When I was just a child I went searching for my world,
one of sunlit days, adventure and beauty left unfurled.
Though these days were made to be the a key to set me free
I couldn’t have foreseen the cost that all of this would be.

As I look back on these memories I hoped to have it all,
I believed that love would listen and come answering my call.
I was certain love would find me as I filled my life with song.
Now I’d turn in all these moments for just the promise to belong.

At Oktoberfest with beer halls and the sound of German songs.
The mix of beer and smells of nuts floating through the noisy throngs.
Climbing  on the Untersberg up on Alpines mystic peaks
and attending cocktail parties with Gemany’s elite.

Climbing falls in Ocho Rios with some old and new found friends,
drinking coffee, eating lobster, and enjoying without end.
Driving through the darkened backroads from a day at Negril’s beach,
in a cab with songs of love and Marley counting down the beat.  

In Cancun lagoons were vivid and alive with swarming life,
seas of sergeant majors, parrotfish, and barracuda thrive.
in the Caymans packs of stingrays had become our closest friends,
as we played among them in  a world where the beauty never ends.

The fireworks over Sydney lit the bicentennial sky
while I look upon that moment now with disbelieving eyes.
Waves from the Prince of England as he sat by princess Di
when I left the land down under, well I felt like I would die.

As I watched the sun go down over Uluru’s gold peak,
and the sun rise over Daintree as we picked our morning feast.
digging oysters off the rocks by Nelligan’s foreshores,
I was certain with my best friend that I couldn’t want for more.

Remembering the ocean as I snorkeled though it brief,
in Queensland off the shore on Australia’s barrier reef.
The beauty in Belize nearly took my breath away,
and it seemed to me that God had made this gorgeous land to play.

Camping in the South Pacific beneath the skies and palms.
In the hills of South Dakota we went panning in the calm.
With the Eiffel tower, Louvre and Twilleries rounding out another day
And the visit to the gardens of Monet just made me cry.

It’s surreal to think of all the things I’ve done throughout this life,
and the blessings that I’ve gotten seem enough to make things right.
But the simplest adventure and the one I longed for most
was a man that I could count on and would love and hold me close.

Life has run away from me as I play this game of chance.
One at a time you have fallen before me, you fabled soulmates.
The scars run deep, my heart crusted over with the soles of those
who have so carelessly trod on my lifeblood.

You who have made me, could you not have shown me the danger of a love untrue?
I have been chained to the players of hearts throughout all time.
You have been quiet for too long.  Can you not hear my call?
Why do you keep silent in my time of need? Why do I not hear your comfort, your voice?

My soul calls out to find a love that binds with more than a gilded ring,
created from a spirit so true, intertwining with mine and becoming my own.
I’ve searched my whole life through for such a love;
one who is drawn to the life and soul of the me within.

From my earliest remembrance,
to this hour I have maintained,
I've never been contented
with a life of the mundane.

I’ve sought to spend each day in life
in search of curious things,
like art and education,
and the richness that they bring.

I hope to write more poetry
and share my verse in print,
and with my use of written word,
paint art with shades and tints.

I’ve been to many distant lands,
but yet my heart implores,
I seek out farther mysteries,
our planet has in store.

But now my body slows me down,
like most as we grow old,
and though I try, oft I fall short,
of plans I can control.

So, to keep myself companion,
while I will myself to heal,
I’ve formed all my ambitions,
which one day I plan to reach.

Since I was just a little child
I dreamt of life abroad,
in Kenya with the Maasai tribe,
I’ve always been enthralled.

I've fancied a safari,
where the famous five are found,
a land where great giraffes stand tall,
against the setting sun.

But, it is the Land Down Under,
that is first among my plans,
and one day soon I’ll see the coast,
of Sydney once again.

My friends will come to greet me,
though a lifetime I’ve been gone,
and united we’ll share memories,
for the present and beyond.

I’ll go for walks amidst the bush,
and hear the magpie’s tunes,
I’ll stroll beside the ghostly gums;
with nature grow attuned.

I’ll tour along the Southern Coast,
drive past Apostles tall,
and see the sites of Melbourne fair,
with all its cultured draw.

Then off to Kiwi’s northern isle,
with nature’s beauty rare,
fulfilling dreams so long desired,
to glimpse the Mauri’s there.

Waitomo, with its glow worm caves,
and Rotorua’s pools,
with geysers, Eco thermal parks,
and Bay of Islands too.

As I make my way back to the states,
I’ll stop along the way,
to visit Fiji’s turquoise coast,
and snorkel time away.

I’ll learn about the culture,
and partake of Fiji’s fare,
and when I go, I hope to leave,
a part of my heart there.

The coast of California,
on my list of sites to see;
from the Wharf in San Francisco,
to the vineyards by the sea.

I dream of redwoods sure and tall:
the parks and smell of pines,
and stand amid the ancient firs,
lest they pass for all of time.

I plan to visit Florence,
where master artists roamed;
the heart of Tuscan Renaissance,
where da Vinci made his home.

I hope to cruise Amalfi’s coast,
with others at the helm,
to view the brilliance of the sights,
and others in the realm.

While in the South of Italy,
I’ll cross the briny foam,
and walk the hills in Athens,
where ancient Grecians roamed.

I dream of Amazonia,
where man has not destroyed,
and natives live within the wild,
with harmony employed.

The last one on my bucket list,
is one I’d left undone,
when first I made my maiden trip,
and I was twenty-one.

I’d hoped to see the Emerald Isle,
and England’s castles old,
Duke’s palaces and British Tate,
are marvels to behold.

I’ll drive the ring of Kerry,
and the magic Isle of Skye,
to see its Fairy Pools of hues,
and Highland’s brilliance sights.

The lush green grass of Glen Coe,
the Scottish hills await,
would be a lifelong dream fulfilled
when all my trials abate.

With this, my final dream fulfilled,
I see my list complete,
full circle with this Commonwealth,
my restless feet at peace.

But ‘til that time when I am healed,
and I can travel far,
I’ll dream of lands beyond my reach,
and one day touch the stars.

The jungle makes its calls, welling up from hollows beyond.
Monkeys and wild things make their way through the spaces in between,
rapping from unseen places on long barriers
and marking their territory.

Sounds of birdsong fill the air calling out to all too few.
Others prowl the paths looking for prey in caves and behind walls.
Packs of banshees laugh as the chorus grows until the final call.
The last bell rings all are free run for home.

Sitting in Circular Quay in a bistro on a warm winters day
dreaming while watching the tourists and ships sail by.
As I eat oysters and drink the day in with my wine,
past memories wash over me.

Morning teas, chats, and paper bark trees,
hikes through the bush and walks along the beach.
Watching dolphins play at dawn
and fishing the waters on New South Wales shores.

The Harbor Bridge alight with Bicentennial Fireworks;
a surreal beginning to this adventure.
Wringing every drop from days spent,
finding a new world with each step.

Discovering myself through the wisdom and eyes of you,
maturing, becoming my own.
Like family, you’ve been both mentor and friend,
carrying me through fire and back.

My life was undone as I first saw your shore.
Feeling my heart would break
with our first goodbyes,
unknowing that an permanent bond had been forged.

Tracing back over the years since we met,
I’ve been given more than my share.
Making me ponder how I have been blessed,
to count you as a true friend.

Enveloped in a cloud of rain,
drenching spirit and soul.
Sunlight flickering through clouds ahead;
finally hope.

Leaving sadness behind at last,
my spirit longs to move in the sunlight of dance.
My body singing, rising to its newness,
twilight is turning bright with vibrancy ahead.

Praying the path will not turn
to the dark rainforest of gloom once more.
Can I believe in the light?
Can I believe in a future with hope?

Memories crying, screaming to be heard.
Try as I might to bury these amidst busy days,
still they rise from the backyard of my mind haunting my dreams,
making youth a nightmarish memory.

Empty rooms cry out in agonizing silence.
White ghosts float on lifeless bodies with the same question; why?
Anxious moments still taunt just beyond of safety.
The sickness that gave birth to this still clouds the mind.  

So long ago, a lifetime to make peace, still lucid moments of torment
making March an anniversary dirge.
It makes no sense to cry for those gone, for mortals spent in tragedy,
yet every year I try to understand once again, why?

Waiting for spring to return this winter’s day.
Straining to touch warm breezes of the past.
Caught in this prison of gray and white.
Wishing to break these dark chains that hold me.

Remnants of fall, crumpled like brown paper on the ground.
Straws of pale brown growing up through the snow, ******* it dry.
Seeds and freeze dried fruit lay scattered about under trees.
Bare limbs and stalks drip with liquid glass.

Trees hanging bare, gray in lifelessness.
Winter birds call out, single in their pursuit of leftover meals.
Tracks of animals unknown dot the landscape with patchwork.
Waves of ridges etched in white lead off to nowhere.

Sparse, sun filled days bring brief glimpses of hope.
With the promise of warmth waiting to banish the cold
that holds me to my past and this existence;
waiting for spring to return and thaw this frozen heart.

The warmth of life has come at last
to me along this spring time path.
Sweet fragrance floats on morning breeze,
while colors dance on plants and trees.
As orchids peek from under pines
I float off to past years and find
myself recalling days gone by
and always you who’ve said goodbye.

But while this past now flirts with me,
I take the time to let it be
and make a choice along my way
to seek out love another way.
I still recall what’s left behind
and in this heart will always find
a life that took a crooked path,
but now has found it’s own way back.

Time’s given me a second chance
to see life at a backward glace.
To learn at last from my mistakes,
so with this choice a chance I take.
To find another soul like mine,
and with that soul my life I’ll find.
My heart has come full circle now,
from life through death a blessed whole.

Once I woke to find my knight,
  at first sign of morning light,
  lying softly in the sun's first rays.

Quietly I lie in wonder,
  watching as my thoughts did ponder
  as the light against his face did play

While my mind repeated lowly,
  I began to listen slowly,
  to its crisp and clear refrain;

Take this one and let him know
  how it is your love has grown
  and let him wipe away your years of pain.

I cracked the window to my past
wondering, hoping, I was strong enough to bear
what was left of the pain
of the life I’d left behind.

But the pain, still real, erupted inside
ripped wide the scar.
Blood and tears combined, exploded
and filled my mind and soul with fear.

I feel myself slip down that lonely road again
being drawn down that black ribbon;
its blackness seeps in through the cracks in my soul
and muddy the joy I knew.

How can I brace myself against
the tide pulling me,
holding me,
enveloping me,
and dragging me down
until I no longer can breathe
beneath its endless waves?

I fear now I may never be so strong
as to face my memories.
So I entomb these behind a mighty shield
like the Chernobyl of my past.

Art, unborn,
aches to find form;
to manifest itself.
Within me it screams,
while those around
remain deaf to its cry.

It claws to free itself
from mortal chains,
restless to share its vision
with the world;
to tell its story
in verse and beauty.

This art within,
impatient, cannot wait.
It struggles to find
its voice
within my finite days
and world.

Until at last,
like a volcano,
unable to restrain that voice,
it erupts,
and my art flows out,
spilling onto paper.

The words and images
become solid,
taking form,
giving birth to the art within.
Thus, completing me,
quieting the cry inside.

Autumn’s brusque wind slices its way through the remnants of summer,
painting maples in hues of brilliant oranges and reds.
Long shadows of late September streak across the last blades of grass,
as fall’s stark contrasts light the afternoon.

The seasonal wind breathes cold with the smell of autumn in the air.
Autumn’s brusque wind slices its way through the remnants of summer,
while cottony clouds in a sea of cornflower blue, slowly slide out of view,
chased down by v’s of geese as they race across the sun.

Helicopter seeds line the sidewalks, green and gold, as others float on the wind,
down to join with cones and acorns awaiting next year’s crop.  
Autumn’s brusque wind slices its way through the remnants of summer.
Crows, harbingers of the winter to come, make their sad calls.

Squirrels pause to pack their cheeks with Fall’s fare and scurry to secret caches,
their bulging cheeks filled with fallen nuts and acorns.
Fall greets me with a kiss as summer bows to its chill, as
Autumn’s brusque wind slices its way through the remnants of summer.

You are my beginning and end,
the very breath I breathe.
My heart, my life, my soul,
my all.

You've made this life worth living.
The way that you love me,
with your kindness, understanding and joy,
I am moved.

Your heart, so sincere and trusting,
draws me in, making me whole.
All others, that came before,
are but faint counterfeits.

So wonderful are you that I melt in your arms,
not needing more, nor wanting for more.
One half of a whole was I...
You have come to complete me.

Impressionist colors rising out of chocolate brown,
stretching chartreuse necks upwards.
Intertwining vines clutching each other in a desperate rhapsody of life,
all waiting to display their Creators’ palette of pure color.

Orchid and yellow chalices hold the morning dew
as all are christened in jeweled morning light.
With blue and white snow you carpet the ground
blanketing hillsides with hope of Monet.

Orange tongues of fire licking up towards the sun
while jade blades battle as new growth crowds in.
Blossoms hang full with a living harvest of yellow,
awaiting transport to another.

Stalks of dried grasses stirred by the August wind,
dancing to the rhythm of the warm stirring breeze.  
Summer now ebbing away in aged colors muted with brown,
returning to the muddied ground once again.

We glide through life on hollow wings, while making art with earthly things,
when halting beauty stops us all around.
Unmindful of the world we share and gifts that we are given here,
content to fool ourselves with pleasures found.

We search in vain like fools to find, a beauty of a special kind,
a noise that forces all the world to see,
how wonderful our talents are to spread our names and voices far
and let us live into eternity.

How foolishly to think that we can along with czars and magic men
to light a fire that burns eternally.  
When most our hopes and dreams can bear is lifelong bliss in moments shared,
while hand in hand, I run away with you.

Sitting beneath a giant squid eating sushi.
Watching the bubbles in my beer rising to the top of my glass.
Lost in my dreams, from on top the canopy of life,
living the moment with you.

Time holds its breath as you sit beside and in me,
with your disc jockey voice and your blue-grey eyes.
I’m floating away in a glass of foam as you carry me away,
surrounded by a sea of voices beneath a giant squid.

Your hair rolls in a sea of auburn waves, caressing your face.
Emotion welling in my heart, burning my soul.
In the next room fire leaps from tables to light our way,
to a place where love is remembered and memories kept.

I’ve kept to the high road in life,
only in my mind.
Thinking myself wise to avoid
the pitfalls others faced.

A warm wind blew up from my past
and there you stood.
A memory of childhood
and view to my future.

Old and new, my path I find in you.
You’ve led me to the back roads,
on trails I’d left ignored,
looking outside the familiar at you.

For a while we walked together,
hand in hand following love’s path
caught up in the voice it called.
Suddenly, I found you had gone, taking another path.

Now I’m left abandoned, alone again
blinded by my fear to move.
For I’ve lost my way on these back roads
without my guide and without my love.

Can you find me hiding here beneath this veil
Can you see the real me?
Did you look inside this woman to find the
frightened insecure girl wanting only to be loved.

Swept up in your breeze lifting me to new heights.
Floating on a silken web back to earth, lost in wingless flight.  
Living in the moment, you’ve given me new eyes.
Riding high on a wave of ecstasy, coming alive in you.

Words elude me, running in circles to escape my lips.
Tears run with unfamiliar emotions,
washing away old scars of relationships past.
Souls unite as intertwining vines, becoming one in love.

The night is closing in as the rain is drumming on the drain outside.
Long streaks on the window run like tears down my cheeks
reminding me of you.

The oneness of being alone is swallowing me alive,  
eating me from the inside out,
from my heart to the arms that once held a love.

I am struggling to make it through the puddles
and the moat that has wrapped itself around my heart;
afraid of getting wet again, afraid to get hurt.

The cold and damp have camped out in my soul,
without the warmth of the fire of love
to keep me warm.

You moved me to take a chance and make a change
scaring the hell out of me along the way.
I should have listened to the voice inside  
and stayed away.

Eskimo Pies.  You have been the backbone of my existance.
Bland days and times of no work.  
You have sustainted me through it all.
Your lucious chocolate and creamy ice cream make my days bearable.

Vanilla dripping down my chin,
I have you on my side.
I will make do with you.
You, who have filled my life with sweetness.

Feeling the box I work in closing in on me during winter’s last gasp,
She has dug in her heals refusing to yield to warmth.
Unmerciful and unrepentant in her bitterness,
she taunts and tortures us all.

Yet, spring birds sing of spring as a lover sings of her man.
The sun struggles to break through the dark grey,
melting away the dim cold
and drabness that surrounds all.

It is almost gone, the fight to sustain, to go that extra mile.
I cannot go down that road again without the promise of change.

Hope is nearly extinguished;
a flame snuffed out by years of beurocracy and neglect.

Groping through the darkness that has enveloped us
as we struggle through days without end.

The much dreaded evil has crept under doors and into our ears;
voices of torment and faded support.

Fighting the good fight was not meant for this.
It was the promise of something more.

Gliding through a fish ballet,
moving in unison around hands outstretched.
Colors bursting all around.
leading me deeper into the world of inexplicable beauty.

Bubbles dance reflecting shimmering lights,
revealing life unseen.
Crunching coral in beaks echoes from below,
while swirling stripes beat out the rhythm of the waves

Calm and quiet surround, hypnotizing and entrancing
calling me to dance.
How tiny and insignificant we,
yet this world has existed in breathless eternity.

The scarceness of truth and beauty of this life
has ****** me dry of breath
Its ugliness has risen to try our hearts,
filling us with a blackness too awful to utter.

Love and goodness have been banned along with God,
blown away like chaff in the wind.
How many cheeks to turn?
How many cheeks to turn?

Into my soul their blackness creeps
giving voice to the cry within.  
Pack wolves wait for signs of weakness as scarlet billows
cloud the waters of small town America.

Have we forgotten kindness and humanity?  
They’ve been flushed down the toilet of
public education.

We are but ships
on the turquoise sea
we float along,
to the heartbeat of the waves.

We have been sailing,
on this forlorn course
for much too long,
going our own separate ways.

But now is the time
to change our sails
and make our courses unite,
to join forces and enjoy our lives together.

Do you have the strength to reset your sails
on the course that two can sail?
Can you set your anchor close to mine
and forgo the rest of the world?

Your sails have turned
so that our paths have crossed.
You have set your anchor by my side
and you've made me your best mate.

Like these ships on the sea,
the wind has brought us to a safe cove,
where both of us can live our lives
to the heartbeat of our waves.

I want to run, run away from this thing called life,
and make my way toward a new me;
a renaissance to believe in and hope for.
I’ve grown impatient with the meaningless days and sleepless nights;
dreams that disturb and work unsatisfying.

Frightened of change, for there is comfort and familiarity
in the desperate misery I’ve become accustomed to.
The uncertainty of tomorrow is beyond my vision,
Yesterday has undone me and tortures me stil.
You were my hope and my future.

Now I must go alone through life’s dark alleys
without your light to guide my way.

Searching to find my place once again
     lost in this foreign state of happiness.
Left with no one to guide me…
     alone.

I strive to pave my own way now;
     along new paths, unafraid.
I risk nothing,
     as most is lost.

I have left the old behind,
     bruised and bloodied.
For my heart has been at war;
     sanity at last has prevailed.

Amidst the bodies left behind,
     the old shells of who I once was,
transformed as if emerging from a chrysalis.
     A new life on the wing.

The dead brown of winter gives rise to yellow cups in lacey dress,
lifting their bowed heads to take in the golden days of spring.
Mornings heralded by melodic songs calling out for spring partners
in trees filled with cascades of color and buds waiting to open.

The snow and blackness has lifted and life has begun once more.
Forgiveness has found a foothold in this crushed heart.
Like a doctor sewing wounds and stopping the drain of lifeblood,
I have found a way to heal and make it back to life once again.

Hanging on to each day, trying to sustain,
as a spider on a web hanging by a thread.
Weaving our way through time and pain
left to hang by lovers, life and death.

Making my way through life;
strength and power of spirit take their leave.
“Be brave, chin up”, all clichés borne out of ignorance…
what do they know of me?  

Each must travel this journey on our own terms.
No flack jackets to spare us from hearts shot through by pain,
no maps to guide our way.
We stand; alone, vulnerable and lost.

Where is the one to guide me on the right path
through showers of pain and cobwebs that bind?
Let me see through this to a future of love and life.
Let me see you.

Accidents and misfortunes crowding my life
choking out pleasures reserved for a lucky few.
Not realizing that they were there for me too, just to look for
passed by as I chose to look back, blinded to what could have been.

Running in circles skirting the truth
looking for lost moments, ticking into eternity.
My hope is in this new life that I’ve found
awakening the child I’d lost, now born again in you.

You’ve taught me to live, to look now for the simple and pure;
a glass of ***** Cana or a flock of cranes grazing on a hill.
Moving together in the rhythm of jazz
in the early morning sounds and light reflecting on you.

Your beautiful face, angelic in the morning light.

You came to me in dreams,
so handsome and strong.
Clothed in a summer dress  I met you,
hair upswept and face so young.  

You were my prince,
the one who made me want,
the one who made me whole,
the one who was my dream.

Tall and blonde you came to me
with sweet songs of how life could be.
In a life apart from mine;
a hopeful life of true devine.

You have come to me
to give me hope and to make me whole.
Guide me to your soul. Leap from my nights,
into this life awaiting your love.

You’ve made me believe that today I can fly, that I can touch the stars as I pass by.
You carry me past galaxies floating on clouds, wrapped in a dream and loving out loud.
The magical carpet that sweeps me away, leaves me breathless, helpless, wanting to stay
on Kryptonite, that mystic existence beyond, where time does not matter and magic abounds.

On top of a mountain on a planet beyond I cling to your safety and hold to your calm.
Can I speak of the beauty that you have shown me?  The doors you have opened, the wonders I see?  
My lips cannot form the words now in my mind, the heaven you’ve brought, the expressions now hide.
The life that I knew before this was full, yet lonely and bland, bereft of a soul.

I stood all my life alone, apart without you, now you’ve come to my rescue in your red and your blue.
I look at the others who have been there before, look back at their lives to what theirs had bore,
I smile at their journeys, as they’ll never know, for the heavens I’ve reached on my ride do not show.
The best part of the journey is yet to explore, as I take to the skies on my carpet once more.

I stand here with Superman close by my side on the mountain of Kryptonite ready to ride.

Away, I’d like to sail away from this land locked life;
free to sail to dreams and lives beyond my own.

I dream of lands where warm winds fan my soul,
and freedom follows me to shores where time forgot.

An anchor tied around my neck, this life has come to be.
Give me strength to find the way in this desert wasteland.

Away, I’d like to sail away, free to grow and live.
This raging need to be myself is screaming to be heard.

Rising from ashes like the fabled phoenix
Growing out of nothingness to a possibility of life
I am but a tiny whisper of a breath, still struggling to be.  
with life renewed yet to be lived.

I am born to a freedom to be
what I will… what I choose to be.
Can I truly be all that I am; what I was made to be?
My slate is wiped clean by you.  

Debts repaid and fears released,
Replaced by age and broken hearts.
Why did this have to be so harrowing a life.
Why did I have to die to live?

Love is a war; a battlefield
looking for something real
in this world strewn with
shattered dreams.

Bombs and grenades blow holes
in innocent victims and
leave them to their pain
and despair.

I wait for my knight on horseback
to spare me.
I can hear the heavy hoofs and breathing of horses
as my army comes to stay the enemy of distrust.

My heart skips a beat
as I can almost feel salvation.
Holding my breath I wait for that which holds
my heart captive, to be slain.

Then you are here,along with
hope, joy, and freedom, your faithful companions,
to fill my heart and replace the blood
that has been spilt, with trust once again.

Love has found me once again,
just like the touch of some lost friend.
And like a friend it speaks to me
and tells me of what I long to see.

The love has been here all the time,
and to this truth I have been blind.
You see it lives inside my heart.
It's been here from the very start.

That gift of love from Thy own mind,
has been in all of us we find.
Through all the troubles, joys and tests,
we find our love outlasts the rest.

Believing in you, I lost my own way,
losing myself in you and to you
My better half I called you, cliché,
but you were my whole, all I could see.

Everything I am was defined by who you are.
Now I am left without any of me,
but a dream of who I was
before we came to be.

Beginning again without a foothold,
holding to the past like a lifeline tied to you.
Lost in the memory, blind to what could be,
looking all of the time for me.

Love has come to find me in the dark,
    so tender on this summer's day.
Singing like the songbird and meadowlark,
    their song of love so sweet and oh so gay.
Glowing like fireflies at twilight,
    a beacon that's come to guide my way.
It came like a thief in the night,
    stealing this waiting heart away.

My song, a melody composed,
on heartstrings of each passing day.
This ballad’s mine, and mine alone,
a verse of life, to sing my way.

T’was never plain and seldom free,
as tempos often changed and rush,
but always, I’ve been greatly blessed
with life’s vast treasures mostly hushed.

The strains that I have sung through life,
at last have finally found their ground:
A tenor voice, in senior years,
the songs I sing, with value found.

I lift my voice, the world to hear,
for ne’er will it be heard again,
as long as there is life on earth,
and time has reached its final end.

I marvel at this broken child who lived inside of me,
who struggled for so many years just longing to be free.

To live a life unburdened by my dark and early years,
that made my youth a living hell wrapped in unspoken fears.

My haunted past and broken heart could never quite recall,
the missing piece tucked safely back behind a guarded wall.

So well my mind protected me from all those silent fears,
that n'er did I suspect what lie behind those childhood tears.

Like the ghost it was, it came to me to haunt me in the night,
and brought me to my knees when life refused to treat me right.

Then suddenly, though sent by God, you've given me the key,
To open up these long locked doors and set my spirit free.

Now each sweet day is filled with so much joy and hope I find,
that little girl, so happy now, is dancing in my mind!

Within a world of azure blue,
the mantas glide with angel wings,
and fly on winds of ocean waves,
inside their realm of mystery.

Like ancient beings from the deep,
they flash and shimmer in our light,
with other-worldly mammoth forms;
cephalic fins and flattened frames.

These gentle giants of the night,
draw fishes from the briny deep,
their vivid forms flash to and fro,
feed on the banquet of the sea.

They dance balletic in our lights;
exquisite, rings and summersaults,
with bubbles lit to guide their path,
they glide just past our mortal reach.

These stunning marvels of the deep,
are but a finite sampling,
of what our planet offers up,
far past our wild imaginings.

I once believed in a man strong, beautiful and kind.  
His voice as familiar as his sense of humor.
He took me to gaze at the moon and on trails to see wild spring flowers.
His eyes green and the curves of his face rounded in the morning light.  

With my heart and life, I trusted him.  He held both in his hands.  
Our love was whole and true, so long ago.  
I feel his touch in dreams, caressing me late into the night and holding me closely.  
Soft jazz reminds me of these moments in time.

How could this love have gone so wrong?
I am caught between my love and my anguish.
Could I have been so blind as not to see the signs?  
How could I not have seen him fading into another, tossing me aside like a bloodied soldier in this war on love.

When did he stop believing in me, between the lies?
When did I stop, between the love and the lies?
Is there nothing real… were we ever one?
He is a stranger without a penitent heart and soul.

Can this ever be made right; friends that part in anger,
the us that will never be again.
My angel has become a nightmare of unfinished endings,
and I, still caught between love and lies.

You're hot, like Death Valley in July,
so hot, one touch could make me cry.
Hot, like the face of the summer sun
and in my heart I know you're the only one.

I try my best to keep my cool,
not wanting to play another man's fool,
But I've been patient for far too long
to tell you what I feel is strong.

You call my name and I grow weak
and struggle just to find my feet.
You make me feel like I was young
like springtime or a song that's sung.

You're hot, sizzling like the sun at noon,
like the sunshine on a desert dune.
Can you feel the love that you've inspired
and give me what my heart desires?

Remembering the pain on that cold dark winter’s day,
being turned out at your door while snow around me lay.
Without a word of comfort just a hug and cheap goodbye,
I agonized to figure what had gone so wrong and why.

Losing all I was that day, I cried for years to come.
Why did you betray your friend, your joy, your love?
All consuming was the freedom that so quickly pulled me in,
while it ****** the breath from me as I struggled in my skin.

Looking back on the road that has brought me here today,
Remembering the magic and the crashes on life’s way.
Recalling all the love and pain, I would not turn away,
from all the joy I would have missed along love’s blinding way.

Adventure longs to gather me, along with tides from southern seas,
To far off shores of places long ago
Where freedom was reality and life was new and problem free
my heart was truly whole and brimmed with hope

The brightest light of summer days, reminds me of how I used to play
in worlds that echo warm and rich with song.
Where sunlight dances through the trees and summer sings on warmer breeze
and sweetened fragrance softly fills the air

The singing of a steel drum band with ghosts of Rastas on the sand
comes drifting back to me from years gone past.
And beckons me to come once more and run along that distant shore
to free the child in me to play at last

In other times and other places thinking of those far off spaces
Confused by life and they beckon me to come
I try in vain to still the sound of memory past and present found
In haunting whispers dancing through my mind

Now I’m left alone to cry while all the dreams I had have died
Where just the ghost of love can keep me warm
So I make a pact with memory to dream of where I cannot be
And hand in hand I run away with you

Sunlight streaming through cracks in my heart.
Rembrandt painted tulips breathe color back into my life.
The palette of time brings possibilities of love again
moving in and out of my consciousness.

I’ve made my way to this colored landscape
hoping more than trusting in the future.
Trying to outlive the past, making the most of this time,
living with cracks in my heart.

Out of the merciless darkness and recesses of February,
comes the hope and promise of rebirth.
Hope only as white covers the landscape and grey dominates all;
life has all but ebbed away in this wasteland of broken hearts

A year of wasted time, a life made barren by you.
Time has slipped away in healing, and transforming into myself.  
How could you have left me to face the life facing me alone,
hurting and in silent grief.  

You alone can answer the questions,
and you alone can make me whole once again,
to face a new life and calm the ghosts of the past and
give me the hope of renaissance.

Softly you sing, so sweetly my dear,
like a songbird repeating what I so long to hear.
The lyrical songs to which I respond,
make me feel like the one to which you belong.

Like a wave on the ocean your crests lift me high,
with your words and your kindness they help me to fly.
Like the swarms of small birds that fly out to sea
our love has now grown into what it should be.

We have been to the heights of the heavens beyond
and you've been in my heart and my soul all along.
Can you remember the time that we weren't so blessed,
when our life was not one but just two with a wish?

For a wonderful, blissful and compassionate love
a union ordained from blessed heaven above.