Today, like most days since you left
my bed lies empty
The summer of this room has faded to winter
your smell has slipped from these sheets
I still think about you when bodies come to visit
Mistaking their longings for your own
and their moans for your sweet songs
Hoping that one day you will be the one
opening the door returning to bed
In the meantime I still have my dreams
all of them laced with memories of you

Tonight I listened to your story
Heard the path you have walked
How you took flight with angels
And how you came crashing back to earth
If I could
I wish I could take all the hate in your heart
Bury it in some forgotten chest
and set it out to sea
You say how you've become a shell
Battered and bloodied
The king of nothings
Shackled to a spiteful god
who will never know your name
You say they only thing you ever loved
was the way she made you feel
How she flooded your veins and
claimed your body like a battlefield
And how everyday without her
leaves you more hungry than the last

The morgue is filled with all
the dead faces I once wore,
I am no mortician ,
The bodies have begun to rot,
The men I once claimed to be
can no long pass for the real thing,
I wore their faces like masks,
Played the role that was asked,
Encores were demanded,
I was not prepared for this,
I am no mortician,
The bodies have begun to rot,
I guess the show goes on,
Even with broken things

1.) It is possible to love something more than you could ever dream of loving yourself

2.) Life without you is getting easier

If the body had seasons
I'd say that this sadness is winter
The garden has wilted
The creatures have gone
Sought shelter and slumber
No longer can I hear the rivers
They've all frozen over
All that remains
Are these gods of malice
False prophet kings
Picking what's left of me
To keep their bellies full

I'm not even sure what I am writing anymore,
A poem? A warning? some fleeting memory?
Penning the things inside of me
that demand some sort of release

How I cried on my drive home
as the sky above me melted into
a finger painted sunset
The shades and shapes there for but a moment

The way I heard the words of woman tonight
That brought me to my knees
Stories that ripped at the fibers of my heart
Saying all the things I have
tried so desperately to put to page
In such an ease that left me reeling

The man who stands on his pedestal
crying out for the world to listen
Knowing he is nothing more but
background to those on their morning commute

The kiss of a young couple
shared along the seawall
I wonder if they could
taste the salt in the air
on each others lips

These are things I take for granted
These moments in between

On that day
The two of us
Sitting beside another
On a pier over some river

Henry says to me:
"Do you ever wonder why there are fish
and birds and you and me?"

I took a moment
Then I said:
"No, I don't."

And there was silence
followed by laughter
And more silence

So we stayed on that pier
on some unimportant river
Watching the birds and the fish
and doing anything but wonder
How they could be

Write a poem with a song in mind. The thoughts, people, places, feelings, that come to mind whenever you hear it. #songchallenge in the tags so we can all read and share. Don't forget to say which song it is too! Love this community, hope you all are well.

Tell the reaper I don't need her
I can lay myself to rest
Just write my name on my tombstone
and that I always tried my best

I'm sick of all the goodbyes
The letters I never sent
Addressed to yesterday's lovers
with words I never meant

There are songs I will never choose to sing
Words that echo the halls inside my chest
Scars made monument to pain of the past

Most days begin with quiet mornings
The air rising to a slow boil by noon
Sweat tracing the curves of my spine
Like fingers of forgotten lovers

Storms draw near over crashing tides
Racing with the wind as if they had a destination
Beauty and sorrow thick and heavy
Like roses laid on cherry caskets

I will sing songs of forgiveness
To all the men I once was
Remember the chains they carried
And the cruelness in their hearts

Come all you sinners and saints
Just as you are nothing more or less
Rest your weary bones inside for awhile
Just for a moment we can make holy this
basement, hall, or parking lot
No priest or preacher needed for these hymns
Just hearts filled with hurt and souls looking for salvation
Look around,
All crooked halos and broken wings
Serpent tongues and crocodile tears,
Lay down your arms
Surrender for a little while
Make your words worth it
Hold tight to these stories
Remember from once you came
Come and go like summer storms
You saint or sinner
Or someone in between

I wake to birds
Their songs make symphonies of morning
I wake to hurt
tremors throughout my bones
I wake to wind
The breeze whispering across my face
I wake to need
These vices that I can't seem to shake
I wake to hope
That today will be better than the last
I wake to loss
Another battle lost to these demons
I sleep to forget
All the choices that I made
I sleep to remember
The time before all of this
I sleep to wish
That tomorrow will be different

Dear ex lover,
I see you everywhere
Your name etched on the insides of my life
everywhere I look there are traces of you

Dear ex lover,
I hope you are well
The angel that you are
took me, a broken thing bruises and all
plucked me from hesperides and brought me back
to the land of the living
Just to hold me close and whisper all the good into my ear

Dear ex lover,
I know that on the surface I was silver and strong
but the devil never liked a quiter
and those demon's arms have a long reach

Dear ex lover,
I used to love the grocery store
Linoleum and fluorescents
The way you moved so effortlessly

Dear ex lover,
I used to love the grocery store
But my aisles are filled with ghosts
and my pantry is a tomb

Dear ex lover,
I know I hurt you
My decisions were not the best ones
This body has felt so heavy for so long
and these demons scratch at my skull

Dear ex lover,
I hope you are well
I hope you laugh
I hope your belly is full
and you have a warm bed to come home to

Dear ex lover,
I wish you well
always

It has been a year now
Since my vices ran rampant
I flew like Icarus among the clouds
Saw god or whoever resided there
Fell to earth in a crater of who I once was
Burned for days amongst tubes and doctors
Sweated out the best of me
prayed to whomever would listen
Reminded myself of what I was
And chose to be different

When Atlas shrugged
Tears were left in the wake of you
Monuments made of your mountains
Such a sensual embrace you gave
Such caring to this heart
I have loved you for seasons on end
The leaves came and went
But your seasons never withered
You are my river
My most holy of baptisms
Keep me in your graces
For forever and more

An instinct
This animal desire
So close to your chest
My blood moving like a freight train
I need to be close to you
Your skin meeting mine
My most tender of loves
Holding your frame
As if it is all that ever was
Let me love you dearly
Let me kiss every inch of your skin
Oh how this heart aches
To be close to you again

How this journey has unfolded
The paths we have chosen to take
I remember back to the beginning
Back to those years in Maryland
Where the coast was my most holy of churches
Those springs filled with cherry blossoms
falling from limbs like sweet cherub tears
I remember the southern chapter
That blanket of a place they call the south
Louisiana was a wild and untamed beast
The songs ran with the wind
as the rains came and went
I fell in love with a woman cradled by the mountains
Solace in the sweat that deep heat can bring
Today I am still writing
Just as I was in the beginning
Penning these chapters like a letter to a future self
Documenting this journey as if every step
was a foot in an uncharted land

Oh this love
Let me explain this love
She is from the Rockies
Free as the sun
Strong as the river
Kissed by the mountains
She curves like the bend won’t break
I am from the ocean
Timid as the tides
Subtle as the moon
Awkward as the birds
She is my rock
Solid like the lines
Sharp as a tack
I am but guest
In her most sensuous
of shows
She is all there is
She is all my love
My most timid of hearts
My most delicate flower
In this garden of woes

You turn these afternoons to songs
These mornings to symphonies
Those nights to crescendos
All the music in the wind
Stems from the simplicity in your smile
The contagion of your laughter
The sunlight in your chest
You are all that is
and all there ever was

Like an angel
With clipped wings
You've fallen so far
Down to this menial life
Touching the same ground as I
Breathing the same air as me
Crossing paths in a whisper of a morning
Catching the eye of all that was
You are such a beauty
Like an angel
With clipped wings

My dearest friend
You from the mountains
I from the sea
Crossed paths in a foreign land
Each of us unsure of what time may hold
Neither of us knowing which direction to travel
Found comfort in the company of each other
Years filled with smiles and laughter
The stitching to the wounds
My dearest friend
Was this love an accident?
Did our midnight temptations leave a thorn in our sides
All I know is it felt right
So much easier than most
You brought the mountains to the sea
And I responded in the most caring of tides

Oh how simple of a love this was
Curiosity from such a young age
You with your age and experience
Years of captivating hearts and minds
I fell victim to your narcotic charm
Your empty frame a reminder of the nights
You came and went like lightning
Only leaving long enough
For me to convince myself of just how much
I needed you to put laughter back into my life

Back to love poems
Been so long now
So many months of winter
So many barren harvests
Until you came like spring
The water to this sandbox of a chest
Breathing life back into
what felt like a funeral

In nature
Reptiles shed their skin
This signifies growth
Ridding their bodies of all the parts
no longer suitable enough for use
In some occasions gorging
themselves on the remains
Feeding the body with these parts
no longer suitable enough for use
Some days I call myself a reptile
I recognize my shortcomings
I've outlined each and every one
So i've begun feasting on this body
Gorging myself on the parts of me
no longer suitable enough for use
Because in order for the soul to grow
I must rid myself of these left overs of demons
And begin tomorrow anew

This is it
No revisions
My mind has been racing
But at a steady pace
Almost as if we are shooting
for our best possible time
in the yearly gym class mile run
Maybe if I finish first
The class will shout my name in celebration

My heart
It is in pieces
All scattered along the shore
On this island of a body
So lonesome at sea
Fighting off the waves
praying for someone
to venture to these shores
and stumble upon the
fractured parts of me

I've wandered for years now
All through neon streets
and past rainy day storefronts
For a warm bed and a hot meal
Something to fill my gut
As the sirens howl down
interstates and byways
I remain wandering on the shoulder
Thumb out hoping to
be taken by some strange angel
To a paradise of a place

This city is so silent at night
The rain of a northern sky
These lights that burn bright
Lulled me to sleep
I got lost on streets
Forgot my worries
I'm trying to feel myself again
Maybe this is what I've been searching for
This feeling of adventure
This feeling of want
I miss you
Your limbs and your laughter
The way your frame moves in dim lights
You worry too much
You love too hard
I just want to be

I flew to Miami in the early of dawn
Watched the sun rise above south beach
Made my way to the bar to take it all in
Planned out the days to come
Felt the breeze against my neck
The sweat beginning to roll down my spine
Quenched my thirst with *** and sugar cane
Fell in love with a Cuban beauty
Watched the moon from a rooftop
Cried the stars
Slept all the next day