killing time...

Lets just kill then
The morning
And the night
With empty words
And artificial light

Then
When the evening's dead
Choked by the blight
Of borrowed words
From books you've read
That claimed to help
You help yourself;
When all that's polite
And right's been said.

Then perhaps
In the crying night
The absence of light
Might let us connect
In other ways.

festival of light... 2011

"What is to give light must endure burning"
- Viktor Frankl.


It is odd to remember that this festival began with the idea of fire as a force that would burn away the unessential, and return things to the purity of the flame. On this day then, and in those to come, I hope that some of us will find the courage to burn away the unessential from our lives, fan our little forgotten sparks to flames, and shine...


Here's a toast to the crazy diamonds in a world gone glam with glitter. May we have the courage to burn - as brightly as we can.

morning after

"You're so good at being bad"
She declares with a sigh
"The best I've ever had"
It's her excuse to fly

A smile flits across my face
Steel gates up around my soul
As my ears perceive
The words I've heard
Only so many times before

Her fingers trace a lazy line
Down the path of no return
Flesh responds without a sign
Of distance or concern

It's well-oiled now
The farewell show
A well-worn litany
Those final thrusts
Of unbridled lusts
Quenched in apathy

She looks at me with loving eyes
Carefully fabricated webs of lies
As we speak our final farewells
From our well-masked private hells
A lingering fragrance remains
Nostalgia inked in little stains
Upon the tapestry of our lives
Smiling gates shut with open eyes
They watch on,
Grimly strong,
As inside
Love dies

Freshly-picked words

Like the roadside morning blooms
Picked by the early rising lover
Who picks the early morning flower
Before it can be crushed
By the speeding trucks of doom
The cruel wheels of the waking world

Thus it is that I pick my words
For you in the morning
Freshly grown words
Dew-ridden in the morning light
Dew-written at the end of night

These words shall crumble away
By the end of day
But now they are fresh
My offering to you
Before the wheels of the world can spin us apart
A bouquet of hand-picked words from the heart

Echo

I throb
To the sound
Of the words
That you speak,
To the caress
Of your breath
Upon my cheek;
As we walk
Arm in arm
Down deserted streets
Our laughter warms
The nightly air
That makes others shiver.

Our breath is frost
But the words are warm.
Bodies resonate, we quiver
In time, together;
Braving the weather
In search of the sublime.

Secret

There
Just beyond
The edge
Of consciousness
It lies

Good!
You found it
Your reason
For being alive

It spreads
Across your eyes
Home again
Your secret smile

Look Up

With two strong hands, my friend,
You could reach out and touch the sun
Yet you root around in the dirt
And you're slowly coming undone

With your two strong legs, my friend
Your race could already be won
Yet you hobble yourself, and refuse
To ignore the potholes, and run

Your eyes are watering, my friend
From looking at the filth for too long
Raise them just once, and you'll see
Out there is where you belong

We're all of us stuck in the mud
This gutter runs slick with our tears
And above, the lonely sky waits
For one of us to confront his fears

The choice lies with you, my friend
Whether to sink with them or swim
Just raise your head and meet my eyes
This world really isn't all that grim.

Let me be your Rollercoaster

Let me be your rollercoaster
Let me take you for a ride
Into worlds you've never fathomed
Out of worlds that you deride.

Let me be your ferris wheel
Let me take you up into the skies
Out of the murky underworld
To see where the wild eagle flies.

Let me be your guiding light
Let me lead you deep inside
Into that maze which is your mind
And I'll show you why you cried.

Let me take you off your merry-go-round
And find you other ways to fly
Let me sweep you off your ground
And show you my world up high.

Come with me, my love, this time,
And let your fears all fall astray
Let me be your starship now
And you can be my stowaway.

All you need is to say the words
And we'll be off in the blink of an eye
If you let me be your rollercoaster
And you let me take you for that ride.

flashback

I lie awake
Consumed
By the memory
Of your smile
For a while
My body throbs
And resonates
To that low growl
In your throat
When I heard you gloat
That night you had me pinned
How we laughed as we sinned
And how you called my name
Softly
In your sleep
As I lay awake
Listening to your heart beat

I lie alone
Thinking of the tears
It's been years
Since they intermingled
And we cried
Trying to dry
Each others fears
As we ripped apart
Our very own selves
The fragile world we'd built
From the fabric of our hearts

I lie awake often
And think of you
I wonder if you do too...