Love is a word
A powerful one too
Full of meaning
Some search for love
Some have found it
I'm yet to believe in it
Full of meaning
It can send electric heat
Running down your spine
And even signal an affection so kind
That it takes on a different form

Love is like water
Takes the shape of any vessel
But if the vessel is broken
It pours out
Till the person is left empty
It is full of soul
It is full of gold
It is enough to make a person feel whole

Love is enough to keep a person alive
When the winter last a little longer
Than anticipated

It is a knife at the heart
A gunshot from a shotgun
A blunt force to the back of the head
It is painful for an instant, sure
Except some have taken pleasure
In dealing pain like it is drugs

Love is a nasty word
It is full of feeling
Full of meaning
It is a cloudless sky full of stars
A sketch of the city on an empty canvas

And sometimes
It is a woman
And when that happens
Run for your life
Because she is a dealer
A knife twister
A dream killer
A person of substance
That you can't fathom

When love is gone
You'll find something different
That's why it is like water
Formless
Shapeless
Malleable
Goes through the ins and outs of vessels
And when your vessel is broken
You'll find beauty in the birds
Art in the trees
Kindness in the leaves
Affection in the blue skies
A sunny day will fill your life

Love is a word
That sometimes loses its meaning
It meanders, twists, and turns
Leaving a knot in your stomach
It will convince that you can write good poems
It will make food taste better too

It is a rhythm of life
When your heart races
Skips beats unintentionally
Whenever you look at the horizon
Or listen to a gorgeous jazz piece
If you bring some love in your life
I don't think you'll be disappointed

Love is like a city
Its inner streets are always empty
At midnight
And it is dark at the corners
Sometimes dingy too
But it is full of life
And virility

The red flowers swell and sway in the scenic pastures
Birds splay their wings, abseiling in the cold, hard wind
The stars remain studded in the sky
Flooding the streets with the endless light of a million

In the last vestiges of time, my passion burns bright
I'm engulfed by the fissures of your playful mind
Where the books of poems lie still in undisturbed waters
As I write tonight, my love burns crimson and sapphire

Yet, in the face of insurmountable odds, it never dims nor dies
It's a flame that counteracts winds, borrows from the sleepless night
Comes alive in a motionless street that lies awake in the cold breeze
As a pear-shaped moon shudders in the dark, peering through vacant trees

The clouds crescendo and fall under the spell of the starry spiral
That captures me with every passing moment, resounding with my breath
Gently ushering in the dormant silhouettes as they wait for the crack of dawn
To carve themselves a space in the streets that stretch for miles and miles

Soon when Earth meets with the moon on the skyline
Our bodies will make a pact and my love will live on
In unfettered dreams and primal thoughts raw with love
Thriving with the countless stars that shine upon you that night


These lamplit streets, filled with cars, will sing the song of the night for you
Finding their way to your heart through the dark
Much like countless streams meeting the ocean of unfulfilled dreams
Twisting and turning, contorted and confined to their paths

In my inescapable sorrow, I'll hold onto your locket of memories
With ****** hands and sweat pouring, I'll protect it with all my might
Yet, its key fell somewhere in the cracks along the way
I still hear the clock ticking away in the corner of my soul

Even on the most beautiful of nights
When my heart traces its way back to you
Now I can no longer watch you grow
So I write tonight, burning with intense nostalgia

I'll be gentle with my words
Fetching those long-gone memories
Speaking to myself in a lullaby that nurses this soul from the cold, harsh truth
That you'll never be mine and are no longer with me

Yet when the distance between earth and sky close
We'd have gone our separate ways
Completely changed through the sands of time
Strangers to one another in this life

Where lamps breathe their electric fire
On this moonlit highway, I hope our paths collide
The conquerors of the sky hover above silent streets
Hopelessly tortured by their dreams

I think of you often in the solitary moments
Even on the darkest nights when the starlight has lost the way to earth
When my heart is broken and shattered by this helpless love
Yet I feel alive every time our paths merge for a brief moment

Your tresses fell in cusps, red lips pressed with mine
Hands holding me tight, eyes filled with desire
You held me in a glance and transfixed me with your gaze
Shattering my defences and soothing my nerves

As I nervously surrendered myself
To concupiscence that enveloped my very being
There are very few who have walked through this door
Now this is a feeling I can no longer ignore

He was found
Laying on the floor
Face down
With no note

Except for a cake made of rice
He had sent to his family
With a card saying that
He was sorry and here was some food

He thought they were after
The money
On the night he died
They were having dinner

While mother wondered when he'd be back
The child could see him right across the table
He was smiling
As if he was right there

A lake far away in the distance
Covered by the foggy haze
In an endless reverie
On a quiet, cold winter's sleep

The dry fallen leaves
Of the bare dampened trees
Shiver in the December breeze
As the clouds veer off into the valley

The flowers shrivel like paper on fire
As the wind walks slow
Through the maple, oak, and pine
Sculpted in ice and snow

Landscapes that were once willows
Where owls sported for prey at night
Are now drenched in blue and white
For as far as the azure lake goes

The cold harsh winters broke my horses
That coursed the winding paths with fury
Trudging against the unseen forces
In the depths of the blanched scenery

I gazed at them helpless
Watching them writhe in agony
Attacking the soil as they gasped their last breaths
My young fawn friends were covered with canvas

For a while, I forgot what time of day it was
Yet I decided to walk into the wild
With the blood-stained canvas
Fresh in my mind

With every path I walked or tried out
My boots deepened in the thick swamp
Yet, I'd always circle back to that spot
More in doubt as the mire went on

Such was the depth of the forest
That I started marking the stones
Studding the depths of the earth
Where frescoed brooks once flowed

I struggled under my own weight
A dying thirst overcame me
As I inched closer to blinding rage
I crunched the snow with chattering teeth

Gazing at the concentric eddies of ice
That coursed through the undergrowth
Those glacial sheets frozen in time
Had turned to unbreakable stone

It was transparent
Revealing below the endless water
Being this near to the end
I felt a calm surrender

I looked deep inside
Without struggle nor strife
I jumped off the ravine
And my life flashed before my eyes

As I darted into the undergrowth
An elk came from behind
Hidden in a lair of fog and shadow
Walking on the sheet of ice

My heart pounded inside
My broken frame had survived
I knew I'd walked too many miles
To die

As I descended freely
I fell into spirals of warm water
And I could hear rushing streams
That echoed out into the ether

I was so tired and lost
So I only have a faint memory
Of the elk with its antlers carved in white frost
Carrying my frail body

Out of the bowers
Into a willowy veil
I still visit the shore covered by the hoary flowers
And listen to the whispering gale

I walked on little by little
With the brittle leaves cracking under my feet
To greener pastures
Forgetting the miracle

Time has filled many an hourglass since then
Yet as I watch an individual grain of sand fall
And I think upon the elk of that forest
That emerged from the dense fog

I realize that the moment is lost
And every day is still a test
While I could have moved on
It is the feeling I hold dearest

Slow down
If you don't know me
By now
And carry all your burdens around

Take my hand
And place it by your heart
Let me feel the way it softly
Breaks apart

Close your eyes
And drift away into my arms
Sleep till the breaking dawn
Let me whisper goodbye

So hear me once before you cry
Tell me if you're going to be fine
And tell me all your sorrows
As the light breaks for the night

We stare at the clock
As the ticking stops
And see how the years
Go by so quickly now

A tired memory
I realised I can't let go off

We arrive in this world alone, we depart this world alone. This time called life was meant to share.

Love is one of the most powerful energies in the world: it drives us forward: gives us purpose ; and adds meaning where it sometimes seemed none existed.

In its extremes it is either a fountain of the most soaring euphoria and ecstasy: or where it is lost, blocked, or turned away, a bottomless well of despair, pain and profound despondency.

In between the extremes are the smaller moments, laughter shared, tears shed and wiped away, fears soothed.

I look at this all-pervading emotion in hopes of finding  the motivation and object of my poetry and art.

I look at you and know me better, for much of what I am is made of you.

All the shades of love are summoned and celebrated in my work.
                                                                                               Jon York  2025