Low Premiums (Heaven is Now)

My only grievance with heaven is the low premium it places on living. Put down your phone, the tube won’t deliver you the truth. Step away from your computer and your handheld tv’s Telling you what to think what to worship, and who to be Heaven awaits, it’s golden gates Outside your door The choral …

America, I See You

I am in love with this moment I am in love with you and America, I see you So let down you guard America I see you No matter the statues left standing, I see you Or whoever stands for the anthem I see you still How did you ever get boxed into this prism? …

First thought on Ginsburg’s Wild Orphan

My first thought on Allen Ginsburg's short poem 'Wild Orphan' is how striking the last verse is...That is all for now. "And the father grieves in the flophouse complexities of memory a thousand miles away, unknowing of the unexpected youthful stranger bumming toward his door" Allen Ginsburg NY, 1952

Knights of Toledo

Hidden from the city An outpost, abandoned dry Graffiti on the walls I stand up, I try, to frame the sky at dusk The river running through, The bridge of cobblestone, The lonesome strung-out croon The whole world's waiting From the gaping canyons, high to the European sundowns As the mighty knights they cry: Welcome …

Letter from Harlem, NY

"Are you gifted with the enchantment and girded with wonder? Do you have the mad sound?  Be a Zen fool." I can't keep looking for the gods to speak my name. The field's already open, and I've got everything I need. Just got to keep my eyes open, and my heart open too. Trust. Trust …

(Precious Friend) You’ll Let Your Love Grow

Precious friend Tempestuous power, Eyes of the sun Turn seconds into hours My hand in yours, Held together in dreams My lips to your skin, Benevolent Queen, In the darkness I see you Woman of the Night, Child of the Sun On these streets of cobblestone Rain-soaked we run Allow me your grace, For my …

Oh moon

Oh moon Home to seven trembling faces Nameless, blank expressions Your face, the friendliest I’ve known Oh moon Home to my heart and soul Your soft glow Carries me ‘cross the night Though I tremble by thy naked hand Oh moon Stranger to the angels and to blues sparrows flying like arrows in silhouette across …

A spark… (I Am Nobody)

A spark… He wanders in darkness A shadow of himself A stranger he can’t recognize smiling from an old poster sign a tattered flyer tumbling in the city breeze Smiling in dark alleys Looking straight at me! Hell Time to get moving It’s 2017 “you’ve just begun.” But times have changed It don’t belong to …

St. Petersburg

In the wild cathedral evenings On the St. Petersburg canals Near the church at midnight they call 'Spilt Blood' I met a woman singing a song I knew too well She looked at me Her skin stark white a ghost alone, in the dark of the night She smiled at me Her eyes they gleamed …

Today, We Are Young

https://youtu.be/xXzZp0faoOI   Words & Music By Ren Michael Come you princes and gamblers And I’ll tell you a tale About an unborn world From the cold winds of hell I think you will find That my story’s been told, indeed it’s centuries old And though I am young, You may know me quite well. They …

On the move…

When I'm on the move, I write in verse Small poems to most accurately or honestly reflect the things going on around me, and how I feel about those things Often times, most of the time, these poems aren't any good But other times, they turn out alright. Simple. To the point. Just getting the …

Interwoven Dreams

The guitar case bears the sacred marks from where you've been Not too far but you've got the scars The stars at night still grin You look out yonder and see bright green Deep in the swamps of mud memory That one summers eve, outside New Orleans long before Yosemite and the mighty Sequoia trees …

Awake

your eyes begin to open, you look out long, pour over your mythology, over the scattered clouds across the desert, your precious afternoon the desert you know well, probably the same old New Mexico state road On the morning so cold, when you stood all alone with the night the night the night you were …

The Root

The Root Riding that train through the European plain, thinking Of what’s to be gained, and I think And theorize about things Realize We stand on the brink In that final realm as the thunder rolls The final frontier of the human soul. – Political discourse like broken leaves Stands in the shadows of laughing …

Stuck

Stuck on this road Must be some detour Future cannot be sowed Some oft beaten path, some other avenue to explore Think I'll wait in the calm and hide from the storm -- No need to hide anymore The war is over I heard the cry from the horseback messenger Not long ago Struck me …

Razzmatazz

There's a moon out tonight that gives this old town more light than I can remember As a drunken cripple walks up a flight of stairs Or maybe I'm just seeing things It wouldn't be the first time I'm working a sweat, got too many clothes to wear Down here everything always feels damp And …

Jessica Chastain

your eyes like sapphire sent gleaming in the night your hair like fire temptress, I'm dreaming in your light as you croon young woman you make me shake as you speak soft and true for me, your desert snake your tears are cold, I see your hand to hold No, I do not dare, your …

For Charlie Parker

Late in the night tonight, just some minutes ago I wrote a piece for Charlie Parker, after a watching a documentary on him earlier tonight. The influence he had on me creatively, in those early years that I moved out here, and the influence he continues to have on me cannot be overstated and he …