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5.9k · Sep 2014
impressions
Raina Grace Sep 2014
Now, I'll wisk away
responsibility without commitment
in the name of art
out of me
out of this room
and now, here I am.
There are walls around me
and inside these walls
are liquid dreams and changing colors
and warm light, flight,
loud secrets, and love!
And impression, upon impression, upon impression,
upon exponential impression
creates something very different from what it started as.
But who's to say
it's less real?
Raina Grace Aug 2014
On a swing sat a girl.
She sat, and she sang.
Cars drove about,
A telephone rang.
The usual noises
Went through the town
As the girl kept swinging
Upwards and down.
Then the swingset was empty
And nothing was heard
But the creak of the swing
And the caw of a bird.
She disappeared. But don't worry, she's safe.
2.8k · Sep 2014
Upside-down
Raina Grace Sep 2014
Today I fell up to the ground
The clovers, violets, and grass pulled me upside-down
And I looked back down at the sky
Who am I
to call you infinite?

At my ankles I found the tiniest spider
Methodically dancing
Bound me to the earth with the tiniest fibers
and I'm still here, so
Who am I
to call you infinitesimal?
1.9k · Jun 2015
Rosemary
Raina Grace Jun 2015
Rosemary sat in the shade for too long,
still she watered her toes.
While the Sun went by each day
with wonderful, multi-spectrum indifference,
she started to mold.
The Sun was oblivious to the life he perpetuated.
And the Moon turned the tides
And the waves reflected her lovely face-
neither knew the other.
That was the very same moment that
Time got lost in the eyes of his lover,
the Light, and in their love for their children,
The Sun and the Moon
a different take on the sun and moon's relationship.
1.4k · Jul 2014
Always Home
Raina Grace Jul 2014
Spilled coffee freckles a handwritten note,
Eyelashes filter the sun
Making rainbows for your eyes
As all our heartbeats run.

The way the pines look alive reassures you.
So old, so tall, and so wise.
You feel calm within their cradles
That sway you like the tide.

If only you'd listen closely
As the gentle branches creak
And move through the wind so easy.
Quiet words, through silence, leak.

The willow withies bend as well.
They're trying to get through,
Saying "HEY, we're all connected!"
So am I, and so are you.

You may just feel a firey light
That makes you feel complete.
You'll shine it out, wherever you go
To everyone you meet.

And one day you will meet someone,
And at first you will not see,
The same familiar firey feeling
That once came from a tree.
:)
Raina Grace Aug 2014
A tired dog trots through
a gas station parking lot
panting for water
but no one can spare
any, or even care

But don't mind me
I'm just passing through
Such a harmless thing to do

And dried blood washes off your hands
but it's okay 'cause you've got plans
for a better world
plans for your better world

But don't mind me
I'm just passing through
Such a harmless thing to do

Prisms of plastic make--
nothing; rainbows are fake
I'm stuck in my head, my fear
I might just take
the next exit out of here

But don't mind me
I'm just passing through
Such a harmless thing to do

Motivated to be peaceful by
an illegal state of mind
if the world was safe
I'd be doing my time

But don't mind me
I'm just passing through
Such a harmless thing to do

I don't think it's possible for us
to grow into a foresty place
but I've been wrong before.
No one wins in the human race

But don't mind me
I'm just passing through
*Such a harmless thing to do
1.1k · Aug 2014
Stolen Rhyme-Scheme
Raina Grace Aug 2014
The red and the orange
under the bark of a tree
the dragons, they flow
around the twists and the turns
in the shade it is cool
in the sun you may burn
sing to the mountains
to see what you learn
the lights in the sky
sense you walk by
the mountains are waiting
they know you are shy
they know you're afraid
and you wanna get paid
but the hole in your soul
yeah it won't go away
if you fill it with space...
go with the flow
continue to grow
follow your soul
Hold up a thumb
with no place to run
but someone to find
who loves like the sun
or maybe a van
that starts with a plan
strum your guitar and
perhaps get a tan
sing to the streets
for something to eat
some cash for some gas
none for shoes for your feet
home's anywhere
'cause you make me complete...
go with the flow
continue to grow
follow your soul
The mountains of pines
that grow in straight lines
leave me a wood staff
that aged over time
one more day has passed
I should want to collapse
my paper maché soul
is made up from maps
the paper-cut clouds
that don't make a sound
cast patches of darkness-
drift along the ground
the sharp taste of blood
the warmth of the flood
I never expect that
I'm biting my tongue...
go with the flow
continue to grow
*follow your soul
I say *stolen* because the rhyme scheme was based on or similar to that of the song "Needles" by Grand Salvo.. great song
904 · Jul 2014
Where I Never Slept
Raina Grace Jul 2014
In the depths of tent city
In the tall skinny pines
An electric blue mist
Turns the shadows to lines

The music's distorted
The spirits are bright
And colors are gathering
Contrasting with night

In one of the tents
A blanket-heap lies
Where eyes wide awake
Will miss the sunrise

We're all safe and comfy
Away from the dew
As soft golden sunshine
Comes filtering through

There's magic in the hair
Of a wizard asleep
Where purple is natural
And sunlight is deep

I unzip the doorway
And open it wide
Inhale the fresh air
And go barefoot outside

The people on hammoks
That swing to and fro
Are unlike the clouds
That have places to go

As I watch them sail
Like great wooden ships
My heart leaps up
And flies through my lips

My breath's being stolen
In a most welcome way
As I stand in the mud
And remember that day
Cosmic Railroad.... *mind explodes*
831 · Aug 2014
Morning Dream
Raina Grace Aug 2014
I saw your laughter land amongst the branches and the telephone poles, you danced a different shade of green through the lawns, I thought of the many times I had stood on the bridge along Sun Street, all the festivals that happened there, and not once did I think to lean over the edge towards the river.
Our bones lay in the library gardens along with, perhaps, the skeleton of a violin. Our families missed us because this is what we did, where we came, every day.
Read/ was told in a dream, these words, and others
803 · Jun 2014
The Circle(s)
Raina Grace Jun 2014
I was right here yesterday,
oh, and singing the same song!
though perhaps not tomorrow
when we say our so-longs

my skin's made of circles
your silent fingertips trace,
and my eyes are of the words
you weave into a beautiful place

when you leave,

            it revolves.
            I can see it.
            I feel them.


I'll miss you,

but the winds will rock me to sleep on a willow branch,
the sky will gaze into my eyes.
crow feathers I'll brush past my face,
water will sing inside the tides,
and I'll dream within your lullabies


there's a part of everyone
in everything else.
a part of everything
in everyone.......
757 · Aug 2014
Raw
Raina Grace Aug 2014
Raw
In the midst of my mind
Hopelessly trying to organize
The information that flooded in
From five different directions
I could speak just one word
Through my body
And out of my mouth:
Raw͵
I said.
And so I was.
And so it was then that I could accept my own existence of that moment
Because of the perfect word...
Raw.
The surface on my skin,
Scars and grime,
A protective opacity,
Had been scrubbed off
Leaving me raw,
But all of me.
Clean,
Sore,
Fragile, and gentle.
Ready to grow and heal.
A full, deep breath,
The air and I inhaled eachother.
737 · Jun 2015
Goodmorning, Stars
Raina Grace Jun 2015
Waiting for the sun to rise
I feel the same as the trees
As the dew warms and dries
And drifts to the sky

The stars dance like white birds together
Through the wind of the night sky
Spelling out the wordless song
In the Universe's speckled heart

And they touch the celestial bodies of our souls
and reflects,
and returns.
690 · Nov 2014
Bemused by the Moon
Raina Grace Nov 2014
I wish you and I would intertwine
like a silver-blue thread through the darkness,
and unravel ourselves,
float like dust, illuminated by the sunlight,
so I can't tell me from you.
I wish we'd be the small, overlooked tones,
making up a melody,
that faintly linger on subconsciously.
Me and you should be the wind
and the willow,
and kaleidoscopic convolutions of the sky,
of the mind;
a bouquet of flowers,
shared,
with a once-empty park bench,
for some lonely souls.
Their unseen smiles blossom in return.
There's plenty of life, even in a graveyard,
There is simply,
lots of love
between
all things.
673 · Sep 2014
Spinning
Raina Grace Sep 2014
Across a valley of tall cotton grass
There is a hillside where time doesn't pass
And down the hill from the trees we ran
Holding moments in our open hands
As we greeted the edge of town
Our eyes followed the ravine down
And from the trail we did stray
Spotting the portal tunnel that day
Messages from over the years stood, tall at both sides
We crept forward into the growing circle of light

A large bale of hay, a place to rest our backs
You showed me the trails in my palms
The things I'd done formed tiny tracks
Like the trails of stars, we drift with the breeze
Or thunderstorm air that blew through the trees
A blanket fort hot-air-balloon
Lifted by an ageless tune
The lullaby stories are sung by the full moon
Saying, "Try and rest your eyes, darling,
Morning will come soon"
So day broke and I held on tight to summertime
(For winter I cannot grasp)
Like the things you have with you
That you know will leave too fast

You can watch the sun move as it sets,
An orange stripe thinning,
But my how things get dizzy
When you notice that you're spinning
572 · Dec 2014
Winter Solstice
Raina Grace Dec 2014
Longest night of the year-- of ever? The whole world- the sun blinks. Out. Wrapped in my blanket, in darkness, deep as the soul of the earth it engulfs us, even those who hide. We are not excepted, we too are darkness. Saturated potential. All of it. Infinity: together we are everything, and nothing at all. Sink in. What will become of itself?
571 · Aug 2014
Happy Birthday
Raina Grace Aug 2014
Without a sound, lay awake
In a dark, cramped car,
Four thirty in a parking lot,
We hadn't got much sleep so far.

I watched the sky through the window
Turn into dark blue,
Heard someone say
The sun is rising.. So we all did too.

I walked on the sand
Toward lake Michigan.
I saw the waves smooth the edge
And I knew what you meant again.

As I saw them shatter
And I saw them fold,
I took a single step forward
And the water on my feet was cold.

To my left was a castle
Made of feathers and sand,
Where some happy souls had played.
On my sides rested empty hands.

The clouds turned pink,
The sky, a pale blue.
Watched reflections ripple colors
In the morning, thought of only you.

The nature of light
Continued the same,
Churning weightlessly the surface
Of the psychedelic windowpane.

Though the end of the water
Escaped my eyes,
I saw the vanishing point
Where the lake met the new sky.

The current pulled me out
With the strength of a thirst.
It all reminded me of infinite
Potential of the universe.

The turns above stirred
The air with their wings.
My eyes stared backward
At a mind full of memories.
I ended up going swimming that day. It wasn't very warm at all, but it brought me into my body. That's where I needed to be.
567 · Oct 2014
Untitled
Raina Grace Oct 2014
you know
when you sing
to the stormy grey waters below
there is a drawn-out moment
in which you wonder
where you really are
560 · Jun 2014
what now
Raina Grace Jun 2014
Mulch my heart
Let it sprout
These're the things I think about
Picking strawberries
In the sun
A yogurt container for everyone
This still kitchen
Squeak of mice
I'll leave in hopes of you tonight
Poor poem rhymes
Always fun
These sweet, cheap words for all and none
Stream my conscience
All alone
I love it here, I'm never home
Off and about
Somewhere else
In La-la-land all by myself
Where'am I going?
Do I feel frost?
Inside my mind, safe, but lost
Look inside
If you dare
And find the nonsense lurking there
Or even worse
Sensible things
That haunt me when I try to sleep
Cotton trees
Release their fluff
Too much sense, but not enough
Floating flying
Seeking trying
I wouldn't say that I was lying
But there were words
I should have said
That I've kept inside my head
*******, self
*******, world
It's too much, I'm just a girl
This poem, it seems,
Never ends
Just bends and bends and bends and bends
Repeat it enough
It won't exist
Things were here, you thought you missed
An infinite
Curving line
We never seem to find the time
Time finds you
You find it clear
The answer, seems, is almost near...
It burned your throat
The sour taste
Empty looks and silent space
I did not know
What I should do
Whatever it took to get us through
Little of this
Quite amounts
Is it just the thought that counts?
Glowing strings
Of festive lights
Remind me of that very night
Now they hang
Above my bed
And try to soothe my sorry head
The feather and
The daisy there
Assure me that of course I care
And drawings hang
Near that same place
Clouds and moons and outer space
And the single
Shard of glass
Reflects it all, all right back
Look into it
And what you'll see
Is not quite what it seems to be
But who's to say
It makes less sense
Than present, past, or future-tense?
Thunder rumbles
Through the town
And tiny raindrops roll on down
My window pane
Perhaps not yours
Gone far away to distant shores
Where waves and moon
Sing their song
I'm not so certain, I could be wrong
But isn't that
What you wrote
And sent to me inside a note?
Of the perfect day
you'd see
It long before it came to be
I thought it'd make
A lovely song
A lullaby that's not too long
Just long enough
To end a night
And tell us that it's all alright
It wasn't mine
To make it so
And I accept that we won't know
But then, a poem
Is never done
And perhaps one day it will be sung
If I've learned
Things from friends
It's that the circle never ends
The rotation
Becoming 'done',
The tilt of earth now hides the sun
Now it's time
For you to sleep
So nod your eyes and rest your feet
The thunder may just
Shake these walls
But no soon time will this room fall
The dark appears
With a kiss goodnight
When morning comes you'll be alright,
different parts for different people
Raina Grace Sep 2014
We drift in the autumn winds, play with hair's curls, dance in circles with the leaves in the street, lift the wings of the circus... There's beauty in the darkness of simplicity, intensity in the highlights of the silver moon, and the stars smile down on you all, knowingly, we're good friends. You may feel lost, even here in our arms, yet we cradle you so lovingly.  And now that you hear us, sing us a song. Now that you hear us, lift our words into the air to where they belong~
550 · Jun 2014
When I Grow Up
Raina Grace Jun 2014
I want to be a tree.
All that they do
       is love.
They allow the cold weather to **** their leaves,
yet they shed them gracefully,
and peacefully wait through the winter
rooted in the ground with the knowledge
that again one day, they will be warmed by the sun
and unfurl tiny leaves
again.
    And again.
        And again.

and even hold the body of a soul as they look up at you in disbelief and say
"Look what trees can do"
525 · Dec 2014
Return to Earth
Raina Grace Dec 2014
Into the dimly-lit sky
the faint glowing horizon
here comes the lazy moon
skimming the ridge
I fell asleep from the purr of the darkness
and the headlights' flash

Into the warmth
dimly-lit, cozy box
like the sound of rain on the shingles
my dreams danced, falling before me
before I was
submerged in sleep

Follow my cyclical lungs
draw my body's outline
shade me in
crayon colors
516 · Jun 2015
Lost and Found
Raina Grace Jun 2015
By the nature of balance, things come and go. The ones I love are drifters like me- we are lost and found. Often, it's in a change of perspective. We are in a complex sea of currents and tides. Sometimes they carry us away together, sometimes they send us in different directions, and sometimes they pull us together... The currents and tides that we drift within are the same as those which drift within and through us. My words simply are not from me, they are passing though me, just as I am not from any place I have been, but passing though... Home is not a place I am from. I am from no place (creates the illusion of separateness). Home is what I'm from. Love is my home, what I am from. I can be home when I'm drifting, when I am lost, when I am found. I'll strive to remember to keep my heart light, and trust the flow, so that I can be carried to wherever I am to go.
488 · Sep 2014
Strangers
Raina Grace Sep 2014
a boy goes to bed
feeling tired and worn
he longs for some starlight
or the sound of a storm
but his thoughts keep him up
and the air is too warm
and the darkness just opens his eyes
and the darkness just opens his eyes

two eyes stare forward
into themselves
searching for meaning
or something that helps
but all they can find
is the concept of self
and the feeling of being alone
and the feeling of being alone

a vagabond reaches
the end of a road
his jacket is torn and
it's starting to snow
and now he is wondering
where he should go
and if he will make it in time
and if he will make it in time

the breeze travels lightly
with no place in mind
the lovers are loving
at no certain time
and the poets are sowing
the seeds of a rhyme
and no one knows what to do next
and no one knows what to do next

he watches her sleeping
sees the air fill her chest
the love he has for her
is all he has left
she wakes up and sees him
and they both know it best
that eachother is all that they need
that eachother is all that they need
C F C
Am Em Am
C F G
F Fm Am
F Fm C
474 · Jul 2014
Further the Bus
Raina Grace Jul 2014
Can we be uprooted together
Tied to the sky
To drift with the clouds?

What if

     we        broke              r e a l i t y  

(Or rather, theirs)?
We could see the way the monotonous,
Predictable schedules deteriorate.
Free from distance
Free from time
We'll live life the way we truly mean
With our whole souls
Feeling like I need to find my Further
452 · Oct 2014
Chicago
Raina Grace Oct 2014
Cheers to the sailboats awake in their harbor, tucked under the chin of the city.
we admire the lights and their potential to dance, with motivation to run, once again, on the big road, then, a bridge to somewhere elses...
Away from a city of eyeless people, garbage catches on our antennas. we gotta keep moving, get the filth of money blown off our skin, on the big road again, a bridge to somewhere elses...
The fountain water of vapor to the skies on our barefoot souls, the heat of the draft through the grid. all together now, on the avenue, we won their eyes, on the big road again, we are a bridge to somewhere elses...
As we let go of the places we've been, we do  not reach for the places we are yet to be. Oh, but half-certainly on the go, on the big road again, a bridge to somewhere elses...
442 · Jun 2015
Unwhole Explanation
Raina Grace Jun 2015
That was the day that

The starry sky above us, it's so beautiful, it's one thing we share, it's one thing that doesn't go away. I watch it turn. I give my unwhole explanation. I play a song. Not my words, they are familiar with us. The present slips away to stretch into past and future. Quite flexible, becomes the attention. It's tomorrow again tomorrow. Perhaps I'll see you soon.
437 · Jun 2015
Out There Untied
Raina Grace Jun 2015
In a cage of bones:
Some little winged creature's usually there
I feel it beat its wings on the inside of my chest
And it startles the lungs-
The lovers, as the Universe-
Who taste the muse
And he feels
Knocking on the door of his cage,
Wonders how to let them go
And everything else,
Surely death would ensue,
But the next great adventure is to take me with you
Through some unknown dimensions
Time is irrelevant to whom...
But for now, do you remember the two stars above the festival in the summer?
429 · Jun 2015
Graves
Raina Grace Jun 2015
The children who walk on the graves
are the horses they reach for
and the horses are the grass they're eating
and the grass is the people who died there
and the people who killed them.
And the bugs are singing the song on the wind
as well as the birds
and they are the trees they perch in
who are the wildflowers growing in the lichen
and the flowers are the children who pick them
and walk on the graves.
416 · Jun 2014
Get that shit out
Raina Grace Jun 2014
Pour out the color
Pour out the fear
Pour out excitement,
Happiness, and tears

Pour out the patterns
Until the paint runs
Tell us your story
And give us your love

But be careful, humans
I fear I must say
It's easy to channel nonsense
In a nonsensical way
Just some thoughts for the morning... also nothing wrong with a little nonsense haha
404 · Oct 2014
The Great Intender
Raina Grace Oct 2014
Black clouds hide the very sun
aimless in darkness we run
until, a wonderous sight, we see the light
and waves of growing pain
become stacatto drops of happy rain

somedays down at the beach
the ocean makes a mighty speech
water glistens, people listen
and put away the moment's mind
to ignore the voice of time

come with me
friend of mine
what we cant quite look for
we'll surely find

some nights, silver dreams of silk
from starry skies above are spilt
into a place free from space
where creatures of art are wild
somewhere man becomes child

come with me
and what we'll see
we won't quite know
until we're free
title thanks to Robert Waggoner

https://soundcloud.com/elijah-kolenko/elijah-kolenko-staccato-drops-of-happy-rain-feat-raina-g
404 · Dec 2014
Chitrus:
Raina Grace Dec 2014
the scent of America
404 · Oct 2014
Sunday
Raina Grace Oct 2014
Fragile silver strings criss-cross
above my bed
and often I am told:
careful not to move my head
and sometimes it's hard
to not swallow the pill
When I awoke from that dream
it was hard to stay still

share the burden
share the light
share the little face
staring out the window in the car
driving by me on the sidewalk
402 · Aug 2014
Windows
Raina Grace Aug 2014
In your eyes
I found myself,
Staring back.

In your eyes,
I found myself
Staring back.
391 · Aug 2014
Scintillations
Raina Grace Aug 2014
I pull the clouds across my shoulders
As I turn from my head
You shouldn't take them,
The nightmares in my bed.
I look around at the things
That are there to be
but all I really see
Is the space in between ,
I wonder when they got there,
The sparks and the static.
When did I notice them?
Or is there's a difference?
Save and cancel
Cancel and save
Maybe one time it will be different
But it's always the same
And at any given point of a circle
The end and the beginning
Keep doing what they do
We're trapped in our freedom
The old and the new
I was taking a nap
370 · Aug 2014
Half-Asleep, Heard:
Raina Grace Aug 2014
Darkness-fueled thoughts
Leftovers gone to waste
We didn't belong here
The poisonous taste

For the rest of our lives
For the rest of our lives
Never did
Give it a try
The try gave it away

We're not here to stay
whatever that means
348 · Nov 2014
Fuck
Raina Grace Nov 2014
I'm hiding myself so you cannot see
I've gone off somewhere that I'd much rather be
My lungs are staggering
My feet fly free
Down the street to the cemetery white pine trees
The biggest one's roots are cradling my back
And filling the holes of the things that I lack
Memories come flooding like tears from my eyes
As the guardians of existence drift through the sky
Nothing lines up quite the way that it should
But the curves of my back, and those of the wood
I don't really know
and I can't really see
As I sit beneath this great white pine tree
341 · Aug 2014
The Goodlands
Raina Grace Aug 2014
We carried on West
to the land of the sunset.
There's a tunnel through the clouds
to the other side of the sky.
I hope we make out of South Dakota
before we all die...

The clouds seem more near.
It's carefully carved here,
meandering dusty Mars,
we follow the chain of cars.
Red stripes through the sand.
Dust off a sleepy hand...

Sipping on the sunset
The city shimmers silver strings
Of spiderweb dew
And I've got no clue
Written while I was in the badlands, and at Redrocks
Raina Grace Dec 2014
like a poem rather
than a song
not stuck in the head
but in the heart
with an existential reminder
at the end of someone else's sentences

a beetle plucks the string
of the grandfather banjo
the hint that someone is here
too near to see
it's maybe just me

strangled by miles
of telephone wires
locusts are patient and easy
like the turning of the earth
and the kneading of the sea

an elaborate symbol
for restless fingers
untying the knot of uncertainty
missing that which escapes
back into the sky
chameleon on the ceiling
335 · Nov 2014
Everything is a Paradox
Raina Grace Nov 2014
something can be felt so deeply,
that it is not felt at all.

light can be so bright,
that it makes you blind.

silence can be so quiet,
that it is unbearable to hear.

things will only come together,
to be undone again.
320 · Dec 2014
mind sublimation
Raina Grace Dec 2014
the earth fell away behind me
but the stars didn't get any nearer
and as soon as my feet touch the ground
between me and the stars there's a cover of clouds.
sun in the morning
snow in the sky
then what will we make of the darkness that laps at our eyes?
and what else is there left to say
when truth's hardly leading the way, only changing it?
forever revolving the way
embracing the length of a day
but not dwell on it.
paint white the walls,
opportunity falls
into the dark, deep, blackness of potentials.
purpose without meaning,
motivation, no direction.
the world still exists if it's a matter of perception.

— The End —