Beauty is pain
Beauty in everything
Beauty nowhere
Beauty is love and joy
Beauty is streaming tears
Beauty is smiling and singing and dancing
What is beauty at all?

Sea life and sweetness
Fruit and flowers
People and parties
Pizzas and pajamas
Gold and grass
Love and life
Beauty is boldness and beaches…

What else is beauty?
Sparkly eyes with a glimmer
Bluebirds and ravens gliding on whispering wing
Whistling leaves in clear robins-egg air
Flaming orbs breaking over flawless horizons
Water trickling in magical notes of liberty
Is that beauty in purest form?

Where does it go when the spirit dies?
Fade and wither away into nothing for lack of life
Or become transformed as energy converts in movement
Or dance off into sunlit clouds into heavens above and beyond
Glow itself up to be borne again to some new beauty
Or reset to a new life as memory soft and sweet
Where does it go and where does it stay?
Where does it go?

She was an artist
Built from tragic beauty.

She was a house of pain
Walking and talking as if not.

She was a house of cards
In more ways than one.

She was a mother of sorrow
In her bay of desperation.

She was never more than a failure
A stumbling sack of lousy thoughts.

She was just a concerned former-citizen
And a prisoner of her childhood memories.

But, because she spent her life dreaming,
She was an esteemed champion.

It’s gotten to the point where she won’t speak to me
And I wouldn’t speak to her if she did
Already once I’ve tried only to be ignored
And I have decided I really won’t try again
It’s gotten to the point where I don’t want to see her
Not how I have no interest in hanging out
The point that I do not want to be around her
And she acts like she never sees me anyway

And yet there is not ill will
I bear none, I detect none
I want none, but I don’t know about her

She doesn’t care about me at all
And I really can’t say I care for her
What are we then
Not friends or enemies or strangers
Or are we strangers again
Can we be strangers again
After all this time, purely nothing
Not a thing to each other
I think I’d like that
Or maybe I’d hate it
Maybe both, I don’t know
But I do understand
That something we worked so hard to build
Shows no sign of itself nowadays
So it appears we are strangers again
Well, I suppose there’s a bittersweet tinge
To knowing it and feeling it

I wish I could see with new eyes
I wish I could remember what it looked like
I wish I could see what they do
I wish I could figure out what it is they see
When they look at me and find nothing

Because now it seems we are just strangers,
Complete strangers when we pass by each other,
Complete strangers when a friend needs another friend,
Complete strangers now for better or for worse.

Another woman has been sleeping in my bed
Her fragrance lingers in the air
Pillows the scent of her hair
Her essence is here and lively, blood red
I wish I could find out her name
I wish I could put out her flame
--
She rests peacefully
Throughout the night
Every night.
She rests peacefully
Though the day
Every day.
Nothing can disturb her peace anymore
All the pain and suffering are light years behind her,
Never to touch her again.
And she will be in peace forever
Just as they all said to her that fateful day
Rest in Peace, they told her; So she shall.

Hail the morning sun of hope
But may beauty stay untouched
Hail the evening stars of love
Gray days transform to pure grace
Hail the slivers of purity intact still
Let them prove the mercy shining above
Hail the cries and tears of crushing joy
Encase them, preserve the savior divine
Hail fervent whispers screaming “Hail Mary”
For nothing speaks of love like a prayer
Hail this time, kiss sorrow goodbye as she flutters away
Leaving no trace as she washes the heart with blessing cleanse
Hail the saving acts and running souls employing the disguise
Though hearts remain heavy and minds find no rest through nights alone
Hail silver and gold with emerald and peacock hues glistening abreast
For a celebration with swirling chaos is heavenly indeed
Hail the ones with invisible haloes shining to upstage the dark
For so declares the only soulful angel I have ever seen
Have endless hope and you will never be let down
Be wary of outward beauty because what is true is within

And learn to love everyone you encounter and never close your arms
Give the grace of God to the ungodly and bring sunlight through the storm
Perfect your soul and embrace purity with all her challenges and ideals
Make room for all at your table and never fail in your mercy or empathy
Jail the enemies of love and grace so that you may only revel in joy
Sweetly offer hands up, down, and around until the savior comes again
Hang a Hail Mary and hold your hands together when the going gets tough
Protect small and large souls, for all have weakness and some have not a prayer
Saints move not but do not doubt they feel human sorrow in their gentle hands
Bunch weeds to beauteous bouquets and bows make a blessing
Drag through as you may be for there is evil in a monstrous disguise
Hold love first and foremost, for nothing else might heal a heavy soul
Greatness comes down from glistening wings when the time is right
He who keeps a heavenly and holy heart ascends the stairs to a pearl
He who remembers the mother with her divine halo at his side keeps her
So declares the angel, but such sweetness breaks upon the rough touch of earth

You are a diamond
Shiny and bright
So appealing and desirable
So easy to adore.

You are a diamond
Superficial and cruel
So awful and wicked
So easy to loathe.

You are a diamond
Unfeeling and vain
So hard and slicing
So easy to die for.

You are a diamond
Sharp and poison
So black widow
So easy to fall for.

You are diamond
Colder than purest ice
You are a diamond
So evil and so nice.

You are a diamond
So many faces
Always working your angles
Acting transparent.

You are a diamond
So many colors
Always talking cuts
Acting strong.

You are a diamond
So many victims
Always roaming round
Acting perfect.

You are a diamond
So indifferent
Always in a bubble
Acting obnoxious.

You are a diamond
Enemy allied
You are a diamond
Always on the mind.

You are a diamond
Inescapably bound and tied
You are a diamond
Forever yet never just mine.

You are a diamond-
My diamond now.

“I’ll be fine,” he says
Knowing full well he won’t be;
Not now,
Not ever again
He knows it’s alright to survive;
But he doesn’t know he has a chance
So he wipes a tear away
And braves through it.
Tries for one more smile
As he says his goodbye.

And then he knows-
Then he figures out-
That in that short time
He came to love her,
Not for what she’ll do
But for the angel she is.
He really does love her.
And the smile is real now
Teary with goodbyes,
But real nonetheless.

He puts his last faith in her,
Her ability to overcome herself
He knows what she can do
And he wonders no more
But now he knows for sure
Everything is going to be fine
Even if he never gets to see it
He knows she’ll save them all
He’s glad to have loved her.

What is luck
How do you define that little word
How do you put meaning behind the overused snippet
How do you answer when someone asks what luck is

Perhaps the illustrious Lady Luck is a driving force pushing success to your corner
Perhaps she is simply a grace some people are naturally blessed with
Perhaps she’s a devil hiding in a bottle that calls you to fill and empty it just one more time

Or is she merely a little angel lurking in the imagination
Whispering tales of her own fabled glory in your ear
Does she swim like a mermaid through the blood
Settle in the bones with a poisonous push of influence
Is she a banshee with an opposite effect:
Her coming bodes well and her leaving foretells misfortune

Or is Lady Luck simply the embodiment of good fortune in and of its humble self to be true?

What is luck?
Is it represented by gold?
Is it symbolized by wealth?
Is it showcased by power?

Or is luck evidence of something so far greater?
Is it the presence of love?
Is it the coming of hope?
Is it the return of joy?

Is luck responsible for all that is good?
Does she turn gray clouds white and cease the thunder
Does she shine some favor on the poor man’s lottery ticket
Does she bring an arm of justice or a leg of courage

But can luck right this world’s assorted wrongs
And guide things towards going right more often
Or are we just fools

Are we placing the credit for our goodness and rights on a mysterious undefinable force
Simply so that we can deflect the blame for our evils and wrongs when the timing should prove convenient

What is luck but a sly sweet presence in the imagination
What is luck but friend and foe alike guiding and beseeching the mind
Can anyone answer with certainty and consistency when asked: what is luck, truly

BRMD

Sometimes life
Calls upon us
To have faith
In what we do not know
Or cannot see

But, from the other side of experience,
I’ve figured out
That life in turn
Will teach you
Anything and everything
You need to know
You will learn your lessons
Even if sometimes
You have to do the ***** work
And rough it by yourself

And along the way
You’ll find someone
Who’ll stick by you through thick and thin
And you’ll learn together
Knowing your days of lonely have passed

Life takes away amber
Sometimes well before it should
But slides some bronze in its place
And you’ll find that nothing lasts forever,
Even the pain
Because life can never give up
Or stop moving
Once it gets started

You’ll find life doing what you can’t
You will hate it and you will love it
And to top it all off:
There’s a view from the top
Well worth shedding a few tears over

And sometimes…
Life just has a message for us
Something it’s time to hear
Sometimes that’s all it is
It all just comes down to love
Who and what we need
Who we’re there for
What we do for love..
Love of the self we all need
Love of another we all seem to crave
Sometimes that’s all it is
All it ever will be

Sometimes life
Calls upon us
To have faith
In what we do not know
Or cannot see

But, from the other side of experience,
I’ve figured out
That life in turn
Will teach you
Anything and everything
You need to know
You will learn your lessons
Even if sometimes
You have to do the ***** work
And rough it by yourself

And along the way
You’ll find someone
Who’ll stick by you through thick and thin
And you’ll learn together
Knowing your days of lonely have passed

Life takes away amber
Sometimes well before it should
But slides some bronze in its place
And you’ll find that nothing lasts forever,
Even the pain
Because life can never give up
Or stop moving
Once it gets started

You’ll find life doing what you can’t
You will hate it and you will love it
And to top it all off:
There’s a view from the top
Well worth shedding a few tears over

And sometimes…
Life just has a message for us
Something it’s time to hear
Sometimes that’s all it is
It all just comes down to love
Who and what we need
Who we’re there for
What we do for love..
Love of the self we all need
Love of another we all seem to crave
Sometimes that’s all it is
All it ever will be