I have strength within my body
and blood within my veins.
I will not let you fade into black.
I will not let you fall to pain.

There is love that flows through me,
hot and fierce as hells own fire.
I will show you how to burn like this.
I will show you that love is all that we require.

A great nothingness swelled and shrunk,
A thundering tumult of random motion.
A still expanse void of all things,
An utterly bleak unending ocean.

Within and without of this chaos,
For which no descriptive words exist,
God wove inward and outward,
Sewing order into the abyss.

This order has been named light,
And as light came so came shadow.
Together spun this new order,
And so went day, night, and morrow.

God looked upon his glorious creation,
And in it he took great pleasure.
So he created once again, when
Day ceased came sky and sea in together.

And so again dawn came over the world.
God reached down to gather the sea,
And the dry in between he called land,
Where the trees grew and fruit came to be.

God then made the moon, stars, and sun,
To give pace to day and brighten night.
With this God was pleased again,
With this division of the world's light.

Once again day came and by its light,
God filled his sea and air with life.
All these things God looked at with love,
And blessed them to ward off strife.

The sixth day dawned with promise,
And God brought forth the creatures of land.
He swelled with love to a great extent,
For his pleasure had never been so grand.

God's joy was so great he wished to share it,
And so he made man to love as well.
A creature free to love and serve as it would,
But without concept of heaven or hell.

Into the thicket of brambles and thorns,
Where the weak hearted die, and the stronger mourn.
Tread softly my lamb for you know not what it poses,
The danger of stopping to breifly smell the roses.

The start maybe green and vibrant with life,
But the farther you go, so greatens the strife.
Tread softly my lamb for these thorns don’t abide,
To the laws of our God and great pain they hide.

Hold to the trail and center your path,
If you stray but one step you’re subject to wrath.
Tread softly my lamb for a slow wit entices,
The evil surrounding like simmering spices.

In the day travel and find shelter at night,
For the dark beings fester in the absence of light.
Tread softly my lamb and ignore all thier pleading,
For the shadow filled brambles can be very misleading.

Avoid other faces like the tell tail smoke,
None stay friends and hands will constrict as you choke.
Tread softly my lamb and be wary of vices,
For all will strike back with much higher prices.

I have trod on these trails and wisdom I earned,
But I’d have none if I hadn’t from misstepping learned.
Tread softly my lamb but do take some chances,
For with every mistake your knowledge enhances

Flick your eyes
Like dancing pools of wonder
Toward the skies,
Your beauty casts my soul asunder.

Fleeting pictures
Set in motion on my too small screen
Barely tide me over
With the things that I can glean.

I smell you still
In the places where I used to sleep.
And so I run
To try to find a place not you and me.

The search is vain
For every new place that I go
I cannot help
But feel you in the lines I toe.

I see your eyes
Looking up from under me,
I feel your love,
And becoming one I am free.

I gave you all,
And in return You I received,
So much more
Than I could have previously believed.

I walk a winding path,
Between the growing brambles,
And through their thorny stems,
I see a man singing as he ambles.

**! Good man from yonder trail,
What joyous things set you singing?
I beseech of you my friend,
What has your heart a winging?

Love and love alone sustain me,
For I have found my counterpart.
She sings to me with an angel's voice,
To the tempo of my heart.

She has known me at my strongest,
And pulled me through my hardships.
She walks upon the very wind,
And has rose petals for her lips.

Before her I have wept,
And sweetly she has shared my pain.
She loves to hear my music,
And she dances in the rain.

Surely God has blessed thee,
To know such magnificence.
As we part our wandering ways,
I wish you long levity and sense.

And so I keep on walking,
Between the growing brambles.
I beheld a gray-tailed squirrel,
Chattering as he scrambles.

For a time I pause peacefully,
Taking in the scent of pine.
When behind me I hear thrashing,
And a long beleaguered whine.

I turn to view my old friend,
He is caught within the thorns.
Why have you left your way,
To tread the paths man scorns?

Love and love alone has pained me,
She held me in her soft pale arms,
Those I used to run and seek,
When I couldn't bear life's harms.

We had brought our paths close,
And spoken of our dearest dreams,
When she held me with her gaze,
And showed she is not what she seems.

She spoke to me quite softly,
With danger in her stare.
Why not join our paths together,
So you can feel me close and bare?

I replied with wonder at her quarry,
To do so would require more,
Than our love for one and other,
I've no wish to make child I did implore.

But a child will not come to be,
If I merely take these herbs.
Their potent flavors take effect,
And the plant my fertility curbs.

And so in the rash actions of love,
I joined my path with hers.
But the joining was demented,
And set pain to my heart as spurs.

No sacred joining of two paths,
Can be healthily maintained,
Without intentions of a child,
No matter how the lovers are inflamed.

For when two paths merge,
Another must be formed.
Of the dire consequences,
I wish I had been warned.

The wrongness of our joining,
Left me hollow and pain ridden.
With anger and deep resentment,
I left the path I had been given.

Now I stumble through the woods,
Praying that a God sent thorn,
Will chance upon my exposed flesh,
And then all could my memory morn.

At the conclusion of his tale,
I offer what little comfort I can give.
My dearest friend you have sinned,
But fear not for you can still live.

With life comes a second chance,
Not always the easiest or apparent.
It can be found through forgiveness,
And the strength your friends have lent.

I turn back to my given path,
Knowing rescue is in his power.
I walk the lonely way one does,
When growing older by the hour.

I let my eyes run along her,
Laced in silk and moonlight.
I let my hands rest upon her,
Finally I do not have to fight.

I lean in to taste her lips,
Filled with love and ever sweet.
Her movement calls me to her hips,
To join as one and be complete.

As ever I begin slow and nervous,
Clasping her close and tight,
But then in wonderful excitement,
We are joined and all feels right.

Slow and holding close I start,
Breathing with her as we kiss.
I feel her move as part of me,
This simple joy is simple Bliss.

As time turns our movements shift,
A slight increase in strength.
These movements make her mine
With every push, kiss, and lift.

The bliss I felt before this
Is nothing to what I feel now,
My thoughts fly from me.
I feel I have found heaven somehow.

And as my mind returns to me,
As I settle in beside her form,
I am safe here in her arms,
Free from pain and warm.

In the limbs of a tree ever growing,
Was born a boy to a mother much knowing.
She said in a quite prophetic state,
"My son, oh my son, you will be great!"

So she set to her back the child and crib,
He nestled deep in the cloth head to her rib.
Hand over hand mother set to climbing,
Her heart to the treetop was pining.

The tree ever growing reached toward the sky,
The upper limbs were reached by those who could fly.
But mother kept climbing she'd never give in,
Even when the height made eagles heads spin.

Nourished on milk and fruit of the tree,
The babe soon grew to a boy happy and free.
So big was the boy he could climb too,
He followed his mother as he grew and grew.

"My son, oh my son, you will be great!
You can sculpt love in a world of hate!"
So the boy climbed onto the upper limbs,
His strength pours forth even as the sun dims.

Boy with such power and talent pure,
Was much, much too much of himself sure.
As the tree grew the boy was distracted,
He stopped to pluck vines and see how they reacted.

Vine after vine between slabs of dead wood,
The boy built a harp and play it he could.
As the harp grew so did the tree,
Till the next branch was from his reach free.

"Mother, oh mother please hear my cry!
The tree has grow too far toward the sky!"
And down reached her hand to grasp his,
And up she pulled him with a whisk and a ****.

"My son, oh my son, you will be great!
You can sculpt love in a world of hate!"
So the boy climbed onto the upper limbs,
His strength pours forth even as the sun dims.

But the boy grew cocky and dallied again,
To slide along limbs in the dew and the rain.
He never lost balance or came close to fall,
But as he slid the tree again grew tall.

"Mother, oh mother please hear my cry!
The tree has grow too far toward the sky!"
And down reached her hand to grasp his,
And up she pulled him with a whisk and a ****.

"My son, oh my son, you will be great!
You can sculpt love in a world of hate!"
So the boy climbed onto the upper limbs,
His strength pours forth even as the sun dims.

But this time again the boy lingered halted,
He spied a girl in the leaves for her his heart vaulted.
For her he took bark and wrote words of heart,
And when she read them her heart gave a start.

For a long time there halted the boy,
Not a thing in the world could stop this ploy.
The tree ever growing lived up to its name,
And boy missed his chance when it finally came.

After a time the boy saw his great mistake,
And the pain in his mother's eyes made his heart ache.
Her hand reached down and his quested up,
But to grasp her fingers was not in the boy's luck.

"My son, oh my son, you could have been great!
You could have had love in a world of hate!"
And more crushing was this than all things other,
For this was the loss of hope from his mother.

But the boy in his heart held one last hope,
For a life with more than things with which to cope.
So he turned his back to the trunk of the tree,
And ran off the limb with an exclamation of glee.

With harp in one hand and girl in the other,
The boy flew up to meet with his mother.
From there they flew up into the sky,
To find the treetop so very, very high.

I have seen the bright light,
It shines for me in heaven.
I have seen my future
In seals numbering seven.

But before I reach my freedom,
And taste the fruit of life,
I must make it to my goals,
No matter the amount of strife.

But my goals are farther
Than my feet can take me,
So I’ll ride on wings of faith.

I see troubled skies ahead,
And grumbling ground below.
But surely if I give my all,
I shall reap that which I sow.

My goals are farther
Than my feet can take me,
So I’ll ride on wings of faith.