Lee Shore Tactics

We shall rejoice
    fairweather gives us no choice
but to find ourselves in tune

    sailing in crafts upon the sea
Singing songs of Neptune
   bold before the lee shore.

Through storms and calms
   we hope for a shore of palms.
To be just across the sea
   over the crests of waves
Where the natives are free
   and all sailors safe.

We'll run aground
   after tacking all around.
Cast there by our heartbeats,
   reaching for that lee shore,
Where mighty freighters beach
   to give up there cargo stores.

A shore for good
   we'll arrive just when we should.
But we're in no hurry
   the wind will blow us there.
Timeless calm and fury
  waits for us if we drift near.


-dp-
(c) 3-4-84

Another Poem About Love

Love, oh special fleeting sense,
Emotion of the heart, feeling from the soul
Take hold of my heart, liberate my soul.
Give me purpose through joyous  bliss.

Love, purist rapture of senses,
Permeate forever and shine from my being,
Fulfill my dreams that I awake tomorrow
Complete and whole, without defenses.

Love, vague memory of innocence,
Free us from our shackling chains of fear,
Incite our world with your purpose so pure.
Brothers and sisters!  Embrace His subtle influence!


-dp-
(c) 7-20-83

Castaway

Cast me off these land loving feet.
Send me a ship to set my soul free.
Call me to the ocean, set sail on open sea.
I'll mind the tiller, you tend the sheets.

Plot us a course to an island we name,
With quiet beaches to spend our days.
See our children play the most marvelous games
And grow up wise in wonder of kinder ways. 

-dp-
6-24-83 / 3-11-13

Winter Love

The flame burns lower
   with each moment we have.
Our love grows colder
   as winters leaves turn to dust.
Was love to me a summer on the beach?
To fall and fail as Fall came to reach?
The summer sun has faded, and is gone.
We have fallen into a winter of despair. 
So cold apart, but only you seem to care.

Shall we pass each other
   on this highway called life?
Me cursing the slower
   and making you cry?
Or does the snow on the road impede our pace?
Why, in this blizzard, do I continue to race?
Spinning my tears in the sleet in my lane,
I gesture through my window to inflict you with pain.

My outlook of love
   grows colder with time.
Why do I gaze through winter
   as though snow blind? 
Still, tomorrow will be spring, could love be renewed?
I shall throw another log on the flame,
Our love may burn on for yet one more day.
Tomorrow I'll search for buds on the trees.
Tomorrow, again, we shall walk on the beach.

-dp-
6-18-83  

of broken dreams

Cast to a sea of darkness.
No one to hold but the night.
I fear my emptiness.

This night grave: 
sweat soiled sheets,
snug shroud, damp tomb.
No dreams to escape fear.

I scream despair for love
once caressed and held.
But no one answers.  No one is there.

Deep sigh, clutch pillow,  
four long, dark hours
of  broken dreams.
Tears run sidelong to my pillow. 


-dp-
6`16-83 / 3-14-13 

My Heart Is Under Control

This fragile crystal container 
I hold within my chest, 
so easy to see through, that I must
conceal it with feigned emotions.
False hopes, simple feigned smiles. 

Look into my eyes, glimpse 
my soul, full of hopes and dreams,
anticipating life's enrichment.
This container seeks fulfillment, 
but there is little to fulfill.  Heart

breaks, tumbles through this cavity,
tearing apart my gut stuff
shredding any sense of self.
Death, as an option, is rejected.
My mind must control my heart.

The heart would destroy the body, 
with beliefs that faith provides spiritual release  
from this hard world, where pain and fear
constantly lurk.  With logic, the mind 
must force to mend the broken heart.


-dp-

-written and read at the Maple Leaf Bar, New Orleans, LA  -4-3-83
4-3-83 / 10-18-12- / 3-11-13      

So Far Away

Baby I've got you on my mind,
And it's really bringing me down.
Because I want you to be mine,
You see, I know what I have found.
I've found you, babe.
And I want you, babe.
But I can never have you...

You can really turn me on,
But you can always turn me off,
Because baby you  are gone,
And it makes me feel so lost.
I'm without you, babe.
But I want you, babe.
But I can't have you...

Baby I wonder what you've got,
To make me want you so much.
You know it makes me feel so bad,
That I'll never feel you're touch.
I want to feel you, babe.
I want to touch you, babe.
But you're so damn far away...

If I thought that you'd be mine,
Then I would be there in a flash.
I'm waiting all the time,
Just for you to ask.
You haven't asked me, babe.
But I'm waiting, babe.
I'm waiting every  single day...

You know
There's no one to replace 
   your place in me.
Sometimes I wonder how you are, 
   and I'll wonder where you'll be.
Because I know you'll never be by me-
Oh my baby!
I want you, I do!
Just to walk with you,
            talk with you,
            and be with you.
But your so far away,
It won't work out.
Will it ever be? 
You're so far away...
        ...so far away     
        ...so far away
        ...so far away 
...(fade)...
(I love you!)

-dp-
1-21-76