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9.2k · Jul 2018
Somewhere Along the Way
James LR Jul 2018
Success was a yellow brick road
Hope was a star in the sky
Grief was a runaway dog
Maturity was knowing it died
Joy was a chocolate bar
And Escape just meant to run far
Then somewhere along the way
Everything began to change

The yellow brick road was too long
The star in the sky was too far
And when the dog died it was sad
(but mostly cuz you drove the car)
The candy was not on our diet
And you can't escape who you are
Why did we decide to grow?
That much I'll never know
8.5k · Jul 2018
Upon the breathing tide
James LR Jul 2018
Spilt upon the breathing tide
The shadows of our former pride
Stained with gilded, rusty gore

Songs upon the breeze still scream
From barren bog and skylit sea
Once were sung but nevermore

Clouds cry crimson in the lake
The moons and stars the sky forsakes
As darkness falls on ****** shores
5.5k · Dec 2018
I Met the Devil
James LR Dec 2018
The devil met me in the street
Beneath a lamp post glow
He taught me to only reap
whatever I could sow

He taught of wrong and right
He taught the way of life
He taught me not to trust the ones
Who follow in faith blind

I met the devil in the street,
Beneath a lamp post glow
He said to doubt all that I see
Choose my own way to go
4.0k · Sep 2018
The Mouse and Rat
James LR Sep 2018
Will was a mouse of tawny hue.
And as he grew he came upon
A leaf beside a silver stream.
When slithering, then creeping on

A monster snuck from olive grass
And all but asked to have his fill.
Down stream our friend did run away,
And thus escaped the brave mouse Will.

So floating on along the stream,
And wondering where he should go.
Then at a fork in brooklet bank
He took the way to forest old

Our mouse with fur of sandy brown,
The raft he grounded on the shore
And ran into the darkened wood.
From whence he would return no more.

For in the wood there lived a rat
Who did attack the chance to prey
Upon this humble passerby
That chanced to try to find his way

And then our mouse found destiny
And resting he was unaware
Of danger there. Rat had his fill
of Mr. Will and didn't leave a hair
I wanted to try using the trisyllabic rhyme scheme used by Tolkien in his poem "Errantry". Very hard to write in, and I probably flubbed it in some spots.
James LR Sep 2018
Life is not a tapestry
It is a single thread
The people are the knots and kinks
Who just get in the way of things
Of Mother Earth's sewing machine
3.0k · Aug 2018
Sticking Undertones
James LR Aug 2018
Above the wind plains roaring white
With lightning crack's climaxing light
In the prepubescent gloom
Of fear, excitement, unrealized doom
The moon appears in cloudy skies
With blissful sighs as knowledge dies

****** grasses ripped from home
As breeze embraces seed and blows
To new beginnings and new ends
Where e'er the Fates may deign to send
A rose's bud seeps from below
Mixed with sticking undertones

When innocence concedes the stage
To reside in maturation's cage
And foolish fancy takes to flight
The sun forever fades to night
Started out as a normal poem, and uh...I have no idea how it got here
3.0k · Jul 2018
Fireworks
James LR Jul 2018
Thundering skies
And sparkling lights
Declaring our individual rights
To life and guns and liberty
And doing whatever makes us happy
But fireworks aren't nearly as bright
As the pride for the Stars and Stripes
Happy Treason Day! :-)
2.6k · Jun 2018
A thousand pictures
James LR Jun 2018
What does the abstract look like?
Tell what the blue bird sang.
Show me how a tiger strikes
With fear instead of fang.
Although a camera may be quicker,
A word is worth more than a picture.
A picture is worth a thousand words. Pffft. A picture is a few sentences. A thousand words is an essay.
2.5k · Nov 2018
Flame
James LR Nov 2018
A life is of vigor and flame
No two truly the same

Campfire encircled by stone
Never shall freedom know
Their days are prolonged
But when they are gone
Nothing but nothing remains

Infernos that through forests rage
Leave a burnt blackened stain
A mark left behind
From a life quick to die
Living forever
Deserving the name
Of "Flame"
I'd rather be ashes than dust
2.1k · Mar 2018
Favorite Sweater
James LR Mar 2018
A little battered, a little worn
A little stained, a little torn.
Bits of sweat and blood and tears
Stretched from sleep throughout the years.

It isn't much, but it's like me
Filled with care and memories
The white no longer holds it's glow
But it's still warm and soft and so
If you need my sweater,
I'll give it happily.
I know you'll wear it better
And with you I will be.
James LR Sep 2018
I think I'd like to be a ghost
Be there but not be seen
Peer at people passing by
Ignore them all with silent sigh
Just like they ignore me

I'd like to be a phantom
Suspended in a dream
Watching time come rushing past
Knowing that it's gone too fast,
I'll be the same I've been

I want to be a spirit
Separate from myself
Seeing my form move with ease
Then breaking with life's broken breeze
Yes.

I think I'd like to be a ghost
But when I stop and really think
I guess that's what I am
1.3k · Sep 2018
Where Echoes come to die
James LR Sep 2018
The echoes of the sea still ring
Lost praises no one heard them sing
They die on cliffs of stone and glass
Black smudges circle in the sky
To find the echoes come to die

The water like the sky is soot
And trees will ne'er again take root
The dark of night, the light of day
Once echoed in that silent sky
Where every echo comes to die
1.3k · Nov 2021
The Blue of Dawn
James LR Nov 2021
If e’er the sky could glisten like your eyes,
The blue of dawn before the radiant day,
When day’s begun though sun is yet to rise
All stars are lost; the color of night stays.
Or winter’s early frost which dusts the land
could in that petty hour before the light
Be taken up in some ephemeral hand
And cast across the morning’s cobalt height,
The beauty of your soul would mirrored be
Across the coruscating firmament.
To bid the night to stay, the sun to flee
The time before the dawn made permanent
And in the night where peace can touch the soul,
Would be your gaze to ever make me whole.
Sonnet #18
1.2k · Apr 2019
What does that say of Him
James LR Apr 2019
We think that we are all unique,
yet none as good as Him.
We alone face trials deep
And dark and dank and grim.
Thinking ourselves so wise or strong
Thinking that we alone did fall.
Esteeming that we are alone,
Walking through life alone.

Yet truly we are all the same,
hypocritic fools: all men
and if in His image are made,
what does that say of Him?
1.0k · Jul 2018
The Stars begin to disappear
James LR Jul 2018
This has happened all before
first once then twice then by the score
The stars begin to disappear
Impassioned by their hoary fear
They fade with age as morning calls
To all those who have yet to fall
Beneath the crystal sands of time
They sink to rest with heavy sigh,
And dimming down their milky light
The stars wink out with the night
1.0k · Sep 2018
Happy Birthday to me
James LR Sep 2018
Another year to celebrate.
Another year to denigrate.
For all that may go wrong.
For songs I haven't sung.

How far could I have come since then
If sinful idleness became
The incarnate expression of
The man I should have been?

One less year to grow and thrive
One less year I must survive
Awaiting our decaying fall
Birthday in a few. I always get the birthday blues
1000 · Jun 2018
It's hot
James LR Jun 2018
The sweat is dripping down my back,
          As water pools on the tarmac.
The sun glaring from overhead,
          It makes me wish that I was dead.
The humidity starts to stick
          And I think that I might be sick.
Thermometer is at the top.
          Maybe by night, it will have dropped
to 99, but hopes aren't high.
          Icarus wouldn't dare to fly.
This kind of heat will melt your skin.
          Not even the creatures of sin,----click

...
...
...

The door's unlocked! At last it ends!
          My spirits shall the A/C mend!
The battle hard, the war was long,
          So I begin my vict'ry song
Of how I must have conquered death!
          I've tasted of the dragon's breath,
From whence I've suffered a few burns.
          And so this day, the lesson learned:
That if you choose to leave your home,
          Regardless, of how far you roam
Always be sure to take with thee
          Leave not at home the only key
Tetrameter about how hot it is right now (it's bad)
...yeah I locked myself out
998 · Dec 2019
Forgotten in the Snow
James LR Dec 2019
A thousand kisses on the leaves
In rainbow shades amidst the green
Long forgotten in the snow
Decaying where we do not know.
965 · Aug 2018
A lightless night
James LR Aug 2018
The ocean blue turns into ink
and midnight sirens start to sing.
Lurking in alleys and over heads
And in the few million ways
That you could wind up dead
A broken night of windy chills
Is the brokenness that kills
When stars and moon can no man see
The sky is truly dead to me
942 · Jun 2018
Metronome
James LR Jun 2018
Everyone has a metronome
Sometimes fast and sometimes slow.
We heed their tick where ere we go.
But I have a broken metronome

I start my metronome each day
Maracas of pills, they join the fray.
Life has its peaks, it has its lows
So too, my ticking stops and goes
930 · Sep 2018
Sunlight Stains
James LR Sep 2018
These curtains hewn of sunlight stains
Forever banish thoughts of rain;
And then beneath the golden light,
Fear and folly flee from sight.
A phantom wind -conviction bright-
Relieves my heart of rage and spite.
Leftover grief of yesterday
Is filled with hope and fades away.
What are your "curtains"?
803 · Dec 2017
Raincloud
James LR Dec 2017
drip
       drip
               drip

The sky is blue they say

      drip
drip
      drip

My soul is full of rain

I feel it's steady drum
I hear it's quiet sigh

The water clears my eyes.
No longer am I blind.
I see this land of misery,
The way it's meant to be.

Don't want to feel the sun again,
For my soul is filled with rain.

Go and play in your sun,
Don't mind me, have fun!
I'm feeling kinda dreary, so

I'll drip and
drip and
     drip and
drip and

I don't want to be a desert,
I don't want to be a flood.
I was made to be a raincloud,
Dripping just because.

Don't want to see the sun again,
My soul is filled with rain.
I'll drip and drip and drip and drip
and with each drop I'll sing.

drip
    drip
drip
782 · Dec 2018
Strange Dreams
James LR Dec 2018
Strange thoughts, strange dreams
Bulging at their seams.
Teeth that feel and think and breathe.

A shattered sky, a shattered mind
Locked and thinking out of time.
The satin droplets from on high
that sink into the burning snow,
The mountain stoops to squint at stone.
638 · Mar 2019
Bed
James LR Mar 2019
Bed
My bed is warm
My bed is kind
My bed will always take the time

To keep me safe
And let me rest
From all that would try their best

To wake me to a world of noise
A thousand things to do or think
When I would rather lay in bed
Ignoring all, yet never dead
618 · Sep 2018
Honest Words
James LR Sep 2018
Breathing walls and vision stained
with the dying light of day
Honest words in honest pain
Hours later filled with shame
576 · May 2019
By Brick Uneven Brick
James LR May 2019
Brick upon uneven brick,
We built our standards high.
The stones we laid, morality,
Are slowly stripped away
By brick uneven brick.
Morality's demise.
555 · Jun 2018
For every kid, a family
James LR Jun 2018
America is wonderful!
Opportunities are plentiful!
Believe whatever you want
Whatever cause feel free to flaunt.
But stop and look around and see
The orphaned birthright of poverty.
And when reality starts sinking in,
Harden your heart, and toughen your skin.
Turn away the ***** and blind.
The fault is theirs. And never mind
The families we tear apart.
529 · Oct 2018
Beneath
James LR Oct 2018
Beneath the autumn trees that sway with auburn hue,
Beneath the gilded leaves that laugh on silver bough,
Beneath the roots that never knew,
The sunlight shine or taint of plow.

Beneath the prizes of the land that lay in beauty raw,
Beneath the remnants of the ones who came aeons before,
Beneath the raging fire of flaw,
To purify her ferric core.

There lies a heart of molten girth.
That's been companion since our birth
To every life that's come or past,
And every life that's lived to die.
522 · Oct 2018
Everything I Touch
James LR Oct 2018
King Midas had a golden touch
His love of treasure was too much
To satisfy his heart of stone
Sitting on his golden throne.
Everything he touched turned into gold.

Everything I touch turns into ash.
The life I made has slipped away
Into a night of grim decay
The homes I've made
And friends I've had
Leave me hollow
Leave me sad

Like Midas, I, am left alone
Sitting on a broken throne
498 · Aug 2018
Corona Dressed in Black
James LR Aug 2018
The sun's corona dressed in black
Is staring at the ground
As shadow gathers round.

Finding the rare relief of peace,
The stars come to the fore
(Tears shut behind the door)

Then wiping sleep from sunken eyes,
She bids farewell to honest skies
And comes to sight once more.
491 · Jun 2018
Love highs
James LR Jun 2018
Gossamer silk and home-spun lace
Elysium clothed in Virtue's grace
Liquid moonlight as thy perfume
Begging me to get a room

Drink me in with angel sighs
Tasting ethereal delights
Fingertips on blushing skin
Sounding Inhibition's end

The temple is second to thy own
The glory of the sun on loan
A rose by another name is thine
The name to thee I'll give is mine
489 · Oct 2018
Yosemite
James LR Oct 2018
Matchsticks used and burned to black
Stand amid their brethren tall
Through Mount and Vale
Their limbs compete
To reach into Heaven's seat

Merced flows and bubbles past
Bird and beast both heed the call
From Bridal Veil
Is river born
To reach for the Distant Shore

Stare in awe! El Capitan,
Mighty Chief, above them all
The peak unveils
Yosemite
In its natural majesty
Went to Yosemite this past weekend
476 · Dec 2018
A Single Glassy Song
James LR Dec 2018
I hear a single glassy song:
The thought of life itself is wrong.
When overhead and over trees,
Over clouds and over seas
Suspended by a silver thread,
Is air that gleams in heaven's bed
And glittering realms that wait in dreams.
Things that only dead men see.
462 · Nov 2018
Nature's Greed
James LR Nov 2018
Silver sun on basking lakes
where golden ice sits in her throne
Of ice and snow and frosted stone

Rubble red the soil takes
to try and sate Queen Nature's greed
for all above and all beneath

Power can never be slaked
Man and Earth are master's each
Of the mountain and the beach
No wealth outside their reach
459 · Jun 2018
Withdrawal Pains
James LR Jun 2018
Withdrawal pains:
They rot my brain
Nausea and headaches
Faint and fatigue
Long nights spent
asking "why me?"

To think that pills can do this too,
I thought this was unique to you
449 · May 2019
Garden of the Skies
James LR May 2019
Linger in the garden of the skies.
Walk and stray down silken starry lanes.
Come and taste the nectar of the moon.
Come and see the sun's eternal bloom.
Try to fly among the nebulae.
Try to see the garden grow and raise,
worlds that have not yet received a name.
439 · Dec 2019
Quicker than you think
James LR Dec 2019
With every word and weakness
With each forgotten dream
You grew upon my heart and mind
More quickly than you think.
437 · Jul 2018
Superman is Lonely
James LR Jul 2018
He sees us from afar
With his eagle eyes
Knowing how weak we are
He makes Clark his disguise

His strength comes from the sun
His first destroyed his race
Though he's the only one
No tears streak down his face

His skin is made of steel
And yet his heart still feels
His home is known as solitude
His loneliness is real

Not even the Man of Tomorrow
Is immune to sorrow.
Personally I don't care too much for Superman. But he is one of the loneliest of the superheroes.
427 · Jun 2018
How Life Works
James LR Jun 2018
First you lose your heart
And then you lose your head.
Then your body isn't yours
(meaning that you're dead).

First you say hello
And then you say goodbye.
Then you say goodbye once more
Hoping someone cries
427 · Sep 2018
A Poem is a Pen
James LR Sep 2018
A poem is a journal
A poem is a pen
A poem is the emotion
We can't contain within
405 · Nov 2018
Kill the Light
James LR Nov 2018
A drop of rain upon the glass
A second, third, and then at last
Pouring in a sheet of spite
To soak and slick and chill the night
Darken, diminish, **** the light
384 · May 2019
Across the Lane
James LR May 2019
There was no crosswalk here
yet crossed I nonetheless.
And with just mild fear,
I ran across the lane.

The light had took too long.
The button stayed depressed.
A street sign said 'twas wrong
to run across the lane.

But I cut across the street
and then I cut again.
knowing not where I'd be,
I ran across the lane.

Until the corners I had cut
all caught up with my feet,
and then at last I was resigned
to just walk down the street.
383 · Dec 2017
I love her yet
James LR Dec 2017
Us two were lovers in a time long past,
You greeted me each day with cool embrace.
Until I found another's lips to taste.
I thought the time I shared with her would last
And within my heart, she is unsurpassed.
Enamored by the beauty of her grace,
Her kindness, virtue, and her lovely face.
She loves me, yet too much of her I asked.
And now, Lady Sorrow, we'll walk once more.
I'll welcome you in heart as dearest friend.
I pledge my love more truly than before.
With thee and only thee my time I'll spend,
No longer caring for what lies in store.
Thy company I'll keep until the end.
Sonnet #9
377 · Nov 2018
Where Peace Abides
James LR Nov 2018
The rising sun that burns the eye
Wincing, as I turn with sigh
For blazing light of blazing ire
Cannot set my heart on fire
The way you do with crystal light,
Pouring from eyes shining bright
With all the love you give to me
And all the love I give to thee
That speaks in volumes to my soul
Of eternities of love untold
Where peace and love and warmth abide
Our hands forever intertwined.
372 · Nov 2018
When Truth Lies
James LR Nov 2018
When moon and sun collide
When stars have left the sky
When ocean waves decide
Forever still to lie

When flame has lost it's fire
When truth is made a liar
Then at last I'll tire
Of seeing you at my side
371 · Sep 2019
My Hestia
James LR Sep 2019
O Lady Fortune, matron of the moon
who changes every eve. Your nature sought
to be unkind to most and likewise fought
my fate. For years I spat and cursed and rued
your name. I wondered why you thought to doom
my works to fail when I had done but naught
to earn thy spite and need to fight for aught
which I would keep from thy gambling room.
And yet somehow, by twist of Cousin Chance,
you deigned to put true beauty in my way,
a Hestia to mend the ache of time.
Her starshot eyes have set me with a glance
alight. My sidhe to hold and love, always
for to cherish while she will remain mine.
Sonnet #15
366 · Sep 2018
For better or for worse
James LR Sep 2018
For better or for worse,
My heart is in your hand.
I choose to put you first.

Just ask me to, and I'll rehearse:
That by your side, I choose to stand
For better or for worse.

Give me thy pains to nurse,
And let me help you understand
That I still choose to put you first.

Bring me joy, slake my thirst,
As I walk with you through this land
For better or for worse.

Be this a blessing or a curse,
My soul is searéd with Love's brand.
So let me choose to put you first.

My heart with thy love doth now burst.
The trials of life, we will withstand.
And so for better or for worse,
Know I will always put you first
My first villanelle
361 · Jun 2019
#hashtag
James LR Jun 2019
#me
#metoo
#whatarewegoingtodo
#whentagsbegintofallapart
#andnoo­neelsecanreadourheart?
#wemayhavetofindaway
#tospeakthewordswemea­ntosay
#tofindourselvesandshareourlife
#withthosewhowouldjusthitd­islike
355 · Dec 2017
Quiet and Alone
James LR Dec 2017
I once knew a man whose heart was more true
And love more pure, joy waxing with each day.
He was but a man, imperfect he knew.
Yet flaws were strength for him to choose his way.
She looked at him, and he looked upon her.
Together better, happiness and more.
Forever joined- both said that they were sure.
Yet they said he was not whom she looked for,
She left him broken without and within.
Made him a boy ashaméd to be seen.
His mind went with his heart and both are gone.
No rest to sooth, for she yet haunts his dreams.
She claims me, and I (quiet and alone)
I have no one to truly call my own.
Sonnet #8
346 · Dec 2017
Be More
James LR Dec 2017
How to convince a man without a cause
the life he leads could ever bring him joy?
Tell him not to linger upon his loss;
move on and apart, be more than a boy.
"It's foolish for you to think of me so.
My choice has already been made for me.
I will pretend I care not for your soul.
You were only a burden unto me."
Tell him those truths and cease thy lying ways.
Thoughts not thine own now dwell within thy mind.
'Twas you who twisted deeper Fortune's blade;
you claimed that you would not cast him aside.
Sorrow, milady, awake or asleep
to no one else I'll trust my heart to keep.
Sonnet #7
Found this from last year
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