Autumn Sidewalks

The senses prickle
Picking memories, like black berries
The cold sunset warms them into color.
Threading the past with golden rain
Soaking, my spirit with reverie
Engulfing my emotions, with longing
Past crunches with present leaves,
Allowing perfect closed-eyed perspective
Fresh, beginnings smell like Falling breezes
That allow untouched skin to sense, itself,
My soul is whole for a rushing while
Allowing cherry blossoms to bloom, internally
Juices falling tangibly onto anxious tongue,
Bliss becomes coherent cacophony,
Catching tension like trinkets
In the pocket of my childhood,
Imagination is grasped in my open fist
Dreams dance around the strands of flaxen hair
For one instant this prickled life makes sense

~DaLe 10/28/08

(Dis)illusions of Gratitude

Thanks be given for things that exasperate—
Fall’s overcast occasions of morning
Sunrise birds bidding beauteous day
Prying people innocently pride infiltrate
Love’s cliché budded roses thorning
Internal thoughts throating ignorantly stay

All experiences straining, stressing, reviled
Moments growing with grace o’er flowing
Alter oblivious ignorance into altruistic ways
For things that thoughtless ego exiles
(I say thanks today)

~DaLe 10.26.08

One Eternal Round

Darkness surrounds
Tears fall down
Doubts confound
Silence makes sound
Surrender is crowned
Light is drowned
Embrace the ground
Hope is found
Wounds are bound
Truth expounds
Illumination abounds

~DaLe 10.22.08 at 1:44am

The Apple Tree

By day and night
Upon her he called
Said he had eyes for no other
Twas only she that filled his sight
And begged to be her lover

Poor, Adele, blushed with each word
He made her heart enthralled
The thought of life filled her soul
As slowly desire cankered
And gave the boy his goal

Fair Adalee saw his plot
Heard as he nightly called
Begged for her sister to see the truth
To not allow her fancies to be caught
And throw away her youth

“Adalee,” young Adele said,
“you needn’t be appalled,
He loves me like Adam loved Eve”
But still Adalee pled
But no evil from him could Adele conceive

Then one still night
Out the window she crawled
Slid down the blooming apple tree
Rushed off in the twilight
And gave to him her body

She reappeared at dawn
Her virtue departed and bald
Climb back up with smirk and smile
Let out a little yawn
And waited for night at its wiles

Adalee could see the deed that was done
That virtue had been mauled
But loved her sister none-the-less
Invited her to their dear garden
Adele followed—waited for night’s redress

Then when the moon shone
The handsome voice was un-called
Silence seen outside the window
Pressed against it alone
Adele sat until the morning cockcrow

Day after day Adele searched for Matt
Days of lust recalled
Her heart and purity all but gone
She never moved but quietly sat
Shedding a tear for every dawn

Adalee saw her pain
Saw the heart of her sister galled
Left the house with a fury
Determined to find a man with a healing name
And went on her way in a hurry

She wore a beautiful dress
And passed Matt’s window as she trod
He looked and loved her instantly
Longed her skin to caress
And she looked back apathetically

He knelt at her feet pleading
Hoping she would not see he was flawed
She smiled at him and ignored his hand
Turned from him unheeding
While grasping all his heart’s desperate strands

“You are nothing,” Adalee laughed,
“The road of worthless sin you trod
My pure heart could never love you”
The rejection left him bereft
And he hung himself from an aspen log

Adalee continued on her search for a man
The Prince of Peace he was called
Brought him home to give Adele love
“Heal her broken heart if you can,”
Adalee pleaded, “and give it back to him above”

He took her wounds and cleansed them all
Out of darkness, her heart, he called
Gave her back her Garden youth
Broke down her sinner’s wall
With his doubled-edged sword of truth

Both Adalee and her sister Adele
Tell their tale when they are so called
Of faults, mistakes, and charity
And the slippery road that so easily leads to Hell
But, above all, of The Prince who gives eternal purity

~DaLe 10.20.08 at 11:40pm

Emmaus

A dirty shoe
A bucket of nails
A worn penny or two

A boat with ripped sails
A broken glass
A book of lost tales

A light with no flash
A heart long forgotten
A crimson sash

A man that is broken
A pile of dust
An unrepaired token

A life of disgust
A worn road
A wondering trust

A heavy load
A willing friend
An emptiness swallowed

A God to transcend
A soul to mend
A love without end

~DaLe 10.12.08

1:15 A.M.

I miss you so much I miss myself
I’m ready to plunge off sanity’s shelf
Into the dark depths of quiet abyss
And lovingly grip my loneliness
My arms have been empty for far too long
Remnants that remain make stirring wrong

I pledge to not drop tears on holy page
Yet, fortitude can not frailty assuage
Laughter has become a sardonic sense
Replaced by bitter recompense
I long for remnants of identity
But when you went away, you also took me

~DaLe 10.02.08 at 3:59pm

Unamed Italien Sonnet

Dreaming has become but second to me
The color of your eyes a brighter hue
Even with distance my heart still sees you
Like waves from a ripple out on the sea
Cutting corded qualms to let me be free
And as the bright morning welcomed by dew
Your softest touch lets me know night is through
You call my name and all second thoughts flee
Replaced by soul’s wings that live in your heart
I soar when adoration is returned
And sink into gray when we two are apart
For you unknown my soul has always yearned
I have been destined for you from the start
I still can’t believe this love is returned

~DaLe 10.01.08 at 8:26pm