Haiku 12

Salmon for dinner?
was his directed query
to the next hostage

Haiku 11

there was so much more
things that needed to be said
No was the answer

Had You Known Me Once

Had you known me once
you might still know me now
though in a different light and life.
And this place is not
          where you know me from
though it should not surprise you
          to find me here, un-concealed.
I feel no longer guilt,
nor shame, unable to hate,
freely choosing now love.

Finding One's Place

It's long, this journey
not measured by time,
distance, space or size.
And though an immense undertaking
is yet a resurrection,
of paths meandering through outer worlds
to reach one's inner place,
a gentle rap required on each door
to find one's own.

Emotional Dexterity

Watch his dexterous handling
of the situation.
That was close. He almost
exposed himself, baring soul,
not to play the role
but to be. . .
human;
to let them see inside.
within the confines of flesh,
the holes he claims to not reside
in a toughened hide.
His tears season a disobedient dream,
tacitly adding agitation
to tumultuous emotions.
Ultimately, all emotions
to expression come,
yet only despair will harden his eyes
and blind him to love.

Ransacking My Memory

I

Could my words rise to counterfeit
taste, or touch or smell?
Within the crucible of poetry,
ransacking my memory
free'd the need for temporal exactitude,
reading and writing, each in turn
refine my experience of life.

While Sleeping

I am sleeping in the next room,
dreaming:
          Enters a woman holding my brain.
          She does not look like a surgeon
          but has the stern, delicate face
          of the one behind her -
          the one carrying my heart.
The man in the next room is tired,
has spent an entire day:
          tilting at windmills,
          searching for Dulcinea,
          recording his emotions as a memorial
          against the forgetfulness of old age;
fearing the day when reading
must substitute for remembering.