This grief
has teeth

my son
it bites through

skin and bone
tearing at heart

and mind
(the deeper

the love
the harder

the pain
I find)

this grief
with its pearly whites

gnaws at me
through dull days

and dark nights
trying to drag me

to dark depths
shaking me

like a dog with bone
bringing me

to deep hurts
and aching moan

this grief
holds hard

bites deep
taking me

to dark dawns
and black dogs

of sunset red
and echoing memories

in numb
and hurting head

this grief has teeth
my son

biting through
bone and skin

tearing me within
but memories remain

strong and clear
and bright

which will
sustain me

through many
a deep dark night.

Could the power of poetry be used
To bring about a change in life
As it digs its way deep
Into the heart, the soul, the mind

Could it dig its way in deeper
And perhaps influence the scope of time
Could the answer to life's problems
Be found inside the rhyme

We all know what's said about music
Could the same be said about poetry
If the right words were spoken
Would it calm the savage beast

If you took it to the highest heights
And recited it from the mountain tops
Or planted it in the field of man
Would it grow the strongest crops

If they brought poetry onto the battlefield
Would it put an end to war
Or introduced in the halls of medicine
Could it bring about a cure

I just know the power that poetry
Holds over my life
And that if it were up to me
I'd use it for the good of all mankind

when in each breath waits a story to be unlocked?