Today I'll dare
To dream of better days;

Today I'll be bold enough
To believe the future is a better place;

Today I'll dare to believe
That the stranger in front of me,
Gleaming from ear to ear,
Is me in times to come.

Today I'll give them a smile
To show them how far they've come
And today they'll smile back
To remind me this isn't the end

It is very rare
To live in the moment.

At any given time
We find ourselves
Thinking about the past
Or planning for the future.

To live in the moment
Is the most beautiful
Feeling;
Because you remember
Every sound,
Smell and touch,
And have memorised
Every crease on your lover's palm.

And for days,
Months
And even years,
You will live in that moment

Until time drains the colour
Of that memory,
Like a used cloth,
And you have to find
Another moment to live in.

You were told:

"You are tougher
than you think,"
When in fact that is a lie.

You are only as tough
As you think you are,

So think great thoughts,
And be as tough
As you know.

I'm starting
to see
through people
who make
their lives
look pretty

My face is
Not photogenic enough
And my thoughts
Are undercaptured

Suddenly
With a look of confusion on my face
But no confusion in my heart
I realized I wanted to write again
Like a man emerging from a cloud of depression
I wanted to live again.
I realized I could write again
Like someone standing after years of paralysis,
I could move freely once more.
I had to write again
Like I had to breathe-
Words streamed out
As naturally as exhalations from my chest
And as urgently as water breaking river banks

And I knew it was because I had left you and found me.

“As we connect to the present, we recognize that whatever has us afraid is only a potentiality, like a bad dream. In this moment, our feet are planted, heart beating, breath flowing.. here and now we are safe.”

I thought that writing
had abandoned me;
left me forever
like a lover
in an unrequited union.

I spent evenings waiting for
it to come back,
for words to stumble into me
at the grocery store-

but alas I waited 14 long months
and I was still alone,
as I started thinking
I had found other pastimes
and met other interests.

But when the passionate
ebb and flow of words
finally returned,
I realised this old flame and I
have unwritten business to finish.

We are constantly trying
To achieve more and more
In smaller and smaller
Spaces of time

Praising productivity
Forgetting why we are expending our energy
Working ourselves to the bone
Forgetting the core of why we do this

Forgetting that we grow best
In soft, gentle, warm spaces
Placed in just enough sunlight
To bloom

One can write of anger, of fear
Of mystery or tears
But one must never write of love

Emotions at first, are a foggy mist
Swirling the depths of our minds,
Intangible, elusive, unlatched -
All we desire is a meaning attached

Through action or words
The mist escapes our souls
Turning to warm liquid
Slightly tangible
Before seeping through our knuckles
Slippery wet

However, you will find,
The most interesting form of emotions that exists
Is when they hit a writer’s page
Like crimson puddles of his blood
Turning from hot liquid life
To solid concrete print

One can write of anger, of fear
Of mystery or tears
But one must never write of love
For it is both a roaring beast
And foggy mist
Neither tangible or tameable
By the confinement of words

So my answer to the question
Of why I never write of love
Is: how can one write a poem about love
When love is a poem in itself?

I’m not more grateful
For the nurturing warmth of the sun
After a long winter
Than I am for the soothing shade
On a scorching day.
I love the yin and yang-
There is no good and bad
But thinking that makes it so.