Names grant things identity
We lack the ability to determine this for ourselves
And so others assign it
For us to blissfully pour our ignorance
Into their molds

Once upon a time, there lived a mouse
And he went for the cheese.

*snap

Life is better out loud.
It is out loud that we learn
And in learning all things are possible

Do you remember the candles
Lost as you were inside their flame
You do.

I can see it in your eyes
They contain so much, really
Instantaneous connection via gaze
I do believe I've just about finished
This chapter in my life

Yes, there's the bold heading
Visible through these thin pages

And once one is through
You'd best start another
Or get lost in the margins
Of someone else's notebook

It is as silent as a library should be
Though they rarely live up to their namesakes
And on occasion a noise might
Betray the location of one inhabitant
Blissfully stuck between bindings

And it is funny that what some people fail to recognize
For lack of proper examination distance
Can be quite apparent to an outsider
Funny
Like clowns.

Are not we all simply vessels of wood
Pulled by tactful strings
Eased every which way they desire?

Are not we powerless
Unable to overthrow the influence of every
Little shred of evidence as to why
This is wrong?

Are not we spoken for
In the gazes that say everything
In the eyes that meet you and tremble
In the hollow laughter

We are nothing but shells
Failures forgotten
To sink deep in the ocean of time
And disappear.

Takes a while to sink in, this
new place, the smell of cleaning
products and wood, leather and
old books

This is my home—how did I get here?

I work maniacally, rearranging as a signature,
desperate approval for this change

So much space
"you'll be comfortable"

living apart, what
life should I lead?

Bold my words.
You may lose the sky but
Never stop trying

If there are so many people just like
me where you are

why am I here and why
do I feel as though we're not alone
when we are?

I love you, and I'm
serious

can you say
that?

can you say
torture tonight?

Your words
                    pressed flat against cobblestones
        What's that behind them?
                                 slinking about in the
                                                             shadows?
Catch it
    Catch it, almost got it this time but
                     it broke my net, shook off my
                            traps and fled my
                                                 mind's garden

                   better luck tomorrow.

People use pictures when they can't
                                   find the words
And photographs when they can't
   hold on to them

The night is frantic
begging morning to
end its miserable existence
if only for a day

It's a good feeling this
positive vibration of the spirit at
1 forty 8 in the dark
which
        dare I allow my fresh naive thought to venture out
              into our sleeping world
convinces me that
tomorrow is going to be
a great day

You lost my
mind while it
lay in a pocket of
spring

           sprung up like it's
           rancid, quick thinking
           held on to

a half frozen pinkie,
three-fourths of a
day

[Doll]

I wish I could speak these
Lips will not move I am
At the mercy of all who know me

At least you will crumble I
Endure fur hundreds of years
Forgotten and alone with
My thoughts

I am locked in a porcelain mausoleum.

I'll build a place for you
    with **** carpets.

The unknown.
We pretend it doesn't exist, deny it through shaking hands
But at last we come to terms

Soon it will be time to venture forth into the unknown
It's time to move on.

Exploration, soul through a straw
Thought they had told you
Oh, did you now?

Shouts from nostrils, echo
From synapse to eyelash
Universal reverb, total
Drunkenness, did we
Say chocolate? Should
Be *****, bleach, anything
That burns for an instant and
Brings relief through the fogs
Of god-knows-what-else and

Is she coming in here to see
Me like this? Oh,
Please no. Once is enough
And even that time left a nasty
Band of scar tissue mocking out a
Word, I fear for my mind in
Spite of everything. It fails to
Consider my heart and plods on
To the grave, as determined as
When it first twisted

It's never too early to realize
what you have and treasure it

And never too late to marvel
at your surroundings or
company

Let me spin you some lines
from the top of my mind
there's not yet enough for an album
I want you to hear all the things that I've said
and I yours and let's talk about them

great
    green
       galomping high lights

amorphous purple elephant.

Peace is healthy
   in moderation

Just look in her eyes
          she doesn't mean a thing

     you and I both should
                       pack up and get out
                               or we'll snap

painted a guitar today
and somehow the glossy
made it to whispered coat racks in
my head, "protecting against
rain, sun, and humidity" and

preventing me from running these
tired fingers down your cold, glassy face
as the road rises up to meet me
and my words

Sunrise is really going to be something
when we get around to it, you know I
miss a lot of things around this time of
year, reflection, family and friends with
one missing seat at my table won't you
come fill it sooner rather than later and
make it really something, this sunrise
once we get around to starting it up

first silhouettes fade
into softer remembrance
then light up the sky

"Sketch a picture"
He suggests
"One with birds and
Trees and soft green grass"

"Lose yourself among your creations
As they carry you from this hell-hole"
A pack of paints exchanges hands
Accompanied by a brush of dark mahogany
And nylon bristles

"Paint the most desolate places
You know"

"Bring your art to the alleys
And to the cracked walls
And to the the train tracks"

"Brighten the day of a stranger
You may never meet"

A burnished bronze coin is help up with grimy fingers
But declined with a smile
As the artist makes his way
To the wall by the stream
Where he will paint her name
In stars

a young man
/ lost

and then a voice
/ do not tire of me

for I will bring many things to delight and
/ astound you

//

grown now
/ cynical with age

the promise fallen
/ flat like fresh
/ paper

all the while
/ a nearby smile steadily
/ moving closer

In search of a discovery
Worthy of my time
While so many
Twisting shadows stalk me
Feeding on my determination

A blue sky crackles with lightning
Instantly gray.

I hide behind my walls of sound
My fearless protectors
And dare not venture out

into the storm

I want to breathe what we have
lived for up until this point in
our life, love surging forth like
spawning salmon, powerful
and unstoppable magnetism
yes, breathe it in and expand
our hearts, savor the moment
every moment as a unique
collaboration, a creation of
two souls once lost and now
found again by chance

I ****** up.

Help me
I'm afraid I've returned
to the place I wanted to leave far behind

But it's a part of me now
And I cannot forget

I'm heading down to the river
In the hopes that when I turn around
You will be there

Help me before I help myself.

Sometimes
you feel so empty
and so full
to be confused
about what comes next

just get out of here
          flame on and up and out
    
                   go on

it's not like life is a card game and
we're all death's aces
                no
                   we all lose or we
         all win, depending on your philosophy
                             in the end

      hurry up and let's get out of here
                                   this chapter is far too long
                   time to start ripping out pages

how can I tell if you won't
show me?

         which runs are for exercise
         and which to tame a wild heart
  
    sometimes
there's nothing in a glance
             but our eyes meet far too
             often for mere circumstantial
             evidence to stand

        if only I could climb within your head
        read what plasters those pages

so as to decipher
a course of attention
          founded action
                foundation
                                               and determine
                                          why your unwavering gaze
                                             graces mine

fight
   as it seems we both do

we're so alike it's
scary

Silence on the radio
radio silence for all of us

Waking up does not
                           always
    mean opening
                   your eyes

       Sometimes seeing isn't
                        half
                            the battle

Nights like that one
Remind me
I'm no one special

I may sweat over song lyrics
Analyze chord progressions
And spend more time with my notebook
Than the average person will

But at the end of the day
I'm just like any other teenage guy
Trying to work up sufficient courage
To kiss the girl he likes goodnight

You're my picardy
third, the major apex in
this slice of life

the one that brings the audience to
its feet like so many jacks from their
boxes with the pop-out love you
shine all the time

Come back around and make me
smile when I expect clouds on the
horizon and we're instead greeted
with a warm sunny afternoon and
our dogs' laughter when they know
what we are only beginning to find
out of the bleakest fogs a welcome
to the home that lifts the spirit

Bathe us in glowing webs
Strung from the moon
Their floodlights blind those who stare
Straight into them

So we look just slightly left.

The song is stifled
The day is done
The night lingers
The cocoa cools
The bird falls from the sky
The apple turns brown with age
The child begins to cry
The very image of rage
The failure shouts
The ghost in your periphery

*All will fade to nothing
When I find you.

I had grown tall,                                                         distant
                                                                                       and lost

(Within a cacophony of voices, a spectrum of choices)

Now,

                an awakening

Silent roots—grown tired of relative safety—leap
into the foreground

And spill color across my
blank canvas

Everything will be alright for you
Because it should be
And for us

I promise. Hold me to it.

You are a beautiful person. Remember our discussion of the word?
On all accounts
Please don't forget that.

Moments like kindling led to these
shimmering sparks, weightless like
breath set deep into hands

And ease pouring through two
bodies, the sense of which
cannot be silenced so
long as the other exists in
the world.

Sometimes the very act of putting
                   Something onto paper
                                        Is in itself
                                         A way of
                                            Letting
                                                   Go

I cut my hair for
                    nostalgic reasons
like why I told you I wear that cologne on
          special occasions

When you come home, I'll be here
looking almost the same
        but a little wiser
     and with full awareness of what I have
                full appreciation
             for you, friend

Oh, yes
    many crazy adventures await us
                 in the near future

So hurry up and come home
          so we can get started

        Time is only a number, but
   loneliness is infinite
              
                 until it ends
       and then only possibilities
     go on forever

Tonight I begin the actual

the one hundred and fifty percent commitment to
everything worthwhile

and you, dear

     are at the top of that list

Squish down below the
                                  filmy line
                    Eyes buckled, buttoned

Snap          
                          ped in half

            to achieve a  
                             tepid calm
                              
                                        is all

walk a few steps
past where the other
footprints end and
sometimes you'll find a
wonderful secret place

cleared and pristine, white
sand against green forest against
cool river water

all that's missing is reading
these words as I sleep

Life distilled
Before my eyes
A revelation so simple
We should have missed it
If not for the spark
That hit like a downy pillow
To the face
And compelled me to turn
Around

Whispers of the mind
Too soft for others to hear
Shouting within our heads
Birth impulses that
Once we comply
Give rise to a fantastic newness
A wholeness of self, simply
Miraculous in nature

Walk with me, then
And put this theory to practice
The secrets of your self
Yet unknown to me
Carry an allure
Poised and potent
That gets me
Through the day

To turn back the clock
Seems like it might fix everything
which is, of course, misleading

Fixing one thing crushes another
Perhaps the other is more important
Perhaps not
but who is willing to take that kind of a chance?

I would.