So high a price,
So thoughtless paid,
A loaded dice,
A promise made,

A whispered lie,
A look away,
And love to die,
And pain to stay,

Another game,
Another end,
So stay the same,
So just pretend.

JHenry

There comes a cold December when the snow covers the ground,
It softens all the edges and it mutes all of the sound,
I shiver in my jacket and I think of sunset skies,
When the birds were singing sweetly and color of your eyes,

There’s a fire that’s burning somewhere and it warms the winter’s night,
While the wind blows past the window,
clouds obscure the pale moonlight,

And there’s blankets full of comfort lying softly in a pile,
Somewhere, somehow, I will get there to remain a little while,
While the snow gets ever deeper and the cold seems here to stay,
Though it be a cold December we can chase the cold away.

JHenry

I keep coming back to the same question. What do I do with all this pain?
It’s ******* everywhere! It fills my house, and it’s spilling out of every opening, and it’s lying all over the ground everywhere I go.
Since over the years, I’ve been asking the forests to hold it for me, and I’ve sunk it in lakes and I’ve tucked it under the rocks. I’ve spread it out along the city streets, until the shadows and doorways were all full to bursting.
I’ve put it in all sorts of containers and oddities until the pockets of my soul and heart are all bulging and torn.
I’ve put it in drawings, and creativity, and I’ve used it as ink for so many poems and narratives.
I’ve recycled it into love, and compassion and understanding.
But still there’s more and finally, I’m out of room. And now it’s everywhere! It’s just ******* everywhere!
I have a thought
Maybe instead of hiding it or trying to lose it, I gather it all back up. I compress it and mold it.
Walls separate so that won’t work, and it’s the wrong material for stepping stones or stairs. It’s too itchy for a blanket and too unflattering for a cosmetic.
But I think that pain could make a fine shield, etched with the sorrows that came before, and painted with tears. Used to deflect more of the same, but to leave my strong hand free, so I can still welcome the future.
But what a job that is going to be,
I better get started.

JHenry

Once that I am in your arms,
Never again will I be free,
Once that I hold onto you,
And let your hands touch me,
Once our sweat has mingled,
And bodies move as one,
Heaven promises no such pleasure,
And Hell’s work will be done,
The world to weep it’s bitter tears,
It knows my soul it cannot save,
Only in you do I find peace,
I’ll lie restless in the grave.

JHenry

There’s a sparkling in your eyes,
And tonight I’m feeling fine,
Watch the stars dazzle the skies,
Through another glass of wine,
Let’s celebrate the days of old,
We can raise a toast of ***,
I’ll recite their glories told,
And dream of the days to come,
But of this I’m well aware,
That tomorrow comes too soon,
With just ***** crystal clear
We could live upon the moon,
Will you join me for a dance?
Of adventure mixed with gin,
A discovered dark romance?
And I think we should begin,
To find a moment lost in time,
Forgotten long and far away,
Where the zzar is causing rhyme,
And that’s how I went astay,
But I know that now is real,
Though my hearts in full eclipse,
It’s this longing that I feel,
To taste the Absinthe on your lips.  

JHenry

The highwayman came riding and he knocked upon my door,
And how my eyes did brighten, I’d not seen his kind before,
Returning from adventure, his blue eyes twinkled so,
His golden hair was sparkling, his rapier sat low,
The evening sun was setting, brightest crimson was the sky,
I knew that his quick hello would soon be a goodbye,
For his smile was full of mischief as I opened up that door,
And his slim form slid right past me tracking mud upon the floor,
The stories he was telling made my spirit lift and fly,
Then the sorrow that came after as he bowed his head to cry,
For friends he’d lost and failures just as many as the wins,
And how there is no telling if the adventure ever ends,
The highwayman left riding as I closed the heavy door,
And I just can’t shake the feeling, I won’t see his kind no more.

JHenry

An echo in forever,
Illusions shattered on the ground,
And I will wait for never,
Somewhere nowhere to be found,
A mirror reflecting backwards,
There’s a smile that will not fade,
A clock that don’t move forward,
Blinding sunshine in the shade,
True freedom is in losing,
Laughing at both wants and needs,
Accepting in the choosing,
If I’m planting graves or seeds,
You should follow me and lead me,
In the lies you find what’s true,
The darkness is where we can see,
All the light of me and you.

JHenry

To bow your head in sorrow,
To break down and to cry,
Does not erase tomorrow,
Shows you had the guts to try,
And scars on soul and body,
And wounds that cease to seep,
Belong to everybody,
And they are ours to keep,
Mistakes bring guilt, are painful,
But that is not the test,
An error is not blameful,
It’s how you live the rest,
Though broken and fragmented,
Though jagged and full of doubt,
A soul that is tormented,
Can turn itself about,
You’re a beautiful mosaic,
Each piece a work of art,
Original and eclectic,
Witb a vibrant, beating heart.

JHenry

The roses bloom in summer’s light,
Thinking not of winter’s sight,
The first frost comes in the night,
Shriveled, lifeless, petal’s blight,
As always it has been,
Death comes quick, skeletal hand,
Grasps it all, as hourglass sand,
Life to wither, nothing to stand,
Ice covers all, across the land,
We know what happens then,
The sun’s fire, tilts her head,
The time has passed for the dead,
We must rise up, to live instead,
I raise my eyes, that’s what I said,
And reach to take the pen,
A new bud blossoms, still to grow,
Spring begins another show,
My pen creates a vibrant glow,
I celebrate the ebb and flow,
Of all I’ve seen and been.

JHenry

A question of the ages,
And it is getting late,
As time flips through it’s pages,
Is this free will or fate?
I stand my ground, deciding,
My life is mine to choose,
Resisting or abiding?
Are we all destined to lose?
Or are lucky ones the winners?
Though the path is winding still,
The angelic and the sinners,
Is it fate or our free will?
There’s a Heaven where we’re going,
But Hell is here on Earth,
The challenge is the knowing,
Since the long past day of birth,
As the fulcrum totters sideways,
Confusion that I feel,
Is it fate’s playful hand that sways?
Or because of my free will?

JHenry

He built a cage for her out of the bones of their own children,
And how little and compliant she seemed inside it,
Toiling away at imagined responsibilities,
The demons in her mind were all to willing to listen to his,
And his slothful habits never ceased to give her something to do,
A distraught mind and overworked body has little time to examine a cage,
And cage or no, it still should be clean and comfortable… right?
How complacent, arrogant and overbearing he became,
So sure of his singular tactic,
But her gaze was always far beyond the cage, she was only waiting,
Through days of stark clarity, and days on the edge of madness, she waited,
Bones are not steel,
They would weaken.

JHenry

I’m alive upon this earth,
So big and fair and round,
But I’m just a tiny fragment,
Barely needing solid ground,
Isn’t right and left subjective?
Because up is up to me,
So then any road I travel,
Is right where I should be,
Because who knows where I’m going?
And I haven’t got a clue,
Though if you’re going that way,
I might walk awhile with you.
But the path it tends to spiral,
There’s always another turn,
There’s forks and thorns and pitfalls,
But, Oh my God, we learn,
And parting ways it happens,
Throw a kiss into the wind,
Goodbyes are empty echoes,
Only where the new begins,
But I think this is important!
And I promise that I would,
And I ask you humbly also,
Let’s remember just the good,
I think I’m heading this way,
Just because it caught my eye,
The path is an illusion,
Made of hopes and dreams and sky,
And I have misplaced my compass,
It just wasn’t meant to be,
But now that has me thinking,
Does it make me lost or free?

JHenry