Adam Burke: Favorites

Feb 2014 Adam Burke

-D

the LORD & I have been arguing for days
over four small words:

[thy will be done.]

let this be known:
never is there a bigger sacrifice
than compromising the cloth that has woven your soul,
choosing to burn its textile
rather than cling to its strong stitchings & worn-in, familiar pattern,
leaving you in nothing but incinerated rags.

I plea for maintained remains of
this combusted fallacy of joy,
whilst He responds with simply

[I am making all things new.]

please hear this:
there is truly nothing that can mend you here,
nothing that can weave you together &
save your heart from being torn
as a love letter ripped into shreds of its possibilities,
leaving you with nothing but
disintegrated
dreams.

my past is aching to become my present,
& my perceived future has begun to rewind.
my place in this world has become null&voi;;
without the hope I once held close.
for what happens to a princess
when her earthly prince continues to commit slow suicide?

[peace, My child.]

I can hear my bones screaming to be heard,
as songs on a broken record,
stuck on repeating the same old refrain:
please please please please please…

[on earth as it is in Heaven.]

night sweats--
when your mind cannot stop running even whilst you sleep.
shaking limbs—
when your heart trembles & begs to stay alive.

[plans to prosper you, not harm you;
plans for hope & a future.]

I’m strung out on all these things that keep me sane
while my mind feels like its going through
withdrawals of the Holy Spirit—

WHERE ARE YOU, GOD
& WHY IS THIS YOUR PLAN?
YOU DO NOT LOVE ME AS YOU ONCE DID.

[those who hope in the LORD renew their strength.]

laying on my bedroom floor
with hymns pouring from my mouth
like tongues of fire & bile
I feel farther from glory
than I ever have.

[He restores my soul.]

LORD
as Christ once begged of you
Take This Cup,
LORD
I plea
for deliverance
for reconciliation
for an exodus from this body that is
full of intoxication
& self-loathing.

[until the very end of the age.]

LET MY SPIRIT RISE FROM THE ASHES
& BE HEALED OF THIS HORROR.

1 Corinthians 14:1-2
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts...
For one who speaks in a tongues speaks not to men
but to God;
for no one understands him,
but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.

Feb 2014 Adam Burke

Floating In a Desert

Feb 2014 Adam Burke

Paige

Floating In a Desert

My sanity was my home,
And now it's burning to the ground.
They tell you to find what you love,
And to do it.
My problem is that I found somebody to love.
The tragedy in that is that,
Romance is the storm that tears apart our hearts,
And drags us away from being our own creation.
Leaving us to stand in the disaster
of mixed emotions and dependency,
that shouldn't exist.
My home is now floating on
an ongoing river, recklessly.
A river in the desert,
A place a river doesn't belong.
Some might say the river is a blessing,
but can you really say it's not odd
to let a river in the desert guide you to a place unknown?
Should you really trust the promising looks of a surface,
although you know there are countless secrets,
hidden deep below?
Everyone drowns, in the end.

Jan 2014 Adam Burke

A House Is Not A Home Without a Little Flesh n Bones

Jan 2014 Adam Burke

j

A House Is Not A Home Without a Little Flesh n Bones

how am I ever supposed to feel at home again?
when your eyes were like a fireplace - warming me, and lighting my way
my home is so far away now that you are gone
I was never anything to you, I understand that
you were never really much to me either, until you left

the house I live in is just bricks and mortar, torn away wallpaper
and numbed down memories of a childhood I can scarce remember
what is a house of stones and wood compared to a home
of warm flesh and eyes like the pools of water that only exist in my mind?
a home with arms that can hold you safe, not walls that keep you restrained

have you ever been told to simply "*******" and been left stranded somewhere?
or kicked out of a party at 3 am in the winter and forced to walk 7 miles
back to your house, all the while you're still a little drunk, staggering a little
left feeling like your feet are somewhere else because you're so cold and you didn't think
to bring a sweater. Or you didn't want to, because the only ones you have used to be his.

I lost my train of thought, that tends to happen when I think of you
when you walked away, it felt like being kicked out of the only place I felt I belonged
no wonder the concept of a stable home is so hard for me to comprehend
after the storm that you took in your stride and threw upon me, then left me with, alone.

stable? I don't know stable after knowing you. You were a hurricane of fiercest proportions
you were long limbs that wrapped me up a little too tight, and screamed at me
told me you were home, and I was yours. You were a home that left me house bound
to the point you stopped feeling like a home, until you apologised for everything
and now it's been a long time since I last spoke to you, not long enough, but too long
and you still feel like a home to me

Jan 2014 Adam Burke

To My Ophelia

Jan 2014 Adam Burke

Seán Mac Falls

To My Ophelia

I have lost my sun,
Though I still orbit in a strange attraction.

I have lost my music,
Though I know my heart sings sound.

I have lost my vision,
Though I see in dreams an impossible beauty.

I have lost my sense,
Though this world has never tasted as sour.

I have lost my purpose,
Though aimlessly, I write in the pale drear of twilight.

I have lost my reason,
Though I chart dangerous courses without a crew.

I am the last falls of the loveliest red proscenium
curtain.

I am over, undone, a foundling, lost,
Without you.