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Mark Steigerwald Sep 2017
To be surrounded
yet still alone.
To have it all
Yet still lacking some

To be loved
But not feel loved
To be found
But still feel lost
To be physically at home
But mentally still out on the open road.

Wandering without meaning
Roaming without a purpose.

Yes, dear reader
These are my greatest fears.

I want to be surrounded by love
And know that I am loved
Know that I am fully and securely loved
Whole, accepted, valued, significant.
And I want to share that love and that acceptance
With everyone else that I meet.

But I want it to start with me.
Inside my heart and deep within my bones.
So deep and so raw that it becomes apart of me
Apart of my dna
Apart of my chemical and biological makeup.
That people can't see me, think of me, or talk about me
Without bringing up "love" and "generosity"
Without bringing up the beautiful and wonderful name of
Jesus.

Let this be the goal of my life:
To love and be loved and feel loved and to know that I am loved and that I can be love for those who have no love, for those who have never known love. That I can be the hands and feet of love itself, a son of love, marked by it, molded by it, baptized in it.
Till all I am is love, till I am refined and cut, and sliced, and molded, and shaped, and scorched, and disciplined. Till I become love.Till I can love as I have been loved. To feel the extent of the love that is extended to me. This my dear reader, is my aim.
Mark Steigerwald Mar 2017
Its breaking through
Its crashing in on my funk
It's tearing through my veins
Ripping past my bones
It's growing within my chest

I've got a handful of lightning
I've got a head full of stars
I've got dreams so big
They don't fit on this earth

I've got a feeling so indescribable
So uncontainable

I want something
Just like this
Something just
Something just like this.
I want something just like this

I will fight
I will run
I will dance
I will dream
I will envision
I will wait
I will hold on
I will stand strong

For something just like this
I would do just anything
I would fly to mars
I would swim to the depths
I'll climb to the heights
I would ride the wind
I'll cross the void
I would harness the mighty current
I'll bear the weight upon my shoulders
This is no fairytale feeling
No emotion based motives

I want something just like this
And I will roar at the stars
I will soar like a comet
To get it

I want something that is just like this
And I'll do anything to get it

I swing my head left and right
I move my hands up and down
I kick my feet high into the air
I dance away all feeling of doubt
I jump into the great unknown
With the off chance that this will work

Something like this
Just like this
I want something
Something that's just like this

I'm not looking for perfection
I'm not looking wealth
I'm not looking for fame
I'm not looking for comfort
I'm not looking for power

I'm looking for something just like you
just like you

Something that's real,
Something that's genuine
Something that has a heart of gold
A voice of sweet silk
A smile that makes my heart feel like an exploding atom bomb
Eyes that could slice through anything
I want something just like you
Something warm and kind
Something sweet and pretty
Something of true value
Something of immense depth

You make my heart head spin
You make my world go round
You make my dreams come alive
You give my poems life
You give my words meaning and depth


Just like this
Just like you

I want something just like this.
Mark Steigerwald Dec 2016
This is my war cry
This is my moment
My do or die.

When the heavens come crashing
down on me
when the mountains rear their heads in defiance of my existence.
When all that I know turns against me
seeking to wipe out all memory
of who I once was.

When the oceans rage
and the skies thunder
when the beasts howl
and the stars plummet violently to earth.
When the darkness consumes all hint of light
when the sun and the moon succumb to the night.
When my thoughts torment me
when my weakness is greater than it's ever been before.

When all hell breaks loose and its minions are unleashed upon me.
When the fear is crippling
when the hate hits its zenith
when hearts break
and all hope in me is lost.
When the rope that I held on to for so long snaps into shreds of dust
when the love I held in my heart gets ripped away.
When everything and everyone
falls into line to tear me apart.

I will not back down.

This is my defiance.
This is my battle cry
my shout of rebellion.

Come hell, come fire, come darkness, come storm

I will not back down.

This is my defiance
This is where I make my stand.
I will not lose ground,
I will make ground.
I will advance.
And I will conquer.
I will see the world
I will see great and wonderful things laid out before my very eyes.
I will see faces from the far corners of the earth
I will climb the highest mountains
I will bear the heaviest burdens.
I will swim the strongest currents
I will bear through harsh cold and fierce heat
I will never stop
I will never quit
I will overcome everything that is laid out before me
Nothing can stop me
Nothing can hinder me from achieving my goals, my dreams, my desires.

I am a loose cannon, no one can hold me down now
I am as free as the wind
as wild as the sea.
I am defiance
And defiantly I will rise above this tempest.
I will rise and I will overcome.

I am Defiance.
Try and stop me now.
Mark Steigerwald Nov 2016
Its closing in
Burning within
Beneath my skin
My darkest sin.

Its rising to a peak
It's blinding me from what I seek
It snaps at my  feet
It shouts out at me with all its strength
"I am your defeat!".

It's eyes ablaze
yet oh so dark
What measure knows his tallied days
What fathom holds  his tormented heart.
It peers unwanted into my fragile soul
it grasps tightly
desperate to take me down and pull
me with him.

His hold so tight,
like an eternal night
the fear goes on and on and on.

But then I see it.
Or perhaps it's a Him and not an it.
It's bright as the sun yet I can look right at it.
Its coming close
so very close.
My heartbeat quickens,
my frail courage thickens
And the beast that grasps my soul clenches tighter
as the light before me glows brighter.

As the being comes closer I can tell that it's a Man
but like no man that I have ever seen,
his eyes carry the fiercest gleam,
like nothing else I've ever seen,
like no dream thats ever been dreamed.

I can see pure white light
the fire that surrounds him is ferocious
yet somehow I am surviving this sight.

I look down and I feel
the cold, clammy claws
of the beast start to peel
away.

Before the brilliance
and the sheer glory
of Him who comes
The beasts resilience
and the wretched story
we share
begin to crumbled.

Piece by piece,
link by link
stone by stone
the dungeons, the shackles the walls,
that the beast had build around me
Began to undo.
All his work, everything that he had fought for for so long,
now coming undone in mere moments.

Suddenly I feel it
The great weight coming off.
I had been at the bottom of the sea
with a millstone tide around me
with all those voices telling me
who I ought to be.
Telling me what I ought to see
down in that devil's sea
where all around me
was darkness.
A darkness that gave me a false identity,
a darkness that told me I could never be.
"Now see darkness?" I shout "I now can be,
for you now can not.
For He set me free, He said son you're free!
so be here no more in this devil's sea.
Come with me now
I want to give you an eternity with me."

I stretched my weary legs and jumped for freedom
I watched as the beast plummeted down into his doomed kingdom.
It was finally over.
The weight off my shoulder
all those long years,
all those wretched tears.
I was free.

As I reveled in my freedom
He stepped in near,
He said "In me there is no fear".
He said "My son, my son I will never forsake you."
I said "But I am not worthy, if only you knew
what I know, if only you had seen what I have seen."
He simply looked into my eyes
with those burning eyes of his,
And He said "I know 'everything', and 'everything' doesn't change a thing.
My love for you is unconditional, my love for you comes without a price or expectations. It's pure, it's whole, it's bigger than you could ever imagine. I have always loved you, I have always been with you, but you have not always been with me. I have set you free now be free and see all that I have for you.
My son your 'everything'  doesn't make you weaker, it doesn't make you less attractive to me, it doesn't hinder me from loving you. Your 'everything' only makes you stronger. Your story is your strength. Your past is your rock. Broken bones grow back stronger, Broken hearts grow deeper, broken souls find their healer and re-find their purpose.
The best is yet to come for through me
You are STRONGER.
Mark Steigerwald Nov 2016
Deepest blue
Those eyes on you.
They blaze and burn
Making my stomach turn.
I'm lost in the moment
so lost in this moment
I can't believe that I'm so lost in this moment.

Your eyes are on me, so very kind
they gaze into the secrets I hoped no one would find.
They pierce my skin and search within
they find what's wrong and they reveal my sin.
They see me for who I am and not for what I've done
They bring the darkest parts of me into the sun.

Not a whisper of judgment
No murmur of condemnation
Your eyes are love, pure, wild, blue as the sky.
They look at my shame filled heart
and they say to me"For this I will die".

I get lost in your eyes,
in your beautiful clear eyes.
They smile at me and I know I am not alone
In your eyes I am accepted, valued, worthy, priceless, loveable, pure.
Jesus, in your eyes my purpose is revealed
In your eyes my heart can finally be healed.

Your eyes, like nothing I've ever seen before,
So genuine, so full of honesty, an open door.
When I look into them I instantly know that I can trust them.
Those eyes of yours Jesus, that see the beauty in the broken
That see the best in everyone, that never judges or condemns.

In your eyes there is a love vast as the ocean
An empathy that knows my circumstance and understands my journey.

Your eyes ablaze, will satisfy my soul
for all my days.
Your eyes like a burning flame
Leaves me changed and never the same.

I'm found in your eyes
That see me for my potential
I'm found in you amazing eyes
That will never stop hoping or believing the very best for me.
Mark Steigerwald Oct 2015
Rambling rivers
Bone shivers
Vegetation withers
The beast slithers

Ocean tides
Coward hides
Avalanche slides
Gunman decides

Feel bold
Know cold
Tightly hold
Lies sold

We all decide
Choices collide
Friends make war
Enemies make amends
Opportunity closes her door
nightmare never ends.

Life is a fickle one
For all of us,
under the sun.

This is for all of us
those who share this world,
under the sun.
Mark Steigerwald Oct 2015
Breathless I gasp.

Voiceless I call.

Your face eludes me,
your heart so very far from mine.

What a peculiar state we're in,
lost in the wild,
drowned in the silence.

These days I struggle to see your face,
your smile,
your laughter.

How come we by this canyon?
This incredible divide.

It weighs ever so heavily upon my soul,
tearing the life from my chest,
ripping the very heart in me.

Your face eludes my vision
I cannot see you,
your so far away from me,
I'm helplessly lost in the night.

I grasp at thin air
searching for what is not there,
for your are so far away,

So very,
far away.
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