The beauty of people,
Like the beauty of books,
Has many different forms.

Young and fresh,
Old and well kept,
Weathered many storms...

The beauty of youth
Gets noticed more
Like a brand new books
Fresh from the store

With plot lines that remain
Secret and sweet mystery
But of course they lack
Weighted words and history

Old and taken care of
Just a little frayed
It's in great shape for it's age,
But still, it's going gray

People will admire it
For how it holds itself
But it may be missing out
Just sitting on it's shelf

Then there's books
With covers stained
Dog-eared pages
In some pain

These may be my favorite
I read them by the stack
You know they've seen the world
They've been there and back.

Maybe they'll be rebound
Reprinted on fresh trees
But for now they are content
To give us torn out pages
And fill us with their memories.

Another day, another dollar
But as time flies by
The world gets smaller

You can fold your bills
And count your cash
But the time you've spent
You can't buy back

I've got equity in memory
my debts are fully paid
I think it's time to undermine
All the rules they made

I "can't pay bills with adventure and thrills"
I may not sit rich
But I stand fulfilled

Your Legs grow weak
While your tires roll
Your mouth may eat
But you starve your soul

Five days of work
Two days free
Two hundred and fifty days per year
A slave to the economy.

Gotta eat to live
Gotta work to eat
Work, buy, consume, die
Rinse and then Repeat

The cycle needs broken
And system needs fixed
The corrupt world leaders
All need 86'd

I don't know how to do it,
I just know how to live
But I know I can't take it
So i guess I'll try to give.

Fix it when I break it
Make it when I need it
First I'll try to grow it
Then I get to eat it.

Plant the seeds
Not just for trees
But for intelligence
And philosophy.

The greatest human feats
Were once merely thoughts
So think about the world we have
Now make it what we want.

I sit and listen to the wind
My tea's gone cold
Bitter
As I drain the dregs
All is stillness but the wind
Nothing dances but the chimes
And I,
I sit and listen

Whether it's your father, your mother, your friend or your lover,
an enemy, a stranger or me.
Whether you feel achey neglect or sweet safety.
Love, regret or conversationality.
Relationships are messy,
completely captured by complexity.

Oh what it would be to sit down face to face,
have mind, body and soul empathically trade place.
You'll feel what I've felt since the day we first met
and know you're a treasure I'll never forget.
I'll finally see what's been hidden from me,
the swirling storms of emotional mystery.

Love me or hate me, I'll survive and adapt, uncertainty is the death of me when my chemicals react.
But there it is. A mess of lies.
Lying to others, lying to ourselves,
the truth lies dusty under beds and on shelves.
A mess of truths that we cannot speak but strongly feel.
So simple and real,
that we can't comprehend,
let alone share with a lover or friend.

Fire, water, food and shelter.
A sad life bereft of love,
to take away your very breath,
but all you need is love...
Until you starve to death.
        - Kevin Schvaneveldt

If someone were to bash in my head, the way a child smashes a colorful pinata, candy would not spill out. Blood, brains, chunks of bone, this is what you are expecting? Down right logical... But not entirely correct. What would fall into that scattered pile, to be dug through and have the best treats taken first, would be an assortment of many things. Books, art, poetry, precious memories, pointless trivia, a lifetime of collected information so painstakingly remembered. But there in the chaotic midst of what used to be organically organized neurons, would be countless thoughts of you. These of course would be the sweetest tidbits, the tasty treasure gathered greedily by the party guests. Countless thoughts of you... And yes... Also, blood, brains, and chunks of bone.

The heart, is the hardest part to chart,
an ocean of emotion, all it's depths unmarked.
There never was smooth sailing, on such a sea as this,
teeming as it always is, with love and lust and hungry sharks.

Here you may find treasure, among wreckage and sweet memories.
So long as you remember, there's danger in this stormy sea.
Flooding with love or existing only to pump the blood?
Scientists and poets, they simply don't agree...

One man may say "It's sink or swim",
while another says "Relax and enjoy the float"
The Titanic sank on nothing but an iceberg's whim,
while many a castaway has survived, on a tiny fishing boat.

Some men set sail in search of adventure, in every corner of the sea,
while others search for business, profit and proficiency.
To steal your heart is why I'm here my dear,
oh yes, it's a pirates life for me...

I awoke before the sun did rise,
my muddled mind and blurry eyes,
found beauty in those inky skies,

Subtle streaks of gray and black,
a love letter that's been stained and smeared,
slowly with the rising sun,
light and color did appear,

Brilliant orange, glowing gold,
it spoke of fall and coming cold,
a brilliant effort made by the sun,
beauty with a fading warmth,
whispering that summer's done,

Watercolor waves, horizon shore,
swimming in those cresting clouds,
each sunrise unlike the one before,
on mornings like this, the Silence  is Loud.

There's something sweet in tangled sheets
Lips on lips, skin on skin
I pull you close...
but not to sin

You talk in your sleep
Silly words slip from your lips
I explore your soft and silky skin
With my calloused fingertips

You snooze your dream breaking alarm
I hold you tightly in my arms
Our morning kiss tastes both of bliss...
and a goodbye, fast approaching

Stall the sun...
Make daylight wait...
Just one more hour in this bed
With only you inside my head

I've come to know, that nights are cold
Unless i'm tangled in your sheets
I've heard it said, that love is red
But crimson's what I need.

I am a man of artistry and imagination.  This may seem like a beautiful thing, but it/s actually quite dangerous.  I have formed an idea of you in my head.  A shade made out of smoke and mirrors.  Such things may be blown away by a wisp of wind or a single whispered word.  There-in lies, one of my few worldly woes.  Everyone I love may be a figment of my imagination.  My own private work of fiction....

Change is the only constant.
        You will never be the same again.
                                                              The End.

Given the choice between your thoughts and voice
Which would you rather have taken?
A man with no voice is deprived of his noise,
While most thoughtless men get forsaken.

Genius thoughts to save the nations,
Tragically lost without communication.
Quietly live, then quietly die,
Not a single truth spoken, nor the whitest of lies.

A thoughtless life, deprived of strife,
For ignorance is bliss they say,
But after all is said and done,
An empty mind will haunt your dying day.

Both these options seem to me,
Great and terrible travesties.
For I must speak the thoughts I think,
To catch you with their gravity.

So next time your mind is a'clutter,
Your thoughts spinning around and around,
If you find valuable words getting wasted,
Or silly sentences falling from your mouth.

Ponder these perilous possibilities,
Be thankful for both words and wisdom,
Your ideas deserve to feel freedoms,
Don't lock them up in your mind like a prison.

Our minds are full of flammable thoughts,
filled with fodder for a wildfire.
Building up and breaking down a pile of plans and plots,
Day and night, night and day, We constantly conspire.

Combustible questions...
Volatile views...
I'm hoping your complacency,
will someday all be burned from you

The blaze that's made could burn the world.
It turns old thoughts to dust and ash.  
A furious inferno,
destroying all that's in its' path.

But fire doesn't always ****,
sometimes it's just a soft delight.
A tool to make delicious food,
A glow to brighten up the night.

We keep a dangerous company,
for when a conversation sparks,
maybe it will burn the world,
or perhaps it merely lights the dark

There's something sinister setting in
and I think that it's a smile.
Thinking thoughts to break my heart
and laughing all the while.

You don't know the half,
of what you think you know.
You've only been informed
by that which I've resolved to show.

I'll tell you with great confidence,
the stars will brightly shine tonight.
If you'll risk it all with me,
we'll have a "yours and mine" delight.

Let's synchronize our watches.
Only time can tell...
It's time for us to make a choice,
to make or break a living hell.

Free me from her subtlety,
let her break me blatantly.

No soft push or gentle pull,
no pokes, no prods,
no light remarks with eyes gone dull.

Free me from her subtlety,
cut deep enough for me to bleed.
For the joy I felt initially,
Must not outweigh the pain she brings

In this hectic life we lead,
balance seems to be the key.
Save me from her,
take her from me.

Crush me quick,
**** me kindly,
I am not tame,
don't lead me blindly

Man is just an animal,
I am just man,
men like me, we must be free
or else become a collared, caged, sad casualty...

I spent my youth in a house of glass,
my castle among the trees and grass,
no stick or stone could break that home,
where the sunlight filtered freely.

But as I grew older, and stronger, and bolder,
alas, I cracked a pane of glass,
my first thoughts were that my life was breaking,
a little crack had my whole world shaking.

A voice awoke somewhere inside me,
a frantic whisper "Smash it wildly!"
"Bust it! Break it! Tear it down!"
"Burn this glass house to the ground!"

This is how I came to know,
deep inside my youthful heart,
there's beauty in the fire's glow,
destruction is a form of art.

My fragile home was torn apart,
like a gust of wind to a house of cards,
I live happily now, in the open air,
endlessly dancing, on silicate shards.

If only out of sight
was truly out of mind,
then perhaps I'd sleep at night
when I close these restless eyes....

A head that won't stop spinning
like a whirlpool of thoughts and things,
not sure if I'm still swimming
or drowning in these memories...

Sleep always eludes me
like the prey that slips the hunters trap,
soon to become a predator
that slyly hunts the hunter back...

Eventually attacking
when it knows that I expect it least,
oh sleep, you vicious creature
if you bring me dreams, I'll be your feast....

tomorrow my lips will taste of regret,
the taste of a woman i wish not to keep,
but only to keep me company.

tonight your lips tasted of ***** and cigarettes,
tastes that quickly drowned my own
as we swam through tangled blankets and discarded clothes

tomorrow i'll scourge you from my bed,
for i cannot sleep in sheets that reek
of woman that can't increase the speed of my hearts ragged beat

the day afters' memories will be dull,
the sharp edges will have blurred
like a picture that has gotten wet.

tonight you will suffice, to keep me warm and melt my ice
tonight will be hot, with fire, and *****, and sweat.
tomorrow i will forget,

tomorrow i will forget,
forget that short lived heat you used to beat this
winter's lonely chill,

tomorrow I'll be alone, but myself still.
tomorrow I'll be real

Try to keep in mind,
you've spent every minute of your life,
running out of time.

Try not to forget,
it's a fragile life that we live,
all is dust, when it ends.

Buried, burned, or set adrift,
each man dies alone.
Memories must be made,
stories must be told.
perhaps lost and forgotten,
written down, or set in stone.  

Try to keep in mind,
time is never wasted,
each moment you're alive,
is a memory created.

Today we stand on top of the mountain. We see farther and clearer than ever before. This mountain is not our first and it surely will not be our last. When you come upon the next, do not think of the strenuous climb or the possible hazards, think only of the view and bask in the rewards of climbing ever higher. Life does NOT get easier, it only gets shorter.... so follow your feet, but watch where you're walking.