Sun's glory set alight the autumn leaves I saw this morning,
It kindled consolation for my 9 am start,
Tyranny of traffic and bustling city found me yawning,
But they were no match for autumn's fire that did calm this anxious heart.

A beauty bitter sweet is oft more potent than just sugar,
Sweetness alone won't the seeds of awe sow,
Autumn knows her time is short and demands you look at her,
She was so bold this morning, she had given us a rainbow.

Yielding to the demands of this predicament,
My mind hard-wired to bear this suffering,
My heart has lifted the burden of resentment,
And yes, life, I want you and all that you're offering.

I know pain that can torture a stoic mind,
I know beauty that can paint over the darkest shadow,
I feel joy so intensely, it can make me blind,
Yet the darkness catches up, it might find me here tomorrow.

Zoom in on life and it sure can look ugly,
You have to transcend that thin point of view,
The masterpiece was always there to see, far beyond the idea 'me',
More wondrous than I thought it was, it turns out that I am also you.

Fire at the core of the earth, fire at the core of me,
Delve to the depths of the earth and me, find what will frighten and what makes me free,
That fire burns ferociously behind this thin film,
I am not the only one who knows,
A wildfire only slightly tamed by a lie,
And a fervour that by the day grows.


Slight me as you must, consequences of flame,
I am all power and weakness and treat them both as the same,
Tragedy and triumph work hand in hand,
You are my friend and my foe!
Sparing me sorrow is sparing me joy,
A perpetual duality, I am beginning to know.

Like a cancer I cling to you when I should turn away,
Darkness, please don't fill this space,
Sorrow, please delay.

An incessent yearning leaking onto my ideas, the colour of dismay,
Suicide, be gone from mind,
Please creation, not decay.


The memory of you, a wound untreated, a jewel I locked away,
Me, a safe for your callous act,
Please, don't you dare stay.


Your company, Vincent's night robbed of stars in the cruelest way,
Myself, a ***** amongst kings,
At least, that's what you would say.


Knowing better and feeling worse, duality in the doorway,
A love you have dispassionately marred,
No more prophetic ray.


The clouds are clearing, no thanks to you and your own ego's way,
Light, within me to be found,
And this is my new day!

The ooos and ahhs have hunched my mind,
Crippling my conception of a world undefined,
Wandering alone will tear the fabric of this frail design,
And crucify me upon a truth to which I am aligned.

There's a nuisance and a laughter waiting there, just in front,
When fear approaches it is made humble by humour's brazen affront,
Oh such honesty can only be existing to amuse or to make my edges blunt,
Turn the tables of their titles, I am neither teacher nor student.

Hallowed ground? not at all, it did regenerate its soil,
A ground that knew those ancient footsteps knows no more the walker's toil,
From creation's genius clowning I am so ready to recoil,
But I say face the laughing liturgy, recall the joke that roused your turmoil.

A joke that has remained there, at the core of every tear,
It is quiet, almost inaudible, if you will not hush your brain to hear,
Once discovered, like the sun, it strips the night of all its fear,
And in its wake there is a smile and a wreckage to revere.

One little voice was a piercing light through the bleak days I now know from a grateful distance,
It uttered with confidence a beautiful perception of what I believed was a woeful existence,
That gentle voice loved all that I was with a fierce and resounding persistence,
  On days when I could heed nothing but hate, the voice ran to my aid and met hate with resistance.

One loving voice stayed near to my soul and traded my loathing for a love steadfast and sure,
It taught me to mend hurts that are hard to forgive and cherish a life I did not believe I could endure.
A kindness that reached the core of my being rendered this pitiful human secure,
And despite all that went before, despite indignities done, that little voice dared to call me pure.

Glaze my mind's last bough with gold,
For it is waning like a face that has been carved by sorrow,
Reside, perched upon it like a robin in the cold,
Whose bold colour can't help but alight hope for tomorrow.

Though I wander, listlessly within this bleak time,
And a daily load upon my back has been thieving my vigour,
There is a guile still inside that is rightfully mine,
And an idea, born of strength, that is infinitely bigger.

I have been built upon a strong foundation,
Your attempt at erosion can do nothing or little,
A dignified and discerning heart beats within,
I will tell you in earnest, it is neither breaking nor brittle.

My sky does still have dark clouds to be cleared,
But such beauty they endow to a distant position,
Suffering has not marred those colours revered,
Tragedy and triumph are allied in this, life's war of attrition.