en Fuego'

I was en fuego
when you found me
dying on a doorstep

I was intaglio
as I crawled down
to the river

that river went up
and covered my feet
and my heart leapt

But I could not spring free
I was ridiculed
so I slept

Water does not hold
it soaks or boils
so I was free

I was braggadocio
but another tagged me
and I was inept

I was then saggio
for knowing my own cry
so I finally had ...
... eventualities.

And silenzioso,
by my doorstep perch,
with no reserve, you crept.






Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Hai'can't

Water
barnacled pier
crab grabbing bait
net


Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Parlays

Mesmerized, crustal being, I
-- being without gills
but, however, full of guile --
Side-step, step-aside,
side-step, step-aside
rainfall ridden
footfalls
and chase to
dry pockets
or a den
to reward paper
with pen.

I step in
from unto the rain
revealing ancient phrases
again

While other details
taught me to expatiate
I delay

For impressions such as
this rain-soaking
it parlays.


2000
Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Blues Simple

Open the door --
... I don't know
where I'm going to go
... anymore.

But I will leave
and I tell you now
I'm not going to grow
anymore ...

That was all I had
for you, the kids,
the dog, and the cat,
that we adore...

I've run out
of emotion
of regret, and,
of chances
to be more ...

Once I go
out the door
I can't say
I'll be coming back
anymore ...


Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Understand

Ponder the other half
-- the other side,
of a tear drop
shaped planet.

Spheroidal hemis-prison
to some, do not go there
with romantic notions
isss ... isss ... isss
murmurs the pasture rain.

This is difficult to bear.

Flashing of cloud borne arc
strobe-ing gelled walls
on loading docks
heavy in their lakes.

No hump-backed moon
lasts in the dense yoke
of humid emotion
rocking a cradle
of newborn troubles
as droplets that stream down
the glass ...

Rains down onions
scupper'd to the ground
-- understand --
... that for a whole life,
Time is eclipsed by
its reluctance
to experience
this moon-raked drenching,
as walls look like wax,
and flat roofs are un-pardoned.


2000
Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

About Love to my Teenagers

Love is bigger
than you and me
It is an ocean
of surface
and, depth
and, weight
pressure and temperature.

Love is gravity
that pulls the ocean
to ebb and flow
rise and fall
make waves

Love is a place
where life thrives
teeming multitudes
competing in tide pools
a place of no folly
a humble abode

Love is time
of kind-patience
of long-suffering
caters not to weak
it carries forward
faith and hope
in changing tides.

These are just words
frail and thin
from an old man
who felt it again and again
drowned in that ocean
crushed in that gravity
put in my place
and found time cruel
until love awoke within.

Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Blues

Up 6 days

Five nights alone

I feel like a blues

Subterfuge

-- Can I go home?

Momma, dear --

Was I born

on dry land

'cause I feel seasick

almost every day.


Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Restorations

Spoken

A blessing
Upon the world
Fast to fasten
Quickened spirit
My friend

Spoke to face
Cheer of creator
Answer

Relent
Foretell
Deliver
Reveal

Comfort hasten
Forward
Spirit left to me.

Open
Ear and mouth
Clap hand numb
Call our names
Each one.

Incise sin
With word
Spoke clear
Iron sharpens iron
My hope sincere.



1-19-95

Portrait Eyes

Look’n through portrait eyes
See’n clear-wise, all un-wise
In their blatant disguise;
In my habitat domicile,
Pigment stays; oil expires
Feelin’ thin, I oxidize

I seldom move my mirrored pose
That sobriety hath imposed
Ponder the half burnt ash
Claiming my wall mate’s nose
Facet, surface, shell, indoors
Her face too a wanton repose

Upon stair wall aspire
Breezed past me those
Up stair scale much
Petulant haunts a’ flush
Ascending in feral rush

Lie vertical, cast no shadow
I feel none their touch

Portrait eyes
Seldom cry
From dusk until dawn

Yet lovers above
At full tilt, begin to weep
When sheath of night
Is gone



Copyright © 2010-11 Patrick Darnell

Restorations

Still the Gentile

Still a gentile,
I say goodbye

And flee
To wilderness,
Escape mankind

Woe this city
Full of faux wilderness,
swallows, trees, and all.
Besides, a well ridden
Dustman, named Joachim,
Became proprietor roiled
Of the disparaging peat rim.
Through a duster’s style
Does he not repair seed
Left behind indeed by
fully leavened gentiles?

Large numbers, droves,
Th’ big city proves.
Create collective science
Stranger than fiction prose.

Emerge anyway heroes, Who
Boys and girls playin'
Follow close the game,
Neve’mind their names,
Wi’ rules e’en to their graves
Bad seed, up to speed
Relentless in faux wild
Just knaves, the same,
Brought to their knees
Final rest where the dust pile leaves.

That is my detail
From road of denial
Wise as me, still the gentile.


April 23, 2007

Lonely as a lighthouse keeper

Lonely as a lighthouse keeper
-- Third generation keeper that is --
Witness many shipwrecks
Stand of stones and cairns that is
Hidden midst panes of light
‘midst uncertain sea life

When the sea froze
Was it safe to walk under?
Relying might we with
Boots as boats
Frozen toe and guts
Alone as a gusting wind
Nature christened Bad Temperament
Was it safe to christen
Other souls let go
Bodies mashed on wall
Of water at toe of tower
Turning in a bearing
Signal friendlies
Friendlier, friendliest peers
Neighbors looking into vapors
Looking at sea wave bombs
-- Some frightened; some calm --
And ask ‘What can we do?’

Where built a pier
To tie me froze boat
We sank down below water line
And towed it
Till we froze and float

Yet to yonder on
Dry patches pavement
Scant puddles left
Like toed nails appointment
Against weather’s addled temperament
On piers by soldiers’ wives
And children’s wails
Crying, bereft against torrents
And ignoble swales

Uncertainty
Eternal pathos prevail
Abundant trouble
To die, turn up one’s toes
A chap should be what he can do!
24 Jan 06