A friend asked me
how to be a writer.
I wanted to say,
lock yourself in a room,
scream until you have
a poem and no voice.
Open your veins and bleed
until you know that your bones
are pure words and sorrow.
Act as if you slit your own throat
and all you can bleed
are your own regrets
and all of the darkness
you boxed up for inspiration.
Write your mom a letter,
tell her you're leaving
and you won't be back for awhile
Because being a writer is traveling
through all seven layers of Hell
and denying anything is wrong.
Forget loving yourself
when all you have is a pen and paper
fused to your wrist
and Jesus is tapping at your skull
saying turn back now.
Warn the neighbors that if they smell burning
It's just your soul
clawing at the front door trying to get in.
Learn how to be alone.
Learn how to lose everything you have
in order to feel release,
learn how to only feel deceased
from now on.
A friend asked me
how to be a writer.
All I said was
don't

I shine only because you make it so.
I fly only because beneath my wings
your wind blows.
I speak only because you are my words.
I hear and your name is the most beautiful
I've ever heard.
I breathe only because you are my every breath.
You are my life...you shall be my death.
But even in death, we shall not part.
For you are the only reason I love...
the only reason I have a heart.

Place all my memories in a row
From old to fresh and new
There is one certain thing I know
From first to last they’ll be of you

From newborn cry to fading light
Each reflection which breaks through
Burns in mind's eye with image bright
And remembrance of you

To search the halls of Mnemosyne
To seek what there is true
From moonlit night to sun washed day
Each thought I find will be of you

Should I on life’s love reminisce
And choose each echo to pursue
All of my muse would come to this
My one pure dream has been of you

we are spontaneous
COMBUSTION
set me alight
your soul fuels my flame
boil, deep fry, and barbeque
char me bone deep
in flagrante corpus
we immolate together
conflagration
deflagration
don’t fear cremation
ashes will rise again
burn me to the ground

She bolts awake from nightmare’s fear
Her mind fumbles for the mask
Its visage calm, gaze cool and clear
Once in place no one will ask

Exhausted from her restless night
Escape routes all slammed shut
The knots already pulling tight
Deep down inside her gut

The enemy stand at their station
They circle round her bed
Anticipating her annihilation
The demons in her head

Her feet are not yet on the floor
But the battle has begun
Another endless day of war
She must fight, she cannot run

She glances quickly in the glass
Haunted eyes she cannot meet
The enemy charge takes the pass
Her soul in forced retreat

The mask will serve her well today
Its rigid smile conceals
The terror barely held at bay
The torment that she feels

She plants her banner on the mound
Though hopelessness holds sway
She grits her teeth and holds her ground
But the ******* make her pay

All day the battle rages on
But the mask remains in place
Though at her feet hell’s chasms yawn
The world sees not a trace

The conflict ebbs, her shoulders slump
No victory is claimed
She turns for home, trailing blood
Count her among the maimed

Return to camp yields no respite
Command’s duties have no end
Cares for her troops into the night
Strength's last measure she will spend

All her charges now in bed
Mask in hidden place she keeps
In resignation bows her head
And midst the dark, in silence weeps

Now when the camp lies silent
In night’s hush no pennant streams
She braces for coming violence
And girds for bloodshed in her dreams

Come to me with all that you are
Leaving nothing behind
Make no attempt to conceal a scar
Nor wound of body or mind

Bring all your lifelong memories
Whether fragments or complete
Your daydreams and your reveries
Your tales, your songs, your grief

Let old dwellings be deserted
Pack each and every thought
Allow no baggage to be diverted
Every aspect to be brought

Load up your darkness and your light
Make parcels of all you know
Wrap strength and weakness, wrong and right
Prepare them all to go

Make ready your heart for travel
Include chips and pieces scattered
Edges beginning to unravel
Even dust, from when it shattered

Be sure no detail is forsaken
Have no token to give in lieu
Delivery will be signed and taken
With all the love I bear for you

Lovamatious………...Lovatory………………...Loverillic…………………………

                  Lovorsary                                               Lovotomy



                                      Lovamation




                     Lovevic







       Please, someone, help me











                     I can’t stop

“you leave me breathless” she sighed, as their lips parted
“then take mine” he offered “all I have is yours”

Forced by covenant to conceal
The wound you carry deep
Too dangerous far to now reveal
The secret you must keep

The truth, it’s said, can set you free
Whose truth, I ask my heart
Some truth must hide, to shadow flee
Or slay as a poisoned dart

A truth which must be guarded well
Though to be shouted loud it cries
Must be restrained and forced to dwell
Within a citadel of lies

A soaring fort of alabaster walls
Splendid turrets as disguise
Conceals pits beneath its gilded halls
Where love lies brutalized

Though we ache for all the world to see
To the heart, it matters naught
Two souls are not united by decree
Nor love with license bought

So truth must wait and a prisoner remain
In lonely cell, there to abide
Believe dreams of freedom are not in vain
That gates, one day, will open wide