As the Sun begins to set
Darkness creeps in, and yet
There remains a magical feeling
About which at present nature is dealing
The blue Sky gradually disappearing
As the night is patiently gearing
To bring in the black dark night
And surround us all until daylight
The white puffball clouds now disintegrate
Before our eyes the dark will infiltrate
Our minds our souls for a brief while
As in, the field, disappears the Stile
Covered now beneath the shroud
Of night now coming in calling out loud
In the foreground proudly standing still
The bushes whispering in the gentle winds chill
They will still be there tomorrow morn
Are they bushes or ears of corn?
Hard to tell in the sad dim light
As nature settles down for the night
Eventually when all the blue Sky has gone
The sound of night Owls will linger on
A silent solitude will reign
Until morning comes again
I wake up now or then
In between nevermore and forevermore
Over and over again
Repeatedly finding myself wondering where I have been
A slice of the clock - lost
But I always feel better with my Glock
Darkness swallows the light
Confusing the days and nights
Making falling into the looking glass
A fairytale delight
But wait, was it fight or flight
Before now or back when
Hard to tell, but who's to say
Today, tomorrow, wrong day, someday
Different space, familiar place, memory of face
A fall from grace, the challenge of the chase
Moments, minutes, months, days, anyways....
At birth I enter the cell
Heaven and Hell
Here on Earth, it’s hard to tell
Heaven and Hell
The reading from the Holy Pell
Heaven and Hell
A highway or a stairwell
Heaven and Hell
Milton and Dante, do tell
Heaven and Hell
Screwtape’s nephew learns well
Heaven and Hell
A king and the witch’s spell
Heaven and Hell
Emotions a hurricane swell
Heaven and Hell
A voice left in quell
Heaven and Hell
Watch out for Luther’s inkwell
Heaven and Hell
Past the shadow and death’s dell
Heaven and Hell
The bell’s knell
Heaven and Hell
The 13th pealing as well
Heaven and Hell
Resolution:
Covered by a pall
And that’s all
A death and pangs on Earth
And then eternal birth
We're all related to the stormy firmament
Trying to figure out if it's about to pour down.
Or if the sun's just taking a long break.
It's hard to tell what's real these days.
The clang turns up so deafening you can't
Detect your own breathing and every divided
Wall is screaming a different analysis of the
Truth.
It doesn't matter what lingo you pray in, the
Shade of your skin, or where you call home.
When the ground starts vibrating, we all reach
For the precise same thing.
Something rigid, Something factual. Trouble
Doesn't ask for proof of Identity, A heart
Fragile sounds the same everywhere-
That tranquil, heavy crack that makes you
Sit up at 3:00 am and wonder: Where do we
Go from here?
Up looks like down, right feels like left.
We look at each other directly
Clouded glass, forgetting that covered by it all,
It's just bone, blood, and a soul trying to find
Its way back home.
These are daunting times to discern; the fog is dense, but we don't need a lantern to see the
Whole Alpine just enough light to take the
Very next step in alignment.
Dark space, too cold.
Then a flicker, a heartbeat.
I listen, but hear nothing,
Only noise, never a voice.
I open a door—I cry.
I open another—it makes me shiver.
One more, and it gives me hope,
Only to be stolen by thunder.
I shout as loud as I can,
Yet I'm drowned beneath the noise.
Every echo wears my name,
It's hard to tell which one is real.
Every mother's prayer calls home
in this hut
morning smoke billows upwards
holes in the door and roof gasp
a mother's tear-streaked face
over the burning coals
empty clay pot
who will provide enough food
today?
Ahead, the wet dust on the paths
it's hard to tell whether it was last night's rain
or a drop of blood
but the remnants of water on the road
and the remnants of light in the vision
seep into the womb
becoming pus and blood.
Children fall asleep listening to stories
now they rub their eyes
to ponder
that there is no more fairyland
no wind
to carry them away
and if they try to stand
their heads hit the black sky
their eyes burn
their hands burn
their stomachs burn
are they roasting themselves?
A voice rises up
is it from the sea?
from the valley?
from the mountains?
from the storm?
from the wailing of many voices?
it continued to soar into the sky,
but in the trees,
the branches
and leaves remained motionless.
Smoke swirled like any other day,
only the mother slowly lifted her face,
tears streaming for a moment,
and the children peeked out again
—and again.
Atambua—Indonesia, July 9, 2026
I like her, but I don't know if she likes me
It's hard to tell honestly
She talked and texted me platonically
Then she ghosted me for a while
She's like a projectile
Soars through the air then slowly falls
Loses interest, doesn't answer my calls
But now it's different, it's like I've picked up the arrow
And she's been waiting alot
She's more talkative, less narrow
I think it's time for me to pick up my bow and shoot my shot
Dare to venture.
It's a small thing.
It's a different thing,
But has great dividends.
It's practically painless,
And is absolutely priceless.
Dare to venture.
For just a little while,
Break from the norm
Like a mild rainstoSea.
Dare to venture.
Sometimes, continuity
Adversely affects our sanity.
So, for just a little while,
Insert a little adventure, and
Get out, take off and breakaway
From the drudgery of normality.
Dare to venture.
Take a flight you've never flown,
At least 2000 miles from home.
Take a cruise on the deep blue sea.
Take a long slow ride by railway,
Where timelines are hard to tell.
Board a bus and relax a while.
Take a ride on a route that you
never planned, in a vehicle
That you've never driven.
The space between us
In this mortal world
Feels like sorrow in the sun
The pull to be ok
While being alone
Makes me long to run
...from love
I can see hope
Zipping my jacket
In a ceaseless stroke
Every last drop
Of borrowed courage
Landing on the words He spoke
...in the beginning
I'm not saying joy failed
Or that life Is grief gravy
On a buttermilk biscuit
It's just that my tummy
Rumbles with hunger
That never allows me to quit
....desiring
Restoration looks different
Than imagination painted
In the pendulum swing
The settled scale
Makes it hard to tell
What feeling the dark will bring
...to light
In my dreams, you appear
As a familiar friend
With contact, pure and free
No thrill of butterflies
Or fingers clawing to keep
The gift you've given to me
...a promise
Written by Trudy Schrader on 03-22-2026
the red sinews
within yellow jacket
sky sting
darkness there
before the sun sets, to
take in his hands
hard to tell
what hell
the bridge is over
behind,
two mothers aren't
hearing how
he survives this black
joy —
the canvas is
under his skin.
his eyes cut
open his mouth —
drop the
scream
* based on the painting, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch
There are no crashing Hebridean waves here,
just flat acres of cornfields and country roads,
only farmed earth and red barns.
This mist drowned morning
the sky has offered its own sea,
it carries a saline memory
of spray and spume.
Here in my suburban garden
North, South, East and West
are one.
Blooms are now sea anemones
the hedgerow a reef,
a familiar tree line is a gray cliff face.
For a long moment
I gaze from a Scottish shore,
but then a kitchen radio is turned on,
a truck blasts its air-horn, a child shouts.
A blotting gust of wind scatters
all before it. Ohio quickly repaints itself.
Somewhere in a cornfield
a rabbit sniffs a passing sky-wave,
it may have shrugged,
hard to tell, but I assume it did.
Half the moon sits aloft the Jovian star
Its other half away in green pastures far
She sat leaning ‘neath the peering lights
That ever pervade such provoking nights
Are they dim, or are they bright
Small in stature or stood upon dizzying heights
From where she sat it was hard to tell
Then suddenly one fell
She traced it by its silver tail
As it illumed the hanging clouds
Then streaked across the glooming dale
Revealing the wandering shrouds
It tumbled down and out of sight
In a spiraling trail of rainbow light
We burn bright, burn brief
Sun is not long when come the stars
Blue yellow green turn grey
With just the briefest patch of red to mark their passing
We are fireworks, never really matching words to action
But close by the blaze it's hard to tell.
We yearn to join our sparks together,
To rise, mortal momentary ember
To combine, combust in one
To make our small obeisance to the sun.
My love is a black hole,
silent, vast, misunderstood.
It doesn’t explode. It swallows.
Soft things. Sharp things.
Every memory. Every maybe.
I give and give and still it spins,
pulling everything in without return.
I don’t know where it leads,
only that it holds so much:
letters never sent,
touches never returned,
hope that clings even when hands let go.
People think black holes destroy,
but I know they preserve.
They hide the ache behind my eyes,
keep the laughter I didn’t get to share,
fold time into itself
until it’s hard to tell when I began
or who I was before I started reaching.
There is no light at the centre,
but there is truth.
A gravity made of tenderness.
An ache too big to be named.
And maybe one day,
someone will see the beauty
in a love that deep,
and not be afraid to fall in.
As high as you go,
You must go just as low,
It's the wave flow of life,
Carrying you where you want to go.
Muscles won't grow,
If you don't show,
Drop your fear and go,
In the direction of your connection.
Change your perception,
Experience heaven,
Fall into another lesson,
It's a natural progression.
A necessary step in ascension,
Learning to love less than,
The hand hurting you,
The fire in your view,
As you burn through the swell.
It hurts like hell,
Hard to tell if you'll make it,
Take it from me, you will.
It's a tough hill,
You have the power of will,
A still strong voice in your head,
Keeping you moving ahead.
Climbing again,
Reaching heaven,
Grateful for the blessing,
A present for progressing.
Second guessing our projection,
We fall for another lesson,
A conceptual conscious connection,
Creating every section,
As we use our intention,
Giving attention to what works,
Enjoying all the perks,
As the wave of life jerks you back up again.
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