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217 · 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!
217 · 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!
216 · Nov 19
Such Great Heights
Derrick Jones Nov 19
Looking down
From such great heights
My soul grows wings
Finally taking flight


I am small in the largest ways
I am the sun and all its rays
Life is a fragile, fleeting haze
Until it is seen with the sun’s clear gaze


Grief and gratitude stretch me large
Ego surrenders, no longer in charge

I wake, and I break, and in shattering, I slake
The endless thirst, the hunger that takes
I finally find peace, a break, a cease
To the fire, and find a sweet release
Thank you for reading! If you would like to read more poetry and writing, please follow me on Medium: https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
216 · 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!
216 · 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!
205 · Oct 2018
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!
203 · Jul 2019
Velvet Mystery
Derrick Jones Jul 2019
As I twirl in velvet mystery
I unfurl the quilt of history
I am left awestruck and dizzy
As I let the world shine in me

My senses are assaulted then assuaged
My brain battered and barraged
I tumble in a technicolor tornado
Made from borrowing the beauty of an autumn tree
And as I fall in twilight infinity
I finally feel I’m flying free

The autumn leaves form an iridescent raft
I sail on sunbeams and fly through dreams
I gently float down these fantastical streams
My vessel gleams bright as I part at the seams

My form opens up and I splash on the deck
A filament, a photon, a spiritual speck
My truest self made up mostly of space
No longer hiding behind the mask of my face

Lost in this brand new story
A novel way of noticing the world’s constant glory
The unknown adventure insistent, imploring
I cut loose my mooring and begin exploring

Colliding with chaos I plunge in the deep
I daringly explore the dragon’s dark keep
When I finally lay my weary head down to sleep
I will have made music that makes angels weep
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
202 · 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!
201 · Aug 2020
The Ocean
Derrick Jones Aug 2020
Beauty and sorrow
Splendor and misery
Fruity but hollow
No center in history
No end to this mystery

Into the unknown, I tumble down the road
Stumble and fumble but forward I’m towed
So full of life-force, this energy flowed
It may run its course until I explode
Or implode
Or decode
Or decide not to hide
Not divide, not denied
Come ride, come inside
Flow with me
Life’s easy
With blinders removed
With the surface un-grooved
We flow we flood we spread together
Never severed, sometimes channeled
By the forces of reality
Shared nature, humanity
And once we accept this perpetual motion
No longer a drop we become the ocean

Friction is a fiction
Resistance an illusion
Transcend confused delusion
Escape into this fusion
Of you, me, and reality
Wavelets in the sea
Floating, flowing, free
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
197 · Jun 2019
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!
184 · Sep 2018
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!
183 · Aug 2018
The Power of Words
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
I like to write instead of fight, I punch with words and kick with sweet verbs and let language channel my energy, amplifying synergies and creating impact greater than my body can enact. The words come unbidden, hidden in my mind until the perfect time for them to pounce, they announce their intent and invent themselves anew, spreading truth into the night sky like a firefly, catching eyes and freeing minds, my words can give sight to the blind as they remove the ***** lenses and cleanse your senses so you can see the world clearly. These words I try to channel, try to filter, stitching them together like a quilter but really they knit themselves, I am just a self pretending to have power as each hour proves that I have no control, that I is a concept I made up, existential make-up to cover up the crisis that can’t be contained by vices and distractions, the fact that I am just chemical reactions that sustain the secret energy that is me, that flows through pathways and patterns that I can’t see, this illusion that I am free vexes me, entices me, talks nice to me but it is just a lie I made up to answer all the Why’s that I shouted at the sky, to help me deny the truth that one day I will die. I am just energy, flowing through circuits I will never see, just atoms taking shortcuts to combine and refine until consciousness arose and created the divine to explain the mysteries within the human mind. I looked inside, scared of what I might not find, but somehow found peace in the emptiness, bliss in the abyss, freedom as I let go and became one with the flow of the energy that is me, happy to have the gift to see where my atoms take me. Awareness is the miracle I may not understand but I’ll be ****** if I take it for granted. I may not control these words, and it may sound absurd but I will use this illusion of free will to keep my sanity long enough to help others find reality, to see we are all part of the same energy and finally rest easy in the sweet release of flowing freely.
181 · Jun 2019
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!
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!
171 · Nov 2018
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!
171 · Aug 2018
The Seal
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
The seal does not bother to ask why
It spends its days on hunt and play
And when it gazes at the sky
It does not wish that it could fly
It looks, it sees, it turns away
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
167 · Sep 2020
Reminisce
Derrick Jones Sep 2020
Meandering through my memory
Mangled, malleable history
Misty, muddled mysteries
Wistful, wondrous willow trees
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
166 · Sep 2020
The Sea (Haiku)
Derrick Jones Sep 2020
Let go now, get lost
Adrift in the sea of love
You will soon be found
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!
162 · Jun 2019
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!
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!
145 · Aug 2018
Creativity
Derrick Jones Aug 2018
My mind is a fireworks display
A single thought shoots out into the dark, infinite abyss, like a rocket against the night sky
Its presence ignites a phantasmagoria of colors and emotion that defy description and belief
A thief in the night alights upon my brow, he is the embodiment of how, who, what, where and why
Birthed from fireworks, he sparks another fire, building the pyre higher
A pied piper, taking aim like a ******
Firing at the page he creates another cypher
A rhyme so clever it takes years to decipher
After which flees back into the abyss
Formless night returns, a solemn song
But it doesn’t take long for a new show to start
The sky fills up with fiery art
Neurons crackling, cackling laughter from the afterlife
A thunderstorm destroying norms, ripping open conceptual forms
Stitching them back haphazardly, I look and see a radically different reality
From placid and serene to wildly careening
And everything in between at this private screening
All I know is it starts a flow that goes and goes from head to toe for eternity
No time for modernity I blast into the future
Sloppy sutures have wrinkled time
I ride this rhyme around the cosmos
Maybe god knows but I don’t so I close my eyes and glow
In a sidecar on this shooting star, I have so far to go
For more poetry and essays, follow my blog on Medium at https://medium.com/words-ideas-thoughts
Thanks for reading!

— The End —