Hell or Heaven,
I'll get there by the highway.
Heaven or Hell
Im taking the long way.

My path may split at a fork in a wood,
but whichever way I choose will be a path.

The road calls, the trees I haven't seen pray to hear my engine hum as I drive by.

The past yells from miles behind,
tormenting me for attention. The faster I go the louder it screams to me.

I will drive to those trees and away from those screams until I reach the pearly gates or a flaming sea.

The flags hang at half their normal height
While the sky cries down the tears I'm not brave enough to let go of.

And I am lost. Even though I know where I am.

There are nights to drive fast,
recklessly even.
those angry nights,
full of contemplation and rage.
nights much too familiar
nights not even the cold air rushing across shivering skin can fix.
nights when driving forever to get away seems like the only thing to do.

But, there are also nights like these,
they are flawed yet beautiful

They are content,
proud,
Irrevocably beautiful nights.

They are the nights where you go slow,
not because of speed limits, but because there is no reason to hurry.

They are the kind of nights that come about when you really love someone,

They are the kind of nights that will never really be forgotten,

They are the culmination of the little things in life,

They are joy.

The average life expectancy is not enough.
It is not average, it seems like a mediocre time.

Not enough to make a dent
in all the things I want to do.

Not enough to share all the love I have
for a girl and some people.

But, just enough to make some mistakes
and not recover.  

I guess hope lies in my dreams,
It relies on my strength,
my ability to keep the fire inside me alive.
To make one hell of a dent in my goals
And to make sure I give all the love I have to lass who lit the fire in the first place

Who knew losing your mind was so...
fun!

Oh the joy!
Oh the joy joy joy!

No one can laugh like those who have nothing to laugh at
it is the purest way,
to laugh at the air with yourself is beautiful

The weather is beautiful,
a crisp 57 degrees feels beautiful,
as beautiful as a woman I met on the road one night.

Birds barely believe and cats curiously crawl.

Eccentricity is authentic just as the sun sets and the moon rises.  

My train of thought has ran off the tracks, the bridge was blown up by bandits, now all the passengers are free! If death counts as freedom.

The still air sets off into a run when the speedometer reads 100.

Nothing really matters at those speeds. The only thing that seems real is that beautiful harmony coming gently out of a few speakers.

At 100 nothing really matters because if you worry you slip.
If you slip you run off the road.
If you run off the road you die.

Death is good for figuring things out.

But this isn't about death.
It's about life
That beautiful fleeting thing,
Where everything matters and doesn't at the same time.

That Klondike bar looks good and this song is hitting me just right. I love you too.

That's all that matters right now, but by the time anyone sees this I'll have forgotten what this was about

I find myself jealous of her fingertips because of the way they run through her hair...

I can't stand the way her smile makes me feel.
I can just see her melt.
The way her eyes glow when we see each other.
How she walks,
And how she acts like she doesn't feel the same way I do.

It drives me insane.
And I hope it isn't all in my head.

The day moves on slowly. 
Minutes pass with the tick of that old clock hanging from the wall.
Every time that tick erupts,
I realize my thoughts have slipped away, again.
I cannot remember where my mind was just five ticks ago.
Probably something depressing, I would remember a joy filled minute.
I cannot remember why I decided to forgive everyone.
However, I must of had a reason.
But, most importantly, 
I cannot remember how this poem is meant to end.

The opening notes,
Bursting off the guitar,
Hit my ears softly,
But with the power of a truck.
Chills ran through skin,
Then stayed there.

The sky was dark, and the rain pounded quickly against the fabric.
The world seemed depressed.
But 
In that moment under my umbrella,
I found complete and utter joy. 
I was soaked. but my smile was gigantic. 
I saw a puddle and jumped in,,
The wind kicked umbrellas inside out, and people struggled to hold on. They were upset at first, but then they started to smile. It was contagious.
Laughter filled my ears and it was a perfect moment out of one that was supposed to be miserable.

It's about to storm,
But I don't care.
I'm outside,
And the winds heavy
Along with my footsteps,
My mind is in my head,
Not outside with the storm,
It's sheltered away,
In the dark safe abyss of my brain.

The dust makes a mini tornado,
It's beautiful,
Second only to the harsh fearsome clouds that roll through the sky like waves.

A leaf flies off a tree,
Its time coming faster than anticipated.
It's sad leaf siblings know that it's just life though,
They Dave their pigment for another month.

I guess the point is that the world is fierce, but just as sad. Kind of like everyone in a way

"What a day,
Life right?
Well,
**** happens ya know,
Oh well,
It could be worse,

Right?"

"Yea,
I think it could be.
Just know,
You're a good person."

"No I'm not"

"Yes you are, now
Go to sleep"

"Ok(thank you)"

Moonlight covered vanity,
Ethereal heartbeats as hands touch.
A Chemical filled moment seems so,
Forever.
Underneath the stars,
Who watch with angst.
swallowed whole by reflected light from the moon,
Which does not judge, only shine.

Small moments in this place, with these things make hearts skip beats.
Makes eyes refuse to blink,
They stick in brains forever,
Not departing until they hop into the souls suitcase when it departs from the body.

My arm felt right under her head.
Hair gently falling, flowing with the breeze.
The back and forth sway, of the hammock.
Warmth. Love. Happiness.
But happiness,
Happiness will make you miserable.
Expectations.
When my arm is solemn,
there is no breeze,
And my hammock is long gone,
That happiness will mock me,
Laugh in my face,
Taunt me until I fall.
It is relentless,
But I'm glad we had that moment.

The shovel burst through the foreboding soil with a thud.

A powerful hand was gripped around the handle. Farther up the arm connected to the hand, was a man.
He stood at a towering 6'4"
Everything about him said mean,
Except for the tear on his cheek,
And the whimper of his eyes.

The shovel went down, and soil came up. This happened again and again for a very long time. His pace was slow, but only because he couldn't bare to finish.

Eventually enough soil was above ground. And he knew the time had come.

One more solemn tear fell accross his cheek as he lowered his son's limp body into the ground.

Thoughts rushed through his head, but he ignored them. It was all too much.
He had made the choice to pay rent instead of buy a casket and it was eating him alive, but it was too late now.

He began to shovel dirt back into the hole. Faster this time. He held less power though. His hands shook, his body trembled, and his soul cried as he saw his son for the last time.

Tonight there are no deep thoughts floating through the room.
No wishful words wandering woesomely in my brain.
Just dreams of sleep.
Visions of a light darkness.
Not the evil but the peaceful.
So tonight sleep will come,
Instead of thoughts,
And this
Is
Good.

You love what you love.
When you want to love it.
For as long as you want to love it.
You are who you are.
You are forever unique.
You are literally a miracle.
This is beautiful.
You are free to love.
Free to be you.
Most are normal,
But some are lucky.
Some of us get to be weird.
And sometimes it's hard to be weird,
Normal people don't get it.
Why poetry can raise the hair on your neck,
Why a math problem makes you smile,
Why the little moments in life str the biggest.
And even though most people think weird people are well weird,
They are wrong,
Weird is lovey.
And weirdness is spreading,
Because being weird is a blessing,

Before the sun falls past the horizon
and the moon smiles at us with all it can manage. I want to make sure that I won't forget your face in the dark.

I want to make sure that I won't lose you in the dark or if I do that come sunrise we will find each other, tired from a long night of search.

I want to make sure that you love me with everything that I love you with, and that we will hold hands through the dark, shielded by our love, safe to lay down and stare at the stars in awe.

Pistol dreams.
Exaggerated hopes.
Intense ideas of love, furious desires for the stars to be in reach.

Teenage ideals. Everything is deep,
Or can be.
An elephant carries a heavy load but can hold it easier than anything else.
Deep? Shallow? Dumb?
Depends on who is asked.

The future is screaming,
Rolling forward like a train at unimaginable speeds,
Meanwhile I am writing,
Thinking of things,
That won't heal the sick,
Or feed the hungry.

However,
It seems lifechanging,
When the words flow right,
Or throw hope and love together in some new way.

But are they actually?

Happiness is illusive,
And it lies within the heart.
Now some hearts fill quickly, but drain quickly too,
Others take time to fill, but they keep in what they have earned.
Mine seems to be the former.
Filling from friendly words,
And emptying an hour later over the shallowest matter.

This being said it is not impossible to be happy, many people live happy lives

And I believe the key is to accept it all.
To live life with love.
To not search for what could make you happy, but rather your heart which will make you happy.
Happiness is the only quest in which the goal can be found at the beginning.

There is an unthinkable amount of in which we will never meet, or even lay eyes on.

These people are doctors,musicians, postal workers, chefs, poets, humans.
And they may have the kindest hearts,
The brightest eyes, and the warmest smile, but we will never know them.

I may never meet anyone who reads this. In fact I probably won't have the pleasure, the odds are against it.

However, here's to you! Everyone. All those who I will never see or know it love.

It ripples out,
So prominent at first,
And the disappears,
Like everything else.

A deep happy comes from love.
It's better than a shallow happy,
Which is fleeting furiously.

A deep happy makes you smile,
And it makes the world peaceful,
This happy breathes life into you.

A deep happy fixes the pain,
That the shallow happy leaves behind.

A deep happy is what life is all about.

Stars are gigantic,
But you can't see all of them.
They still exist beautifully though.

She wasn't beautiful like the media told her she had to be.

But she was perfect to me,
Her eyes shined.
They were brown and for most people just seemed normal.
But the way she looked at me,
Those brown eyes seemed deeper than space, and made me feel like the world was frozen in time.

With her I felt invincible.
And time felt slow,
Mostly because we wished it would last forever.

She was my stars,
The first and last thoughts of my day.
She was the cheese to my pizza,
And the hope in my heart.

But even though she is still perfect,
She is no longer perfect for me.
And that my friends is how life goes.

Be happy!
Dance in the rain,
And sing along to the songs you love!

Smile when it starts to rain,
And stare blankly at the stars without blinking.

Stay home, watch movies,
And slide across the floor with socks on.

Enjoy the little things,
And be happy!

Hey,
Everything will be ok.
I know the day looks dark,
And the future seems blurry.
But it'll all be ok.

I know you think you've got no hope,
And I know you feel like you can't make it another second.
But it'll all be ok.

Because you're you.
You've got those eyes and that smile.
And you're smarter than you think.
So just know,
The day looks dark,
But it'll all be ok.

Down,
Up. West and eAst.
The south is opposite the northx
These things are so.......
Meaningfully meaningless.
The world is relative,
And we all think we are right.
Tomato, tomato(e).
As the saying goes.
Nothing is for sure,
Except that look in her eyes
That tells me it's all real.

The stars can't compare,
To the gleam in your eyes.

My pulse is at 92 BPM.
But it doesn't matter,
I'm the only one who would care,
But I don't.
Not just about the pulse,
But about everything.
It's all a blur,
But not blurry enough to be dreamlike.
It's blurry enough to be sad,
But that's it.
It's blurry enough to see that I'm alone,
But clear enough that it's still sad.
Maybe I should get new glasses.

It's 1:01,
And things aren't that bad.
At 12 they were pretty bad,
But now they aren't.

At 12 things looked dim,
lots of fear, loneliness, and desperation.
But now it's 1:03 and everything's ok.

It's 1:04 and I'm not sad anymore.
I decided my few friends are good ones, too good to be lonely.

It's 1:06 and my headache has finally gone away.
I've got more energy than I had all day.

It's 1:07 and I'm happy that things worked out.

It's 1:08 and I just wanna say,
That you're gonna be ok.

This is love,
What I feel for this small puddle of warm cheese dip.

I love it.
With all the love I have to love,
But I eat it.
The thing I love is fleeting.

It's fleeting because I make it fleet.
I slowly eat away at it until it is gone.
And now that it's gone,
It hurts me.
Physically, my stomach rolls over because I am lactose intolerant.
Emotionally, my heart yearns for more because it was so perfect.

But it was worth loving, even through the pain.

Sometimes 
Sometimes you just gotta let it go.
Be happy. 
Yea it's really hard.
But ya know what?
When you actually do it.
And learn to just ride the waves that try and hit you on your way down, you'll be better off.
Let em' hit you while you're down. You'll just be better off next time you're up. 
Everyone who hurts you forget em.
Everyone who loves you, love them.
Be kind, be happy, be free.
But don't be hurt by them.
Because THEY don't matter. And YOU do.

It makes me sad.
When my friends ignore me.

It makes me sad.
When my dreams fade.

It makes me sad.
When my life falls apart.

It makes me sad.
When others are in pain.

It makes me sad.
When I hurt the few who care.

It makes me sad,
That I can't always feel loved and make others feel loved.

It makes me sad
That the world is as sad as it is.

But it makes me happy
When our eyes meet and the world is just us.

It makes me happy,
That the world is as happy as it is.

Summer rain drizzling ever so softly onto me.
It feels like heaven.
An escape from the Mississippi heat.

Standing there in serenity,
A rainbow appears as the sun peaks out over the little light rain clouds.

It's beautiful,
But you're standing in front of me now,
And it pales in comparison.

Your eyes contain more majesty than all of it's colors.
Your soft skin, covered in beads of water, is the most brilliant thing under the sun.

Standing there in silence, gazing at the beauty,
You grab my hand.
The girl who is the dream of my dreams grabs my hand.
That is the most beautiful thing that has ever happened in the rain.

Stars in her eyes, and love In her heart.
She dances to the rhythm that flows through her soul.
She's filled with joy, and I'm overcome with peace.
We meet eyes and everything's at ease. 
In love in a second, no thought, no regrets. 
No words needed but we say them anyway.
Hey I say.
Hey she says.
Our words are nervous, breath heavy, eyes filled with anticipation.
I ask if she wants to leave
She smiles.
We walk and walk. No direction or motive, just talking. Words upon words, heart connected to heart. 
Love in an instant, that lasts forever.

He loved her.
And
She loved him.
But neither knew.
So when they woke up,
Together,
They thought it was a mistake,
And neither chose to be the first to wake,
And accidentally right the wrong,
So they both slept forever.

Extremes come in pairs.
Happy.
Sad.
Love.
Hate.
Exuberant.
Depressed.
Flying.
Fall­ing.
These things go together,
And that's when they hurt the worst,
Or.
That's when they're the best.
Sad.
Happy.
Hate.
Love.
And so on.
The world seems to balance out,
But maybe we will all end on an upside.

Will it really matter?
In the end that is.
If you felt down a few nights during highschool?
If you don't get honor roll, or you don't play sports?
If you can't get up the courage to talk to that cute person at a party?

No.
It won't.
All that will matter in the end are those smiles.
Those good nights.
Those times you made someone smile.

All that will matter are the songs you heard.
And the times you danced.
The poems you read,
And the happiness you held.

So even if you're down,
Give time for the wind to pick you back up,
Because all that matters is that YOU get back up and be proud of yourself by the end.

When the sun sets,
And the moon rises.
And with that, the security of the day goes away.
Most of the nights are fine.
But on some fear overtakes the body. 
The only movement is shivering.
Depression hits like a train.
Headaches seem like that train hit the head.
Loneliness causes the darkness to whisper.
It whispers terrible terrible words..
Words start in the brain, they keep going. They don't stop. They don't.
They keep going until there are tears and then they keep going.
The night starts to eat the body and soul alive.
All hope is lost.
The night will last forever,
Or so it seems.
There are two ways out.
One isn't a good one.
The other isn't good until the future.
Everyone knows the first way. It's obvious. It's the "easy" way. A pill(s), a gun, a razor, etc.
But there's a better way. It's much much harder and may lead to more of these nights, 
but it will also lead to road trips and good quotes and love and laughter and music and little coffee shops and all that is good in life. 
That way is to just deal with it.
Breathe. Let the words come. 
Let them say their terrible things.
Be as strong as you can,
It's hard but worth it.
Hold on.
The future is bright and the night isn't as long as it seems.

Love me like I love you.
With a love more than love.
Like Annabell lee and Poe.

Be the June to my Johnny.
Don't be easy.
Just give me the chance.

Don't leave me like the red haired women did Bukowski.
But let us both feel a love as strong as he did.

Let me be your stars,
Let me be the fuel to your fire.
Let me be the butter to your popcorn.

Because you're already more than that to me.
Let me give something back to you.

How could I be lonely,
with these atoms all around.

Be good to yourself!
So says the neon sign
Hanging above the pizza shop.
For some reason it means
Something
To me.
I'm not sure what,
Or why.
But it is to me what the green light was to gatsby.
Or sweaters were to Cosby.
I loved that sign
Even after it switched off for the last time.

My thoughts are silent.
But the music is frantic, and fast 
My legs jitter wildly.
Up,down,up,down,up,down. 
They won't stop.
However I'm perfectly calm, and the room is absolutely silent.
Except for whispers that pierce the silence. 
So quiet, but so loud.
The room is silent no more.
A loud dull sound is emitted while someone sharpens their pencil.
High Pitched laughs erupt.
Backpacks are clanged,
and lunch bags are crinkled in the most unholy of ways.
The silence is gone, and so is my peace.

With stars in my eyes, I dream
I'm in love with ideas
Too insane just to settle 
I go forward with my dreams, because it's better than going back.
I reach for the stars in my eyes and I never stop. 
To fail would be to crumble and I'm not ready to crumble yet

I'll hold your hand
As we soar through the sky 
Not sure where we are going 
But not a care in our minds
Because I'm with you
And you're with me
And we are together
Just like it should be.
I'll start to point out a star, 
But you won't let go of my hand
And I forget about the star 
And so do you
We kiss.
And the stars watch, and point at us
Jealous of what we have,
They turn the tables for the first time and gaze at us. 
Because what we have is special.

Sometimes a miraculous thing happens.

The body ages,
And the skin crinkles like an old plastic bag.
And even though the body fades, the soul still fights on.
And the soul comes through the eyes.
And the most crinkled, faded old people will have the deepest eyes. Sometimes deeper than any others. Their soul comes through their eyes and draws everything in.
They glow with a brilliance earned over many years,
And even though the body withers, the eyes stay bright.

It is one of those perfect, beautiful, cold nights. One of those nights where the music is loud but gentle, and oh so good  to you.

The brisk air fills your heat with hope and sparks the need for adventure.

It is one is those nights that you're by yourself but feel not a bit of loneliness.

It is one of those nights that you frantically, hopelessly pray will never end.  

But it's one of those nights that does end, but unlike the others it never leaves.

It's one of those nights that stays with you forever.

I looked into the mirror,
It's image as clear as the air.
So flawless and crisp it seemed as though there was nothing there.

So I reached out,
Hoping for something unique.
And then my hand touched a hand,
Not the glass like you would think.

In that the moment I realized,
It was nothing but air.
The only thing stopping my hand was a hand.
But who would care.

I could tell many.
I could tell few.
It could go down in history.
Or I could end up just blue.

But it was another dimension!
Oh how splendid it was!
That discovery I made,
Sent me into a buzz.

Even when things aren't good,
They could be worse.
And there could be no hope.
But there is.
And there's a future.
And there are plenty of good things to come.
And there is love for you,
And joy,
And smiles, overwhelming smiles.
There is pie, and road trips , and music.
You have these things to come so never give up.
There is reason to be sad, and reason to cry,
And reason to not be ok,
But rest in the fact that you will be, if you just hold on.
Life will come.
Your package will arrive.
Just give it a few business days..