early morning

in the morning
in the morning
when the sky is turning blue
when the trees in glowing greenness
have a shiny film of dew. . .
in the morning
in the morning
when the sun is like a friend
when the osprey hangs suspended
like a mote before the wind. . .
in the morning
in the morning
when the breeze is sorta cold
when the sunrise in the east
paints the hilltops blazing gold. ..
in the morning
in the morning
when the air is shot with chill
when the river bubbles quietly
and all the world is still. . .

1976 after fishing with Hirth

Getting down to it

He said, she said

Friend

And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.

Khalil Gibran

A nightmare on Pensacola Beach

She came up from behind the dunes and ran screaming
with a doglike barking laughter into the pounding surf . . .

Predacity

water-cobbled rocks
of white and gray
pummeled by time,
hewn round by the licking caress
of water's rasping tongue,
dressed in moss
green and tender, baby soft;
dark eddys
where never sun has smiled
beneath a ledge,
black and forbidding,
a murky void
full of danger,
it is a den of darkness,
and in it, silvery-sided, ivory-toothed,
and jewel-eyed, he waits to strike,
he is the deadly, dreadful pike.

1976

the need to migrate

sky bird. . .fly away
fast bird. . . fly today

high bird . . .float away
star bird . . .do not stay

the wind is cold
the sky is gray . . .

do not stay
e'en one more day . . .

1988

below the swell . . . . .

heeling away . . .

thinking

the soul of the sky
is the moon
and the heart
is the shimmering sun

the eyes of the sky
are the stars
and the tears
is the rain just begun

1985

Nebula tri-XNasturshia

orangeyellowredandblack

dark night

there's a wide and lonely night outside,
and the long black sky is falling
faster every minute. . .

the moon in silence
stalks the clouds
who flee,
like frightened mice
before the wet and chilling
hand of midnight. . .

which gropes and squeezes
as if 'twere the fingers
of a strangler. . .

1976

The Polka Club

So much is in a name . . . .

Guitar man

Smoke and blues 2010

The animal man

the animal man of bottleline two
flys like a bolt out of the blue

runs like a rabbit hither and yon
now he's here now he's gone

the animal man ain't got a chance
paid the fiddler but he can't dance

he likes a break once in a while
but he can't rest its not his style

the animal man of bottleline two
he's trapped like a rat until he is through

he's trampled on by fickle Fate
he cometh in early and he goeth home late

everyone screams for his calm advice
the crew can be crazy but he must be nice

the animal man is just a cog
in huge machine that cranks out grog

at the end of the day his relief will appear
then he can rest and enjoy a beer

1974
thoughts at the end of a day in the brewery

Red-nosed Bullpup

"Music in the soul can be heard in the Universe"

Lao-Tzu

GrafittiGuitar

GrafittiGuitar 2010

Ripper

he grabbed it
he stole it
he never brung it back
he went a little crazy
when he tightened up his slack
he took a little somethin'
and he turned it wrongside out
what he found was nothin'
thats what nothin's all about
he's floatin'
he's flyin'
like a giant bumblebee
he sang a little lovesong
as he soared across the sky
seein' things like magic
'cause he was flyin' high
he held it
he hid it
he never let it go
he tied it with his heartstrings
so it would never show
he sailed above the cloudline
where he had never flown
on a trip into Nirvana
with his mind completely blown

1978

Diadem