Be mindful of what you say
In your personal world of lies
For with every story you tell
Only an ounce of truth resides
Hidden behind honeyed words
Or elegantly designed lines
The honesty that we surely see
Is nearly impossible to define
Past the point where it all began
The meaning intended to be divine
Is nothing more than a metaphor
That a reader will struggle to find
So just ask the important questions
And in the process you will bind
The hearts of every man or woman
That is in possession of a mind
Such as "what is the purpose of life?"
Knowing the answer is "to be kind."

As I wake to a new day, a new me arises
Different yet the same, a fresh reset
Retaining those values, fundamental
In defining one's true character, absent
The previous outline of my whole.

Confusion takes hold, for now I am half
Like folded tracing paper, overlapping
Complex lines in gesture, ever moving
In an attempt to remember, who I was
Before peaceful sleep took me under.

Stubborn I stand tall, looking around
To my surroundings, searching for meaning
Amongst a newly minted world, glimpsing
A single picture, mirroring my sketch
Standing next to the only reason I wake.

...

Only your beauty can complete my art.

...

You, my heart.

As it dawned,
The Golden age of man
A wonderful group was assembled
To analyze the Sands

Grain by grain
Hands that they shook
Forever questioning the meaning of life
Remembered only by books

Yet for the men of Philos,
Quickly did they die,
Were criminalized by the people they loved
Mourned by those that cry

Since wisdom is a trade
Surrounded by weightless fences
The spiritual, the ignorant, the arrogance of all
Left Philos nigh defenseless

For there is a price for everything
Just ask the great city
To tell the tale they all forgot
About Philos and its fee.

Blood lashes in the rain as the wind buffeted the Plains of Detritus.
Fetid smells plagued the air in torrents of swirling effluence.
The red moon shone beyond the bending and bowing trees slashing the horizon.
A lone figure stood awash in the downpour yet firmly unaffected by the gale.
"Stay" said the statue.
Unmoving in his conviction that all trespassers be swept away with the storm.
White lighting struck the ground mere feet from his outstretched palm.
The explosion reaping a cacophony of destruction resulting in smoldering craters.
Glare obstructed the morosity but did little to extinguish the rotten fumes of death.
As sight regained clarity another flash lit the scene to reveal a writhing mass
Emerging from the rent earth like the oscillating arms of a millipede.
"Come closer" said the Devil.
In a blink a thousand wails descended on the land.
Baring teeth and grabbing hands.
Reaching...
Reaching...
To grab hold of the light of the last soul holding claim to its life.
Stubborn, it resists the touch of darkness by force of will alone.
Until even the last spark of hope became entangled within the putrid hellscape,
Winking out of existence and forgotten;
Consumed by evil.
"Such is the price of the blood moon" cackled the fallen angel.

Breathless,
As we are bled dry.
Philosophy,
Our lost art dies.
Sadness cries,
At remorseful goodbyes.

Greatness,
Now gagged and bound.
Lost,
Never to be found.
Speechless we sit,
Competent to admit:

That we have to quit,
Lest we remain,
Silently content.

"Everybody loves notes"

Its the way we convey
In written words
What can't be said
Through spoken tones
Or relay those feelings
Which can't be expressed
Through candor and verbatim
Alone

No,
Its more complex
To add a style
Rich with syntax
And double in meaning
So I can draw you in
Then repeat again
After every time you're reading

In this way
May you never forget
The moment in time
I'm after
Immortal is the scribe
That can contrive
A letter of the soul
Forever

P.S.
...
A Post Scriptum endeavor
Intending to highlight
This memory
Canonized together
...
(Everybody loves notes)

Upon the banks
Of this little island inlet
The waxing light of sol's solace
Blanketed the horizon
For mile after mile
Casting a cool warm glow
Like a candle in winter
Slowly waning at the stars
Descent
When at its apex
The water began to shimmer
Ruffling our image into bright
Ripples
Replaying our landscape
And our facade
Into countless ruminations
Of the single second
That marked twilight's ascent

This reflected memory remembered
In the twinkling sky
At night

I wish we could have stopped
To catch our breath
And consider the path to which we now travel
I feel guilty
Guilty that my behavior
Became a tyrant
Dictator
Focused solely on the oppression of the "I"
So consumed was I
In my hunt for supremacy and success
That I lost you within my own hubris
Thinking that it's my way
Or the highway
Just because I read a few books
Doesn't make me king everything
The way I smothered you
Makes me king nothing
For this I am broken
I did not realize the burden of proximity
Until the erosion of your character was complete
For this I apologize
I did not intend
For it to end
In such a way
I loved you
You were my balance and muse
Yet I threw you away like you were old news
Until that's what you became
A person lost in the complexity
Of a prison I built with words
Not your own
Forever reducing you to a mere shadow
Of the woman
Living in my home

My actions
My fault
My heart
My vault
My
My
My
Never you

I'm sorry

As the mirror shattered
So too did my image
Into a thousand individual shards
Of rotating fractals
Fractured and staring back
Like dazzling diamonds dying
To tell the truth
Through different iterations of being
In an attempt to recreate what was once
Whole
Imparting an intense feeling
Detached from the reality
That reflected a view
Infinitesimally small
In comparison to my eyes
Which can only comprehend
The infinitely big

So it is,
That in my free time
I throw stones at myself
In order to understand
Thyself
And my many pieces

What do you see,
In the complexity,
Of a world so flat and round?
Is it the subtle rhyme,
Or gentle bliss,
From a breeze that has a sound?

What do you see,
In the simplicity,
Of a desert so bright and bare?
Is it the quietness,
That you might miss,
The reason to compare?

So now you see,
That such beauty,
Exists without a care.

I can feel you hesitate
Catching your breath
The silence like a sweet sorrow
Mourning over a past we can't change
I feel it too, its like a superglue
Thats been holding us from the start
...
So I become like acetone
My words on acid tongue
Meaning in the fumes
Infiltrating and eating away
Your memories that consume
...
Happiness doesn't hesitate
It just happily resumes

Your silhouette captivates me
Soaking up the pale moonlit rays
Radiating a sense of oneness and peace
Like you're contemplating some grand scheme
To take control over the natural order of things
Yet nature can't be enslaved
Just like your illuminated outline
Bursting with such beauty it cannot be contained
I envy the moon it's treasure
To be able to shine my eyes upon such a majestic creature as you
Sadly, I am limited
'For my light shines from across the latitude
And everytime I get close
The longitude of our distance
Makes you a ghost

I'm the Sun
You're my silhouette

I have a tendency to covet broken things
Like broken hearts
And broken minds
They are like an unsolved or unwritten equation
Begging for an answer or solution
Like the riddle that has all the right pieces
But is just rearranged shards of fragmented glass
Craving a resolution to the disorder of shattering impact
That is in need of a strong glue in which to bind the razer sharp edges
Back into a semblance of order
That is the Brokens' Beauty

Extant
Are the ones who see beauty
Through the personification of nature
In an attempt to merge with the ethos
To achieve a higher understanding of love
Lovers

Extinct
We are when our minds claim ugliness
Ignoring the sun, moon, and stars
In favor of mortally wounding the spirit
That values the next high over the current low
Killers

You're a moral conundrum
You exist as half a riddle
Yet not a full question
Somewhere in between
There is an answer
To your selfish selfless acts
That motivate you
To burn brighter
Than any nearby star
In comparison
Your morality is refreshing
It prefers the optimism
In a pessimistic world
As you view every interaction
On the premise of good nature
Solely for the sake of being good
To the people that make you happy
Never stopping to wonder motives
But instead to motivate
Others to be the best that they can be
While gaining only a smile

You, you moral conundrum
Puzzle me

There are monsters among us
Quietly lurking in the shadows
Like a stealthy panther
Waiting to pounce
On an unsuspecting prey
Careless if their victims
Lifeblood hits the floor
Splattering bright bits
Of crimson rain
As they devour and consume
The beauty of the nonviolent
Not out of hunger
But for mere pleasure
In the suffering of the weak
And powerless
That have no defense
Against the pointless aggression
Symptomatic of the monsters
Among us

This wall is like bedlam to my senses
Constantly catching my minds attention
As I remember the struggle
When two hearts collide
One with a way of knowing
The other to hide

In this wall that is dented
Is a story to share
Beholding witness
To my lack of care
It is my demons that speak
Come to claim my soul
For hurting my loved one
Instead of letting go

This wall is living
Like the cracks in my heart
Forever forgetting
How to restart
Absent these emotions
My world is clear
I am now lost
Forgotten my dear

So like the wall
I am searching
For a path to repair
Unstoppable in my search
Unflappable to despair
For the future I love
Not the future that I hurt
These dreams that die
They go to the dirt

So like the wall that is broken
Its history complete
I crumble
Then I break
Always to repeat.

It was the rain to which I'd been waiting;
A palid clamor in the dark
An incessant pitter-pattering
Patterning of life's blood
Awash in the swirling gusts of a storm
Booming with menacing roar
To announce its presence
The purpose of which is to restore
Natures balance
Not unlike the cacophony which breeds
A humble tune,
Tuned to the key terror and awe
As it inspires new life to grow
In place of the old kaleidoscope
That has, to this date,
Shielded my eyes
From the renaissance
Of a world
Trapped in drought

I am an idea
But I'm just a nobody

Taken with a grain of salt
I cause you to pucker

As the electrolyte
Dehydrates
Your sense of reality
Its fabric
Ripples and waves
At my intrusion
Into the certainty
Of your world
Leaving behind ghastly
Spectres
Embattled within
A war they cannot win
Nor hope to escape
As my identity

Crushes the prominent
Ignorance

Which fears wisdom
Above all else

I am becoming something else.
...
That is not to say that I am different
Than before.
Still, I feel it inside,
Like a benign tumor
Applying pressure against my heart,
Forcing my mind to work
Overtime
So that my center might remain balanced
For the duration of its growth
Which is guiding me to become better;
An upgraded version
Where my decisions are in line
With the philosophy I've always kept
Yet never to completely follow
But now is not then
And then is not now
I'm evolving
...
All thanks to love

Across the horizon a long dark grew
Faster than a rainstorm
Out of the blue
The gloom, the doom, and pale
Countered the fading luminescence
To the point that the dawn
Was nothing but quiet reminiscence
And its sad to see
But beyond that darkness
Rests a tragedy
That is tragically tied to the suns
Departure
Bringing the day to an end
That dawns the beginning
Of...
The Solitude of the Moon

Sometimes I find myself lost
In your eyes
My thoughts speeding away
As I attempt to comprehend
Your smile
So hypnotic you are,
That every breath I take
Is one less than before
Until the whole world halts,
And existence begins to skip
Like a record stuck in a groove
That attempts to do your beauty
Justice...
To no avail
And there are no words to describe,
Or define,
Every intricate feature
Which so captivates my mind
Body and soul
So completely
As to make me wonder if time
Was ever really real
Or if it was just an illusion
Alluding to your alluring
Eyes

The mind can be a powerful tool
One used for the good
As it can be turned evil
Like a Vader syndrome
We can become compelled
To do the wrong thing
For the right reasons
Because when faced with love
No decision can be easy
...
It takes work
...
And risk to trust another
With your darkest weaknesses
As well as your brightest
Divinations
Which can yield foresight
Into a future dimmer,
In contrast,
Than the slightly lighter road
That can lead you down a path
Of happiness for those
To whom which all burdens
Are shared
Leaving but one option
To which only the night
Can see

Nothing feels like never
In the grand scheme of things.
We wait and we want for those beautiful events
That cause our hearts to sing;
Such is the product of the two
That it is always greater than the one
Where every freckle, dimple, brow and tooth
Equals every individual sum

Yet never lives in the now
And the ever is most prominent
No matter which equation you design for life
The math is always eminent;
So no matter how bad
You add or subtract
A fraction of the whole may be divided
But at least its still intact

Never useless is the way you think
The way you move and the way you blink

Never useless are the moments saved
For the problems solved to the decisions made

Never useless is our sense of time always in the right as I'm writing your rhyme

Never useless I'll always say because what matters to me is hearing that you'll always stay

Uncertainty is painful when coupled with Certainty
Like a storm building in the distance with no way of knowing when or where
It might fall
Sometimes I feel like the lightning
Racing towards the ground at a pace faster than light
Only to be accompanied by the boom of thunder...
Then finally the shock;
The realization that the divisions I feel inside myself
Are manifestations of time paired with love
That carries on its shoulders, like Atlas,
A ticking clock
Counting down the seconds to when my heart explodes...
And Atlas shrugs
All thanks to Certain Uncertainty

It's the little things that make the biggest hearts
Beat in cadence to a melody only love can hear
Like the songs you whisper in my ear
On a rainy night
Where the light has left us dark
And the only sight is the radiance of your smile
That shines brighter than any star or supernova
Hidden amongst the universe and its mysteries
Such as time and space
Where it becomes evident that perhaps Einstein was wrong
For we are not relative to motion;
As the faster we move the more weightless we become
Until our acceleration converts into pure energy
Rivaling the universal speed limit
With every step of our cosmic square dance
Searching for the root of it all within the small things
We appreciate

It was noon when the wise man approached me.
In his hand he carried a one hour sandglass,
Jovially bellowing upon every grain that trickled down.
So absorbed was he that clearly time didn't matter;
'For another two steps and he woulda crushed me and his hourglass.
"Woah timely sir!
It seems you've run out of seconds!"
I exclaimed
"Might I inquire about what is so important within this hour?"

The Sands slowed their decent as his gaze shifted...
His eyes fixated,
Everything froze...
Including the final grain,
Floating,
In its chalice.

He spoke to me.

"Given the choice between an
Hour...
Minute...
Second...
Which would you be?"

Curious I told him
"One hour"
To his reply
"There's only 24 of those in a day,
Think bigger."

Playing along I invoked
"The minute"
As he chuckled
"Though indeed bigger,
1440 is still too small.
Think larger."

Confused I queried
"A second?"
Not quite catching on

The laughing ended as he lifted his clock.
Silence reigned.
My eyes shifted to the immobile grain,
Hypnotic in its suspension,
When finally the fellow spoke above me:

"I hope you now understand the significance
Of 86400 moments."
Just before he turned the glass
To walk away.

"There is no story worth telling"
He said
After I asked him of his loss
The man seemed blank,
Empty,
Without regards to his obvious depression
In a denial that was building,
Block by block,
A wall around the sadness he hid inside
His stoic exterior sent shivers up my spine
Attributing to a lurking fear
That perhaps this man had broken,
Snapped,
And maybe just one slip of tongue
Would trigger an eruption
Of repressed emotion
Itching to find an expression
Yet he remained cool like ice
That forms in the nights of winter
With eyes burning hotter
Than the streets in summer
As he repeated his mantra
"There is no story worth telling"
At which point he walked off the roof
Taking his loss with him

The peak seemed so far away
When I glanced upwards towards the canopy
Reliving every step of this journey
That has taken me so far from where I began
As the clouds inched closer I could feel a shift
Within the paradigm that comes with altitude
A palpable change in the way I saw the world
Now at 2000 feet above the sea
Far removed from whence my home sits
I pondered the reason for my steps
And the meaning behind the climb
Maybe it is so I could be as a king
Sitting atop the world and looking down
To the valleys that define the struggles of life
Or perhaps I am running in slow motion
Trying to outpace the memories that haunt my vision
In an attempt to regain a breath of the freedom
That responsibility had so hastily stolen
Without my consent
But as I marched the distance became inconsequential
As the birds chirped a peaceful melody
I began to hear the song of nature
And within my minds eye
Halfway up this mountain
I reached the top of my soul

The forms have spoken
Upon teary eye they break away
From the norms that attempt to define
Love in all its beauty
While all but ommiting
The proximity that lashes repetition
To an oath few can keep
For the heart can become numb
From the suffering of a soul
Once held in the highest of esteems
As the daily routines begin to toll
And the engine that once drove a pair
Begins to seize upon itself in a forceful
Despair
Like an ache in the spine
Our weathering starts to show
Making points already proven
Impeding the natural growth and flow
That once reached towards the skies
Illuminating the heavens
The desire for eternity
Is a jackpot of lucky sevens
777

The first lines are always the hardest to cross
For they're unbroken segments of a beginning;
A new story to tell/ told from a different perspective
Intended to refresh and revitalize your eyes
And your Heart
Starting with your desire to live free
Oppositely of a stand/ a quick wash in the rain
As crazy as it sounds all lines can break
Pulled taught to the point tensions snap
Our bridge and one becomes two
The real value of the lines we cross
Is they're crossed with you

The depth of the rumble was paralytic
Causing a tremor to arise
Strong enough to vibrate the very core,
Of the art buried within,
When will it end?
Will the world stop?
Like a controlled explosion
The eruption is brief!
Yet the lingering devastation brings grief!
These noxious fumes they strangle
And they choke
Living next to a volcano
Is never a joke
So the next time you feel the house shutter
Open the doors and run for cover

What is it that hurts the most?

Is it the fall we make or the risks we take
On this journey through the wild wilderness of love?

Or is it our deepest secrets breathed life when truth of the heart become paramount;
Like a mountain who's summit is so high that the very image brings dread of pain?

Maybe it is the unknown uncertainty that certainly drives our actions to be the best we can be,
While the possibility of failure adds the weight of the world to shoulders unaccustomed to the shared desire for success?

Am I Atlas?
Are you?

It would seem these fears have a home rooted deep within the doubt we allow to enslave us,
That the mind can play cruel tricks in order to achieve some semblance of balance
Not unlike a see-saw teetering on the brink of touching the heavens or reaping hell

Such is the challenge of completion.

It is this work in progress that yields great pleasure at the sacrifice of the greatest pain; a fight for happiness founded on the acceptance of our greatest faults
Fought in order to see the inherent perfection in such complexity.

My greatest pain?

It's the fear of loosing the 'I love you' because you might want more.

To be more is a thought that troubles my mind
Binding and steering a good natured heart to a desire
Unachievable
In a reality where less is the standard of affection
Leaving a hole both empty and wide like a trench
That divides and separates our paths down a similar road
While merging these differences might yield uncertainty
Ultimately life is full of crossroads and what's important
Is which direction you decide to turn

It was a cleansing
A grey washing of the soul
Like a sky drip dropping rain
On an otherwise sunny day
Where light fights the clouds
For supremacy of the season
That up until this moment
Had remained constant and steady
In its conviction and reason
That even a sodden thunderclap
Could not shake the changing tides
As the drop dripping increased
And the sky began to fall
A wall of obscurity
Obscuring the pall
Where all sight diminished
Leaving nothing but the sound
Of a pitter-pattering blackness
Smothering the pain just moments
Before you drown

The sound of chaos resounds
As the defeat settles in
Every nightmare we fear
Is a battle fought within
These scars paint a vivid field
Where loss reigns supreme
A stark absence of leadership
Burdened by the presence of greed
Awakened we are to this threat
A force called control
This power we have abdicated
Has weakened our goals
That We the People were promised
A deadly deal forged in blood
The war has never ended
It is just time for another flood