I rushed to write a letter
Emotions rising inside of me
I remembered your words
The way they lifted me and saw me
And so I rushed
Pen to paper
Rolled it up
So that my words are no longer seen
Tied and bottled
I gather my strength and throw it into the sea

You were always way out of reach.
But now this sea that sits between us seems endless
The sea sweeping and returning
My words back to me with the tide
I return to read over my words once again
Foam rushing around my legs as I sit
Reading over my letter once again
Unheard unread
Can't help but rewrite a copy for myself
Because even if you never see my words
I'll know what I wrote for you
Know what these feelings are

I internally write down my love, compassion and such
stuff it all into a bottle, and unknowingly push in the cork— no, shove
Later, it washes up on a beach but without the message I put in
but rather angry words, scarring words I had always meant to keep in
The words reach everyone that was never intended to hear them
In fact, I never even intended to breath them
But now that all my anger has been expressed
Saltwater tears are all that’s left.

Sun Set Love Letters

Saw the sun set on Venice Beach tonight,
first time in awhile,
I’ve just returned from a trip overseas,
still in a constant state of both admittance and denial,

after awhile,
we realize nothing really matters,
at the same time that everything does,
so where does that put us at this point in the equation,

well here I guess,
with me writing you more love letters,

anyways where were we,
I don’t seem to be able to remember,
lately my memory hasn’t been so great,
my health has begun to deteriorate and I see everything in patterns,

oh yeah,
I remember now,
we were where I tell you of how,
I saw the sun set on Venice beach tonight,

and the tide or rather waves,
were bigger than I’d ever seen them,
and I’m struggling to stay alive,
I take it one day at a time that’s right per diem,

and I’ve got businesses all over the world,
but all I really want to do is write you these love letters,
because I still love you even after all we’ve been through,
and I vowed to stick with you for worse or for better,

even though after awhile,
we realize nothing really matters,
at the same time that everything does,
so where does that put us at this point in the equation?..

∆ LaLux ∆

Oct 5th 2018

Before I close my eyes ... Before I drift away ...
      fallow as the evanescent tide grows low;
      before the falling sun echoes
      upon shown waves of estranged sandbars

Before I draw this life’s ending breath ...
      as beclouding skies ache like a windswept shoreline
      kissed by a bitter sweet gale of love and misery
      beget a chilling spell cast of invisible winds of change

Before you no longer remember ...
      the way the song a gentle wind's caress
      swirls and sweeps away bare feet
      set free to soar beyond the reach of your eyes
      
Before these eyes see the final sunset tiptoe down the sky ...
      even the sun feels the dimming in its wake ;
      unrequited footprints in the sand course straightaway,
      never turning around to look back whence they came

Before another tide floods a deserted oceanside ...
      erasing the traces of where we danced naked as the dark
      glimpsing the diminishing horizon ― 

                              and I let go .........
      as the tears steal away the last glint of the sea

           The way you took your love from me ...



                 © harlon rivers ... May15th, 2017

In monumental testament.
I grabbed a bottle and began to fill it with notes.
In times where reassurance was needed most I replaced the contains of the bottle with thoughts.
Unable to speak in a time where actions proved to speak louder.
Hesitant eyes that waited for reply. Drawing a blank where silence seemed ideal.
On one of the notes I drew a ship on the front and back of it. Sliding it in the middle of the bottle.
Shaking the bottle up and down, I watched it shift back and forth in wave after wave of loose strips of paper.
Rough torn edges, uneven chunks of paper.
Considering myself human for the most part. Taking a minute to walk across the shore.
Watching a ship sail it's maiden voyage.
Blue lines, the smell of paper.
The sound of waves crashing against the sides of the ship.
Sitting down along the side of the shore. Watching a ship caught in a storm of paper.
Reassuringly gathering my thoughts.
The ship drawn perfectly, setting sail across the depth of the bottle.
Leaned upright, splashing down on one note or another.
Following my first mind I sat the bottle on a stack of books.
I still wasn't ready to talk

I wrote to you, my love,
Many lives ago, my love
A dear letter, oh my love,
For you.
My heart is crashing with the waves, Ocean’s flow, ocean’s spray
And I pray it finds its way
To you.
--
It says

The fear of the unknown, haunts me to the bone, as I stand here alone,
without you.
For right has become wrong, in our tragic love song, when I thought that all along, I
needed you.
Though I said that I was done, that my song had been sung, and the battle I won for
my heart,
I still want you near, to calm all my fear, to wipe away the tear, that left
your mark.

Oh My Message in a Bottle
Is Lost at Sea.

Somehow inside, though I thought love had died, I am pulled by the tide, to
your smile.
I cannot control, the relentless pull, for my heart to be full, like
a child.
I thought we could be, just as strong as the sea, completely free, of
this life.
But my faith is fading, I cannot keep waiting, for you to start changing,
your mind.

Oh My Message in a Bottle
Is Lost at Sea            

I cannot hold much longer, the waves are growing stronger, making me to want wander back into
your arms.
In my twisted mind, even drowning I find, I still want you mine, though you sunk
my heart.
The seas foam and roar, tossing me to the shore, where I've been before, oh, this
I knew.

And the fear of the unknown, haunts me to be bone, I still stand alone,
without you.

Oh My Message in a Bottle, is
Lost at Sea
Lost at Sea
is
Lost.
|b.g.|

Each one handmade and held together with hope
From shore to shore each containing a note
Broken and flooded not all will survive
Their pieces find rest with salinity and die
With luck and good will others arrive
Please open and read them between the LInES
For when you look close the message is same
Within; a teardrop, blood clot, and ragged remains
Is inscribed a pleading for help, please be human(e)s  
You may retain or refuse the option is yours
yet for me their treasure is reveled with embrace
and when opened I relate and savor their tastes
to my bottled up world that has just yet been before displaced