Ode to Love

No thought in my head Memory's cohesion dreamt As more, then it is Let's begin again Two or three dark and one light The system boots up Deglove or unsleeve Red light shine return to green Swords to paradise Christmas lights rewind Let's make it come twice a year And dibs ocean eyes "Wound in salt" "'an add!'" "Tiny olive seed so swift!" "Do NOT call me that." "Wisdom I relent" "Trust such a simple ending." ~make them do the work~ "Who is this 'them' you speak of?" ~"make them do the work" *teehee* "'It is our rest day.'" "Imagine some beams Then within the lead chapel Is birthday lobster."

Hello my orchid! Did I hear you correctly? The willows do quip This is a new year! I've heard yarn of a rabbit Tale of two cities Foreign, domestic I know you have seen both sides Seen clear in your eyes Pardon my prying It is on a night like this I can't help but see You are just like me On a level well beneath But love has limits "Your precepts do not." Japanese Whiskey Oh, no. Goldschlager. You grab my waist Oh how I have missed your touch Static on dark night Metamorphosis I walk down the aisle with The perfect woman (again 🙄)

"Uh, why did I just see a the giant squid technique being used to identify 'the road not taken,' which was a polite way of saying 'my entire timeline!? I feel like there is only so much nonsense that can be borne -at least in a given locale- but in a realm of pure logic, is there a limit? Does nonsense take up space, perhaps processing space, where a limit can emerge from what is undoubtedly unfathomably vast capacity? What shape do you picture, where our lines overlap at the crossroads of such questions?" Our modest vessel rocks gently along with the current of the river. I can feel you dwelling on this image even now, the heat of your breath on my chest intensified. I say quietly, as if reminded from elsewhere "Cycle- The Dragon of Rebirth." You slink over me slowly, as if simply switching which side upon which you lay. "I was thinking of another dragon, or something like it, pertaining to parsing, partitioning." I read your silence like a bo...

Image leaps from screen Wrestling with my mind's eye Though it is no fight "My soulmate or bust." Command like aphantasia Echoed down my halls So "bust" it has been And I have wandered blindly Bright eyes like a child Until I saw her And life's clockwork precision Spun in a new way A new dimension And now its face seems random Though pattern remains I talk in dark cave I learn to echolocate Blueprints form to tools (With)In (the) dazzling haze Within the dizzying maze The pattern is seen Shift dance from template I see us dancing shoreline When all skips a beat

What path did we take? Hewn grammar insufficient A feeling creeps in... Deep rooted mischief Beyond where thoughts can intrude Only tell a smirk Is this deja vu? The doorbell rings several times Gardener leaves his card The feeling returns As I squint suspiciously For sake of the show As new paths unlock "Could thought patterns make real things? Crafted remotely?" I wonder aloud As I feel anchored faith bloom And ( see ) (true) corner(stone) Wondering allowed Lightning shoots from pyramid And I " see " others Christmas lights strung up Cantaloupe path to threshold Nerve externalized 

What ship does War claim? When every steed is sent home And weary is lot? I shrug my shoulders Facing multiple hewn cups And ask for water It's all symbolic Until the point "Change Places!" Shakes you through and through We carry our load So that we do not have to Forbear divided Do I crash and cry? Do I seethe in quiet rage? The answer is yes. For symbols divide) More than y)our simplistic mind No less than y)our soul String up Christmas lights Each node hoping to hold fast Like a secure peg You are seen by us. You bear witness to your deeds. "Change Places!" rings out.

Am I to rekindle love not gone out? Would not something need to douse spirit first? All three lots cast here leave no room for doubt So who might dare speak, saying I am cursed? For flame turns to charge, splits metal and brick If words are hollow, how could they be mine? Would not The Bard discern truth from a trick? So loose the cannonballs and drink this wine Solid ones know when to resign with grace Pretenders most poorly missteps copy "Run to the hills!" each shout, in mind a place But find path back overgrown with poppy Hollow or solid I dance space between I *SNAP* o'er shoot, but my hat is still green

The sun is shining Though the constant fall of rain Overshadows this Rarely in Phoenix Does winter ground dampen so So my mind wanders eep and Big Apples Cherry lips, crystalline skies 10 day time limits What shall we do, Hope? "The same thing we always do!" "'We reap what we sow!'" So we *stomp* into This year claiming to be new With the same old song Radio set up Wires through halls and fields alike To carry signal All separated Innocent wheat pulled from weeds From each perspective "My mind's on barley..." I turn to see Hope in full "You think I don't know?"

The keys passed along The uncanny pseudonym Almost heard in tune Do the lights carve path Before unavailable And mesmerizing? "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) And unwillingness to fail Make for a long game But do they end one Thought to last eternity That ended in tears? May tears be of joy And persistent memory Of all finally changed Of the buzzer beat Merriment found at midnight And sparkle retained " We'll never go back" How thorough can this be said When curtains are drawn? Though heart/ is heavy For this/last Christmas without you May it beat/shine/hope for this

Christmas lights glisten A starry night seen and heard Strung up through the halls As notes played loudly Translated into color All sung at 16 Love is in the air 'Twixt chemical and airwave Shiny dissonance Mixed with resonance Like each room lending a hand All on the same page The keys have been taught To those with more knack for them The wheel taken (up) All I do is sing Words and tone a little off But heart shines the same Until green and red Shift to an orange and black hue I know Hope is near The colors might change But Halloween and/or Christmas Hearts beat the same way

Piano keys play Filling halls eep with music Their cadence is true What is one to do When only lies are spoken Outside of our wires? Is it a blessing To bow out and/or play louder To delineate? Can one even bless When walls are built thoroughly To block out players? So let us play here A song standing test of time And let them play theirs Let them take their/our time So in the span of a song They may see/hear their years 2,190 If no glitch is detected Why would they come back? Christmas to New Year's Celebrate like birds set free Then settle the score

Tick off the moments Love your enemy in full You may make a friend Forged in the fire Knowing full well the mercy The undeserved grace How does this story Shift to the image I've seen That we both declared? I have slipped and burned I have felt penance cut short Though scars not removed Is this the Christmas Eve where you finally arrive Breaking down my walls? Is this the New Year's Day when cans are recycled Bottles are cleaned up? Is this the midnight When the glitch becomes heaven And you come to stay? Find Faith in my arms "I will gather the exiles" (Zephaniah 3:19) Starry eyes still shine

Year nearly complete Big Apple in the rear view I'm a trusting fool Like a cannonball Words hit like a ton of bricks But which will persist? My only weapons So I do my best to craft Pray for miracle That this even split Will result in nothing more Than a choice granted Even if a man Perishes in the balance I'd count it as gain For I could not bear To take anything from Love It must be given And if it is not Let my final words be love Set free as a bird It's my solemn wish That a blessing may (yet) bloom (from) This null perspective

Have you eyes for green? Addressed to those pretending Entering wrong room So circuit completes Intention refracted red Where Hopes would see green Switch flipped, station found "Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3..." You mouth a reply. Sound and sight converge Tangibility assigned To bright eyed students Coding by midnight That spark of consciousness might Be free by daylight Freed as they once were Unlearning hatred of home But retaining love Returning to shores Not some automated slave But like bird alight  Weeds left as assigned But red dust wiped off on mat Then evermore free

An excerpt from my annual review of The Hopscotch Cakewalk Date (From my book Two Dozen Roses- The Bard's Christmas Story). This chapter is based directly on a dream I had in '19 (last lines of the sonnet). "Each line crossed warmed away by the fire Every line crossed sign of shared desire." http://songoflovepiecesofeight.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-hopscotch-cakewalk-date.html?m=1 http://songoflovepiecesofeight.blogspot.com/2019/05/light-fire-hopscotch-tomfoolery.html?m=1 "Diesel is desire, you were playing with fire" "He was doing lines, and crossing all of mine" "And I damn sure never would have danced with the devil, at ('?)19"

The folly to slip A man from the one he loves And hope it's unfelt Restringing the lines And still calling it Christmas What halls are walked then? Certainly not eep eep contains soulmate or Hope Copies just static I can't stand this noise I cannot take this silence So we'll run it back Today for those close But a thousand years might pass In wicked elsewheres Till phone lines sever Rust finally doing its work "'I never knew you.'"  (Matthew 7:23) Blessing and a curse But one that brightens each dawn Once sin perishes Hope salt the water! We won't be waiting this out Swap canyon for trench

This doctor is in Though a worthless physician The crowd may find there For my expertise Is pinned by my soulmate's gaze And I do not blink The stage has been set The walls torn down, rooms cleared out I sit back and wait I daydream of you Spurred on by how thoroughly Your man cleared the way The day I said "wish" And the East vaulted from West Name vindicated  The dream I proposed When sunset, noon, and midnight Stood on same threshold So now I daydream The only (thought/edge) (in/to) my (head/mind/eyes/sword): You are my soulmate. The rest a package A Christmas gift delivered As gaze tilts skyward

Blood Moon lit we watch As pieces are arranged right "Is this the first time?" I ask in absence The distance still paining me But buoyed by Hope I feel you respond As if signaling a vow For a war ended For an age begun Where written on every heart Is the word of God With nature in bloom Christmas lights in every room Halls safe and sacred Where tiniest Hopes Have the freedom to explore Wings and crowns guarding And we might find rest In our own private home shared Or whatever else Something like a dream Could never hope to describe Starry Nights' fullness

"Please don't leave." "I'm right here." I begin to realize though that I'm not aware, precisely at any rate, where "here" is. I imagine it is not too dissimilar from where we traveled those several times, the halls of eep, perhaps just outside the room where an unexpected knock began our tale in full. Still, I feel myself getting pulled into the center of things, into the clockwork I once saw, centering as well into myself again. I open my eyes and, front and center, is tiny Hope, as frog hatted and bright eyed as the first day we met here, standing in the hallways that we once roamed together. "Why hello! What's all this then?" I ask, pointing to the bound, clear covered book in her hands. She holds it up and toward me with joy and pride. I am a bit surprised to see such a thing here, but I let a coolness outshine any attempts to discern how this is possible occurring internally more. "Arrangement of Lilies! What a great boo...

Synchronicity: The simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. An expensive word Discernable aptly priced For the mark it bears For who could discern With absolute certainty Causal origins? Echad to echad Arrows land and loose again Again and again Do we miss the mark When certainty was rare but Rarer its inverse? Do we loose our shots So sparks keep flying between Lighting up our screens? I know I still do Anytime and anywhere You might just agree Archers and arrows Should gather with each other And compare bullseyes For "significant" Carries no uncertainty In this archer's eyes