"Limitless" published in Synchronized Chaos!

This month, Synchronized Chaos
has once again honored me by
publishing the poem "Limitless"!

Thank you so much!

Dancing With the Mirror -- POEM of the MONTH!

Dancing With the Mirror

 Dancing with the mirror

Imagining there’s a beat …

Spinning to the silence 

I stumble on my own feet

Posing with the mirror

Snapping pictures of myself

Posting to the hundreds

On the virtual shelf –

Blowing out candles with lucid whispers

Behind the graffiti-walls of crowded subways

Building a public library

Filled with blurry negatives

Wishing the film in reverse

Swimming in pseudo-sedatives

Dancing with the mirror

In an echo of si-silence

Gripping my partner tightly

The life drips from my hands –

Abandoned hallways, corners and facades

Screaming skyward – piercing spotlights

Dancing with the mirror

I see a second reflection

A face without judgment …

… accept this new connection

Limitless [a pantoum] - POEM of the MONTH!

Limitless (a pantoum)

As another chip melts off my shoulder

I see there are no limit signs in Heaven –

I wonder, when I see the petals of a flower

In places which are desolate and graven

I see there are no limit signs in Heaven,

The creative stroke of word and deed

In places which are desolate and graven

Find themselves spreading to each need

The creative stroke of word and deed

Rooted by planting from our knees

Find themselves spreading to each need

And tower beyond the greatest of trees

Rooted by planting from our knees,

Branching from the vine of our salvation

And tower beyond the greatest of trees

By living water, sustaining our perfection

Branching from the vine of our salvation

I wonder when I see the petals of a flower –

By living water sustaining our perfection

As another chip melts off my shoulder


[Also published in the October issue of Synchronized Chaos.]

"Railway" Published in Synchronized Chaos!

Last month's POEM of the MONTH!, "Railway" now published in the July 2013 edition of Synchronized Chaos. The following is their review of the poem.

"... poet Dave Douglas also examines psychology through his poem 'Railway', shrinking the human mind down to a much smaller scale, and metaphorically viewing the movement of individual thoughts and decisions as boxcars and passengers within a railway system. As with the neuroscience research Leena Prasad mentions, Douglas seeks to understand how the mind selects and processes thoughts, although he looks at it with the tools of poetry and psychology."

Railway - POEM of the MONTH!

Railway

On the railway inside

With a heavy payload,

I continue as this thought

And ignore the switch tracks

The engineer is my passenger

And I pull a freight of gold

With electronic waste

Never reaching the climax

I push the eighth notch

Highball to the next yard

But the cargo betrays you

I am full of double-stacks

Sparks take wing

The stress of steam

The strain of steel

The engine screams!

          ~

The derailment was close

Nothing was lost, except

The lives at the crossbuck

And the tears you wept

          ~

You decouple the old cars

And spot my new direction

I pick up broken passengers

Stopping at the next station

Over white-diamond mountains

Through obsidian-filled tunnels

Sunflower fields that glisten

And muscle-flexed trestles

Content in the journey of today

Not the destination of tomorrow

With treasures beyond the railway

Leading others as I follow …

Eighth notch: The final notch in the throttle; the most powerful position

Highball: A signal to operate a train at full speed.

Double-stack: Stacking one container on top of another

Crossbuck: The X shaped sign where the tracks cross a road

["I" is the personification of a thought; and "you" 
is the mind, or the human containing the mind.]

"Radio Flyer" and "Writers Block" Published in Synchronized Chaos Magazine!

I am pleased to announce that the poem "Radio Flyer" (posted in April to this blog), is also published in Synchronized Chaos Magazine's May issue. 

You can also find "Writers Block" in their upcoming June issue.

Thank you for reading!

Writers Block - POEM of the MONTH!

Writers Block

The poem which inspired the short story Painted Ladies.

I turned the corner

and there it was!

a row of houses

each filled with imagination

I scribbled down the street

held by a free-hand –

a life of permanence

unable to erase memories

I skipped up the steps

only to discover a locked door –

a repeated occurrence

even at the last attempted point

I exclaimed at the threshold

of a lost original thought

to be formed somewhere inside

the living spaces of tomorrow

yes – there I was! on Writers Block –

a neighborhood of experiences

marked by errors and flowing ideas

if only I had the courage to knock


Also published in the June 2013 issue of Synchronized Chaos Magazine

- 

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth." II Timothy 2:15

Polonius:
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell, my blessing season this in thee!
Laertes:
Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord.

 Hamlet Act 1, scene 3, 78–82  - William Shakespeare

Radio Flyer - POEM of the MONTH!

Radio Flyer

I had my Radio Flyer
Filled with every need:
Television and speaker,
Access for the freed

I had my sandals
For the long flight,
And electric candles
To displace the night

I left behind the stagnant,
Imagination in my pack
Any direction but remnants
Of what lies at my back

But the whirlwind
Off in the distance
Stared and grinned
At my lack of guidance

Caught in a swirl of fear
My impetus was lost –
I wrestled with the jeers
And grappled with the cost

In a land without signposts
I forgot the map of the past,
… creating new ghosts –
A thought not in my forecast 

With a tear to the heavens
I empty the Radio Flyer
As it alters my direction
And pulls me from the briar

Now, I no longer pull
But am led by this wagon
As my Radio Flyer is full
And light is my burden

Published in the May 2013 issue of Synchronized Chaos Magazine