Category Archives: Poetry

How high the darkness

How high do we go in the dark?
Or is it always down?
The depths of anguish
Deep depression
Heavy grieving
What if the darkness is merely a threshold?
A catalyst for changes that must happen?
A step that isn’t there
To support our heart-stopping air
A shift in vision of what was to be
To what is in this moment
Chastised for arriving at rejection’s door
Huddled in the clothing of innocence
The wailing lamentations of a heart
Breaking open to possibilities not yet named
Climbing out of the pit of despair
To observe the mountainous task
Unasked for
Recognized at last, not as a destination location
But a roadside attraction, a must see,
With the oddest of bedfellows
Now clothed in the light of new understanding.

Don’t Go

The match burst unexpectedly into a flame
The tender tinder caught
An ignition of late-night discussions
That pursued verbal intercourse
Vulnerability exposed; naked
An incredible view from the mountain
Where true north was marked on our compass
The heat and warmth of intention
Splayed out in tranquility and mutual reliance
Invited to an adventure of a lifetime
We blazed new trails through trials
But apathetic time broke the compass
And people do what makes sense to them
The safe place became a wasn’t
And a not now, not ever.
The allure got eaten by silence
When all I wanted to hear was
“Don’t go.”

Dead City

I found myself in puddles of meltdowns
Oozing through the sidewalk cracks
The rawness of naked exposure
Seeping under the weeds.
I had to scrape my gooey emotions
Off the concrete where I stuck
Like melted gum on the bottom

of my own shoe
with a bullshit shovel shaped like my heart

To breathe took my breath away
My heart found no rhythm
In the pulse of the city
Where buses shuttled souls
By necessity or convenience to appointments
Where a prescription for life
Was offered but often denied.
Hollow Easter chocolate bunnies
Held more inside them than I did/could
They were far sweeter than me, too
Because my angry bitterness bit my hand
Gnawed on my fingers
as they pointed blame
At the shallow façade I masked myself with

Homeostasis

Survival mode stepped to the side
Allowing an informal reprieve from chaos
An acknowledgement of mutual security
The stability that came to dinner
Pulled up a chair and feasted gluttonously
On a childhood fantasy for totemic inclusion
Seized the steadfastness of a kinship
Situated in a sprawled right relationship
Ladling the gravy of laughter over
Legendary stories of affinity
A communion of flavorful moments
Savored in a homemade assurance of loyalty
With an abundance of whipped cream

A Pilgrimage

Death offers the warm embrace of peace
A loving homage to the newly deceased
Life used to stay busy; feel overly productive
The spiral of drowsing is overwhelmingly seductive
No more errands or things to do
No more arguments of personal truth
With warmest lust on the coldest skin
An allegiance unfurls with the shifting winds
What was once taken for granted truly is sated
The breath comes no more from the body related
And yet as a witness to the dearly departed
A journey, a pilgrimage, a trail never charted
Speculation like specters gather for court
Dressed in saint’s clothing, suspended transport
the breathing world is holding hands with Death
leaving lamentations from the loved ones bereft

Blooming Pebbles

Each breath is a step towards Death

Yet we take for granted the breath

not the inevitable destination.

Remembering to breathe is acknowledging life

It is the act of inflating our lungs

with air that has formed words

of love

of hate

of anger and grief

Exhaling out our life’s resistance

to succumb to a fate

written finitely on the pebble

which blooms as our gravestones

in our final hour of mortal coil.

Campfire confessions

Grounding one’s heart
on the hearth of a campfire
recommitting branched souls to dust
smoldering with barely seen confessions
blazing with a lust to remain relevant
extinguished by time
returned to the mother

Rejuvenation

A walk in the wild wood timber
When the leaves have all blown down
The wintery wind whips omens
Of the King who’s lost his crown
No longer sanctified or honored
Or otherwise enshrined
The gloom embraces obscurity
Elemental slumber consigned
Deep beneath the gloaming soil
The spark of life remains
Guided by the ancient ways
A labor of growing pains
For when the woods again awaken
And the leaves return to green
The King will once again be born
His life, again, be seen

Revolution

The winds of change do not blow lightly
They are destructive, devastating, overwhelming
But they are necessary to create stronger; better
My feet are rooted in the mountain
My eyes are drinking in the sky
My arms are outstretched to embrace the shift
My thighs are heated for battle
My belly hungry for the crusade
My chest is bare, unafraid and unaffected
As I breathe in the promise of new dawn
I exhale revolution of heart and mind
Calling my sisters and brothers
As thunderous as a siren’s song

Into this life.

Into this body.

Into this time.