Avenues
Avenues


Avenues

Oh life beckoning A call to live in the avenues of creation Long years of toil in pursuit of -- I know not what Then frightened I broke the surface And found a rose and sweet fragrance In the avenues of the living October 31, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Roses and Violets

Passion's path leads me to a destiny with meaning In strides, I moved with courage Yet always, a hesitancy To look back and listen Hearing voices critical and foreboding But I looked and saw And knew the improbable was my way And I kept walking Walking to a garden of purity In fresh roses and violets Yet neglected, caught in a tangle of weedy vines And reaching in I tore my flesh But it felt good Like a breath of fresh heather On a wind-swept fell And -- I consumed its fragrance Deeply moved Passion's path led me in And I closed the gate behind me Here with you in the neglected garden We can grow and nurture our hearts' feelings In the courage that our destiny is designed and purposeful Our play will create a mystical place of love's enduring And there we'll live and die October 31, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Guatemala

Where are you princess in the volcanic skies Looking down on Atitlan -- its pure deep gray green Inviting my soul to dwell And live among the Mayan echoes A culture amid cultures in tradition's garb Ancient rituals and spirited independence Across the lake in Santa Catarina Among the merchants and the players We dallied and peered inward to that ancient way Where are you princess in the echoing cloisters Of an old Spanish church In Chichicastenango Old customs, time held rituals Kneeling, chanting rhymes to ancient gods and spirits heard Amid the flickering candles of Mother Mary's Church Ancient spirits, souls lingering in the dark corners of that white church On market day Where are you princess in the courtyard of that Spanish home In the cobbled streets lingering The strains of the marimba players And the languid caress of a tropical evening Bougainvilleas and passion flowers kissing my vision In the beauty of a Guatemalan dark blue sky And there, in the shadows My princess watches Where are you princess in the breaking dawn Gliding across the deep waters of Atitlan Are you in the market place Or at the water's edge Washing clothes and waiting for another day Or are you in my mind a vision lost in the strife and bullets Clinging to your existence But dying in the shadows of that church in Chichicastenango October 31, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Resurrection of a Heart

Tenderly poised kneeling in the soft grass Touching the cold crisp air of a kiss Sharp, sweet purity In perception's knell among the craggy rock strewn scarps My dreams returning to dwell on a time among the waterfalls and small streams And peaty bogs And black deep waters Tarns and screes Times relived -- memories reborn And you are there among these recollections Yet you live elsewhere in another time and place Though I think you were there too In the cool moist breezes And the whistling echoes on the fell Yes, you were there In my mind's eye And I embarked on a journey through life's steep ascendancy And I fell, rolling, sliding Down the scree Steep, sharp rocks tumbling headlong in a pitiful descent Until I reached out and finally caught that limb of a silver birch tree That saving grace That redeeming timber Taught, tense sinewy It held me and though my feet slipped and slithered It saved me from hell's welcoming embrace And then in the graying reflection of a cold dawn The glowing embers of an ashened log Reflecting orange in my soul And I reached out and searched for you Then began my journey back A different course Among the silvered forest in a dawning day Looking for a nightingale And a love dreamt of -- many moons ago It was like a melody of a heartbeat Pulsing in my veins We were connected Yet we did not meet And communicated over distant skies In verse and love songs, in desires of mystical needings Yet it was a dream Until we met and slowly the fire rekindled And the humming sounds of warm enchantment Filled our hearts and that long off longing Became our love October 31, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


You, I love

I love your thoughts among the painful reflections Green flavors in a desert of acrid browns You, I love like a refreshing reflection of a life renewed I love your whisper in the echoes of memories Sweet caresses of words soothing my disturbed recollections You, I love like the sweet Spring wind in an embrace of kisses I love your smiling ways in our simple living Quiet moments and peaceful mingling in soft soothing You, I love like the chorus of a wren bringing joy to my Winter's rejoicing I love your kindness in the avenues of toil Gentle looks and persuasions in our dance of exploration Enjoined Yes, you -- I love like the majesty of early Summer's fire burning orange in the creation of our loving November 6, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


The Tower

It was the tower of dark meaning Black scars on a fading gold backdrop Stark in its symbolic stance High on the hill of forgotten sadness Recalling times of strife and exploitation A tower of somber recollections Deep wounds and pain endured In the green dust of centuries Toil and tears amid the acid bogs A symbolic stallion of stone It was the tower of a nation's agony Surviving in the bleakness of intolerance High on Tara's hill Stark, stern stallion to survival's discourse In centuries of stubborn intransigence The round tower of a nation's defiance November 6, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Last Waltz

Dance, dance in the joy of a lover's celebration Swing to the melody of a craving For kisses, caresses and an everlasting kindling of loving Dance, dance in the meadow of a refrain, a jubilation Waltz in the summer flowers of abundance Simple soulful dreamy movements lingering, loving laughter Dance, dance in the sun's vibrating shimmers Cast warm tenderness on young and old in the celebration of loving Joy's desire in the gray ambiance And love -- in a last waltz November 6, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Grayness

In time's snowflakes falling moment In the grayness of an ashen day Frozen gasps on a window frame The steel cold feel of the glass And peering out a dusky day In time's awful melancholy The shadowy figure trudging wearily in the snow carpet crisp and clear Like a virgin cloud covering a black clay And the day's frozen moment caught in that melancholy gray In time's deliverance the winter of our lives Snowy cold creeping in through the gaps And grayness descending Memories breaking through in small vignettes of regrets and remembrances And shivers, cold's caress In the grayness In time's remorse of life's squandering in plundering In deserting hope in wild abandon In hopes of glory among the fashionable mirages And the snowflakes falling Cold white kisses Covering the black clay and grayness everywhere November 6, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Rio

Mountains craving attention in the surging foam of a summer storm Rio came amid the brown bodies Sensuous lips and curves of hillsides Enclosing the skyscraper cathedrals and tree lined streets of Leblon It was a dream among the chitter chatter of Rio's chic elite And the disco mania rocking electric metallic clatter of the night club's Beatlemania In Copacabana's fertile fields of tighthipped swaying princesses and macho princes It's Rio's prayer among the surly surf kisses on long languid sandy stretches And early morning joggers and those brown bodies in micro magnificence In switch swaying attention grabbing provocation On hot sands and tie dyed cotton swathes And the foamy surf surging on sandy souls It's dark and enchanting magic lights of Copacabana And samba soothing rhythms So we dance and flirt to the play of the jazz band and the soft sounds of the singer Sensuously Surging feelings and swaying dancing to the long night It's hot and humid and the high hotel Room in magical dusky sultry breathing And those soft brown eyes And glittering display of seductive cloth Slowly removed and the rhythmic magic of the Southern night of whispering Over and over again Climactic climbing And Rio was love I remember November 6, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Revolution

October came in an electric storm Red blood flowed on a snow gray stage Revolution in a murmur The shrouded night's tears suddenly broken Boom, the Aurora's cannon fired the call And the Black Neva wept pitifully Seven decades more of death and doom Then -- the snow gray stage appeared again November 7, 1999 (revised February 8, 2000) Michael David Coffey ©1999,2000 Michael David Coffey


Cuenca

Cuenca, cobbled streets in the history of conquest Among the Andean pastures and high clouds A town of commerce, of old families And futures tied to the past And there in the square, beneath the cathedral towers- The urchins gathered shining shoes And begging for money So we sat and pondered Saw the world in microcosm On a park bench seat beneath an old weary tree My daughter and I Saw the world and healed our souls In the difference challenging indifference It wasn't clear that day, but it changed- Our courses in endeavors It sowed the seeds of destinies Perhaps otherwise lost in the mists of confusion But here on that bench My young daughter in blonde radiance became a princess of divine offering and gave And went her way As we both did The day closing A new day came November 7, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Cuyabeno

In the primeval primary oasis of life's source Engulfed in the columns of life Enraptured in the green mists of a groaning cathedral of energetic diversions Here in that hot humid haven of antiquity and birth I clambered feverishly Excitedly A pioneer, a privileged disciple Discovering the beginnings in this earth green groaning canyon of life's eternal meaning Through canangucha and stream Clambering over fallen monsters of timber towers Balancing precariously on sunken limbs in mud and water And gasping the freshest air Through lost glades and everglades Confused and disorientated Then regaining that lost path of other weary travelers Running, gasping and finally emerging from the rainforest November 7, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


La Esmeralda

In the orange green hills beneath the pink fading day In a green hacienda Of colonial style- wood frame and stone white walls We retreated from the day Into the tall night and darkness Loving the silence in the heavy hearts collision Enraptured, captured behind the green doors November 7, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Passing

Oh the cold, the the invasive curse Of a Northern winter's impinging oppression Stifled in our sleepy sensuality Frozen in a frail moment Cold, yet warming beneath the covers Taking in the heat of our bodies Resting, sleeping Yawning the afternoon away In the dim gray veil An afternoon passed in quiet slumber A day taken in peaceful passing November 8, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Winter in the City

Sweet light dancing In the morning crisp adoration Clean silver bark and white sheets of clean snowfall Painted on dark sinews of an ancient dwell Amid the rustle of lives and pains Snowflakes daintily blowing in the sharp gusts of a cleansing wail The tram cars grinding their caring course to the terminal And dark shrouds engulfing the winter's virginity November 9, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Renaissance

Of life's dangling dalliance in the avenues of a winter's whistling echo A greeting from the sullen shadows of a silvery cloister Of birch and frosted emblems emblazoned with snowy diadems And clustered silver frosting on the window pane A welcoming night's dimming melody hauntingly playing in the corridors Of life's haunting nuances Rekindled in the blackness I wander free in my mind's caress of another time and place My life's dream renewed November 9, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Dawn's Celebration

Sullen softness in the light's awakening glint of dawn And kisses in the warm air of an oven's flickering cloak Cold wintry images of stark immobile forces Black earth shroud Silver white quilt of snow The heart's reverberating rhythm welcoming a new day's pace My head clear, void of troubles Anticipating the braking morning with joy In warm celebration of being with you In silent homage To our magical enticement Our love in earthy desires and ethereal embraces Passion of life, in love's blossoming November 10, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Earth Dream

Sweet remembrances to the pastoral flight In the green swaying arches of a forest's kissing mysteries In love, deep among the gray silver memories of an enchanted imagination There, I'll take you and live among the flowers of a purple haze Enveloped in the misty voices of a poetic dream Whispering erotically, in a penetrating voice Our love is mingled amidst the rushes In the quiet sadness of an ageless forest Here, and only here to embrace among the eternal mosses clinging sensuously to craggy, wind hewn boulders And to make love in the ferns of feathery enticement To love, love deeply Penetrating the humid earth Breathing in the musk of earthy endurance To kiss the dewy fibrils of splayed leaves Embracing our nakedness in our eternal grasp of life's infinite connection To love so deeply that our pains dissipate in the forest's mystery And our hearts are filled with the freshness of the purest spring Nature's blood gushing from the brown peaty soil and renewing our lives In the forest's dreamy apparition And our hearts pulsating in fulfillment of earth's intent November 10, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Soul Mingling

Soul in the air High, high above the clouds In heaven's reach Am I male? Or female? Or does it matter? Apart from earthly manifestations who am I? And you? The same and infinitely different In living, cloaks of camouflage Black, white, red male, female But in the rarefied considerations of soul what matters this? Soul is infinite and infinitely defined No boundaries in earthly conception But spiritual coexistence Soul mingling And all souls connected yet divisible But female, male black, brown, red, white I think not! Souls are sexless and yet sensuously sexual But undivided the amalgam of universal infinity November 11, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Male and Female

What is male, female? In societies domain it has definite connotations Yet in different communities its characters are clearly distinct And in cultures diverse and eras, millennia, global dissipations It has acquired different aspirations Though in origins the roles of man and woman were clearly divisible Long since has civilization eroded the biological acquisition So in modern America we have modern woman dominant and modern man emasculated But this is a temporal fashion and will disappear And its place male female comergence Female males Male females Betwixt and between Unisex unified diffusion Emancipation of the sexes in common goals, roles And an end to sexual conflict In the sharing of all aspirations November 11, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Sweet Serenades

A dawning light of yellow gold delight in the dreamy dance of morning's glory Here among the columbines and gentle breezes Of an ocean's soft surging arousal In play, we excite the day and begin again Our loving in the silent silver shadows Of the bedroom's cloistered call And love sweetly in a passion of Spring flowers and sensual serenades November 12, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


A Lament

Red reflections in a sultry ashen orange desert Gray ghosts, echoes of a distant melancholy Among the copper dunes of an abandoned mine The cries of the man, exhausted Dying in the darkness of a dream lost What brought him here and what visit -- did death bring? A flaming bush lighting up the sky Beacon to a lament of Ireland' lost Cursed in hell's tortured continent Amid bards and hatred Religion and division What brought this man to such -- desolation and copper dust To die, bleeding of knife wounds in the copper canyons of a mine's waste Wasted lives and dreams of hope -- lost November 16, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Three Kisses

Silence sweeps the corners of a thought Of love among the lullabies of a dream Passionate arches, flowers of a furtive melody Delicately poised in a touch gentle Pressing softly to your heart And I kiss you Silence sweet and delicate An imagined moment dancing in the ivy Clinging tenaciously to the Byzantine cloisters of an elusion A dream of peace, restful seclusion Close, in a ballet of adoration And I kiss you Silence in a silvered glade of fragile coexistence Lying amid the feathery green fibrils of tenderness In a haven of tall ferns in pensive poise Enclosing us in greenness, seclusion In the silvery caresses of dusk And I kiss you November 17, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Black on White

Black on white in squares of dust A desert of strategies played out on a global map of illusions Tank columns and heavy artillery Missile batteries and concrete bunkers Boom, boom, boom And the shrieking howl of low flying jets Orange crescendos dazzling in the bloodied snow A festival of corpses Baby limbs and villages in blackened whiteness All in squares on the strategist's board And precision planned Blood flowing amid the contrasts A supremacist's creation in human suffering Black on white -- and red November 17, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


The Angel's Visit

In the ice cold stage of a winter's grasp An angel appeared in sky-blue gown Shrill cries were heard in the blackened sky And the dying reached out in pitiful pleading Such torment, such anguish among the ruins Of man's creation -- a desolate land The angel came to remind the world That man's purpose is not to destroy But to create a playground for children A school. a university A hospital A theater for the living loving community of souls But the cannons roared and more missiles were launched And the angel went away November 18, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Reality?

Do I dream or do I live in reality? For life seems like a play of dreams Of love and joy and quiet reflections My soul rests in the tranquil meadows And my joy dances on the stage of quiescence So do I dream this play? Is reality a creation of the mind's conjecture? Am I deluded in my vision? This play -- is it a dream? Am I already in heaven? Or did I finally find truth in the humble beginnings of love? In reality it does not matter For I am in love And love is all in reality and dreams November 18, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Steel

In time's discourse a fragment frozen Caught in a chill blast of arctic air Still steel, glinting garish in the star night A corpse of a memory stolen In discord and disarray What time is this among the cold dreams? I wonder and agonize to this vision This razor fragment steel blue cold Caught in the moment A testament, a tablet, a shrine To death and distortion And the air echoes with the howls Can the century end in the frozen war? November 19, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Warm Love

Soul kisses falling melting, mingling with snow Dreamy kisses effusing mingling with the fragrance Of cold breezes meandering through the birches Silver frost on the window panes And warm snug embraces catching our lives in perpetual love Soul kisses engaging, enticing, melting the snow Love in a frantic moment Warm thoughts and magic in the frosty Air cold to the touch Heated in our love And we loved the morning away Snug in our contentment November 19, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Kisses of the Moon

Dreams in the wild times wind whispering a love song To you in paradise among the tangled memories of a distant prayer Do you remember those long agos When heaven wept and hell's door was at your beckoning? Do you recall the pain, the pleasures of lust And how it left you desolate? Dreams, fluttering, now -- like a fragile butterfly Entering the room in the dim light of a moon's cradle Kissing your soft breathe in rapturous intent And soothing your pain Your hurt in a melody of pale gold Yes, dreams are the rapture of life's endurance And the kisses of the moon -- Are the lovers' sweet deliverance Softly, gently we fall into our lullaby of peaceful caresses And dream the night away in peaceful coexistence November 20, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


If I love you more

If I love you more, I say it with my eyes my smile And add my voice to the winds of an awakening dawn If I love you more -- Then the dawn will scream orange with the passion of our enjoining If I love you more, then I'll rejoice it In our simple pleasures, leisures in the dawn And soft kisses on your neck, your nape Your ear I'll say it in the tasting of our love If I love you more, and I do Then I'll think it and dream it And we'll rest in the quiet darkness In each others reclination Loving each soft Touch And being -- in love December 1, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


If

If, love be the path of fools Then tread cautiously but do not hesitate Walk through the snowy glade of silvery frost Sparkling jewels, fragile to the touch And glide down, descend to the valley, white Deep in crispy serenity And love? Meet it Take it, taste it And consume its warmth December 4, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


A red rose for you

A red rose for you my darling Thrown in a loving gesture To a play - our lives in a concerto A musical dream of enchantment A melody of sweet kisses And a rose - red like our love A red rose for you my sweetness In adoration I declare my heart A gift of enticement, of endearment A loving kiss in red petals Strewn on our bed of enchantment A red rose, undying token of our love A dream, a reality a rose red Full bloom and youthful yet An undeniable love I declare Casting aside my cares And sweetly caressing your softness A red rose for you my darling - in adoration December 11, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Dusk

Love's dalliance in the dusky moment Here by the burnished pond reflected orange gray The departing day's sigh And sweet night mirrored in the silent shadows Captured in the passionate blaze of the sun's dying madness December 11, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999


Forever?

If I kiss you will you dream Dream of stars streaming, milky blue light pale streams In an endless ribbon Blowing in a fragile wind Carried to infinity And love, my love will it endure Flow in the blue vapors Stream with yours in frantic frivolity Caught forever in the arrows Of a love frozen forever in time? December 17, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


And you

And I dreamt of you in another life On waves of a cresting light Blue surges caught in a moonlight discord Scattering angels in the Flight Of a love divinely given I dreamt, I dreamt and one day I met you Like a dream in a snowstorm black night cold And tender touches enticingly given In our flight, our lighted path to a vision dreamt true December 27, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©2000 Michael David Coffey


Candle Flame

Silence spells the night in snow falling through the black Night enclosed in a lighted window A candle, a song and alone I think of your Presence Here in the soft cotton Sheets of our loving To hold each other 'til daytime comes In the flickering charms of an enduring flame December 27, 1999 Michael David Coffey ©1999 Michael David Coffey


Only Loving

Loving, loving give me loving In all its sensuality Its lustful intent Give me this A gift -- your loving Only this January 1, 2000 Michael David Coffey ©2000 Michael David Coffey


A Lover's Kiss

Light falls scattering prismatic rain on your shoulders Dancing daintily in the vapors of a lovers meet Swirls of whispers of saintly ghosts Lovers lost in the glades of green foliage And you caught in that magic A sun's gift in a glowing shower Light caressing your softness Your shoulders glittering in diadems of a lovers gift And I kissed you January 14, 2000 Michael David Coffey ©2000 Michael David Coffey


Desert Love

Love's yearnings surreptitiously given Credence in the sigh Of a silent plea And there we met in the afternoon's bronzed warmth And loved the hours away For what, for nothing Just loving and enjoying The moment of engagement Lost in a desert's enticement In our oasis of white linen And that dreamy princess bed January 14, 2000 Michael David Coffey ©2000 Michael David Coffey


Amber Dreams

What are dreams at the beginning, the end The effusions of the soul in a journey through time and pain Captured translucent in that golden amber As though all eternity descended for a brief respite The kiss of the ancient gods and goddesses Caught in a vague memory of life eternal Swept through a tunnel of emotion Longing in a melancholy and echoes of a distant tribe Green and gold and love A thousand Celtic cries then silence And my dream reflected in amber January 15, 2000 Michael David Coffey ©2000 Michael David Coffey


Tree of Love

New Life in the half light pink coralloid in homage To continuity in gold thread woven in timeless coils by old wisdom's toil Gentle firm fingers turn the wire trunk and branches Extended in prayer Bending in the weight of coralloid pink smooth stone tears And God cried in the baby's breathe New life and… A tree of love January 15, 2000 Michael David Coffey ©2000 Michael David Coffey


Wandering

It was you in the window of my mind's wandering In the mists of a morning's softness There among the flowers reaching out to grasp the dew Carpets of gold and blue And you in white clouds wandering in the dawn It was you in my wandering Gliding through the whispers The roses of love, blushing in their pink innocence And you smiling in quiet contemplation of life's wonders Yes, it was you in white reflecting a morning's softness It was you, you -- in the delightful dawning Wandering in love with love among the gold and blue Caressing the rose in innocence, pink Yes, you in love A Spring sprung dance of delight to greet my dream, my longing Yes, it was you January 20, 2000 Michael David Coffey ©2000 Michael David Coffey


1