
 
 
 

Time was when we didn't have
to say a word to understand one another
Now we talk and talk as if
we were each speaking a different language
 
 
 
 

At the sound of the little town's big cathedral bell, all the
                     pigeons circle overhead
 
 
 
 

Three rows of white sheets ripple in the sun: it's a cool
                    March wind blowing
 
 
 
 

As the seasons change, so changes
my heart, now the brilliant
gold and red of the Appalachian autumn hills
 
 
 
 

Wherever I go, I live
like a king -
Every poem another jewel
in this crown
 
 
 
 

the tide going out carries my soul a little farther
                     away from the shore
 
 
 
 

this autumn, what is there to regret, when leaves of every
           color bring such pleasure to the eye?
 
 
 
 

I'm fire in every corner of your room.
I'm the midnight oil that won't let you sleep.
Get up now, and go to the window.
Night after night, I'm the brightest star in your sky.
 
 
 
 

One truth wasn't enough, he kept
asking for more -
truth on truth, until the
heart-scale tipped in his favor.
 
 
 
 

Don't judge me too harshly, heart, I was ignorant of love's
               ways then, and I'm ignorant still
 
 
 
 

In every direction I look: clear sky studded with stars above
           the snow-capped mountain peaks
 
 
 
 

If only I could die of love
How gladly I'd give it all up
these years of longing and
waiting for you
 
 
 
 

Rio Cuale -
raging summer rapids
leave no stone unturned
 
 
 
 

the fields and mountains now covered with snow
remind me of the sheets on our bed after the
first night of our lovemaking
 
 
 
 

In the mountains where peace reigns
those thoughts of you come flooding back to me
like the tropical rains that won't let up
no matter how much the earth lies drenched
 
 
 
 

the village lights shimmer dimly across Banderas Bay -
a memory I once held dear to me
passes again before my eyes
 
 
 
 

With each passing day since you left
my body wastes from longing,
and my senses flee me.
I hardly have the strength to dress myself.
I go on remembering our days together.
Just one look from you in reality
would bring me back to myself.
 
 
 
 

My thoughts, like the clear waters cascading at Paso Ancho,
come to rest in a still pool.
In the quiet depths, I can still see your reflection.
 
 
 
 

the moon hurls its light across Banderas Bay -
wave upon wave of liquid silver
crashes upon the shore
 
 
 
 

You can say about me whatever you like
but I know that it will not be true.
A thousand sorrows, like one graveyard after
another, stand between your heart and mine.
 
 
 
 

Each year the snows come back to the fields
outside my winter cabin.
Perhaps you too will return, leaving footprints there
that will be covered over the next day.
 
 
 
 

If I could only be certain that we would meet again
this knot in my throat would loosen
and my breath would be my own once more
 
 
 
 

The moon goes down.  The sun rises.
Neither the moon nor the sun
has cast your shadow on the walls of my room
where I waited the whole night through.
 
 
 
 

Loving you, they said, would be difficult
But I do not believe too much in
what others say, and so I gave myself to you
 
 
 
 

The memories of love are not long forgotten -
tonight I stand by the window in the moonlight
and the phantom of your body presses against mine
 
 
 
 

The sun sets, and the day steals away into my heart
where it finds the place
where memories are born, and lives again
 
 
 
 

It's dangerous to think that you've found me out
or discovered what it is that makes me who I am.
I'm somewhere in that next field over there,
and you're like the one in blind man's bluff
who goes looking everywhere but right here.
 
 

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