Take this flat, round, stone
I told my son, and daughter too
Throw it hard, spinning it
Across the stilled pond
Count your big splashes
Watch the ripples grow

First stones they threw
Only singular sets of ripples
Then two, then three, then more
Eventually, their stones, with mine
Easily reached the other shore
Splashes, into ripples galore

Ripples formed by casted rocks
Have they lasting print upon
Hearts of those I've loved
Standing now on faraway shores
Gleefully leaping, dancing, tossing
Skipping stones hid in their pockets

Are my stones, living on in ripples
Marked indelible in memories
Cast in mind's marble and stone
A forever legacy or merely
A dimly lit fading thought
In minds and hearts forlorn

Once, when I was young
I knew, I could ripple the world
Now, I only hope a weary rest  
To lay burden upon the shore
Enfeebled arm, for slinging stones
Pond's winter death, comes nigh

A bit of time left, of sweet life
To cast a few more stones
Boulders, to toss into the river
Giving the biggest splash
Heavy to lift, except with help
From other believers in ripples

©  2017 Jim Davis

Must we hurt ourselves
Diving into the fray?
Must we **** ourselves
Hoping in misery?

Shall we beat ourselves
On being an imbecile?
Shall we treat ourselves
Lower than we feel?

Shall we pick roses
Thorns and bladed leaves
Blood-red colors in corsets
Of Pain and Lust that lives

The stone shimmers,
Giving pause to my blisters,
Until momentum decides
And sole is met by wet promise
Half submerged by passing doubts
And so hope clasps joy with a cold gasp,
Gifting courage
For the next leg.

This is a verse for the grey nomad,
An archetypal older lad,
What? Bored with watching TV?
Why can't you travel without her or me?
So, you wish to travel, "Off the beaten track!"?
Camping, "Back to the basics!" Alas, alack!
Are you camping alone tonight?
Sooky! Older ladies have seen the light,
Indoor plumbing is all the go,
We wave rolling stones, "Bye!" no woe......

Walking on cobbles stones under my feet the world seems so small,
the bees and butterflies float
and the sky seems so blue,
but when I reached my hand to the sky and see the sun, millions and millions of miles away, is bigger than the size of my stretched out palm,
I begin to feel small.
The empty minded drivers racing on the highway with their phone in one hand and a burger in the other seem to remember their babies in the back seat too late.
This world isn’t so small after all, as soon as you think you’ve got it figured out,
the world gets a little bigger,
your heart sinks a little deeper,
and your mind thinks a little sadder.
How did the cobblestones under my feets grow into boulders on my shoulders weighing down my shoulder, which are already fatigued by the other weights already there.
When we were younger we couldn't wait to grow up. And now I’m here and I want to be taken back, please take me back, please take me…
To a cloud filled sky where I would pick out shapes to see, yet now I see no clouds because what’s the point of looking up, because we all know when we look up we see the world at it’s biggest and ourselves at our lowest.

On my finger
a semi-precious stone lies.
I was promised its energies'd linger
with a colour to match summer skies.

Lapis Lazuli, blue blue blue
Please I beg-

Never lose your hue.

That person who gets you, lifts you
As the stone that fits your hand does
Who loves you as the stone from your hand
Skims out across the sea, loves you so
Many times more
Than you can count
That
Person

Whose love seems older than the stone
Smoother than its perfect roundness
Whose eyes seem deeper than the sea
During the endless time your eyes
Meet. And the feeling

In your heart
Of that stone
That oldest
Perfect
Love

Skimming light, skimming fast
Skimming away
Away

As it fades
As it

Fades

My God is living color
a translucent Fire
the traces of Your fingers drip like Gold
Your face blood Ruby red
split with veins of Garnet orange
Carnelian swirls ascending from Your feet

I see it, just beyond the horizon
*slipping, forcing its way through
the cracks... I hear it snap in two
in a wicked memory
to dream of you

something in my eyes
a seamless beacon of wanting"
so inviting and haunting
as I lay sleeping and dreaming
you seep in, penetrating flesh
into ink filled veins
piercing my mind
welcomed and unkind
you are coming to me again..

Through darkened tearfilled clouds
not going to go unnoticed
or easily forgotten
breaking my heart
in a flash of white lightning
snapping like a whip
cracking in the deep
waking me...
from wishing silent sleep

alone and trembling,
heightening my awareness
striking in anger
and jealousy
igniting dormant flames
heating up the air
and catching my breath
taking it so carelessly
in your reckless abandon
whispering of my despair
in the rush of fading tires
lonely moving & telling liars
engulfing me in the heated fires
ashing memories of you just yesterday

I hear the squealing brakes
looking past the road we didn't take
desperately seeking souls
you take another way
I am left blinded

A secret wishing heart
like a flickering candle the wind
a glowing secret sin
snuffed out too soon
gone just lingering a minute
relishing, savoring
the waifing scent of sweat
the everlasting glow
as it is choking out the air
from all we know
suffocating and unliberated
repressing feelings
I wait for death again

We try and stay within the dark
putting out even the smallest spark
awakening and awaiting the night
we are standing in the shadows
in the cold of the morning
and the calling of the crow
I see it is time for you to go
  I stand and stare at you in wonder

Turning my face and my other cheek
against the licking, dancing flames
and turn my eyes against the ticking, quickening passing hands of time
we tell them again, again
in impassioned rhymes
feeling the beat of the music
soothing and moving
we rail and wail against the power
as we pluck another flower
strumming my guitar
far away
I am  fighting to save us

I've kissed your lips a thousand times
relived this dream within my mind
and even when my eyes are blind
I see you when I close my eyes
a time off lonely sad goodbyes
I sigh in the bittersweetness

I see your hand caressing, caressing ...
me with your with eyes..
my frame, *******
and I, of you...
I too undo
I am obsessing

Remember in sweet September
your soft calloused hands
a lovely place for me to land
that yummy sound I hear you make
almost more than I could take
wishing me that you could
secretly wish you never would
I reach for your embrace

Take me with you when you go
your heated breath against my neck
whisper gently nibbling my ear
release me in a secret fear
to be without you here
so come a little closer my baby

"The heart watches as the brain burns"
playing on your radio
I feel it burning it down again
changing the seasons
and stations of our life
to cold for angels to fly
wishing you didn't  say goodbye
like a grateful waiting timeless stone
my heart's put upon a throne
so glad you made it safely  home
etched forever
in a flawless beautiful Bethel grey
with a memory inside of us each day
"when my eyes finally close in death"

I leave a loving
heart-shaped
granite, locket
framed by Rolling Green Mountains
immortalized like a Rock of Ages
forever awaiting...
...your return.

Cherie Nolan© 2016