Who are you,
that likes my poems?
Who adds them to your collections
                                           shares
                                           likes
                                           comments
who are you,
to react to my emotion?

Would you, too,
like the way that I laugh?
Would you collect memories with me
                     share your hopes and dreams
                     like my smile
                     comment on the way I dress
would you, too,
react to my stories of what prompted these words?

Who are you, that reads my poetry?
and if we met,
should you think of me, too, as poetry?

In a dream we went to the mountains
It took two hours to get there
and I spent most of it searching for a tree
that looked like home

The sunset was a soft flame
over mountain pastures
and those yellow flowers you love

We sat in the springs
soaking inward, but mostly out
while the cold kissed my shoulders
while I had a dizzy head
and you slowly removed all your clothing
throughout the night

and by the end of it
I was certain we were dreaming
Of slate sand and hot springs
the clear night and it’s star-dappled pines
Tiny bats and bugs on bare skin
but mostly me and my hazy eyes
still searching for home

Remember
when I told you
you were a handsome man
whose personality
was a grand slam
how beautiful I felt in your gaze
how god-like you were in mine
how possible all my wants seemed
how dastardly my feelings became
isn't it quite phenomenal, how you caught me so
hook and line
Fish out of water
how miraculously
you let me think I was more than just a thing in your eyes

Doesn't summer feel hostile?

Your hot skin drips honey
that wastes into the pavement

It feels raw

Naked bodies
bathing sweetly in a sensuous river
Tired books in the hands
of holy women

Thinking all morning
about sweet peaches
And all night
about salvation

it was the last time we were gonna see each other for a little while
she's going off to Austria
studyin' music, seein' things
we walked next to each other
up and down the streets of downtown
tears eagerly making their way down our cheeks
I didn't want to waste a second of my time with her
I wanted it to really mean something
just in case, ya know?
I was so worried it was just going to be over
she would get in her dad's truck and drive away
out of town
out of my life
but then she stopped and picked up the most beautiful
butterfly
that I had ever seen
we held its perfect lifeless body in our shaky hands
and we cried together
and we laughed together
and we shouted "this is a sign, this is a sign!"
and it truly was a sign
and every day that she is gone
I will hold the butterfly
sending her my love, sending her my warmth
until it is her I get to hold once again
-

I will never understand
the happenings of some things.
Like the horrific and horrible
that happens to the innocent,
like the willful and intentional ignorance,
Of death and pain and torture.

I will never understand
how evil is doled out among us.
By chance, by fate, by deliberate decision?

I will never understand
The recovery that happens,
After the unforgivable; forgiveness,
After death; new life.

I will never understand
Love that won't go away,
Even when told,
Even when begged,
Even when commanded.


I will never understand
how you go on.
I will never understand
how I go on.
I will never understand why.

You've got three thing to tell me
Get up
Get moving
Get going
And one day I'll reach you

Come see me
Come on over
Come get me
These thing come out of your mouth one after the other
Almost like you say them
To all the boys.....

You're amazing
You're wonderful
You're a real beauty
Keep on building me up, only to keep knocking me down
I'm worse than ruin
Because I won't stop trying
My once wonderful palace of stone and gold
Becomes a castle of wood that's rotted and old

I love you
I want you
I need you
Things I keep expecting to hear or read when you send news my way
I open up my feelings with eager eyes
And let your vague writings fill my damp, tattered and deflated ego
Did you know
I think of you every day
Not of heated nights, with petals and drained champagne
Even walks down the sandy stretch under a mystical night sky
I think of simple moments the most

Please hold me
Please kiss me
Please make the pain go away
These mutterings belong to me
Words I repeat like a cultish chant deeply in throat
Every time I hope I am running through your eclectic mind

So I know you, who's life is faced paced and full
Will never look my way with longing and desire
You won't stay up late summer nights saying my name in your head
You won't even read this sad excuse of a backhanded proclamation of love
Better yet
If this does cross your eyes
And you somehow make it to the end of my rant
You'll still never believe that I'm wailing about YOU

So I've got three more things that I need to say
I love you
I love you
I love you

You are part lightbeam
You are soft as tulip petals
I have so much tenderness for you and
I am so scared

You have such lovely people and I am not here to ruin that
I only want to be here for you
and to share life

I am not unaware that
I have not always been here
I don’t know what to say,
but that I am here now and I am here to love