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