When you see something
beautiful in someone, tell them.
It only takes a second to say,
but for them it could last a lifetime.

If only our eyes saw souls
       instead of  bodies,
how very different our ideals
     of beauty would be.

My story is filled with
broken pieces, terrible choices,
an ugly war and terrible
disrespect upon returning
and then a horrible head injury
in an automobile crash
       and ugly truths.
   It's also filled with major
comebacks, piece  in  my  soul
and  a  grace  that  saved  my  life.

If I ever tell you about my past,
it's NEVER because I want you
to feel sorry for me, but so you can
  understand why and who I am.                                   Jon York   2021

So very young  and so in love, the  first  love
that you never forget. You went somewhere
(I had no idea where)and I went to Alaska and
then I  went  to  war  and  the  years  began to
fade the memories, erasing lines of dialogue,
making  vague  the  dates  and  the  places...

...my lips and skin still remember, my hands
will still know all the contours...

...and clearly feel the touch of you.

We both had a dream of love. We looked for
it  in the hidden places of  the  future,  in the
secret places of our hearts.

Fifty years later you found me and I can't help
but think that you may have never been mine,
but I was yours and I still all these years later
go to bed every night wondering how it would
feel  to  have you here  with me. True  intimacy
happens when nothing is perfect.

You are many miles away, married, living in your
castle,and I can't help but feel you are scared to
meet me again after so many years even though
you made the effort to find me, contact me and let
me know that your heart was still heavy with thoughts
of me after so many years apart.                                    
                      ­                                                                 ­        Jon York 2021

I whisper, "I love you, you are mine..."
You whisper," you are my master, my pleasure,
my torment, my happiness.

        Crying was the music of ecstasy, alone
in the world, together  in a different reality. Wrists
and ankles tied with ropes upon our meeting after
so,so many years as our happy tears mixed.

        It is our special manifestation of love as I am
your savior and your executioner with you being
my salvation and sacrifice.

         I watch as your blue eyes darken with carnal
desire upon my entering the room and starring at
you and your naked body with love and desire as
the  room air  fills with steam and  your  scent, a
culmination of wet heat on our bodies as
the moment lasts for hours.

You anticipate the next blow as pain fills the
air in your sobs of rapture as you wriggle under
the whip, begging for mercy as your mouth whispers,
"I love you."

        And I kiss your lather and stroke fresh traces
whispering to you softly,"the past is the past, the
future is ours to take, it is so, so good to see you
again."
                                                                                              Jon York  2020

I wondered what you were seeking
when you told me once I was always
the lingering tune draped among
your memories.

Maybe  your  love was tired  from all
of your  toys and  had  come to  rest
on  smoother  ground but  it seems  I
was  not  your soft  landing,  but  just
another  hook to hang your  hat, just
a past memory.

But I'm not too sure I was remembered
at all because of all the stories told
by you, as if you were talking about
you and I, were stories of which I had
no memory of at all, so it had to be
someone else and never really me,
as you claim it was.

I brace myself in place waiting for you
to remember how long you've wanted
me.

Every breeze carries to my mind the
truth and I am captive in your eyes
even as they wander.
                                                                                          Jon York  2020

No one asks you to accept life.
That is not a choice.  
You  must  accept  it. The  only  
choice  is  how.
Heaven on earth  is  not a place  
you  must  find,
but  a  choice  you  must  make.

Two primary choices exist in life;
to except conditions
as they exist,
or accept the responsibility for
changing them.

You may believe that you are
responsible for what you do, but
not for what you think, but the
truth is that you are responsible for
what you think, because it is
only at this level can you exercise
choice.What you do comes from
what you think

Every morning when we get up,
the first thing we should decide is:
What do i want? Misery? or bliss?
If we choose blissfulness it is because
it is your choice, it is your life.

There are no mistakes in life, only
lessons.  Love yourself,  trust  your
choices, and  everything is possible.

We choose only once. We choose to
be warriors or to be ordinary...A second
choice does not exist. Not on this earth.
                                                          ­                                   Jon York   2020

With  so  many  people  in  this
world I'm confident  in saying,
"If  you  connect with  someone
on a soul  level, you don't take
them for granted." My soul remembered
her,  my   heart   connected me  
with  her and she emboldens
my soul to accept the mystery
of her love.

Our  souls  speak a language that
is beyond human understanding,
a connection so rare the universe
won't let us part. You can make
detours with your mind but you
can't distract the truth from your heart.

The  thought  of  never  crossing
your path again is too enormous
to  bare,  so  for  now  I'll  make
dreams in my heart and remind
myself to go and sit and remember
them  every  once  in  awhile,
remembering that the bravest of
souls are those who choose love
over and over.

And kindness is a simple way to
tell another's struggling soul that
there is love to be found in this world.
                                                          ­                                 Jon York   2020

The sound of your voice touches my soul
and  I  am  so  glad  for  that  touch  and
sometimes I  celebrate  the  sound of your
voice  and  at  other times  I  feel  I need to
recover from it.

You  can  speak  a  world  into  existence or
empty life of it its meaning and the unspeakable
is  heard  and  felt when  you  speak.

When  you  speak  the  energy flows and just
the sound of  your voice makes  me  glad  to
be  alive and glad  that  I  am  a  man.

The fascination that is you, the mystery that  is
you I find and know in the sound of your voice
and as  the sound of your voice excites and nurtures,
I warm myself in its sound as it touches my soul.

When we speak our souls resonate and intimacy
occurs and we attend to what we love and that is
each others voice.
                                                                                            Jon York   2020