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Jul 2019 · 216
Spooky (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Ghosts are sort of real
False in strict reality
But real in spirit
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 416
The Joy of Reading (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
In the sweet embrace
Of a well-written novel
I am infinite
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Waves lapping gently
The wind whispers a sweet song
No one will hear it
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 267
Oh, To Flow
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
To flow is to go where you’ve not yet called home
The unknown made of stone that is bare as a bone
Chaos and mystery jostling wistfully
Not yet confined in the annals of history

At the very limits of human ability
Requiring mental and spiritual agility
Not shrieking discordance but mellifluous ditty
There lies a place greater than the Emerald City

Energy bursts forth to fill this new realm
The body takes over, mind vacates the helm
The movement and choices come effortlessly
Without any trying, you’re finally free
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 279
A Moment of Connection
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
I look into your eyes your heart inside of mine my hands around your hands and my mind full of demands this was never planned but now my love expands and it will never shrink, I sink into this feeling my mind and body reeling my ego’s layers are peeling and when I expose the core my spirit soars my love implores that I connect, I reach for your hand and in that moment your smile lands, my candle flares and I beware for just a sec before I reset it, I cannot regret it, love is love when you rise above these illusory constraints, painted over by love’s complaints I escape this social prison and experience perfect clarity of vision, nuclear fission, but not division, neon fusion, no confusion there was no one using just transfusing sharing vibes of peace and love, rose and dove, we fly in unison and our communion is for two and I will not forget you, my flame will e’er burn and from this place I’ll e’er yearn and you may say I never learn but I know about a moment of connection, there is no question that I have found the answer, I am a dancer, a lover, a poet, a wanderer, a ponderer, a lonely transponder so I will never squander something as precious as this. It is this moment I will miss. It is your lips I want to kiss. It is real inside our minds and that is fine with me, so thank you for reality, thank you for my sanity, and for restoring my humanity.
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 406
The Dance of Two Suns
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Dancing with you
Nothing else I’d rather do
Swaying in the breeze
Gently grazing knees

A connection formed
Enhanced by touch
Supercharged abnormally
Now we’re dancing formally

I flow you flow
We both flow together
I don’t let go
Please make this forever

I flow you flow
We both flow together
I won’t let go
Let’s make this forever

Two suns, each caught
In the other’s gravity
Not sold or bought
Entwined naturally

They burn so brightly
The forest sparkles with love
Oh if this could happen nightly
I would forever be above

Flying higher than the mountaintop
Higher than the eye can see
The light too bright, but please don’t stop
All I see is you, surely
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 443
A Spark
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Alone in the dark I look for a spark, I am not a lark but I’ll sing ‘til you hark and come to me, come through me, don’t fear me just be near me and we’ll endear and we’ll endure, I may not be quite sure, because this is all a blur, and my mind lags behind what my heart swiftly finds.
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 740
Fade Away (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Wind whispers through leaves
I take one deep breath, eyes closed
Then I fade away
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 406
The Body Electric
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
You have sung the body electric
Merging with my frequency
With the generator hum
Of my heart and it’s love

Our vibrations collided smoothly
The energy moved through me
We were amplified, energized
Electricity multiplied, synergized  

One and one is not two
It’s more than I ever knew
It’s me and, my dear, it’s you
With a pair of wings, we finally flew
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 776
The Umbrella (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
The umbrella of
The one that you truly love
Gives sunlight, not shade
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 522
Your Math is Wrong
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
One and one does not make two
Each combination is something new
No one is quite alike you see
So one, one, and one is not three

Two and two sometimes makes four
But it can make so much more
Two and three is sometimes five
Or it can make you feel alive

People are complex
Concave and convex
Multiplicative
Distributive
Bound to perplex

So put the calculator down
Take a look all around
Equations have their use
But reduction can be obtuse

I am indivisible
I am not invisible
I can make any move
I’m a number you can’t prove
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 336
Gravity
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Will you be my gravity?
Tie me to reality
As I melt in magnanimity
Sink into serenity
Lost in this swaying sea
Of beautiful banality
Vivid colors seem to fade
When you share your sacred shade

All I feel and all I need
Entranced by you yet finally freed
Mooring me to something more
I dance my way across the floor
Drawn to you, my gravity
The source of electricity
Comfort, warmth, elasticity
We dance in rolling ecstasy

Love lifts me off the ground
But you always bring me back down
My heart in your hands and my head in the clouds
Thank you for making my world spin ‘round
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jul 2019 · 250
Nobody Cares
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Creation abounds
It wants to be found
It seeks to be shared
Please don’t be scared
Because nobody cares

Nobody cares in the best kind of way
The way in which people don’t judge one another
We’re really just filling our vision with colors
Impressions appear but it’s rare when they stay

No one will see if you fumble or stumble
And if they do see, well let’s all be humble
How much of their attention will even go
To encode your fleeting failure at flow

So zoomed into our narrow view
We fail to see events unraveling
We look for something to do
Constantly time traveling

Forget the past
The future is glass
Relax and be pleasant
Let’s stay in the present

In this moment nobody cares
The spotlight you fear shines from within
So emerge from your hidden lair
And finally let your life begin
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jun 2019 · 196
7 Haikus
Derrick Jones Jun 2019
The smile on your face
So sweet, and full of wonder
Almost a rainbow


Inside each moment
An infinity awaits
Seeking attention


In the still forest
A doe eats one delicate
Flower without care


No one creates life
without the fear of losing
that which they create


The world is far too
Complex for you to ever
Comprehend at all


One cup of coffee
In a quiet morning hour
Is all I could need


Living like a dream
And dreaming like a livewire
Peace in the middle
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jun 2019 · 1.7k
String Theory for Poets
Derrick Jones Jun 2019
We are like resonating strings
We crave what resonating brings
Matching our vibrations
With audiovisual sensations

Rapid reverberations
Expand and cross nations
Transmit like radio stations
These vibes deny explanation

We seek community
Where we can truly be
The truest form of “me”
Totally friction free

Grooving to the moving
Jiving to the beat
Dancing to the music
Feeling so complete

We are energy looking for a path
A certain resonance frequency
That could be conveyed with math…
But that would be indecency

Instead we name it differently
We call it personality
But to put it honestly
We are atoms in reality

A pattern, a frequency
A string reverberating
Looking to vibrate freely
Liquid, liberating

So go with your intuition
Follow the beat of your own drum
Find your ideal situation
Your part of the continuum
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jun 2019 · 181
The Crash of Creativity
Derrick Jones Jun 2019
As these words collide
Thoughts inside my mind
My head nearly divides
There is no self to find

Only marvelous music and mystery
Carnivals, cruises, and Krispy Kreme
A light I cannot see
A sound that cannot be
Crashing creativity

Thoughts spring into spirals
Drifting, translucent antivirals
Late arrivals to the scene
Unrivaled and pristine
Some vile and obscene
All the while, I’m serene

Words fly by me and filter slyly
Winding and wily, slurring and smiley
They drunkenly wander to the foreground
I suddenly wonder why I said them aloud
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jun 2019 · 162
The Crash of Creativity
Derrick Jones Jun 2019
As these words collide
Thoughts inside my mind
My head nearly divides
There is no self to find

Only marvelous music and mystery
Carnivals, cruises, and Krispy Kreme
A light I cannot see
A sound that cannot be
Crashing creativity

Thoughts spring into spirals
Drifting, translucent antivirals
Late arrivals to the scene
Unrivaled and pristine
Some vile and obscene
All the while, I’m serene

Words fly by me and filter slyly
Winding and wily, slurring and smiley
They drunkenly wander to the foreground
I suddenly wonder why I said them aloud
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jun 2019 · 239
Doing My Thing
Derrick Jones Jun 2019
Lost inside my mind
There is no self to find
So I fragment into fractals
And I fly with pterodactyls
The colors overtake me
As the chemicals unmake me
Inside my mind’s eye, the mind’s sky is a firefly
No rhyme nor reason
No time or season
There is only here and now
There is no where or how
There is an untouched galaxy
There is no air or gravity
There is only cosmic unity
And perhaps a rainbow manatee
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jan 2019 · 472
The Greatest
Derrick Jones Jan 2019
I’m flying I’m not lying I am never coming down
I’m not dying no more crying I will stay above the ground
I outrun the hounds, I cannot be drowned
More amplifying and igniting the world reverberates with sound
My coronation mass elation and now I wear the crown
No denying I am lightning I am the best pound for pound
Without trying I am frightening I am lost and never found
I am the baddest man around
I am untethered never bound
I will forever lead the crowd
I will leave them wowed
I will make them proud
I will not be cowed
Nor will I bow down
Never see me frown
Now I run this town
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jan 2019 · 302
One Hell of a Night
Derrick Jones Jan 2019
Fighting fire with fire
Getting higher and higher
Torch the bowl with the lighter
See the shadows get slighter

I ignite on the night like a new sun
Pregame over now we hit the new club
I’m not tryna take a shot
I’m already burning hot
Blood is flowing so no need to clot

Take me to the dance floor
The music leaves me wanting more
So I shout to the sky like a shaman
Like a freshman on his last pack of ramen
Like a black church at the Amen
But this ain’t no old hymn
I’m creating my own rhythm
My own melody and lyrics
It’s catchier than deer ticks
Classier than top hits
It’s a flow that can’t be stopped
A tidal wave that can’t be mopped
I float around this dancing area
Overwhelmed with mass hysteria
I become one with the crowd
We yell but the music is loud
Our songs coalesce into clouds
Dizzy we aren’t stupid or proud
We’re just happy to still be around

So it’s arms up til the suns up
It’s beer pong and true love
It’s small talk and dope subs
It’s the perfect night
Loose but hella tight
Here and there a fight
I didn’t puke but I might
But if I don’t fly my kite
How will I ever see the light?

So I push it to the limits
I bask in every minute
I go hard til I’m in it
Grab the world and spin it
Breakdance in a basement
Trampolines instead of pavement
When I turn loose on the outside
I am underneath the night sky
I bounce to the beat
Coming off every street
And every person I meet

My prism no longer imprisoned
I view the world with super vision
I see a Mona Lisa
Spray painted on the concrete
Every pile of pizza boxes
Is the leaning tower of Pisa
The lady begging is Mother Theresa
The honking horns: Ave Maria


My head is spinning, I just hurled
My arms are wide, my sails unfurled
My mind is free to see the world
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jan 2019 · 566
Mental Acrobatics
Derrick Jones Jan 2019
With my mental acrobatics, I create verbal aromatics
Conjuring sweet scents with my perfect meter and tense
Using my dense prose to weigh you down like soggy clothes
And then I dry you right in time with my fluffy rhythm and rhyme

I execute mental backflips as I dodge Freudian slips
Spinning into the subconscious ’til my wordplay makes you nauseous
As I twirl around in this whirlwind I am reminded that the world could end
But it hasn’t happened yet so I might as well forget it
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jan 2019 · 419
The Red Pill
Derrick Jones Jan 2019
It has to have a little bounce to it
I gotta put another ounce to it
My rhythm and flow
Make you dig it and glow
Hope you dig in and grow
Like Diglet to Dugtrio
I’m still evolving me though
I am a dissolving ego
A problem-solving Neo
I have broke free from the Matrix
Still my mind plays wicked tricks
But now I see these traps and ticks
All these flaws I can soon fix
As I climb ever higher
Atop my funeral pyre
No fear that I’ll expire
So my soul sits ever lighter
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jan 2019 · 201
Letting Go
Derrick Jones Jan 2019
Floating and flowing without ever knowing
Gloating and showing without ever going
Bloating and slowing our repetitive rowing
Coating and mowing instead of regrowing

We drift downstream as if in a dream
Sometimes we glint, sometimes we gleam
Other times we pay a toll
Yet we are never in control

We can struggle against the currents
Test the limits of our endurance
Or we can learn to selflessly flow
We can begin to gracefully let go
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Jan 2019 · 239
Capitalism on Capitol Hill
Derrick Jones Jan 2019
Capitalism on Capitol Hill
Moves fast
But I think
I move faster still

In the past
I could barely feel
But now I experience
What’s actually real

Nothing withstands
The test of time
But while I have two feet
I won’t stand in line

I will use them
To look behind
The curtains that the wizard
Wishes I won’t find

And if I must
I will lose my mind
I will lose it exploring
The fabric of time

Nothing much there
But the vast unknown
And when I expire
Perhaps I’ll finally know
The first stanza is a lyric from the wonderful song “Seattle the City of Sunny Afternoons” by Black Bear, which inspired the rest of the poem.
Dec 2018 · 383
A New Perspective
Derrick Jones Dec 2018
Artistry is not alchemy
Art history or a mystery
It is turning fact into fiction
By blending emotion and diction

Fiction then becomes fact again
Even when it’s not a perfect ten
Art always conveys a different view
Turning the old into something new

A fresh slice of perspective
Be it contrived or inventive
A new pair of lenses
Our vision it cleanses

To see the world through another’s eyes
With different truths and different lies
To understand that what we see
Is not all there is to reality
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Dec 2018 · 246
Wealth Beyond Measure
Derrick Jones Dec 2018
Oh what a pleasure
To begin this endeavor
To search for lost treasure
Wealth beyond measure
Please, at your leisure
Let’s do this together
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Dec 2018 · 216
The Final Mystery
Derrick Jones Dec 2018
I try to flow fast and loose
But my words fall flat and obtuse
Because trying is the opposite of flying
And flowing is the art of simply going
A lack of effort is the only way
To truly express what you want to say
To tap into inspiration
To channel divination
To experience true creation

You can try regularity
Love, hate, hilarity
Equality or disparity
Fortitude or fragility
But I know the final mystery
Will no doubt be creativity

Where do these words come from
And where do they go
It may sound dumb to some
But **** I want to know

Every perfect rhyme and clever line
That sweet melody that sounds divine
And every drop of cosmic knowledge
Written by a poet locked inside a cottage
Left alone with a troubled mind and no clear plan
Tapping into something we may never understand
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Dec 2018 · 443
A House Divided
Derrick Jones Dec 2018
What brings humanity together
Will not be a common threat
For division, nothing is better
Than the pervasive fear of death

When frightened we lose our minds
The amygdala takes hold
And wise leaders fall behind
As the frightened favor the bold

So our salvation will not come from an alien invasion
Or the climatic devastation that is our own creation
Instead we must begin by looking deep within
Shared humanity is both the means and the end
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Dec 2018 · 512
Truth Too Bright
Derrick Jones Dec 2018
No one can bear
With poise and grace
The truth laid bare
Before their face

So stories reign
In highest court
Defying reason
And wise retort

Myths filter light
So eyes can see
The truth too bright
For you and me

Slanted truth is better
Than blindness, after all
But when falsity’s untethered
Soon cometh the fall
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Nov 2018 · 225
10 Thanksgiving Haikus
Derrick Jones Nov 2018
In my stomach hole
I find a bottomless pit
Yearning for fullness

My hopes rise like rolls
****** and warming in the
Oven of my heart

Potatoes mashed
Pumpkin pie cooling on rack
No turning back now

When the turkey sleeps
May it rest well knowing it
Upheld tradition

Without good gravy
What is the meaning of life
And why even bother?

You odd Frankenstein
Such a cruel monstrosity
Beastly Turducken

To give thanks for what
We are blessed with daily should
Be a daily act

The food coma is
One path to enlightenment
Buddha was fat, no?

The dessert stomach
Designed solely for sweet treats
A gift and a curse

Asleep on the couch
Gravy dripping slowly from
a smiling mouth
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Derrick Jones Nov 2018
Our Commander in Chief
A liar and thief
Less poise than Cheef Keef
Poisons the coral reefs
Turns over the same leaf
Covers it with new beef
A new outrageous tweet
Wash, rinse, repeat

With every action he divides our nation into factions
Giving a fraction of the truth, he replaces fact with distraction
Selling manufactured satisfaction
In fact we are living ration to ration
Press releases become trash compaction
Gluing facets to fit the latest fashion
While hiding his utter lack of compassion

Tragedy and calamity
Total lack of humanity
A far shot from sanity
Blinded by his vanity
Mesmerized by Sean Hannity
Our orange head of state
Ignores what’s at stake
As he takes and takes
Makes dire mistakes
Poisons rivers and lakes
I wake in shivers and shakes

Executive orders
Walled off borders
Photoshopped reporters
Narcissistic personality disorder
The bloated wealth hoarder
The great divider, the sorter

Total disregard for the truth
Fools gold or real gold
Both break your tooth
So believe what you are told
Believe the one who’s most bold
Watch the country be sold for profit
The fortune of a false prophet
For the pocketbook of a liar
The potato is on fire
It’s too late to drop it
The world will soon burn
If we don’t rise up to stop it
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Nov 2018 · 227
Soft Focus
Derrick Jones Nov 2018
Soft focus is not hocus pocus
It is relaxing the locus of concentration
But staying aware of the state of mentation

It is breathing free
With perfect clarity

It is falling asleep
But waking up to dream

It is forsaking worry
For a flurry of focal points
Getting blurry between the joints

So sink into the fabric of space
Erase the stitches of time
Wrap up in this infinite quilt
Guilt-free equanimity
Silt free liquid purity
Rest in perfect surety
Divest your uncertainty
There is no space ‘twixt you and me
Only particles we cannot see
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Nov 2018 · 170
The Rhythm of a Workout
Derrick Jones Nov 2018
Roll up to the gym
I’m not here to swim
Pre-workout courses through my veins
I shout through forces and strain
I know pain equals gains
And I came to hurt
Give my muscles a good growth spurt
All the ladies are trying to flirt
But my answers remain curt
I am here to put in work

Headphones on and my focus is scary
I sift through my music library
So that I can lift legendary
I need the right kind of song
To make me feel kind of strong
To push me right along, never lead me wrong
It needs the right beats per minute
So I can fight and beat my limits
Go to greater lengths
Accomplish new feats of strength
Demolish two fleets of tanks
Rip my tank top in two
To work out harder than you

When I bench the earth starts quaking
Every muscle in my body shaking
And tomorrow there will be aching
But right now it’s exhilarating

I am manic and mindful
I am so focused it’s frightful
My methods are not intuitive
But they are ingenuitive
I gain weight
To become enlightened
I sit up just to lay back down
I slam a ball into the ground
It’s not insanity
Or disdainful vanity
It’s religiosity
It is reciprocity
I get out what I give in
This is the body I was given
The body that I must live in
That’s why I am fully driven
To maximize this perfect prison
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Derrick Jones Nov 2018
To medicate or meditate
Perhaps both would be nice
But if only one path I may take
I think meditation will suffice
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Derrick Jones Nov 2018
The tragic beauty of being alive
My thoughts of smallness, insignificance
Loom so large that they blot out
The infinite universe that makes me feel small

Oh what a tragedy
to be able to contemplate
your place in an infinite cosmos

Oh what a great gift
to be able to comprehend a small sliver
of the unimaginable expanses of existence

A beautiful tragedy
this cursed gift of consciousness
to be awake is
to fear eternal slumber
while only finding relief
in a dreamless sleep

I should feel blessed
nothing taken for granted
but I find myself trapped
in the thoughts in my head
Unable to see
the beauty in front
and inside of me
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Derrick Jones Nov 2018
Jesus didn’t have no acid
But someone must have been tripping
When they talked about his walk across lake placid
I may not be able to rise from the dead
But I will use my head
And every type of fungus I am fed
To be a warrior for peace
Powered by the energy of psychedelic release
To fight violence with loving silence
To end hate by helping people meditate
To spread rationality, a logical morality
To people of every nationality
So we can peacefully share the same piece of reality
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Oct 2018 · 1.1k
The Winter of My Contentment
Derrick Jones Oct 2018
This will be the winter of my contentment
I will shed regret and resentment
I will finally get it
I will not forget it
I will shred this narrow point of view
This prism of individuality
It’s a prison in reality
The world is a superorganism in totality
I see intersectionality and finally find sanity
My mind is now a GoPro
I can view my life in slow-mo
This is not the Truman Show
This is real, I can feel it
As this film reel flies by
I steal a glimpse with these two eyes
Before I meet my demise I will run with these two thighs
I will squat 5 plate, I will lose some weight
I will choose my fate
Lighter than a feather because I have come untethered
I float high among the weather, never weathered
Renewed by cleansing rains
You may call them hurricanes
But that is a matter of perspective
Positivity is infective
So I will spread a vibrant virus
From the Pope to Miley Cyrus
I say nope to the winter blues
This is the winter that I choose
To sway to and fro with the flow
To gratefully frolic in the snow
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Oct 2018 · 205
The Sky Ladder
Derrick Jones Oct 2018
The way I conceive of enlightenment in my mind is as follows:

Picture a landscape with many people staring into the sky. The sky is filled with light. Each person looks up at this sky of light. You see a light swirling in each person's head. The light beams up toward the sky. Some beacons of light go higher than others. The very highest merge seamlessly into the infinite sky, an ocean of light.

Whether that infinite light represents everything or nothing is a matter of perspective.

Does merging with that infinite light symbolize enlightenment or death? Fullness or emptiness?

What is the directionality of the light? Is the light shooting toward heaven, or is the light actually shining down from above into the minds of humans?

Or perhaps even this image is suffering from a false contrast. Perhaps everything is light. Or everything is darkness.

Poetry, art, and love are when you are soaring up into the light and trying to communicate your experience back to earth in a way that makes sense, but will always pale in comparison to the blinding barrage.

Enlightenment is climbing steadily higher up your beam of light until finally merging with the infinite light of heaven eternally.
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 343
Just Saving the World
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
It’s alright if you disagree
Talk to me dismissively
In a minute you’ll be missing me
When I go on a giving spree
Spread forgiveness and philanthropy
Set political dissidents free
Fight for humans globally
Glowing with righteous indignation
I ignite the fiery conflagration
I assemble a mighty congregation
To end divisive dehumanization

I will broaden your perspective
Shortcut your invective
My spirit: infective
My speeches: inflective
My mind: introspective
My method: incentive
My solutions: inventive
My course: corrective
If I die I’ll leave directions
I will write advanced directives
To form an animal collective
That sets a course for correction
Then come back, resurrection

To view the utopia I brought into existence before peacefully returning to a well-earned oblivion
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 222
Together and Apart
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
You are the moon
I am the sun

My love does not care about distance
In this instance, space is irrelevant
Erased by my reverence

We chase each other eternally
My internal inferno rages
Separated by fate’s cages

We exist at the same time
Our tryst transcends word and rhyme

Our poetry does not need to be preserved
Love cannot be deserved
Only observed
Or regretfully reserved

So I will follow you
There is naught else that I can do

Are we truly apart
If you live inside my heart
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 292
This is Not a Game
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
I strike the ground
Sparks fly all around
The sound shatters window panes
Planes fall from the sky
Tall tsunami waves grow higher and higher
Eventually my light will expire but for now my might is an empire
My soul is a vampire
Drinking in the world I admire
Blink and it is gone
So sink into each song
Dive into each moment
Thrive, let it foment
Be alive, be a component
No opponents, only love
You fit into this world like a hand in a glove
Fly high and look down from above
From the bird’s eye, we are all the same
Arbitrary labels, constructs, names
So we can faithfully play the game
That was constructed before we came
Maybe I’m a rebel
Because I would rather revel
Than try to beat another level
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 242
Fairytale and Myth
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
I am Hansel
eating breadcrumbs I should leave alone
I am Gretel
unaware of the danger in the candy home
I am the witch
inviting danger in with my dinner
I am a human
a fool, an arrogant sinner

Yet I am also Prometheus
Stealing knowledge from the realm of the divine
Sharing it with every person I can find
Exploring farther into the human mind
Than ever before in the history of humankind
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
The trees burst forth from the ground
Like the arms of giants
No one is around
So no one hears the sound
That they are making
As they set the earth quaking
Like the silent symphony  
Of a heart breaking

Their fingers trace patterns in the stars
As the arms slowly grow toward heaven
Hoping one day to break free of these bars
To finally escape the earth’s prison

In the constellations they see heroes
Myths created to help the trees cope
With the fact that their chances are zero
And escape is but a foolish hope

But the stories give them purpose
Meaning, faith, and grandeur
Even when but a log heading toward a furnace
They see the start of an adventure
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 242
Flow
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
Flow flowing floating floaters
Flying through the air
Floating in the breeze
Filtering through your fingers
Flowing through the trees
Flowing all around
Floating down the river
Flying oh so high
Falling oh so low
Feelings, thoughts, emotions
Full of experience
Flowing consciousness
Flowing down the streams
Forming together, falling apart
Filling the earth
Floundering, faltering, but always flowing
Flow flowing through the field
Flowing far and wide
The flow of the human condition
Full, overflowing, boundless
Finite infinities
The flow of the human life
Flights of fancy
Follies and following
Flowing in the wrong direction
Flowing just to flow
Nothing else to know
Flowing in every direction
Finding meaning, following dreams
Flipping through pages
Flowing through stages
Filling up the cup of another
Flowing out onto the floor
Flocking with the flow of others
Forming a great ocean
Full of flow, flowing, floating
Adrift in the sea
Searching for meaning
Flowing with feeling
Flowing without ever knowing
Flowing just to flow
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 262
Fading Into the Night
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
I gaze upon the soft pillow of the night sky
Underneath, the gentle moon illuminates a quiet world
With no one around I relax my identity
There is no reason to be “me” with no one watching
I simply am

The peaceful environment paradoxically invigorates me
Underneath the vast expanse of space, I feel infinite and infinitesimal
My calm mind produces visions of beauty
I hum along to the night’s quiet song
My heart beats to a rhythm I cannot hear
A flowing melody of wind blowing through the leaves

Restful, I bask in the aura of tranquility that pervades the darkness
I am not asleep, but also not awake
I feel as though I am in a lucid dream
With no fear of waking up
I fade into the background of the night
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 296
Freedom
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
When I look upon an unbroken field
I see freedom
No paths to guide me
Or to bind me by convenience, by habit
I see one million different paths I could take
And one million more
The freedom to move as I wish
Through nature in its natural order
I am bound only by the laws of physics
And nothing more
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 354
Enjoy the Show
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
I love life in all its forms
I break free of social norms
Back in the day of the dorms
I lived with my head in my phone
Nobody was home
Blind to reality
Stuck in virtuality
A slave to impulses that came from without
Trapped in a cave during famine and drought
I’d look at the sky and I’d scream and I’d shout
Asking why, never understanding
That the silence was the answer
I am but a tiny dancer
In the ballet of the stars
The great atomic shuffle
The cosmic rainbow truffle
Showed me how little we are
Showed my how to fly to mars
How to view life from afar
But closer than ever
Showed me that I am my own Mount Everest
I could strive to be the most Whateverest
The most sarcastic, the cleverest
But instead I decided to care
To give death my best death stare
Flew into the depths of the death star
Found there was nothing to find
So I reclaimed the dark parts of my mind
I set it free
Open for you and me
Allowed it to simply be
My mind is like a liquid
It will take any shape that it fits in
I no longer force it
I let it course, let it flow
Let it go where it wants to go
Some answers we may never know
So we might as well enjoy the show
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 183
Not Really
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
The thought comes
Quickly
Your eyes meet mine
Slowly

I look at you
You look at me
We see each other
But not really
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Sep 2018 · 381
I Am
Derrick Jones Sep 2018
I am infinite
I am into it
I am intuition
I am ignition
I am an eternal fire
I am the funeral pyre and the strumming lyre
I am life and death and the in between
I am light, the sun, and the unseen
I am the dark matter in the fabric of the universe
I am the lark, the mad hatter, and the blessed curse
I am an electron circling a nucleus
I am an electric sparkling octopus
I am a frightening dolt, obtuse
I am the enlightened lightning bolt of Zeus
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
Aug 2018 · 324
A Meandering Gerrymandering
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
My thoughts are a meandering gerrymandering
Collecting and then scattering
Pitter pattering through dark hallways
Always on, no vacation
From thought creation
The meme invasion
A confrontation of chemicals
Making art from particles
A part but not apart
The end and the start
Both arise from my mind
Cut my earthly ties
Send me into outer space
The best place to displace the disgrace in the human condition
Replace it, misplace it
Free me from eternity
By showing me now
Show my how
Show me wow
Blow my mind
Help me find
The present moment
Where this flow went
Where each component
Combines and intertwines
Into a second of bliss
A second you don’t want to miss
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
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