One step at a time
seems like good advice to follow
especially when the direction is not
specified.
Take one step at a time
forward, backward or sideways
as you need,
but only one at a time.
Tag: poetry
Please Try Again
It starts at the pelvis.
A pre-battle cry
heard so often, so often before.
My body instinctively crouches down
with rain clouds building behind my eyes,
a cold wind at their heels.
Painful numbness
settling in, setting up camp
to offer reassurance that it’s there,
still there.
Waking me up from sleep so deep,
jolting me back to Earth from a daydream,
twisting and turning my innards from behind,
singing a song
“Remember, remember,
dandelions, shooting stars and wishes
have failed you.
There is no one here with you,
you’ll have to try again.”
The message rings out loud and clear:
Please Try Again.
September
Where the dry, humid, sweat-provoking
heat once rested upon my skin,
a new, cool air rests instead,
dancing along the hairs extended
from their follicular homes.
The world feels different;
calm, soft,
gently braving us for the changes
waiting ahead.
Night lives longer
trees change color
the sun rests more.
The world shifts
as do I
to enter the warm, welcoming embrace
of September.
Rid the preconceptions
Come, rest your head a while
think not of things unnecessary.
Rather, think of nothing.
Clear your mind until it resembles
a bed with freshly cleaned sheets
untouched, unsat on,
unslept in,
waiting to envelop whoever arrives first.
Rid the preconceptions and
judgements residing now,
so that you may
await and absorb
the new, unexpected and changing
life you live
amongst your sheets.
Computered Math
Stop, please.
Why in such a rush?
Alert your ears, quiet your voice.
A life grasped,
embraced, captured and
remembered through stories shared
offers comfort and hope
if listened to.
Knowing, to the core,
the world around us
is possible only through travel,
exploration and a mind open.
Who are we to say otherwise
from our stationary couch
and firmly planted feet.
Worlds surround us, call out to us.
Why not answer?
The longer you look
The longer you look
the more that appear,
faintly at first, emerging from the
blackened sky, until
millions of stars cast their light
upon our eyes.
Close your eyes, lose focus
and open them to experience
the wonder all over again.
Satellites roam, airplanes jet
and the soft, cool breeze of night
finds its way under the blankets
to rest against shivering skin.
Shivering
from the coolness
and
from the humility enveloping my soul.
Live in today
Humbled by the reminder
of life’s impermanence,
jarring the body, the initial energy jolt
that reverberates for days, and then
months and years.
Does it change the color of glasses you
wear, facing the world every day?
For me, it does.
How to
optimize happiness,
invest in time with others,
give and accept love often and generously,
honor my inner compass;
listening to the answers of these frequent questions.
Displace the certainty of death
to today.
Live in today.
Only today.
beads on a string
I string together words
like beads on a string
hoping that their order and arrangement
evicts feelings of
Passion
Love
Heartbreak
and Beauty.
Bring beauty to the written word,
words that carry meaning beyond their
place in a dictionary.
Railing
Are you meant to keep things out
or in?
Do you mean to protect me
or them?
Distort the reality my eyes absorb so to
block only certain parts, geometrically
and consistently,
forcing me to change my position so to
collect the full picture, all the
information?
You are the firm stance to which I must adapt
and yet, I can do better than you
for my arms can travel through, above
and below you
and my body can travel round.
You can only keep so many things out
and protect me so long
until I no longer need you
anymore.
Eyes of green
Looking at you from across the room,
yearning for your eyes to find
and connect with mine.
All I want, all I need,
is for you to see me. Notice me.
Acknowledge that I am here and I am looking at you.
Your eyes are a swirl of greens
from sage to emerald, and olive to forest
that sweep me away to the countrysides of Kerry.
I know not where in the world I stand
when I look at you and my thoughts jumble.
All I want, all I need,
is for you to see me. Notice me.
I have meandered into your eyes before, as
these are not new shades of green attracting my fancy.
While enchanting, I also know them to be manipulative
and perhaps that is how I have best come to know them.
How they are implanted into my memories, withholding my escape.
You too described my eyes as being beautiful,
but perhaps you saw them as easy, or temporary,
all the while knowing you would not be the one to tell me so,
for I am a ‘smart girl’, one of my traits which are admirable to you.
All I want, all I need,
is for you to see me. Notice me,
because I need to tell you that you were right. I am a smart girl.
Although I doubt you seek my affirmation for your righteousness.
I am a smart girl.
Smart enough to understand why you left.
And I want to capture your eyes of green one last time
so you can see the fire within mine.
Dawning Words 