If I spread my soul out before you, would you stay, seeing all my light and all my dark?
  -Rhia Clay

Then there are those moments which touch the soul,
and you wish you could freeze them in time.
Sometimes, mere moments of kindness can heal years of pain.

-Rhia Clay

I am grateful for those shining their light into this world, for those fighting for the good, despite the pain they've known.

I am most careful with them because they're the best part of this world, casting their hope into the dark, casting their nets into the stormy seas.

-Rhia Clay

Feeling the torn wings and shattered dreams.
Tear-stained pendulum swinging, as my eyes stare down the light in the hallway with a ten-yard stare.
Climbing into my soul, I cling to the shadow of my angel, trying hard to hold onto a ray of hope, like a dream catcher chasing away bad things.
Falling, I realize that in this descent, I am discovering myself on my way to the ground.
Falling endlessly and quietly, without a single sound,
I ask myself how much farther down I must go.
My soul whispers back softly, “Until you’re found.”

-Rhia Clay

I breathe deeply, remembering sweetly.
I close my eyes, and the sound of the wind as it runs along the beach is close.
The sound of seagulls fills the air, and the piercing sun that causes me to squint is hot on my face.
The hum of the car stereo rings in my ears, and I feel its rhythm in my fingertips.
My heart swells with happiness as my grandfather smiles warmly at me and asks if I’d like an ice cream.
I am as happy and drunk on life as I will ever be.
At this moment, I don’t yet realize that the grandfather I know as my father will soon leave me, as his body begins to fail him and his heart beats for the last time.
I am 10 years old and I believe he will live forever; death is the farthest thing from my mind. Life still feels gentle and breezy.
It’s on days like these that I hold on to the memories of my father. I carry his smiling, gentle eyes in my heart, and on the dark days, I fight harder because he loved me so deeply.
I let that love burn away the pain.

-Rhia Clay

I am an artist, try as I might, I will never fully live in this world.
A part of me will always live in the songbird's pocket,
and fly, to land on the windowsill of Romeo and Juliet,
to flutter to the doorstep of Anais Nin,
to hear the poetic masterpieces of her mind.
No, with this artist's heart and a poet's soul,  
a part of me exists only in a dream.

-Rhia Clay

Fall greets the earth as summer slips quietly away.
The seasons are changing, as the leaves shift in color from Emerald Green and Chartreuse
to Russet Browns, antiques of their once fine grandeur,
though still splendid in their beauty.
The color of the leaves, as if painted by hand, so individually crafted.
With swirls of Orange and Coquelicot, the leaves fall as if they are gracing the earth the way a painter graces their canvas.
The air grows cooler, giving way to new glory, breezy winds that whisper, carrying undertones of what is to come.
The lakes feel the chill, and the creatures understand that the changing winds will soon give way to a glacial paradise, an icy oasis.
The changing of the season from summer to fall is one I look forward to,
for there is something in the change that brings back fond memories.
Days filled with love, days spent in front of the fire, snugly wrapped, watching the flames twirl and dance.
Days filled with wonder, days in which my life seemed to move along to a soft and gentle melody that only I could hear.
Days when I held to life, and it met me with grace.
Still now, when I feel the fall winds gently embracing my skin,
I feel the same wonder, and that old melody carries me away again.

-Rhia Clay