“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” -Roald Dahl

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” -Carl Sagan

“To be able to look back upon one’s life in satisfaction, is to live twice.” -Kahlil Gibran

“If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.” Latin proverb

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” -Anne Frank

“Each of us has his own alphabet with which to create poetry.” -Irving Stone

Quiet country roads
When cars pass
And make the pavement sing
Little bones under soft grey fur
Easing in, to a gentle purr
Twittering birds and a flicking tail
Calls of geese finding a northern summer
White and pink cherry blossoms
And blooming Bradford pears
Gravel drives that rumble like thunder
Horses whinny in the pasture
Pigs wallow in the mire
Dogs roam free on each others land
Ice tea and the lemonade stand
A rooster crowing at the sun
Blankets spread beneath the stars
Young ones waiting up for mars
Babies cooing on the porch
And laundry snapping in the wind
Corn stocks block the view on corners
And soy beans ripple like an ocean green
***** boots and hungry men
Happy mothers cooking dinner
Laughing children and muddy hands
Football starting with the marching band
Inspired artists and woeful writers
Seek to -but never can- capture
The life which binds us here

I could write ballads for your eyes
And odes to your smile
But for now I will write a lament
To the heart that can’t be mine

My heart is full to bursting
And joy has filled my soul
I am loved and I love
And joy has filled my soul

I don’t care where you been
You’re still mine
And I love you

No matter how long you took
You’re still mine
And I love you

Your mind is like a flower
Still struggling to bloom
And I still love you

No matter how damaged
Or how desperate
I still love you

You are my everything
My always
And I still love you

Today
When I touched
Her hand
I felt a spark
Something easy
And effortless
Likes a spring breeze
No amount of prayer
Can cure this disease
This fire within me
And these
Subtle imaginings

How do I say no
To this beauty
That she holds?
Is she too far
From me?
I felt something
When I touched
Her hand
Today

And sometimes you will want to cry
When all that is left is goodbye
Because you can’t see beyond with
Those tear stained eyes
You can’t see to the future
That some goodly things will come on by
You see, goodbye is not all bad
The pain and memories will pass
You can pick yourself up
You can carry on
Because, even though there is pain
Pain is what makes you strong
So when pain is gone
You fear you will be weak
But know
That no matter what was taken from you
No one can take your strength

Onyx
On an Alibaster sky
My love for you
Glimmers
Like a shadow

Sometimes
I have theses
Thoughts

Sometimes
I have these
Desires

They flicker
Through my mind
Like the wings of a malevolent bird

Twisting
And bending
Breaking me

Forming
And reshaping
Turning into

Something
Even worse
Tearing me up

How is it
That I’m so sad
For losing something
That I never had

How is it
I’m so in love
Heart broken for one
I never even knew

If you try
To back-pedal
            l
          l
        i
     h
   p
U
All you will do
Is c  a  h the bike
      r  s

if his scent
                 was
             on
        my
            bedsheets
i don’t think
i’d
   ever
leave

What a joke

The sweet smell of sweat dampened denim
Somewhere between pine sap and cinnamon
Where I can settle in by the beat of your heart

I am full of love to overflowing
but there is
                 no one
                             to
                           drink.

Pin-****** of light
My stars in the darkness
Her smile warms my heart
And his eyes break it
Gentleness and kindness
They are my key and my door
A tender hug and a harsh voice
Reprimand and encouragement
My little pin-****** of light
You showed me that perhaps—
all is not lost
And I hope that I did the same

Your eyes used to be home
Blue as a summer breeze
And a smile warmer than sunshine
And a soul brighter than the stars
Your arms like four walls about me
But I only felt them once

Remember to live in the world
For it was given with a purpose

A girl dressed in glittering black
With chandelier earrings
Hair done up with pearls
Eyes sparkling with freshly shed tears
Cheeks flushed with sadness
At the top of the stairs-
Waiting-
Like the silence before a song-
The calm before the storm-
Shining
And beautiful
Like a Shakespearean play-
Tragically beautiful

Oh the irony
That all tragedies are love stories

There are so many people inside me that some days I don’t know who I am

Their voices are so loud I don’t know which is mine

I have lived a thousand lives

I have walked a thousand miles

I have loved and laughed and cried

I have been full

And empty

And on my worst days, both together

I am a jumble

I am incoherent and confused

I am alone

And I am unsound

I burn alone
A star loose in the cosmos
Lost, and alone
But at least I am free

I burn bright
My light shines trough
The black holes
But it is a futile light

I burn silent
My cries are unheard
Every sizzle and snap
But I listen to the others

I burn alone
My cries go unheard
Lost and lonely
But my futile light is unseen

A pointless star
Too far out to have any purpose
Alone in the cosmos
But to know the pain of others, I am useless

I wish I wasn’t breaking inside
As I fell in love with you

Destroying my whole self
For wanting what I cannot have

Slicing my skin to ribbons
So I cannot feel

Breaking my bones to shards
So I cannot move

Bending my lungs in two
So I cannot breathe

Searing my mind to ash
So I cannot think

Tearing out my eyes and tongue
So I cannot see or speak

Twisting my heart to nothing
So I cannot be

Perhaps
The fruit forbidden
Sweetest tastes

But
Shall my tongue
Ever know the taste

Like water
Once used up
Burned away
Beneath the scorching sun
But rain still comes down
In droplets
Pulled by gravity
Washing away the filth
Raising up and shimmering
Moving all in its path
From the man with the turned up collar
On his yellow slicker jacket running from the onslaught
To the little girl in red galoshes
Splashing and giggling through innocent puddles
To bringing green life
From withered seeds
From the loose brown topsoil
In little rivulets
To mighty oak trees
Cracked and bleeding amber
Swelling over the tops of dams
Quelling burning fire
Creating walls of rich black earth
Sliding loose and ripping into cities
But once again
It is burned up
Beneath the scorching
Sun

I wish I wasn’t made of paper
Today
In the trash
A crumpled drawing
A child’s rainbow
With anger for red
And fear instead of orange
Cowardice replaces yellow
Existential dread in a sickly shade of green
Deep and burning sadness roiling in blue
Indigo frustration bleeds across the page
Violet colored love
And overwhelming clouds of ash

Her feet creaked across a copper earth
As she made her way to a cobalt sea
Underneath a steel sky
Filled with tin clouds
With a heart made of gold
And a soul full of silver

The demon stood
And looked her down
“What do you have,
To trade with me
This fine day?”

His throne of bones
Was crumbling away
His mountain of riches
Tarnished and cold
And he was alone

The girl bowed down
“I’ve no wealth at all
And a soul not to speak of
My hearts gone rusty
And my body’s not much”

The demon sat
And listed to her plea
”Then what do you have?
Have you anything at all?
For long have I been alone.”

“I haven’t much
This I know but
I have just one thing
To offer, the only thing,
That I have left.”

“My prayer.”

How is it
That everything
In my heart and soul
Screams and reaches for you
But my mind and body hold me still.

Reality and reverie
The eternal battle of soul and body
The truth versus the fantasy

The endless reverie
Of what we want to be
The platonic conception of originality

The ceaslessness of reality
The crushing of hopes for what could be
The harsh subject in entirety

Love is like a sickness
With the cold feet
The fever heat of passion
But when it’s gone
You settle back down
With only scars in your memory

I broke myself to fix you

I hated myself to love you

I killed myself to save you

I put myself in darkness to give light to you

I have never understood
The one night stand
To give you body away
And then to demand
That it not be taken

To borrow the flesh of another
For one moment of pleasure
Then to ****** it back at them
To never know for sure
Where your partner has been

To accept the music of their body
In exchange for your own
To share the most private part of your soul
And not to call them home
I’ll never understand a one night stand

Withered
Emaciated
He reaches for more

That’s enough
I said
And ****** it away

Hollow
He stares
He is starved

The sunlight burns me
He’s too warm
He’s too bright
My skin can’t take his heat
My eyes can’t take his shine
But I still need him to survive
For if he should perish
Then I should follow
The universe would collapse and time would stand still

Can the spring ever meet the winter?
Can the broken stone once more be sealed?
Can the dove make peace with the crow?
Can the dark ever see the light?
Can the stars ever be friends with the sun?
Can the past ever stand beside the present?
Can the beauty ever be a part of the ugliness?
Can the pain ever make its way to peace?

My body is a temple
Though not yet old—
It crumbles still
It’s missing stones
And the alter’s cracked
It’s survived wars
You see
And terror
It harbors untold evils—
Spirits of those lost
But not quite forgotten

My body is a temple
Built by sinners’ hands
On my alter lies
The gifts of sinful men—
Those who have worshipped here
Some who would worship still
Cast out, by the god
Who still awaits a priest

My body is a temple,
Yes, but I am the god
To which it is devoted
I have given refuge
To many a broken wanderer
They have rested, fed
And been sent on their way
But they have not all
Been so kind
They have taken stones
From their mortar
Glass from its panes
Flowers from their vases
Light from its sconces

My body is a temple
Deep within this forest
Wrapped in vines
And shrouded in shadow
Blooming with flowers
And blazing with light
So I ask before you kneel
Do you worship here in vain?
For far have you traveled
Do you wish to stay?
For every god
Needs a priest

My body is a temple,
That much may be true
But it is not just any temple
It is mine

Under cotton candy clouds
In the pink setting sun
I wonder how your voice will sound
If your smile will glow like the sun
If your hand will be soft
And your laugh will be warm
I wonder long and alone

What a grisly set of twins
Brother and sister
One could scarcely tell
Where one begins
At the others end
“I want it, I’ll take it”
Said he, beside she
Who proclaimed
“I want it, I hate
That they’ve got it“
Such a fine and shifting line
Between these

To the time a man thought he needed to mansplain my own poem to me

Why must you all be the same
You think with your bodies first
And then with your head
I thought you needed a friend

I don’t know why I give kindness
To strangers so undeserving
I thought all you needed
Was a friend

I am lonely beyond what words can tell
I am angry beyond what I can say
I am hurt beyond any understanding
And somehow,
I am numb beyond any sort of warmth

He want me back again
Back at his side
To rule with him
The scorned queen
Of the all powered king

The demon bellowed out a laugh
“You think I want your prayers?”
He cackled as dust rained
Down from the cavern top
She flinched away in fear

“Do you see this throne?”
He asked, “Do you see it?
Do you know what it’s made of?
Little girl do you know?
It’s made from the bones.”

“The bones of who?”
She asked, weak and scared
“The bones of the men
Who would make me their god.”
He scoffed, “I do not need your prayers.”

“You’ve misunderstood.”
His laughter boomed,
“Then enlighten me mortal.”
She bowed again, a picture of grace
“You’ve misunderstood.”

“It is not to you that I wish to pray,
But for you.”

In my soul I feel
Bones
Scattered in the dust-
Stricken-
In the sun

Three white doves cannot fit in a nest
    But if the extra cannot find a mate
Then where should it fly at springtime’s end?
That lonely little dove, caught between two worlds
   The little dove left alone to mourn what it could not have
      Mourning it’s lost love in a lonely, empty little nest
         Perched precarious and pretty on a windowsill
            Little grey dove, mourning the morning