The poems in Naked Dreams are for the most part in the
order of writing from getting out of the Navy and heading back to
Houston where I met my wife Chris to the present. We've been
blessed with wonderful children, but have had more than our share of ups and downs. Sometimes it's
a bit daunting to
be showing my life in verse like this...kind of like that dream you have
where you go to school or work and realized you forgot to put your
clothes on. I typed up all the old poems I've written that resided in
an old Dan Post boot box for over thirty years and created this website in 2009.
1990
Rings
..there's nothing like watching your brand new wife lay there
asleep after you've made love to her
Celebration
..about the crazy overwhelming feeling of being in love
Snooze Alarm
..written about the that sweet time of day when I snuggle with my
wife before getting up for work
Hypothermia
..about love turning
frigid and dying
1991
Ol' Ticker
..a silly little poem about feeling so much love you could burst
Mosaic
..a love poem of two people putting the pieces of their former
lives together to create a beautiful relationship in the present
Nyctophobia
.. nyctophobia is the fear of the dark. Stephane Trahan's
painting makes this piece...make sure you click on the Empact Image to
get the full effect...this feels like "Child of the World" lite...less
words, but more filling
Succubus
..so evil, but so wild you can't resist her...ummmmmm
Orion
..that ancient hunter haunts us from the heavens once again
1993
Sleepytown (Emily's Lullaby)
..a lullaby I wrote my for my daughter when she was baby...my brother's family was visiting when I wrote this and I hide in our
bedroom so I wouldn't be interrupted while the words flowed...everyone
wondered where the heck I went. I used to sing this to my girls
when they were little as I tucked them in
1995
Almost Dawn
..about the feeling of lying in bed with your lover but feeling
like you can't touch them
One Current
..about the fear of dying alone and the fear of being buried
Will to be Wicked
..about a rowdy guy feeling the pressure of dealing with a young
family and all the responsibilities
Picture
..about the secret place in a loving relationship between a man
and a woman
1998
Pair o' Ducks
..about the paradox of the hopeless feelings of a strained
relationship
Nocturnal
Voyage
..a portrait of the magical odyssey of two starry-eyed
lovers
Reflections
..an old man looks back on a life of adventure to forget the
lonely, sad place he exists in now
1999
Destiny
..yearning once again for the woman of my wildest dreams...have I met her
and don't know it? will I ever meet her?
Lullaby
..a little song about being on the road, missing your lover, and
trying to sleep
Becoming a Browning
..about a love so deep "it" becomes a metaphor...the ultimate love
poem
How do I lust thee?
..a bawdy, humorous poke at the Victorian love poets
I Still Love You
..about thinking back on an old romance and wanting that feeling
back.. and fooling yourself
My father passed away in November of 2000 when the
country was still trying to decide who won the election. I didn't
want to live in the big city anymore and we decided it was
time for us to move back to the heartland where we could raise our kids
like we were raised. I got online and submitted resumes in Ohio
and Iowa where Chris, my wife, grew up. I had lots of interest in Iowa and
not even a nibble in Ohio. I guess they'd had enough of me.
I was a week and a day into my two week notice and had
hired my own replacement when 911 went down. Somehow we managed to
sell our house and rebuild our lives in rural Iowa moving in on my birthday
in late November.
2002
Eulogy
..about the death of my beloved father. I was angry then, but have
since overcome it
2004
When You
Shine
..a song I wrote for my lovely wife on Mother's Day in 2004
Dance Demon
..about a human's struggle to keep his temper and mouth from destroying
what he loves
2008
Spice Creek Hollow
..sometimes when you think back on your childhood and who you really
are, you end up disappointed in what you've become even if you're what's
deemed "successful"
Almost Amos
..about the fear of becoming famous
Terminal D
..about a chance encounter with a beautiful woman but then just
having to watch her walk away
Rikki
..about how the runt of the liter usually turns out to be the
best dog a family ever had. Rikki got injured and had to be put down two
and a half years after this poem was written at the age of five...she was best damned dog I
ever saw!
2009
Rainy Day
..about letting go of this world on a rainy day and soaring
through the cleansing drops into the next realm
Paradise Lost
..about taking a good woman for granted and regretting the
choices you made and the things you've done
Windsong
..this piece says volumes with few words...love will find a way
The Black Maple
..about overcoming the trials and tribulations of an almost failed
marriage
Glass-Bottom Boat
..about a person dealing with clinical depression
Mistress
Youth
..mid-life crisis is real if your lucky enough to get there...an older man's look back at his youthful lust...funny how the
stories become better in retrospect than actually happened
Behold, the Crossroad!
..about the cost of what we're doing to this planet
A Perfect
Game
..about my favorite game in the world. I wrote this after reading
an article in Sport Illustrated about Mark Buerle's perfect game. It may
be my most popular piece. The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame asked
for permission to use it sometime
The Flow
..about how the arts are in the eye of the beholder and how you
wonder what great work we missed because it was never noticed
Cosmic Psalm
..a prayer to the universal mind
2010
In Thru
the Out Door
..about a guy who always skirts around the rules and figures he'll
be doing it to the end
Faith
..about the glimmer of light that keeps us going
White
Elephant
..about the how the games people play are captured and made public
through technology
Chain Mail
..a humorous look at loathing entering poetry contests
Death of a
Genre
..about the obsolescence of a genre.. nothing last forever. Even Homer and
Shakespeare will be forgotten in time
Bridge to
Heaven
.about the bridge that binds use with our loved ones who've passed
on...written with my daughter Abbey
Girl Next
Door
..about a little boy having his first encounter with the fairer sex
The Fight
..based on a true story from my childhood...even being raised old
school taught me women still ruled the roost
Calling Out
God
.about a christian who
questions god's motives
Damnation
..about the decline of a great nation and a
generation that thought they would be the different
Broken Bond
..about letting go and gliding into the eternal.. in memory of Stephen
Lucas, a wonderful artist.
Zenith
..a sappy poem about love and nature
Honeymoon in
Paris
..about lovers in Paris who make the town their own
Shaman Trance
..an edgy escape into an ancient shaman's trance
New Jerusalem
..a look at the current political climate with implied
biblical references
2011
Saturday
Morning
..a portrait of a man's love for his mate and their everyday life
Supernatural
..a look at how the love of a good woman becomes a man's savior
The
Enlightenment Lounge
..a tongue-in-cheek dream about dying and
meeting the great minds of history in limbo
Echoes
..about how art is the only thing that truly ties time and space
as well as religion and myth together
2012
American Epitaph
..a testament to the frustration and shame at the current
political situation in the US and around the world
Metro Girl
..about a chance encounter with a beautiful woman out in the clubs
of the the big city...kind of my version of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun"
The Seorita's
Song
..about the love of a cowboy and senorita..I'm working on a job
in Peru and trying to learn some Spanish using Rosetta Stone. I came across
the "que suenes con los angelitos" phrase meaning "may you dream with little
angels" and couldn't get it out of my head. I wrote this in the Denver
airport during a layover. You might want to play the audio...the tune's
pretty catchy.
The Inca Princess
..when a couple colleagues (great friends now) and I finished up
a job in Lima, Peru we decided to take a three day tour of the Andes that
included Cusco, the Urubamba valley, and Machu Picchu. I'd wanted to
go to Machu Picchu since I heard Paul Simon interviewed about the song "El
Condor Pasa" back in the '70s. It was pouring rain when we arrived and
everyone was concerned we wouldn't see it in all it's glory. The rain
was intermittent and it was so foggy we couldn't see much further than a few
hundred feet away. We had a guided tour for three hours through the
restored ruins, then had three hours free on the mountain. We climbed
to the main overlook when it finally starting clearing. I was just
sitting there kind of meditating and said that I wouldn't have wanted to see
it any other way. "It's like a beautiful woman undressing".
Virginia handed me a pen and Sergio gave me the paper placemat from the
train. They simply said "write". So here it is.
Apocalyptic Visions
..written during the week of 12/21/12...the vibe was so negative with the
Clackamas Mall and Sandy Hook shootings as well as the weirdness about the so called
Mayan Doomsday Prophesy hype.
Christmas
Magic
..after writing Apocalyptic Visions, I started to post it in on
facebook, but thought it seemed to just add to the sadness. I deleted
the post and wrote this song instead. I've always wanted to write a
nice Christmas Carol. I hope it brings a little joy to the lives of
people...my gift is my song, so Merry Christmas everybody.
2013
How
the Grinch Stole America
..about how the "War on Terror" has affected
America.
I actually started a few lines of this at home and finished it up in
a hotel in Ketchikan, Alaska
Wonderboy (Ode to
Avery)
..written about the courage and beauty of our young
grandson who has CFC
Said the Lord to the Peasants
..written about the attitude of the wealthy and how it's
destroying the fabric of America
The Road of Declining Rome
..written about the urgency to overturn the "Citizens United vs. the SEC"
decision.
Hope Begins
Today
...I was lying in bed not able to sleep in a hotel room in Tulsa,
Oklahoma one evening getting frustrated with the divisive posts I saw on the
internet and feeling guilty for fussing with people. So, I got up an d
decided I need to stop joining the dark chorus of political rhetoric and
write about what the world craves - Hope
Flesh Candy
...thought of the phrase
flesh candy and the images and words just came to me...nothing like beach
romance
Night Light
..written for my
children. I hope they realize how much I love each and every one of them in
their own special way and how proud I am of them.
The
Tea Party Game
..the most dangerous game of our time.
Valley
of the Shadow
..about a once proud and virile man in a hospice dealing with the end of
his life.
2014
Shadow
...a strange little nursery rhyme about a little
girl with a pet shadow.
Revelations 2014
...kind of an abstract self portrait of my
life and our times here in the 21st century.
A Lovely Flower
...Victorian style love poem...guys, you'd probably do
well to recite this to your sweetheart on a romantic occasion
Beyond Artesian Springs
...when I was at Machu Picchu I sat on the rim
overlooking the ruin and thought about the gods they worshipped and how
somehow souls must be like everything else that comprises the universe.
I was thinking maybe the icons of religions are like the centers of solar
systems where the followers orbit in eternity
Foxism
...I've lost a lot of friends to the divisiveness
of the current political climate and was finally able to frame the way it
looks from my point of view
Surreality
...the thoughts that pass through a person's
mind when they're struggling through a sleepless night
911 in
Retrospect
...a reflection on
what we've become thirteen years after that horrible morning
Regenesis
...this piece is more
than a cosmic love poem, "she" is not really a woman, but all that is love,
faith, and hope
2015
Return
of the Messiah
...how I picture the second coming of Jesus from the
stories I heard growing up in church
Maggie
in the Mist
...about a sailor longing for the love of
his life who's passed on. This was inspired by a dream I had about being
in a bar in Ireland but took a life of it's own as I wrote it
Reincarnation
...about the unseen threads of this universe than you feel, but can't really touch
Recycled
Stardust
...a statement about how foolishly egotistic humanity is and our true
insignificance in the cosmos
A Trophied
Rose (Mirrored Version)
...a sad little poem about feeling lost with someone you've loved
and broken as well as a mirror version written from the other's point of
view
Pioneer
Sunset
...just
a few thoughts I want to share with all those beautiful children who replace
me in this old world
2016
Acquiescence
...about the acceptance of reality or lack thereof without fear and the
realization of the hypocrisy that has been mine and humanity's life's
story. I have never felt more at peace.
A Prayer for
the Greater Good
...after years of search and study, this unknown poet and lover's message
to this old world.
Forever
...a deep, dreamy, beautiful message
What Murphy Knows
...wanting to see the beauty of a woman seen
only through the eyes of her beloved pet.
Tethered
...trying to understand how religion and the
concept of God get so misconstrued.
Red Sky Morning
...written in the middle of the night before
the third presidential debate of 2016.
Neglected Goldfish
...response to the political climate of the
reality TV era.
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