What solace do any of us have in love and the misery it presents?
It is said that everyone makes mistakes,
But who of us repents?
Which of us compare to Angels?
Whose demons stray not far?
Who of us leaves their pain at the door while others' define who they are?
There is no peace to find in falling
For what falls must hit an end.
Be wary and realize the harder you fall the less likely it is you will mend.
Falling itself is inevitable
We are all selfish things.
We only give love to get more love back
And feel like Life's Queens and Kings.
Then reality comes out of nowhere
Like swift and sudden bad news.
You are struggling in a black and white world to see any colors or hues.
So here you sit and ponder your fall
Surveying the now broken path
Aching from the brokenness in your heart
Feeding now off of your mind and its wrath.
I warn you again do not do it
In love there's no peace to be found.
Only fall if your heart isn't beating
Or your lungs aren't making a sound.

A storm to a ship is both a marvelous adventure and a cruel end of times.
And she, still six feet under, staring through the watery mirror, does not control the ocean.
But he, with his magic, shakes the earth miles beneath the surface and throws the ship to the tide.
She watches him soar with love in his eyes and believes he's passionately and desperately searching for her
With her stitched up soul and the words hanging grossly from her lips.
Hope falters as the ship sinks and he laughs.

If she were to fall
She would be the last to know.
She keeps her chin held that high
The only thing she sees is the stars.
No one would notice
Him pulling her down.
She's hypnotizing.
They'd only see the stars too.

We're finally here, you said.
As you and I were walking in the dark.
It was cold and my hands were alone
We were trapped by a flurry of people and lights.
Onward we walked, miles and acres
through gates and trees, under the stars with no path.
My lonely hand was burning in my pocket
The other too far away to notice.
O, there were so many sights to see!
As the lights danced around and around  our feet
They were talking and whispering  and yelling to each other
calling loved ones by name and nickname: Larry, Jay, Pete.
And I was looking your way, but you wouldn't've known
You couldn't tell I was staring at your eyes
And hanging on every word you had to say
You looked at me and I turned away
Because my lonely hand was burning a hole in my chest.
I was to ashamed to say the words, but you knew
And in an instant my hand was cool
My lonely hand was no longer alone and my heart fixed.
And you were staring at my eyes, looking my way
And I said we're finally here.

I will always be with you, I'll watch you as you grow.
In life I loved you dearly, much more than you could know.
I'll watch you as you grieve to ease your troubled mind.
When you feel you're walking all alone know I won't be far behind.
I'll watch you fall in love, and smile when you smile.
I'll be in your wedding party and the eyes of your first child.
As you grow old I'll carry you, when you break I'll be your crutch
And when you feel so very tired, to my hands you will clutch.
And I promise we will meet again, I'll be waiting for that day.
Until we see each other I'll stay with you everyday.
I'll hold your hand when you depart and embrace your final sigh
Together we'll go to heaven, and never again we'll say goodbye.

For one night they loved the way only strangers know how to love
The way only she knew how to love, a fire in her heart kindled by the softness of his touch.
She refused to love, he refused to love, and yet they were
Twirling in an ever-ending, music-less, whirlwind of tenderness and sweetness.
She called him honey. Panicking. Said he wasn't alone.
He said stop.
She turned over and wept.
He left.
Strangers. The way it was always meant to be, but the way it never should have been.
With a secret.
They loved, the way only young people can love each other.
Never ending and unforgiving love.

My dear,
If I can teach you anything
It's that people will hurt you.
Shh, no, not on purpose, mostly,
Simply that's what people do.
And yes, you also will hurt people
Probably many in your years
You must learn you can't please everyone.
that should save you countless tears.
But in regards to who you are?
You're the greatest you that's ever been.
Sure, you have your faults and vices
But who on earth is without sin?
No one, not even you.
And you know what else is great?
You, You're the greatest you I've ever known
Or will know at this rate.
You're uniquely what no one else is
You're what no one else can be
And though people will hurt you
(Just as they've hurt me)
You should know ten times as many love you
And they'd travel many miles
To hear you laugh and see your eyes
And they'd pay to make you smile.

This morning I cried twice.
Once walking to school.
It was dark, and it was cold.
And I was going to meet with God
We needed to talk about something
And He wasn't
Saying what.
So I pulled my brother's old flannel shirt
Around my coffee stained top
And cried right there
In front of a homeless person
Waiting for a bus that wasn't coming.
Then I cried again
Because I still had no idea
What God wanted from me.
And it dawned on me
That that was the point.

This is a story set in stone taken apart like pebbles and thrown into the sea
About a young girl who didn't know that she'd grow up one day to be me.
And every one she's ever known who doesn't understand
How much hate and love has been cause by her two average sized hands.
It's like her heart was always aching, like her chest was calling out.
And her fingers always itched to write to find what it was about.
A boy would come, a boy would go, a man may come and stay.
But life, it seemed, was against her, and would put obstacles in her way.
Space and time, her heart's bane, reminded her each hour
that minutes, seconds, days, and months will **** each precious flower.
With no water, sun, soil or love her heart would beat out dry
Would stop it's needy stretch, would stop trying to touch the sky.
This is a tale about a girl who didn't know that she would take
The weight of all her heart's wishes and its aches.
Upon her sturdy shoulders and she trudged through space and time
So that farther in her journey she could jump instead of climb.

When the earth first saw the sun
No words could e'er describe
What warmth his darkest corners felt
His joy he could not hide.
His broken heart did beat with life
Rivers swam into the sea.
Trees did reach the highest heights
Till no darkness they could see.
And the sun continued shining
Moving all around the earth.
He found joy in all life he saw
In shining he found worth.
And throughout this shining glory
Throughout their brightened years.
No words have ever been exchanged
Nor smiles, frowns, or tears.
The sun ne'er once said to the earth
"You owe me for my gift"
Instead, in endless thanks and praise,
His love the earth doth lift.
See and behold the truest love
Of only we, not my.
This love that gave life to the world
And lights up our whole sky.

I exist, I swear
Don't forget me please.
I know it can be hard sometimes
But let yourself believe.
You remember me with sadness
But I swear, that wasn't me
You forget that in the darkness
I was the light upon your feet.
You remember that sea of fear
You forgot, I was your sail.
You remember not what I've won for you
But what happens when others fail.
Please don't close your heart to me
I'm so sorry you've been lost.
When you need me to carry you through this
I'll be here at no cost.
Don't doubt that I exist for you,
You'll get hurt, but that's alright
I can wrap you close, inside my arms
I'll protect you from the fight.
Come to me and I'll redeem you
And you'll give me so much more.
You'll never feel alone again
I'm what you've been searching for.

It's 6 pm and I'm drunk off of cheap red wine
Poured to the brim of a plastic glass writing
About how lonely I am.
But I'm not lonely, I have cheap red wine
And every 6 pm for the rest of my life.

So here we are again.
Looking at each other with our thoughts racing.
Our hands trembling in tune with our lips
Which burn to say what cannot be said,
What needs to be said,
What isn't worth saying.
Every unspoken word singes my fragile heart,
Bit by bit melting the glue that's been crudely holding it together.
It's not my own anymore.
It's broken, brittle, useless.
Take it and grow old with it.
please
Make a life with it,
Give it purpose
Make it whole
Bring it back from the dead.
I know, though, that you can't.
I know you wish you could mend it
Supplement what's been lost with your own.
But you can't.
I can't.
We can't. Ever.
So I guess it'll be this way.
We'll part ways
Grow old separate of each other
Give our hearts to people who can't give them what they need.
And then we'll die, for real this time.
So that's how this will end.

I’m broken and I’m falling.
Not even sure where from.
Right now my heart is beating
Because no end has come
I’m waiting for the ending
Still watching for the sign
When I hit the ground
It’ll hit that you’re not mine.
I’m falling and I caused it.
No one pushed me off this ledge
I knew no one would catch me
I just aimed to hit the hedge.
I fell and now I'm breaking
It's no one's fault but mine
And like this broken record
I'll hit the ground and I'll be fine.

You're all alone and it hurts
You don't have anyone's arm around your shoulders,
or hands on your waist
or breath on your neck keeping you company-
keeping you warm.
You can't sleep because it's too cold inside of you.
Your heart stopped trying ages ago, your breath is just an act
Your smile, a facade.
The mask is suffocating you, but you like it.
Don't deny it.
The way it tingles and makes you feel something for once in your life,
Makes you feel anything at all.
You love it.
So you let the pain keep you company,
And warm the cold, and fill the void,
and slow your breath...
You now see that pain is your one true love
And with that realization,
You sleep.

So many people writing poetry
So many people full of ****.
The readers, who feel and yearn for those feelings on the page,
And skim and search for them day after day
Know nothing of what beauty is.
Poetry is ******* for the heart.
Poets, the stars, are just doing their part.
Images of men at desks, using tears as ink
“This woman makes me feel what I can’t think!
Her beauty, her smile, it’s too much to bear!
Like flowers and rivers and fields of pink
My heart just swells and explodes in her presence!”
A man sits at a table
Thinking of what people think
Imagining what people want to hear
Words on a page, not feeling at all.
Poets are the politicians of the writing community.

I was just wondering.
If I stay the night,
Will you still be here tomorrow?
Because there's not enough of my heart left,
For it to break one more time.

Words do not come from the mind
Nor do they come from the heart.
They don’t rhyme because their sounds fit together.
Words don’t come from the mouth
The tongue or shape of the teeth.
Words are not music, or sounds, or even letters.
There is no science behind words.
There is no science behind what isn't tangible.
Words, the beauty of which are felt,
Come from the itching of fingertips.
It’s when you cannot speak that words become precious.
When you cannot rhyme that words have meaning,
And when you cannot feel that words hurt the most.
The power of words is the power of fists.
The softness of which is a mothers touch to her newborn child.
The beauty of freshly painted fingernails
Decorated with rings meaning love, forever, spirit.
The fingers.
The fingertips.
Flowing from the wrists and arms
The power source less
Only the itching to write what can’t be said.
What deserves to be preserved
Infinitely.

The past will always be written on our faces
In moments.
Left for us- and us alone-
To silently acknowledge
With fondness and with longing
Before we let them pass over us
Into the futures we've each chosen
For ourselves.

Maybe it's over for me
Because the silence is finally deafening.
The tea is cold, the hands are empty
My solitude forever is ending.
Maybe I know who I am now
That's why I'm no longer searching
The Angel on my shoulder once pondered
Now he's stuck skulking and lurching.
Maybe it's time to reach out
For a hand to partner with mine
And even if I come back empty
I've been there before, I'll be fine.
Maybe I'm done being lonely
I'm not as good company anymore
It's perhaps time to lock the window
And walk out the now opened door.

Her name was Margot and she was followed by a band of faceless nothings.
Only bodies with heads and mouths that sang dreamy, sad songs into a can on a string.
Wandering the earth hoping to hear back that nothing is lost
Nothing is lost.
Go back to sleep darlings nothing is lost.

How could it happen that you meet a person
And in one short moment
You can feel them rattle every bone in your body
So the rest of your time is spent dousing the flames they sparked inside you
And hoping they're doing the same.

I just wanted to tell you
I wrote everything for you.
So when I leave
You'll still have these words of mine.

Dogs say nothing
Of the nine lives of cats.
Cats only whine for food and for sleep.

How truly wondrous are his works
He painted us the stars
He formed us out of dust and clay
And knows best who we are

The sky, the Earth and all of time
His marvelous creation.
And though we often stumble and stray
steadfast is His patience.

His love amplifies our spirits
Though we will never be deserving
He's immeasurably worthy of our praise
Yet still teaches us by serving.

It's Him who cares for each of us
And, like the stranded sheep
He'll search us out and care for us
So no climb is to steep.

All things, through Him, are possible
Through Him I find my worth
The Lord is greater than any gold
He knows, He made the Earth.

How do you know
What is meant for you?
In prayer and meditation you often find your wants.
Less often you find your desires
And rarely your heart tells you what it needs.
I need
What I can't have.
What isn't mine to take.
What has been offered and rejected.
What makes my heart grow.
I need what she needs more than me.
And what she has worked harder for than I.
I need what she wants so desperately she has staked claim to.
Before it has settled into her life.
I need, I want, I desire.
She deserves.

My body doesn't work how it's supposed to
(as if there's a way it's supposed to)
(as if there's anything I can do about it.)

Every morning and every night
I take my handful of vitamins
Mix my herbs with scalding hot water
Empty of myself, I fill with what I should be
(According to those who aren't me.)

I spent decades cultivating myself
I was loud
Educated
A good friend
Generous
Funny
Quick to laugh

And isn't it ******
So egregiously unfair
That there is no room in my garden for all that
And what I'm supposed to be
(as if there's a way I'm supposed to be).

All because my body doesn't work how it's supposed to
(as if there's a way that it's supposed to).