Do you always lock yourself away
When people try to talk
With the pain that always stays
Don't turn away and walk

Please tell me why your hurting
Don't live your life in silent pain
When I try to talk don't draw the curtain
Don't live your life in refrain

Oh please will you talk to me
Tell me why you suffer deep inside
Just let me in so I can see
So I can heal your wounds
And give you back your pride

Oh please cry for me let it all go
Share all your pain with me
Then you will see I care for you so
Just trust me please and you will see

This friendship and trust I give you is all you ever need

2001 David Swinden©

If I could imagine my most perfect place
A scenic garden with the sun on my face
Just in the corner stands a willow tree
Beneath shaded branches writing my poetry
Flowers are plentiful roses and Yarrow
With songs of nature Blackbirds and Sparrows
A beautiful cottage painted white
With all of the rooms filled with daylight
In all of my thoughts it’s the place to be
Where I can immerse myself in poetry

David Swinden © 13/7/2016

A prisoner through my eyes I see
In darkest black says it all to me
Like a lonely ship on the open sea
With nobody around no longer free

An open heart that remains hollow
Is the bitterest pill for one to swallow
An empty soul will always wallow
No soul mate around no path to follow

Loneliness in the depths of despair
In need of love somebody to care
For those looking in my world I bare
Lonely am I, with nobody to share


David Swinden © 2/7/2016

At the graveside the grieving man knelt
Remembering the feelings that he felt
And in all the grief and all the pain
In this painful time on his knees he remained
Face to face they had never even met
But for a year they chatted on the internet

The tears flowed down from his eyes
Some would never understand or be surprised
How can this poor man have a broken heart
When in his life she has played no part
Although face to face they never even met
But for a year they chatted on the internet

Friendships blossom relationships grow
Where will they lead? Nobody knows
But this poor man's grief that's in his soul
Has opened up a gaping hole
Even though face to face they had never met
Once upon a time they chatted on the internet

2003

Heartfelt pain echoes through my soul
Lonely am I, sadness is my name
Colours combine to blur my life
Darkness surrounds me black is my colour

Reflecting in my prose my wounds I bare
The cross that I carry too heavy to share
Naked is my soul for those who stare
Blood seeps from my flesh no one to care

Shackled and bound imprisoned with pain
As death creeps upon me my fears remain
I am a faceless man with a nameless name
Covered in mist shrouded in shame

Only placed here through another man’s madness
I am a true depiction of life the ultimate sadness

There is a sail boat in my heart
With a sail that's heart shaped
You are it's compass on it's journeys
Beneath darkened skies it's draped

It's now lost in stormy waters
Where you left me at sea
The ropes to the sail fall apart
Your slowly the breaking of me

The sail is strewn across the deck
My boat is lost as it's hull breaks
It's wood is rotting it's mast falls
Drifting into more heartache

I’m broken in ravaged waters
As once again my love departs
Leaving my wreckage behind
Oh broken sail boat in my heart

Inspired by Arlo Disarray's poem Little Sailboat in my Heart. Arlo write's some great verses.

She listened to the Saturday afternoon rain
Dreading her broken heart would remain
Her love was cast into the darkest of nights
Like a flower starved of nourishment with no light
The pain was true you could see it in her eyes
Trying to hide emotions her face couldn't disguise

Into her life walked a man with a different personality
Wanting to show her how true love should be
But she needed sometime she was scared it would be the same
Dreading her past emotional turmoil, herself she blamed
But his hands soothed her bringing her peace and serenity
And slowly with time, maybe true love she could see

She remembers her previous partner beat her with his fists
Now a real lover soothes her with the tenderest kiss
And all the scars and tears her previous had left behind
Now immersed in true love she thought she would never find
And after all the cheating and lies her previous partner would do
Now all she hears are words of undying love “I will always love you”

She needed his love and he cared honestly and sincerely
He could see the pain in her eyes and that she suffered deeply
He only wanted true love and to heal the pain she felt
And that eventually in his arms her heart would finally melt
He would wait forever healing the scars that remain
Together lovingly watching the Saturday afternoon rain

Happy endings do happen
24/11/14 David Swinden

She listened to the Saturday afternoon rain
Dreading her broken heart would remain
Her love was cast into the darkest of nights
Like a flower starved of nourishment with no light
The pain was true you could see it in her eyes
Trying to hide emotions her face couldn't disguise

Into her life walked a man with a different personality
Wanting to show her how true love should be
But she needed sometime she was scared it would be the same
Dreading her past emotional turmoil, herself she blamed
But his hands soothed her bringing her peace and serenity
And slowly with time, maybe true love she could see

She remembers her previous partner beat her with his fists
Now a real lover soothes her with the tenderest kiss
And all the scars and tears her previous had left behind
Now immersed in true love she thought she would never find
And after all the cheating and lies her previous partner would do
Now all she hears are words of undying love “I will always love you”

She needed his love and he cared honestly and sincerely
He could see the pain in her eyes and that she suffered deeply
He only wanted true love and to heal the pain she felt
And that eventually in his arms her heart would finally melt
He would wait forever healing the scars that remain
Together lovingly watching the Saturday afternoon rain

Happy endings do happen.
This was my first post on Hello poetry when I joined up here.  
24/11/14 David Swinden

In a childlike state of mind
Slowly my mother drifts
Her thoughts are hard to find
As the sands of time sift

With the loving mother that I once knew
In the hard times she saw me through
But now her mind drifts to something new
To a place where I can’t find “you”

I see a lost “you” with your childlike eyes
As you drift towards a dementia side
Not realising the pain you left behind
Soon the mother I will no longer find

In a childlike state of mind
Slowly my mother drifts
Her thoughts are hard to find
As the sands of time sift


Slowly losing you to dementia Mum I will always love you X

Mum please will you forgive me
Sometimes I really want to scream
I often wish I could walk away
And live my perfect dream

Your dementia can be testing
Some days are worse than others
You behavior routines are erratic
And they really make me shudder

Please mum I really love you
I only want to care
It’s not your fault it’s my mind
Some days I’m going nowhere

Some days I often wonder
How much more I can carry on
With all my heart I don’t give up
To be your loving caring son

The many nights of sun-downers
Are breaking down my health
I know that if you had a clear mind
You would change the cards dealt

We will live each day at a time
I Consider words I don’t dare
If one day and it breaks my heart
If your final journey is in care

David Swinden 4/4/2016

Sometimes I often wonder what life brings
When your heart no longer wants to sing
Some days I think deeply and wonder why
I no longer laugh and all I ever do is cry
Wounds never seem to heal scarred forever
Is this my life for real with no endeavor
I am a pebble on this empty beach
Battered by the waves filled with grief

My crying heart screams out in agony
Sadness what spell have you cast over me
I am a shadow of my former self
Yesterday's happiness sitting on the shelf
I stare off into this night of misery
Will I live again to taste calm seas
Ripples of waves flow to the shore
May I touch love's kiss once more

Thanks Maxine. Maxine is a poet I collaborated with on another site. Maybe she will join here now :-)

Somewhere over a rainbow another place to be
Beautiful golden beaches, blue waves of foaming sea
Evergreen trees and roses red vibrant colors beautiful
Starfish drift in with the tide apples trees spawn fruitful
Unspoiled by mankind’s destructive industrious ways
Seals live in peace in winters cold, not being sleighed
Forests remain intact not butchered and turned to paper
Natures life survives in a world that’s much safer
Butterflies dance birds sing in springtime breeze
Somewhere over a rainbow another place to be

David Swinden © 3/3/2016

There is a storm within my soul
And it never seems to cease
The thoughts I can’t control
I never find my peace

Endless torrents of rain
Tidal waves of emotion
A prisoner in dark refrain
Emptiness without devotion

The darkest clouds that gather
Brings tears that will flow
It’s my only kind of weather
The thoughts nobody knows

I listen to stormy seas
Nobody can hear my voice
It brings my life to it’s knees
This life was not my choice

When your soul begins to break
And you breath a final sigh
It’s your life’s final fate
And it's time to say goodbye…..

David Swinden©24/5/2016

Spare a thought for people
with depression who live in
silence and invisible to those around.

He sat alone in life for the most part
Writing verses from a poets true heart
Along the paths he had chosen and taken
But all of the time his soul was forsaken
Anger built up and was never released
Rarely in life did he ever find peace

Feelings below in a silent volcano
Eruptions awaiting a violent crescendo
Walls crumbling beneath darkened skies
He kept it hidden so nobody knew why
Inside his body he just wanted to die
He wrote of his pain in a note of suicide

He felt only if somewhere existed peace
Beyond heavens gates for some release
This cherished path he would now take
His destiny of peace his chosen fate
Rainbows and angels of beauty float
It was his final wish in his suicide note

4/10/2015

The child inside has nowhere to hide
Blasts from the past and fairground rides
My only escape is to years gone by
Knee scrapes in school grounds tears I cried
In the past my heart lives where smiles are found
New romantics music are clearly my sound

The child inside are my only way
To escape from the life in this present day
Dreams of my childhood where memories exist
Sun kissed days and today no longer persists
Playing children games in the January snow
It's another world and nobody will know

The child inside where I slowly grew older
Till I reach today and everything's colder
Building den's in the past with close friends
For the love of a childhood I wished never ends
If only I could return forever, live in the past
The child inside where I remember I laughed

I wish I could return and leave today behind
All the scars would be gone from the child inside...

In a peaceful place to stay
Pen and paper in hand
Many hours would pass away
Sat on the golden sand

Random thoughts would often pass
Etched from mind to verse
A poem never finished
Writers block his dreaded curse

In a place of perfect beauty
Where symphonies of ideas are born
In the scent of foaming seas
In writers block he mourns

In a peaceful place to stay
Poetry his true love scorned
But still he seeks to find his way
Till a new love verse is born

~The poets pen ebbs and flows~
~Singing tender words of love that grows~

15th June 2011

Last night when I went to bed
I had the most wonderful dream
I dreamt we both fell in love
I was King and you where Queen
I could lavish you with so many gifts
Playing my loving caring part
But the biggest gift of them all
Came from my loving heart
I could give you my whole kingdom
But that's not what love should be
For you already carry my gift
To my heart you hold the key

6/10/2015

She dreams happier days may come her way
And prays that painful times will stay away
Her heart has been broken so many times
With her thoughts written in so many rhymes
To heal the pain her words are so real
But still the pain is there and it never heals

There’s a pain in her heart that never leaves
Cos the men in her past that she oh so grief’s
She only wanted to find the true love in her life
To have three children and be the loving wife
Play happy families and feel his love each day
And live in her dreams that love is always this way

But still her heart aches for her three wishes
That her lover takes her and drowns her in kisses
Makes her feel the most special girl there could be
Commits to her the rest of his life down on one knee

Cos she is dreaming her life without any lies
Wishing for a time with tomorrow in her eyes    
With no more pain and that she lives from the start
Committed to a future with no pain in her heart

Cos she is dreaming her life without any lies
Wishing for a time with tomorrow in her eyes
Where love lives forever and dreams never die
Wishing for a time with tomorrow in her eyes

It’s my world through my minds eyes
Don’t assume anything about me or tell lies
It’s my life to decide the things that I choose
Don’t judge my life, try walking in my shoes

You haven’t lived my life, known the pain I feel
Walked the same journey, seen my life for real
Known my pain of loss, sometimes in life you lose
Don’t judge my life, try walking in my shoes

Try Walking in my shoes

David Swinden © 24/7/2016

I remember on a visit back in 1983
Incredible beauty I had never seen
Reddish dusty land, nature everywhere
Every teenagers perfect little dream to share

Crystal clear night-time, universal skies
Perfection to behold upon your very eyes
Astronomical dreams for all to feast
All my imaginations where finally released

Coyotes back then howling in the night
Till early night and of first morning light
Mount Lemmon snow kissed on the top
Never seen such beauty, as my jaw dropped

Visits to the Mountains, Kitt Peak Observatory
This was always the perfect place for me
Memories I keep in pictures over thirty years ago
Always cherished more than any words could show

5/10/2015
My heaven on Earth Arizona so beautiful.

When I reflect on what I see in me
I see a person trapped as low as can be
A prisoner like a bird in a cage
On the outside peaceful, inside a rage
It’s hard to put into words and explain
I can’t find words to describe the pain
I’m lost, my world is an empty place
I look in the mirror and see no face
I live in the past with my childhood days
Remembering yesterdays smiles lasting always
I was going to be an astronaut with the stars
Not a failed life with no destiny to chart
A single person was this really meant to be
Is my only true love to be writing poetry
What I see in me is dark for those who read
These words are true and from my heart they bleed

David Swinden© 29/2/2015

When we meet again
It will never be the same
In the arms of Lord Jesus
From the moment you leave us
Life can be so unkind
When dementia takes your mind
Slowly dismantles your world
Mother to five boys and a girl
But now in silence most days
When I speak you have little to say
You struggle more to take medication
Memories of dad you no longer mention
With food you now eat much less
Carers now help you each day to dress
It pains me each day with what I see
As I can see, I'm slowly losing you and me
Nothing will mend my broken heart
You are my world that's falling apart
When you leave it's to a better place
Our Lord will give you a warm embrace
Just remember when you look down up above
I always cared and gave you a sons true love
There is nothing I can do about floods of tears
For in my heart forever I hold you dear
Just remember mum through good and bad
The happiness as well as times when sad
For now by your side forever I will stay
Until your starlight fades away
Till one day all life comes to an end
Poetry I will write till we meet again
And until we meet again
Life will never be the same

8/11/2015

The funeral took place on a beautiful sun kissed day
As the mourners gathered, in pain with nothing to say
The coffin was draped in flowers in words of mum
Many tears rained but in blue skies remained the sun
The priest paid tributes of past days in her life
And spoke of her marriage sixty years a loving wife
It was so painful as alzheimer's slowly crumbled her
Slowly her thoughts turned to clay, going nowhere
A prisoner in her own brain she sat with a vacant stare

How can there be a god when someone’s life ends like this
On that night she slowly faded her children gave her a kiss
In the final moments it was goodbye to the mum they miss
In the arms of angels for her final sleep in peace and bliss
The children she gave birth too where five boys and a girl
She has now made her final journey and left this world
But her memories remain intact by those left behind
Her love still lives on although it’s painful in all there minds…...

Fictional for now.

David Swinden© 14/2/2016

Wishful thinking of us entwined
Romantic meals we wined and dined
Such perfect times that we both shared
Promises of love that we both shared

Holding hands our love so divine
Wishful thinking of us entwined
Under full moon we planned our dreams
Romantically and so serene

Ecstasy with a single touch
Pleasured, enraptured by our love
Wishful thinking of us entwined
Words of love for you, I would find

Dreams we cherish sometimes die
The ones we loved have chosen lies
My broken heart for now I pine
Wishful thinking of us entwined

You are always with me wherever I go
In winter time the cold winter snow
Spring time flowers in a gentle breeze
You are with me forever and never leave
The summer is warm the grass green
Your the beauty of nature always with me
Autumn brings beautiful colored leaves
As nature slowly falls gently to sleep
You are my true love and you always will be
Natures true beauty you are always with me

David Swinden © 7/4/2017

He always said I love you
On each and every day
She wore it in her heart
Till one sunny day in May

She received a bunch of roses
From her loved one they came
He always bought her flowers
But she loved them all the same

She always loved him dearly
She could not live without
His trust and honesty
He was always so devout

But her phone began to ring
She then listened to the call
Her face turned an ashen white
As her world began to fall

Tears flowed from her eyes
She always loved him dearly
But now her lover had died
Emotions could be seen clearly

On this day he wore a jacket
His loved one bought him this
In the pocket there was a note
He had written with such bliss

I love you my sweetheart
You should always know this
I could not live without you
Or the sweetness of your kiss

But if one day I pass away
And leave my life behind
Just promise me you will live on
Sweet love you will surely find

I always want your happiness
To live through darker days
And in my prayers to our Lord
These words I always say

Look after my most precious
She has a heart of gold
But if one day we are apart
Don’t leave her feeling cold

Bring her warmth and care
Please don’t let her suffer
Find her someone once again
An honest trusting lover.

Inspired by George Michael song of the same name.

You should never love a poet
Where complicated creatures
Forever changing personalities
With many different features

You should never love a poet
We have darkness and devotion
Sometimes difficult to read
With forever changing emotions

You should never love a poet
They can write a lovely verse
But like the wind they can change
With verses full of hurt

You should never love a poet
Just read these words from me
Everything in life is second best
Our first love is writing poetry

David Swinden © 3/9/2016