Verse: untitled

if you
do not see me

when nothing
approaches

with an all
consuming silence

that takes
my voice

instills me
with great doubt

and removes
all traces of me

i want you
to know this

i cannot recall
a day

that i did
not love you

even when
the silence

was just
between us

even when i was
so distracted

by the everyday
that i neglected
to tell you.

Verse: untitled

if you
would understand
the sea

you must
first look
at the stars

to see
how they
float by

if you
would understand
the night

you must
first look
at the sun

to see
how it
illuminates everything

if you
would understand
anything

you must
first look
at a dream

to see
how it
eludes you

if you
would understand
love

you must
first look
at longing

to see
how it
becomes you

when you
are not
here.

Verse: A winter poem for @gilesmarie

first is the frost
a shroud
of stars
that falls upon
fallow earth
without so much
as any wish
to hold on to
and then
the bare trees
slip into
their coats
thick and white
like whipped cream
its wonderful
when it
is new
when the clouds
are mackereled
and the air
is crisp
and brisk
and we catch
sight of our breath
before it scatters
like chickadees
and yet
nothing compares
to watching
the streets
crawl under
fresh linens
woven by fireflies
darting about
in the amber glow
of festive streetlights

Thursday's Verse: Poem for someone who needs one. Originally posted on Tumblr

the love
that you wish for
the love
that is
as fierce
and indomitable
as you
and yours
is waiting
for you
where you
cannot see
and you
will know
you have found it
or it has found you
only when
it has completely
overtaken you
and it will
soon.

Verse: untitled

when you come
for me
and you will
eventually
cloaked
as you are
in anonymity
i will be
ready
because i
have already
surrendered.

Verse: untitled

take back
the night
it is interminable
take back
the bruise
that is your kiss
take back
the goodbye
in your hello
and this silence
that i
reside in
take back
the day
we met
and give it
a name
to make it new
and take away
your veil
of sleep
and see
me trembling
with love
for you.

Verse: The Butterflies

come

and i

will wrap

my wings

around you

here

in a dream

of life

that abounds

with you

quick

before

the day

absconds with you

and the wind

reveals all

of my secrets

that even

my memories

do not know

that i was once

a child of fear

but that was

so long ago

come

into my wings

i am calling you

from the embrace

of an evening

i am falling through

where is the grace

if not

in your eyes

come

into my wings

tonight, we rise.

Verse: Sunday's poem, today!

(I put this on Tumblr on Sunday and forgot to copy it here...)

if you leave
in winter
spring will not come
to console me
if you leave
at night
what morning
could comfort me
without you
the light
of my life
no dreams
would sleep
behind my eyes
no songs
would sing me home
you would
unwittingly take
every color
every aspiration
when you go

Verse: mouth

mouth
on hungry mouth
devouring each breath
before it leaves
the lips
we slip
into the small hours
between light
where we die
and dreams
cry for life
that we
cannot live

Verse: autumn did not often

autumn did not often
occur to us
even as it sacrificed
itself, each day
and threw its garlands
at our feet
we only saw winter
over her shoulder
approaching us
with haste
and we wept.

Verse: Moments

after entertaining
one another
with our secrets
each moment
discards itself
in haste
forgetting that
it ever made
our acquaintance
and we
let them go
like lovers
in the night

Verse: my heart

my heart
is not my heart
it is yours

it is
with you
wherever you go

and experiences
your joys
and sorrows

as intensely
as if they
were mine

which they are
for it is you
love

who is
the heart
of my heart

which is now
and always
yours.

Verse: ballad of Lucyspet II

i am
on my way
back home

where i
am meant
to be

which is not
where i am
now

desire lines
my face
with regrets

and even
my dreams
do not understand me

older than
ever and yet
still alive

i want only
to know
one thing

who is it
that waits
for me

on my way
back home

Verse: untitled

the scent of
our shadows
fills the night

see how
they revolve
like planets do

and under
the soft covers of
a moonlit sky

every star
shivers
from wanting you

Verse: i love the light

i love
the light

the way
it circulates

how swift
it suffocates a city

how it defines
a space

the way
it frames you

how it catches
your soul

when you are
not looking for it

how it reveals
you are home.

Verse: love is not here

love
is not here

though i invoke it
with a word

it is
not here

it is in
the tickle of rain

the sympathetic gaze
of memory

the cool melodies
of coltrane

the sighs
of a summer's night

the candor
of a smile

but it
is not here

unless you
are here

to know
i love you.

Verse: Randomisms

For @randomisms, who asked me to write for the word randomisms. This is the result. A failed attempt to be random in that I tied all the fragments I had together....

wind creeps word
by wordless word
through unkempt hours
of ocher songs
spilled by coffee birds
gone to ground
in the bleating black wings
of autumn’s undinal embrace
which denies us
until we cry out
for witnesses
to the confession
an avalanche
of epiphanies that
our sleep drawn hands
design with the silence
of a sky which
does not recall
when we were born
and will not sigh
when we are not here
to wake it.

Verse: this is just to say

this is
just to say
i love you

for all
the reasons
you know

(your eyes
your calm
your smile)

and all you
think you cannot
be loved for

(every freckle
that knows you
more intimately than i)

and if i
should die
in these words

my love
for you
will prevail

my love
for you will
remain here

in these words
which are
no longer mine.

Verse: you whom I love

you whom i love
not because
i know you love

but because you
are near
and present

even when
i am not
in need of love

or deserving
of a love
that is yours

which makes
my mouth ache
with anticipation

i move
from want
to want

and keep
myself ever
in love

with you
i am more
agreeable

even when
i am not
pleasant

or present
and yet this
is the constant

i am in love
as deep as it
is in me

and you
yes you
whom i love

not because you
love me
but because
i love you.

Verse: untitled

until
i know
for certain

all magic
is just
illusion

i will continue
to believe
in you

for i
am in
your sway

Verse: love did not fall on me

love
did not fall
on me

suddenly
like a spring rain
or salvation

love
overtook me
gradually

like
an army
advancing cautiously

when i
realized i
was in its sway

it was
already
too late.

Verse: I fall for you

(NB: M'lady, when asked what to call it, proffered this.)

the leaves
are loathe
to lose
their green
lest they
forget themselves

they wave
as we
walk by
your arm
in mine
as always

you know
that i
love autumn
the most
even more
than spring

because autumn
feels like
a respite
from summer
so cool
so crisp

whereas spring
often feels
like winter
lingering on
after snow
has gone

better autumn
with colours
that reveal
themselves gradually
each day
that passes

just as
you, love
reveal yourself
to me

verse: untitled

all the love
that loves you
beyond and before
this moment
may not be
acute or actual
as this moment
that we clutch
so dear as a dream
but it is constant
and continuing
to love you even
when my body
is absent
and my voice
is a memory
that cannot recall
how i came to be
in your heart
where i always am
as if i were ever
anywhere but here

Verse: Simplicity

(for @onegirlrambles)

even before
i start
i am taking things
away

others
add details
here
and there

and yet
i endeavor
to leave things
out

i always wonder
how much can you say
without saying
anything at all

will silence
and empty spaces
carefully deployed
suffice

for if i
were to fill
every available
gap

there would be
no room here
at all
for you

Verse: mirror move

even before
i found myself
in mirrors

it was
too late
to change

and when
at last i met
my reflection

i discovered
we had little
in common.

Verse: i miss silence

(inspired by @lucyspet)

i miss silence

and the untold hours

that i spent

in its company

plumbing its secrets

i miss its stark certainty

and its merciless calm

the cadence

of its voice

the way the warmth

of its breath

silenced me

the way it harbored me

like a refugee of the night

and how

it would scatter

at the slightest sound

just like mice

when you turn on

a light

there were times

it was so tangible

i could touch it

but now

amid clamor

and chaos

din and drone

it is hard to find

apart from sleep

which is fleeting

i grieve its passing

as you would

mourn a friend

i miss silence

more than most anything

you can name

i miss silence

and i struggle

to maintain mine.

Verse: in the span of a kiss i love

in the span
of a kiss
i love

i became
loose and
began to expand

almost like clouds
raw and ripe above
with rain

i began
to forget my feet
my name

one kiss i love
after another
and another came

i like
the way
they roll by

the tenderness
with which
they die

they way
they alight
like dew

in the morning
on my lips
where you reside

in the span
of a kiss
i love
i sigh.

Verse: contrast

as autumn
ignites everything

the elms, oaks
and poplars

my neighbor
climbs a ladder

to adorn
the flaking shingles

of his
aging house

with a warm
winter coat.

Verse: apart

to be a heart
in search of a heart

like the moon
yearns for the sun

it is
a lonely pursuit

what keeps us
apart

is part of
the attraction

loose limbed and
finite

we are fine
and fair and wishing

we were rare, still
we are apart even

when we are enfolded
in an embrace

because i can always
see where i end

and you
begin.

Verse: if to begin

(for @blondhousewife...)

if to begin
is joy
then start here

your arms
can embrace anything
not yet born

or be born
in this instant
and shine

what you illuminate
will become wild
or new

and, eventually
part of you
if you are open

to everything
that is open
to you.

Verse: i go to love

i go to love
when i do not know
where else to go

it is
not anywhere
that i can see

but it is
everywhere i am
and where i am not

it is
waiting only for
anyone to happen by

and it is in me
ever and always
just as you are
in me too.

Verse: when nothing i am

when nothing i am
meant to be

what matters what
you recall of me

when nothing i am
but memory

what matters what
you let go free

when nothing i am
that you can see

let silence be
your elegy