Arthura

A sparkling wine
Without the spike
No need to cover pain

Proud to have Arthura
Be your name

Forget are days
Of bitterness
Of spite

Family and loved ones
Surround you with noise
Working to help others
So they too might enjoy

The fruit of recovery
The Love of sisters and brothers
A portion of the Faith
Your life has discovered

The decades in front of you
Are less than those
You have left behind

But mortality is ok
When laughter and Love
Are the spike
In your sparkling wine

Moonstuck

 Moonstruck, best of luck, if I were smart i would learn to duck. 

When I was eight, kisses from girls made me say yuck. 

Now I am old and all the girls think I am a great Dad!  

If it didn't make me laugh, it might make me sad.

But I Love my wife, so being Moonstruck  made me glad! 

I Feel Like My Soul is Crying

I feel like my soul is crying.  

The first stanza is close to exact quote from a man who left the shelter tonight.  

Pray! God is listening!  

My disease is calling me

Thru the money in my pocket

I feel like my soul is crying

It is 24 degrees outside

I want to care

I can't resist

Alcohol's 

Evil 

Penetrating stare

I zip my coat

To the corners of my chin

I want to stay warm

As my lips embrace

My self-destructive drop

Once I begin

God knows

When I will stop

I measure sobriety 

In hours not days

I feel like my soul is crying

I want to live like other men

But I know 

Now

I am dying

I will be broke tomorrow

One day at a time

They say I should surrender

I keep failing 

At trying

I am hurting Bud

I know my soul is crying

Downtown Girl

Downtown girl
A reminiscent image
Of girls from the past
Timeless through style changes
Spending money always a blast

Downtown dudes
Smoking cigs
On the corner

Where cool stands out
Geography don't matter

Every punk rocker
Is cowboy in 50's leather
Every country kicker
Is a rebel
Who thinks he found a cause

Camaro
Lancer
F150
Or Subaru
If you hanging downtown
You're a downtown dude

Marlboro box
Rolled in a white t shirt
If it were up to the boys
All the downtown girls
Would wear mini skirts

Taxi
Uber
BART
Or The Red line
Sometimes American materialism
Is teenagers best time

Colin's Stand

One of the reasons
I am a poet
Is the awful way humans
Treat other humans

Pushing for power
The crunch of repression
Meditating on cruelty
Leads to depression

Anger boils
In unfair toils
Even if I am getting mine

So if my bowing a knee gets to you
While singing a song about a flag
In need of rescue
Maybe your thoughts about freedom
Are constitutionally askew

If I can make a $billion
As a pigskin gladiator
And still identify with
My brothers eating Dehydrated potatas
Doesn't that make me a lover of my nation
And not one of its haters?!

If I can take a stand
When
I been dealt the talent hand
Where
Strength and speed are virtues
In land of the great distraction

And Me
Knowing
I am a Who
Part of the Action
The Main Attraction

Truth is
I been vilified
For taking the side
Of strangers
Who have been taken for a ride
Locked up and Boxed up
Cause he couldn't pay a lawyer
To plea the Ali-bi

And before you jump to conclusions
About my liberal bent
I am a dogface soldier
With three generations of family
Who when combat called
They went!

Therefore Colin
Have your say

I will continue to stand proud
As the Star Spangled Banner plays

But Then
I will take a knee my brother
Because the fight for justice
Is not done
And there are greater accomplishments
Than 5 super bowls won

Dying One Moment at a Time

Dying one moment at a time
In part for the words I rhyme

Don't want to live
In a no eye contact world
Gone are the days
When problems evaporated
With the kiss of a girl

The cost of my drink
Is dirty look
Gone are the days
When I got lost in a book

Breathing heavy
For no reason really
The  Eagles got it right
Just
Take It Easy

When I lose joy
I am often thinking stinky
There are souls close by
Who love and need me
The Beatles got it right
Whisper Words of Wisdom
Let It Be

My life is richer than the words I spin
But poetry can be the place
Where gratitude begins

Free Falling
Like Tom Petty
When he was strong
Artist die unexpectedly
Life ain't ever long

On the other side
You know
We still write songs

Comic Philosopher

Every comic is a philosopher
If you listen behind the laugh
Every preacher a rock star
If you give rock stars a pass

Boxed identity
Is not what makes a man
We are all more complicated
Then what we project first hand

We carry
The sad
The glad
The somewhat mad
In minds organized
Or a mess

Know for sure
Boxed identities
Always shade your best

So break out of the suit you've  sewn
If it hides your essential essence
What the world needs now
Is the courage of
Your manifested presence

Happy Columbus Day

Happy Columbus Day!

Who says Big Government doesn't work!
Today we celebrate sending a man West
Looking for a country that was East!
After bumping a continent  that was West
We called the people Indians....
That makes the Journey a success !

For everyone but Indians from the East !
And Indians in the West !
So now Indians in th West speak Spanish
And Indians from the East speak English

That is why is Big Government is the best!

Uncomfortably Numb

Uncomfortably numb with all I been seeing
Uncomfortably numb with all I been feeling

Bullets fly thru a Las Vegas night
Folks murdered in a fish bowl
To a lunatic's delight
Tired of waking up to the pain of dawn's light

What I thought was easy
Must be impossible
Removing hatred
Like simple obstacles

I still refuse to believe
Devil's unstoppable

How did we all fall this far!?
Neighbor loving neighbor
Must be too much

Are we devoid
Of wrestling from our heart
What makes us paranoid?

Thinking in herds
Instead of having brains that preserve
The dignity of our fellows
Above all that bellows

For division

By party
By nation
By tribes
By races

The most miserable of men
Can see everything but God's image
In human faces

If it ain't about the guns
Then a forest fire doesn't start with a spark
But I guess that was divisive
So let's stick to the human heart

Gotta judge
Cause God hates sin
But judgement begins in His house
So, It is the church's sin
That we should douse

God's man in office
What a joy
An exploitive casino owner
Who treats women like toys

He is a racist
What a joke
A successful businessman from NYC???!
If he were a jackass instead of an elephant
We would be reading about
His racial intergration and forthright dignity

My contradictory stanzas
Are against the rules
You have to pick a side
Those are the rules

What has that gotten us
But rhetoric that kills
A population addicted
To much more than pills

To the bastards that destroy our nation
Because you hate the masses
When we think
Let's have a conversation
We both need a drink!

Two Dreams

Basking in the comfort 

Of two pleasant dreams

The First Dream

Professionally affirmed 

Like Mr. Gardener from Being There

An idiot savant speaking wisdom to the air

How or why I got there 

I didn't really care

Not in charge of a nation but 

A Renaissance city

I will figure out tomorrow 

The budget's nitty gritty

Pensions protected

Because some one should get them

Next day maybe I'll understand 

Why the old are neglected

Sly as a fox 

Gentle as a dove

Every competence 

Comes from the Lord above

Taking the mic 

Should be easy 

On any stage today

Sound bites are all we require

In this attention distracted age

You think with so little to say

We wouldn't be demanding our own way

But jealous about advantage 

Is the cry of the day

The second dream 

Very different from the first

I was in an Islamic land

When a school aged girl took my hand

She introduced me to her scruffy bearded Dad

And her plump smiling Mom

The quietness of their abode 

As soft as a sparrow's song

High vaulted ceiling 

Moved the tranquility along 

The unexpected hospitality 

On a travelling vacation

Had nothing to do with my status 

Or station

I was only a man travelling alone

Invited but custom and kindness

To the sacredness of their home

Don't know why I am so far from home

Don't know why I am traveling alone 

All I knew was the coffee was hot

And in that moment I was enjoying my spot

Eating with a precious family from a common pot

Their interest was only in the essential me

Not in an image to be projected and seen

Somewhere between a public idiot savant

And the private man eating from a common pot

I hope I find neighbors and friends

Making an earth a place

Where the reality of my days 

Meet the dreams of my nights

Flesh that is Red

Tired of being played
By the man of greed
Who claims his wealth is
An essential need

If I knew sooner
Money was the ruler
I would have played
The game differently

Would've  got mine
Would've been fine
Fogetting about small dollars
And a few little dimes

Rolling
Controlling
Riding the ride of the day
With the beauty I want
Brilliant or savant

Cause money makes sunny
Every playboy bunny
Even for an old man with pipe

But what would that do
Make me a fool too
Chasing luxury
Like a man needing air

Forgetting what I got
Would always be sought
By a man in need of clean water
And a place to lay his child's head

One Day
The judge of the living and the dead
Will remind us of all he said
It is better to give than receive
Words He wrote
On flesh that is red

Lora and Daniel

Happy Birthday Lora and Daniel

Connected in time
21 years to be exact
From a Mom who loves children
That is a fact

Bone of each other's bone
Flesh of each other's flesh
Raised in different times and  places
Moving to adulthood at similar paces

Your connection to those you love
Unwavering
The struggle to find yourself
Sometimes was like walls caving in
But day after day
You get up and fight again

Laughter for each of you
Easy
Your response to early mornings
Let me sleep in
If you please

My advice in crises
Will always be
Hit your knees

It is your Birthday
And you are separated by half a globe
Wish we shared more miles
On the same roads

Happy Birthday My Beloved
I Miss so!!!!!!

When we see each other again
There will be more family stories
To be told
When God made you
He broke the mold

You are both one of a kind
I am glad you share birthdays
On the same day but at different times

A Fish with Purpose

I was one of those fish in a tree
I was fortunate to find the lakes where I thrived!

Funny
I discovered my gifts in the place that demands The most standardization
The US Army
Staring cannon to cannon
At communist nations

But in the institution
That turns boys into men
You learn to lead
Because others may fall

Admittedly a was probably too kind
To spend a lifetime
Carrying claymore mines
But learning while doing
Will bring your gift to the surface
At least
That is how I found my gift
And became a fish with purpose

Small Man in a Big Chair

Small man 

In a big chair

Humiliating those in front of you

Completely bought into the alpha male tale

Provide you enough respect 

So he don't turn and rend me

Throw me jail

Make me need bail 

Your Honor or Judge

You a member of the bar

But you ain't acting like a lawyer

More like and educated street thug

Throwing your weight around

Misusing authority

Proves you a clown

Even if you think you're perceived 

As the most important man in town

We surrender 

You're the man

So we will respect you

But not because 

You are wise

Intelligent 

Or in the slightest way profound

But because you rule with fear

Are arbitrary 

And we are not sure 

Your judgement is sound

The court room for you 

A place to perform

The court room for the people

A great sanctuary

We don't want to be victims

If your temper changes on a whim

But we don't really need to worry 

Because the Lord fills your mouth 

Even if you don't acknowledge him

You're not Pontius Pilate 

Or a representative of Caesar 

But you too are controlled 

By He who governs 

All in the human theater 

So I shall not worry 

If my penalty is large or small

I will submit to authority

Because I am commanded to do so 

By He who is the law

The ultimate Alpha

Who humbled Himself as a servant

Died on a Cross for one and for all

Even for small alpha men

Who sit on large chairs

And think themselves tall

Recovery Circle

In recovery circle with men my own age
Tough guys all
But they are quick with a hand shake
Or a pat on the back

Respect is the currency of street curbs
Hustle's temptation and drama
Now managed with simple words

Listen I am blessed
So talk to hand
Give it a rest

Years lost
Relationships tossed
In the haze of
I am on the chase for more

But every day is new
You know Recovery is true
When your mother trust you with her ATM again

Doing time
Gone like a passing cloud
Now I am believed when I say
I am never going back out loud

The circle adds new members
Like dry wood on burning timber
The embers turn quickly to flame
Suddenly there is meaning
When I hear my name

One day at a time
I will never be the same
I am done with the game of shame
And finding someone to blame

All I do now is share in a circle
The recovery I humbly
Yet boldly
Claim

Reminiscing

Bare foot and reminiscing 

About the souls I've been 

Pleasured to vibe

Who did not hide

Sharing power with words 

From lips that listen 

When truth is shared with eyes 

They speak

Experiencing love at every curve 

If courage vibrates your nerve

Then

You absorb songs thru skin not ears

You project thru hands to trusting guts

I'll be 

To you

The prayer of my recitation

We work laughter and tears 

In the neighborhood of our limited years

Where I am 

Is Iam

Planned in the span of 

Steps taken by a divine hand

Standing on toes that smell

And resting in faith on barefeet that breath

Soul for a Smile

Watching Miranda Lambert sing Tin Man!
Her voice and a acoustic guitar!!!
A few extra verses for Tin Men

You traded my soul for a smile
A lifetime for a mile
Love ain't a tool you use
My friend you're such a fool

You made love a small thing
Without love no one sings
Hearts beat slow but strong
Every time they're done wrong

How does a vow work for you?
Does true mean true to you?
Love ain't no bowl of gruel
My friend you're such a fool

The Tin man cried himself to rust
"Give me a heart or I'll bust"
All you fill is egos lust

We should have danced
The white dove dance
But you won't give love a chance
So go on and make doves cry
But my friend you live a lie

You traded my soul for a smile
The long gray and wrinkled path to the grave
For brief moments and a passing wave

It gives me no pleasure to say
You're going to hurt like me someday

You traded my soul for a smile
A lifetime for a mile
Love ain't a tool you use
My friend you're such a fool

Texas Strong

Heaven found in the hell of a flood
Brother helping brother regardless of blood
When you lose everything
Sometimes you find Love

In the sound of watercraft
In a truck driven by riff raff
When we need help
Everyone gets a pass

Helping Folks
Flocks
Pets and livestock
Sometimes our best comes out
In moments of shock

Don't believe the hype
Yes we are sinners
But we are ok
And Y'all are alright

Out of darkness comes light
What gets lost
Is fright

Fright of he
Who don't look like me
Skin color is forgotten
When we help others in need

Rebuilding is painful
But we know you are able!

Lone Star State
Our prayers are with you!

Up here in the land
We call Boston Strong!

Reading or Writing

Deciding to read or write
To cause inspiration
Or instill fright
To write in cadence
Or from a vision I see
In either case it comes from the heart of me

Am I deeper or shallower than I think I am ?
Are the places I have taken my stand
Important in the land?

Have I built on rock?
Or will what I have said and done
Sink into sand?

I depend on the justice of the creator
In the end
All knowledge is held
By the great arbitrator
And if Christian faith is infused in all I say
The truth is
I don't know how to think any other way

Is my poetry basic or profound?
Does it hit the reader like a lector on a stage?
Or is it read
Like folks sitting in the round?

Does it echo like a drum circle
Beating rhythm below the trees?
Does it have the reverence?
Like clicking boots in empty cathedral
Their volume diminished
By padded pews
Hitting bended knees

Does it permeate the night
Like spirits diving under dark ocean waves?
Does it cut the heart with laughter?
Humor sometimes is the only way to say
What needs to have its say

It might be more profane
If it was my darkness that found verse
I can't find wisdom
In the parts of me I know are worst

It is wisdom I seek
Separation from Adam's fall
You might be tired of me posting
But I like playing with words
So I am having a ball

Goodnight

Splashed by the fires of Hell

Splashed by the fires of hell
Because you bowed low
To help those not well

Bound by the grime of Addiction 
For souls on fire
Every daily task is consumed in
Perdition

The cool face cloth of grace
Soothing balm for the pours of the human race

Fever fleeing slaves to sin
Earth is made Heaven
Where compassion begins

Consciousness Lost and Gained

I fainted last week
Lost consciousness
And fell flat on my face

It happened in the worst possible place
In front of my family
Where I have always been strong

A rock
Without a crack
Went splat
I did not feel it coming
And I don't remember the fall
I think that is what bothers 'me'
Most of all

I broke my daughter-in-laws lamp
Which of course she did not mention
Because my daughter-in-laws
Are straight out of heaven

Too much work
Too little water
Way too little sleep
Dehydration
We are sure
But I never thought
'I' would hit the endurance floor

I have lived life well
And I am content In my own skin
But now
I want more living
As 'old man' time begins

So I am soaking up water
Like Bacalhau
And some day I might be
Gumming my food
Lookin like a Damn
South Dartmouth milking cow

I have zero fear of death
But I am no fan of pain
I hope like my parents
I die with intact brains

But if delusions should take control
And the hours I put in take their toll
I will be dreaming of bbq
With my family and friends

A multigenerational reunion
Parked on streets of made of gold
With all present and accounted for
By the Lord above

A time when all that fades and ages
Will have  passed
And all that endures will be
Faith Hope and Love
At long last

Swagger Courage and The Cradle

I saw Swagger
Courage and the Cradle
In my three grandsons today

The swagger of Charlie
Was seen in a perfect spiral pass
Shoulder pads and helmets
Provide strength that last

The courage of Wesley
Whose four year old vocabulary
Could not muster
"FLOATIES"
"Please Mom, No"
Jumping into Uncle Brian's arms
"Now that is a blast"

Liam's strength seen cradled
To his mother's breast

Holding your children's children
Simply the best

To look into eyes projecting
Two generations of life
How does such a small soul
Carry in the Cradle
All that me and his parents are!?

Calling my kids out on the timetable
Of their own grandparentage
Brought me to tears
Laughing out loud when they said
"Wait Dad, that is not too many years!!!"

Bold grandboys are they
Each in their own way
Going to be a blessing
To call them Men one day

Partiers in Recovery

Partiers in recovery
On the road to discovery

Layers of the soul washed deep
Covering pain sometimes sweet
Experiences lived
Not looking to repeat

Making amends
Makes one deep
Loving life don't come cheap

Lacing up kicks ain't no trouble
Sexy boots make you strut double
Last thoughts covered with a shovel
Leather heels and soles get muddy
One day we will all be ash and dust

Duplicity
Complicity
Leaves no room for simplicity
Honesty a must
Egos bust
When even our own heart
We can't trust

The sacred names we claim
They gain!
When character defects change
Daddy
Husband
Brother & Son
Might be Greatgrand Fathers
Before we are done!

To the partiers we knew
Who found recovery too
We salute you
For the work you continue to do!

Loving Life

Loving life !!!
Feeling joy
Like a little boy with his
Tonka truck toy!

I Got Friends!!!
Real people I Love
Kissing the sky
In Awe of the Holy Dove

Family!!!
Man I am blessed
Obviously I am prejudice
But My Word!!!
I think they are the best !!!

Having your back!!!
You don't even have to ask
Make a mistake
Hey!!! Let's move on
That was the past!!

Children
I have a tribe!!!
All I want is that they catch Love
Before I die!!!

My prayer!!!
That I impart my faith
What does that look like?
A God who loves and redeems all souls ?

All of Adam on His Holy Roll!!!

Laughter and memories
Stored for all time

One God
One Human Race
From Age to Age
Praising His Name

Pain
Soothed by caring hands
Suffering
Eliminated from each and every land

Diversity
Let the rainbow of humanity be displayed!!!
In language
In dress
In the songs we sing
On instruments played as freedom rings
In the smells of food from every spice

Let us rejoice too
In what makes us the same
The joy of Birth
The sorrow at death
The wedding vow
Is known throughout the earth

The glory of creation
Speaks on every landscape
A designers mind
Impossible to escape

The animal kingdom
Speaks to us in the conduct we observe
Healing in every plant
So please let's conserve

Kindness
Needs no interpretation
So let's walk in Love
Then life and work
Will soon be a vacation

Peace, don

Day At The Office

A DAY AT THE OFFICE

I Loved The Euphoria

'Where Have You Been All My Life'

I said!

Then I boiled off two of my fingers while cooking hot dogs

I thought I should get help

I hope I can finish high school 

I am glad my grandmother didn't kick me out when I was stealing from her!!!

'Next' Shouts nurse from the dosing station

Have you got a bandaid?

Or some goss?

I have blood pouring out this abscess 

The former injection site is bone thick 

And as tight as a three wine corks pushed under lanky muscled
Suntanned skin

Darkened
While walking sidewalks fumed by  

RITPs 22 & 11 bus lines

His grey hair was recently trimmed

He is very polite and several people kindly search for what he needs

No one judges

But all appear relieved the wound was not their own

Can you check this note?

The young, 

Eager 

Flowing skirt, and inexperienced, counselor was not sure what she should include in her first assessment of the suicidal client whose laptop screen was projecting voices to his mind.

Fortunately he was experienced at psychosis and was willing to go to the hospital !

7 intakes tomorrow!

3 staff members coming in early to prepare!!

Just another day at the office.....

Starlite Boston So Long

The artist in me
Birthed in places of discontent
Creative streams
Misery did lend

Gifts found in lands not my own
More difficult to use
Now having returned home

These strange places now part of me
Easy to dismiss
Except
For the faces I see

Much more than a tourist
A labourer in the land
Motivated and energized
Doing all that I could
To make my Babylons
Jerusalem
For those who belong

Many who I Love
Other I despise

There do nothing bureaucracy
In land of The Bean

The other hosing darkness
On land
Radiating Starlite' s torch
Exploitive
Oppressive
Mean to be mean

What providence teaches
Is still to be seen
Thankful for the communist chapter
Where Boston is strong

Starlite's reflection
Clear
Despite all that is wrong
The menu of services
Could not be better

So long Friends

I am Hopeful

I think I have found a place
Where people work together

The Compass of Home

Out of a dark place
To a compass I call home
Adding to the circle of my friends
Somehow made me feel more alone

It only takes a few
To cause
A paradise to be lost
Little raises buying condescending hazing
Security has its cost

I smile that True North holds its place
And that there is a Director of my life
In circumstance and space

Whether my circle be large or small
I know the Lord personally
And I experience
His presence and His grace

Seeing the results
Of the steps I took while blind
My memories are now recorded
In words I learned to rhyme
As season moves to season
He was with me all the time

Catfish Dinners

Between Catfish meals
In Dallas and Natchitoches, LA

Proud 2017 graduates walk the stage
Diversity displayed
On a football field with artificial grass

Intelligence
From around the world
In uniformed procession
In this Pather class

Turbans and hijabs testing
How diversity really makes me feel
If I am honest
Fear is part of the deal

Catfish dinner to celibrate
Cheese cake shared
From a common plate
If Lora is involved
It is always great

Rolling down 20 east
Soon going to eat another
Catfish feast
Looking at Cattle ranches
With a 1,000 head
Black Angus, White and
A few Herefords too

They are seen from
A 75 mph highway of liberty
Long and mostly flat
Thick with trees
Air conditioned Kia
Feeling no breeze
Going to buy a Harley
If I travel through these trees

Shreveport casinos
On both sides of
The Red River flow
Getting work treating addicts
Probably not going to be difficult
That much I know

The houses turn poor quickly
On the southern leg of the trip
Hot and muggy
The weather suits me
With BBQ food and
Music that is bluesy

Abodes abandoned
In numbers that astound me
Roofs protected with canvas tarps
No street lights
At night it must be dark

The land Elbert and
His daughter Hazel
Has been found
A wooden homestead
And trailer still in the clearing
Deer stand and deer feeder to the rear
Teresa says she is converting the stand
To a doll house for viewing not for chewing

Fire ant mounds
Producing sand by the pound
The forrest thick
With trees young and old
If we build a road
Some got to go

The tall tree by the old homestead
Is sacred to Teresa
The site she will be buried
All her kin she has told

Ribbons chased down
For boundiaries they have marked
Apparently the surveyor
Has done his part
Trying to figure out
Is this is an ending or
Or is it a start

Lakewood Inn for another catfish meal
Should have ordered
Fried green tomatoes too
Cole slaw had it's own flavor and texture
Pickled green tomatoes
Complimented them just right
Catfish was enjoyed
Michelob ulta light too
My two catfish dinners
In Dallas and Louisiana
Are finished and through

Tired of Anti Obama Anti Trump

So tired of Anti ....

Anti Obama
Anti Trump
Anti global warming
While the polluters take
Planetary dumps

Can I get a witness
For clean water and
Clean air

Who you voted for
Frankly I don't care

We are worrying about guns
When murderers we are producing

We complaining about immigrants
When there is genocide
In the country of their choosing

Ripping babies from wombs
When birth control is no mystery

If you don't understand racism
Then you don't understand history

Every race feels the grevious suffering
Of their ancestors from the past
Be they Jewish, Armenian,  Irish, or Black
If you think that doesn't effect the present
Then my friend
I think you might be an ass

Pointing out a group's present prosperity
Adds insult to injury
Because all you are saying
Is that if there was justice
Then my grandparents
Could have lived
Better than me!

I am
Pro planet
Pro person
Pro country
Because differences are real

Learning from each other's differences
Is the biggest challenge
In this being human deal!

So can we talk
On the block
In the field
Especially at the University
Please
Can we add ideas to
The the list of the things we call diversity!

And
How about taking a breath
Before you shout perversity!

We live better than any generation ever has
Can we go a little easier
On the plastic and the gas

Starvation is demonstrated evidentially
In 30 minute commercials
While men beating each other
In a cage
Is the newest
Multi million dollar rage

My profile picture has me drinking a beer
I will to talk about anything
From Christ
To why people are queer

But know this my friend
If we disagree on every subject we discuss
I will value you as a person
In that you can place your trust

Veterans Poems

Below is a series of poems I have written over the past year while working with young combat veterans.  The first is a hurray for our side, the second a chant that would have been at home in a war protest movement.  The third and fourth about the adjustment from war to peace.
The final one about the brotherhood veterans share in treatment and beyond.

America

America, America, I have not seen you all and all, but what I have seen makes stand straight, proud and tall.

In this land of mine folks can say exactly what they think, pray or not, dance a lot, drink if they want to drink.

On country roads or city streets I still hear your pure heart, Yes, I said It! And shall repeat it, I still hear her pure heart beat!

Our sins way heavy, I know that is true, and for those sins we have, or shall, pay our dues. In blood and mud in Gettysburg alone 51,000 casualties!

In peace or war corruption finds its way into politics, put politicians never made the American heart tick!

People and prophets have shown the direction with loving, angry, pointing hands, one for the heart, one raised in faith toward heaven!

Washington, Adams, Jefferson more than politicians were they! Fathers of vision, men of reason, dreamers of better days!

Martin Luther King Jr, Frederick Douglas confronted our hypocrisy, through pain and blood they bequeathed us a finer democracy

Far Too Many Way Too Young

Far too Many and Way too Young, Would've been better if a song was sung! Hate and pride throw life aside, the seed of greed makes the soldier bleed!

Far too Many Way too Young, Would've been better is a song was sung!

The Rich get richer and the young are sent but you don't understand why students are bent!   It is a friend who past in a far away land, where 20 years from now we'll be buying and selling as much as we can!

Far too Many Way too Young would've been better if a song was sung

The memories stay bright in an old man's head, how can they fade with so many dead.  He would rather shake a hand or kiss a cheek, but his hope for man has been made bleak!

Far too many, Way too young would've been better if song was sung!

We are singing now, let our freak flag fly, the enemies in the world will change in time, let's have a meal, let's make a deal!

Far too many, Way too young, All is better when a song is sung!

Memorial Day Poem .... Don Boucher....

Addicted to War

It was never my goal
But a merger occurred
The fright of fight
Met the pump of Adrenaline
War is Hell
But I am High Like Heaven

Bombs bursting in mid-air
And I don't care
I am a soldier of misfortune and
I am addicted to War

Limbs that fly
Guts that jump
Owning the world
On a cocaine high
I am a soldier of misfortune and
I am Addicted to War

The heroin ache
The ripping of my insides
On the chase
Fuck normal life and
It's meaningless rat race
I am a soldier of misfortune and I am
And I am Addicted to War!

Don Boucher, at 6:06 PM

Surviving the Peace

You fought in a land far away
And did what you had to do

You saw friends fall
At your side
So doing drugs
Was an earned right
And a reasonable place to hide

The War for you finished and done
But the fight with addictions has begun
So now the question is
Will the Peace I Survive!

Seen genocide and suicide
The memories of your killing
Have no place to hide
Your deeds had their place
In the protection of the human race
But will the peace I survive

Up for days alert at the trigger
Now sleep refuses to linger
Your mind that won't adapt,
Won't even nap

As you try to move beyond
The Ranger tag and Army cap
You ask...
Will the Peace I survive!

Vet's Circle

In a Veteran circle
With men half my age
Listening and learning
To the trauma they engage
In isolation Self Imposed
In the group they find Repose

Avoiding war entirely
Is too much to ask
I suppose

What's caught
What's taught
What's fought
When peace is sought

Not peace with the past
Though that is true in part
Peace with the future
Yah, but everyone
Wants a new start

To know it is or
Wasn't done in vain
That there is justification
For this life and its pain

That there are good reasons
We all should remain sane

To laugh as you go about your day
To enjoy the simple pleasures
Of playing a game

To remain as long as you can remain
And navigate the
Stages of Change
To enjoy both the sun and the rain

To know you can be alone and not lonely
Because what every Vet circle knows
Is you don't live for yourself only

Merle and The Purple Prince

Merle and The Purple Prince

Following a Texas plate
Listening to Merle Haggard pour
Yesterday's Wine

Driving in New York City
Listening to Prince
Growling Purple Rain

Little men
Singing big
Writing about life
And doing their thing

Creating lyrical dreams and
Making highway melodies
With a travelling music team
Providing escape when
Life grows a little to mean

Titles and Tags
Place makers in life
Like the volumes of
Old photo albums
Kept by my wife

They help me remember
In the wine and the rain
The Love that can be had
In the midst of the joy and the pain

Face

Sarcasm is wasted on Tin men
With no brains

Why give my words
To those who don't believe in change
Those faces are shoved so far up asses
They think flowers and fertilizer smell the same
They glory in the place they planted their face

They don't even know
They are smeared in disgrace

They don't deserve
The time of day I am living in
Swine that tear wisdom
Whenever it is found
The types of fools
No one should be around

Hearing in the Spirit

Hearing

If we know how to hear
Why don't we listen
Crying about curses
When blessing
We are missing
Our God waiting
With open arms
Exceeding abundance
Is what we be dissing

Why is selfishness
So much
Part of our game
Eating our shame
Then projecting
Our blame

All we got to to do
Is call on the
Name Above All Names
The One who is
Yesterday Tomorrow
And always the Same

Please allow you to
Introduce yourself
To He who is
Familiar with your pain
You got nothing to lose
Everything to gain

The Creator of all
Born in a Bethlehem stall
So He could converse
With we who are so small

You hear Him already
You know it is true
That gut reaction
You felt
When you were doing you
Was a warning
A leading
Shouting out
To the better version of you

So now that you know that you hear
I am speaking to me too
Tell Me
What You Gonna Do?

Truckers Song

Truckers Song

Full moon shines thru telephone lines
As sky sparkles morning blue
Bubbling brook flows over root beer rivers
Leading me away from you

That moon mocks
Rising again beyond the dusk
I crest that green mountain pass
In love I place my trust

So far away
Yet so close by
It makes a man want to cry
Doing life by the hour
Ohh help me higher power

That diesel moan
Makes a man feel all alone
This trip is finally through
Time to turn this rig home
And let it lead me back to you

Full moon shines thru telephone lines
As sky sparkles night time blue
Calm brook flows into an earl grey rivers
Leading me back to you

Riding Close

Sing it with best hillbi)y voice

Where is my woman and my motorcycle
Riding ohh so close to to me
Seeing the byways  highways
Seeing all that we can see

Travellin yonder in America
The land of fun and opportunity
My woman and my motorcycle
Riding oh so close to me

But I am stuck in a minivan
A plastic rolling cage
Where is my woman and my motorcycle
Riding ohh so close to me

How Lovely You Are

Memories can fade
In the hassle of every day
You can lose track of all the things that you did say
But in the coolness of your breath
In the warmth of your eyes
I remembered how lovely you are

As I held your hand
And looked into your eyes
My hands softly laid upon your thighs
In the coolness of your breath
And the warmth in your eyes
I then remembered how lovely you are

In the quietness of the moment
As memories flood in
I am thinking about the coolness of your breath
And the warmth in your eyes a
I then remember how lovely you are

Diner Guy

Diner Man

Diner men
Sitting alone
Reading the local daily
Or checking their phone

Bottomless coffee cups
Pulled from a plank shelf
Seem right at place
For men who eat by themselves

If regulars the waitress
Knows their predictable sides
Anticipating their lonely hello
At times their lonelier goodbyes

Eating under diner florescent lights
Before and after dawn's early light
Often feels Kinda nice

The truck driver sitting
At the diner stool
Has perfected his
Uniformed working man cool

Their is a lawyer that always stops
Running a little late
He tells a bad joke
While dancing around the girl with the mop

She laughes at the joke
Then winks at the toothless old man
She always calls pop

Everyone has their favorite spot
If a new guy comes in
There is a chair to adopt

Greeted by a waitress
Pouring bean juice
Meant to inspire
His only ambition
Eggs overeasy and
Buttered white toast

If the eggs are all right
And the waitress worth her tip
On Saturday morning
He will grab a friend
And take him to a booth
Where diner men boast

Gather and Know

Gather and Know

We must gather

The green of the grass

The song of the birds

The softeness of a summer breeze

The salty air splashed 

From the crashed waves of the sea

What is not gathered 

Scatters 

Its beauty not seen
Or felt

The motion and color of life
Offers help

On strings played on blades of grass

Or the shout of ocean waves crashed

This is the poetry of He

Who writes washed words in the sand

Like summer fragrance  

Pushing the ticks of the clock's hand

So gather thine and mine

Not for collecting 

As selfish souls

But so others may also

Gather and know

Photographers Poem

Photographers Poem

I think it strange
That in a frame
Essence can be captured
Both the manner and fame

A flashed second
Captured in a still
A camara's ambition
A photographer's thrill

Somewhere between
The image we protect
And the character we neglect
An eye behind a lens
Somehow detects

The person we are
The person we can be
The work of those looking at
What we fail to see

The sadness in smiling eyes
The joy of true surprise

The fear conquered
In the acts of the brave

The misery felt at
A loved ones grave

The horror of widows of war
The hope of a boy
Looking to score

The moments caught on camera
Are snap shots in time
There to provoke
There to remind
Man of his beauty
And his ugly acts
As we look at photography
It often looks back

Your Way to a Happy Day

Amid the sunny day
Are those who insist
On having their way
To find a fight
Where none exist
Who persist thru list
Of useless standards
When all that is needed
Is human candor

Their cloud contagious
Their attitude dangerous
To those who think and
Laugh to get things done
Who find great victory
When all have won
Who dream of days
When war is done
Who value time most
When they are having fun

To work at play
And play at work
Is not an indication
That you're a jerk
It might mean that
You have not gone berserk
Climbing the corporate ladder
It might mean
You understand
What really does matter
Amid the ambition
Of lives full of clatter
Where love is foreign
And compassion scatters

You have to be one that gathers
The green of the grass
And the song of the birds
The jokes on the walk way overheard
The pain in a friends eyes
Genuine hellos and genuine goodbyes
A lunch ate while sitting
Stress reduced because of grinning

Each moment a new beginning
Seeing and being
The sun in someone's day
Maybe even for a soul
That wants their own way

Robin on Pavement

Robin running on the pavement at night
Out of place until the morning light
Living through hours
That don't seem right
At least there are no cats
In my line of sight

Dungeon and dangers
Fill a bird's head
Why am I on the pavement
The place I dread
If I keep on running
I am going to be dead

To flight to flight
A place of no fright
Unless there is an owl
On the prowl at night!

Burning Bridges

Looking at life
Don't know what to think
Tired of pushing your stress
To the edge of the brink

Wanna pull the plug
You need a drink
You don't want to agree
But sometimes it is true
Love does stink

Burning bridges
To the ground
Sometimes you can't start over
Until it all falls down

What's so hard about
Girl meets boy
Can't get no Satisfaction
From a vibrating toy
All you want
Is your portion of joy
How do you start over
When too often it all gets destroyed

Burning bridges
To the ground
Sometimes you can't start over
Until it all falls down

Mother and Daughter Tears Are Cried

Mother I see your strength
It makes me cry
If you don't see a tear
It is because I cry inside

Mother I see your weakness
It makes me cry
If you don't see a tear
It is because I cry inside

Daughter I look forward
To where you will be
Knowing you carry
The best of me

My strength and weakness
Are part of you
You will sense
Their presence
In all you do

I hear your silent cries
We are joined together
In the places we hide

Our hearts are
Bound together
In mutual pride
As we cry
Side by side

Sucking Sand

Sucking on sand
In view
Of a clear running stream

Searching for an oasis
While drowning
In the American dream

Trying to love what you hate
Starving for what is noble
Only eating what is served
Off the marketers plate

Jumping at hoping bunnies
Mistaking them for rats
Hungry for an ankle to bite

Choosing depression
In a world
That is full of delights

Autumn Leaves Spring Forrest

Autumn leaves
Clinging to trees
In a Spring forrest

Holding onto the dry and withered
When life wants to sprout wild and new

Sun lit and watered
Ready to grow
The Breath of God
Whispering
Time to Let Go

The familar belongs to yesterday
Tomorrow is illusive as air
Today is the only day we get to share

The Man Inside

Every poem feels like the last
Birthed from a man
Who lives inside myself

Attached like an appendage
A partially integrated soul
Recording abstractions
From an artist being made whole

Seeing and feeling
Giving the ordinary meaning
A parasite giving life
To the host he occupies
Searching for truth
Where lies abide

Once given voice
He looks for affirmation
While claiming dissent
Through poetic imaginations

A seer without a brush
Using language to create a hush
From guts moved by words
Be they sublime or absurd

Until silence falls
On this poet
One day
No longer heard

Saying Too Much

Saying too much
Is a habit I have made
But I rather take a risk
To say what I want say
Than to wonder if
I should have said it
On some future day

I will express Love
Not as often as I feel it
Unfortunately for many
Love is a feeling
They can't deal with

Trust broken
Words too often spoken
Hollow and shallow
Nothing but a shadow
Of the reality I hope I carry

But many souls I know are harried
With activity for livings sake
Not experiencing the love
They should take
Or the loneliness they could forsake
If love was expressed at their hearts gate

Head Feet and Stomach

My head and my feet in a tussel
Time to get up
But don't want to move a muscle
Probably need some coffee to guzzle
If I don't stop complaining
I am buying a muzzle

Esther yells Don
It is time to eat
I never knew a stomach
Could intercede

Invade Evaded Truth

Truth invaded and evaded
With words that are not lies

A Marine Says
I hunt bears because
I no longer hunt men
I share it as food
With my daughter and son
The truth invaded
My killings not done

A Manager Says
Work Sunday
Your 75 hour work is incomplete
The truth evaded
I don't care if you live or die
I have corporate control
Therefore I won

I Say
This is what is going to happen
If you do this or that
When the inevitable occurs
You avoid the facts
Truth evaded
All that matters
Is covering your back

These are the memories
I am recording from this week
Logic evaded with flair
Real truth avoided as if it is a snare

My hope in humanity
Is not diminished
Time with truth evaders
Soon to be finished

Glory you Chose

Seeing nature in all God's glory
While all hell is breaking loose!  

Witnessing creations beauty
Simultaneous slipping
The devil's noose

Praising Him in the storm
Is the privilege you can chose
A combination guaranteed not to lose

Mirror Mirror

Mirror mirror on the wall
The man in the mirror is not me at all

The reflection looking back is an older version of me... myself

Your switch of my image was done in stealth

I can not prove it but i think it was done
At the rising of the moon
And the setting of the sun

All I know is the wish the switching was done!

Truth in the Midnight Hour

In the midnight hour

The words I have suppressed 

Will not rest

Their failed utterance increases the distance
Between the practical and ethical

That distance 

Grows like spaces left 

From rotted planks 

On a rope bridge 

Strung over a river whose waters 

Flow with the remnants of my identity 

Truth's crucifixion spills the blood of freedom

Dripping out the nailed pierced hands of Christ

Or it burst open through the bowels 

Of a suicidal traitor whose death rope 

Could not support the weight of 

30 pieces of silver 

Clinging to his pragmatically deluded heart

Either way truth speaks 

But how will it speak through me

Will I have the Faith to heed justice's

Demand for articulation 

In the face of reduced materialism 

Or I has a comfortable couch 

Seized my ability to do what is right 

The morning light 

Will give rise to resurrection or remorse 

As I seek God's chosen course

Artist Say ...

The Poetry of Don Boucher

Artist!

See and feel your pain

But don't drown in the rain. 

Don't let your broken heart 

Sharpen the  pen point so sharp

That you can't make a start

To each new day. 

Make sure you play and

Don't hold back

But give your heart away. 

I know it is a risk

But it it is better to seek the kiss

Than slice the wrist of loneliness

Draining the brain of energy and vitality

All that is reality

Because in the end

You have friends and family

Who love your heart

Who share in your art!

Words and images carry onward

Beyond our day

They have their say

Reinterpreted by future eyes and ears

With knowledge lost

Knowledge gained

In a time queer to us

But dear to us who reside

On the other side of time

Observing your paint and rhyme

Influenced 

By we who sought answers

Never found

By then 

It will be your go round

To speak 

Thru the art you have found

Pen and Pad

By Daniel Boucher.

Stuck in reality
That feels like a dream
A daze in my head
Playing back scenes.

I see my little girl smile
Ain't need a plug.
Her name on my chest
Is worn like a bullet proof vest.

The insanity of life keeps
The pace going faster and faster

Running on a high rope
Trying not to look down.

When you look down
Depression surrounds
So you keep your head up
Till your feet can hit the ground.

Doing the same thing every day
Expecting different results

Fighting with my demons
Pushing them to jump off at the end of a rope.

On my knees
Praying for help.
Someone save me
Teach me how to love myself.

My life keeps changing the pace
Keeps racing
Catching my feet.

Drowning in a virtual reality
Escaping from the stress that all around me. Push and shove see the plugs and drugs.

Running away
Because sobriety is my only love.
No need for a bottle or a l.

Just a pen and a pad
To let my heart scream out.
These lyrics are my escape from fate.
My relief from stress
When I'm letting screws loose in my head.

So I continue to fight and
Continue to write
So my demons don't win this race.

I push
To set my own pace
And chance my path.

And God knows
That I don't know how to be a dad
But I try my best
To push away the press and stress
To see my girl
And take the weight off my soldiers
Like removing a bullet proof vest.

Feel a little lighter
And get more fight for the night.
Cuz when the light shows
All darkness cowers in fright.

The Fire

Escaping the drafts
That blow thru
The cracks of my conscience

Testing my resolve to
Seal sins chilling breath
From the warmth of
God's presence heating the furnace
That fires my Body Soul and Spirit

The draft persists
Despite the presence of the heat

The only solution
Is to get closer to the fire
And fuel the flames
Burning within
The triune nature of who I am

Creed

Immigrant Apostles’ Creed
(By Rev. Jose Luis Casal)

I believe in Almighty God, who guided the people in exile and in exodus, the
God of Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon, the God of foreigners and immigrants.

I believe in Jesus Christ, a displaced Galilean, who was born away from hispeople and his home, who fled his country with his parents when his life wasin danger.

When he returned to his own country he suffered under the oppression of Pontius Pilate, the servant of a foreign power.

Jesus was persecuted,beaten, tortured, and unjustly condemned to death. But on the third day Jesusrose from the dead, not as a scorned foreignerbut to offer us
citizenship inGod’s kingdom.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the eternal immigrant from God's kingdom amongus, who speaks all languages, lives in all countries, and reunites all races.

I believe that the Church is the secure home for foreigners and for all believers.

I believe that the communion of saints begins when we embrace all God's peple in all their diversity.

I believe in forgiveness, which makes us all equal before God, and in reconciliation, which heals our brokenness.

I believe that in the Resurrection God will unite us as one people in which allare distinct and all are alike at the same time.

I believe in life eternal, in which no one will be foreigner but all will be citizens of the kingdom where God reigns forever and ever. Amen.

Corporate Cowards

Corporate cowards
Stealing from the working man
Begrudging labor
A few toys and retirement
In this promise land

Bailouts from them
Foreclosure for us
They want our social security
From the government we can't trust

Risky ventures
Predatory schemes
Pick pocketing
Our American Dream

The corruption is a stench
To the middle class nose
Might be time for the union man
To endure the club and the hose

Business ethics put on the shelf
Only masters prosper
When it is everyman for himself

Democracy was made
For the everyday man
A Corporation a person
Was never part of plan

Buying elections
An owned press
A simple detection
Retaining the poor
In prisons of detention

Corporate cowards
Running the show
Until that day
When the working man
Says NO

Loves Cask

Loves fermentation
Caught in the imagination
Makes life a moving vacation
It teaches souls from
Every economic station
That our value is not
Only In our vocation

Each moment is
An opportunity for adaptation
Got to realize
The most important thing
Is human relation

Then your heart will be the Cask
That pours the best wine first
And makes love last

Hearts Connect

Sometime hearts connect  
Trying to understand why
Pours out the wine
Of an overflowing cup!

For a lifetime
A season
For only a moment
Love knows the reason

It is a place
Of smiling eyes
Or tear taught cheeks
Where knees get weak
And silence speaks

Not Blind

Not Blind

Don't  want to be blind to the black
Blind to the white
Blind to sizes that fit people right

I want to see
To celebrate
The bony
The curvy
Those whose dress unnerves me

Don't want to be deaf
To thoughts that test me
Words that arrest me

Don't want to grow hard
To feelings that caress me
Conversations that bless me
Or Friendships that imbibe
What is inside me
The kind that don't hide me
In image and taste
All generated
By passing fashion that is hip
Until it is old
Unless federated by those who scold
The too....

Yes, the ...   too
The too tall
Too bright
The too round
Too light
Those who wear their pants too low
Or maybe too tight

Got to see differences as real
Homogenation steals
The diversity
Birthed in divinity
Displayed in dignity

From He

Who never saw beauty
As a one size fits all
Or one color for all
Or as a commodity
Purchased at the mall

To see differences as ugly
Is to be identified with the Fall
Truly the saddest blindness of them all!

Rock Pillow

Pillow pillow where are You!?
Nevermind
I found rock...That will do!

Soldier sleeping while stand up
Bodies pressed together in a cattle truck

Work  work work
Both day and night
If you're sleep deprived
Still got to fight

Mind in motion
To the training it did receive
Still not a substitute
For a Mom on her knees

O'Dark 30

O'dark 30
In the freezing cold
Ice is clear
Time to roll

Hands are going to hurt
At the end of the ride
Layers of leather
Keep me warm inside

Scanning for varments
With each passing curve
Friends call me crazy
A title I might deserve

Sun might be out
In the afternoon
Twisting the throttle
It is time to zoom

The Me' s in Me

The Me's in Me

Could have been one percenter 

With a formidable  patch

Could have been a Saint

Giving the Gospel my last

Could have done business 

Selling diesel cars or gas

Could have been a professor 

Teaching a class

The choices we make 

Determine the path we take

Walking in riches or 

Burned at the stake

The generation we live

Determined by God above

Whatever the vocation 

It can be walked in Love

What you do 

Isn't all of you

The way you do it

Doesn't tell the whole story either

We are all passing through

This human theater 

Attention to intention 

Satisfies modern convention 

But life is more than 

Acts of the heart

It is often keeping a vow

Instead of making a new start

Thinking one generation at a time

Is a luxury purchased by 

Grandparents and parents

In the past

Living for others

They prayed 

Peace would last

Living vicariously 

From the opportunities 

Of our progeny

Is not a cop out or a sin

It is fruit from the place

Where our faith did begin

Could have been 

Many things in this life of mine

The value of my life

Will be determined 

At the end of time

Capenter

Lawyer 

Janitor with a mop

All will be judged

When the final 

Mic drops

Staying

Dark place rescues
From lines thrown
By friends

Another day to breath
When you would be fine
If the sun set meant the end

Trudging along from task to task
Punch the clock
Your work done at long last

All your heart wants to do
Is hit the road and say bye
You are sensitive enough to cry
Committed enough to try
To pull with effort the value
In passing interactions
While feeling the distraction

Of life not going your way
Wanting to go
But knowing you got to stay

Reflections of David Bowie

Reflections of David Bowie

Unwashed somwhat slightly dazed
Caught in the steam
Of the new sexual rage
Feeling best when
Communicating on stage
Unfazed by public outrage

In private only my friends
See me unwashed somewhat
Slightly dazed
No victories or defeats
To be measured by
Solely friendship
From those who
Stay be my side

No makeup
No glam
Not that either is a sham
But there is what
I Have to say
Then there is
Who I am

My art
A creation
A snap shot
In time

My essence
My character
That which I am
There you will find

More than
The songs that I sing
The words that I rhyme

So to those that dare
To glimpse beyond
The Tin Can
Of Major Tom

I share my love
Weighted and freed
From the sweat
Of un-showered days
In the cigarette smoke
And inside jokes
There I will be
Unwashed and somewhat
Slightly dazed

The Day of the Last Key

How will it be

On the day of the last key

Locks will be no more

In security provision shared

Their abundance safely stored

No thief will have need

None consumed by greed

All will be pleased

That is how it will be

On the day of the last key

No human locked in

No human locked out

Trust implicit 

Love removing 

The darkness of doubt

Brotherhood universal 

Each heart will have its circles 

But swords are coverted plowshares 

And spears to pruninghooks

That is how it will be

On the day of the last key

Death and Hades 

To the fire

Men judged 

For their actions and

For what their heart's aspired

All in perfection 

Presiding the God of heaven

That is how it will be 

On the day of the last key

Heaven and earth remade

Evil to be forever stayed  

Worship of God perpetual 

All live in full potential

Both moral and intellectual 

That is how it will be

On the day of the last key

Beauty consummate 

In the finery of all things

Visible and invisible 

The knowledge of the creator 

In resurrected souls indivisible 

That is how it will be

On the day of the last key

Fathers Hugs Friends Kisses

Hugs from fathers
Kisses from friends
May not make
The bitterness end

They may not heal the hurt and pain,
I try to restrain from
Running thru my taumatized brain

But for a moment
Those hugs and kisses
Pull me from the place I hide

They cover
With love
The loneliness
That makes me want to die

Those moments
Have a shelf life
Radiating the cancer
Of the soul
They permeate my blood stream
Breaking me
While making me whole

So to Fathers that hug and
Friendship kisses
Given in Love
Hold onto hope
Even if I return to the drug

Love me!
If even if junkies
One day roll me in a rug
Dump my body
Like a cigarette flicked
From the fingers of a thug

If my outcome is good
Or if it is terribly sad
I will always remember
Kisses from friends
And hugs from Dads

Babylon

In your own private Babylon
For what you did wrong
There to be made weak
So you'll be strong

Idols are crushed
In a land not your own
Holiness gained
In the ache for your home

Prophecy laid down
For your captives sake
Called to give
To those who did take

Songs of lament
In the quiet of night
Repentance renewed
In dawn's shadowed light

Identity gained
Fame disclaimed
A stranger no more
To the Name
Above all names

Grace now sufficient
No matter your place
Blind to surrounding
You have beheld
His face

Your life
No longer your own
Converted by He who sits
On the throne

Now burdened
For Babylonian souls
And strangers to He
Who created
The bell that tolls

Responsibilty

That season when
You become Sir
To all the people
You meet

Part walk part talk
Souls intuit
The battles
You have fought

Fire burns
Respect is earned
From responsibility and
The scars of personal sacrifice

Living life
For selfish gain
The countenance earned
Can't be the same
As one who has worked
And not simply gamed

Hustle gets busted
Men can be trusted
To build a family
And/or a great city

Being a Sir
Is not an entitlement

It is earned
From stained collars
White and blue

A Sir
Knows and does
What he is suppose to do

Drunk City

The city is drunk
And wild tonight
I want to be
Quiet and sober

A young man
Or do I call him
Drunken child
An inch from my face

Screamed

Like the crows
In the court's bell tower
Must have been something
In the fog of the midnight hour

A pretty German girl
Encouraged by my calm demeanor
Appeared surprised
I didn't knock
Crow screamer out
Gave her own hello
And inebriated shout

A small band played
On Pour Judgement's stage
The audience from college kid
To greyheaded sailor age

A soul singer
Having left the dock of the bay
Sang off key
Walking the street with a sway
He didn't care who was listening anyway

It was only four blocks
From works pillar
To my homes post
But my drunken company
Made interesting
Midnight host

Maybe I will crack a beer
As a toast

Savior of All

Living close enough to the edge
That I watch souls
Tumble into hell

I know the Lord well enough
To say
He takes no delight
In their yells

You might call it
An abuse of Grace
But I now believe
Jesus died for
The entire human race

Born in circumstance

The length of life
A passing glance
To burn for eternity
Without a second chance
Is the sound
Of a devil dance

Not the work of a savior
Ripped open
By a Roman lance

A substitute for sin
To be nailed
To a cross
So grim

But the sound
Of of weeping
And gnashing of teeth
For timeless hours
Numbered in trillions
Is not justice formed
In the mind of him

All God does is redemptive
To draw souls to himself

He is just
He does not leave sins unpunished
But his mercy is bigger than life

Search the scriptures
Read the Church Fathers
You might conclude
I am right

A full heaven
And empty hell
Will be to angels
A delight

On that day
When all of humankind
Is made right

There will not be a tear
In sight

Men of Peace

The suppressed man of peace
Submits to the bullying and battering beast

Seeking release
He builds muscle and might
For the strength to fight
For what is right

Strengthened he takes his stand

To speak
When silence is the demand

To remain silent
A speech the oppressor
Cannot understand

Dignity and Honor
Will rule the day
The arc of the moral universe
Bends justice's way

Trusting in the higher good of man
Has not often been done
When it has
Goodness has won

Not in quick fixes
But in softened hearts
Entire Kingdoms
Have made new starts

Men of peace
Are men of hope
Eternal words they have spoke

Wearied soul
Grab hold
Be bold
Men of peace are rare
Learn from their words
Imitate
As you can
Their precious mold

Epidemic

In a country with
A substance abuse epidemic

What is the polemic

They have to hit bottom
That is what is wrong

But button is often a six foot grave
As providers fight
Through bureaucratic haze

When we are trained to engage
A disease baffling to mankind

One that is only healed
Through human connection
And time

We need a Higher Power
Who shakes our mind

To sanity

And emotional control
Often too late
After the drugs and alcohol
Have taken their toll

In payment

Of lost relationships
Money
The girl you called honey
The boy you called sonny

I Digress

My words need a rest
Trying to pass the kindness test
In a world that has lost its way
It is even controversial to say

God Bless

Peace, Don

Night's Contentment

In the dark quietness
Of my bustling home
All are safe
As I sit alone

Rebinding my commitment to
Today's and tomorrow's
Labour

Children look inside to themselves and
Their  needs
Men look out to take care of
Others needs *
(Jax' s Teller)

By the sweat the brow
The diligent earn their pay
In wage, profit or creativity
To build for others
Is a man's destiny

All is not vanity
Even if you can't
Take it with you
If giving it away
Is the intent of
Why you do
What you do

A deep breath
A prayer of contentment

Constructing a life
Without using blueprints isn't wise
But it is an adventure
When Faith is the central allie

Time for the second round of sleep
My family's long day
Is now complete

Death March Life Walk

March to death and walk of life
Stroll hand and hand
Meeting and greeting
On the street
And in the corridor
Some personalities
Build up
Others tear down

Overreacting to affirmation and insult
The result neutral
If we live in the present tense

Eat drink and be merry
For tomorrow you will die
And pouring your life out
As a drink offering are
Not mutually exclusive if
You live in the now

Empathy becomes great contenter
If I bear with the weaknesses
I see on others
Conscious that
I am blind to many of my own

The dung we smell
Is ground into our shoes
If you are projecting an image
That might is bad news

If you live your experiences
You know it is called
Paying your dues

So keep stepping
To the marchers beat
Not regretting the moments you meet
Affirmers and insulters
On streets and in corridors

Age will lead to forgetting
In this walk of life
With each step
Simply treat people right

Human Connection

Human connection

The invention 

Of heaven

To keep us

From living in tension

Peace

That follows Love 

A Divine Gift

From the Lord above

A Hug

A Man embrace 

Exchanged 

To Slow the Pace

For Humans

In the Chase

For

Power

And Money 

All that is Sunny

Funny not funny

Along the way

Forgotten 

Maybe misplaced 

The knowledge 

That we are Humans

Not a Rat Race

So Stop

Take a minute

Remember 

We are connected 

We break 

When neglected 

We wilt when rejected

Love must be selected

In all endeavors

The devil is clever 

Looking  to split 

With his quick wit

Every connection to

Loves intensions

Trust 

Is Love's Glue

Be sincere

In all that you do

You will fail

As selfishness prevails

Remember

The One Who Was Nailed

Not for fame

Or power 

Or a great name

But To Teach

We are all the same

In the Love 

We claim

In our lives

And their pain 

For our Heart's

Hidden shame

Confession 

Covers our sins

It is the simplest 

Hardest

Place to begin

So seek to connect

Let Love select

Be sure to protect

The have and hold

Do it in haste

No time to waist

To Death

We go Alone

Live in Love

While Earth is 

Our Human Home

On Her Own

For Deborah Boucher. As she is prepares to move into her first apartment

My Daughters room
Is going to be empty soon

On her own

Driving her Scion ia little white carriage
Just working
Independent of thoughts of marriage

My anachronistic soul
Would like to see it different
But it is a modern world
And she is making her way in it

On her own

A prophetic lithograph
Hangs on her wall
The seerer's eyes
Similar to her own

I pray she takes vision
Into her first little home

On her own

Missing people
Who haven't left yet
Might be a sign middle age
But she was 8 years old
For a 4 year stage

She has experienced my deep Love
And my deep outrage

My little girl
A full grown woman
She has her little home
In a great big world

I am
Feeling a little pride
She still may need
Her Daddy by her side

But my little girl
Is strong enough
She isn't looking
For a place to hide

On her own

Raped of Religion and Reason

Raped of reason and religion
Like the French revolution
Violence is in open season

Growing a Marie Antoinette class
'Let them eat cake' kingdoms
Will never last

Oppressed sheep become
Bolshevik Bulls
When human dignity is taken
The conscience  loses its rule

Sweet faced girls
Then tie up
A Defenseless Liitle Boy
Conscience lost
A human being just a toy

Any division an excuse for a war
If you know history
Even a little
We have seen this before

We are feeling the birth pains
Of a coming oppression
Time to Cry Out
To Our God in Heaven

Every Kindom that
Acknowlges his rule
Learns to subdue
The heart that is cruel

Warriors of Recovery

Dedicated to Gene St. Pierre
Fall River Fights Addiction

DRUG Dealers pushing
Slavery and death

Every addict becomes
A bitch to a pimp
No mercy for the chain
He just tied to your lip

Now you're an expert
At finding a vein
Too bound to know
What your doing is Insane

Where is the outrage
For our kin in a cage

Satellites can take a picture from space
Of a man's balled spot
Where the poppy plants and cocaine are
Some how we can't spot

The body count keeps rising
Expert keep analyzing
How our population got itself
In this addiction mess

People without purpose
Always seek to escape
Minimizing Love and the relationship plate
By the time they know its value
It is often too late

Driven to sickness and disease
By the devil in hell
Will anything ever become
Close to swell

It can
One day at a time
It can
If you admit to the lie
It can
If you admit you are powerless and broken
It can
If to a higher power you have spoken

The brain science is helping understand the root of this satanic attack

But The Warriors for Recovery
Can never relax!

Listen!

So many are troubled 
Stuck in the midst of 
Their party's moral outrage
Unable to see another perspective 
Without raising fist of rage
Whatever happen to ideas being discussed
On an open and fair stage
Without reason men become wild animals
Needing the control of a cage

Is it just possible that I am absolutely right
While being absolutely wrong
Might I grow wiser if
I listen to the opposition's  song
Have our minds become too weak to hear anything but our own rhetoric 
Why is sitting down and talking 
A radical shtick ?

I don't get it!!!
I never have got it!!!
Why do humans insist 
On destroying one another?
Why is it so hard to see 
Others as brothers?

I know there is evil
And cruelty and selfishness in the world!
Never once have I seen it prevail over 
Generosity and kindness and forgiveness

We lost souls counted by the millions 
In the last century
We still haven't figured out 
Men are content 
When they have a full belly

Ideas have consequences 
Yes, of course!
But we all have limited vision and 
Skewed minds 
So listening is an idea we ought to try!

Life is Brewing

Do what you're doing
Cause life is brewing
Don't stew
Don't spew

Don't have to prove
Don't have to be legit
Don't have make a profit

What I got to call
Is for me and mine

If I let competition fall
We doing just fine

I read that rhyme is passe
Then rapping and song writing
Have had their day

Try adding free verse
When I converse
Got to find the rhythm
Words have purpose

Communicate truth
While I can
Champaign 's not for drinking
In the back of a hearse

Playing with words
May not be a paying gig
But it puts me in touch
With the things I dig

Find your Art
While you are on the Earth
No one creates
Once covered in dirt