On the clearest day

I see the city skyline,

where metaphor and reality meet

the artists eye interprets easily

down river to the poets pen,

awakens you to all the earthly delights

visible and invisible

all around you—

the bursts of peeper song

through the marshes on either side of you

the shining mirrors of the moon

closing at the beaches ends

and opening to the beginning

of the sacred sea and sky.

To be able to see clearly

even if not up close

is what helps

on every sailors journey

in every kind of sea.

Maybe it needs to be as tangible as

remembering each

building across the ocean

is still only made up of bricks and mortar

and a whole city didn’t appear over night.

Maybe having a dream

is as simple as seeing a ship

but instead of someone rescuing you

you are already behind the helm

and the only one

you are chasing is the shore

and you become friends with the wind

and gain knowledge

wisely from the islands of insight

you anchor up to along the way,

and time is on your side.

In reality a dream

can be as simple

as the idea of a ship

heading home to shore.

Now see yourself

across the horizon

never giving up until

you meet the shore

and then when you finally

do get there,

kiss the sand

between your fists.

Your dreams are tangible too

you just have to reach out

and touch each each grain

and always take

life one moment

of sand at time.

Time and wind and changing temperatures

made the bedrock

of the ocean—

imagine what you can do

with your time.

Time is made possible because sand became stone and only stones are left behind

at the end of time.

What’s left behind

when you write down

everything even if it doesn’t rhyme?

In the beginning

there was a place

that was not at

the end

of time.

Time did not exist then,

back to the castle of my Magnolia childhood home

before I met you

again for the first time

and brought you here

on these rocks

to promise to always

hold your hands

in mine

and to always

protect honor and love this love

we share

eternally.

Here is what I know:

I love you now and

I will always love you

and I plan to spend

my time making

sure as stone

you know

in the depth of your being

and in every single bone

I love you for who you are

and who you were

and who you are becoming.

If castles came from thinking

and stones

imagine what is possible

when poets turn words into poems