Freed from a weight
I could not carry
That bore me down
And wore me out
I float above
The clouds of worry
Step from the wreckage
Of fear and doubt
Before me lies
A golden future
Of choice and freedom
And inner growth
Accepting that
My life is worthy
Of time and energy
And now both
The past mistakes
And all the good things
Fall behind
In retrospect
Peace descends
Excitement rises
For all the good
I now expect

Every day small miracles
Grace the lives of countless
In prayers and thoughts and wishes cried
Just coincidences doubtless

Yet I’d rather have a miracle
And eyes of faith to witness
The gracious hand of a loving God
And tender acts of kindness.

I wish the words
Of romance I'd speak
Flowed in Mediterranean Greek
Or Spanish dreams
Italian poems
The thoughts would fly
The feelings roam
I could kiss your face
With subtle French
With rhythm, flow
With sheer grace drench
Instead it's English
That is the tool
To express what's inside
To play the fool
And so I tell you
You're one in a million
In words that are so
Utilitarian

You’re stuck between two moving worlds
The familiar and the unknown
You shift without even realizing it
Like a sailor pining for home
The flashbacks haunt you constantly
The feelings that creep and seep
Memories so alive and fresh
That reach and sting so deep
And the present form is changing
The past has vaporized
What you see is now an illusion
Disappearing before your eyes
Your mind tells you that it’s over
That it’s time to be moving on
But your soul is screaming inside of you
Of all that’s horribly wrong
So you live a conflicted being
Torn and limping past
Your shadows ever following you
And you wonder how you’ll last

God is bigger
Than our expectations
Of whom He is
Or our limitations
He unfolds our lives
With many surprises
That destroy our myths
As one realizes
He works in ways
That don’t fit our own thinking
We don’t see it all
There are more dots to be linking
Yet still we fight back
And the unknown we loathe
Try to push back the tides
And stop our own growth
We don’t realize what’s missing
We’re not even searching
Don’t see the precipice
On which we are perching
Till it comes crashing down
And our ruin is effective
And we see all the ways
Our thinking’s defective
Then out of the ashes
We discover our purpose
That we had forgotten
Though once it had served us
And our eyes are now opened
And here the mind races
Finding love, truth and beauty
In unexpected places

Ah little angel
I shouldn’t have wiped your tears
I shouldn’t have held you tight
And carried you through your fears

They warned me this would happen
And the wounds would open deep
And sadness would come knocking again
And fresh new tears I’d weep

I came to say good-bye to you
And say I would be gone
But you found ways to keep me there
As the day wore on

And then each memory of our life
Pierced me to the bones
We lived the lie of what once was
When we were not alone

Ah light feather of flesh and lace
I should’ve let you go
But you called to say you needed me
And I just couldn’t say “no”

In the blizzard and coldest night
The warmth of friendship and candlelight
Melts the feelings frozen in time
Unleashes joy and song in rhyme
The thoughts, the love, compassion feeling
Sends strongest warmth, happiness reeling
The frost and cold lose their hold
When hearts grow tender and love grows bold
They say a storm is now descending
But all I see is hope ascending.