Loneliness

When does aloneness become lonelines?

If without
     Paper or pen or pets
If there is no
    Paint and canvas, or books--
   Books where thoughts and stories can be shared by kindred spirit
.If one day there is no sky or star to say good morning to.
It is if I can no longer pray and touch God's face.

It is if I what I say you can only push back at me
Which is why crowded rooms bear its mark.







  

Beauty's crucible

Beauty is formed in the crucible of pain.
Watered by the tears
Where suffering penetrates
And shatters and grinds its way
To the core.
Beauty, a strong and tender plant

Entwines the pieces of the human mind and heart
In one vast quiet sigh--
A power not one's own
(How could it ever be at such a severed core?)---
A shower of tender love, a child's hope.
And borne by God.

Bliss of the Anonymous

Why, the audience is so small,
He said to me.

As if he didn' t know
The busy haggard sameness of a hamester wheel
With movies and video games attached as well as anyone.

He was born here after all and knows what people here think of poets--
If they think about them at all.

Surprised by his surprise I shamble through an explanation.
Since it was me that took the chance of showing the
Inside of my mind to total strangers.  Wouldn' t it be far better
Especially where we live, I said, if not many people came?
A bliss of the anonymous and relief, I should say.