Holy moly 
and schmokers
if I 
didn’t when 
my mind
said no 
I would 
be back 
there on
the shelf 
behind the 
prunes next 
to cardamom 
and sage 
waiting waiting
wondering why 
and when 
it might 
be me
wishing I 
were pepper 

Fear is funny
a comedy a
frequent stand up 
routine but the 
jokes on you 
fear doesn’t exist 
not out there 
anyway anywhere beyond 
your own nose 
fear is fantasy 
a thought and 
the antithesis of 
almost everything not 
an alternative but 
an abstract not
life certainly not 
that fear tastes
bitterly of death 

If you think 
you can’t do 
do whatever it
is there that 
your mind says
no but your 
heart says yes 
for it is
in that gap
which your mind 
convinces us is
an abyss but 
your heart knows 
as fear is 
exactly where life 
lies and where
love takes refuge 
do if one 
thinks when heart
sings its song 

If there is 
such a thing 
as rebirth or
renew or entry
into the kingdom 
it came upon
me last night 
with the first 
few phrases of 
Beethoven’s fifth symphony 
in concert here 
power passion and 
those simple things 
that I have 
not heard in
twenty years live 
this music and 
music such as 
this is organic 
and swims and 
sings and flows 
in all things 
my heart filled 
my soul complete 
such is Heaven 

I now understand 
that little pluck
of strings be
they heart or
instrument that one 
delicious delicate pluck 
just courses through 
even my own 
courage to listen 
or maybe just 
maybe to love 
yet again music 
or even another