Go outside late at night. Go really outside.
Outside of your town. Outside of your county.
Make your escape from all of their lights.

Look for a place most people forget if you can still check your Facebook -
                                      you're not there yet
  
  Go when it's clear, go when it's cool. When the air is dry and when there is no moon, go
into a field and lie flat on you're back,
gaze out to the sky and revel
                                          in that

When you feel your hands clenching the grass so you don't fall - there's no turning back

Pay attention to the weight of your arms.
Feel the pressure where the ground meets the skin of your back.
Draw in the deepest breath that you can and release that grip on the grass.
  As the panic subsides and you realize
   that there wasn't a 'down' to fear
    There is no 'up' out here
          
          The ground doesn't hold you down
             it pulls
               us near.

When you begin to sympathize with the magnets on your fridge - you're right on the fringe.
  
Look into the heavens.
Look at all those stars floating around.
Imagine them moving imperceptibly fast
across distance so vast
that a thousand consecutive lifetimes barely amount to a glass.
Like water swirling around an infinite,
unreachable drain,
a cosmic fluid where all this you can see is contained and entangled,
constrained
by a simple but irrefutable fact
that regardless of size all mass
     simply attracts
        other mass

         When the stars pull on us
             we pull back

So draw in the longest, deepest glance that you can, when you can't picture where the nearest tree to you stands - you're closing in
  
Now ignore your weight. Ignore your hands.
Ignore the pressure of your back stuck not on top but to the side of this tiny speck of sand. Forget about this tiny speck of sand entirely

When it's just you floating,
pulling the stars from their skies
When the earth is the body
to which you are the eyes,
            you
                have arrived.

Stay as long as you like.


Mitchell Paradise
9.16.15

My hands are red against my ribs
the skin is marked with purple paint
and I rainbow in the gaps

though I lie motionless
my imagined lips contort
across the destinies of other's
craving shallow touch

each partner a slightly different waist
a different flavor

can these fantastic kisses
**** stars out from my soulfire?
or do they keep alive
my darling sweet desire?

My secret silent practice
my dancing under moon
may turn out to be witches work
and come to haunt me soon

I don't degrade by *******
I do not stoop to ****
But are these moments hights indeed?
Or bleeding cosmos,
love forlorn?

I remember when I first looked at you
The sky was once blue
till dusk came and it was pitch black
I was at a nearby shack
I learned about you on a Monday
since then, I waited for you everyday

As my eyes ponder upon your luminosity
and at your breath taking beauty
the moment of epiphany came
telling me you wont forever be aflame
you'll one day be a supernova
and be prettier than a mariposa
Then you'll slowly fade into darkness
leaving me here, helpless

I wonder why must you go
why must you're entirety blow
Does everything that glow
put on such a mesmerizing show
that'll end sooner than you've ever known

You came crashing down to me
as beautiful as you can be
but they once told me
you're already dead
so now I lie in bed
crying more tears than I've ever shed

The delicate, harmonious ring in your voice
Lulls me to a state of peace without choice
And if I had one,
I'd choose to listen anyway.
You're constantly atop the greatest hill
In my mind --
No other venture or thought
Remotely as sublime.
Throughout the night,
My dream of you rides
Gallantly through the stars
And I think of them as gateways
To my heart ...

Storm

Clouds arrive like villains in smiles,
Their threat proudly displayed upon their menacing faces.
The winds are rolling, freshly born.
Waves get restless.
They know a violent cascade is looming.
The impending chaos is tangible.
The cosmos hold their breath.
Time stands still.
Fear,
Both inciting it
And cowering in it,
Is dominant here.
Lightning flashes a glimpse of what's to come.
Thunder speaks the words we instinctively know.
Calm resonates the precipice of disaster.
A vibration tethered for too long,
Shakes a warning to run.
Hesitation.
It's too late.
The eye is focused.
I am the storm.
I am here.

If I could boast in simple eloquence
of distant, ancient names of stars
that exploded, and became dust,
and became earth,
and became me,
I would willingly jot them
down for our study.

Only this tall clay pile
is what I know of the moment.
And the next moment
may be much like this.

If the celestial proper noun
should suddenly ring out across
a sleepy or forgotten cosmos,
I promise that I shall
not hold it in
like some verbal fossil,
but shall release it
into our waiting essence.

his frail form
offers a salted tribute
to the warriors lying
dead and dying on and under
his geta.  A thousand
clacking sounds rise up
into the stormy seas as
these tiny samurai know
defeat once
again.

In a place that never existed anywhere,
leading a life that never ever happened
sparks of fire of wanton imagination,we are,
that will appear reflected in eternity's mirror
all these dreams are created by our illusory mind.

trillions of molecules that
recognize trillions of mine as kindred
and every seven years
when we've shed our skin
every fiber
heart
muscles and bone
and given it back to the stars
every newborn cell somehow remembers
as if by miracle
the fountain of love we share
so when you stumble and loose sight of it all
when you feel your aching heart worn thin
when you're on the edge of being torn
know what is truly real deep down within
know that love is the fabric of the cosmos
know that when it is a cold and rainy day
then inside a single raindrop
as it falls unafraid
is the promise of brand new unbroken heart
and the gift of a brand new day.