Category: Poetic Musings

The pressure to fly higher,
More quickly than before

Caused crossfire pinging –
As sunmelt evened score.

(March 28, 2021)

The one who comprehends and can communicate this with me.

The one who understands and can own strength in vulnerability.

The one who risks despite popularity.

The one who reaches for the finer things most cannot, and/or will not see.

The one who nourishes and receives from me, who laughs and invests enthusiastically.

The one who holds the world tenderly with me, as we grow our family’s legacy.

Risk in love is part of its nature – but,
If heart squeezes as senses danger,

Trust is damaged between the two:
Self compromise looms, if continue.

I’m not one, but I ought to be. Need creeps within veins.

Did someone slip something to me? There was a turning point where shift rearranged.

I could blame those who’ve harmed me – but what good comes from raving at the insane?

The burden weighs heaviest upon those undeserving of chains.

My parents are such a dynamic duo
Their energy had filled the property.

I did not feel returned heaviness, nor
My gut-stopped and twisting anxiety.

The emptiness of their house above
Leaves me hollow by this isolation.

At night, though bug noise fills air,
The vacancy feels like desolation

August 16, 2021

A place to rest and relax
Where no one interferes

And the rainfall heavily
Patters on the rooftop

As an empathetic healer, I cannot be around toxic people. Their draw on my system becomes like a bleeding wound – for their methods seek to self-propagate, rather than resolve.

From those who want to control me;
From those who prevent new entry;

From my self as forge new paths
As I search for a solid standing.

People with more than enough
Afraid to lose what they’ve got

Forget others with so much less
Lack even a smidgeon’s portion.

One should not fear family –
They should be one’s haven:

A rock to anchor by at sea,
Island of safety’s recovery.

Family should not seek to
Validate reasons rejecting

Trust’s forging a new city –
Claiming this is their duty.

I am not sure I can ever trust when deep peace fills inside,
For it seems to happen just before the swelling of the tide

And all I’ve come to cherish against fears overthrown
Is washed away from sight by the ocean’s undertow.

Here child, learn from my experience:
Stay in the sun, where not deleterious.

Have no sympathy for those who lie –
Except as you turn to wave goodbye.

Until then – hold fast – Believe in You:
Never stop questing for deliverance.

All I’ve found
Is temporary –

Thus, perhaps
It is an illusion…

If this is so, then
Why do we need?

If it’s glass, it’s breakable:
Things get in to harm me.

Why doesn’t it work the other way –
Where I can break it, to break free?

When we arrive home, the forest is inviting:
It doesn’t resist that we love to go venturing.

I wish we could relocate it to northern regions,
For I’ve come to love it through every season.

The singing chorus of evening crickets –
Bullfrog river/goose-reservoired thickets.

Ravens that honk as they fly over the land;
Pines dropping cones, wherever we’d stand.

Satellites zooming across Milkyway heights:
Bright constellations track heavens at night.

Am I just a fool for wanting/needing to leave?
But if stay here, I stagnate – no longer achieve.

Darkness has tried to smother me ever since bad men broke my boundaries.
My light draws evil from wounds, mitigating poisonous festering, yet
Suffering has little restraint in its eagerness to find release.

(Multiple meanings in title.)

Distillates gathered carefully
Reveal suppressed memories:

The answers are there to see
When we look to the internet –

Not in the distractive chatter,
But in knowledge as gleaned

When we look for the patterns
Distinguishing our capabilities.

It’s not just that I’ve been abused, misused, discarded, and trampled upon.

It’s that I was born with my heart open, and never heard but a hint of an answering song.

The hunger is terrible; the ache unbearable.

I pray I’m not the only one who’s felt this way – and that our days of redemption are coming strong.

Pushing limits, I burst through the veil, finding myself teetering on the edge of the unknown – breathless, adrenaline rushing, as gaze down at the world below.

Oh! I miss the days
Of times gone past

Where we pursued
Patterns that last:

When a matriarch
Ruled the kitchen –

And all gathered
For gaiety’s fixin’s.

When crackling hearth
Provided warm spirits,

And jokes lifted hearts
As joined to hear them

While children played
And screamed chatter –

Then, toasts were raised
As silverware clattered.

When we ate too much:
Eyes groaning at pies

With indulgence –
No compromise!

And the crisp frost spoke
Cold still yet to come, but

Our hearts felt nourished
From love’s butter rum.

(November 26, 2020 – Athena Stairs)

There is magic in the thin, upper realms
Where the stars may kiss your forehead

And snow swirls are iced down on land
As clouds stream by from all directions.

The sun speeds forward to meet them,
Where tomorrow becomes a new day.

(Flights to Egypt)

Shoes that still on surface shine, but
Underneath are split and torn open
As they scuff pebbles, scratching
Along street pavement modified
For cars, after horse carriages.

When they are bigger than you
And can hold you pinned down,

You learn to not resist them –
To let them control your body.

When you begin maturing,
You assess their measure –

Testing for whether or not
You can fight against tether.

When they turn your words
Into lies as they cheat you,

Curling into a fetal position is
All you can do in submission –

Until ignites the will to live
No longer in subjugation.

But then, as time moves on,
It’s found people love strife –

And to carve yourself a niche
Risks others brandishing knives.

Having become a warrior,
The rage flows inside me:

Just now beginning to learn
There is the option to flee.

Give to me all that
You want to receive,

And watch our world
Alight with prosperity –

For I will ever lift your
Desires above my own,

And your heart will know
We’ve found love’s home.

Born in a time of deconstruction,
Gifted with abilities to re-Create:

Bending the light against illusion,
Making rebirth’s dance as dictate.

The psychology of power relationships
Processes break down and rebuilding

So that what was weak before yields
To gaining strength where once hid

In illusion of safety which trapped
True potential, begging for release.

In such times as this impresses, it could be easy to do important things sloppily.

But, for advancement when I could not progress easily, I have instead slowed my response time extremely.

I let the situations take measure of themselves, and only deal with what’s most pressing.

Meanwhile, I keep tabs on the other items that must be remembered, watching as their relativity shifts positions.

If I were just trying to rhyme,
My art would not portray me:

In “Like Wild Magic,”
I could flip “energy”

And change its place
With word “expends” –

But then the energy
Would not dissipate

In the flow
Of the poem

(Such as here 
Has happened).

I do not plan these things,
They just formulate within

The structure of pieces as
They discover their selves:

An instinct that comes
From years of practice

Of my joining with them
To coallesce our journey –

And a love for words
In their expressions.

A moment of tonality in
Felt and heard auditory

Will inspire my song
To pour out eloquently,

Musically surpassing
Usual expectations…

It must feel secure
To alight so boldly,

Perfect in raw
Essentiality –

Then, fading as
Energy expends,

Saving itself for the
Next time motivated

It’s not the wielding of force, but
Melding to blend with a chance.

It’s not from assault of tensions,
But results from will’s inclination

And projects as strong charisma
When partnered with keen vision.

I thought that it could be easy –
But, found lack in their maturity.

What draws my heart is potential:
I’ve been blind to what’s essential.

(Title has multiple meanings.)

It is unsettling when working with remnants, aiming for unknown destinations.

Is it faith which allows steps to find new footholds, one in front of the other?

Or is it trusting in one’s self that instinct will flush quarry from cover?

It isn’t as easy as they say – even though they admit it takes a while.

All the therapy in the world can not take the place of time needed for injuries’ healing.

Although having therapy as an adjunct to just taking time to “lick one’s wounds” is complementary.

We are Masters of Our Destiny,
Yet, received very little training:

We must learn how to regulate
Impulses while comprehending.

The lure is to jump out of the hatch as tension builds and need for resolution pressures. 

But, this is the wrong response when hurtling toward unknown destinations.

Let go of need for control. Breathe, rest, and respond vs. indulging reactions.

Sweat pours as scents clog nose –
Sweet pine needles & elm leaves:

Wide, plastic rake lift-ushering
Waves tumbling forward with

Rasping shh, like ocean tides
Rolling onto a distant shore.

We arrived here, to a 
Land set back in time:

Held firm against wills –
Cocooned by protection.

They say wounds fester
If not allowed to breathe
With care’s healing salves.

What about a person’s heart
When they’re alone to tend it –
Having to stay so, to defend it?

Flitting lightly as
A hummingbird 

Kissing flowers
Above quicksand.

Caught of my reflection
Wearing shirt of power,

Owning authority with
Power’s light command:

I’m a child like any other,
But I’ve found firm hand

Within my own guidance.

Do you see me as I’ve seen you?
Brimming with Will’s desire to

Beat back odds to submission –
Bursting with radiant relief!

Fire,
Speech, &
Communication:

We’re granted tools to
Survive, teach each other,
And proove worth’s intentions.

The houses are tall and stately –
Or plantation-like, and serene.

Trees cluster up against them comfortably:
Green, lush lawns spread elegantly.

This place has a mixture of
Many places we’ve been before –

All the good parts in this big city or that:
The parts of the smaller city where we stayed / where we lived.

It also has the mental health issues
Clustered around the local Safeway,

And the students raggle-tagglin’ around,
Caught up in their own private monologues.

You can look around at any age:
Everybody’s doing something.

It’s a nice change from where we’ve been –
Where the doing is just basic.

We were separated
By seas and cultures.

But now, the world is
Accessible by internet –

And population’s growth
Has us bump into elbows.

How then is it still possible
We’re divided from touching

Truth in each other’s hearts
To reveal better destinations?

Do not fear days will not come:
When you’re older – Time is won.

My voice is heard, but still silent;
My mind fights against violence.

My heart reaches for illumination;
My soul needs spirit’s reclamation.

As seek excuses to annihilate us,
I represent those you cannot see –

For we are busy trying to achieve,
Where others destroy life’s seeds.

We jumped into another pond
Without knowing where’d land –

Found hidden patch of bullfrogs
Determined to eat all strangers.

With now established base camp,
Embraced by woods that shelter,

We leap for a better future where
Intelligence is prized above hatred.

It’s hard to tell when encounter corruption
If that’s the norm – or from bad intentions.

The fact that it’s so prevalent in societies
Lends us to think it’s our own impropriety

For daring to buck the trend of a system
Where honest morality’s akin to mystery.