Who really wins
when you argue their folly
when it's your reaction
that gives them their jolly

It's your peace that is broken
personal harmony dies
shouting them down
is so seldom is wise

They seek to birth anger
with a message so sick
but living peaceful or angry
is your choice then to pick

But anger brings bitterness
and bitterness hate
that direction needs ending
before it's too late

A harmonious spirit
a peaceful heart
is an honorable movement
one we must start

So it is eighteen years,
Helena, since we met!
A season so endears,
Nor you nor I forget
The fresh young faces that once clove
In that most fiery dawn of love.

We wandered to and fro,
Who knew not how to woo,
Those eighteen years ago,
Sweetheart, when I and you
Exchanged high vows in heaven's sight
That scarce survived a summer's night.

What scourge smote from the stars
What madness from the moon?
That night we broke the bars
Was quintessential June,
When you and I beneath the trees
Bartered our bold virginities.

Eighteen -years, months, or hours?
Time is a tyrant's toy!
Eternal are the flowers!
We are but girl and boy
Yet -since love leapt as swift to-night
As it had never left the light!

For fiercer from the South
Still flames your cruel hair,
And Trojan Helen's mouth
Still not so ripe and rare
As Helena's -nor love nor youth
So leaps with lust or thrills with truth.

Helena, still we hold
Flesh firmer, still we mix
Black hair with hair as gold.
Life has but served to fix
Our hearts; love lingers on the tongue,
And who loves once is always young.

The stars are still the same;
The changeful moon endures;
Come without fear or shame,
And draw my mouth to yours!
Youth fails, however flesh be fain;
Manhood and womanhood attain.

Life is a string of pearls,
And you the first I strung.
You left -first flower of girls! -
Life lyric on my tongue,
An indefatigable dance,
An inexhaustible romance!

Blush of love's dawn, bright bud
That bloomed for my delight,
First blossom of my blood,
Burn in that blood to-night!
Helena, Helena, fiercely fresh,
Your flesh flies fervent to my flesh.

What sage can dare impugn
Man's immortality?
Our godhead swims, immune
From death and destiny.
Ignored the bubble in the flow
Of love eighteen short years ago!

Time -I embrace all time
As my arm rings your waist.
Space -you surpass, sublime,
As, taking me, we taste
Omnipotence, sense slaying sense,
Soul slaying soul, omniscience.

Thy verse is “sad” enough, no doubt:
  A devilish deal more sad than witty!
Why we should weep I can’t find out,
  Unless for thee we weep in pity.

Yet there is one I pity more;
  And much, alas! I think he needs it:
For he, I’m sure, will suffer sore,
  Who, to his own misfortune, reads it.

Thy rhymes, without the aid of magic,
  May once be read—but never after:
Yet their effect’s by no means tragic,
  Although by far too dull for laughter.

But would you make our bosoms bleed,
And of no common pang complain—
If you would make us weep indeed,
Tell us, you’ll read them o’er again.

i don't believe in silence. sometimes my mind won't shut up and when it will, something else won't. i don't believe in nothing. you can't think about nothing and you can't do nothing and you can't want nothing. those are lies our minds tell us when they run out of sensible things to say. i don't believe in forgetting. memories are more than chalk drawings on sidewalk. they don't wash away when the weather changes. you can scrub and scrub until your fingers bleed and you will still see his face every time you blink. i believe in noise. i believe in thoughts so loud that your high school history teacher asks about them. i believe in thoughts so intruding that you begin to question if they're coming from someone else. i believe in something. i believe in liars claiming otherwise. i believe in something so strong that you're scared to admit its existence. i believe in remembering. i believe in tattooing your favorite moments onto your heart in clashing colors and obnoxious patterns so that every passerby can imagine them with you. i believe in holding on to your favorite days so ferociously that God himself couldn't pry them from you.