Gut dropping falls
Dizzying ascent
It scares me
But I get back on

Forgive and forget
Care first for yourself
Pursue pleasure
Avoid pain.

Asynchronous
Dichotomies
Cannot achieve
Mutual satisfaction

Pain is inevitable
The price of living
paid in discomfort
And Uncertainty

A life of comfort
Is quiet and easy
An extraordinary life
Challenges the soul

I used to be able to
Sit at random tables
And introduce myself
Like it was nothing.

I used to have
Confidence.
Enough to stride
Into every situation
With optimism
And tenacity.

I’ve changed in many ways
Some good, some bad.
But this is one thing
I’d like to have back.

Understand the name
Ushered with soliloquy
Urged and formed with particularity's same
Utterly and heralded if decency...

Us, words to live by...
Totals of uniqueness, a use for today
Simple replies to vestige, the way we live...
And the example, of a question to winds of strange...

Changes, the toward in the capricious deed, a harmony
To look beyond the overt, the escapism and the mayhem
We favored for a legend of the everyday, a breaking testimony
Ready to live in the times, a comparison to lend and whim

The this of thus, a lovers blessing, still a richer lessoning?
To which we never knew, a hap in the meager throe of light
That said the more, the news of sincerity for its guessing?
Was a marvel of unction, to let a reach of bests, become might?

That somber need
Enabled with the calm of a noble friend
Poise is us once again, a promise amid the heed
Of causes said for, sated with and a salt to the end

Privilege, do we remember your silent approach?
To the truth, a vanity we share to know a callous sorts of, you
Taken with a harrowed moment, to these we will know
The taint and the tender, asking in platonic voice, is ought too; soon?

A poor wingless bee in dire torment
Sat brooding beneath the lemon bower:
"How shall I ever know the rose's scent,
And sample the sweet nectar of her flower?"

"And what value do you place on these?"
Asked a wise old bee perched on a stone;
Suddenly there appeared a swarm of bees,
Eager to hear the wisdom of the drone

Cried the wingless bee: "My days are drear,
Longing for the rose's scented dew;
Without wings how can I hope to draw near?
How I thirst for her . . . if only she knew!"

"Climb, my lad," advised the wise old bee.
"Brave the stinging thorns and twisted vine.
Only through courage and tenacity
Will you savor the bliss of her sweet wine"

O, what angst now stirred within the bee
As he scaled that stem toward the sublime!
But what delicious hospitality
Awaited him . . . because he dared to climb!

we claw through brittle days
       upon calloused hands
hearts chiseled into Celtic swords
                                  
                                       yet we hold on-

hunkering down through
       blistering nights,
trudging beneath
               the frosted moon,        
         awakening at mottled dawn, sleep deprived,
       riddled with a profound ache
for distant fairy stories
              
we will not surrender
      to shrieking banshees,
           to long-stemmed loneliness,
  to prevailing hunger,
                  to our minds' mischiefs fretting
        as shadows in    
                   unforgiving hours

      instead we galvanize as druids,
              extracting golden amber
from faraway dreams
        depositing them as seeds stowed
beneath winter's cloak-    
   lore keepers
                       of pandemic secrets

                                    -until spring
    thaws the frozen river beds
              of our poetic fingers          
    pollinating speech
                     while we spawn
into garnet roses
(blood soaked with piecing stems)

    a reawakening of voracious beauty,
the roaring Aslan,
             unmuzzled prophesier
                                   of breaking dawn

You bloom in adversity,
Feeling life at its fullest,
Solving problems left and right,
Mindset sharper than bullets,

Persistent at every task,
Unafraid to show fear or cover it with a mask,
Using brute honesty to prevail,
Conquering darkness,
Healing ails,

Planting seeds,
To a brighter future,
Dissipating gloom & despair,
Releasing the fragrance of hope,
To grace our air,

Shine with the sun,
Absorb its power,
Grow,
Become one with the Universe,
Flow, you beautiful flower.