The following poems arose from a recent writing class.

The Rhythm of Life

The sun must rise. And set. The moon will rise and set. You breathe in and exhale. Life and nature have always been. Will always be. Beyond this fraction of time. When the past dissolves into the present, and you try to make it the future. A future you have no say in.

It just is. Rushing past you. The words of a dream vanish into tomorrow. 

Despite you, all of us. It just is. 

Riding life like the massive waves of Portugal’s Nazaré, overwhelming. 

Crushing you under the weight of the violent water. Crashing down. 

Wave after wave, an endless wave. And then it is still.

It just is. Rushing past you. The words of a dream vanish into tomorrow. 

Despite you, all of us. It just is. 

Random Poem #6231

There are no words that come to mind. Whenever I think of the brother who no longer haunts our lives. Distant echoes flash through my mind. 

Silently.

Peter died of a broken heart. I was ten. He was eight.

He died in our bedroom. The one that he barely slept in. Hospitals were really his home.

I slept through his moaning and his final breath.

All I remember is that my father was silent. My mother was crying. 

He’s only a photograph of memories. Torn at the edges. Frayed, discolored, fading black and white. I barely remember his face. His name. 

His tortured life.

He’s just a photograph of memories that was buried a lifetime ago.

poetry is.  

The poetry of a life
words on a page
streaming out of my mind 
singing 	
like a sage
Sounds abound  
dancing salsa in my ears
my FEET have found
merengue has no fears.

the poetry of mambo in my heart	  
crying from deep inside 
Our music will forever be our love.

No hiding from my soul
The words are not words
They are life flowing through my body
into a deep space between us 
as we dance to our own music

The poetry 
you, I cannot hide from it 
As I mambo to heaven.

The Lost Memory

That memory is embedded in my mind from a lifetime ago. 

Suddenly evaporated. Extinguished. Nowhere to be found. 

The hospital is a holding station for so many memories that have evaporated, extinguished. Nowhere to be found. 

Waiting for the moment that never comes. May never come. A stroke of bad luck. Lost inside my brain. 

Where only hours ago, I was swimming in memories. Laughing at those most cherished moments that brought a smile to my life.

The stroke stole it. And with it, a slice of that life. 

As I lie on that vibrating mattress, keeping me from sleep and throwing me into blankness, I wait. It will all come back to me. I’ll wake up and tell myself it’s all a dream. 

Until it isn’t. 

I’m alive. And that’s the best I can imagine.