Long Island

 

This collection is inspired by Patrick’s residency on Coastal Long Island. In a great many ways, life is but a long island in the way that we experience and participate with the world. 

Nunc Aeternum

A moment in time—

Timeless however

I was overtaken—

Imbued

Enveloped

And—

Covered in Light and Shadows

Which lead me to thinking—

‘Where do they end?’

And—

‘Where do I begin?’

So I asked them—

(politely)

And this their gracious reply—

“No beginnings”

And—

“No endings”

“Only now”

“Always now”

“Forever now”

And—

In deference—

I bowed my head in sweet submission.

 

       INQUIRIES

 

MIXOLOGY

Inspiration is a fickle non-stop

Trickle.

Mesmerizing insights shaken with

Flotsam.

Relevance and irrelevance whisked into 

Vortex.

Muddled viscosity strained through 

Chaos. 

Quenching see-through diluent poured 

Amply.

Held by carbon-bound chalices

Freely.

 

INQUIRIES

 

11 September 2020

Nineteen-years and counting—

 

In those days we stood together—

We held each other up.

 

Party didn’t matter—

Nor did state lines.

 

We were a country—

Before all else.

 

What changed?

 

INQUIRIES

 

 

Good Friday

We just can’t get beyond it

And onto Holy Saturday and Easter

And Resolution

And Resurrection

And New Life

 

Instead we remain up to our necks

In Selfishness

In Greed

In Ignorance

In all that keeps us from pressing forward

 

Onto that Saturday

To observe a holy pause

To Repent

To Renew

To Reset

 

That we may Rise and Rush onto the verdant fields

Of that Sunday

Of New Beginnings

Of Unbounded Joy

Of Forever Peace

 

INQUIRIES

 

Saint Mary Oliver

I just know we’ll be friends—

     in that which comes next.

 

A pair of whistling swans— 

     enwrapped in rapture.

 

       INQUIRIES

 

Now listen, you do not have to be “good”—

You only have to be—

Present in the procession of moments that is your life— 

Taking each and every one of them on-the-nose—

The good, bad and yes, the ugly—

Walking submissively alongside your Creator—

Honestly and wholeheartedly—

Trusting the providential process—

Receptive to each and every lesson taught—

And most important of all—

Being grateful for making the journey.

 

INQUIRIES

 

 

REFLECT

Sometimes it is easier to view the world

in its softer reflection

cast upon my glass-top desk.

 

Filtered,

Tempered,

Always cool to the touch.

 

When I can look no more

on its multi-layered stupendousness;

 

I drift through

and escape

to the reality

of my feet.

 

Planted comfortably but firmly

on the herringbone floor

of my self-imposed

retreat. 

 

INQUIRIES

PRESSURIZED ENVIRONMENT

Reclined in a 

turbo boosted,

pressurized and

gin ladened can

of sardines—filled

with submissive

souls, each distinct

but similar

in origin

and destiny.

 

Forward propelled

in upward lift,

until twin chimes

announce stasis.

 

Intermezzo:

orchestrated

by uniformed

conductors of

libations, nuts

and still more gin.

 

Synchronized dreams—

startled fits of

falling asleep

and coming-to.

 

A muffled voice,

twice chimed announced:

the harbinger

of shared descent;

seat-belts fastened,

plunging headlong

(willingly or

unwillingly)

into certain

expectation.

 

INQUIRIES

 

There are no part-time Poets.

You cannot be a Poet—

If you are not living a poetic life;

There are easier callings.

 

There is no half ass-ing it in this realm—

You are either all-in or all-out;

There are no part-time Poets.

 

The versed vocation is both lens and vessel—

Through which you instinctively interpret the world;

And your treasure sails the hallowed ages.

 

                                                   INQUIRIES