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
 

Sea Shell Salad

Mother Sea, you've carved the land,
with fine strong fingers and a steady hand. 
Your fathomless beauty lures the hearts of men,
Who challenge you just to die in then end.
Your power is overwhelming and infinite.
Yet, you wave at me- grinning bubbling contempt.

A wave whispers in my ear,
telling me things I don't want to hear.
Soft bubbles babble with the land where I live.
Patient  erosion of my refuge from foam.
Mother Sea, womb of life, always breathing,
always alive.  You coax at the downfall of man.

So soft and cold, heartless and mighty,
In awe I respectfully fear your strength.
I reach deep for courage to face you from within.
but know better that all this is in vain,
Countless times I've tried to reach you.
Trials and errors.   You take my breath away.

Yet still my stance is so slow to change.
I climb your mountains to be drowned in avalanche.
I cut your face, you slap me in powerful revenge. 
And Yet I continue alone in this unifying quest ,
To be at at one, in balance with your power,
Rested in communion with perfection.

I long to see inside you heart.
To understand motherhood's' art.
But I cling to my soil:  a homesick child,
Hoping to yet one day toy with your power.
I persist to struggle towards your outrageous call,
Oh, when it comes to power, you are the original.  
         

-dp-
2-21-83 / 3-10-13
          

Going Home

I'm going back to my home to town,
The city is bringing me down.
So many people in such a hurry,
I can't  keep hanging around.

I'm going to find me a used car,
The subway just don't go that far.
Throw all my junk in the back seat and trunk
leave all my worries in "park".

I'm going to quit my job.
I'm going to lose the mob. 
I'm going to hit the road.
I'm going to get back home.

I'm going to breath only fresh air,
And let the sun bleach my hair.
Wear overalls, get dirty and all,
Driving my tractor out there.

I'm going to work off these soft hands.
Make my life right off of this land.
I'll till the earth and watch it give birth,
And only reap what I plant.

Going to get some sun.
Going to have some fun.
Going to grow my hair.
Going to play it fair.

I'm going back to my old girl,
Bring her a necklace of pearls.
Buy her a ring and we'll live happily,
And then bring some life to this world.

We're going to live in this small town,
Spend our spare time just fooling around.
Me and the wife will be rocking all night,
And wake up with the break of dawn.

Yeah, I'm going home.
Going to write some poems.
Going to lend you a hand.
Going to act like a man.

-dp-
(c)  1-18-83 / 2-27-13   

DREAMS

A song of love has cleared the sky.

Another smile has stopped a cry.

Tomorrow won't be the same,

as another day,

is yesterday.


There are smiles and there are laughs.

There are memories from the past.

In time these stories bend,

as in the end

all wounds mend.


A broken dream is a twist of fate.

A thought that stayed up too late.

Our lives are built upon our dreams,

in a fantasy

we never quiet see.


To find a dream takes a good night's sleep.

Finding the means takes another week,

but if your dreams come true,

as sometimes they do,

that's good for you!


Follow your dreams and not another's.

Sleep well and warm under your covers.

And when dark night invades,

don't be afraid

of all you've made.

-dp-

12-17-82 / 2-9-13

Nursery Politics

 Two monkeys lead the way,
   bickering and fighting all the day.
Never saying anything new,
   never deciding what to do.
Oh why won't they tend to our country needs?
Oh why must I wonder what they mean?

Should either one possibly win,
   it's still nothing but a sin.
How they pretend to be so clever
   as they bable of whatever.
It seems they're on a T.V. show,
complicating issues with what they don't know.

The winner gets a white house,
   the loser goes back to the house.
Then we won't hear from them
   until the four year runs set in.
Once again their promises  will fly like sparks,
reminding us all who's in the dark.

-dp-   
12-5-82 / 3-8-13