April 23, 2025

Stand

No surrender
Imagination
Brought you this far
Let discipline
Guide you
Into the stratosphere
 
Spit out vertigo
Excellence never comes
Without a sacrifice
This pedestal
Is yours
Alone
To destroy
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April 16, 2025

Cookie Jar Ajar


Ceramic vessel
Plump with intention
Holds the calm of sugary diplomacy
Peaceful crumbs settle
In its belly

Dulcet chime, lid clinks
Lifted to reveal sweet accords—
Molasses treaties, cinnamon pacts
Butter-wrought armistice
That melts on tongues

Quiet rests
Between stacked confections
Each baked dictum dissolving dissent
Vanilla lullabies
Coaxing discord
To rest

No fists clench
When grasping shortbread
No voices rise when chocolate chips linger
Only the candied implosion of resolve
When the cookie jar
Opens





April 9, 2025

Cherry Renaissance


They arrive
Cherry blossoms
Powdered algorithms
Cracking open the shell
Of winter’s code
Riot in pink

Currents
Speak them in riddles—
Syllabary of scatter and petals
Branches hold this brief madness
Like monks caught laughing
In the middle of a fast

No nostalgia
No apologies
In these pastel eruptions
Only the fierce syntax
Of becoming

They fall, yes
But fall like strategy
In calculated drifts
Negotiating gravity

Not romance
This is architecture
This is renaissance in floral design
This beauty is not gentle
But iterative

Tomorrow, the streets
Will wear their blush
Ankle-deep with the proof
That something exquisite
Can arrive without warning
And change

Everything





April 6, 2025

Photos From The Poetry Festival

 



























Poetry Festival, Long Beach, NY
Saturday, April 5, 2025

~@~







April 3, 2025

April 2, 2025

Wiltless


Tulip sways
In a gnarled garden
Petals flushed with fire, edges bruised
Perfume drowning in stench
Withered nettles, soured earth

Breeze carries traces
Damp decay, rust-bitten thorns
Hungry for what they cannot become
Dirt clings, acrid, insistent
Mocking sweetness with charred musk
Roots below ask a strangling question:
Why bloom when ruin is law?

Still, the stem
Stretches upward
Honeyed scent spilling
Into poisoned air
Refusing to wither
Refusing to yield

Rot is not the only ending
Beauty, once breathed

Lingers





March 26, 2025

Scorpion Jelly & Jellyfish Wine


In a parlor by the shore where the waves tickle toes
Lived a crab with a smile and a shell that just glows
“Step right up,” he motioned, with cups set in a line
“For tonight we shall sip on our jellyfish wine!”

With bubbles and giggles, it sparkled in the glass
A drink full of whimsy poured 'mid the tall grass
“Now come closer, dear friends, grab a cracker or two
For the feast I’ve got planned is all splendid and new!”

The carton of crackers ripped right open with glee
With a sprinkle of salt from the depths of the sea
But wait! What is this? The jar opens with a pop!
It is scorpion jelly, sure to make you hop!

“Oh my goodness, dear me!” said a fish with a flair
“Will we dare to sample such a curious fare?”
“A dab on your cracker,” the crab urged with a grin
“Here’s a bite full of zing, let the tasting begin!”

They nibbled and chuckled, with each munch bringing cheer
As the latest flavor flowed, there was no more fear
So remember this story whenever you dine
Serve your scorpion jelly with jellyfish wine!





March 20, 2025

The Pastel Waltz of Springtide (Nonet)


Springtide awakens with pastel charms
Zephyrs waltz in flourishing fields
Earth shakes off its wintry rest
Bright petals claim the land
Golden sunlight spills
Birds wax in song
Flowers grow
Life now
Free





March 19, 2025

Sun. Sand. Salt.

 









Sunken Meadow State Park
Tuesday, March 18, 2025

~@~