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290 · Jul 2019
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!
286 · Sep 2018
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!
275 · Jan 2019
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!
268 · Sep 2018
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!
257 · Jul 2019
The Illusory Shore (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
No man is an eye
Land and water make each other
Ever intertwined
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
256 · Sep 2018
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!
253 · Jul 2019
The Gift of the Present
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Stuck in the past you look aghast at what already passed
Your brain relentlessly reminds you
Blinded by what’s behind you
You cannot look ahead
Trapped in needless tread
Stuck inside your head

Freedom’s found not from the future
But from finally finding the present
The now that shows you how to turn your head around
To leave what’s done as done
Shut off the nagging re-run
Open your eyes to the sun
Now you have beautifully begun

The moment surrounds
Clears away clouds
Fog fades away
Dismissed by the day
And freed from your chains
Only options remain
A blissful release
What I would call peace
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
252 · Jul 2019
Fall In
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
Sink deeply into being
You’ll find it oh so freeing
This life is oh so fleeting
Why spend it just retreating

I’d rather go exploring
The horizon’s glow implores me
Like those who came before me
I will go to find my glory

So jump in without restraint
Rescind each shrill complaint
Evacuate your ego
Fall fully in the fairest flow
Wander where the wind may blow
See just how far you can go
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
247 · Nov 2020
A Part of the Whole
Derrick Jones Nov 2020
Duality is not reality
Illusory fractality
All is one in actuality
Merely flow, factually

We spew distinctions and categories
Reinforced with teachings and allegories
Form begets function and hides the true junctions
Structures simplify our senses so we do not swiftly die

To live as one, connected to all
Is oddly not compatible with life
When peace is necessary for strife
The rise just a part of the fall
There’s no reason to avoid the knife

For survival we must throttle this expanse of information
Categorize and segment
Love, despise, and fragment
Place labels of good and bad
To navigate the moral landscape
To function as one in the part of the whole
But in doing so, we split our soul
These labels surely take their toll
They hide the unity of you and me
Strangle the beauty to simply be
They keep us from being free

There is no light without  dark
No flame without spark
There is no cold without heat
No slow without fleet
No better without worse
No life without the hearse

Death and life two sides of the same coin
You and I seem separate but are in fact joined
These invisible lines divide and try to hide
That we are all beautifully, inevitably, intertwined

To see past these illusions
We must accept flowing fusions
Every cause has an effect
We are spiraling specks
Coalescing and creating
Forming and making
Finally breaking
The cycle continues
Eternally, infernally
Or ceaselessly, peacefully
For me
This connection is a gift
A resurrection from the rift

The void is void when we don’t avoid it
If you are me and I am you
There is truly nothing left to do
I float and live and love and die
I find little interest in finding out why
Instead I just seek to live in truth
Love
Impermanence
Equanimity

Realizing control takes a toll
Surrendering control is the goal
We are all just a part of the whole
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
246 · Aug 2020
The Ocean
Derrick Jones Aug 2020
Inside of every line there is a meaning hard to find
A moment of the mind
A breath of sacred life
A body not to bind
A sharpness like a knife
Pure attention
Not a weapon, but slicing through each second
Severing summoned notions
With smooth motions
Leaving only seamless being
Flowing like an ocean
Coming and going
The ebb and flow
Of life under the light
No longer lost in night
Now caught in perfect sight
For but a moment
Where the flow went
Before returning to the sea
To effervescent infinity
With equanimity
You are here with me
Flowing
Like the ocean
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
246 · Aug 2019
The Train
Derrick Jones Aug 2019
Inside my brain, there is a train
Near the caboose, a man sits in a noose
Writing fiery lines in his diary
Trying to convince his provincial demons
That he should depart the train
And not this life
So he pours out his struggle and strife
Searching for catharsis
Emotional dialysis
Escape from this chrysalis
Sometimes it is diaphanous
Sometimes he is an optimist
But in the end, the shell remains
His mind untamed
He’s not insane
But he is un-sane
He walks in mental rain
He feels a mental pain
Life is a mental drain
And so he stays inside the train

One day the train flew off the tracks
Everything the man knew went out of wack
He was tumbled and turned
He laughed and he learned
He cried and he died
And on the other side, he was reborn
No longer in hiding
Standing in the wreckage
Shaken but unscathed
The man was finally free
Free to finally be
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
242 · Jul 2019
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!
241 · Sep 2019
The Web of Life
Derrick Jones Sep 2019
We are nothing but vibrations in the universe
This movement is a blessing or a curse
In some ways, it’s a choice
If my voice is one of honesty
My frequency made of decency
That is when I let love in
Surrounded by my friends
I let my life begin again
With no thought for the bitter end

But I must remember
As I dismember the lies that lock us inside
We all have illusions of agency
Though the control box has a vacancy
And those with misfortune did not choose
Their portion of this world
The atoms with which they twirl
The vortex of thought in which they swirl
We are all along for the ride
We run and we hide
But when physics is applied
There’s no free will there to find

So what do we do
With this ultimate view?
Let’s embrace each sensation
Pay attention to creation
Not simply seeking elation
Or striving for elevation
But flowing through the sine curve
Merging with each twist and swerve
Through the ups and the down
Thankful to be around
Gratitude for a connection to the ground
The mellifluous magic of sound
The technicolor infinities that materialize
When I bat open my eyes
Or begin to fantasize

In this boundless ocean of beauty
I can weather the storms
Simply passing waveforms
Bolstered by the knowledge
That nothing last forever
But hope is here to stay
Merely a second away
And even when my skies are gray
I remember I am just a string
Energetically swinging to and fro
And when I touch my fellow threads I glow
A spark of connection
I make a mental correction
Weaving myself into this web of life
I am not alone
I am safe at home
My down is another’s up
I cannot understand this pattern
All I know is that it matters
So I will be thankful every day
That I have a chance to play
That I may not have a will
But I know I am the way
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
235 · Sep 2018
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!
233 · Jul 2019
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!
231 · Aug 2019
Now (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Aug 2019
Future falls apart
The past is full of terror
Solace in the now
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
230 · Sep 2019
The Prismatic Prison
Derrick Jones Sep 2019
Thinking I see clearly
Comes at a price
I pay it dearly
Spraying windex on glass barriers
Trapped by this transparency
I run wildly through a labyrinth
A prison of my own creation
Crimson, I move with desperation
The direct path overlooked

You are complex and unpredictable
Yet I try to predict you anyway
I put a vision of you inside my maze
I see your actions through an egoic haze
I analyze and interpret in a naive craze
And as I forecast the coming phase
I finally see this labyrinth I must raze

Wisdom is knowing how much you cannot know
Freedom is acting with that knowledge
Truth is the value that sets you free
The only path toward reality

Go shatter the glass
Veer off the path that you created
That you never knew you hated
The false entrapments in your way
So you can finally seize the day

I will not put you in a prison
I will correct this twisted prism
Come join me in this mission
Let’s create a new shared vision
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!
225 · Dec 2018
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!
224 · Oct 2019
The Etchings of Your Soul
Derrick Jones Oct 2019
My head is a snow globe recently shaken
A flurry of thoughts that would best be forsaken
My mouth is an envelope sealed tightly shut
Attempting to hold back butterflies from my gut
But utter my feelings I must finally do
And when laid out bare, my thoughts are of you
Your smile, your laugh, the way that you move
Your soul etched in matter, like a record’s vinyl groove
My whole sketch is splattered with emotion and sparks
But the painting in my mind’s eye comes straight from the heart
And as soon as my lips finally do part
Your name will be the ending, the middle, and the start
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
222 · Aug 2018
Like Water
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
The words flow like water
Drip dripping from my mind
Like a father’s pride for his daughter
Even after he caught her
Doing something he never taught her
Smoking **** with her friend
Why does childhood have to end?
He laments and he vents and he grounds her for a month
A punishment for growing up, for rolling a blunt
For changing so much
But deep inside he knows that every child grows and he has to let go
That’s the way my words flow
219 · Sep 2020
There Will Be Dancing
Derrick Jones Sep 2020
There will be dancing
On that joyous occasion
That moment
When I just
Am
There will almost certainly be dancing
Of the body
Of the spirit
In that moment
When I breathe
Deeply
When the clock stops ticking
When I quit keeping score
When there is no "more"
Or "next"
Or "because"
When there just
Is
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
217 · Jul 2019
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!
216 · Aug 2019
The Secret to Life
Derrick Jones Aug 2019
Alan Watts knew the secret to life is that there are no secrets to life
There is no answer, and there is no question
There is life. There is an infinite playground to explore
We are offered a window into this world
A body and a mind
And we have one life to live
We have but love to give
So we dance
We play
We make intentional decisions about how we construct these visions
We create
get inventive
We share
our perspective
We care
       Without incentive
We connect
get twirled
We dissect
this world
We dance
to feel alive
We thrive
when together
So get tethered and get swirled
Into novel combinations that rearrange our observations into brand new constellations
A new form of reality
We accept the plurality of interpretations
The ambiguity of our sensations
One of infinite iterations
We dance gracefully with the many ways in which our world is an illusion
And we take solace in the fusion of the stars
The knowledge that sent machines to mars
In basic science, we make sense and rationality
We reason that reality is not cheating, it follows certain rules
And in that order, we connect
We share the same constraints and operate in shared space
We can look behind a face and see infinity
Wonder and divinity
Meeting in a moment of this multiverse
We converse in true connection because we share a few atoms
You are not lost in a sea you are right here with me
Dropped on this crazy earth you did not exist then you were birthed
And **** is it confusing but I find it quite amusing and I love to share my musings
We share enough that we can see each other
I beseech you to see me as your brother
Not just another
Not an other
We all revolve around this sun
Our journey just begun
Divided we are done
United we are one
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
216 · Sep 2018
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!
212 · Sep 2018
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!
211 · Aug 2018
An Evolution Revolution
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
The only constant is change
So evolution produced the brain
No matter what nature may bring
How fearsome, how clever, how strange
Man has the tool to play the game
To adapt, to upgrade, to remain
So the human is built to survive
But what does it mean to thrive?
The weight of it boggles the mind
When one contemplates being alive
And we long for the days of simplicity
That we left so far behind
So let’s use this miracle of plasticity
To channel our neural electricity
And maybe one day we will find
A way to hit rewind
And evolve toward a goal we agree
Can actually make us happy
Why should we let Evolution run the game?
209 · Aug 2018
3 Haikus
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
In this one moment
There is peace without limit
Waiting to be found

The mind peers outside
Into the strange ether that
it forms each moment

In the rippling pond
The water fascinating
I see the cosmos
208 · Jan 2019
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.
204 · Oct 2020
The Infinite Interlude
Derrick Jones Oct 2020
Alone I am at home
Apart I am a part
Of the whole
Of the soul
Of the light
Awareness
There-ness
This quality of being
True seeing
When I uncover my eyes
When my quiet mind leaves lies behind
This is when I finally find
Peace
Merging with the infinite
Verging on the precipice
And leaping off so freely
That it’s really no surprise at all
When I find I fly instead of fall
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
204 · Jun 2019
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!
204 · Jan 2021
Untitled
Derrick Jones Jan 2021
You have to forgive yourself for past wrongs
Or they will hold you back forever
They become the specter you must face
The space behind your face
That voice saying no
That barrier to flow
Your greatest foe
That just can’t be so

If the present is all then why not just fall?
Why look to the past, to all that you lack
You could just stand tall, straighten your back
With focus and attention there’s room for ascension
Transmission to a higher plane
Where there is no pain
Nestled in the lion’s mane

Same same but different
When you say religion
I see what’s missin’
No believing in fiction
Just feel this friction
Nuclear fission
The energy between you and me
The heartbeat of the universe
The electric thrum
The tribal drum
Or two spoons on a tub
The beat moves right through me
I can’t hold it back
It taps into something I no longer lack
This rhythm flows freely
I’m no longer just me
I am that i am that I am
Endlessly spiraling
No longer dialing
But tiling this world with the love at its core
Painting the shore with light from the ocean floor
The love that I found when I stopped looking for more
The love that finally opened the door
204 · Sep 2018
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!
202 · Aug 2019
My Love Does Not Burn
Derrick Jones Aug 2019
My love for you does not burn
But it glows
It glows oh so brightly when I hold you tightly
And brighter when you are away

But it does not burn
Because if it were a fire
I would be consumed
And the heat could hurt those around me

So I do my best to glow
But sometimes
Rarely
The voltage is so high that a spark erupts

And then another
And one more
And before I know it a conflagration has erupted
I am consumed

At those moments
My heart burns
The heat is painful
But oh so enticing

Like a warm hearth on a frigid winter’s day
After a long trek through treacherous tundra
This fire beckons me
The crackling a siren song I cannot resist

But no matter how nourishing the fire
If I get too close
A spark may catch
And I am consumed

The cycle repeats

How do I glow and not burn?
How do I keep my distance
To enjoy the warmth and light
Without getting burned
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
202 · Sep 2019
Adrift in the Rift
Derrick Jones Sep 2019
Float around inside your mind just to see what you might find
Close your eyes and be surprised
The chaos crystalized
You take a mental picture
Of a momentary stricture
Of mind manifest
And you are just the guest
Along for the ride you reside in this home but it’s not your own
You wander and roam but every tome has a different theory and it’s hard to see clearly
So you nearly lose your head as you skip off the tread
Trying to understand you cry out a command but meet shifting sand
So instead you embed and let your mind expand
Higher patterns emerge far above the prior yearn
No avoidance or grasping
No clinging and clasping
Only wonder and awe
As you float around inside this new way of being
Flowing is freeing and life is so fleeting we might as well dance
Take a chance and find romance and sink into this trance
Enhance the life you’re given by paying close attention
Let the moment **** you in and show that you don’t ken
You do not know, and yet you win
Letting go, you now begin
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
202 · Aug 2018
Art Instead of Artifice
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
Calmer than I could be but more hyper than I should be
A still pond, ripples growing
My mind flowing and coalescing
Always going, confessing
Singing a truth into the world
A whirlwind of expression
Suggestions and impressions
My most honest confessions
Spending sessions crafting verses, masking the mundanity of humanity with rhymes and wit, because when times are **** we need verbal skits to help us forget
And when times are great I use words to celebrate, relate experience with eloquence and mount a defense against the sad times with these mad rhymes, counting my blessings as I undress the distress, caress these careless thoughts that plague me and harangue me, using language as a cage to contain and restrain the darkness because it’s far less work than acceptance. Language is the way out, reason supplants doubt and I can shout in the face of death, deface him with each breath, replace the fear with here, with now, with this moment and foment a rebellion against evolution, a thought revolution, and finally see that the solutions are the problems, every day you are solving them by being here, holding what is dear near to your heart and living as a part of this, as art instead of artifice.
202 · Jul 2019
Creativity
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
I don’t need a crutch for creativity
I am clearly clutch creatively
Knowingly nurturing
Flowing, I’m furnishing
The room inside your mind
That you needed help to find
The grape fresh off the vine
The soulful spark of the divine
That which you can not define
Unrefined but never crude
Intimate but never lewd
Food for thought:
I consume thought for food
I transform it into rhythm and mood
I transmit it with my attitude
Take you to a higher altitude
Flying oh so free
Through clouds of crisp creativity
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
201 · Jan 2021
By the Fire
Derrick Jones Jan 2021
All is well as I respire by the fire
Residing in my recliner
Nothing finer
Nor diviner
I’m no miner
But this is gold
I’m not a whiner
I’ve been told
But even so
**** this is amazing
201 · Aug 2020
The Perseids
Derrick Jones Aug 2020
Silver speckled specks sprinkle the night sky
Spectacular sparks
Spots of light, flying by

A meteor shower

I stare up at the sight
Lying in a quiet field
The cities light far in the distance
Delighting in the darkness
A portal to another dimension often hidden
Paradoxically, a reality obscured by light
Away from the truth the light reveals
I now relish in the truth of the dark
The view of the night sky
A portal to the past
Yet also to the present

Back supported by the cool, firm earth
My visual field consumed
Filled with infinity
I soon realize
Here, now, in this moment
I have no head

Where my head should be
Is the night sky
Myriad stars and the endless space between

When juxtaposed to infinity
Actual, immeasurable infinity
Even my stubborn ego
Cannot keep up the fight
I dissolve into the night
And each gleaming point of light
Sometimes streaming across so bright
A glorious glint
On a short fated flight
Undertaken anyway
Without even a hint
Of spite


Each ephemeral illumination
Mirrors the spark of creation
The egoic conflagration
This meandering mentation
Of thought
Pure invention
Now caught
My attention
Now an ought
Instead of is

Rumination replaces reality
In between the stars and me
Not physical, still I cannot see
My attention follows helplessly

Infinity recedes
Thought impedes
Advice I do not heed
A voice I do not need

As suddenly as it began, it disappears
The thought vanished, my mind clears
Again I have no head
My bed is the earth
My view is infinite
Each star a blazing hearth
Billions giving birth to light across the galaxy
In this small piece that I can see
I peacefully float
In infinity
No self at all
No head to call my own
I make the world my home
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
199 · Nov 2018
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!
198 · Aug 2018
Sing Along
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
I waltz into your mind
Pull your strings and make you sing along to the song that I choose
Make you flow to the rhythm and tune
From my iPod, you’re still rocking that Zune
Sway to the hurricane, the typhoon
I launch in like a harpoon
Lampoon you and spoon-feed you
Soon to be freed by my lyrical seeds
Watch them bloom and announce the doom of your premature tomb
I will bring you back to life
Open heart on the surgery table
I will skillfully wield the knife
Heal your tears and all your strife
Relieve your fears, show you the light
Where there was wrong I will make it right
So do not put up any fight
Just come along for the ride tonight
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
198 · Dec 2018
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!
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!
193 · Sep 2019
Play
Derrick Jones Sep 2019
This pain inside your heart is just a part
Of this art installation
This life we start and soon depart
We love and we lose
We fall and we bruise
We think that we choose
But we’re locked in our views

Until we break free there is no way to see
The trinity of you, me, and infinity
The gorgeous  galaxies inside the passing pleasantries
The wonders of humanity
Cloaked in plain banality
The marvels of the mind
Hard to find when so confined
Meaning not divined
When we are close to blind
Regretful and resigned
The contract that we signed must be refined
Updated, redesigned
To remind us of the soulful spark of the sublime
Do not settle for subprime
Set a goal and start your climb
All you have is time
So do not waste it, copy paste it
Stop and taste it
Savor the moment
Step up and own it
All you’ve ever known has blown away
There’s nothing left to say
There is no other way
But to view this life as play
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
190 · Nov 2018
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!
189 · Aug 2018
Floating
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
Inside of every rhyme there is a line that defines what it means to be art, to be a part, to be a thing, to exist inside this cosmos that’s unraveling, traveling ever farther into the towering abyss and it’s so wide we cannot miss, so deep that it may keep us locked beneath for an eternity, what a calamity but I will not resist because this chasm is just a spasm of the neurons in my mind, a place inside this brain that I cannot find, a space that god misplaced that straddles the mundane and the divine, this ephemeral enchantress that contains every star and every planet, this nugget inside my head, neither living nor dead, it’s a vortex of color, a tornado of wonder, a masterpiece of imagination and thunder, and when I slip underneath is when I finally feel at peace.

I relax the iron reins of the trap that is my self inside this brain, this little loop of worry that makes my sight so blurry, blind and stumbling through the blizzard, I find it humbling to consider that this **** is just a pattern of some quarks and if I concentrate I can shirk it, work it out of sight and end this blight on happiness, lift the veil and finally see that reality can be accepted and enjoyed, the self can be destroyed and I can float in that abyss, a sea full of art and emotion, a technicolor ocean.

When the self is around my eyes go dark and I drown and sink deep, but when I relax these chains there’s a beautiful change and I swim and I float, drifting with the beauty as each idea passes through me, becomes one with me then leaves free, just swimming through the sea, no longer the thrashing of a monster but a rainbow bloom of jellyfish, jetting between the islands of infinities that are conscious beings.

I swirl inside this nebula, twirl gracefully, gratefully dissolve and disintegrate, happy to participate in spontaneous creation, the collective imagination of an infinity, free to float, free to flow, aglow with possibility swaying to and fro, finally able to let go.
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
187 · Jul 2019
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!
182 · Aug 2018
Waking Up
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
Words out on paper
More like a laptop
I am streaming
Flowing
Gleaming
Glowing
Exploding with words that don’t want to stop
So I drop the ones I find
Blowing minds with my lyrical grind
My quick-witted witticism
Soaring above criticism
Filling up the catechism of religions with rainbows from my mind’s prism
Breaking free of this prison
Short circuit this system
The earth is shaking, cataclysm
There’s no mistaking, no masochism
Just linguistic synergism
You had better listen
To what you might be missing
The words to free your mind
These thoughts seem so divine
Elegant yet unrefined
Nature in its purest form
Raging, summer thunderstorm
Engaging, like a wormhole
Calm becoming turmoil
Live forever, eternal
My words dock on your terminal
They enter, suddenly internal
Whether heavenly or infernal
So much to see in a single kernel
So open up your eyes, dispel these lies
Capsize your ship and rise with the tide to the moon
Dispel this gloom and leave this tomb of a room
See reality in full majesty
Life is a mystery, not a tragedy
It is sad to be asleep
Don’t keep on snoozing
You are losing precious minutes
You should be choosing to get in it
So jump into the river of time
Swim and shiver in the sublime
You can break with rhyme and reason
Being awake is something to believe in
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
181 · Jul 2019
Ascension
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
I approach you with love
You reproach me with hate
I share infinite positivity
Which you somehow negate

Say hello to your goodbye
I’ll never die I’d rather fly
And if I’m down here asking why
You better bet an answer’s there to find

I look up at the still night sky
I feel small enough to need to lie
Then I see there is no try
Only do, so I breathe a sigh

Sweet relief from this grief
I have a promise I will keep
I will not look before I will leap
I will ascend by diving deep

Deep into my psyche
I find nothing there to bind me
So now I travel lightly
No more gravity, I float free

Will you come with me?
You’re all that I lack
I’m holding you sweetly
Stop holding me back
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
177 · Jan 2019
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!
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