1968

 

just a boy

just another summer

heard a death

walk in silence

across his breath

suddenly

just a boy

turned

to see

a man in the mirror

it was he

just a boy

took a chance

to see, to believe

wrote his first poem

for bobby

wrote his second poem

for a girl

a girl who

never heard his name

just a young man.

 

 

 

 

1969

 

if he could dream

when dared the scream

to dance alone

within the fall of light.

 

 

 

 

1970

 

lost

deep cold water

dreams which only

echo

her eyes had

once broken open

his sighs

song

bleeds beauty

and on nowhere street

a young man

turns

and dares

to long for.

 

 

 

1971

 

walking blues

war time news

highway sand

on the soles

of my shoes

long summer dreams

hold to the silence

of all my screams

lost days of

running free

from sea

to shining sea

 

 

 

1972

 

midnight sky

long rocky mountain try

so huge were

those star dreams

that

on free earth

in thin air

i felt my soul

grow

large

alive

where whispered

a universe

a pulse

a truth

morning sky

long rocky mountain sigh

i heard her footsteps

her sweet beauty

recede

from a boy

lost

to a season

new york city sky

long rocky mountain seed

where rhyme bleeds

across tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

1973

 

loved a child

lost a child

loved a child lost

san francisco hippies

fog across my vision

i danced

one long night

so alone

loving the one i was

with!

so alone

within a song

within a

san francisco dream.

 

 

1974

 

just a poet sketching

hard concrete

on a canvas of silence

just a man

young and dancing

believing

trying

to paint a child

free

trying to own

that

which could never

be,

new york city talking

walking

dying

beneath the

quiet tears

as she pleaded

to carry her away,

child of light

child of night

just a poet lost

just words

just a man

leaving

breaking

learning

to say good-bye

and silence.

 

 

1975

 

late night

new york city shadows

all night walks

caught between echoes

caught alone

far away

where

trees carry shade

where

leaves walk color

into death

small town silence

falls upon

late night walks

caught alone

within the words

as the play

written for the day

a long breath

across an actors fall.

 

 

1976

 

caught within

a woman and child bleed

a cold spring

in philadelphia

where was planted a seed

a dance begun

a touch of sun

a man dares

to carve

a family tree

without a genetic stain

his dance

sweet rain

just a poet

just a chance

 

 

1977

 

an auguste rodin museum

a mummer’s parade

rhyme in discord

a child runs away from

home

just to escape

an explosion of

truth and bricks

as a city takes a stand

against a stain upon

religion

a child hippie jailed

for riding a bike

a job lost

on a call of honor

the liberty bell

finds another crack

starting

and all unseen

with vietnam

a war ended,

no one cares

dares

to see anymore,

 

lost in philadelphia

 

 

 

1978

 

a little jazz

a river song

life

trying to belong

manhattan refrain

new york city blues

hard loving

deep stain

 

 

 

 

1979

 

castle on a north

manhattan hill

sword fighting

upon a medieval field

dance

young child

such beauty

in a white dress

education

bicycle riding

stain upon stain

dance

woman learning guitar

lincoln center calls

sigh upon her refrain

a man loving

walks within

a hudson river rain

just a family

without a name

dancing

 

 

 

1980

 

songs on a highway

long hair and

a vw mini-bus

deep within a poet’s dream

a man smiles,

young my daughter

sings her broken songs

across an open window’s

sighs,

no time to forget

no time to remember

no time to bleed,

a woman turns to see

as the seasons call

motion sweet ocean.

 

 

1981

 

late night

walking

central park west

footsteps echo

singing the blues

my woman

my child

singing the refrain

just a moment

in time

which still calls

falls

sweetly

one recalls

before

one dares to dream

before

one dares to see,

autumn in its season.

 

 

 

1982

 

river talking

walking across

the silence

within my dreams

wandering

fathering

believing

in the water which flows

daylight dancing

long roads

carved within

the circle of life

chancing

the shadows

which cast

deep across tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

1983

 

street-side windows

old woman leaning

watching

children play

between parked cars

and their young

street dreams

just a week-day passing

in new york city, queens

bicycle riding

your child learning

apartment living

not the dream

but

sweet, sweet wind

blows so free,

when life

speaks from the heart.

 

 

 

1984

 

saturday afternoon

6th avenue

greenwich village refrain,

an irish bar

a concrete sidewalk

a glass of wine

a young girl

without a last name

a young woman

watching people in dress

a mad man

poet

aging hippie

writing words to stain

warm air

cast in shadows

slow in crossing the street

no clocks call

as time falls

across the rhyme

of a saturday afternoon

 

 

 

1984b

 

when family screams

and it rains all day long

when death breaks

across all the rest

time shifts

and honor calls,

north florida sun

when one can walk

then

why run

where sand stalls

water reaches deep

where footprints stand

and then

water retreats

long summer dreams

just what do they mean.

 

 

 

1985

 

if

your mother-in-law

lies

caught deep within

a long

north florida rain

washes clean the sand

good schools

a deep nights refrain

nothing is

and yet

all is the same

"almost cut my hair"

no despair

young man cut his hair

ever warm days

fall

where mountains

never stain

slow dancing

in a north florida rain.

 

 

 

1986

 

slow afternoon

sipping beer

music playing

live guitar

and musicians swaying

rhythm in song

the milltop

st. augustine

soft afternoons

watching the river

child at my side

dolphins playing

swimming in song

just a moment

a bit of love

a young hand in mine

a universe

who echoes true

sweet poet blues

love jude

 

 

 

1987

 

where northern winds blow

time

a daughter in high school

time

old

very old

white house

still standing

time

child to woman torn

new york

armonk

small town illusions

turn

mad poet to writer

burns

life returns

greenwich village

bookstore blues

time.

 

 

1989

 

what if a man

or hippie

opened his house

opened his home

would friends

become family

would they

therefore remain

once the days sun

set

when light turned to rain

what would the years

whisper

time

time again.

 

 

1990

 

a father’s moments

they come and go

when his daughter

rejects his love

starts college

begins to grow

deep

seeds

he touched the blood

which isn’t his

just

to watch her

just to love her

just to feed her

to believe in her

a father’s moments

they come and go

 

 

1991

 

silence and rhyme

lost fingers

across a long dream

a paris street

wine

and walking feet

losing words

written

upon a windless desert

dreams

a tired man’s sleep

defeat

and no reason why

 

 

 

1992

 

when the words are gone

lost upon a winter lawn

dreams are found

and

empty souls abound

a man could die

or

fight the water

and sigh

but again and again

until

 

 

1993

 

in of quiet

within a broken mind

barely walks

barely talks

if

evermore

 

 

 

1996

 

when a river calls

dare

a crippled man

listen

he always moves

nature

forever and again,

accessibility

river

talk to me

another moment,

in nyack, ny

 

 

 

1997

 

easy time

easy rhyme

long river

ever moving

passing

leaving just a man

behind,

and in his quiet

empty carving

starving

river sand

dry and blowing

 

 

 

1999

 

when the banshee sings

rhyme upon

an emergency room floor

a man can

but wait

outside

from where a

a stopped heart resides

listening

watching

to live

or to die

waiting in the silence

a kiss for luck

in the darkness

 

 

 

2000

 

bones, bones

dying bones

faces carved on

empty white

dare you live

dare you die

hearts break

as souls shake

live

die

man still won’t cry

never asked why

suddenly

a spring wind

blows

an open window

echoes

a taste of the river

life within his eyes

a poet sighs

 

 

 

 

2001 (disabled)

 

i remember a world

i remember the battles,

i now stand aside

in broken stride,

 

the echoes remain

a stain upon my dreams

for i am no longer

more then i am.

 

but neither am i a mirror,

nor do i cry

owe me nothing

keep your fear,

 

yet while i'm alive,

i will live

till all honor is gone.

yes, i ask no more,

and only of myself,

for once

i had learned how to fly.

 

- jude

 

 

2002 (walk)

 

walk quietly,

so that

the universe might

learn to see you.

 

carry your shadow

softly

that you might

learn to see

the universe.

 

but when you dance,

cry openly

into the wind.

 

 

- jude

 

 

2003

 

and yet again

they began

their dance

of death

of murder

of rape and pillage

of lies

america

my country tis of thee

sweet land of

circles

such weak minds

those christian fools

once more

i stand

as a poet

against a war!

 

 

 

2004 (a quiet soul)

 

on a quiet soul

i drift,

lost in the veils of rhyme

between

long times gone

and

dreams who have

wandered on.

 

i yearn to rage

in the light

of a stage

carved by winter minds.

 

so tired and broken

this crippled body

and mind.

 

just to write

one more page

just to thumb

one more road

 

to live or die,

on a quiet soul

a poet sighs.

 

- jude

 

 

2005 (in the shadows of angels)

 

i dance on the wings

carved from

the crystal-ice tears

of angels

set free by the

silence of god.

 

within the whispers of time

in the love of rhyme

patterns

slow river wind

marks the reach of my soul

where all mirrors

shatter.

 

death across my fingers

a cross of life upon my eyes

do i dare believe

just once more

before i lie still

yes,

in truth.

where burn the shadows of light

yes,

in peace!

 

- jude

 

 

2006 (just lost)

 

i feel autumn

a wet wind

on my skin

but it’s an early

june day

and quiet

too much quiet

resting upon my soul.

not quite dying

and nowhere to go

i don’t know

i just don’t know,

when your body

fails you

you feel autumn

calling on winter

and slow.

oh,

if only the chance

to dance my life away,

to feel the lonely road

carrying my thumb free,

nowhere to be

 

just lost in a season’s turn.

 

- jude

 

 

 

2007 (just shadows)

 

I bleed my dreams

upon the grave

of my youth,

a man lost

in time

adrift

where

the whisper of moments

as rain upon

the windows

of a moving train

calls

and just shadows

play upon the stage,

there within the pages

a poet wrote

without rhyme

 

as years of dried blood

stained,

they died without tears,

winter rain.

 

- jude

 

 

2008 (where time sings)

 

like cold wind

blowing

as an echo

deep

there within my soul

where

time is growing old.

 

is a young man’s rhyme

just a question

left unresolved

or

is it blood

wet and warm

dripping

from scarred fingerprints,

from ancient dreams

 

can i still believe

in life

now that i have

come to believe

in death.

 

like a cold wind blowing

where time sings.

 

 

 

2009

 

a rhythm of years

passing

carving time

deep

within the silence

of

just a poet’s words

life,

a daughter to love

a wife to hold

friends

still they come and go

memories

lace upon a butterfly’s

dreams

and always tomorrow

until you die,

 

 

 

 

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