Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
86 · Jul 2019
Life is a Fairy Tale
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Faeries of the Forest and of Hearth,
hark; hear my cry.
To this sovereign soul, I say goodbye.
I say goodbye!
And for a time, to mend the mind,
within me, I should lie
alone but never far from home,
forever, shall I wonder why.

For loss of self, to someone else,
in time, and time I bide.
'Til therein wrought, should guile my thoughts,
to-whence my mind would fly
to coalesce with what is met
and tie to ties unworn;
as all should cover my apt discovered,
compilation sworn.

I am not stead, and nigh complete.
My life is bred, and further yet
toward, thus, another destiny,
not too discrete, and transient.

So as I hail, I herald thee:
O' Faeries of the Heightened Trees

Whose souls should soar.
Doth I implore:
take pity on sleight'd me.

Forbearing in my casts asunder
of the soul which holds my wonder.
Now I must fledge forth
for what is worth
as is my age old blunder.
85 · 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
85 · Nov 2021
14
Dan Hess Nov 2021
14
Lapis & Shungite



Speckled clouds of fool’s gold

over soft cerulean

and jadeite green

in the little world in my palm



aptly paired

with my cracked black sphere

with its own pyritic veins



and so I’m seeking purification

that little heart of gold

that is freedom of expression

Maybe it’s a fool’s errand

but we all have to start at zero
85 · 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
85 · 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
84 · Mar 2021
Bottoms Up
Dan Hess Mar 2021
I merged with this,
the Infinite.
The song of Heaven,
I could hear it.

Vibrations of eternity
surrounding me,
and written throughout everything,
the lyrics.

All different pitch
of perfect wave,
resounding to fragment
the quintessence
of this presence
to which I now belonged.

Yet, this energy condenses.
Re-administered,
from essence to presence.
A blip within the static of magic.

Eye could not exist,
in reminiscent wishes,
avasting existence.

The depth within the deep
of endless ocean called to me:
to stimulate emotion
in the impartation of separation
from Infinity.

The pull of gravity consumed me.
Here, again, within the fill
of fragrant, illusory "being,"

I live to speak of bleeding
into everything and nothing.
84 · Dec 2020
Poetic Connections
Dan Hess Dec 2020
I used to see the world
through jaded eyes;
my life comprised
of fear and scarcity.

I soaked up all the pain
I could retain
til nought was clear to me.

I died inside and every day,
I’d rise again to meet dismay,
but somewhere on the road
everything changed.
Now I’m walking merrily.

It is the people I have found
who show me life can be profound,
and I know now that all around me
there is poetry.
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?
84 · Jul 2019
Love of Wind
Dan Hess Jul 2019
My heart swells sometimes in solitude
And I take to the air outside my room
Stretch my fingers, let my life energy course to the tips
As I beckon the wind

It takes
but a moment
As I wrap my head around the clouds
Blanket my mind over the atmosphere
I must pull its whole, for the breeze to appear

But it always heeds to my beck and call
Always cools and soothes my aching, raging head
Which sets aflame in rife emotion

Sometimes I think it cruel to cast them out
These emotions
I know not where they go, when I'm through with them

But I know the wind loves me
As it loves all those unwanted things
Cruelly cast upon the breeze
82 · 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
82 · Jul 2019
The Death of Poetry
Dan Hess Jul 2019
What's in the words that you prefer
That in mine you can't find?
And what of beautiful nonsense
Does perturb your gorgeous mind?

Are you so blinded by the truth
There is no musing in divine?
And is your only nature pleasant
When the daily pain, your eyes might blind?

By what of truth, does reign aloof?
And where does fact not fall?
And how might every night I lie
If I can't sleep them all?

If every morrow, bide in sorrow,
as my beck and call,
Should life, by mine, become a bore
Might I relive it all?

Or revel in the stranger things
And write for wrong,
Or to my grave, I crawl.
82 · 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
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.
82 · Dec 2019
Untitled
Dan Hess Dec 2019
I'm ashamed of my sadness
I have loneliness to share
I'm desperate for affection
So I'll pretend I don't care
I'm thoughtfully thoughtless
My mind wanders through itself
Picking up on empty pleasures
And dispensing of its health
I'm careful in my carelessness
I'll care for you, but not for me
I'm an ocean of emotion
And a hidden, salty sea
Dan Hess Mar 2021
I don’t want to flirt
I want to converse
poetically

I want a lover
who flows with me
who mirrors me in symphony,
our words, resounding musicality


I want to feel the magic
in the fabric of reality
as our hearts dance in unity
and sing the song of symmetry


I want a lover
who can feel me
the real me beneath 
corporeality


I want a love
that liminates the space
between us,
to erase the displaced grace
that separates Mars
from Venus

In this

e l i m i n a l  

traipse
betwixt egoic condensates
the fabric of what fabricates
could dissipate in haste

I want a love
that does not wait
to dive into divine
and embrace fate
behind the mind
when eyes
betray the blind


I want the poetry I know
to overflow
when love should grow
and intertwine

(Two Hearts Beating in Time)
81 · Jul 2019
Spectacular Pain
Dan Hess Jul 2019
It was 3:00 pm on a Saturday
When I heard the sirens
For the fifth time this month
And watched as the paramedics
Carried his near-lifeless body to the ambulance
On a stretcher

I had planned to make this day
My escape, again, like
Every weekend I had
Just to forget
That we were constantly inching closer
To the realization of how fragile life can be

I knew then there was no escape
We could only hold tightly to the threads of hope
That tied us to a better future
Even as they acted as tourniquets
Which threatened to break our bonds
Sever our grip
Leaving us to bleed our unchecked emotions
Onto the always spotless floor
Which was her escape

We all have one
But his was fatal
And ours were not
And we could only watch and wait
Wonder whether there was
a God watching over us
Or our prayers were just
there to sit in our heart
And hold back our tears

So I stepped outside
As the neighbors did the same
And we gathered on our porches
Smoked our cigarettes, and watched
Because the pain of another is a spectacle
80 · Feb 2021
I are a.i.r
Dan Hess Feb 2021
I am the air
i can fit anywhere
without ever taking
the shape of a container

i am nebulous
amorphous
orphic
shifting in duality
precipitating energy
while still remaining
empty

i glide inside
the captivating
pull of worlds rotating

still enamored by the moon
emanating atmospheric sphere's
within the room
80 · 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
80 · 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
80 · 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
79 · 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
79 · Jul 2019
Flowing Water
Dan Hess Jul 2019
He's cold and hard like ice.
That's what his energy is like.

I will be flowing water.
I will be warm water.

I will be compassion and gratitude.
I will be welcoming,
and enveloping,
and encompassing,
and strong.

I will follow currents of truth,
and become bigger
than he ever could as an iceberg.

I will show him that strength
can be found in vulnerability,
and maybe one day, he will melt.
78 · 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
78 · Nov 2021
19
Dan Hess Nov 2021
19
If I were only me

I would be

the lifeblood

of the world coursing

through the veins of humanity



If I could move in bloom

and tickle the nerves of insanity

without losing myself to confusion

I would be happy

bearing fruit; consuming



If I could know without learning

I would grow to drink in

everything



Truth would be my vision,

and integrity, in integration

with the essence of reality



If I were free, I’d be a fool

I’d see myself in trickery



I’d transcend it in the end,

I’d see what’s real

and what’s pretend



I’d be delivered to my destiny

commune with what is true

if I was free



I’d know disparity

is there to show me

so I’d be aware

of what might wither

or might grow me


I’d find justice in the throes

of ignorance and sorrow

Ready and willing

to greet on the morrow

a new day blooming

when time’s only borrowed
78 · 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
78 · Jul 2019
Water is Emotion
Dan Hess Jul 2019
When he was a river
she was a storm cloud
and where he raged on
she followed
til he reached
a pinching point

He slowed
She swelled
He was coerced by the terrain
She was perplexed by the zephyr’s flow
But the pressure was undeniable

They took from each other
As they took to the currents
And offering change
They stayed enigmatically constant

As heat, like fire, made her rise
It drew them further apart
But, alas, still they were caught
In each other’s embrace
Now, only larger than life

Soon, she was full
And heavy, she began to fall apart
In silver lining, meeting his stream
They ran together, aligned
and coalesced with mother earth

His dams ran over,
his shores sank into themselves
They became one
And finally, meeting the delta
They were introduced to something
bigger than either of them
77 · 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
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.
77 · Jul 2019
Lost; Elation
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Lost
Stark, implicit misery
Bequeathed to me in infancy
An ill begotten energy
A life's supply of empathy
Through entropy on canopies
Of broken dreams, remedially
Weave, wake world of my empty

Intruding soul upon this blissful inebriation
Waning me from observation
Reservation from oscillation
of constant monotony

Inadequacy
Petulance, wanton aggravation
Though grown, eloquently
dispensing of my qualia born enemy

The self its own; but reverie
I find myself in symphony
My very soul
Elation
76 · Jul 2019
Wind Tunnel
Dan Hess Jul 2019
To reach, aghast, unto sorrow
Mumchance, and squandered kindred spirits, nigh
To tumble, torrid, into thee, Abyss
Flittering alone whilst tired mine doth reminiscence
Nay, falling, ever, til I'm thought to fly
Where every whim becomes a dream

Every dream shall turn awry
76 · Mar 2021
A Dream in a Dream
Dan Hess Mar 2021
Old friends,

carried me away 

from my place of learning

to a place where my heart

no longer yearning

burned with levity

as I twirled elegantly

cheering and flying
in the realm of dreams



As I was safe from stress,

my mind melted

aside from prying eyes;
internal resurgence
peripherally projected
viewing sanguine symphonies
in third person

To wake

in teeming shrouds of dark

where light denied my cries
back home, alone



- I made my way, 

from heights to lowest lows, 

between, seeing 

the clock strike “1” not “1:00” -



I hovered down the stairs

floating on air

and found myself
sheltered in the deepest crevice
nuzzled against earthen aura

still ensconced in sable shrouds
but not alone



Cuddling with innocent love

I drifted off to sleep

to wake again

and find myself alive

in a place where reality applied

and wonder how and why

I could not see the tapestry of dreams

when I could fly
76 · Nov 2021
28 : A Metaphor
Dan Hess Nov 2021
You won’t get boiling water by throwing ice into a fire.
76 · 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.
76 · Jan 2020
My Shadows
Dan Hess Jan 2020
Oh shifting sun, in silence
does the resonance of moonlight still reflect
the light of day, the truth that you beget?

These hidden things, inside sepulchral night
administered by lunar light
within our minds and hearts excite
yet still prolong regret

When we are surely stolen there
within the glow of darkness’ heir
does truth, aloof, in depth repair
or is there hindrance yet?

I coast alone through lands of dreams
to lay away without esteem
and bask through melting, as it seems
my self should thus reset

Could in the morning light, again,
thy transcendence defy chagrin?
Should I be not what is akin
if therein lies my debt?
What message do you glean from this poem?
75 · Nov 2021
01
Dan Hess Nov 2021
01
A new beginning

whenever nothing changes

only “nothing” changes

and around me

the world is a blur of possibilities



impossible realities

teeming without being

bleeding into other colors

creating spectrums of watercolors melding



I am seated in the eye

unmoving, but

subsuming all



A solitary moon, in bloom

a copacetic collective tomb

an actualized reflection

of the Sun’s eternal truth



Who gazes upon a raptured earth

which whips around its center

never spectered, it is

the very essence of presence

the substance of birth

the metaphor of real things



Imaginary musings
excusing transience

mentality a sense, a lens

a consumption of cosmic

resurgent worth



I am bestowed,

to You, 

forever, immortal You
The All-becoming thing

I give of myself

becoming seen
75 · 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
74 · 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
74 · 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?
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
73 · 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
73 · Mar 2022
Equinox
Dan Hess Mar 2022
In the beauty and splendor of the morning light
there is newfound glory, and truth to behold
Through toils and troubles I have found my might
In transmuting darkness, does love unfold

With every step I take, 
though I fear my back may break
and life may beat me down, 
and all seem to forsake

When every moment squandered seems
a waste of life in bated breaths,
and harrowing the mysteries, 
that come just before death

I know my heart cannot be free
of life and love and precious things
I’ll be rebirthed in sanctity
surrendering to spring
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
73 · Apr 2022
Untitled
Dan Hess Apr 2022
I neither expect nor reject
I’ll just be open to what’s next
Dreams made, believed, come manifest
but only when I let them rest

Investing all my energy in synergy
Aligning with the truth of One reality
Trusting in the plan and what is meant for me
Seeing I’m supported, fulfilled and free

I believe it will turn out as it’s supposed to
so I’m surrendering control and choosing virtue
Spreading love from up above to make the world new
I hope you’ll join me, too
73 · Nov 2021
07
Dan Hess Nov 2021
07
Tremors

Every sound is a pin *****

forcing itself under my skin

injecting me with living

squirming irritant



It feels hopeless

I can’t focus on anything

and this rage is an infection

spreading through my veins



I want to bury myself

sleep in the peace of a silence

far away from the world 

which shakes my bones

and rattles my brain



Where does the chaos come from?

Where did the gentle warmth go?

Why is everything an unbridled explosion

of motion without reason?



I’m a sensitive being

keen to every tick and pitch

every vibration and interference

but I am not weak for feeling



I am a gaping skull and a plume of smoke

that swirls in clouds and blocks out the sun

and the earth quakes beneath my hovering body

rocking me without melody



Subtlety is enchanting,

the music of magic enraptures me

in times of peace, when only the wind breaks silence

and the mind is melding with arrays of light



But between every wind chime’s song

this fool is bashing a *** with a hammer

brutishly begging attention bestowed:

the tumultuous, trembling ego



Be alive with me, you fleeting thing

stop clinging to your suffering

the haste of your anxiety

is cause for your inner churning



When every glance is full of hate

and the speed of your step seeks to separate

I’d always wish to ease into the earth

find solitude and with it, mirth



So let me go, to fly upon the wind

let the breeze consume me, breathe me in

perhaps in our return to this union

you’ll find your peace of mind restored again
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
72 · 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
71 · Jul 2021
New Moon
Dan Hess Jul 2021
Unseen, 
in dark unknowing;

gazing into unreflective waters,

beckoned by the deep.



A shroud of deadened sound,

in windless night, in hush.

The world, my home, 
holds its breath.



As I am,

slipping from grip, 

a yawning mist

and incorporeal.



Seeking
to define
 the indefinite,

intangible and shifting, 

ephemeral resonance.



Sluggish, in a dream;

an astral projection
of intention.


Awaken
the mind, arrested.

Unmoving, in sleep paralysis.



A voiceless song,

belonging to the lungs,

never echoed.



Choking on my death.

Unworldly breath.

What am I?

Can I not see
myself?



The mind identifies

with drifting tides. 

Unbound from time,

I cry.



An aching
sinks, 
beneath the chest
.
Within the gut, it rests.



My soul, instilled
in stillness.


My greatest wish,
a passioned kiss
with 
the intimate

unfurling
of the world 
in
ubiquitous coalition.



The breath of life
,
which fills my lungs, 

never meets the blood.



To be. 

To be.

To be

and never question.



To be free
and known,

as evidenced in vested
interest 
with my sole existence.

I want to be known.

Why can’t anyone see me?
71 · Nov 2021
09
Dan Hess Nov 2021
09
Some days, blue skies blanket me in heaven’s rays

the world is charged with rejuvenating, living color

Warmth envelopes my heart and soul

and I am worthy of feeling



Yet, then the world turns, and I wake to gray

and fire boils my blood and burns my brain

I’m left to fight a battle with my pain

but these are the most paramount of days



I reminisce in moments stretching on

forgetting who I am, for what I live

In peace and solace given, I am gone

In peril I’m restored with heart to give



For in these days I fight as sunlight hides

and find my strength is waiting in the mist

to seek a shred of beauty as I’m blind

and darkness demands I be vigorous


So simple would it be for me 

to just capitulate

Surrender to my apathy

when in this sorry state



How easy I might find it is,

to wallow, destitute

Yet, hardened in my promises,

I am forever resolute



When languish tempts my weary soul 

and pleasant dreams abound in bed

I’ll carry on to reach my goal, 

and lift my heavy head
71 · Nov 2021
10
Dan Hess Nov 2021
10
The wind is in a hurry, recently

My mind is in a flurry,

specious things

flittering 
like scattered leaves 

upon the breeze



i’ll take this very moment

no reason to be clinging

no hope bestowed 
for me

I am not yearning



I’ll sing a little 
melody of peace

quiet my unruly mind 
and be

just be

within this moment

happily alone with it

just like the wind 
I’m blowing



Flowing with the shifts

but never knowing

where I’m going



Just along the midst

of ever drifting currents

not a care to hold me back

there’s nothing lacked

when I’m not hoping



I let it all just flow

I’m letting go



I’m not controlling

anything

anything 
but me


and I am free

and life is but a dream

though I am anything but sleeping



Clarifying me, 
I’m overflowing

energy 
through every seam

lucidity in knowing


gravity released

and I am hovering

on the breeze again
70 · Jul 2019
Visceral Exposition
Dan Hess Jul 2019
The panic
The dread
The manic depression
Ah, but so life flows!
The love
The hate
When things are great
Ah, how life does flow!

In angst, we dance, for we romance, of how our lives might go!
And ever a stranger, but never in danger, for ever might life go on.
Next page