My Poem “The Face of You”

I see your face
every time I close my eyes…
I see your face in my dreams…
I see your face
every time I look up to the sky…
I see your face
imprinted upon my memories…
I see your face
beautiful and bright
like an constantly illuminated
green neon-light…
I see your face even when it is dark –
because every perfect detail
of your exquisiteness
is like a beautiful green aurora
against the stars of midnight…
I see your face
when I call upon my idea
of the most beautiful,
and I always see your face –
because I’m in love with
the face of you.

My Poem “Follow the Stars”

Follow the stars,
you never know where
they may take you…
look up, look down,
look left, look right –
especially when the sun is shining
and all the flowers are in bloom…
follow the one whose name
means the most to you…
look for reasons to go the extra miles
that will one day take you
beyond the horizon and into the blue,
so that you may touch the face
of your beautiful muse.

My Poem “Night into Day”

Nobody knows
why some people do what they do…
some people live a life
influenced by the words
and the actions of a Rock Star,
while others live
by the cycle of the moon…
nobody knows what to do
at every moment of every day…
some people need others to tell them
that where they are going is the wrong way…
nobody knows what somebody else’s
version of perfection is…
some people find happiness and truth in music,
while others find heaven-sent bliss
within the instant of a kiss…
nobody knows what shadows continue to live
within the consciousness of some people
after a regrettable time in their lives…
I just wish that more people
would talk to somebody else
about what is on their mind
and about how they are feeling,
because talking to the right person,
at the right time, in the right way,
can turn the darkest of nights
into the brightest of days.

My Poem “Sax in the city”

Hearing the sound of a saxophone
being played on Cherry Street
today was unexpected…
hearing somebody play a piece of music,
or sing a song, for the love of playing
and being heard by others is truly inspiring…
every performer I have ever heard performing
has been to me like watching
a magician perform some trick of magic…
when you hear a particular song
at the right time
you can’t stop yourself from smiling,
crying, or feeling something
that makes your daydreams echo freely…
music that touches my soul always stays with me –
just as the song that I heard this morning still is…
I am so grateful for the gift of music,
and I am so thankful to the talented musician
that I heard this morning on Cherry Street
playing his sax in the city.

(The saxophone player was playing “Take Five” by Dave Brubeck)

My Poem “One Minute”

One minute of time…
One minute to write…
One minute to construct
a rhyme of many lines…
One minute…
(is not enough time)

My Poem “Song of My Soul”

The dawn of day…
the call of morning…
the time to wake up
and walk your own way…
the time to open your eyes,
your ears, your mind,
and keep alive the fire
of your imagination
so that it never stops burning…
this is my every-day philosophy…
this my heart-beat symphony
and the song of my soul
that I daily sing.

My Poem “Moonshine”

Moonshine…
the devil’s wine…
it overcomes the mind…
it almost sends you blind…
it lets anyone cross any line…
it negates time…
it frees the confined…
its influence cannot be denied…
what a feeling, what a ride…
you haven’t lived
until you have tasted
the fire in a glass
that is Smoky Mountain Moonshine.

My Poem ‘Back down to Earth’

I’m back now…
my second home is now
4000 miles away again…
I’m back below the clouds…
I feel like I am a man of two minds:
one, a proud Englishman;
and another, someone who feels at home
in Georgia, in the United States of America,
where there is more opportunity
to do anything, at any time of the day,
and at any given moment
as there are lanes on a highway.

I’m back where everybody drives on the left,
instead of on the right…
I’m back where I was born –
however, there isn’t a moment
when I do not miss the light of my day,
the light of my night,
the light of my life,
back there where you can see
fireflies flying and glowing
against the stars of a twilight sky.

I’m back wearing jeans –
however, only days before
and for two weeks-straight,
I had been wearing shorts
morning, noon, and night,
and getting touched on the skin
by the heat and the light of the sun…
I’m back walking down familiar paths
and sitting in the same chairs
in the same places that I know every inch of –
however, though I am awake and writing
here in England, I am also projecting myself
back to Georgia with Melissa
and dreaming along with her
and surrounded by the scent of a burning candle
that smells like coffee
when its wick burns and its wax melts.

I’m back where there are not as many drive-throughs
as there are in the US;
here in the UK, for example,
if we want to withdraw some money from our bank-account,
or if we want to pick up a prescription from a pharmacy,
we have to actually walk to somewhere –
however, in the US you can get money,
you can pick up your prescription,
as easily and as speedily
as you can order take-out food,
and you don’t even have to leave
the comfort of the driving-seat of your car.

Both the US and the UK share many things in common,
but there are many wonderful differences
that set them apart…
we have different names for the same things:
in the US, people seem to find more time
to celebrate and remember the liberty
and the freedoms that they are
constitutionally entitled to…
both the US and the UK even have
different forms of humour
and things that they find funny,
but both the US and the UK know
the true joy that comes with sharing experiences
together as friends and as a family,
and why it is important to smile and to laugh.

Both the US and the UK have for centuries now
shared a “special-relationship” with one-another,
and from my perspective and from my experience
our commonalities have no limit
to their importance and worth…
to me, both the US and the UK
are two sides of the same coin,
they are two halves of the same heart,
and I feel and I know with all my soul
that the US and the UK are bound to each-other
in more ways than could ever be described –
and when I am away from both the UK and the US
there are things and there are people
that I miss more than others,
but it is my knowledge
of what makes both the US and the UK
so special that always makes me smile
and always brings me back down to Earth.

My Poem ‘To the sun and back’

The light of the sun is so alluring…
the heat from the sun is so energizing…
the rays of the sun can sometimes
be so intense that can be burning…
what the sun has in abundance
and we sometimes take for granted and forget
is that it has more power
over our world-wide destiny –
and just as we have learned to harness
a fraction of our sun’s potential,
over time the star that shines
every hour that our planet is turning
will allow us to rise and realize
our own collective-potential –
but, as with every thing of power,
for every blessing there is also a warning
to not spend too much time
looking too intensely
and too longingly at the sun,
because too much of something can be damaging.

Our planet orbits the sun at the perfect distance
for life to exist, to thrive, and to evolve…
it is the gravity of our primary-star
that lies at the centre of our solar-system
that has made it possible for wonders of creation
to blossom and speckle the lands and the skies
of humanities planetary-family…
we do not own the sun and we never will,
our closest star will always have dominion over us –
and all it asks of us for what is gives so freely
is to have the foresight to know
when enough is enough…
the sun was and still is a source
of both worship and energy for many.

I have always considered the light
and the heat from the sun as a blessing,
and when I am being shined upon by its sunshine
I always feel as energized as a fully-charged battery…
the sun will always be both the fuel
and the engine of our planet
that will inform many of our choices in the future,
just as it has been in the past…
getting close to a fire can be dangerous
and it can be destructive –
but you can capture more than enough magic
from a single spark to fill your life
if you know and if you keep to a safe limit…
I have been as close as can be to a fire,
and I have on occasion been burned –
but I know what you can find
if you truly look around
at where you are and when you are
when you bask in the light, the heat,
and the inspiration of our world’s star,
and there is no telling what amazing things
each of us can find in the light and in the energy
that can be found when we travel
with our eyes and with our mind and our imagination
to the sun and back.

My Poem ‘Heaven smells like roses’

I believe that if hell smells like fire,
then heaven must smell like roses…
I believe that if you doubt yourself,
then you are only doing the devil’s work for them…
I believe that if you do not want
to fall under the spell of internal darkness
then I would suggest that you hold on
to the most powerful gift of all: faith,
and see where that faith in yourself will take you…
I believe that if at a young age
you think that you know every thing
that there is to know about life,
then you are in for a long life
full of surprises…
I believe that if you try not to focus
too much on the past
and what other people once made you feel about yourself
then you may actually be able to see past
the invisible mask that you wear
and which only you can see,
and then finally you will see
that you are somebody who is truly beautiful.

The sun makes both flowers and people bloom
when they feel its energizing rays…
in the light of a summer’s day
is when you can see elements
of heaven on Earth in full-display…
the sun is like a drug
that can instantly make you smile
and put you in a good mood…
the summer is a precious and memorable time –
especially around the summer holiday season
and the month of Flaming June.

I save special days and heavenly experiences
in my mind and I relive them in my day-dreams,
especially on cold and rainy winter days…
I try to remember as much as I can
about a time that I know I will always consider
to be special, one of a kind, and important to me…
when I think back to when I was a child,
even then I remember the days and the nights of summer
as being the times when the beauty of nature
made me feel happy and the most blessed…
some things are too unmistakable for words to ascribe…
some things are always going to be
a matter of faith and belief –
in god, or perhaps in yourself?
I believe that we were given seeds
from which to grow new gardens,
because we need to learn
that the path to happiness
and the revelation of perfection
can only come to us
when we see ourselves for who we are in our heart,
and when we realize that wherever heaven is
and whenever we go there
we will instantly know for sure, as I believe,
that heaven does in fact smell of roses.