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Elizabeth Mar 2014
one a.m. thoughts tossing me around in the surging turmoil of
my cluttered brainwaves, surfing them like elastic
waves in the ocean's tide, bobbing up and down
up and down

one a.m. is lonely tonight, wishing the clock would
stop and give me the gift of time
so I can drink in the darkness and become
numb to these thoughts
thoughts of you, thoughts of leaving, thoughts of leaving you

one a.m. thoughts leave me craving something I can never hope to find
searching through the dark for a light
that only morning can bring
why do I keep searching here in the dark?
here, at one a.m.
when sleep slips out from between my fingers and buries itself beneath these crashing waves
Elizabeth Jun 2015
cold rain, dappled gray
indifferent sky of calm appearance
soothing remnant to the storm before it
flashing lights and crash of the cymbal
they've moved far past my window’s display
but the rain remains
falls in rhyme and song
and dances on the rooftops
although I cannot feel it
from the warmth of my bed
it seeps into my skin
it calms my troubled heart
Elizabeth Mar 2014
of mosaic sea gem trinkets shimmering in the
colors of coral and gypsy travels
she always found herself on the ocean's shore
between the jubilance of the tide
and the constant of the sand
drinking in the sun's rays as they
sliced through the salt winds
she kept those beams, tucked them away
to give to others with every coming laugh
dreaming in paintbrush strokes and vivid imagination
don't you ever lose that essence of who you are
never stop asking the toughest questions
never stop saying what everyone else is too afraid to voice
~ for my sister ~
Elizabeth Dec 2016
between these lines of battered pages are
tapestries of flowing thought riddled with
words from chaos habitually written
over and over
until i can breathe again. cryptic is good.
eyes paint metaphors. valleys vague. these are the summits and plummets of my pulse against the night sky.
i'll let you peak inside at the spiders' webs, follow these lines and see where they go.
i'll tear down bricks to let myself feel. grab wildflowers by the roots. take out the bad, vinedresser.
on this paper i'll bleed until i'm empty. of your words i'll eat until i'm healed.
Elizabeth May 2014
I went for a walk
in the wildflowers
where waiting sits on
flower petals in a circle
around my thoughts. I
watched birds draw
rings around clouds,
they skimmed the sky in
pigments of springtime the
way the river flows over
speckled earth stepping on
moss-covered rocks like
pillows tiptoeing to the
light on the other side.
and I wait.
art
Elizabeth Apr 2014
art
she liked to weave his words into her thoughts
he liked to stitch her smile into his memories

golden sunlight afternoons turned to a silver-dusted visage
the ephemeral, interlaced with each spool of thread

tapestry can be unwoven, stitches can be unfastened
thoughts and memories, though, not so easily undone
Elizabeth Sep 2014
cup of tea, apple pie
cinnamon swirling itself upwards
to meet my brain in inverted cascades
i drink thoughts, eat memories
tall sea waves
bare bones, i am here.
i laughed at watered herbs
smiled at curved picture frames
silent tambourines and deep
buckets of stone
i've never been fond of clean
lines in empty houses
give me ancient homes with
broken floorboards
time places its footsteps on
the ceiling
strong and sure, fragile and
changing
i watched your eyes when you
looked at him
i see it, smooth seas in a
hurricane, a hopeful heart.
100 Ways to be Happy
as if happiness were a person
How to be Happier, Being Happy,
Best Happiness Now
soft books, books made of
masks, i'm empty.
no, happiness is here
endless pages with empty lines
fresh dark ink pens overflowing
words as rich as dark cocoa
desserts from the man down
the street
this book with crimson
words, golden lining
cup of tea, apple pie
here i am, the next table over
come find me.
Elizabeth Apr 2014
pacing, pacing, pacing
as if these weathered wood floors were my sanity
a staircase of thought leading to the answers I’m struggling to find
thoughts falling down to join the others on the floor, a river
jumping out of me with every footstep
this afternoon swelling inside and out
making wish upon wish to be somewhere else
to be with someone else
I keep climbing and going nowhere at all
pacing, pacing, pacing
Elizabeth May 2014
there was an indignant smudge
in the lower left corner unsettled
loftiness inside the message you sent
dripping with a misled shadow
breathing out suspended charcoal
you didn't notice

I sat in my room in disarray
headphone music spilling sideways
over the sides of the counter
dripping with a misled reason
breathing out a suspended sigh
you didn't notice

tomorrow I'll be gone
I don't want you to miss me
you'll be further than before
dripping with a misled mystery
breathing out your own
suspended question mark
I won't notice
Elizabeth Jul 2014
she tilts her head to the sound of closed windows nestled between cherry paints blossoming over walls like twine packaging waiting to burst open with life.
the same whisper seeping through gaudy cracks beneath the door seeps over into veins pulsing towards her heart. cherry reds, cherry red.
she picks at colored flowers with her mind until they shrivel dry broken browns quickly shoving them between book pages to make them last a bit longer.
and with eyes tracing outlines of the sky she tries to numb her thoughts to those whispers that swallow her whole with the night, wallowing and swallowing, until she feels the presence of every last shriveled petal she's ever known.
Elizabeth Jul 2015
in foggy reflections behind skin in colors milked with lavenders and soft tangerines live half-hearted twists of sunburnt oranges and crimson riddled with hurt. I watched her share feelings after the fight to unbury them, they call her needy, I call her brave. words spoken to a half listening computer screen are easier to breathe life to than words spoken in the midst of whole listening souls, the main difference being a flow of sub-conscience-bearing mumbles springing through aching fingers and a backspace key. lingering thoughts of an absent pulse, a deep desire for another place, wondering and flipping thoughts over and over in my mind to feel them, feel them, again and again with each turn. how are you feeling today. we can't pretend it isn't there. is it because of me?
the same. I want to. never.
someday it will make sense.
Elizabeth May 2014
forgive and forget, they've all
told me to do.
forgiving I've done, but
I can’t forget you.

uncross the swords, I’ll step
to the side
my fingers are crossed, are
yours crossed, same as mine?
(2011)
Elizabeth Feb 2014
crystal echoes in the ripples of the water
the moon watches over the leftover thoughts
of the day circulating in the minds of those who
fight to stay in this moment before it joins the multitude of yesterdays
piling up like the clothes you've been meaning to wash
the dishes you've been meaning to clean
the people you've been meaning to love
the words you've been meaning to say
you watch the liquid moon on the water as it dances free
away from its concrete place in the sky
you are the moon, but you are also the sun
don’t forget that when this night is over
you will shine again.
Elizabeth Apr 2014
the sweetest, most sugar-coated, ponder,
in a jar full of worries and cares.
to that ponder I regard and grow fonder.
pick it out and throw it away.
Elizabeth Feb 2014
empty hugs and second glances
stone cold stares and rigid stances
fill the room that strangest day
play their games, you’ll be okay
Elizabeth Sep 2014
oh, it could be such a lovely distraction.
cavalier bandaging binding unclean wounds
pain? your tragic torment, worsening beneath
faux perfection. the sternest ivy inclines
tangling, reaching for golden lifelines.
a strange comfortable fog mist muffling
echoes drowning pathways. you were always
a fog, a deep hungry cloud
i didn't realize
Elizabeth May 2014
dip your fingers into stardust
write names across these islands
paint silver against this ocean
relic memoirs of the day
i'll keep painting until those stars
find their way back home
Elizabeth Apr 2014
days like these are nearing the end of the
candy in the jar don't spill it make it fall to
the floor as cold and still as the clouds
casting shadows on the earth like
curtains wrinkled above your bed
that day we laughed at everything
colors as bright as the yesterdays of us
needing prospect for the colors of tomorrow
the curtains will be drawn soon
let the sun dance on the floor where the
candy should never have fallen
could never have fallen if yesterday
had never ended to turn to today
dusty blues and pasty yellows are
everywhere but I remember the
***** greens and static reds of yesterday
and I'm trying to imagine the
radiant oranges and light pinks of tomorrow
don't draw the curtains, let the sun dance
Elizabeth Dec 2014
[noun]
1. a morbid impulse, or obsession, to travel or wander around
2. a compulsive wandering away from home

nights like these are soothing to a soul like mine
no place to be, no eyes to impress, after whirlwind tornadoes of raised pinkies, raised eyebrows, i'll drift down subconscious streams and fade into their currents
i'll try to understand all i've felt lately, all i've been lately, i'll see colors of you in the flowers you brought me, they still haven't died
i'll read old letters on note pages, letters that formed bridges around my thoughts until there were roads above rubble and oceans
there's a picture of us in my mind i keep revisiting, like an old friend, gone, but you never left
i did, i left, but
i came back, i'll always come back, to you
i always will,
i always do
Elizabeth Apr 2014
I hadn't thought about you in such a long time, but today
I saw your name, staring me in the face at the grocery store, cool and suave and confident the way I remember it, I saw you,
standing next to me, staring at the stars, making one of your overused comments about the moon in my hair or the stardust in my eyes, I picked delicate pink flowers from the bush by the science lab, you put them in your pocket, took the picture to memory when your phone camera failed to find me in the dark that night we had to sneak past the library so they wouldn't know
so many things I didn't like about you were thrown into the shadow by your witty personality and adoration of my mind
I called you one night to tell you my mind had changed when it came to the idea of you and I
I could hear you breaking on the other end, that's when something inside of me cracked, but didn't break, not completely, not really
it ended so quickly, left me in a stupor of guilt and regret
I saw you not long after, I wanted to run from you or thank you for saving my life or ignore you completely or hug you the way I used to
but I just kept driving
and that was that
until today when I saw your name, staring me in the face at the grocery store and I wanted to sulk inside or scream at myself or smile in memory or cry at how far apart we've drifted
but I just kept shopping
no longer electric
it's been three years,
and I'm okay with that.
Elizabeth Apr 2014
are you who you say you are?
or is it just a mask?
if I wished you’d show me truth,
would I be sorry that I asked?
(2012)
so many emotions have been swelling up inside of me lately, but I can't find the right words to say. perhaps lacking inspiration? I suppose. I was reading an old journal of mine and found this poem today.
Elizabeth May 2014
berry flavored sunbeams
through the curtains her
thoughts condensed to water
lingering below an
AC unit above rugged, tired
drips to a murky puddle watching
fragile people close their
eyes to open hearts she
didn't move but somehow
snuck over the windowsill clambered
over the bridge with a scraped knee she
went to a meadow valley peppered white
you saw her and you knew.
deep inside a girl buried her
face to a tattered pillow
breathing disheartened, melancholy sighs
watching fireflies in the eyes of someone
far away, it wasn't even there
they weren't real, and she knew.
you pull her close lead her outwards facing
liquid sunshine wandering whispers turn
to knowing, realized it was wrong
this time, same as last
opened her eyes with a heart still open, she sees
berry flavored sunbeams
through the curtains again, this time
she can see what's behind them, too
Elizabeth Sep 2014
in ten thousand ways
i watch flames up ahead
swaying on ivory stilts
we sit in silence.
the color here is gold
ice at first, then the sun
we look skyward as far
as we can reach.
you're in the corner of
my eye, i need to
focus, jumbled music
are words we used to say.
sour turned sweet
somehow
peace to seep in open sun
morning windows
this is freedom.
Elizabeth Feb 2014
most good things in life are fleeting
snowflakes that flutter on the breeze
beautifully formed in crystal patterns
suddenly blend into the white blanket on the ground
ephemeral, never to be admired again

constantly I forget not to chase those snowflakes
captivated by the thought of their beauty
in awe of their delicate dance
I get so caught up in their being
they are so suddenly gone

you
the way, the truth, the light
the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow
you are the only good thing in this life
you are not fleeting
you are forever

and with your fingers you untangle
the cobwebs that have cluttered my mind
and you trace delicate crystal patterns in the darkness
as you show me what I have been missing
and begin to show me what is to come

the night has grown darker and the
snowflakes begin to howl in the strong winds of the
snowstorm outside of my window
even still, I want to chase them
but you bring me back to safety
you bring me back to you
hebrews 13:8 is one of my favorite verses. so simple and yet so powerful.

"the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever." isaiah 40:8
hum
Elizabeth May 2014
hum
lately I've
been building
castles out of
sand, shriveled
veins, dried
bones, fatigued souls,
they've been waiting
for the tide
to find its way
back to the rocks
it's all volcanic ash
blended into
sand across
the shore where
the sun tries to find
its way around
impassive clouds
they bicker with
the breeze while
it hums past my
ears and I realize I've
forgotten what
your voice
sounds like
I've forgotten
I imagine it sounds
a lot like crashing
waves on rocks, they're
constant
birds above my head
confident
sun against my shoulders
warm
and my thoughts across the sea
home
Elizabeth Sep 2014
my mind breathes color
painting memories with
faces in rich oils
light watercolor
water rarely dirties

you are a strong forest green
welcoming, rooted, sensible, honest

he is a gentle sea blue
jovial, calm, deep, understanding

my dear friend, carrying a foreign name, royal purple
the boy I used to fancy, burnt orange
the other boy, rich teal, when he returns my smiles
cinnamon, pearls, dusty blue

my father is honey-stained oak paneling
my mother is garnet fabrics
my brother is a vivid red

the woman behind the coffee counter this morning, sweet canary yellow
the man jogging past my house this afternoon, the color of granola and sand

and me. i.
the world is a kaleidoscope

     i have always been grey
Elizabeth Sep 2014
you left the door slightly open on your way. swelling suitcase, silent, winding, cold iron staircase. i sit by the mirror, i'll take the pearls from my ears slowly
right, left, gone.
i try to write. they always told me i was much too quick to fade. i am a window in the snow, cold outside and in. i'll face the door with a broken handle, it wouldn't shut, it wont shut, i won't shut
i'll try again, but you wont come back
i've tried again
i dance to lovesick ballads in my mind, i wont lift a finger, none reach out
i'm a window, a friend to fog you never wanted to wipe away in the spring
it's winter now
in my bones, in my veins
lost in seas and oceans, dancing iced rivers of misunderstandings in circles
i try to write
Elizabeth Apr 2014
you rub your tired eyes and run your fingers through your frazzled hair
you try not to worry, stumble forward into the sunrise
wanting, wandering, absent, unheeding, bemused, a million miles away

you put on your favorite shoes and drink a sip of vitality
you think less of yourself and more of the day
calloused, obdurate, no room for thoughts, try not to daydream, I dare you

a ghost inside a robot. a drifting soul chained to an anchor.
your body has awoken to do what your mind cannot
and you stumble forward and you keep moving into the sunset
today, today, today, and everyday
Elizabeth Apr 2014
you had no idea
and you have no idea
how strange it is to be
so close but so far and so in-between but so
lost in my mind, in my worries, I’m
falling but standing and swimming around
and around on the ground, in the sky, I’m
tasting tears on my lips and cringing at this feeling in
my chest in my head in my thought there’s a memory that
won’t leave me alone a ghost it haunts and I wonder
if you’re haunted too by that one time we sat there in darkness
gliding and thinking so much I didn’t pay attention to what was around
and around my head spins to that one time we ignored each
other like strangers with matching worlds inside of us
begging to come out but wrestling to stay inside the building of
music and feelings we might never have and it spins to the times
we were faceless and deep in thought in our own homes together
but apart and I couldn’t look at you because I might fall backwards
or forwards and I still don’t know what I was so afraid of it’s too late
my head spins and spins in the ballroom and I can’t fall asleep
so close but so far and so in-between
and you still have no idea
(I wrote this a while ago.. the feelings aren't really relevant anymore, but I thought I'd post it anyway because I sorta like it.)
Elizabeth May 2014
breaths of somber stillness
folding thoughts like linens
below feet on the kitchen floor.
I drew a mountain using only
colours from your eyes and I
placed it under this town, it grew
until the streets didn't flow
the way they used to flow
and now I'm left with question
marks following street signs
standing on a corner wondering
where to go from here
Elizabeth Nov 2014
i've spoken so many, many things these past days, sprouted feathers drifted gracefully between us
it was so easy
three years brought us here we smile in daydreams and realizations this is our life
calm, down to earth like clay
i'm lost for words in full places
writing is a friend to sorrow, these past days are excitingly kind
apart, i'll sit in bed tonight, pillows to my back, eyes tracing lines on the wall
for so long i've lost sleep to worry
this sleeplessness is the same yet so different, this sleeplessness is a train to somewhere new
you were the first boy i ever etched into poetry. and that fear i wrote of long ago was just that, a fear, it doesn't exist anymore. now we do
Elizabeth Apr 2014
tonight I'm tiptoeing the weather-worn railing of an old city bridge
rusted, deep reds, its tarnished downbeat complexion, carefully
ten thousand feet away from the luxury of the ground, balancing
to the left, a canyon, to the right, a waterfall
to the left, a promise, to the right, a dream
Elizabeth May 2014
all alone in the unaccustomed patches of this
house, irrevocably mesmerized, washing the
eggshell blue ceramics submerged in winter,
all folly for the tallies I've sketched across
my forearm to the number of
pensive detachments I've buried in my pocket
from only that day, and that day alone.
no answers to the manner of this impulsive
habit of stretching my mind across the ocean
a fishing line with no hook
a photo frame with no picture living inside
I’ve turned you into someone you're not
I’ve brought you to places you’ll never be
surrounded by strangers, lovely oblivion
they don’t know, they’ll never know
and neither will you
Elizabeth Feb 2014
open my heart and what will you find
a rugged traveler and a delicate mind
velvet dreams and vanilla mornings
songs of gladness and flowers adorning
wanderlust daydreams and simple poetry
firefly memories and crystal royalty
starlight
melodies
whispers
hopes
fears
tired eyes
impatience
and you

mostly you
Elizabeth Jun 2014
tender mercies slip past the
shattered glass around my feet
I should have worn shoes today
but I looked in the mirror, and I forgot.
mosaic shards of pinks and blues
reflect back the brightest sun to my eyes
it's not so bad, no
it's not so bad.
distant hymns echo between
the pine trees all around
and I am found
my heart is full, my heart is full
and I am found.
Elizabeth May 2014
pulses of voices rumbling in the
corner I sit with half of my heart
hidden beneath my textbooks
piecing bones back together just to
watch them crumble again.
they’re all talking about today
I only want to talk about yesterday and
tomorrow - searching in a place that isn’t real
today is already too full - a cluttered kitchen, an
unmade bed, ***** laundry, new faces
with new names falling like raindrops far away
they kiss the ocean, far from me
and I’m glad, I don’t want those raindrops
I only want you

today in class I peeled back the
corners of my textbook
and drew your name
across the borders
of each page
Elizabeth Jul 2014
these days are whispers hidden with melodies of scholar hearts beating faster with every footstep on the side of the mountains, going up and down across the windswept earth. up and down.
everyone's reaching for memories and happiness scattered across the pages of lights shining through the fog from distant towers that might not even exist.
"don't you quit, don't you dare quit," she told me with anger in her eyes a desperation in her voice (how little she knows of my rebellious heart) I sunk deeper inside to a hollow pit of murky waters same as yesterday.
it seems I'm losing myself to a fear of falling to the hard surface of peoples' thoughts and I've been told it isn't right
here in the cupboard I've a basket of flowers no one knows about growing heavier with an aching need for another home and here I am again, perpetually stuck at crossroads not knowing who to give them to.
not knowing is a stone in my lungs
Elizabeth Apr 2014
fifteen years young, sat on the bus
burnt oranges, humid plastic seats, jolting and rattling with every bump in the sweltering pavement
told a stranger I wanted to be extraordinary someday
he laughed, ordinary is better, he said, I sat confused
this is extraordinary, he told me, pointed to my smile, I didn't understand
all I ever wanted was to build cathedrals that stretched for miles and miles and light fires on everything bad in this world, give a piece of my heart to the sky, create fireworks that echoed back in the reflection of every curious eye,
I stood before the crowds for too long alone I couldn't see past my wistfulness
the walls started crumbling and the fires spread to the good parts and my heart couldn't handle the feeling of being so alive
not fifteen anymore, I sit on the bus, still
jolting and rattling down the road, I realize it now
those trees stretching to the clouds are cathedrals and lighting fires isn't as effective as a single kind heart, my heart sustained from above, curious eyes have a need to be fixed on something much greater
ordinary is extraordinary, your smile, especially
you just have to look harder, I hope you'll see it too
Elizabeth Mar 2014
the soothing aroma of freshly printed book pages
a soft sandcastle pink glow engulfs the room

where do I put my feet

anticipate the shuffling of life
mixing of voices, now quiet

every heart, every mind
is above this place
it's beauty, and pure grace
sinking into my soul
church conference ~~~ merp derp
Elizabeth May 2014
old-fashioned letters carved with perception
ink-stained parchment of songbirds and a daydream
i see poems floating from the graveyard
sitting carefully on the mountainside
they barefoot whistle past the sugarcane early
with the sun every morning and i wonder how.
whimsical memories waiting to happen, some
never to hear the song

remember how the sunshine feels in winter.
remember how the flower feels in rain, they
whisper
sometimes i pretend you're sitting next to me
and i realize another summertime memory, so easily
slips out and joins those
never to hear the song
down the mountain path, past the graveyard, and far across the sea
Elizabeth May 2014
took me by surprise today
saw you woven to the crowds of people
lining the street like rusted metal sheet fencing
downcast eyes
a single lemon-yellow flower it blooms
through the gaps to the suffering house down the street
look again, it wasn't you
it wasn't, it wasn't
missing you more than I can admit, decided
to pluck that yellow flower from its stem next time I pass it by
even with a crowd of people watching, won't phase me
maybe, maybe then I can begin to pluck you from my mind, too
Elizabeth Dec 2014
i’ve been stitching a tapestry
the ends frayed with words
I’m not sure who they’re from
I'm not sure who they're for, I
sit un-stitching errors every
once in a while there’s always
a dark thread holding lighter
ones together towards the
middle there was a face and
I’m not sure it belongs to you
anymore I haven’t finished it
I’m broken up with pieces of
you they keep falling into the
thread and I can’t get them out
I built a castle around you but
I’ve forgotten the key and you’ve
locked every door
Elizabeth Aug 2014
the hardest part was starving it
every ideal like springtide flowerets
you turned to archaic grisly gravel
watch them crash through
weathered rooftops
watch them fall

drawing maps with hungry voices
winding staircase. hidden street.
drained from stepping on recurrent
cryptic papers scattered floorboards
no matter how many times they're
cleaned, there they are

bright coral turns vile muddy brown
when it stays in the sun too long
alone, everybody knows that
that's what they thought
beneath a brittle beacon, cloudy day
they'll keep pretending, it'll be okay
Elizabeth Jun 2014
sometimes echoes dance
in shadows when
there’s nowhere
else to go
Elizabeth Jun 2014
lately I've been breathlessly reveling in galaxies of unspoiled ocean currents filled with words from the souls of those I haven't met, plastering them in layers around the walls of my own.
lately I've opened so many curious doors an uncontrollable wind swept inside of me billowing loose sheets of paper to every direction imaginable and I'm not sure which door to close for it all to go away.
there's a sweet smell of summer mixed with heartache in my veins, a tide that comes in varying waves over the tips of my toes and fingertips wishing over and over again to surface the parts of me that aren't real.
there's a world of difference between imagining and experiencing, watching and listening, red wine and *** mixed with fruits of every possible color, the unavoidable oxymoron of my time in this place;
forgetting the things I wish to remember, remembering the things I wish to forget.
Elizabeth Jun 2014
you’re the thought I can’t
wrap my head around
I’m the mess you never
thought I could be
collecting saturday
bouquets of silver
pendulums swaying
back and forth
with every sunrise
second but never
first
Elizabeth Feb 2015
the night was black velvet,

and you were a castle.
Elizabeth Mar 2014
my heart walks a tightrope
a river of instability beneath
on soft pink satin ribbon, it walks

don't look down,
     *don't look down
Elizabeth Feb 2014
rain falls like ink blots forming words upon the busy canvas behind my eyeballs and all I can see is your face peering around each letter.
i tried to remember why I was still alone when the longing in my heart stretched itself upwards to fill the empty spaces in my mind.
if you were a song I would put you on repeat in the silver dusted moonlight
during the long drive home late at night
the stars, being the greatest audience,
would shine ten times brighter.
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