There's nothing wrong with you.
Never has been, never will.
You might look for something to be fixed
and I know you won't feel fulfilled.

It's okay.
You're okay.
Promise me this:
to spend one night
in unfaithful bliss.

Forget all your dreams
your pain, your sorrow
please put it off
and wait til' tomorrow.

Maybe not even then.

Promise me you'll be okay.
It's actually easy to swear-
you already are. There is no 'when?'
There is no 'where?'

people think I'm kidding when I say I want to be married
but I cannot wait to settle down
to wake up next to someone for the rest of my life
to go do things together, constantly
to never be afraid, and to belong to each other-
there's nothing more beautiful, it's exactly what
people, us humans, were made for- in fields and bridges
we were made to be together
buying houses and sleeping in cars and spending eternity
with each other, in richer and in poorer
in sickness and in health, just us,
just like Mr. R said- I don't know what she'll be like
in ten years, I don't know what I'll be like
in ten years, but I know we'll still be there.
It'll still be us.

"I may or may not die soon."  "What's wrong with you?" "I'm human."

all I was searching for was me

I spent my time watchin'
the spaces that have grown between us.
And I cut my mind on second best
or the scars that come with the greenness.
And I gave my eyes to the boredom,
still the seabed wouldn't let me in.
And I tried my best to
embrace the darkness in which I swim.

Now walkin' back down this mountain
with the strength of a turnin' tide.
Oh the wind's so soft on my skin,
the sun so hard upon my side.
Oh lookin' out at this happiness,
I search for between the sheets.
Oh feelin' blind and realize,
All I was searchin' for was me.
Ooh ooh all I was searchin' for was me.

Keep your head up, keep your heart strong
No, no, no, no
Keep your mind set, keep your hair long
Oh my my darlin'
keep your head up, keep your heart strong
No, no, no, no
Keep your mind set in your ways,
keep your heart strong

I saw a friend of mine the other day,
and he told me that my eyes were gleamin'.

Oh I said I had been away, and he knew,
oh he knew the depths I was meanin'.
And it felt so good to see his face
or the comfort invested in my soul.
Oh to feel the warmth of a smile,
when he said "I'm happy to have you home.
Ooh ooh I'm happy to have you home."

Yeah, keep your head up, keep your heart strong.
No, no, no, no
Keep your mind set, keep you hair long.
Oh my my darlin', keep your head up,
keep you heart strong.
No, no, no, no
Keep your mind set in your ways, keep your heart strong

'Cause I'll always remember you the same.
Oh eyes like wild flowers within demons of change

May you find happiness there,
May all your hopes all turn out right.

Keep your head up, keep your heart strong.
No, no, no, no
Keep your mind set, keep you hair long.
Oh my my darlin', keep your head up, keep you heart strong.
No, no, no, no
Keep your mind set in your ways, keep your heart strong.
'Cause I'll always remember you the same.
Oh eyes like wild flowers within demons of change.

it's not agony any longer
being around you
it's really okay
but I am kind of lonely
and it's not really lonely for you
it's just lonely
and I'd like someone to love me,
someone who can hold my hand
and we can wrap our arms around each other
and kiss a lot
and go on car rides
and smoke without our parents knowing
I'd like someone like that.
wouldn't we all?

it looks so easy on the TV, for
people who are just starting.
their bodies entwine and
it's beautiful.
Everything flows from it
in it,
and of it,
and their souls seem to clasp together
in an unbreakable embrace.
Colors seem brighter
sparks fly
butterflies dance
true-love-at-first-sight.
They go on a date, two dates- it happens then.
A few months and they are living together
two years-and-they're-married.
it happens so fast
and too slow
somehow, they learn to live with each other
two people with complicated souls
who are not alike at all,
somehow,
magically,
kiss.
it's hard for me to grasp-
and I'm not sure I'd be able to,
if I had the chance.

can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
can I handle the seasons of my life?

I can't promise the world
or that you'll never be lonely
but I can promise that to you,
whoever you will be- when, one day
you're mine- I will love you
until the sky breaks over us
and the stars come crashing down
I will love you until you can't take it anymore
I will love you until there's nowhere
no place, in the whole world,
we'd rather be than with each other-
I will love you as if my life depended on it
and I will love you as if I would die for you
because I would- because I will love you eternally-
I am yours, and you are mine.

When your heart stops beating, or loses its ability to pump blood to itself
the doctors put in a stent. And so, as pieces of your own self-sustaining
***** go to die, they are replaced by more and more
latticework. These tiny structures allow you to breathe, yes
they allow you to keep yourself alive. But what do you do
when pieces of your own sacred heart no longer belong to yourself
and they no longer pump blood the way they were born for
and no one told you that survival would come at the price
of everything that made you who you are- that this pointless
synthetic division would leave you a cold restless machinery
because you were scared, a little bit, too scared to be honest with yourself
too scared to even know you were scared so you stopped your heart
from pumping itself and gave the job to something or someone else
you made your heart a building, a high tower from which you cannot escape
rather than the core of who you are, it becomes a prison put in place
cement and steel blocks to keep you safe from the dragon but
the true danger is what became of you, you who gave up everything
to keep yourself alive, you whose heart no longer pumps blood
like a living, breathing human who shouts and screams and loves
whose heart no longer means what Aristotle and Jesus Christ said it means,
you whose heart now does its job, and that job only. You're me.

Is love so fragile and the heart so hollow?
Shatter with words, impossible to follow
You're saying I'm fragile, I try not to be
I search only for something I can't see.

I have my own life.
And I am stronger than you know.

I fall in love like the leaves from the trees:
every autumn;
I have to be scraped off the ground yearly
for I have lost all sense of direction
collapsed, dead
can be molded by anyone who stops by
unsettled by children
and, amid all of it,
it is frighteningly beautiful
and wondrous
as the wind takes me once again.

I view the world through a lens
I miss seeing clearly

it seems that I've waited so long for the key to my poetry
and the words didn't come easy, like ink on skin,
I waited for ages and it hurt, it stung
but at last, now, they flow.

it goes on.

what's killing me is myself, getting wrapped up
in bandages of my own broken worth,
choking to death laying in bed, immovable, until I raise my head,
find the strength to tear through
but this, alone, I cannot do-
what's giving me life is you.

we all started out afraid of the dark
but somewhere along the way
we forgot about the day
and whether it's happy or sad, day or night,
let's stop romanticizing darkness
and instead,
look to the light.

like ships sailing in the night
why can't we just go where we might
intend, to break or bend, no burn
no end, just turn, turn, turn, and then
follow our paths, avoid God's wrath
despite these changing tides and snide
smiles underneath the surface of the crash
don't try and hide it, we all turn back
we all cry and dash away our tears
leaving our souls just a pile of-
forgetting our fears, forsaking the last
of us, ashes to ashes, dust to dust
who are the best of us? when is the past of us?

and sometimes, you have to find a reason to wake up in the morning
that isn't another person- and maybe it will be again, one day,
but not that morning (and not that person)- for that morning,
you have to wake yourself up. you don't have to
give up on the hope of having a different set of eyes
to dream about, but you have to give up on seeing them again
sometimes you can't. Sometimes you won't.

I wanna linger a little longer
mmm, a little longer here with you
where the hot rain soaks through my clothes
so I take them off
and we run together, feet pounding on the rocks
and hearts racing neck to neck
and I want to hold hands in the dark to sing
and I want to be cold and be warm
and wake up together again.

I am doomed to forever be lonely
and I might just bleed to death with the pain of it.
Sounds melodramatic but I won't apologize for
my feelings
or cover them up
because you're gonna have to ******* get over it
if you're gonna read my poetry,
or for real, any poetry at all,
and honesty leads to understanding
and understanding creates love
and if I'm not honest, no one will love me,
and if I am honest, then some of them will hate me;
it's worth it, if maybe one day someone will
hear my voice carrying and want to actually
*listen.

the goal of the best writers
is to be able to live and respond to the literature
in a most coherent way
but the goal of the best literature
is to totally and completely overwhelm the writer
to blend their thoughts and feelings into an incoherent mess
to make an indelible mark on their souls
and to leave their pulse racing and their eyes throbbing
to wipe their life experience into a blank slate and rewrite it
in a hurricane of ideas and emotions, tumbling and burning their lives
like a holy firestorm, lost in the desert and whipping the scalding wind around
this, the tenderest and gentlest part of your heart.

weep for yourself my man
you'll never be what is in your heart
weep, little lion man,
you're not as brave as you were at the start.

Hey! Hey! Hey!
"I don't like walking around this old and empty house."
"So hold my hand, I'll walk with you, my dear."
"The stairs creak as you sleep, it's keeping me awake."
"It's the house telling you to close your eyes."
"And some days I can't even trust myself."
"It's killing me to see you this way."

'Cause though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore
Hey! Hey! Hey!

"There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back."
"Well, tell her that I miss our little talks."
"Soon it will be over and buried with our past."
"We used to play outside when we were young
and full of life and full of love."

"Some days I feel like I'm wrong when I'm right."
"Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear."
'Cause though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

Hey! Don't listen to a word I say.
Hey! The screams all sound the same. Hey!
Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore
Hey! Hey!

"You're gone, gone, gone away,
I watched you disappear.
All that's left is the ghost of you."
"Now we're torn, torn, torn apart,
There's nothing we can do."
"Just let me go we'll meet again soon."
"Now wait, wait, wait for me,
please hang around."
"I'll see you when I fall asleep."

Hey! Don't listen to a word I say.
Hey! The screams all sound the same. Hey!
Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore

Don't listen to a word I say. Hey!
The screams all sound the same. Hey!

Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.
Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.
Though the truth may vary
This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.

can you tell that I'm alive?
Let me prove it to you.

I'm just an American girl
with a Canadian heart
a North Carolina spirit
some Tennessee social skills
an Irish body
a New York mind
a South California love
and a Louisiana childhood

everybody's got a dream, don't we
a city they see themselves in, a home away from home
where their skin can feel not so close to its bones
as it used to- where is yours?

Who
are
you?
Can you show me
who
I
am?
Come
a
bit
nearer,
let me hold
your heart
next
to
mine,
Don't be afraid,
because
I've been
longing
for you
longer than
you
know.

I try to forgive you but I'm struggling 'cause I don't know how.
We built it up so high and now I'm falling
it's a long way down.

We made a fire; went down in the flames.
We sailed the ocean, and drowned in the waves.
Built a cathedral, but we never prayed.
We had it all, yeah, and we walked away.

Point of no return and now it's just too late to turn around.
I try to forgive you but I struggle cause I don't know how.
We built it up so high and now I'm falling,
it's a long way down.
It's a long way down, from here.

We had a mountain, but took it for granted.
We had a spaceship, but we couldn't land it.
We found an island, but we got stranded.
We had it all. Who could've planned it?

Point of no return and now it's just too late to turn around.
I try to forgive you but I'm struggling cause I don't know how.
We built it up so high and now I'm falling,
it's a long way down, from here.
Such a long way down...
It's a long way down.
It's a long way down.
Such a long way down...
It's a long way down.
It's a long way down.

and, having been given sight, they thanked the wrong god.

I think that in my deepest
most earnest desires to become a storybook character
to become the famed romance and the interesting lover
someone from whom people hide things and treat
with great gravity, I have forgotten how to run
and scream like a child, and love like a baby-
I have descended from the ceiling, surrounded by mist
donning my cloak and shrouding my figure with mystery
what is my figure? where is my figure? who am I?
I am not in this world any longer;
I am the stuff of legends,
and I will never be able to touch the earth again.

The more real you get the more unreal the world gets.

I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence.

We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.

When you're drowning you don't think, I would be incredibly pleased if someone would notice I'm drowning and come and rescue me. You just scream.

I can't wake you up. You can wake you up. I can't cure you. You can cure you.

When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.

It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love or how you love, it matters only that you love.

I am he as you are he and you are me and we are all together.

it burns, but it is a heavenly kind of fire

I have learned how to love from a distance
and every love
teaches me more of who I am
as I take my stepping stones
to the Great and Final love
at the end of my earthly life.

it's so funny how love consumes everything we are
but then, it's not funny, it makes sense- we are made in God's image
and God is love. We are beings created by and for loving,
and we will always be this way.

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

"Love only Him, love nothing but Him, and if you love anything but Him, love it only because of Him."
"If you love me, you will love your brothers and sisters."
"God is love, and abide in His love, that His love may be all in all; and that God may be all in all."
"A branch separated from the tree can bear no fruit, just as you separated from me can bear no fruit."

show, don't tell

love is everything
our only hope
love does not begrudge small things
it does not judge or hate
it is not impatient
it does not jump to conclusions
it does not hold people to standards
it sees everything as joyous
accepts all
blesses all
seeks to understand without stereotyping
forgives every wrong
gives everything
does not hold back
love is what our hearts were meant for
it is everything
never hold back your love,
never say someone isn't worthy of it,
never condemn,
if God can love them, you can too
you are made in the image and likeness of God
your heart calls to him every moment
and he is love
so we were made
our very souls formed
in order to love and forgive and understand perfectly
so please, please
love with all your mind, heart, and strength.
that is the greatest commandment.
that is the only commandment.
love is everything.

it's like casting a rod into the reeds
I know it's going to land there, every single time
and when it does, I just watch it and mourn its entrapment for a while
only to cast it into a different patch of reeds and change nothing.

They're flying around now
and I'm on 2% so
I need to write this one fast-
Maybe, these lovebugs
are what's spreading this, along with
the quickening of the heart inside
with the warmth
And maybe if I catch enough lovebugs
I won't have to love you anymore.
Or maybe, just maybe,
if you catch a lovebug,
you'll love me, and I can keep loving you,
just like I always have.

"I love you" while you see them hungry should mean you feed them
"I love you" while you see them thirsty should mean you give them to drink
"I love you" when you see them naked should mean you clothe them
"I love you" in the midst of all this need does not say,
"I love your hunger, I love your thirst, I love your nakedness."
It says, "I love you, and because of that,
"I hate your hunger, I hate your thirst, I hate your nakedness."
Love does not mean leaving as be, love does not mean acceptance.
Love means feeding and giving water and clothing, love means fixing.
Love means love of you and thusly a non-acceptance of their faults,
a non-acceptance of their problems and their needs,
Love means that you must give, to sit down like the Good Samaritan
and feed the destitute,
give water to the man lying down,
and offer him your coat.
Love does not mean that you wander by the homeless man and think
to yourself how wonderful that person must be and how much you appreciate
their existence and how we cannot judge others
and how each soul is worth something.
In fact, each of these truths are true but if you believe them, you have
to take them to action. If you think someone is wonderful, I do not believe you
until you help them and show them your love.
If you do not try to help and fix someone,
I do not believe you appreciate their existence.
If you do not try and help the homeless man,
I do not believe you think he is not at fault for his homelessness.
If you do not take the lost and poor and needy under your arms,
I do not believe that you believe every soul is worth something.
Love means action. Love is not words.
If love is only words, it means nothing. It is not love.
However, we know what love is- we were given a definition.
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."
Love does not leave hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick, and lonely.
Love is not acceptance. Love fixes. Love does.

love is
the most ambiguous
definite thing
the most feeling-related action
the most action-related feeling
it is the most flexible, confusing, broken
only solid point of reference we have
love is a completely selfless act for someone you want only for yourself
it is a completely selfish want for someone to be happy.

everybody's got love in their eyes
I see it in the giggles and the long silence
and the avoiding touching
the dilating of pupils, catching breath
except when looking at the one you're supposed to
and when I walked into the dugout
she sat there and I felt this sense of companionship
like, "I can tell you're in love and so am I"
and because she sat alone
I knew then
and it's nice to know
everybody's got love in their eyes.

Whenever my mom talks about gays, she says,
"Why does it matter if they sleep with someone of the same gender? You don't have to tell me about your *** life."
But it's not just a *** life.
It's a love life,
and love holds everything we are together
and if my love is different from yours,
in a world when people like me get bullied,
destroyed
for something they can't help,
then I want to know I am safe.
I want to stop lying to you, to my mom,
to my dad, my teachers, my friends.
I want to stop coming to school and being terrified someone will
realize who I am.
I want to be able to be honest about these deepest of feelings.
I want to be able to tell the truth to people who love me,
and I want them to be able to still love me after it.
I long for the day when this won't even be an issue,
and I can look her in the eyes and kiss her,
without gasps or gags or threats of death.
That day is not today.
I long for the day when we don't have to come out
and everyone is free together.
That day is not today.
So, until then, I will wave my ******* rainbow flag
and scream until I can hardly breathe
until it's safe for you and me.
It's horrible we have to use the word gay.
Love is love and it shouldn't be defined a certain way.

loving someone is seeing Christ in them
and being in love with someone is seeing Christ in yourself.

when I give to you everything in my sky and on my ground
I give to you my rain, my thunder, my sun, my clouds
you take all fog away from the drought in my eyes
my bare soul is left and there's no need to deny
who I am anymore, you've shown me I'm worth it
you've shown me my skin and my heart, they deserve it
you've writtin in stone the peace that you gave
because in the end, Lord, you rose from the grave
to show me you love me. And not just my sin
but my soul and my essence, what's left in the end
that I forgot how to recognize when we fell from your plan
Now you've given me back. So, thank you. Love wins.

My mama don't like you and she likes everyone.
And I never like to admit that I was wrong.
And I've been so caught up in my job, didn't see what's going on.
And now I know I'm better sleeping on my own.

'Cause if you like the way you look that much
oh baby, you should go and love yourself.
And if you think that I'm still holding on to something,
you should go and love yourself.

But when you told me that you hated my friends
the only problem was with you and not them.
And every time you told me my opinion was wrong,
and tried to make me forget where I came from,

And I didn't wanna write a song cause I didn't want anyone thinking I still care-
I don't- but, you still hit my phone up
And baby I be movin' on and I think you should be something
I don't wanna hold back. Maybe you should know that:
my mama don't like you and she likes everyone.
And I never like to admit that I was wrong.
And I've been so caught up in my job, didn't see what's going on.
And now I know I'm better sleeping on my own.

'Cause if you like the way you look that much
oh baby, you should go and love yourself.
And if you think that I'm still holdin' on to something,
you should go and love yourself.

For all the times that you've made me feel small:
I fell in love, now I feel nothing at all.
I'd never felt so low as when I was vulnerable.
Was I a fool to let you break down my walls?

"For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses himself?"