heated flavors and
icy noises, up in the
high strata with
a singed mind of
transcendent swallowed thoughts
your molting feathers
fall down to the cobble stones
proclaiming the words
of your mind
up in this planetarium of
a passing breeze
you replace the stars
with gleaming clumps
of barb wire and broken wings
that rattle through the night
screeching frequencies
of your lost-in-precipitation mind
you see the dreams
of the masses
devoured by green,
which clash with
the medley of floral souls
within your grey matter
you breathe out a brink-filled
sigh of infinite--
all those emotional droplets
in that spiderweb mind.
perhaps one day
they will see with your eyes
or even the eyes of your eyes
but for now you are stuck
shouting at them to love
a love greater than that of Lady Black herself
but their ears are stopped up
with the spoon-fed lies of how
to live and they settle for
contentment, and not
passion

How do you define life?

Oxygen? Breath? Or does life entail adventure, danger, adrenaline rush? Do you need to cheat death to feel alive? Or do you just pinch yourself from time to time for some reassurance? What does it mean to be alive? Why does it take near-death experiences to make us appreciate the life we have been given?

Wake up, take a breath, say thank you for life. Give thanks for the many gifts and blessings you have been given.

Stop comparing yourself to others. Their goals are not yours. Their lives not yours to live. Turn inward, find life within yourself. You are alive you are the most important aspect of your life. Take care of yourself, then take care of those around you. You are your own best teacher.

Take notes out of others’ experiences, but learn the lesson for yourself. Take risks. If you don’t try you will never know. Look your fear in the eye. Make it your friend, take it by the hand and have some fun together. You’ll both be surprised of what life has to offer.

Laugh. If you can’t find anything to laugh about, laugh at yourself.

You are your own worst critic. Give yourself some slack. Look yourself in the eye and tell that ***** to give it a rest. Then, smile and take each day as it comes. Congratulate yourself on a job well done. As long as you live up to your own standards, it’s good enough. ***** the rest.

Then, breathe .................................

I've been drawn in deep
These strange rhymes that beckon me
I have no need to escape
As they invade my dreams

Since I've arrived here on this corner
Where all these wonderful poets converge
I've been enlightened, enthralled, and captured
By the wonders of their words

Some so deep and darkened
I'm saddened by the pain
But the pain somehow calls out to me
For I return time and again

Where I find a soul lighthearted
With a festive carnival of words
I step onto the path they've laid for me
And walk with them inside their mirth

So as I'm standing on this corner
With my lot of new found friends
We'll step onto this winding path together
On a journey to suit our whims

As the promise of a new
day awakes me, and the
sounds of a longforgotten
note fills my head,
I remember:

We were strangers, not
knowing what lay ahead.
Our love made us blind.
We had painful memories
and hurting dreams. But
the note in my head fills the
hole in my heart your
passing left.

And I rise with the
promise of a new day.