Signs Of Flight...

Post by AquarianM on Mar 23, 2006 at 1:32am

Signs Of Flight...

I can see Spring coming home,
She is a graceful bird of blue-grey,
Wings gracefully beating high over the highway,
I drive with eyes up for that moment,
Brief and knowing its perfection,
A blue heron crossing my sky,
The world on the verge of verdant,
The blues are the first to return home.



AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 03/23/2006

Author's Comments:
I saw the first blue heron of the season flying over the road yesterday - a sure sign of spring coming. In a few weeks, the white egrets will come, the flowers will bud on the trees and the world will turn green with life.

For Saren...

Post by AquarianM on Apr 12, 2006 at 7:49pm

For Saren...

God paints a mural,
You are the best masterpiece.
I'm the lucky man.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 04/12/2006

Just One Page of a Yo-Yo Day...

Post by AquarianM on Apr 12, 2006 at 7:45pm

Just One Page of a Yo-Yo Day...
The sun bebopped up the sky,
Early and bright-loud orange,
A habit of our star rising,
Disturb sleeping sea gulls,
Let dive and swoop be your answers.

It was a blue sphere of polyethylene,
Bouncing like a toy sun,
Evoking smiles and laughs,
It's an iron-faced city of veneer,
Thin and easily punctured,
Sharpness isn't the best instrument.

Glee behind sunglasses,
I flee to the train caves,
Awaiting freedom's blooming light.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 04/11/2006

A Sign of Feathers:

Post by AquarianM on Apr 14, 2006 at 6:25pm

A Sign of Feathers:

I was clankety shake on the train,
Bright sunlight morning,
Reverie-lost in Neruda's anger.

Eye corner review turned my head just as we crossed the river,
Two doves wire-dived,
Wings abeat and rising over the water - racing.

One pure white and one of solid black,
Signe de Dios I needed,
The peace dove was flying higher and faster than the dove of darkness.

I'll have my cigar slowly in the city,
Rejoicing in peace on the wing.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 04/14/2006

Author's Comments
True story from the ride in today. A Good Friday Omen...

Along The Tracks...

Post by AquarianM on Apr 12, 2006 at 8:00pm

Along The Tracks...

Swimming pools see the seventies,
Empty blue Memorial Day blossoms,
Water sprouts in waiting.

Houses roll by - 20's - 40's - 50's - 60's - 70's,
Like a view through the strata of suburban development,
Businesses back sides,
Track-side store fronts and food,
Dinerism passed by.

The Tivoli theatre,
Classic pipe organ playhouse,
Filled with big screen ghosts.

Cars wait and people walk,
Dogs and bikes and power lines,
Sneak peek parks and apartments,
Mirrors of rolling river water.

Life is often seen from behind,
A trail's-eye view of variety,
From brown field and dead factories,
Baseball diamonds and dead scrub brush.

The back patio party of Who Knows,
Rush to exit ants,
Fleeing the confines of the hive,
Escape into the late falling sun.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 04/12/2006

Far Afield...

Post by AquarianM on Apr 26, 2006 at 9:45pm

Far Afield...

I'm driving my cigar ship,
Puff by puff,
Fueled by percolator coffee.

I eat Ted Kooser poetry,
Organic free range,
Grown from a rich soil,
In places far afield.

It holds the land gently,
Sifted through practiced fingers.

Ancient rhythms roll,
Dancing in my eyes,
Filling a silo of harvest.

Slowly the Summer turns,
Laughing under a Fall moon lit amber,
Carrying ghosts on broad shoulders,
Sensing by pen light.

The end of the book a farmhouse light,
Calling with warmth.

Many seasons tumbleweed,
Scratching the dirt path,
I walk on yellowed pages,
Sure-footed and crinkling.

My soul whispers back,
I am grasped by my bones,
Magnetically pulled along,
Whispering answers I learn from Summer clouds.

They crawl the sky,
Symbols of hope,
Stirring stars up.

Riding rich brown leather on the breeze,
I fly like a hawk,
Migratory winds ruling.

Everything speaks,
Lilting voices calling,
Searchlight attention,
I see the world in crystal balls rolling downhill.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 04/26/2006

Captain Of The Wordship...

Post by AquarianM on Apr 22, 2006 at 10:46pm

Captain Of The Wordship...

Take flight through the nebulosity of heartlight,
Engage the muse drive,
Flowing to the edge of the galaxy on a stream of letters,
Shielded in ideas and firing off metaphors,
Training telescopic ideas on miracles.

Transport to the planet of beaches and sunshine,
Replicate love at first sight with the stroke of a pen,
Dream of a supernova of rose petals,
Pulled into the darkness of a lonely heart,
They shine x-rays upon new unions.

An orbit around some kind old moon,
You meet up with alien ideas,
A new race of poetry shines in the night,
Encompass a universe in a warp bottle,
Take it home and pour it on the federation of poets.

Crossing space sitting on a lilly pad,
Stunned by Earthlight in the forever night,
Every blue marble than can be or will be,
Saved by the grace of a new style,
Write life into the darkest places,
Alive with interstellar trinkets.

Traverse time capsules racing in poem pods,
Wishes and hopes everyone will find in some moment,
Touch mind to mind swimming in the seas of green thought,
Alive with butterfly birds and candleflies,
Adrift in the smoke of distant suns.

Conceive of tea that is always hot,
Beam hopelessness out of this universe,
Transposed by faith in verse until it glows with light,
There is a sea of stars awaiting,
All you need to do is read them,
Every distant color that awaits somewhere in the universal backwaters,
Curled up in eddies of temporal twists,
You dodge around paradox like a mystical word dancer,
Captain of your wordship,
Commander of the ethereal pen.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 04/23/2006

Snow Bird In Winter Fog...

Post by AquarianM on Dec 24, 2005 at 9:46pm

Snow Bird In Winter Fog...

Stars are hidden in the depth of Winter night,
Hushed and cocooned in Winter fog,
Jack Frost given free reign is King of this night,
Powder sugar freezing everything from pine trees to denuded oak,
Chrysalis of white thick as a doughnut across the land,
Within the wood paneled pool house steam rises softly,
Christmas music plays the heart strings as the tall windows fog,
There in a pine bough just outside,
A bird formed of icicle gleaming upon the branch,
Snow quail of frosted diamond perched,
Nothing a human hand had touched,
Mother Nature's intricate gift to those with sight,
Such wonders make me see,
Nothing is beyond the hand and heart of divinity,
There are no miracles that will never be seen,
Not even swimming with snow birds on Christmas Eve.

AquarianM

Merry Christmas!

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 12/24/2005

A True Matter Of Faith...

Post by AquarianM on Jan 1, 2006 at 11:36pm

A True Matter Of Faith...

Under no stone nor any hill,
Behind no mother's skirt nor shiny bauble of distraction,
In no place upon this Earth,
Not inside it nor above it,
Nowhere in the depths of time and space,
Not in the darkest corners of imagination...

They can not hide.

What was done will be known,
Every lie and sin exposed to the open air,
The ants and the hawks alike will know all,
Every trail will be blazed utterly clear to the last dollar,
Every contract thrown up in the air,
Every shadow will be utterly filled with light,
The truth will be known as commonly as children learn two plus two.

There will be no denial,
There will be only healing,
An end to lies and a beginning of something new,
A rebirth of love and faith driven to cleanliness,
After so many footfalls in filth all will seek these clean waters,
Bathing in peace and harmony and in perfect ways finally under grace.

This is the true divine plan and we will see it more clearly every day.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 01/02/2006

Flags Of Paradise...

Post by AquarianM on Jan 3, 2006 at 7:31pm

Flags Of Paradise...



The blue sky seems endless,
Warm breezes waving palm fronds over the beach like the flags of paradise.

The island rises in green majesty behind us as we gaze toward the sea.

A young couple in wedding sandals and flowers are saying their vows upon the sands as waves roll in,
Slow, steady, the beat of the surf a timeless backdrop.

Our son and his fiancé are to be wed on Maui, Hawaii on Saturday, January 7th.

We will witness this wonderful moment and spend a week far from hurries and worries.
Out where the stars are bright over the warm ocean, and the pineapples still grow sweet.

After many years of dreaming we will see Blue Hawaii,
And play the King's song on his birthday this January 8th.

2006 is here, and new.

May it bring you many blessings.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 01/03/2006

The Island Roll...

Post by AquarianM on Jan 13, 2006 at 11:11pm

The Island Roll...



You cruise out on the sea leaving palm trees in your wake,
Searching out across the endless blue,
Maybe seeing whales or a green sea turtle playing up your sense of the mystical.

The boat rocks and rolls gently across the swells,
Steady as your stomach may be the world isn't any longer,
Everything moves in three full dimensions,
Your only choice to sway and follow.

Just when you think you couldn't see another impossible azure shade,
Sunset washes over the sea and the islands and sky,
You head for the dock perched amidst myriad shoreline lights,
Amber points of warmth that beckon brilliantly yet soft.

Stepping on to the land you expect to find solid and unyielding,
A lifetime of experience doesn't prepare you -
The island rolls.

It rolls and it sways like the sea,
Sometimes when you sit,
Always if you close your eyes,
I don't even know when it stops because it hasn't yet.

Maybe it never will,
Maybe once you've been rocked in the soft blue arms of life's cradle,
Nothing can take its gentle sway out of your soul,
Certainly not poetry - that can't help but remember.

You know it's true when you step back on the continent,
Even that is set in motion by that the turquoise heart of the sea.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 01/13/2006

Author's Comments:
No joke - the effect is strange but I still feel like I'm rolling on the sea.

Sunset At The Hula Pie Cafe...

an 16, 2006 at 1:25pm

Quote Edit

Post by AquarianM on Jan 16, 2006 at 1:25pm

Sunset At The Hula Pie Cafe...



Sunlight fading down on blue water in a river of fire,
The cruise ship hints at unknown destinations in the future,
Lean on the rail in anticipation.

Soft island music twangs and sings a sweet mood,
Smiles are dancing everywhere like waves on the face of the sea.

A waitress in a floral print skirt with orchids behind her ear appears,
Bearing the star of the afternoon on a colorful plate.

A wedge of macadamia nut ice cream the size of a softball,
Capped with a half inch thick layer of deep dark oreo crust,
Whipped cream frills dotted with shaved dark chocolate,
Swimming in a chocolate syrup sea,
Two spoons and a purple-petaled white orchid on the side.

Sunset at Kimo's in Lahaina,
Hula pie and Hawaiian music with my Sweetheart by the tropical sea.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 01/16/2006

Firedance At Sunset...

Post by AquarianM on Jan 19, 2006 at 12:26am

Firedance At Sunset...



Badumba baddupboom,
Something from Samoa slipped into Hawaii,
Somewhere in a touristic night,
Badumba baddupboom,
Has made itself part of the island,
Might be found at a luau - remember it's an import.

Badumba baddupboom,

The drums will beat and boom in their time,
The crowd will chant and the palms will sway with the falling Sun,
Badumba baddupboom,
The surf roll across the ocean,
Perhaps some ancient spell.

Badumba baddupboom,

The fire will spin and light the night,
Twirling whirling flickering,
Badumba baddupboom,
You can hear a muted crackling roar,
Mesmerised by something as ancient as Man upon the Earth.

Badumba baddupboom,

Badumba baddupboom,
Watch where those sparks fly,
Badumba baddupboom,
The Chief owns this hour of the night.
Badumba baddupboom,
Badumba baddupboom,

BuddupbuhbadduddabaddupbaBOOM!

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 01/19/2006

Five Palms Cafe Morning...

Post by AquarianM on Jan 16, 2006 at 11:19pm

Five Palms Cafe Morning...



The breeze gently wafts through the lanai,
Palms sway in eraly sunlight over yellow sands,
White foam rolls over the turquoise in drumbeat waves,
Wahini and kane paddle outriggers past bathers,
We sip Kona coffee and eat orchid petals.

Crab and avocado omelette swims in hollandaise surf,
Pineapple salsa taco salad and guava jam,
Hawaiian toast is sweet.

Aloha to the blue water and sun,
To the soft yellow sands and clouded peaks,
A turtle dove coos begging at my feet.

Mahalo for this rainbow life,
Let us swim in these translucent rolling seas.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 01/06/2006

Maui's Moon Dancer...

Post by AquarianM on Jan 20, 2006 at 10:20pm

Maui's Moon Dancer...

Aloha from the sky,
She is soft motion in the silvery night,
Dancing over ghostly blue waves,
She wears a star flower twinkling at her ear,
Undulating sea flows fluid as goddess tears.

The rhythm of her breautiful light soothes,
Calls dreamers to fall in love like children,
Washes over the sands of sleep's ocean,
Playing night magic over the sea she dips,
Glides behind Pele's mountain,
Vanishes softly below the sea,
Only her star children are seeded in the fields,
Fields of forever night,
Mohalo sweet lady moonlight.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 01/05/2006

Author's Comment:
Ulalena review.
Ulalena - Cirque de Sole' style Hawaiian Myths and Legends

Hi-Fi...

Post by AquarianM on Jan 28, 2006 at 12:47am

Hi-Fi...

The dials glow nestled in chrome,
Awaiting the touch of searching fingers,
Just the right tune to bring about epiphany,
The point where you turn up the volume and let the sound wash over you,
Where you can feel the vibrations in your bones,
Crystal clear and that just-so note that sends chills down your spine,
When your feet and body move in time with no need for your mind,
You remember the floor and the moves and the flashing lights,
Polyethelene wheels on hardwood and innocence wanting to end,
Neon lights and soft inviting moving sights,
That place where the whole world is rhythm and beat,
Like a Les Paul in black and gold screaming electric,
A voice that speaks for you and to you,
Still makes your desk chair rattle and sway,
You'll feel that in your soul,
Some songs never let you go,
Just get ecstatic and dance,
Reverberate like a child of a universe,
Pinned to the motion by the perfection of a sharp note,
Until you're left exhilerated and exhausted,
Swaying into that softly fading final note,
Wishing it would never go silent,
That there was no clock and no power button to turn off,
Only the voice of a DJ holding the promise of another dance,
Maybe even another chance,
Like some vinyl disc with a glossy black spiral,
You'll spin again and again,
And thank God you were born in the era of Hi-Fi,
When the greatest collection of musical treasure washes over,
Most every day of your life.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 01/28/2006

Gecko Dancer In Waterfall...

Post by AquarianM on Jan 29, 2006 at 9:15pm

Gecko Dancer In Waterfall...



Aloha glassy-eyed Chieftain,
Watching the gecko spirit lass dance,
She flows up and down the waterfall,
Aqua and blue-white moving in and out of the mist,
Spinning grace as the birds call,
Behind the rushing roar of water down,
Down the lush green volcano flanks,
Flashing in and out of rainbows,
Appearing and disappearing like magic,
A ghostly form of elemental Earth,
A mesmerizing love of the mystical world,
Laughs a tinkling gecko laugh,
Splashing mist upon your enraptured face.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 01/06/2006

Author's Comments:
Ulalena review.

A Moment of Glory...

Post by AquarianM on Feb 3, 2006 at 12:48am

A Moment of Glory...

In some place an image resides,
Rarely seeing anything of sunlight,
Faded with dust and covered in old cloth.

The ghost of a cheek brushed fills my mind briefly,
A physical sensation of an act long ago ended,
The barest echo of your scent wishes to fill my nostrils.

How long has it been since the sun shone on your hair,
Or the night in cinnamon sparkling?

When fine wine turns to vinegar,
What is there but to burn a candle in the bottle,
Or perhaps learn to become a vintner?

Love always stays young,
Sadly chained to time that is linear,
Brush off the dust for a moment.

There is always more to cover you.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 02/03/2006

My Vote...

Post by AquarianM on Mar 2, 2006 at 10:58pm

My Vote...

Not delivered cheap,
Nor given while fast asleep,
Involved by duty.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 03/03/2006

Each And Every One...

Post by AquarianM on Mar 3, 2006 at 4:32am

Each And Every One...

A vote is a sacred act,
To be counted and to be part and parcel,
A mystical thing that made this place sing,
Of freedom and representation,
A voice in halls that have fallen silent.

I will not suffer mine to be put in a electronic can,
Whipped and flipped and pulled by black magic out of the wrong hat,
This is no silly cartoon and it isn't the Super bowl,
It's the life we'll lead from now until dust,
And what we have to say of how we treat ourselves - our world - our future.

I will not suffer the pain of slothful ignorance,
Nor yield my voice to sleep in a dream filled with electronic voices,
I will count the actions and watch with eternal vigilance,
I will fight for the right of the learned and the fools,
Let them cast their voice as they see fit.

It must count.

It must be a physical thing, never ephemeral.

No one may dare to interfere or manipulate.

Each and every one - how do you say your future and progeny will be?

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
© 03/03/2006

www.illinoisprogressives.org/pdi/eric.html