I wonder,

For those so talented and so seen

That they seem to stand above and apart

Do you wish the distance between

The world and stars, wasn't quite so far?

Sometimes

Questions clog the air
Suffocating hard truths

While

Silences waits for you
To be ready to speak your mind

I needed someone to listen
So I wrote out my mind
Gave it rhythm and rhyme
And sent it out to be heard

I was honest at a distance
And I was happy with that
As months then years passed
For a poet is there anything more?

That's when I met you
You took me by the hand
And the adventure began
A journey without a destination

We danced in the sunsets
We fell with the stars
Orbiting, never too far
Each day rising to new heights

Then I was gone for a moment
And in that distance
There was an instance
When I realized I hadn't been writing

She sighed,
"I wish I'd grown as tall as you"

                                                   "Oh but you did"
                                    Her large oak answered,

"Really?"
                                        
   ­                           "Truly, you simply stand tall
                                                        on the inside"

●●●●
There are too many darks clouds today
●●●○
So I turn on sunny-sounding music,
●●○○
Close my eyes,
●○○○
And dream of summer
○○○○

Icy fire covers the ground
As the light fades away
The wind holds it's breath
On top of a high cliff place

The horizon, a smear
Of red, orange, and yellow
Black shades divide the sky
Night trees and a dark fellow

Crunching breaks the silence
The sound follow the shape
A small, round stone
Shadow kneels next to grave

The heavenly fire burns down
Leaves the broken man
And his forget me nots
Clenched tight in banded hand

He stood still, as the rain began to fall,
Because he had no shelter to seek,
So he chose, to smile up into the squall.

When he was soaked, a puddle round his feet.
So he thought himself a sapling,
For whom water was a sweet relief.

Then the clouds cleared, the rain began to stop,
And oh how he shimmered in the sun,
Covered head to foot in raindrops.

I pick up my brush
to a paint a master piece
I work on my art
While my art works on me

I paint a women on white
While outside of my focus
The paint holds the brush
And stains me into a canvas

I'll never tell you this
But part of me is still that 11 year old
Who broke down crying to you.

The one who saw you sob
Like you never had before

The one who heard you say
That my words hurt you

That little girl is still here trying to figure out
How to bring up how she feels
Without hurting anyone else

I loved you but not like you deserved
So I left, hoping you'd find a girl
who could love you without reserve

Today I met her,

And left happy, confused, and speechless
Because my face broke into a smile
But my heart broke into pieces

Sometimes I walk by the world
Every note-worthy thing left unsaid

Until I remember it costs me
Nearly nothing to brighten someone's day

I wished upon a falling star
And I asked to take its vacant place
As the morning wasn't far

Then the sun would rise and I'd,
Be there, unseen, no one watching me
Finally able to breathe and to hide

The fireworks soar so high
They burst and scatter embers
Some fall to the ground
Others catch in the black cloak sky
They eat through the fabric slowly
These coals twinkling all the while
But we just call them stars

When I was with you
Everything was confused
I can never recall
The during, just the fall
When everything shattered
And suddenly nothing mattered
I didn't think it possible
For it to go so Holocaustal
It was only after dust settled
And you were long gone in revel
When I was no longer smothered
That I finally discovered
That you were toxic not I
And all you words a lie
And even though you're gone
My heart still seizes at your song
And wonder if there's a place I belong
When I carry the scars of your wrongs

I cannot help the blind to see
like my God from up on high
but I can help another believe
light can be found 'neath a clouded sky

I cannot cause the deaf to hear
no matter how hard I try
but I can listen to another's fear,
be the shoulder on which they cry

My Lord can cause the dumb to speak
and free them from their silence
And prehaps I can talk with the bleak
speaking words that may give guidance

Some souls are trapped in the darkest night
And never could I bring freedom
But while the Lord shines out His light
I can show them his great kingdom

Others stumble on their uneven roads
And I cannot be their path
But I can bring them to the Lord's abode
Bringing The Way within their grasp

I wasn't made to raise the mountains,
Or become mighty like the sea
but perhaps I can be a little fountain
saving not the forest, but at least a tree

Why try? Why improve?
Why make progress or even move?

Because

Every hard right or rough start
Or Endless fight on a long night,

Isn't for you, or for him
But for the me I want to become.

And what a sight she will be

They say you can't judge a book by its cover
It is arrogant, and stupid and blind
But I can judge a book by its name
Don't object, let me explain my mind

An author wrote this book and these lives
They penned theses glorious victories
Let us and the written experience joy
Then created the following tragedies.

They gave life and adventure
They gave love and loss
They showed what we should treasure
And showed us the cost

I know I can judge by title
Because it is more than a shame
A crime really, for an author
To give the work a half hearted name

Because for every work of art there is
One perfect word or one resounding phrase
But can only be found by skill and soul
One phrase amoung trillions takes the day

I broke your heart
So you tore out mine
That's fair, I guess
Even if I'm not fine

That's all she wrote
This is the end
Or wait not really
But it should have been

You were the worst part
Of my life, It was over
We ruin and walk away
I'm not longer your lover

But you can't let go
You chase me down
Just stop trying to add pages
To a book already bound

You ruined my life
And I ruins yours
So move on please
Let me shut these doors

Let's wipe the slate clean
Walk away from your danger
So one day we can past by
Each other as perfect strangers

☆☆☆
You hide behind the scenes
Capture the world as it's seen
☆☆☆
But somehow
☆☆☆
Though you have an eye for beauty
You still can't see your own clearly
☆☆☆

My words and actions were empty
And, so was I, when you held me

And your hand, strong, on my back
Wasn't a support, but an act

All the stories of us you spun
As fake as the smile I painted on

Until from within the spotlight's glow
I saw it was all for the crowd, for the show

And I ran because nothing was worth this
Ran, like a puppet from her ventriloquist

Some people believe that there is only a body
There is no soul that can exists once a body
Has given its last breath
Has said it's last farewell
But I know that there is

I know because my body is weak
I know because my body is broken
Because when I am faced with a challenge
And my body is ready to quit
And even mother nature says stop it

Something in me won't give in
Even when my thoughts are trying
To pound their way out, out, out
And higher thinking is going, dying
I fight on dragging my body with

A patchwork of her past
Where pain and joy overlap
In stretch marks and stupid scars
In laugh lines, and inked art

Every sun-kissed spot
And Marilyn Monroe dot
Speak of habits and genetics
Of insecurities or aesthetics

So ask her for the stories
Some funny, some boring
From "I slipped and split my chin"
To "that dare I had to win"

And for others, she flinches
Stories measured in miles not inches
Scars that trace back to the heart or mind
That maybe she'll tell you another time

We may wish some tales weren't written
But nothing's real without dimension
So for all the obvious or obscure we can see
Maybe we should rethink the term "skin deep"

There's a storm in my head
A torrential downpour of pain
With flashes of rage
And thunders of despair

The streets are flooding
And the night is getting dark
And I can't turn the tide
I can't stop the heartache

I feel every emotion but joy
I know hundreds of thousands
Of words that mean pain
So why do they all feel hollow

My hand hovers useless
Above the empty page
Waiting for the storm drains to clear
So the words can flow free

But until then I drown

Tomorrow, for me, was scary
The root of all my worry

'til you traded your tomorrows
For the high price of "it's all over"

So now I spend every one of mine
Loving those who think of trading time

Trying to give them moments you missed
Hoping somehow I can make a difference

He had the sun in his smile
And a black hole in his heart
And you never knew which would win

He wore the stars like a sweater
And their heat kept him warm
In place of all the people he never let in

He laughed with the northern lights
And sung as they danced
While you thought him again

Phasing through life like the moon
Waxing, wanning, full, and new
With a cratered mind within, because

Loving him is like a shooting star
You wish with hope for a chance
Knowing you'll fall and burn up in the end

Today I saw a strange, silly thing
The oddest woman I've ever seen
With the tips of her hair dyed all green
Braided and tied at the end with a string

"I love the way you've dyed your hair"
"It's not due to dye" she laughed as I stared
"How did it turn then," I said as I glared
"A forest of evergreens" she said with flare

"Well anyway I love how you did your nails.
The nail polish, all blue like a fish's scales"
"It's not nail polish, it was a blue sea whale"
As if I could ever believe her tale

"Regardless your blush is as good as it gets"
She opened her mouth, to argue I regret
"But wait let me guess, it's not makeup I bet"
Oh that," she laughed, "I blame the sunset"

With green hair, blue nails, cheeks of sunset
And, I saw also, a paint splatter locket
She walked away, a spring in her sprocket
And ten paintbrushes stuffed in her pockets

Have you ever met someone
And, as you got to know them, thought
"Oh so this is what 'beloved' looks like"?

I have and
Now I understand

I live in The Somewhere
Between here and there
Between indifferent and I care
Between always looking away and long stares
Between brave enough to speak
And if only I wasn't scared

My heart aches in The Somewhere
Between a couple and a pair
Between this is okay and it's not fair
Between broken and repaired
Between brand new to love
And worn-out with ware

Trapped in the middle...I tear
Between being a 1st choice and a spare
Between hold my silence n' clear the air
Between joy and despair
Between a green light and a red flare
Between I'll take this risk by loving you
and really I don't dare

Time doesn't play by your rules
The pain always comes back
Whether it's been five days or fifty years
It just takes the right scalpel
To find your weak spot

Loving someone isn't just giving your heart to them
Or sharing every shade of memory
It's giving away space in your mind
A place they will always occupy
And then reaching out to the space
And feeling it's pulse like a heart beat
Because their pain and joy and stress is yours
And while you can't always control the distance between you
Part of them can never leave you
That's why love doesn't understand distance

That's why with time zones between us
I can still hold you and still love you

I want to wonder like you do
Why rainbows paint the sky
I want to forget like you do
That last moment you wanted to cry

I want to find joy like you do
In all the little things
I want to laugh like you do
When you dance and sing

I want to be like you are now
Just as I once was
And think the world is amazing
For no reason, just because

I wrote what I felt
I never said it was right
Off key notes still ring
And I still hope to be heard