The sea swallowed me
in its' salty waves.
Pursued me in its'
Power.
I was unable to see in its' wake.
Breath in its' presence.
Its' depths and darkness engulfed me.
Fear.
Despair.
Loss.
Longing.
All these lived here.
And then came you....
words.
My words.
My voice.
First thought,
Then gathered,
Finally written,
Then Shared.
Poetry YOU saved me
from myself.

I want to dive into your thoughts
and never come up
for air
sinking deeper
and deeper
until I drown in all the lines
you've wanted to write
but never have

Lately, the colors on my bedroom walls
And the pastel shades on the bathroom stalls
Are floating off the surface and mix all 'round
But there's more to this feeling that only exists in sound.

Lately, as I walk on the filthy sidewalk street
The ground melts into a liquid that splashes by my feet
And the pigeons fly upside-down while singing their song
And sometimes I flap with them and soar right along.

Lately, while the sun may rise upon the cold land
I see no brightness on my legs or my hands
And if the moon should fall to the deep blue sea
It'll crash right down and fall along with me.

Lately, all the people I know and see are slugs
And my underneath skin is crawling with bugs
Should my hair fall out on a scorching overnight
I no longer can tell what's wrong or what's right.
For reality is bending at the tattered seams
A parallel universe only matched by my dreams
And the fibers of my core are beaten like a drum
With the sounds of my head making a maddened hum

So I walk upside-down in an ever-changing world
While my mind and my heart continue to be swirled.

Stealing away from the noise and glare
I paced the aisles of an ancient library
Being worn and tired, indisposed to read
I sat in a corner, lost in half reverie

Around me were books stacked end on end
In safely locked glass and wooden shelves
And sectioned into different genres
Fiction, non- fiction, verse et al, in thinly layered leaves

I felt lost in this vast continent of erudite friends
Poet, scholar, philosopher and sage, each sat quiet
But those silent souls seemed to crave for human touch
Waiting to serve anytime learning’s lovesome diet

Closely sheltered from the tumult of the world
The place, though serene had an eerie air
And books like so many beauties in a harem
Were kept away in seclusion just to admire

The lifeless air and the long deserted look
Mildly disturbed my inner calm
Couldn’t digest man’s total disregard of books
Which for long, to many a lonely soul, served as balm

Sitting amid those gallant souls
I thought over the relentless efforts of sage like men
Who in the stillness of the night, in their cloistured cells
Plunged into research and meditative reflection

What knowledge is garnered in these tomes!
What all charms, encased in these pages!
To what magic lands they can carry us
Sharing with us the accumulated wisdom of ages

With the profusion of electronic gadgets
And information, readily available by a finger hit
Books no more are given a venerable treat
And fated to be stashed away in corners unlit

Heavy with the time tested wisdom of the wise
They sit huddled together in damp corners
Longing to get a little human warmth
But sadly neglected like rusted burners

After an hour’s enervating reprieve
While I was leaving that dumb world
In my ears, fell a faint sound
Of the agonizing cry of the Printed Word!

Sometimes you have those fierce emotions
And you can't take on your own fierceness
You need to break somewhere

Don't break alone
Alone is the hardest place
To get back from
Trust them
And lower your strength
Because you can't hold up the sky for too long

We're human
We can rebuild
So stop comparing yourselves
To porcelain
We're not

Irreparable
When we are builders of whole cities
Why can't we build ourselves up again?