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65 · May 2022
Untitled
Dan Hess May 2022
a hug for the sad part of my heart
only being able to cry when I feel safe
trusting that you can trust someone



the freedom that comes from knowing

that letting go is opening up
to unconditional acceptance
of self and of other
from self and from other

a ******* arrow of love
piercing through me

finding the haven of the soul
within the chest

when somehow space dissipates

and only love is left
and what is love?

it is not grasping

it is not a kiss
nor a ****
nor a lifetime with one person
who “completes you”

love says
you are enough
you belong in this space

you are worthy of embrace
you are safe

it does not say

you are mine
it says
you are free

you are divine
you are a part of me

because we are all a part
of humankind
and a greater mind

how lost I’ve been

in grappling and coping with hope

how i’ve been found, upside down
suspended by my foot by a rope



seeing the world in a new light
cracking open my mind like an egg

the sunlight splits the mist 

in the real world


just as I peer into the light
of my soul
and you’re there with me
and you’re all there with me
64 · Oct 2020
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Dan Hess Oct 2020
Dark falls
I am mired in sludge
The wetlands shrouded by fog

My mind entrenched in haze and solitude
I grow weak  
with each step I seem to falter
exhausted in the task of moving forward
alone in the deep wilderness
covered in mud  

Ever shall I seek the sun
Forever til I’m warmed
Oh, golden rays,  
please supplant me my cold  

How uninspired
when water seeps
into coagulated dirt  

Once, there was bounty
art, in the higher reaches
of the atmosphere

Forever gazing upon the sky
into the beyond

Now all around me
there are shadows

Density of overgrowth
upon the horizon

Death where my feet meet the ground
This drudgery, though necessary,  
hurts  

I keep looking up
only to realize  
I am taking my gaze away
from my surroundings  

I’ve forgotten where I’m going
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Strange of you to measure fate
by way of every step I take.
When surely whether I trip or not,
I'll find the path goes ever onward,
and always get back up again.

What is this plight of which you speak,
and why does it daunt you so?
To where do you, too, disappear,
when your mind seems to go?

What is your sight, this dismal night,
and what wonder might it show?

Ah, but to know is to not know,
and in my mind, I am bound to the "although."
Without a doubt, it allows to me grow,
but I am lost in the lies I might sow.

Alas, there is no threat below,
as what reigns above should alleviate my woe.

Yet, my fate is sought,
and his is bought,
and I am transcended
by way of my thought,
and your view is concerting,
but ever diverting,
from what is but nature of rot.

Do you see what can be
of an old willow tree,
when a branch is newly planted
in the ground at your feet?

It is similarly true
of what you can do
with a concept all *******
and taught in your thoughts,
for your words are but seeds,
for a new willow tree,
or instead, are they branches,
maybe?

Water your tree,
and from words,
weave worlds of wisdom
within wistful watching eyes
of soft, metallic gold,
and you will learn
the ways of the souls of old,
and you will become what you seek.

Let the passion of eternity
drip from your tongue
like pure decantations of light.
Breathe in the winds of life,
and bridge the gap
that separates dark from light,
and cast your might upon the shadows
to form a picture,
then turn,
and from the cave,
walk into the light of day,
and gaze upon the open sky,
and feel alive, for the first time ever.

Like namers do,
practice an exercise in becoming you,
by seeing without eyes.
Let it go,
so the world can flow,
into itself, and continue to grow.

Then take a stand,
you are no ordinary fool,
no ordinary man!

To be as if without,
and take hardy in faith without doubt,
is as foolish a foolishness
as a fool can spout.

This is a journey without end,
there is no good found in the pretend,
so take your path,
and remember to laugh,
and take pride in the "rule of the bend."

To know you do not know,
is to allow yourself to grow,
but there is a reason
for the change of the season,
and sometimes
you just have to follow the road.

You must abandon identity,
to grasp the root of everything.
You are existence, and all is one.
There is no partition,
only illusion of separation
begat on subjective interpretation.
There is no divide,
until it is recognized inside.

See without eyes.

Choose to feel otherwise.

Everything will coincide,
as it has already,
and one must only open the mind's eye
to grasp the light
without finding themselves to be blind.
64 · Jul 2019
Autonomy
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Ironically
Your position
In industry
Is to listen
To those above
In hopes of learning
What is right
Ignoring lifelines, tools, and insight
Even though your heart is yearning
Independence, innovation, new products still glistening
In spotless eyes, through mystery
You only need to stiffen
Stubbornly, surreptitiously
You practice new autonomy
To lead yourself to mending lives once bound to ties
Of day to day, and by and by
A loss of life to society
Regulation bound by autonomy
63 · Oct 2021
moonlit obelisk
Dan Hess Oct 2021
I have squandered my soul again
I yearned for a tourniquet;
clutched my aching limbs 
as I bled out onto the floor,
onto myself

I’ve stolen fleeting things,
beget to me, lost to time
I have been conditioned to rot;
to survey eternity 
from behind the gate of the mind

I keep tricking myself
Surreptitious riddles, ghost of night
Resuscitating nothingness
regurgitating, heaving death

I keep deepening my desire to die
But I don't want to dissolve,
I want metamorphosis;
reintegration with the tapestry;
to begin dreaming, as an artist,
and paint my blood onto the canvas 
of the universe

My spirit leaves me
in unsanctimonious wanderings;
each time I flitter between
love and loss and longing

I would only ask:
let me cling to nothing,
understand without being crushed;
allow me relinquishment
Forgive me
Dan Hess Jan 2022
I want to live in this state

where every breath feels like vaporous gold

my blood is ablaze with the violet flame

and the gravity of cosmic, celestial ethereality

suspends each simple speck of being,

pulsating with transcendent, growing energy



Aperture adjustment; 

light parts the mist of the physical

a bloom, returned

consumed in energetic being


seeing through illusion


I want to transmute

the frazzled, festering things

that constitute the dissonant;


returned to harmony

with a decisive tap!

like liquid crystals flipped

to shine white light



Melt the astral ice

entice my mind and soul

to cascade into the ocean;

dissipate my shaking being;

make me feel whole



I am love. I am love. I am Love.

I am nothing.
63 · Aug 2022
Untitled
Dan Hess Aug 2022
I hold sacred my lack 
as a space to receive;

to grasp the infinite within me.
I will not cling to anything frivolously. 



I’ve spent my whole life waiting
Now it’s time to start creating
and as I bathe in the rays of the sun
I invite light in, to upgrade every cell
so I may swell with the might of the One

Wind-flow shakes and wakes the trees
applauding my awakening
these days have been intense
with every sense enlightening

My body aches with anticipation
of the soul’s profound reintegration
I soften, soften
and begin to open



I do not cry

but my dreams are overflowing

out my eyes, creating a junction

transpiring into a world awaking



I speak in rhythms reverberating

from my deepest soul’s vibration

pleading Spirit set me free

to be and be; be nought but Me
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Love lost to me in times forgotten
When apathy discourages my search
For in the end, I cannot find my love if truth
begets to me only heightened expectation

I long for one who seeks
to understand who I am deep inside
Who shares emotions so strong
I long for one who asks me
what I'm feeling and what led that way
To ask what composes my thoughts

And, I do want laughs, adventure and the like
But as for what I truly seek,
Those conversations about the universe
Those that last for hours
I want to form a bond
I want to know everything about you
But I don't even know who you are
62 · Jan 2022
œ
Dan Hess Jan 2022
œ
My mind rambles

until it’s time to write



Maybe I should meditate

on an empty page
62 · Feb 2022
I
Dan Hess Feb 2022
I
Being, freely being
to manifest in purity
align with authenticity

Embrace my abnormalities

to coalesce with clarity



because truth

is where I’m meant to be;

the meaning of life

breathing life into me


A reason for believing

when I’m born to be achieving
Me



I’ll trust in the touch

that touches deeply,

bleed into the energy

seeing me perceiving, 


when I’m gleaming with integrity

as is my integration 

with vibrations of eternity



I was, and will forever be

exactly as I’m meant to

I trust in my essential being

and surrender, as to bloom



I am Love in full expression;

no digression, lest I suffocate

In being born, and all Life’s lessons,

with truest self, I integrate
62 · Jul 2019
Pantoum
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Emotion is a catalyst for dreams
Desire is an unmentionable ceremony
Frustration elicits response
The fact of the lie is godhood

Desire is an unmentionable ceremony
Lust begets catharsis
The fact of the lie is godhood
The creator is an irony

Lust begets catharsis
Admonishing is the truth
The creator is an irony
Everything is forgotten

Admonishing is the truth
The angels are crestfallen
Everything is forgotten
The earth turns to hell

The angels are crestfallen
The demons are but pawns
The earth turns to hell
The men turn to swine

The demons are but pawns
Of devils made by gods
The men turn to swine
Primordial reactions

Of devils made by gods
Frustration elicits response
Primordial reactions
Emotion is a catalyst for dreams
Dan Hess Feb 2020
Each monumental step
leaves us bleeding into eternity.

Yet, somewhere
in the endless streams of ether 
coalescence becomes us.
We are inextricably bound by energy.

As One becomes All becomes None,
our rivers run in tandem to the shore;
the ocean - the overarching body that is Love.

Then, ever again, in symphony,
amongst the cosmic dance we meet
as streams so small but cutting
throughout space,
the earthly structure of ‘our’ making.
What is it that is “Us” but everything
breaking?

I ask, and you I ask again,
yet you are nowhere but within,
and there I see the race;
the running and the chase,
the end becoming what begins
again in haste.

We are the past
that meets the future.
We are dissolution of events;
readministration of evanescence.

With every fleeting leap
into deeper colors,
and greater, denser things
where the webs become structures,
we meet ourselves as mirrors.

You were a ripple on a pond.
I was a whisper in the breeze.
Such silent happenings,
but so far reaching.
61 · Jul 2019
Peaceful Affectations
Dan Hess Jul 2019
To be engulfed in the swell of natural flow
and fleeting above all transit
To be one with the atmosphere
and ever changing

To feel and know
without becoming your own
is to be free

For we who are bound to earthly soil
are rooted in our growth
And those who look down upon us
from an atmospheric lens
can change with the winds of fate

I wish to migrate
with the changing air pressure
And follow warmth to levity
I wish for
a natural compass
Telling me
Exactly
Where I belong
61 · Nov 2021
21
Dan Hess Nov 2021
21
Once,

the sky sparkled with magic;

the air crackled with immortal flame;

the world trembled in the presence

of a living god



There,

in the awareness of the air,

the spirit of primeval man condensed

in resplendent metamorphosis



Once,

when the earth was tinged with memories

not yet transpired, but ever being,

and time combined itself with minds

collectively surrendered 



The timelessness of energy,

erected in its synergy,

bloomed flowers in the desert;

stars in the sea



The shimmering began

from deep within the eyes

of the holder of a welling heart,

and erupted



In this plume of genesis

converged the waters of love,

and the space of knowing,

and the fires of passion,

and the silt of growing



A cataclysmic schism

set aloft the birth of night,

and the sea of energy

wove from the darkness light



wrapped itself,

through dimensions overarching

enmeshed and ever-pulsing

blossoming into new worlds

entwined with all things


A cosmic resurgence

of doubt’s consuming

set aside the likes of mind

akin to never being



Sphere-struck

the Eye became many

a window to a woven world

now set apart from any
61 · Nov 2021
11
Dan Hess Nov 2021
11
I’ve spent some time just dancing in the wind

Twirling to and fro without a care

The breeze and me, we’ll always be akin

There’s something ancient lingering in the air



I’ve always been a decent acrobat

and always known the breeze could sooth my soul

The wind’s my oldest friend, I’m sure of that

When scattered in the sky, I find I’m whole



It started with my hands just mingling

tickled by the passing gusts of breeze

and in my finger tips a-tingling

I’d drop my woes and find myself at ease



Now, how I’ve grown, to write an ode to thee

wind of my mind, and nature’s levity
Dan Hess Jul 2019
A demon came, and against his shadow,
pressed, I basked in blindness
My heart, he closely observed
and noticing its weight,
thought to offer me a kindness

He asked of me to sell my soul
In exchange, no more would my sorrows be
His promise was of lighter a heart,
a swifter step, and sadness left behind me

I told him this, in quick retort,
for I am no ordinary fool:

Although I may carry a burden
superfluous, indeed
I am a poet, sir,
and thus,
in this forever,
a heavy heart will I need
61 · Jul 2019
A Home in the Dark
Dan Hess Jul 2019
I wish to steep my mind in twilight
To steal away to a place
Where no one can find me
So I can be alone with my thoughts
And think and feel freely

I am sick of this constant rebuttal
From those who hold their hearts
To be their homes
And barricade the entrances and windows
So nobody can get in
And they can never see what lies outside them

They are hoarders of emotions
Garbage fills their floors, and stacks high up their walls
Walls they built to feel safe and comfortable
To protect themselves from the darkness lying just outside them

Yet, I will shed my tears upon the open earth
And let it drink away my pain, in solitude
Beneath the endless starlight
Which paints the darkness, as my guide
And I will pledge my love to her
In that depth of isolation
Until I no longer feel alone
And my home is established in nature

Then, I will have nowhere to flee to, or from
As I will be with my truer brethren
The kin of natural wealth, which holds all pain that we expel
As, I do too, feel the pain
As I too am a vessel for it
And I too have been cast aside
If not made to take the shape of their desires

In this, again, I weep for nature
She cannot refuse their call to infrastructure
So, in spite of the cruelty of my fate, in being human
I am blessed with the opportunity of choice
And I can never forgive myself
60 · Jul 2019
Godless
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Three fools divulge in halves of truths
Between the presently aloof
Alluding dissonance as proof
That everything is nothing

Three friends insist that they are one
And every moment must be fun
I cast myself asunder
For I am only getting younger

He tells me, soon, that he should die
And quietly I still deny
The nature of existence
No matter, I am still persistent

They ask of me to love them deep
And in them all my secrets, keep
They tell me I am one
Through many others, nature's son

And when his glory fades away
Her face shall see another day
But I shall be forgotten
And love once promised now has rotten

I gaze out from my widow's wharf
And she is the oncoming storm
And I am filled with fear
For love was once so near
and now I stand abandoned
The storm before the clear
Because I, as but a man, have sinned
60 · Jul 2019
Begrudgingly in Disparity
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Keep smiling your
Empty Smiles
You won’t be feeling them
For a while
If you keep wallowing
In your bile
You’ll never change, love

So keep
Rising from your ashes
And avoid those
Painful clashes
Of emotion;
Mental thrashes
Eased by your
Favorite drug

Once all of your
Traits have changed
Will you
No longer be deranged
Or just in a
Different kind of cage
Walk off the stage, love

Spectacular,
though you may be
You’re not a spectacle
Don’t you see
And this receptacle
To your grief
Should be disposed of
60 · Jul 2019
Cosmic Cleansing
Dan Hess Jul 2019
I shower my soul in starlight
to cleanse these marks upon it
once called indelible

I am in transit
Flowing forth in stasis,
as the cinematic pages
flicker onward through my
ever changing perspective

I am on Time's Journey
of souls
I am a mourner
of the losses
which remake us
into something whole

For I am losing
what I thought
I was
before

I am choosing
to move past
what I abhor

I am becoming more

I am emerging
bathed in light
as old as time
I am shedding
all my existential
grime

I will rise
Unbound by
these depths
of darkness
60 · Nov 2021
12
Dan Hess Nov 2021
12
A Secret



You may not believe it,

but I’ve had conversations with the wind

and every day I spend my time

(quite a bit of it)

coercing energy through me,

around me and to me



I’ve come to learn we are vessels

always being emptied and filled

and fate is the river, the ocean


the clouds overfull, 

that spill from the heavens 

and give us another drink

from love’s well of eternity



Some times, we’re out in the open sea

wonderfully welcome and perfectly free

with a million directions to choose from;

others, we’ll drift into an inlet


some people are born in a creek

that the sunlight finds it hard to reach

and their little pinch point never evaporates

so they might have trouble flying



We can guide the water’s flow a bit,

sail the ocean, converse with the wind,

we can build a dam and hold it in

but there’s no controlling energy



We can’t raise the sea into the sky

separate the water and salt

so nobody goes thirsty


We can’t stop the waves from flirting 
with the shore

Can’t stop the moon’s gravity

(clouds are a bit different, but that’s a secret)
60 · Mar 2022
Untitled
Dan Hess Mar 2022
I wake this morning to soft white,

welcoming overcast skies

the wind surge goes to and fro 

misting pitter patterned rain

upon my window pane



Each thrush and intermittent hush

coaxes my heart back to sleep

and after the rock tense stress of yesterday

it’s a well needed reprieve



For someone so prone to noise sensitivity

I sure do love birdsong, and the static

background, whispering wind


even the humming, mechanical noise, in the distance

contributes as an instrument in an unscripted song

and the cars passing by on the road play along



I think about how poetry can be

struggling to unwrap yourself

when you’re all wound up with rope

and ending up tripping

because every one way ties you up another



Or it can be rhythmic and enchanting;

a magical dance with fate and space

where the mind locks in and the heart beats

in tune with passing waves above, around, within

and everything is beautiful til the heart sinks



because it’s frustrating, knowing

some days the ocean fills you up

and you’re levitating

and it’s POWER in its most essential form

choosing you, flowing through you

and nothing can stop the poem from being born



other days, staring at a page

eyes glazed over, heart full of rage

wanting catharsis, fearing art has become

just a sensitive kid who’s afraid to take the stage



don’t look at me, don’t see me, please

if you don’t care, don’t fake it

i miss the days I’d freely say

whatever stole my heart to break it



but don’t forget me, please forgive

i can’t do this alone

i’ve given everything to this

i’ve made this place my home



all the while the funny little mind wanders

casting prismatic pebbles in the dark

for just a glint

whilst the great cosmic laughter erupts

and the hologram blinks

exposing everything
as light
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Star crossed lovers
Gaze upon an empty sky
And search for distant stars
And wonder why
The darkness is so black
When things are never ending

Her eyes might widen
To seek the light
Her mind my gape
And swallow the space
Which borders every star

His words should sparkle
Amongst the galaxies
Writing his love
Across the sky
To live forever

They are
So obsessed
With the beyond
They cannot see the lines
Which form their souls together

And create constellations
Just to unify them
However distant
60 · Jul 2021
Metamorphosis
Dan Hess Jul 2021
White butterflies pass me by
after neon rain.
In summer heat, am I replete
with peace, releasing pain.

Electric humming overtakes;
a rushing hush when silence breaks
the melding sound, from all around,
as I dissolve into the ground.

How swift do clouds drift overhead
to split the sun’s dominion?
Should I close my eyes instead
relinquishing division?

Every portent piercing deep
into dark and sleeping keep;
an opened eye on a world of dreams;
nothing ever as it seems.

A lifetime spent inhaling,
a monumental heaving
when death does not knock:
it has a key.

So I am, as lungs,
a breathly vessel, but
instead, the air.

When I surrender,
(let loose my grip,)
I can feel the atmosphere
as an extension of my breathing.
60 · Mar 2020
To Come Undone
Dan Hess Mar 2020
I tend to employ and enjoy a constant state of change. Perhaps it may be that I'm uncomfortable remaining static in being, and must become, or I feel I'll always be lacking. The way I see it there's always some lesson to be learnt and to me that's an urgent and nagging feeling. I simply must expand my perspective in order to support myself. That is what they mean, when they say you "understand" yes? Not only do you see what you see, but you know well enough of it to support it? Then, thus, if that is the case, does it not become a foundation upon which a new self is built? Are you not standing on the corpses of your former selves, ready and eager to die yet again as you grow into a veritable giant? Tho, perhaps is it the ultimate, and most noble of deaths to cast yourself from the mountain of your making, dying in the fullest, only to be consumed by rot, and let 'what is' take you? Should I abandon all that I have seen, and become, in favor of being what I ever never was? Salt of the earth, charged in the moon, left lacking by ocean's recourse. Shall I melt and unbecome again? Should I be all as nothing?
59 · Nov 2021
29 : Too Sensitive
Dan Hess Nov 2021
I open up to my mother
she listens begrudgingly
but physically
cold shoulder

I point out her body language
she says I’m on the attack
I just want peace
but a cold war is still a war

He coughs all day to numb the pain
releasing it in clouds around him
every sound has a weight on my heart
and it never ends

I want to escape
but I’m frozen in place
and I’m not interested in playing pretend
Maybe ignorance is bliss and this
is suffering needlessly

I can’t escape
paralysis
except when I’m asleep

demons used to chase me
in the worlds inside my dreams
one day, i touched the bottom
surfaced from beneath the waters
woke but couldn’t move

at the end of my bed
a demon waited
so i sent waves of energy in its direction
and freed myself

even the most fearsome monsters
respond to these vibrations
is that how they see me?
certainly I’m no exception
59 · Jan 2022
Untitled
Dan Hess Jan 2022
there’s this sense of possibility
but this inner knowing
that I won’t have to fight
for the right to take up space
in the place where I belong

So I’ll let go



i am open to intimacy
but i will not pursue it
i’ll let it pursue me
that’s how i’ll know who really cares

and while I’m here, waiting
i’ll focus on caring for myself
59 · Nov 2021
04
Dan Hess Nov 2021
04
When confronted with the inexplicable,
the human mind seeks to rationalize, 
explain,
and fit information into an established worldview. 


When confronted with the incomprehensible, the mind recoils. 

It shrinks into and attempts to consume itself.

It was true, at a time,
I was an unknowing thing
so self assured in my doubting
A wanderer in a realm between,
bepuzzled in my wilding

An observing eye,
in a dance with night
a twirling zephyr with an uncharted passage
no future dark, nor future bright
for the moment was my adage

And it was, that language came in gasps
a surefire eureka, when the heart’s contentedness 
could last for but a moment
as the ever shifting resonance 
would beckon me 
“Onward”

I learned to speak
in gesture’s grand expanse
to converse in my subsistence;
in the dance

A dialogue with fog
wherethrough uncertainty,
though doggedly I slogged,
I knew, though I’d be filled
with forlorn things
I’d make them bloom again
in my journeying

And bloom they did
returned to me
when on the wind
came sovereignty
incomplete
59 · Jan 2020
Tree of Life
Dan Hess Jan 2020
Maybe all our wishes form a tree
And every branch is what our lives could be
But wishes shift with every drifting soul upon the sea

We’ll coast through lives and host our time
As beings willing change
Compare ourselves
To everyone else
While some remain estranged

We’ll reach and stretch, and flow as fluids
Growing throughout time
Follow saints and druids
in this endless pantomime

Eventually we’ll find ourselves within the greener things above
Form friendship, feed the roots which wrought, and act in light and love
But only when we’ve withered and we fall, to decompose
We’ll see the tree as one, without us; our eyes coming to a close
59 · Jan 2022
To Be, in Dreams
Dan Hess Jan 2022
Even in the woeful silence of the ever present dark

a subtle light turns over itself, tonight,

whilst dwindling minds steep.

In hazy heated havens; still ticks the metronome.



Beguiling are the hues of shimmering earth

that mimic spectacles surrendered to the skies,

and the beyond which there, Beyond, it lies:

a breathing magick being we call space.



Fear, always persistent, strikes the aching heart, 

and pain will rupture us; but split in two 

we might adjourn through shrouds of all, 

absconded, thence, to find ourselves.



Wind hugs flat ground, races over empty roads,

carries what is left of life in remnants from days gone.

Transposed from temporality incarnate,

a ghost; a mist; a lingering thing we breathe.



I cauterize my wounds without a flame,

leave my blood to blend with this old world.

It will remember me, as it becomes itself

and when I die a death alas, penultimate,

I am reborn amongst the mist of consciousness.



I will relinquish all that is not mine to hold

and force is my intention, not without grace.

For harmony is power, and I am faceless;

blessed with evanescence, shedding self.



I am dying, every day;

my feet disintegrate to ash 

with every step

on my walk homeward.
59 · Dec 2020
Star Seed
Dan Hess Dec 2020
How can I be understood 

if I am a microcosm? 



People gaze upon the stars 

to bask in the mystery 

of what lies beyond them, 



but I only feel longing.



i wish i had something to say
but i feel only a gaping heart
which seeks to inhale the universe
in its sigh

to fill the emptiness

cosmic intricacies
infinitesimal infinities
stowed away within the heart

but how much emptiness
it takes
to swallow outer space
Dan Hess Mar 2020
The moment exists.

Respect does not mean admiration.

There is a conceptual/nonverbal layer of thought, which isn’t necessarily visual.

You may have misconceptions based on your perception.

The universe will give you many gifts just for having good intentions, and aiming to improve yourself.

Everyone is a friend, until they are an enemy.

Sometimes you just have to let go, to let live, to stay still when ensnared in the fire and allow yourself to burn.

You will encounter pain in your healing, to show you how and what to heal.

Sometimes you will unwittingly and unnecessarily impede yourself.

Being happy in spite of everything is a lot harder than being happy because of everything, but it may well be the only way to be content.

Love is not blind. It is gazing upon the sun.

Instant gratification tricks the brain’s reward system; there is no reward without effort and accomplishment. Delay gratification in anticipation of freedom from dependency, as that is a much greater reward than any you could find from within it.

What we want is often at odds with what we need.

If you can be high and tired. You can. Be hired.

Life is like a box of chocolates: someone is probably going to come along and eat all the good ones before you can get to them. Be proactive.

There is value in every aspect of existence.

You will cherish most the things you share with those you love.
a collection of disordered but ostensibly meaningful thoughts

could be used as writing prompts maybe idk
58 · Oct 2021
ó
Dan Hess Oct 2021
ó
There is no place that is not within you; 

none that is without you. 

In life as in death, 

we are teeming with the breath 

of one another. 



We are cycles 

recycling selves

into each other;
sister, brother, 

father and mother.



Giving love

unto love 

unto love. 



There is no place that is not home, 

and none that is lacking in heart. 

You are born of the world, 

and through you it bears fruit. 



You cannot understand the depth of All, 

until you consume it.
How can I improve this stanza?

We are cycles 

recycling selves

into each other;
sister, brother, 

father and mother.
58 · Nov 2021
15
Dan Hess Nov 2021
15
Mid November lingers still

with the aroma of sunlight

and the ghost of sliced peaches



We leave the windows cracked

on 65 degree days, 

when the sky is blue

and the wind is blustering



Keen to hear its voice

whispering secrets alongside 

melodies of chimes ringing

in unison with the falling leaves



And the trees are dancing

in an act of praise

to the cycles of change

and the end of days


Knowing.



Every winter begets spring

in resurgence, when

death breathes life
into 
the sleeping glen



and in the valley of death

on nightfall’s pillow

the sun mingles with hushing shadows

brilliance, set low in subtlety

only gleaned by sharpest eyes



So I’ll capture

a flash of time exposed

keep it in a bottle in the back of my mind

diverge and recombine

and light the world up



and when the moon beams down on its lover

and the sun admires her from afar

I’ll know the cosmos glisten, just out of sight

teeming with unknown color
58 · Nov 2021
20
Dan Hess Nov 2021
20
Wastrel of liminal spaces

trembling in giant’s steps

Invisible, they quake
the earth I glide upon

in waiting



To take shape

be wrought

or ripped apart

no longer vaporous



The sky blinks

in passing days

and fog encompasses

the land that claims

my mind when I

can’t think



I stare into

the blank white hue

once stark

which now

the sunlight

cannot penetrate



To be the energy of breath

antithesis of life and death

the thing which seamlessly

slips into and through

the lungs of living things



Only to return

to lingering

against all odds

static in its shifting
Dan Hess Jul 2019
I think fast, hop straight to analysis
Delve deep, ask too many questions
Even if I know the answer,
I'm just dancing in the act of it
This much expansion of my cognizance
Is really quite liberating
But who am I kidding?

I'm just
Setting myself up to be ******
When I act like a nut
Asking questions of such
Which should be plain to see
Putting myself in a rut
I'm just greedy

Or maybe I don't trust myself?
Maybe I'm just an oaf.
Or, perhaps I'm just going to hell.

What a joke, I'm just swell.
I'm a stand up guy.
Don't make me choke.
I can tell.
I'll be fine.

Don't you see,
I've been doing
The very thing
I've been describing
This entire time?

But it is so sublime
Quite enticing to rhyme
What beauteous words
You can combine

And yet, when beautiful things become masks of truth,
they are nothing more than fodder for pigs.
57 · Feb 2021
Below
Dan Hess Feb 2021
I am rebirthed
in the sanctity of spirit
in rivers flowing
through my very being

channels clear
with an oomph!
whenever will works
worlds quake
in the wake of waves

erupting


spilling over

geysers plummeting
cascading a flood of 

ae (the) r



condensed in my crystal moon
emanating holographic light
that purifies the mind
and reignites

the flame of heart



clarity in microcosmic synergy
which permeates infinity
through fractalescent pockets
spiraling intricately 

into oblivion



from heaven’s highest branches
to the densities of roots
beneath the light of life



the world tree holds cosmos
identical to energetic outlets
effusing spiritual light
within our very vessels



we are 
mirror images
forever 

holding hope 

in our depths



an ever expanding accordion 

of intimate individuation
in unfolding fragments

forming frameworks for fate



so severnot the swell

plummet me, nought,
unto hell

nay, away into my shell



herein I reside
evermore, but never;

bide I, aligned

parallel or right inside
the flow of home
bestowed in mine
dissolved

and unconfined

even in the midst
of loneliness

and death
I feel not
bereft



I know
my nature beckons
in the reckoning of heaven
within, without, about
the energy of everything
reiterated in me
57 · Feb 2021
Untitled
Dan Hess Feb 2021
Bygone years, I’ve lingered, squandered
searching for a sense of self, I’ve wandered
pacing back and forth, no realization
for the time that’s racing by, just tail chasing

I’ve wondered of so many things
the gravity in my heart, so crippling
tearing me apart as I’m still falling
I’ve faced hidden, hellish demons
and my brain, it’s crawling

I wonder if I’m worthless  
shrouded in abysmal night
I haven’t any hope
but I have done away with fright

I have a light of faith
I trust that I will be alright
At times it dims
At times it’s bright  

I’ve left a world behind
as not to be of any mind
so I could find my eyes would shine
sparkling with the endless presence of stars
the vastness and immensity of space
of time beyond a time or place

My heart, it aches
with longing
somehow tied to things of beauty
somehow my love of life
is causing me to feel empty

I am searching for a place where I belong
I am aching to deny myself my need to feel strong
I know that I must carry on
I know  

But I long to be embraced
To be seen
To be known
To be loved

Naked.
57 · Nov 2021
22
Dan Hess Nov 2021
22
There is no metric of worth

nor sign of indispense

No mark of royalty
nor meager birth in seeking sense



There is no purpose some might have

that others stand to gain

There is no worthless thought or value

none predisposed to live in vain



There is no meaning you might find

profound in life, you’ve lived without

nor punishment to which you’re blind

if you don’t quite live so devout



I’ll chase my tail or twiddle my thumbs

my heart will sink as I might think

I’m wasting life while I’m still young

it all might vanish in a blink



To wish to serve the world alone

without appreciation

is my fool’s burden, not my throne

I think I just need a vacation
57 · Nov 2021
27 : I Can!
Dan Hess Nov 2021
These feeling vibrations
come from a source beyond me
a connection that is family
and the crows agree

I can be a student
and a teacher
I can be a patient
and a healer

I can be a lover
a believer
I can share a kinship
with an equal

I can be a mirror
and a light
I can show another love
that what’s inside them
shines as bright

I can be of value
if I see the beauty around me
and if I embrace my worth
I might find I’ve always been free

I can be appreciated
without being conventional
I can be a wild child
and still be in control

I’ll just embrace the parts of me
I already know are true
and to my fears and my illusions
I can bid adieu

I don’t have to live my life
seeking validation
Once I accept that I am valid
I’ll find true appreciation
56 · Jul 2019
Haven
Dan Hess Jul 2019
This bleak, overcast sky
holds in it a well of condensing energy;
similar to the way one calms down in their deepest despair.

The wind rages with no destination;
it is carried only by what is left behind,
and falls ahead,
flowing blissfully with a current.

The trees have no care;
they thrive off the land and the sky,
the sun blanketing them in warmth
and feeding them to elicit growth.

The animals frolic
back and forth in repetition
only with their most primal desires.

It is only we humans
who concern ourselves
with personal desire and want;
that will be our downfall.

Sometimes,
to simply stop living a fast paced,
reward induced existence
and pay attention to nature
is to realize the value
of forgetting what is
and allowing yourself to simply be.

This is my safe place.
56 · Jul 2019
Psyche Delightful
Dan Hess Jul 2019
I am neither here nor there
I simply flitter about along the spectrum
Reading into every subject
But turning pages before I finish them

Ambivalence is recompense of commonplace deliverance
And I cannot confide within myself a singular position
So contrived is psyche socio-implied
That when I wish myself concerted
I doubt even that truth might exist
And wander evermore

I am a nomad of the mind
And in this endless wandering
I grasp no inkling of forever
But garner truth in facts unfounded
By comparing them to naught

I am an eagle
Free, but always hunting
Strafing toward another nugget
So I might fill the curiosity
Of my bloodied beak
And reap the soul
Of emotion
From the pangs of indifference
To free myself of fixation

Thus, I squander myself
In search of objectivity
But never wonder why
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Another cloudy day
Much to my dismay
Of course, the wind
Ever befitting,
My thoughts, rescind
Somehow both fleeting and constant

As my mind turns to nonsense
Much like my whims and woes
The rain begins to fall
The wind and I dance toe to toe

Before I think to regret it all
Before a drop might meet my face
My feet will shift, and nature, race

And though I truly know
That it will only grow
The world beyond me, now erased
My cares beseech my woes

We danced a lifetime
Storm and I
Forever, without a cause
Yet never to wet, mine
Still I'm dry
Thus met, am I, with thunder's own applause

The clouds finally clear
The sun, a spotlight, sheer
The wind implores a journey to bore
And carries me to nowhere near
Yet, still, I look before
And am consumed by fear
Knowing again, I'll meet the storm
56 · Nov 2021
08
Dan Hess Nov 2021
08
Alliteration is hard



An amusing affectation afforded against all authenticity

Living lies luxuriously, lamenting in my lowly lacking

Leering lackluster; levity lost loquaciously

In interest inimitable, isolated in illusions illustrated incoherent

To take triumph, tackle tumult; tie treaties toward the torment’s trite theatrics

Elevate exposure, even entrenched in evanescence; expectation eventually ends; elation endures

Revitalize, remember; roaming rot relinquished retroactively

Again, an avenue against accustomed aggravation; art alleviates

Traveling to taste time’s tales; a taxing task toppled

Indebted, in individuality’s internment, innovated; inundated in insight

On overarching opportunity’s offerance, one overcomes oblivion

Nothing neglected, new nights near; nidificate nuance, newly niche November
56 · Apr 2022
Untitled
Dan Hess Apr 2022
it started with a sense 

of a soft glow, a soft heart

a soothing subtle warmth

and inherent trust



the heart grows fonder
under water

swelling with it all


Becoming its own ocean

it grows heavy



but we are born of breath

and ever air

and light as one could be



the mind is tidal

tumult, earth nestled

a thunderstorm
in a closed off room

at times



we are weather before we find

we are forever, shifting, but divine


i doubted, but the signs kept coming

i doubted, but Love did not

Spirit never tarried

and I was never truly lost



a warm wind, northward bound

the sunlight nourishing

evaporating sorrow, creating spring

the sun let seeds sown blossom



i was inundated and exhausted

resting in rain and shade

full of fear that thunder could shake

and split the earth i grew from



but, always harboring faith,

i grew



it started with a sense of ease

and ended with a shout

in celebration



now my only storms

are joyful tears

quenching earth
55 · Sep 2021
Rise
Dan Hess Sep 2021
Do you hear every wind-song, 

oh great purveyor of grace?

Purloiner of haste, do you hear my cry?
As I am wont to want for freedom.



Steal away my woes.

My will-wept, gone; my hardened heart,

in songs that scatter on to windswept glory.



Overturning eyes that glint, in sunlight’s glow 

from clouds above, to clouds below;

a view I’ve only found in hovering.



When tucked beneath a shroud of sleep

in lifetimes spent in lands of dreams,

untethered from my destiny, I see.



With each word spoken, 

tone hummed, vow broken -

with every heart that’s shattered open:

an eternal resonance, awoken

to the eminence of the wind.


i listen
to the chorus of the trees
the buzzing of the breeze
when i should rise before the sun
in early morning liminality

yellow candle
as i wait for daybreak
soothe the mind, unwind
embrace the grace awaiting
gratitude, this day, in waking

recently
days slip away with a hasty pace
time passes by before my eyes
but all just seems a waste

when choice is fading spirit
ebbing, waning light in palms outstretched
when i am begging to grasp the stars,
but nothing yet
i must remember i am blessed

to rise before the sun
and greet galaxies
and be undone in thoughts of space
as days slip by with a hasty pace
and i have time to waste

embrace the grace awaiting
gratitude this day in waking
seeing time pass by my mind
not truly dissipating

co-creating binds
of time with mind
energy with memory,
transpiring into being

this chorus of the trees,
the universe, in unison, singing
dimensions overarching, resonating
aligning everything, as One;
ubiquitous and vibrating
55 · Jul 2019
Chasing the Sun
Dan Hess Jul 2019
There are so many wishes we make in life
But wishes are jaded opportunities, lost to time
If we are to make of ourselves, what we admire
At every turn, we must scan our surroundings
Look inside ourselves, and ask what makes us whole

Next comes the hard part
We must break our minds into fragments
Give up the wholeness, that sanctity of being secure
In order to follow our dreams in waking
We need to hold onto those pieces that shattered
In such a way that they can be repaired

Like puzzle pieces
To a picture that can never be fully seen
We zoom out as we move forward
And build ourselves into something incomplete
But ever growing

So wish for becoming
And cherish your imperfections
This is what dreams are made of
This is why we are free

We are not meant to understand life
We are only meant to love the beauty it brings
And chase the sun
Even though we know it always ends up sinking below the horizon

Don't forget to stop and admire what you don't understand
One day, when life passes you by, you may be those blades of grass
Those flowers that color a field grown wild
And although you may be stepped on, bent, and withered
Someone will find you, and they will see your beauty
In this life and the next
You are lovely
55 · Mar 2021
Fickle Formless
Dan Hess Mar 2021
with each step I take

deep, dense, solid

my heel strikes earth

interlocking quakes with stasis

as the world rolls behind me

propelling me forward



I am exhausted

watching the sun melt

into the yawning periphery of absence

as god perforates the sky with light



who am I meant to be?

walking with the weight of waning years

inscribing cryptic milestones on the dead flesh

of an intimate, innocent facet of sprawling life

teeming through the crust of corruption

monuments to the ephemerals’ search
for immortality



I am a pillar of dust in a sandstorm

isolated in the desert

swept away on all encompassing

howling winds



even as I am transformed 

upon the worldly winds

gazing over earth 

from views yet unreached 

I am aching to be molded



yet, I do not rest

forever suspended in unending transit

between realms of night and day

as wisps and twists of rain, and tides of change

rearrange in blinks and blips before me

I am hovering, incessantly 



stuck

a mix, betwixt the thick and thin

‘tween everything and nothing;

space and place, yet I’m erased

they call it bliss, return, amiss

the self you seek does not exist

but I’m not even built
to begin crumbling



a legacy of fading

what remains betrayed

to days of waste

forbade from ever being



who could love 
a soul
without a husk?

I’ve never been 

to be empty
Dan Hess Oct 2021
Tonight the wind blows;
the sky bursts under its weight;
the energy is immense,

and it is conscious.  

My mind splits;
my spirit lifts itself into the wind,
which drinks me in, to oblivion.
Thunder cracks on the horizon,
lighting the sky,
rippling in its immensity.  

Everything is subtlety, supercharged;
in nature, everything bleeds into itself;
in the ether, the wind blows backwards,
and consciousness is gravity
anchored to eternity,
streaming between the energy of thought.  

The wind has been blowing all day
and when I breathe,
in a different dimension,
where air shares a kinship with intention,
it caresses me; enveloping me physically,
restoring feeling to those parts of me
starving.  

I am too small to hold myself.
I am nothing, intermingling with being.
I am a raw throat;  
an aching thirst that cannot be quenched.  

I am water in its various states;
its many cycles.  
I am an ocean.
I am a puddle.  

I am limitless
-ness
drowning in the deep.
I am gasping for breath without lungs
to be seen.  

I am me, not being.
Who am I?
An unlabeled simplicity.  

Why complicate the mind?
(The heart, it aches to find
belonging. Only ever longing,
forever found in everything
surrendered unto nothing.)  

Can opening my eyes but rend me blind?
(The light, it’s all encompassing;
the white, forever bleeding into,  
fields of you; there is no you.  
Only truth can set you free.  
Die become eternity.)
I cannot.  

I must breathe it to believe it.  
Need to let it go to know.
Need someone else to show it to.
What’s one without two?
54 · Jul 2019
Inner Breakage
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Through emotion
Every aspect of existence achieves vibrancy
Every whim becomes a dream
For it is love that connects us
For it is beauty that inspires us
Doubt that impedes our worth
It is happiness that elevates us
Sadness that innovates us
And anger that inhibits our thoughts
Above all else, in the deepest crevice
of our conceptual reality, it is hope
Hope that brings light
to an otherwise interminable darkness
Reaching out to grasp a token of worth
Constantly moving forward
Despite ignorance in surplus
We are creatures of change
Hope
Love
Warmth
Inspiration
All things are brought back
to a belief in a better world
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