Grace Under Pressure - POEM of the MONTH!

Grace Under Pressure

I roll on a paved, smooth highway
On cruise-control, six lanes wide
Neon lights flood persistence of vision
Linger along the peripheral roadside

The exits are under construction
And the lanes begin to divide
The pressures detain –
Same to insane
Until grace comes inside

I am not along for any ride
Or servant to a steel cage
I am not certain
Of conflicting maps, a faulty gauge
I am not in the backseat
But I should not drive
To a place I cannot arrive
Knowing I am still alive …

The path is one lane and dirt
Along trees and up a hillside
Something foreign is on my face
A grin where I once sighed

Flat tires and road blocks
Off-road when I died –
Since the map I claim
Nothing is the same
When grace comes inside

I see – the point of reference
To walk a path of difference
I believe – therefore I endure
Though sometimes onto a detour
I act – for the matters of forever
With grace under pressure …

The Clouds Are Upside-Down - POEM of the MONTH!

The Clouds Are Upside-Down

In a universe designed so grand
A particle-puzzle for the under-manned
Among the world-view of random
We stand on the south end of town

And miss the dewdrop of wisdom
While the clouds are upside-down

Bound to the tracks of mass radio
Or caught in a stained-glass window
The spirit is obscured by ritual –
The bride is lost, along with her gown

And we miss the showers of the faithful
While the clouds are upside-down

In a world without second nature
On the metric scale of the future
Through a fiber-optic sense of vision
We breed an artificial crown

And are caught in a storm of reason
While the clouds are upside-down

Among the cast without a heart
Can we draw closer to the start?
In the flooded mind of obsession
We may reach bottom before we drown

And miss the lightening of redemption
While the clouds are upside-down


[Also published in slightly different form in Synchronized Chaos Magazine, May 2012]