I write because I've had enough,
Of days and nights above
Drowning me with no love
Asking for more when I gave enough,
For blood, sweat and years
Every knock at the door,
Asking for a little more
I choose not answer anymore
I've had enough, you hear
Push anymore and I'll surely swing
I don't live an angry life
But do not think me weak
I do not hold the fears you breed,
Threaten with death or poverty
I do not care,
I do not bow,
My enemy is mine,
There is a darkness in me
And I have made peace with it, you see
If you have come to take,
I will make you bleed.

Have you heard the call home?
Do your dreams speak of the untold?
Does your inner world breathe life all of its own?

A bird of lofty heights soars
Its call a beautiful longing
Claiming the skies home

Pain written in lyric lines
Of caged rage
And nooses of rough twine

Snowy nights
Followed by sunny days
Whittling sticks of time

How's it all relate?
Freedom is a dangerous game
It flies in the face of proclaimed right

The heart betrays they say
The mysteries await
Enter Fate

I have a fear
Of something real
And something dear
No matter the lies I tell it's clear,
I hurt and so I fear,
A stranger who nears
It's love I fear.

A soul who roams isn't home.
In dying throes we know,
What the darkness holds.
Close your eyes one last time,
And remember home.
My dearest friend,
I'll hold your hand as you go.
A fellow traveler I know,
This isn't what we call home,
But I enjoyed your company before you had to go.
I'll keep your memory safe with me,
Till I leave this place and journey home.

Ships coming down
Straits of bone
To the bottom hole
Last to see
First to go

Hallowed fields of gold
Brushing gently
Upon little toes
Running to hearth and home
Earth grown

Empty sounds
Go unnoticed
In this field of brown
Ghosts roam around
Knowing not life

Like a winged fowl
Piercing gaze
And hunter's scowl
The reaper comes down
To mazed fields

Graced by dark and light
The fields change
While shadows roam by
Seeking peace in dualities
Opposite extremes

Scythe in hand, harvest is swift
The shadows gaze with uncertainty
Of the unseen
And all within intuition's grasp
Of the threshing fields

Shadows move in sun and moon
Seeking
Fields of gold,
An end to rough terrain,
Answers to the pain

Flickering vibrant life
Alive
Flames in your eyes
Tell the story of your life
Smoky hues of struggle
Rich blues of the destructive side
Your fire pleads for life
Raw and barren flames
Asking for respite
Fed to stay alive
Squashed enough to die
Your flame is brighter than this hue
Let it grow
Till it blazes
And you fear it burning you
Then you will see the fire in my eyes
And our dance will light the night

I once saw a swarm of flies
It was night
I was a child, a passenger with belt tight
No moon illuminated the sky
A lonely road with no one in sight
Only headlights
Lighting up the two laned road
South was reservation land
Filled with old mystery
And legends I grew hearing at night
North was a secret place
Government land, a base
Where some see lights or so they say
A lonely road bordered by these
With nothing but moths and flies
The night sky bright with stars
A streaking milky way
Our two lights making way in the night
A vortex of bugs numbing my eyes
An eerie feeling to be alone at night
Not a soul in sight
Even the stars watch with distant light
On a lonely road
The unknown on the left
Legend on the right
The road a fine line
My childish eyes seeing more than two lights
I see fireflies.

Last to leave
Never to break
Swirling the drain
It's not okay
But the lie remains
The lives of others come first today
Don't break
The world's not that kind of place
I don't remember if I ever didn't feel this way
I'm tired
And I've only begun the race
I despise my face
It lasts every poker game
Life granted me solidarity
My personality looks complete
Denying what I feel underneath
I'm breaking tonight
I don't want to see
I'm tired but it's not up to me
I'm looking for my strength
It's eluding me
A race to the end
Of the mask versus me.

Empty ride
My heart sits in the passenger side,
While my soul drives
Passing deserts with the occasional swath of life
My mind navigates while my emotions tune the radio
Sometimes it's just static and there's nowhere to go
I watch them from the backseat,
Like a child with no concept of distance or time.
They speak of an ocean not too far away
A place to bathe, Baptise some would say
I've never seen the water but I've heard the waves
Terrifying in their never ceasing might,
Why we drive to them I don't know
My soul knows why, always telling me it'll be okay
While my heart beats away,
Ageing with each pulse and quiver
My mind is busy calculating, though someone should give it a break
While emotions can't be satisfied,
They know why we need this drive
Peace in the journey, we were never meant to stay
In the rearview mirror I see all the cities we've passed by
We never belonged in them and they let us go without a goodbye.
The water awaits
I know it'll be my final fate
A breath to end all days
Flood waters to fill my chest
This body of mine, it follows
Even to its demise it knows
My soul will lead us home.

In forgotten light came birth
In cries and screams
It came to be
A mother torn of the child she bore
No father offering a home
Life was already worn
It happens this way
A child born but forgotten
Cries and fingers high ignored
The child grows hard and old
Before knowing why it feels alone
Looking for why
Finding no answers in the world's eye
Until the day the whispers came
Speaking of love in a distant place.
The child goes searching,
For a place calling its name
Of family who never gave it away.

Send me on my way wishing well
I don't ask for true love
Though it's nice to be held at night,
Or a million pieces of silver
I'd have to pay it all to Ceasar,
I don't ask for vengeance
Even if some wrongs have never been set right,
I don't ask for the gift of prophecy
My dreams are enough already,

I ask,
My throat be quenched on a hot day,
A fire warm my face in bitter cold,
Laughter never far from my lips,
Not a care when a wrong is better off than I,
A sunrise that makes me happy to be alive,
Empty eyes so I never forget why I tossed this coin
To be free of all I cannot say.

There was a dark place,
A little hole I called home,
Just for a night
It sheltered me when I was cold,
I dug deep just as I was told
Keep your head down I heard them say.
I watched as the stars above fell
And fire rained
From my little hole,
One by two,
My hole in the ground.

I'd love to hear freedom ring
Not with flags and anthems playing
But with afternoon rains and poetry
With pleasant ease
No future or past weighing in
Bodies just a simple vase to hold what's within
No oppression busting bones
Mind clear like crystal stones
Imagination left to soar like it was meant to be
No limits to be achieved
Freedom is hard won
The soul begs to be released
The mind demands to be free
The body craves comforted peace
Listen to the silent pleas
Let freedom ring
Let it ring for all of humanity.

My mind spins
Like a wayward top
Drifting towards the edge
The table no longer makes sense
Life is a masquerade
Why did I come to play?
My hollowed heart whispers to me
Its cup never filled yet often used
The light is dim
My eyes are no longer content
It's all fuzzy now
I've lost the sheet
Blocking eternity from me.

Drop the beat
Whistle that final wheeze
Blow the ram's horn
Strike matches on three

Hangman's knot
A fine collar for mortal decor
Ends hanging those ****** cords

Heaven above
Watching as soaring souls are freed
Lifted from mortal coil
At the hangman's drop
Chanting gallows horns
Deep chords of aching hearts

A dead man's walk
A final trudge
Whether sinned or not
Fate has been ordained

If I hang from that noose,
Will you meet me one last time?
Under dark skies
Before my gallow walk?

It's better this time,
Last time they set me alight.
I still smell ash,
The sickly sweet burning flames

Kiss me one last time
Before my drop
I'll carry our love to the final swing.

Don't look when my eyes turn grey
Glazed and faded away
I'll have left,
Freed to the skies
Where I'll roam and breathe free
Waiting for my captors,
So they'll see they could never **** me.

This time I'm not afraid
Perhaps because I trust myself now,
I know I'll live if you leave.
The past taught me that bitter thing
But now I see,
I'm okay to be
As I always am and know I'll be
So I let myself fall in love with you.
Please be gentle with me
Because those cracks you think are beautiful,
Were once scars that bleed.

Dead light
Passing by
More alive than you or I
Released into ether
Held by past memory
A balloon in a child's hand
Looking for ancestral might
Connection in our changing lives
Something to grab hold of
When the storm blows by.
When the light fades,
And I close my eyes
Let me go
I'll always be here,
In a cool breeze when the sun is high,
In the storm bringing water when the ground is dry,
And in the smile when you cry
A ghost I will not be
I'll exist in everything.

A moment, a day, a month, a year
I don't have it in me to care
Perhaps I cared too much
That much is clear
Too little too late
I was always here
I'll keep living
In this glass globe of all I've ever feared.

I didn't cry that day or the next
I never do
I'm ashamed that way.
As I've grown I know I loved you dearly
And even today I wish you were here
So I could say all these thoughts of mine.
I think we probably shared these things
But back then I was only fifteen
And I didn't know how to speak my mind.
I've learned now you knew and felt these things
It may be the blood we share
So I write this for you grandfather
As I write so many things
Of the day I saw you go.

I don't know if you knew I was there
I saw your children cry and grandchildren too young to know
I know you knew, when we last spoke
That you had to say what was on your mind,
When you told me to never quit
That I was better and to remember this.
So I say this not in tears, but with some pride,
I never did and I remind myself sometimes,
Of a man I knew who was kind and burdened in ways I never knew.
I didn't have the words to say that day
But now I do, it's taken some learning and truth.
Illness took you too soon,
This broken family still needs someone like you,
I know why they say the good die young,
You were burdened but never stooped,
And I dearly hope you knew how much I cared for you.

I didn't cry that day or the next
I never do
I'm ashamed that way.
As I've grown I know I loved you dearly
And even today I wish you were here
So I could say all these thoughts of mine.
I think we probably shared these things
But back then I was only fifteen
And I didn't know how to speak my mind.
I've learned now you knew and felt these things
It may be the blood we share
So I write this for you grandfather
As I write so many things
Of the day I saw you go.

I don't know if you knew I was there
I saw your children cry and grandchildren too young to know
I know you knew, when we last spoke
That you had to say what was on your mind,
When you told me to never quit
That I was better and to remember this.
So I say this not in tears, but with some pride,
I never did and I remind myself sometimes,
Of a man I knew who was kind and burdened in ways I never knew.

I didn't have the words to say that day
But now I do, it's taken some learning and truth.
Illness took you too soon,
This broken family still needs someone like you,
I know why they say the good die young,
You were burdened but never stooped,
And I dearly hope you knew how much I cared for you.

He washed his hands many times
He was finicky like that
Served him well
He'd seen what dirt can do.
Many thought him odd
A grave digger so concerned with being clean
But who complains on a grave digger?
After a long day he scrubbed his hands and face
Cleaned the dirt from his nails
And scrubbed his knuckles clean
A fellow laughed and called him a name
He didn't care and went his way
Walking through the neat rows
Till he came to a modest place
He laid down to rest his weary body
Glancing up to make sure counted right
All the white stones looked the same
He checked the name and was content
He tucked his hands behind his head
Reveling that they were clean
He'd had enough of filth
Of mud and dirt caking his face
He remembered it choking his mouth and nose
What a way to die
In a war at that
No glorious demise
Just a muddy pit
But now he was clean
He looked once more at his grave
It had been decades
No one seemed to notice who dug the graves
They only saw his clean face
He smiled and closed his eyes
'Such a better a place.'

Bottom of time
Working clocks a simple lie
Gravity descendent upon our lives
Answers raging in our minds
Never to the questions we desire
Breaking Fate's design
Hoping we'll outwit time
Our hearts and minds were not built
To die and pass without light
Folding space
Creasing our lives
Sandwiched in dimensions
Of reality's escapism
Gravity transcended time
So we reached back and saved our kind.

I like to write
Sometimes I stay up all night
Maybe it's an obsession
Or I spend too much time inside my head
It's always been my place to go
The silence never bothered me
In fact I never heard it at all.
My mind has gotten full
So now I come to express
All the thoughts dancing in my head.

I wish,
I didn't float so easily,
That my lungs didn't rejoice so with cool air,
That the night sky didn't fill me with longing,
That my thoughts didn't touch eternity every night.

I am,
A million lights and a void with nothing in sight,
A tempest given form,
An echo of past life,
A sunrise and sunset folding into endless light,
A storm of unparalleled might,
The child of my dreams crying at night
And the one who comforts her each time.

I will,
Attach my willowy ways to sinew and bone,
Stick my feet in the Earth,
Find peace in my temporary home,
Ask the highest of you
And not think less of you when failure is due,
Be the gentle breeeze caressing your face,
And the violent hurricane bringing change,
Be the storm inside of my wildest dreams.

No one comes along to take your hand
The path long left the map
Your footsteps are on an empty pass
Your shadow is the only company
On this singular path
Many will try and take you from it,
Offer safety in numbers in a broken system that long passed into yesterday's abyss
Fight for who you are
And take no one's word for wise
The guide is you and the path is only for your eyes
Embrace the life you have
The show will not last
And this illusion will have lost its chance
Learn what you can and make it last
The steps on this path are yours to find
Take it in stride
Leave the masses behind
You'll be alright

May my blood of this moon
Fall upon the stones
Creating life tonight
May the earth hear my cries
In the heat of night
I'll hand back with warriors might
Every grain and stars alight
Heal these wounds
Mother of the land and sky
Incantations of spirits on my side
May this blood flow bright
Down the stones to river beds and watery depths of absent light
Sky grant me one more breath tonight
I'll whisper my creation into life.

I stoke the fire
It's cold outside, snow is falling
This old stove keeps us warm
I watch the flames ripple and churn
Devouring the wood with appetite
It's beautiful to watch it burn
The smoky scent wafts through the air
Wrapping around me like a lovers embrace
The flames dance in my eyes I can feel their heat
It warms my skin and fills my soul
I thank winter for this gift,
Of hearth and home
Its cold and snowy days
Make the warmth so much more
Than a hot and sunny day.

In the forest black,
Where Grimm tales stand alive,
The sun shines upon the forest floor.
Covered in the dead
Rotting to feed life,
An ode of decay that smells fresh,
Of pine, oak, lavender and elderberry.

Late summer kisses the leaves,
Leaving a brittle leaf,
Fading yellow and wishing their trees sweet release.
Tall massive trunks reach out to the sky,
Like children asking for a parents embrace
How they creak when the sky ruffles them with breeze.

The mushrooms feast,
Offering those who dare to stop and eat,
A host of certainties,
A full belly, death, or a visit to divinity
An ecstasy of colorful soliloquy,
The forest gods smile you see.

Willow leaves, twisted vines
And whispering trees
Sing of Fall and Spring,
Knowing their ghosts will rise,
Come Allerseelen the forest will exhale,
With misty tide,
Cyclic rhythm will beat
Of death, life, and all in between.

There are some poems,
There are some stories,
I write with so much heart
I dump them onto the page
Hardly sorting them out
The way they came is already better than I could say.
They are beyond blood
They are little pieces of my soul,
Children of mine,
Should I let them go?
Let them free for all to see?
Something beyond words and philosophies
I feel them when I breathe
Gods, monsters, and prophecies.
Heaven and hell are within me
I see the lives in me,
And more than that I see them in you.
No matter the times the story never dies
See a myth and read it twice
It is your life
Your journey to find both hero and villain inside
I write not because it's a hobby
I write so I can breathe,
Would you like to take the journey?

I saw a helicopter tonight
Flying low with running lights
Made me think of the ocean
Watery horizon and dying sunlight
Reminded me of a Marine who flew a little too high
Helicopter in dusky skies
With red running lights
You remind me...
Of so many nights.

I saw death today
It roamed the halls and walked away
I asked why it didn't stay
It said it isn't a hunter looking for prey
Or a scavenger seeking decay
I said I've seen it come on better days
It shook its head and smiled my way
"I only come when life is ugly or has gone away.
But not today.
I'll be swift on that day, I never care to cause delay."
It walked away and I counted the steps it took on its way
So I'd know when it comes that it's my day.

It was empty
Nothing but glass
Broken and smeared
With stains of time and rust of tears
It didn't look the same
Not as it once had
In better days
Before the cracks and chips
If not for the reflections it would be bare
I think it shouldn't matter it's broken and old
The images are twisted now
Perhaps it's more real that way
So many lies in mirrors
Better to look at one broken and smeared
It'll paint you as you are rather than how you think you appear.

Give me a dream,
A haunting place
Where fires are alight
Raging flames
In the dead of night.
Dark skies,
With stars burning bright
Spirals of dust so far away.
Whisper to me,
Of cosmic grains
Carrying us on moonlight.
Light a candle tonight,
Wish the ancestors well,
Feed the ghosts,
Lift the veil of the bride
Here comes the souls
Marching side by side,
Good battles evil tonight.
Peer into the sky
We’re entering winter time.

Where the endless sea goes
Black sands stretch down the coast
And skies darken just right
The moons shine and the stars glow,
Where massive trees stand in time
Mountains shoot upwards, so cold
Hills lie down in gentle rolls
Forests grow in vast groves
This is home.

Where creatures fly
Buildings made of wood and stone
Streets so old clocks would die
People not bent to time,
Where my family goes
Every time we come home
With timber and marble stones
A hearth warm and embers gold
This is home.

Where my soul roams
Wandering shores and mountain sides
Never feeling lonely or out of line
Healing myself in the skies,
Where I go when tiredness has come
When I feel old
Settling back in with those of my kind
An essence shared for all of time
This is home.

Wish I could say it's been easy,
Some say it's been a long time coming.
Now I'm here and all I can do is stand,
Looking out to a horizon of emptiness.
An endless sea brushing against me,
Once it thrashed me against the rocks
I learned not to care.
It's been a long time
And this place seems like nowhere.
I've come this far on will alone,
Now I stand at the edge,
Watching my life go
Looking for a glimpse of hope
That I'm alright despite what's told.

Floors worn and smooth
Uniforms of blue
A place of memories
Of old and new

Ticking clocks and flicking lights
Warm blankets and chips of ice
Nurses around and doctors too
Here to heal and speak of news

I don't hate this place
I know the lights and scents
The sights don't frighten me
Perhaps they should, I've seen death in such a place

I sit and wait
Knowing you'll wake
Listening to the click
The easy, steady beat

Waiting till we leave this place.

I wrapped up my things today
Cleaned out my room and dusted the place
I tied a noose from the ceiling
And hung my heart from it, to air its woes
I sat and listened to it beat
Its constant thump echoing through the halls
Reminding me of this house in which I've grown
A house of bones
I know as I get older it will creak and moan
I count the scars in this house of mine
One, two, three..oh and one from when I tried to climb
I turn the faucets on so I remember it's okay to cry
I scrub the floors and paint the walls
Just to keep this house strong and all
I'm only a tenant in this house
But I call it home
This house of bones.

A House of Stones,
Built to last till time grows old,
To protect these bones,
Guarded by a sentinel who is alone.

These words trickle,
Through the stones,
Growing moss in the cracks,
Of this old home.

I wish I could go home,
An ache that is deeper now.
Strange as it sounds,
My places of stones is my only home.

All around me are strange sounds,
Smiling faces that surround,
All met with stoney calm
And the sentinel.

The hearth cradles my heart,
Though winter has been long,
It still warms the house.
However the entry is still incomplete.

The lock is complex and I’ve lost the key.
Forgive me,
All seeking entry,
The stones are not for you to see.

It’s a place of sanctuary and grief,
Set upon understanding,
At the roads of vigilance and fatigue.

If you speak the same to prince or pauper every time,
               Honor will walk beside

If you walk with dignity even when life is disgraced and your burdens are too great,
             Strength will be your mate

If you give your all even when you think you'll fall,
               Greatness is your call

If you are humble enough to think you are small but never kneel to a mighty man's calls,
               Slavery's walls will fall

If you love with no fear and let yourself experience tears,
      Regret will never mark the mirror

If you can have and lose without becoming bitter,
          Freedom will be in your eyes

If you look up, see the stars and wonder who you are,
           Curiosity will take you far

If you've seen the slave and carried all he gave,
              You've seen a better way
          
If you walked away from power because it didn't set right in your bones,
        The time comes for you to lead

If money never held your eye because the value never matched inside,
             Wisdom will have its day

If you fight when you've been beat too many times,
              Your spirit never dies

If you do not bow when authority becomes tyranny,
             Revolution is set to rise

If you've slept in the dirt and brushed it away the next day with no shame,
          Nothing stands in your way

If these are things you crave and they are your way,
      Humanity will step from the fray

I write things that feel right
But often the memories don't line up
I wonder why
In dreams my life speaks
Of horrors and pleasant things
Gripping a rifle at the bottom of a hole
Buttoning a child's coat when she's cold
A secret life that isn't mine
Yet is just as real as tonight
I wonder why
These memories are in my mind
I write of many lives
And I'm starting to think all are mine.

It's dripping down the walls
Sweet in taste
Bitter for the soul
Pleasant for the mind's control

Surrounding sounds
Nature calls and wild growls
Too much eaten
Yet starving despite it all

All the blood raining down
Doesn't relieve this hunger,
This dying ache
For love and fear surrounds

Won't you let me know
Before I go
That you heard my sound,
My hunger wasn't lost
Amid the jungle sounds

A hunter walks
In a subtle stalk
Holding his breath and refusing to talk
Waiting for his prey
When it appears his rifle is cocked
His lungs go quiet and his heart quickens
He pulls the trigger
The moment cannot be forgotten
Life and death hanging in the air
Like scents of apple blossoms
All a hunter will ever be
The silence unforgiven.

If you could take it all away,
Would you?
Every regret and hurtful thing?

I look at them some days,
Finding them disgusting in every way,
But if I wash them away,
Scrub the pain till it's raw and fades,
I find myself staring at an empty space.
A bitter thing to find,
That your suffering was by design.
Leaving no choice but to make a place,
Build some sturdy shelves
And embrace the pain.

It makes you whole,
Defining you in little lines
Of how you love or hate,
If you can lose or find peace in simple things.
I'd keep them all,
Every hurtful thing.
Fill my shelves
So someday I can count how many times I fell to my knees,
A library of my deceit.
Written in books I'll feel complete,
That my life was a challenge and not once did I give up on the journey.

Say something sweet
To take the pain away
You drink tonight to forget
Just a moment of this life
But my blood isn't sweet
My heart doesn't skip a beat
I'll look you in the eye
I won't flinch or deny
I gaze at life in a strange way