Verse: Fruit fly

At lunch
I tried
to dismiss you
with a wave of
my hand

I grazed you
unintentionally
gravity overcame you
like a fever
and you sank
like an anchor
tossed into
the sea

crumpled
upon the table
like Icarus
your legs flailing
as if you were reaching
trying fiercely
to hold on to
the tenuous strands
of your life

Overwhelmed
by your desperation
and your palpable fear
I thought
how careless
how craven
how petty
am I

Verse: Altar

We are not
cowardly or
complacent

Crawling toward
the clandestine
ceremony

The deep
dark mouth
of heaven

we arrayed
like a feast
and yet

it could not
ever swallow
all our lust

ringed by
confrontational angels
aroused by their disdain

that look
we used to call it
jealousy

now we know
it's fear

Verse: insomnia

Nothing is sleeping

Not the unidentified
bleary eyed
street lamps
on Willow
or the occasional
semi trucks that
rumble like indigestion
intermittently through
the city

Not the clamorous winds
that harangue
the shingles
Nor the steady cacophony
of the rain
against the unblinking window
as anxious as the
drumming fingers
of an expectant father

Not the calescent
wagging tongues
of the persistent muses
seeking out
an acolyte
nor the seeds
they leave behind
countless poems
softly longing
to be born

Nothing
is sleeping
not even
sleep, it seems

nor the
insatiable
unspoken lust
gnawing at me
for you

Verse: offering

And you
who did feed
the parasites
of love
with your
unrehearsed
generosity

who did
reproach those
lazy heretics
with the gospel
of love

who did
with but a glance
silence the
hundred thousand
barbed tongues
of gossip

who did
through boundless
grace cause the
righteous to tremble,
fall and genuflect
as if overcome
by fever

who did
at last dispel
the hot immediacy
of outrageous ignorance
with just one
unencumbered sigh

who is
this embrace for
if not
for you?

Verse: kisses

All the things I might have been
I pawned them long ago
the proceeds were invested
to acquire all that you know
such enlightenment eludes me
it happens much too slow
and all I long for now is
your kisses deep as snow

When I first encountered you
you were studious as a psalm
you bid me in and never once
did your voice betray any qualm
you said I was not meant for greatness
when you sat to read my palm
but all I wanted then as now
were your kisses soft and calm

You once gave me a pebble you found
and an old photograph
and you led me around the streets of town
obedient as a calf
and the thousand secret things I did
were all on your behalf
and the kisses you bestowed on me
were broken only by your laugh

And if you did press me to the light
to see if I was pure
then I did press you on your intent
you can never be too sure
but all we sought to clarify
only became more obscure
how quickly you can compromise
your kisses of their allure

I don't know who you've been talking to
but I am not a child
I used to be much bolder
it's age that's made me mild
and if there is some love in you
that I have not yet defiled
then let it be revealed to me
in kisses warm and wild

But I think I'm too familiar
and that has made me crude
Now I take for granted
what I ruthlessly pursued
and with all the little transgressions
that gradually accrued
now your eyes lack fire
your voice is hollow
and all your kisses are subdued

And if I did cause you offense
it was not my intent
when everything is compromised
it's easy to repent
ardor is like a season
little more than a mere fragment
but the imprint of your kisses
is indelible and the memories
won't relent

Verse: extempore

What reason
could I give
what chronology
what alchemy
would satisfy
your curiosity

you would not
ask music
to explain itself
or the delight it brings
you would let it
catch you
unawares

think on this
then as a
little symphony
a bebop blues
a cacophonous kaleidoscope
a first take
an abstraction

This is
nothing more than
an attempt
to touch the infinite
however briefly
in you

Karina Smirnoff in new Peta ad

Came across this on the Adweek website this morning. You'd think, with her name, a vodka endorsement would be in the cards, but Dancing With the Stars dancer Karina Smirnoff has chosen PETA instead. It could have been worse: it could have been Yakoff Smirnoff. Wonder what the judges have to say about her pose:

karinaPETA.jpg (JPEG Image, 607x800 pixels) - Scaled (61%)

Ad of the Day: Ozzy Osbourne goes to bat for Samsung again

Since I do work in marketing, and since I've neglected that for the past two months or so, I'm going to correct that over the coming days with some new marketing-related posts. Today, I'm featuring the new Samsung Rogue ad with Ozzy Osbourne, which features more bleeps than an episode of Maury Povich. Ozzy really likes the Rogue. Or maybe he just likes puppies. Without Rosetta Stone language programs for Oz-speak, it's hard to tell.

Verse: Revelations

Plagued by my own shadow
unexpected as a wrong number
my hands ache with ardor
I am indiscriminate

Engulfed by my conscience
vague and hard to digest
cataloged in my transgressions
I am desperate

Engaged in my ablutions
the every day is vulgar
divinity's impossible
I am delicate

No heart is so fierce
no prayer is too gentle
no word before this word
I am inveterate

Where's the bloom that doesn't fade
the answer that is unquestioned
the heart that bids me do its will
I grow accustomed to my fate

Verse: Language

Today's verse is, despite the lack of foul language, maybe, PG-13, and is offered humbly to m'lady @tenacioushfx:

Henceforth
passion will be
our only language

we will feed it
with our probing tongues
our hungry, feral mouths
our wordless cries

and only
the serrated edges
of each ecstatic gasp
will punctuate
the silence

we will
tag walls with it
inscribe it on our roiling sheets
codify it
in countenances

and in the day
your emerald eyes
will be the tiny flares
that guide me
and in the dark
your dappled
dimpled skin
will be braille
softly singing
your lustrous secrets
my unspeakable name

Verse: as you will

Place your heart
in your sullen hands

then drain the sea
of its dolorous demands

illuminate
your wanderlust

then strip the angels
of their trust

consecrate
those games you play

and lead the passing
hours astray

resuscitate
your perfect solitude

and chasten lovers
for those they exclude

quick, confirm
your countenance

then find fault
in circumstance

fulminate
against the numb

and cling to solace
yet to come

efface
the distant, corpulent sun

then take these words
I am done

Verse: Reluctance

For @_peanut_

I wonder
where the stars
are tonight
I miss them
and their soft
reassuring light

I looked for them
but I don't think
they want
to be found
and darkness
like a cancer
slowly consumes
the arteries
of this town

It's not something
that should
trouble me
I know
any more than
sainted summer
curses the
heresy of snow

I would be wise
to just let it go
after all
it's only time
it passes painless
like a notion
and as silent
as a mime

I hesitated
to tell you this
it seemed too simple
and plain
as everyday
as morning is
as obvious
as rain

And the stars
that I was looking for
not one
do I see
they burrow into
miles of quilted clouds
exhausted by
the likes of me

There's nothing
about them
I can tell you
it does no good to try
let them be
unburdened by allusions
let the stars
be stars
and the sky
be sky

Verse: unmerited

I wake
in the city
and the night
has forsaken me

I try to catch
desire unawares
but I think
it has grown
tired of me

I look around
the room
and leave my mirror
unrequited
intrigue
consumes me

I go outside
and see myself
in the eyes
of a thousand
idle strangers
but never
on TV
it's not me

I crave
any kindness
someone to
take my place
or imaginary
lovers who would
to swallow me

I cry out
on cue
the lights change
and a wave
of motion
engulfs me

I wake
in the city
I can always dream
but that's easy

Verse: Lucubrations

Would you be
so bold as to
remove those
broken embraces
from your sleepy sofa
they are bereft
of lust

I hunger
for no kiss
that cannot first
compromise my
conviction or
my composure

just look how
subtly the day
is threaded with
the slender needle
of invidious night

it has loosed
the sirens
that urgently
serenade us

they are obscene
insatiable
in their yearning
covetous
they will come
for us
one day soon
but not yet

in the meantime
we could reconsider
and conspire
help me sweep up
the dust of
this meagre meal
to extingush
the candles
and we'll listen
for the ocean
it is not
so far away

Verse: Constant

Idle idolatry
did never satisfy
such casual gods
as we

we sought hunger
rewarded fear
courted danger
with our teeth
bared

not even
in our image
could we have
imagined the
dark transgressions
that transpired
between us

our confessions
were conferred
not implied
or pliant
but they
were a constant

momentarily
immortal, but
we grew dull with
faultless fatigue
we inched
toward increasingly
milder intrusions
wearing music
like a mask

until they
intruded
extracted you
just as a surgeon
would excise a tumor
they denied me
any comfort
and would not
help me free
this song

I was not pure
when I began this
but now
I am innocent
and I am on fire

Verse: autopsy

Why would
you judge me
by my kisses

would you
be so bold
to deny me
your lips
for never once
having brought
you the sky

I told you
I could not
reach it
that it was
too vast for
me to embrace
and that I
could not
douse the
incandescent eye
of the sun
that seems to
follow you everywhere

if you
would only kiss
when you dream kisses
then do not dream

Quick,
dissect
my eager heart
collect the blood
that flows through
my veins
and you will know
as I do
that I love you

Verse: acute

Your hands
are too small
to embrace
the sky
fold them
like laundry
and prey
upon hope

your mouth
is too wide
to kiss
the ocean
and not leave
a permanent
scar with
your ivory teeth
your siren song

your truth
is too lustrous
to be obscured
by clouds
tend it
as you would
a flower and
heal its
broken blossom

your faith
is too precise
too unyielding
to project
in an empty cinema
it wants
your lust
not your dreams

your stories
are too long
for silence
to consume
they are like
confetti tickling
the bride and groom

and I
am little more
than longing
in an old
man's heart

Verse: Reverie #4

dreams
came in waves
before I'd
even learned
to sleep

I dreamt
that the moon
was a pool
of milk
that the sun
was a scoop
of orange sherbet
and I was
limned in anarchy

I dreamt
that I was dying
that I was
someone else
not yet lost
to inexpressive
vacant sleep

I dreamt
that I was dreaming
curled like a feline
on the pregnant pillow
of a bucolic breeze

but never
did I dream
for certain
until at last
I woke up
beside you

Verse: Reverie #3

Dust off
those stars
and let
them play

hang your kisses
in the trees
and listen
while they bray

cradle the remains
of the day
in your arms
as its breath
subsides

throw caution
like a garland
to the abrupt boys
so smitten
with their pride

wring those
caustic notes
and hang them
on the line

that rock and roll
that you trade in
is much too much
refined

fill tenderness
with the patience
of Job and a thousand
bold bouquets

do not acknowledge
that nomadic moon
until it falls under
your sway

parcel out
those garish neons
the city is not
so discrete

that you cannot
see the love that
covets you
on any given street

it's the ragged
jangle of your keys
it's the jagged tenor
of the times

it's soporific
and sensual
a discourse
meted out in dimes

you intoxicate
the wine
with your lips
in full bloom

but if you think
you've come for me
perhaps you are
too soon.

Verse: Nightingale

After the rain
in the drowsy
night garden
when the air
is drenched
and diffused
with the delectable
scent of sleep
That is when
I will sing

If you
should hear me
over the yawn
of the traffic
and through the
vagaries of
dulcet dreams
do call to me
and I will
alight upon
your moonlit
window sill

but if
I should awake
and the air
is not charged
with my name,
and your voice
I will know
you did not
hear me
that you do
not seek me
and that it
is time to go

Verse: Reverie #2

I dream of sleep
In open fields
And summer crying
Soft, refined

I wash the rain
And let it dry
In morning's warm
Embrace, content
Confined

I parse the silence
Unfurl the eager light
And watch as it disperses
Like watermelon seeds
Or dandelion wine

And if the wind
Intrigued should
Deign to pause
It surely will not
Opine

And those clouds
May spark and covet
the quiet intimacy
Of eternity uncompromised
And divine

And if I did awake
And leave this bucolic
Reverie too abruptly
behind

Please know
That it was not
By design

Verse: Process

Start here
it's as good
a place as any
to begin

Really, you
could start
anywhere
an observation
a memory
a confession
it doesn't matter

Once you start
it's easy
to sustain
much like
a musical note
or a crepuscular
embrace or
like a dream
seems to stretch
beyond the imprecations
of the night

but the trick
is knowing
when and
where to land
before you
run out of fuel

Verse: Wonder

was it
the first time
I heard my name?
or the joy
of a toy?

the silent sway
of gravity
or the way the
unblinking sky
is ever poised
to swallow me whole?

the mystique
of lilacs
or the myth
of snowflakes?

the watery
countenance of
the new moon
or the acute
propinquity
of summer?

in the triumphant
notes of Coltrane
or a furtive glance
across a crowded room?

the triumphant
spark of inspiration
or the concomitant
afterglow of expression

how did I
come to understand
joy?

Verse: Prospect

In another time
we might have been
explorers
like Vespucci
or Denys

I often wonder
what is there
left to discover
we found this
place not with
compass or sextant
but with Google Maps
everything has
been documented
and surveyed
so it seems
but not everything
has been revealed

my younger brothers
the chef
the forestry consultant
and me
ten years
and a day
separate we three
and several thousand
miles now as well
how odd
when there are
so many forests
so close at hand

and occasions
like these
are increasingly rare
like grass that
comes up through
the cracks on
the sidewalk
like a comet
illuminating
an onyx sky
like insight

we will be talking
about that weekend
for years to come
the boat we rented
the island
we found
the bald rocks
where settlers dried fish
the dolphins and
the whale we saw
the nights we slept
with the dog
on the soft beach
beneath the stars
a lambent canopy
how fluid
and connected
it all seemed
in the moment
how fragmentary
it seems
in retrospect
and distant
somewhat like photos that
belong to someone else
but not someone else
just a different time

that weekend
will become legendary
in the retelling
more colorful
more profound
in years to come
that's how it is
with memory
you embellish

and if there is
no sea nor land
left to discover
in any remote corner
of this finite earth
there is the discovery
that occurs
in those increasingly
rare encounters
between the memories
when we are brothers
in more than name
once more