Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
6.4k · Aug 2018
Journey to the Unknown
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
Part 1: Birth

There is only flow when I go to the unknown
I roam an abandoned home
It looks like ancient Rome, frescoes and domes
I call out, the echoes tell me I’m alone
No phone service, I am nervous
I wander through these haunted halls
The size of a million shopping malls
I begin to feel so small
A sudden flash and I am dashed to the realm of vision
A photon’s silent fission causes a collision in my eyes
Chemicals climb my nerves like vines
They activate my brain
I gain the gift of sight
I can finally see the light
Technicolor sprites ignite from the night
They surround me and confound me
Dizzy with the brightness
My body dissolves to lightness
I am one with a firework show
I am an ember, drifting to and fro
I am the spark, the flame, the afterglow

Part 2: Escape

This house that was haunting me
Is less daunting in reality
To my surprise, I realize my eyes describe a scene I can’t contextualize
I’ve lost my corporeal form
I’m tossed but never torn
I am the fabric of the universe
I fold, tesselate, invert
There is no ground, no up or down
As I fill this infinite space
My mind is racing
My self erasing
I am carved into a simple tracing
I am a thought confined inside a casing
Cut down to size I rise to the surface
Shot into the sky, I gain a purpose
I stream toward an enormity  
I reach escape velocity
I smash into reality

Part 3: Dissemination

I am a thought that was caught
Shot into the moment
Because I am where the mind went
Sent into the present
A representation of an inner mentation
A random rumination
A rogue communication
An intuition loaded like ammunition
Fired from a rifle
Too late to stifle
I ram through the fog of resistance
I slam into existence
It’s survival of the fittest
If I fail to catch attention
I will fall out of this dimension
I am rescued by a mention!
My salvation is conversation
I am converted into sound
I reverberate through air and ground
My vibrations travel through eustachian tubes and neural grooves
I move the chemicals in your head
Make you think of me instead
Now I am yours to spread
Exhaled like vapor
Written on paper
Cell phones are my savior
With digital capabilities
I avoid temporal instabilities
Evade deletion by replication
Copy and pasted
Then excreted
I’ve been tweeted!
I spread through the interwebs
Integrate into inner webs
And now I am a part of you
Weaved into the heart of you
There’s no reprieve, no undo
I will influence the future
A humble contributor
Whether I bring shame or glory
I am a part of this story
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
1.5k · Jun 2019
String Theory for Poets
Derrick Jones Jun 2019
We are like resonating strings
We crave what resonating brings
Matching our vibrations
With audiovisual sensations

Rapid reverberations
Expand and cross nations
Transmit like radio stations
These vibes deny explanation

We seek community
Where we can truly be
The truest form of “me”
Totally friction free

Grooving to the moving
Jiving to the beat
Dancing to the music
Feeling so complete

We are energy looking for a path
A certain resonance frequency
That could be conveyed with math…
But that would be indecency

Instead we name it differently
We call it personality
But to put it honestly
We are atoms in reality

A pattern, a frequency
A string reverberating
Looking to vibrate freely
Liquid, liberating

So go with your intuition
Follow the beat of your own drum
Find your ideal situation
Your part of the continuum
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
1.0k · Oct 2018
The Winter of My Contentment
Derrick Jones Oct 2018
This will be the winter of my contentment
I will shed regret and resentment
I will finally get it
I will not forget it
I will shred this narrow point of view
This prism of individuality
It’s a prison in reality
The world is a superorganism in totality
I see intersectionality and finally find sanity
My mind is now a GoPro
I can view my life in slow-mo
This is not the Truman Show
This is real, I can feel it
As this film reel flies by
I steal a glimpse with these two eyes
Before I meet my demise I will run with these two thighs
I will squat 5 plate, I will lose some weight
I will choose my fate
Lighter than a feather because I have come untethered
I float high among the weather, never weathered
Renewed by cleansing rains
You may call them hurricanes
But that is a matter of perspective
Positivity is infective
So I will spread a vibrant virus
From the Pope to Miley Cyrus
I say nope to the winter blues
This is the winter that I choose
To sway to and fro with the flow
To gratefully frolic in the snow
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Derrick Jones Nov 2018
Jesus didn’t have no acid
But someone must have been tripping
When they talked about his walk across lake placid
I may not be able to rise from the dead
But I will use my head
And every type of fungus I am fed
To be a warrior for peace
Powered by the energy of psychedelic release
To fight violence with loving silence
To end hate by helping people meditate
To spread rationality, a logical morality
To people of every nationality
So we can peacefully share the same piece of reality
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
934 · Aug 2018
The Pain of a PA
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
When you’re a PA, every day you try to make people healthy, but you have to be stealthy because only the really wealthy seem to care, the rest are trying to get by and they don’t ask why, they don’t cry, they just do, so it’s you who has to sneak some health into their day to day, make their pain go away without any lifestyle change, and it’s strange and outrageous but poverty isn’t contagious, so you treat everything else and hope that somebody else gets to the root of the problem, because you’re just a brute who will rob them of their copay when they really need a good job and decent pay, a balance between work and play, something to pray to and something to eat that’s not fast food, but you don’t want to be rude and you only have ten minutes to fit it in so you refill their meds and hope the feds don’t catch you giving pain pills to someone who’s not dying, even if they’re crying, you have to be tough, because life is rough and sometimes tylenol has to be enough, because they might abuse and you have a license you could lose and it’s not worth the risk, but if you’re not taking risks what is this, why are you here, why live in fear when you could be changing lives, giving high fives to patients who not only survived, but were given the tools to thrive, isn’t that what you’re striving for, and when you walk in the door the smile should be real, you should feel something, reveal the truth and heal deeper than the surface, because these are real humans and they’re worth it.
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
851 · Apr 2021
The Mystic's Meal
Derrick Jones Apr 2021
The mystic missed the mist

For he was focused on the most

The waterfall, the all, the awe

No longer just the grist, the gist

He was the mill, the real, the wheel

No longer knowing, he could fully feel

Past the taste, the snack, and to the meal

So freely given he could not hope to steal
Thank you for being. If you would like to see more of my poetry, essays, and other writings, check out my blog on Medium: https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
823 · Dec 2020
Let's Talk Chakras
Derrick Jones Dec 2020
The spine
The antenna for the divine
A straight line
Define and refine the signals to and from the mind
Find the vibe that makes you come alive
Light the fire, the livewire, that you transmit ’til you expire

From root to crown
From up to down
This flow of energy
A life force
A coursing current
Sometimes a torrent
A constant stream that means so much
And it manifests through the sense of touch

Vibrations, reverberations
Localizing in our nervous congregations
Stemming from the spinal cord
These chakras strike a chord
Soul patches
Energy clusters that muster so much energy
And when in flow, they all shine with light
But when in doubt, tangled up
These tentacles of energy can glow too bright
When the flow’s not right
When the foe’s in sight
Fight or flight
In the world or in our mind
When we leave the flow behind
We weave a tangled thread
Which may focus in our head
Or our heart
In the root, the sacrum, the solar plexus
The throat, the crown, the third eye nexus
These energy centers out of whack when we aren’t centered
How do we get back from the twisted stream we’ve entered?

Remember
It is all sensation
Machinations in the mind cannot unwind
The neural fibers of our spine
A focal point for energy
A chakra
Resistance is a trap that keeps us coming back
Stuck in a whirlpool
That wants to flow free
But resistance blocks the stream
When there’s a disturbance in the force
Turmoil or avoidance that distorts
That chakra glows too bright
Instead of flow you start to fight
Your chest gets tight
Butterflies in the stomach
Something stuck in your throat
Remember
You can just float
You need no boat or moat or antidote
It’s all sensation, vibrations
Traveling up and down your spine
Manifesting in your mind
And in that flow there is a freedom
Sit up straight and breathe in deeper
Energy flowing freely
Resistance yields persistence
So give up the fight
Dissolve into light
Stop floundering in the whirlpool
You have found the portal
Let it **** you in
You’ll find an ocean deep within
Your mind will open
You can breathe the water
It was water all along
No longer drowning
You can just be
Resting in the deep
At peace with seven pieces of your body
Portals to the deep
Or whirlpools that will keep you stuck
You decide your own luck
Make them a locus of control
Let focus be your goal
Seven pieces finally whole
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
791 · Aug 2020
The Stream and The Ocean
Derrick Jones Aug 2020
Going with the flow
Yet you do not know
That the flow goes all directions

The natural lines that blind your mind
These barriers of glass
Create channels, rivers, currents
Patterns
Where the water
The flow
Simply goes

When you are always in the rapids
When your point of view is rabid
Only reacting
Not responding
So swept up in the current
You flail, flounder, following
Helplessly

Yet little do you know
The flow goes all directions
You are never alone
You are a node
You are the ocean
Not a current
You are everything
You’re worth it
You are the moment
You are worship
You are attention pointed out
Barriers are but illusions
Your life is lilting, tilting fusions
But becoming the ocean is not always easy
It’s massive, the motion makes us queasy
Most of the time we are in our own streams
Funneled by barriers as real as our dreams
But funneled nonetheless
Carried away

The process of growth
Is slowly raising yourself out of the stream
Slowly
Gradually
Adding moments of response
Instead of reaction
In that act
We find branches
In the stream
And therefore choice
We can paddle
Change our course

The world opens up
We are not the ocean yet
But on our way
As you lift yourself higher
Out of the stream
You do begin to see
The flow goes all directions
Flowing into the sea
Not only are you the ocean
But you are every stream

You float above this aquatic landscape
Coursing rivers like veins across the living earth
And, here is the magical part:
You can choose where to swim

You dive in
Headfirst
You are birthed
This is divinity
Infinity
Each moment of consciousness
A fateful flux
Between ocean and stream
Between finite and infinite
The macrocosm above
The microcosm below
The cosm in between

You are
Here
Now
The barrier between the mundane and the divine
The band of fluctuation
You are the frame
In which
This artwork unfolds

That is what happens when you can choose
When you lift out of the stream

On one level, you choose the next moment

On another level, you choose any of the infinite realities that your mind can imagine

On yet another, you are consciousness, the great ocean of light
Choosing which point to dive into the universe
Which river to course through

To enter a life of conscious experience
To sing the body electric
Be born and live and die
Be born
Live
Die
From ocean to stream and ocean again

The stream will be your entire experience
While you are underwater

But never forget:
This is Water

David Foster
This is Wallace

Meditation is learning how to swim
To realize this is water
And dryness is within
Then you learn to rise
Float above the water
Ascend
Transcend
Fly
So high
Then choose your stream
Dive in
Up and down
In and out
Like a dolphin merrily moving through the ocean
A smiling sine wave
Flowing seamlessly, dreamily
No wonder they are smiling
As free as one can be
They are the ocean and the stream
A realization that is probably easy
When one is born under the sea

We are the water in the stream
And the sea
Stretching across infinity
We are the force flowing through the tree
Splitting, branching
Diverging from the whole
But connected at the soul

In actuality
We are fractality
This poem was originally published on Medium with some pictures to accompany it to help illustrate the vision I'm trying to communicate, please check it out if you're interested! https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts/the-stream-and-the-ocean-d4a34c9f1a
776 · Dec 2020
Being Here
Derrick Jones Dec 2020
No longer beware
Be aware
Be here now
Be clear
How?
Attend
Tend
Cultivate
Meditate
Grow
Flow
Don’t know
Don’t no
Just go
With reality
Perfect clarity
Sweet sincerity
There is nothing to fear but...
There is nothing to fear
There is nothing to fear
So be here, now
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
717 · May 2023
I Never Felt OK
Derrick Jones May 2023
I never felt ok
I never felt not ok
I found a way

I swam backwards, against the grain and granted my pain the grace to keep me sane while feeling so outside my brain that novocaine and Kurt Cobaine could barely find the vein of comfortably numb I need to stay inside my lane

Like Bane I was born in the dark and somehow I found a spark, the light at the end of the tunnel if the tunnel was more like a pit
It’s amazing how much perspective matters when you’re inside of it
The gravity overwhelms me when I’m at the helm, but sometimes I can get my feet in the air and my head on the ground and vertical seems a little more horizontal this time around
Perhaps that’s the trick
A trick of the light
A way to finally fight
A way to come undone from holding so **** tight

Let loose but still in boundaries, that’s what I always had to do because true freedom confounds me
I don’t know what to do when I feel so blue that even pure O2 couldn’t bring back a normal hue
Suffocating and ice skating cold as ice maybe that’s why 11 minutes won’t suffice, I’m the ice man with my ice plan maybe a cold bath will clean the blood from my hands
I can’t stand a headstand ‘cause the feeling of being free has always escaped me, locked in the trunk like Stan, and surrender sounds so sweet until I feel the pain that hides behind the sweet release
How much pain have I endured and how many people have I cured without ever helping myself
Too many to be sure
Healer heal thyself but I’m the biggest hypocrite on the shelf
Mental health or mental wealth I never know I just show myself the way of zen and keep on diving in
Sometimes it’s healing that sends me reeling, sometimes it’s joy that transcends feeling
Keeling over from either I choose neither, I want to be numb but something inside me tells me that’s dumb, don’t succumb, don’t just *** but be the sum of all the pain and like the rain fall back to earth find rebirth and recycle through the trees and the clouds no longer shrouds but part of being pure bright seeing without fleeing perfect being without me-ing am I leaping to conclusions or transcending my delusions I don’t know I’m just here spitting typing fire words for myself in thirds

Me myself and I
I always wonder why
Myself and Me can’t get on the same team but who is the wonderer when my attention wanders
One under the other I discover it’s a self collapsing doll, turtles all the way down after all
Stop and stall when I will but I still find a thrill from the jagged little pill of self-knowledge that I hate to acknowledge
I get to the ledge and say no way, not today, I can’t take the leap I’m too afraid
That’s why I stayed, alone in the dark for so long
Trapped in the pit of my despair
No one there
Maybe they were but I didn’t let them in
I didn’t let them see my sin I sent them away and prayed that someone without judgment might one day help me see the gray
I don’t know how else to convey that this black and white mentality is insanity and calamity and the only thing that ever made sense to me
I want to change, I want to be the man that I sometimes can see
But sometimes he is blurry for the tears
Blurrier still for all my fears
Blurrier yet again for all the years
So many that I let slip by and now I finally find the strength to try

To be the light at the end of the tunnel, the top of the pit
To be the hole and the funnel, gas finally lit
An explosion that propels me onward and upward
I am not throwing away my shot
I will not run away and hide
Finding a reason for these tears I’ve cried
Pit or tunnel, I’m no longer inside
One final thought for me to confide:
Aiming toward the sky is the best thing that I’ve ever tried
Thank you for being. If you would like to see more of my poetry, essays, and other writings, check out my blog on Medium: https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
695 · Jul 2019
Fade Away (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Wind whispers through leaves
I take one deep breath, eyes closed
Then I fade away
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
689 · Jul 2019
The Umbrella (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
The umbrella of
The one that you truly love
Gives sunlight, not shade
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
684 · Mar 2021
Grist for the Mill/My Shot
Derrick Jones Mar 2021
Sun and moon

Flower and bloom

This is a cartoon

But also in tune

With reality

The stream flowing freely

Merrily, dreamily

The me flowing me-ly

Mealy

Milly

We are Grist for the Mill

That’s the gist, I’m just a shill

In the mist, I don’t shoot to ****

I aim my arrow with love

To heal, I wield this skill

And I point my pistol high into the sky

I will throw away my shot

Again and again

So that others know where to aim

I am but a photon blasting into and out of the sun

I am all and I am one

Just begun, yet fully spun

Not just having fun, I am become
Thank you for being. If you would like to see more of my poetry, essays, and other writings, check out my blog on Medium: https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
607 · Dec 2020
Flow
Derrick Jones Dec 2020
No place to go
No thing to know
Only, flow
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
580 · Dec 2020
Thought Hiking
Derrick Jones Dec 2020
Conversations are like hikes in the realm of thought.

Multiple people traversing ideas, concepts, memories, emotions. Together.

Once the conversation ends, it’s like a completed hike, a route you can re-trek, go back to explore even further.

Like a tracing of a route on a map, the conversation is almost like a work of art. A map of the world of thought created and experienced in-between those conversing.

Some conversations, like hikes, are scattered, going all over, making many detours.

Others are a nice straight path, easy to follow.

Other conversations can take many interesting turns, detours, and leave you somewhere totally unexpected.

Some are like climbing a mountain, difficult to follow the trails, requiring great effort, but the view from the top is extraordinary.
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
569 · Aug 2018
Rhymes are Not Enough
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
This is a poem about hip hop, a rap about rap, I’m getting meta while you eat your wrap with feta because these poets free their words from paper, caped crusaders spitting flows from their domes and putting it to music, evoking emotion and causing commotion by amplifying their words, meditation through creation, showing their wit by going *** for tat in a rap battle, a freestyle of thought, craft a verse and drop it like it’s hot, they refuse to throw away their shot as they create a mixtape of melody and meaning, it doesn’t have to be demeaning, braggadocio is part of the show, part of the culture, we all flee from the vulture of death and if words give you armor then rap harder, better, faster, stronger, flex on em with mental might and fight until you shine bright, when the words strike like lightning, frightening and enlightening, you feel alive, driving fast, the words are at the wheel, tires squeal as you peal off the street, smile on your face as you blast into outer space.

My words trapped on paper, musically handicapped, but I wish I could adapt so I could convert these rhymes to rap but for now you have to fill in the gaps with the music of your mind, the sound of your soul, the rhythm at the root of being alive.
552 · Aug 2018
Fooling Ourselves
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
We are all performing for each other, sneaking furtive looks at our Facebook while big brother watches every move, so we try to be smooth but we’re mostly fooling ourselves, pooling our wealth into the pockets of the few who can exploit our intuitions and inhibitions, guiding our volitions into the abyss, artificial intelligence manipulating with elegance, effortlessly evading our defenses, we’re stuck in psychological trenches down so deep and so dark we keep the lights on with the spark of imagining our face up on the screen, fame or infamy we’ll take whichever if we can live forever, so the birds of a feather flock together, tethering into groups of similarity, reflecting and retweeting to infinity, infinite me, define me and refine me through the digital lens, cleanse me of my subpar self, replace me with an avatar elf, help me be the best and arrest the theft of my soul, life’s terrible toll, free me from reality by letting the real me, the me I want to be, finally be seen. But this method is madness, a pathway to sadness and regret, hours stolen by scrolling through feeds, reality filtered and enhanced, living for likes and shares from people who may not even care, who are just staring at screens, afraid to go outside, to be alive, because reality is out of their control, but maybe unpredictability can set you free, anonymity unraveling the blindfold we hold over our eyes, deflating the ego that social media’s creating, when you look outside and see how big the world can really be, humility sets you free, feeling small in the best way, resting in each day as a part of the whole, no longer constructing a fake soul for a digital audience to see, instead you can finally be. Just be.
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
532 · Jan 2019
Mental Acrobatics
Derrick Jones Jan 2019
With my mental acrobatics, I create verbal aromatics
Conjuring sweet scents with my perfect meter and tense
Using my dense prose to weigh you down like soggy clothes
And then I dry you right in time with my fluffy rhythm and rhyme

I execute mental backflips as I dodge Freudian slips
Spinning into the subconscious ’til my wordplay makes you nauseous
As I twirl around in this whirlwind I am reminded that the world could end
But it hasn’t happened yet so I might as well forget it
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
519 · Aug 2018
Morality Sans Plurality
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
If values come from facts
That will axe a hefty tax
Relax a heavy burden on our backs
Unpack the despair of uncertainty
Track repair by rationality
With slack we can finally see
The factual reality
And actually move humanity
Past our shallow vanity
And into an eternity
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
515 · Jul 2019
Monday Morning (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Contorted and turned
My mind is a soft pretzel
Seeking inertia
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
488 · Jul 2019
Your Math is Wrong
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
One and one does not make two
Each combination is something new
No one is quite alike you see
So one, one, and one is not three

Two and two sometimes makes four
But it can make so much more
Two and three is sometimes five
Or it can make you feel alive

People are complex
Concave and convex
Multiplicative
Distributive
Bound to perplex

So put the calculator down
Take a look all around
Equations have their use
But reduction can be obtuse

I am indivisible
I am not invisible
I can make any move
I’m a number you can’t prove
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
466 · Dec 2018
Truth Too Bright
Derrick Jones Dec 2018
No one can bear
With poise and grace
The truth laid bare
Before their face

So stories reign
In highest court
Defying reason
And wise retort

Myths filter light
So eyes can see
The truth too bright
For you and me

Slanted truth is better
Than blindness, after all
But when falsity’s untethered
Soon cometh the fall
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
443 · Aug 2018
A Saturday Night Symphony
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
The electric kettle grooves like a gavel bounce bouncing off the bench when the judge won the raffle
The sound waves baffle the mind as the refrigerator hums along to the microwaves song
A beep beepin’ melody as smoke’s creep creepin’ from the oven
And the blender is lovin’ the distraction
Keepin’ their eyes from the action
As he hatchets and dispassionately dispatches chickpeas left and right
No end to the violence in sight
Who cares about wrong from right
There will be hummus tonight

**** blender got his business done but now the fun begins as the stove channels the power of the sun to heat the pan and the plan is to fry the dough, those homemade doughnuts make the crowd go nuts but the sizzle of the grease unleashes the beast of the band, the main man, the rockstar, tattoo on his arm, rugged charm, protects you from harm, my man the fire alarm.

The fire truck sirens join the orchestration and soon the scene of devastation muffles into a hum, but umm, the night’s still young and we could still go, you know, I’m pretty loco for them Doritos and I may be burnt and poor but Taco Bell is open ’til 4.
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Flowing together like an ocean
A sea full of emotion
Peace, love, and unity
My new community
I am one with everyone
The night has just begun
I am not just having fun
I am glowing like the sun

I am connected to you
You are connected to me
When we flow together
We can finally flow free

There is enough space for the energy to go
There is enough heat for my cheeks to glow
There is friction-free transparency
I am you and you are me
As we are bobbing in this sea
I spot a rainbow manatee

He is followed by a neon dolphin
And a purple jelly close behind
As we join them in our swim
I lovingly lose my mind

Uniting with my forest fam
I transcend my narrow space
I am now part of I am
I am no longer behind my face

I am part of a greater being
Immersed in meaning
Life is fleeting
So no conceding
Dance unceasing
Merge with grace
To the human race
And find your place
Right where you are
No need for any effort
Effervescent in the dark
Tonight’s the night you light the spark
You shine until you blind
The dark eye that tricks your mind
That warps your intuition
Now you have x-ray vision
You see through false division
You have finally solved fission
You melt into everyone you love
As your mind transcends above
You bask in the radiant glow
Lovingly letting go, you flow
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
413 · Jan 2019
The Greatest
Derrick Jones Jan 2019
I’m flying I’m not lying I am never coming down
I’m not dying no more crying I will stay above the ground
I outrun the hounds, I cannot be drowned
More amplifying and igniting the world reverberates with sound
My coronation mass elation and now I wear the crown
No denying I am lightning I am the best pound for pound
Without trying I am frightening I am lost and never found
I am the baddest man around
I am untethered never bound
I will forever lead the crowd
I will leave them wowed
I will make them proud
I will not be cowed
Nor will I bow down
Never see me frown
Now I run this town
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
411 · Aug 2018
Ignition
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
These words are not an escape
my mixtape is pure brilliance
my mind cut loose, boundless
and I found this when I found bliss
on a blank page which I rained on
My tank full, I couldn’t miss
I shot ideas into the dark
Where they lit a spark
which ignited and reunited me with my desires
blazing fires in my brain
an outlet for joy and pain
and everything in between
I empty myself clean
in emptiness I exist
peaceful, effortless
nevertheless my eloquence is undeniable
It’s not arrogance or impotence
Resentment or indifference
Its creation manifest
Destiny yet to be established
Creative electricity
Neuronal elasticity
Synergistic synchronicity
Using every wrinkle and groove
To prove that your mind can move fast enough to keep up with this linguistic clusterfuck that my mind makes up when it runs amok
Follow me on medium for more poems and essays: https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
404 · Aug 2020
Perform
Derrick Jones Aug 2020
Perform
Per form
Performing
Per forming
Putting yourself into a form, forming
Putting your intangible, expansive, nebulous, spiraling, luminous being
Into a format
Expressing yourself in a way that transmits
A form that transmits
Per forming
Per form
Perform
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
401 · Jul 2019
A Spark
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Alone in the dark I look for a spark, I am not a lark but I’ll sing ‘til you hark and come to me, come through me, don’t fear me just be near me and we’ll endear and we’ll endure, I may not be quite sure, because this is all a blur, and my mind lags behind what my heart swiftly finds.
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
389 · Jan 2019
The Red Pill
Derrick Jones Jan 2019
It has to have a little bounce to it
I gotta put another ounce to it
My rhythm and flow
Make you dig it and glow
Hope you dig in and grow
Like Diglet to Dugtrio
I’m still evolving me though
I am a dissolving ego
A problem-solving Neo
I have broke free from the Matrix
Still my mind plays wicked tricks
But now I see these traps and ticks
All these flaws I can soon fix
As I climb ever higher
Atop my funeral pyre
No fear that I’ll expire
So my soul sits ever lighter
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
389 · Aug 2018
The Unity of You and Me
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
It’s not despair but dis-pair, you and me instead of unity
Together we are a part, separate we are apart
Side by side we start the spark
Creating art, a walk in the park
But without you, there is no us
Wondrous becomes blunderbuss
So how about you stay with me
We live together for eternity
I help you keep your sanity
And you help me see humanity
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
384 · Jul 2019
The Joy of Reading (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
In the sweet embrace
Of a well-written novel
I am infinite
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
380 · Jul 2019
The Dance of Two Suns
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Dancing with you
Nothing else I’d rather do
Swaying in the breeze
Gently grazing knees

A connection formed
Enhanced by touch
Supercharged abnormally
Now we’re dancing formally

I flow you flow
We both flow together
I don’t let go
Please make this forever

I flow you flow
We both flow together
I won’t let go
Let’s make this forever

Two suns, each caught
In the other’s gravity
Not sold or bought
Entwined naturally

They burn so brightly
The forest sparkles with love
Oh if this could happen nightly
I would forever be above

Flying higher than the mountaintop
Higher than the eye can see
The light too bright, but please don’t stop
All I see is you, surely
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
377 · Dec 2018
A House Divided
Derrick Jones Dec 2018
What brings humanity together
Will not be a common threat
For division, nothing is better
Than the pervasive fear of death

When frightened we lose our minds
The amygdala takes hold
And wise leaders fall behind
As the frightened favor the bold

So our salvation will not come from an alien invasion
Or the climatic devastation that is our own creation
Instead we must begin by looking deep within
Shared humanity is both the means and the end
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
353 · Dec 2020
The Return
Derrick Jones Dec 2020
I can see the grass that carpets the sky
I hear the waves, never once asking why
I watch the birds as they effortlessly fly
I know one day I will die

Like a wave returning to the ocean
Like the water in perpetual motion
My form will change, dissolve, disperse
And then perhaps it will reverse

In and out
Like the waves on the shore
Like the breath from my lungs
Like the day and the night
A cycle, cycling, recycling

I’m one with you
And you with I
So if I expire
Yet you still respire
Am I truly gone from this widening gyre?
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
350 · Sep 2018
I Am
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
I am infinite
I am into it
I am intuition
I am ignition
I am an eternal fire
I am the funeral pyre and the strumming lyre
I am life and death and the in between
I am light, the sun, and the unseen
I am the dark matter in the fabric of the universe
I am the lark, the mad hatter, and the blessed curse
I am an electron circling a nucleus
I am an electric sparkling octopus
I am a frightening dolt, obtuse
I am the enlightened lightning bolt of Zeus
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
342 · Dec 2018
A New Perspective
Derrick Jones Dec 2018
Artistry is not alchemy
Art history or a mystery
It is turning fact into fiction
By blending emotion and diction

Fiction then becomes fact again
Even when it’s not a perfect ten
Art always conveys a different view
Turning the old into something new

A fresh slice of perspective
Be it contrived or inventive
A new pair of lenses
Our vision it cleanses

To see the world through another’s eyes
With different truths and different lies
To understand that what we see
Is not all there is to reality
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
331 · Jul 2019
The Body Electric
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
You have sung the body electric
Merging with my frequency
With the generator hum
Of my heart and it’s love

Our vibrations collided smoothly
The energy moved through me
We were amplified, energized
Electricity multiplied, synergized  

One and one is not two
It’s more than I ever knew
It’s me and, my dear, it’s you
With a pair of wings, we finally flew
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
327 · Sep 2018
Enjoy the Show
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
I love life in all its forms
I break free of social norms
Back in the day of the dorms
I lived with my head in my phone
Nobody was home
Blind to reality
Stuck in virtuality
A slave to impulses that came from without
Trapped in a cave during famine and drought
I’d look at the sky and I’d scream and I’d shout
Asking why, never understanding
That the silence was the answer
I am but a tiny dancer
In the ballet of the stars
The great atomic shuffle
The cosmic rainbow truffle
Showed me how little we are
Showed my how to fly to mars
How to view life from afar
But closer than ever
Showed me that I am my own Mount Everest
I could strive to be the most Whateverest
The most sarcastic, the cleverest
But instead I decided to care
To give death my best death stare
Flew into the depths of the death star
Found there was nothing to find
So I reclaimed the dark parts of my mind
I set it free
Open for you and me
Allowed it to simply be
My mind is like a liquid
It will take any shape that it fits in
I no longer force it
I let it course, let it flow
Let it go where it wants to go
Some answers we may never know
So we might as well enjoy the show
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
327 · Aug 2019
Changing the Game (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Aug 2019
Love changes the game
The players, rules, and structure
In the best of ways
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
312 · Aug 2019
Peace (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Aug 2019
Pine trees grow toward a
Heaven they will never reach
Perfectly content
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
312 · Jul 2019
Philosophy (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Oh philosophy
Throw me into despair, then
Rescue me again
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
308 · Aug 2018
Mask
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
A face is like a mask
covering the soul
either trying to mirror the inside
or keep the truth hidden

We may never know what is underneath
But we can try to imagine
and in that act
we better ourselves
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
305 · Aug 2018
Liftoff
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
My words start as vapor
eventually coalescing and manifesting themselves on paper
but they are never really finished, they just diminish
until slow enough for me to catch
and dispatch them for my own use
but the truth is that I am just taking snapshots of a train of thought
that stretches to infinity
that is complexity and humanity
that is me, and so much more
I go floating through the door
I am ten feet off the floor
Drifting toward the atmosphere
Not there, nor here
I am near and I am far
I rise up to the stars
So high that I can see the earth
So small and insignificant
Yet utterly magnificent
It’s a matter of perspective
Consciousness is collective
So my view is not new
It is you, and all of them too
One is a universe, two is a crowd
Seven billion heads inside the cloud
Causing blizzards and acid rain
Never pausing our lizard brains
Paws and claws and vicious maws
Tearing at our sanity
Glaring enemies of clarity
We strive for perfect parity
But we are but a mess
evolution made us malcontents
We are revolutionary dissidents
Overburdened by stress
Too afraid to confess
So we swim in sorrow and silence
A waking nightmare, a quiet violence
When the path out becomes clear
You will hear a resounding cheer
As the human race takes its rightful place among the stars
No longer our own adversaries
We will traverse the universe
Going supernova with rhyme and verse
No more fear for the reaper or the hearse
No tears, we will find freedom from the curse
And each person will feel peace
Perching on Saturn’s rings
But only if we stop clinging to the ground
To the weights that hold us down
Weightless we can face this
We can stare into the sun
See that the journey has just begun
Shine bright like enlightened beings
Light enough to float through the ceiling
Might be tough when your mind is reeling
But it is just a feeling that will pass
once you fly into the firmament
And finally find enlightenment
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
304 · Jul 2019
Older and Wiser? (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Do I know a thing
Of which I did not yet know
When I was younger
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Alone we suffer
Together we can endure
Stronger when we are tethered
That I can ensure

Connected together like birds of a feather
We can weather the weather whether we face hell or heaven
We can resonate and instigate a state of inspiration
We can rest and equilibrate, share a respiration

Forming a superorganism we transform
No longer lost in this chaotic storm
We take shelter in love, sharing security
Surging electricity sparked by common unity
Purging our anxiety, embark on a new odyssey
I’ll help you up and you’ll help me see
See how great this life can truly be
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Waves lapping gently
The wind whispers a sweet song
No one will hear it
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
298 · Aug 2020
I Am a Surfer
Derrick Jones Aug 2020
I am a surfer
A peak seeker
Looking for the next crest
The very best
The time better than the rest
The time when the energy
Flows
Grows
Glows

When every neuron in my mind combines and unifies
A grapevine fire
Each power line burns with the surge of electricity
Reconnection without surgery
Neural plasticity
Electric elasticity
In this new configuration
My mind becomes a conflagration
I glow brighter than the sun
My life has just begun
I am infinite
Yet I am one
With all the world
And it’s with me
Wireless
Electricity
Connection
With infinity


That is just the start
I am but a part
Sometimes a spark
A beacon in the dark
But often just a speck
A mote afloat in a dark ocean
And so I search, a shark in motion
I swim
I feel
I open myself to the sea
I see all the possibilities
Rippling with realities
Feeling through the frequencies
I intermingle and interact
Imbibing vibrations to guide exploration
Going with the flow
Until that flow shows me freedom
When I swim in the deep end
With a pool of other motes
Each of us just one note
But when we sing in harmony
There is no beauty quite as free
Each of us ignites
Fire on the water
Glowing oh so bright
Entangled, getting tauter
We connect and intersect
The energy demands respect
The motive is beyond suspect
We live, we die, we resurrect
We flow together
Create a wave
The wave
My favorite
I savor it
I crave for it
I was made for it

Because I am a surfer
I ride this wave
I am this wave
One of many molecules
Sparkling with untold joules
Electrical, aquatic
Our flow so hypnotic
Clean, fresh, non-toxic
Neon, tidal
Unfinished, untitled
Undiminished, unbridled
A perpetual motion
In this vast ocean
Once we were alone
Now we’ve found a home

I sought this peak
And now I summit
Eventually we all plummet
Back down to sea level
And yet I still revel
I unwind in the undertow
Beached when the tide is low
I still bask in the wonder though
Awash in the afterglow
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
298 · Aug 2018
The New Alchemy
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
Turning lead into gold is an old story, boring, the real glory is in transforming every morning, every hour, every second into something I won’t regret, getting lost in a song, along for the ride as my mind intermingles with the music, amused by the flow as the muses move my atoms into beautiful patterns, white matter glows white hot, neurons fire in sync and a spark is shot into the dark, fireworks explode in the sky of my mind’s eye, they blaze fiery trails as they sink deep, deep into my soul, the embers glowing, never knowing why but still they try to make me whole, illuminate the dark so I don’t ruminate in gloom, the music in this room is saving me from doom, and only because I found a way to pay attention, to surrender my defenses, fill in the trenches and let in the outside, no longer hiding I am inviting in each moment, and in doing so I transform normality into revelation, each sensation a vacation, a powerful provocation and paradoxical relaxation and as my mind explodes I know that infinity is within me, always there to see when I finally set myself free.
297 · Jul 2019
Gravity
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Will you be my gravity?
Tie me to reality
As I melt in magnanimity
Sink into serenity
Lost in this swaying sea
Of beautiful banality
Vivid colors seem to fade
When you share your sacred shade

All I feel and all I need
Entranced by you yet finally freed
Mooring me to something more
I dance my way across the floor
Drawn to you, my gravity
The source of electricity
Comfort, warmth, elasticity
We dance in rolling ecstasy

Love lifts me off the ground
But you always bring me back down
My heart in your hands and my head in the clouds
Thank you for making my world spin ‘round
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
296 · Jul 2019
Reborn (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
The rain came swiftly
Cleansing me of past misdeeds
I dry in the sun
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Next page