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Mar 15 · 44
A Tomorrow Like Today
Mike Patten Mar 15
Too often is my tomorrow a repetition of today.
But that doesn’t seem so bad when I’ve spent today with you.
Mar 15 · 163
Ellaesarte
Mike Patten Mar 15
It’s an uncommon thing,
To be someone that can elicit emotion and thought,
To have a presence that invokes passion and desire.

There are countless things that can drive us to be better,
To reach higher, to strive for more.

Words on a page, echoes in music,
The light that brings the world to life as dawn breaks,
But those don’t look you in the eye.

They don’t stand next to you,
Breathing the same air.
They don’t laugh in a way that sticks to your skin,
Pulling you into a moment.

And it doesn’t seek attention.
Without effort, it’s a presence that already holds it.
With no intention,
It exists in a way that can’t be ignored.

It’s an unfortunate thing,
That most are seen but not felt,
And I used to wonder what it might be like
To have that.
I was envious.

But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to realize that I am lucky,
Because I get to feel it.
The shift when you walk into a room,
The way the world pauses—not because you demand it,
But because even silence seems to recognize you.

And because of people like you, I don’t need to be the one who lingers in the minds of others,
Because I get to witness something rare.
I get to be moved by it,
To know that for a moment, I was in the presence of something unforgettable.

And that, I’ve come to learn, is its own kind of significance.
Mike Patten Jul 2020
I sometimes hate the world.

Not in some dramatic, burn-it-all-down kind of way,
Just in the way that it’s too big,
Too spread out, and too good at keeping things apart.

Where’s the love that beats distance?
The kind that survives what our grandparents crossed?
They moved through oceans, deserts, and lifetimes—
And here we are, with planes and highways,
Yet love still has no passport, no way to get where it needs to go.

I wish the space between us
Was nothing more than a crosswalk,
A button I could press to freeze time,
So I could slip through the night
While the world isn’t looking
And end up next to you.

People say love, real love,
Can overcome anything.
And I nodded, said okay,
Like I believed that miles don’t matter,
As if I didn’t feel the weight of them.

I said okay,
Like there was some invisible road pulling us together,
Like love was wired into the stars,
A signal strong enough to reach me when I need it most.

I was wrong.

This is the song my heart keeps playing,
A quiet, looping refrain.
A daydream where you’re close enough to touch,
A feeling that won’t let go.

I miss you.
Oct 2017 · 233
The way she was.
Mike Patten Oct 2017
It was not the way she looked,
But rather, the way she was.
And yet, with just a glance,
I fell deeper into love.
Jan 2017 · 331
A Shift in States
Mike Patten Jan 2017
Do not fear death,
For death is merely a shift in states—
From presence to absence,
From awareness to quiet.

Without consciousness, fear cannot exist.
And for those who believe
That there is a world beyond,
Then it is simply a change
From one form of knowing to another.

And if so,
Then life is not lost—only transformed.
Jan 2017 · 248
The Shadows We Know
Mike Patten Jan 2017
Philosophy has taught me never to think I know,
For I know nothing at all—
And that is the only thing I know for sure.

Imagine you are in a cave.
You were born here, raised here,
And have never known anything else.

You are chained, facing a wall,
Unable to move, but unaware of any other way to be.
On the wall, there are shadows,
Cast by figures dancing in front of a flame behind you.
You cannot see them—
Only their shadows.

Beside you sits another,
Raised just as you were,
Believing the shadows are all that exist.

Now imagine, one day, you are set free.
You are led to a door—
And beyond it, the world.
The sun, the trees,
A life you never knew could exist.

You would be amazed, wouldn’t you?
Astonished that you lived so long in the dark,
Never knowing any of this was out there.

Now imagine being brought back,
Chained once again beside the other,
Who has never left.

Would you be able to explain what you saw?
Would they believe you?
Or would they cling to the only truth they have ever known?

It’s simple.
You couldn’t.

And so, they remain trapped,
Never knowing how much more there is to life.

I feel this is the way of the world.
The cosmos, vast beyond our comprehension,
Religion, claiming to hold answers.
Yet people never even ask the questions.

They never wonder.

And then, they just die.
Jan 2017 · 443
Lost & Found
Mike Patten Jan 2017
Within her,
I lose myself.
Without her,
I find myself wanting to be lost again.

I just can't help myself.
She's the only one who truly knows me.
She's my 3am thought.
She sees my real worth,
Shows me things I never knew about myself.

Thing is—
Once you see your own worth,
You stop waiting for those who don’t.
Jan 2017 · 806
Don't Force It.
Mike Patten Jan 2017
We need to stop analyzing the past,
Let go of planning the future,
Quit trying to define every feeling,
Or control exactly what we want and when.

Sometimes, we just need to stop,
And see what happens.

Because what we learn, and who we become,
In the process of waiting,
Is often more important than the thing we were actually waiting for.
Jan 2017 · 307
Of All the Places
Mike Patten Jan 2017
One cosmos,
Countless planets,
One hundred and ninety-five countries,
Eighteen thousand islands,
Seven vast oceans—

And somehow, I found you.
Mike Patten Jan 2017
Attract what you expect,
Express what you desire,
Become what you respect,
Embody what you admire.
Jan 2017 · 573
And She Is.
Mike Patten Jan 2017
She once thought she wanted to be a poet,
But deep down,
She knew—
She wanted to be a poem.

— The End —