My Love

Some say love is a fire
Burning brightly for short time or long
To fade to nothing and die
Yet even as fire fades
Embers remain
Waiting to burst once more into life

Some say love is an ocean
Hidden depths and crashing waves
Tides covering and retreating
Yet every tide turns
Water covers land once more
As obstacles are worn away

Some say love is a journey
A passage with beginning and end
Shared for a time with another
Yet the journey does not need end
The goal is to travel and see
Not to reach a final point

My love is a fire
Burning bright and strong
Banked and waiting
Fueld with all that has worth
Sharing warmth and life

My love is an ocean
Running deep and unknown
Clear and warm
Tides come and go
The ocean remains

My love is a journey
Travelling to the end of time
With no destination in mind
Content to wander here and there
Share exploration

My love is not defined
My love is not bound
My love is not selfish
My love is strong and broad and deep and fragile
My love is

A Single Rose

A single rose is all that stands
As the world crumbles away
Held in outstretched hand
Eyes fixed firmly on you

At this point in time
The world narrows to two
All the memorized lines
Are lost in your gaze

"For a beautiful lady like you,
A rose is, uh, I mean..."
The words cease but are still true
For your beauty shines forth

The words fail as words will do
But the rose is taken by soft hands
You smile at me and I at you
A gentle touch causes shiver

The world slowly returns in beauty and light
Words trip over my tongue
As I ask you if you might
Like to join me for a while
The answer is yes

Forgiven

The sun rises
I stand and raise my arms
Facing the rising light
Throwing my head back
I scream
Let lose all fear
All doubt
All things that are not pure
They rise to the sky
Burning in the light

My feet rooted to the Earth
I draw strength from Mother
Strength to cast out my demons
Throw them to winds
Let them find what freedom they can
No longer will they live inside of me

I bow my head with eyes closed
Clasp my hands in worship
Preparing myself
Steeling my heart and soul
For the final task

My eyes spring open
I raise my head high
I look for the future
And see it shining just in front of me
Each step I take is easier
Each step I take firmer
As I move under the bright-shining sun

I whisper a prayer
For my abandoned fears
For the demons now free
For the life that was
It is behind me now

I am renewed
I am alive
I am well

I have forgiven myself

Bleeding

My heart lies broken on the floor
Shards spread far and wide
I reach down to pick up a piece
Draw back in pain

Red red blood wells
Drips slowly from finger cut
Falling to the shards below
Sharp edged and scattered

I try to sweep up
The red-stained pieces
They slide away
Refuse to come together again

Frustrated I pause
Blood drips still
Taking away life
One drop at a time

Turning I go
Leaving the shards of my broken heart
Leaving a trail of droplets
Bleeding still

This Place Once Sacred

The great beam stands
Carved with simple tools
Polished by the hands of many
Still shining in soft afternoon light
Held by pillars nine
Each standing clean and tall
Look closely and see each
Hewn from a single tree
Marks of blades and scars old do not mar
The beauty of simplicity
Of life gone now, yet purpose still

A soft breeze blows
Through openings where once stood
Monuments to paupers and heroes
Lending colour to entering light
Now the purity of sun's rays
Untouched by man

Leaves stir and move
Through space left
Years of mason's fine art
Abandoned
Broken
Taken
Faded patches on stone floor
All that remain
With the memory
Of a thousand wordless prayers
Eyes cast down gazing at nothing
Beyond a heart torn asunder

Dust shelters
Along walls unmarred by opening
Standing pale in darkness
Once lit by lamps of gold
From these walls hung
The very meaning of the word
Set in forms to catch the eye
And set the mind adrift
To return filled with understanding
Or perhaps
to not return at all
to wander lost
Seeking knowledge, understanding
Redemption

The last light of dusk enters
Illuminates
Shining on a single block
Granite worn smooth
Carved with words in a tongue long dead
Meaning lost now
Still they glow
In this place once sacred

Lady of the Woods

Lost, I wander through the woods
Where once I saw a maiden fair
I stumble over root and bough
But she is never there

I pause and sit upon a log
Fallen for many a year
soft and round with cov'ring of moss
I know that she is near

In the deepest places of the woods
Does my heavenly lady roam
Casting her spell on all that see
With no book, no scroll, no tome

What it is my wild lady does
Is more than magic plain
Of all those who speak to her
None are left the same

I watch with care for just a glimpse
As sun sinks and air turns cold
I watch now for the lady dear
Eternal, never grows old

I do not see my lady fair
In the woods today
But I feel her presence nonetheless
With the sun's last ray

As night closes on forest dark
A golden glow is shown
I may not see her, on this trip
But she made her presence known

Plain

The vast and empty plain
The vast and empty pain
Somehow filled to overflowing
Yet in the centre hollow

A storm rages
Thunder in unceasing splendour
Rain and winds combined
To create chaos
No end in sight
Ceaseless rage and fire in the night
Where nothing moves

A silent cave filled with screams
Fire burns in heart of void
Blinding lights shadowed in darkness
A pain that is numb

Held timeless
Locked away yet leaking
Shadows rise and merge and brighten
In the endless night

On the endless plain
Filled with endless pain

What then the question?

A single perfect moment
Blink and you will miss it
But in that perfect moment
Lies the answer
The answer to the trials of life
The answer to the pains of life
The answer to all that is life

What then the question
To the trials of life
Challenges to be met
Or to fall
Only to stand, fall again
Fighting for success
Measured and marked
What then the question?

What then the question
To the pains of life
What do they ask
Each pain
Each torment
Feeling like an eternity
Yet it always ends
To be started again
What then the question?

What then the question
To all that is life
Pains and trials
Suffering and torment
Joys and triumph
Tears flow through all
What then the question?

Each question unknown
Each question unknowable
But the answer
In that perfect moment
Shines clear above all
Love

Remember Me?

I walked along a lonely path one eve
Soon after Christmas Day
Nodded to a lady fair
When I heard her say

"Stop sir. please stop and see
Please dear sir, do you remember me?"

I paused in my step for but a moment
Certain in myself I had not met this girl
When I looked up to tell her so
There was nothing but dust in a swirl

I walked along the path once more
The very next night
When a voice spoke from deep in the shadows
Giving me a fright

"Stop sir, please stop and see
Please dear sir, do you remember me?"

I tried to see her face, but struck
Blind I was for moment short
There was no chance, for gone she was
Before her visage caught

I returned then to my home
And thought both hard and long
Sitting silent at my desk
Until dawn was greeted in song

She did not appear to me that night
Though long and far did I wander
Until exhausted, I did seek my bed
To think, question, wonder

I walked my path late that eve
Saw here standing there
Silent as I approached in night so still
Spectral breeze shaping her hair

"Stop sir, please stop and see
Please dear sir, do you remember me?"

My response this night was simple and quick
As I answered with her name
She smiled and stood still then
Replied with the same

I spoke then from the heart
The words but a start

"I do not need to remember you
For know this to be true

You have never been forgotten
Memory each day unbroken

For you remain my love, my care
Wherever you may roam, far or near"

With these words came tears unbidden
With pale hand were they wiped away
The last touch of my distant love
Before she turned and was on here way
To freedom