The Portfolio of Richard Harrington

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Everything We Live

2012-6-12

What do we keep in the blink of an eye?
Our completion, cradling hand to face.
Caress the times when hearts have failed us,
at the end of memories we've wrung dry.

Do you know how I have worshiped you?
How I've held you in everything I am.
Embrace this life as we fall gently away,
under the rain of what we will have been.

Have I been to you all you've been to me?
In the darkest, forgotten things we are.
Lose the only way over the cliff's face,
into the ocean we'll drink with all others.

Blankets for Dreaming (Lacuna)

2012-3-18

We live with the truth that we are born to die,
yet somehow the labors of our hands persist.

It is by the obsessions formed in our hearts
that this fear is made to vanish as we toil.

We etch in our souls the music of these loves,
as we play on the phonograph what we become.

We mold the cosmos for our comfort and our children's,
and play the records louder with each generation.

We live to hide the truth we bury in passion,
that we are closest to death when we dream.

I'm Glad You Exist

2012-1-12

You've been up on the stage before me;
taken the faith holding up my knees.
You've handled my heart as a treasure,
though it sits silenced below the dirt.

There is a terror I learned from truth;
I have never loved you more.
I am glad you managed to exist,
to welcome me at your sleeping feet.

These moments are the bones of my being;
while you toil in the labor of dreams.
This inevitable slight of hand,
these hidden trinkets are all I am.

You've performed reality for my tears;
the best experience this spirit knows.
You've always managed to exist,
beyond my emptiness - narrowly crossed.

Benefits of Growing

2011-12-8

I made your young crush fade away
amidst your silent sorrow's sound,
while all your friendships slept around you
in their beds beneath the ground.

You sang,
"I would have taken you in the stars.
I would have stolen your name.
I would have carried all your fears.
I would throw dirt into your grave"
— or something like that.

I led her off into the night,
forgot her silver eyes and lips.
That nervous memory she gave you
was the one you all but missed.

You sang,
"This is the way of life around me.
This is the piteous will.
This is the lover I despise.
This is that foreign hunter's kill."

No idea where you're going,
just an inkling why you were here,
all that's left of you is in your heart
and that's where you kept her tears.

You sang,
"Something was taken by the old clock.
Something was in these embers.
Something was supposed to be there.
Something I just can't remember."
— to me.

Stolen by a fear of beauty
in the moment of her power;
always strong, you held fast despite me
though she is me gone sour.

Her Ghost

2011-11-8

This is the closest she's ever been
when her shoulder touches my arm
unsure of how she got there
but assured of why she stays

She feels it as we smile
when we don't know what we want
we're marching blindly to the end
yet each step remains a thrill

There are days she'll never know
when they've long since gone by
crashing sweetly along the shore
happily home in this new land

She tells me I should wake
when her lips press against my own
that's all that remains in my dreams
so I'm not scared to die asleep

As Stubborn

2011-10-27

You won't like who I am
when I listen to the sea;
who I am when you're alone.

I don't think you can know
how I feel like I'm flying,
when I'm happy on the ground.

When you're most uncertain
is when I believe the most,
what you say I am to you.

So I've trembled before,
as a pillar without load;
bowed down in a gust of wind.

I've waited my whole life
to be older in your arms,
always as stubborn as time.

Yet you like me today,
so I hope you understand
when my mind is out to sea.

Live on Bread and Water

2011-10-4

Let me travel with you as your lover;
Go where you will go,
do what you will do,
but let me travel with you as your lover.

I don't ask for your vows or your word;
Say what you will say,
take what you will take,
but let me travel with you as your lover.

Stab me in the back and throw me out the window;
cry when you will cry,
break when you will break,
but let me travel with you as your lover.

I will not change for you;
be what you will be,
live how you will live,
but let me travel with you as your lover.

Long Way to Love

2011-8-7

So she kisses my back,
and I curl
beneath the weight;
these feelings sit heavy,
but I think
that I know the way.

So we hope, for tonight,
the engine
will not succumb
to our quick-beating hearts
— there is still
a long way to love.

This journey's not over
past the distance we drove;
with our friends in the headlights,
down a thousand new roads.

And just over this hill
is our home,
at least for one night;
we'll move on tomorrow,
as we go
where we think is right.

This journey's not over
past the distance we drove;
with our friends in the headlights,
down a thousand new roads.

Farewell to yesterday's
honeymoon,
so we've been told;
we'll hold to these things hoping
they remain,
as they always should.

Wedding Vows

2011-7-18

Throughout our lives
there are many promises that I,
or we,
may make to each other.

There are things I may forget,
there are moments in which I might waver,
and there are feelings that may change,
as we change,
through the times we spend together.

However,
there is one promise I will always keep.

As the times change,
as we wonder off course,
and as our minds surrender to age
– with you, I will always hold strong to this one thing.

I promise
to care for you.

I make this promise knowing all that it entails.

I will hold you up when you are weak,
embrace your brilliance as it dwarfs my own,
and worry with you.

I will remind you that life is beautiful,
share all the knowledge and wisdom that I have,
and be comforted when you offer protection.

I will embrace you as tightly as I am able,
as our lives march towards an assurance
of our beautifully defective qualities.

And as we grow a lovely family
as those added to our life need us too,
I will love them as I love you
– for those children held in your heart,
will have an equal weight in my own.

And as our faces grow old,
as our hearts beat along the final stretch,
perhaps we will not stand with the mountains
and we may not feel the lights of the brightest stars,
yet so long as wherever we go,
we walk most of the road there together,
I know the destination will be alright by me.

I love you, Natasha
so I will care for you
– for so long as time does not end.

Werewolf

2011-6-13

As the leaves and clouds gave way
To the faintest slivers of light
Which etched deep across his face
The myriad tales of life

Then, in our last moment of empathy,
What once stood as a proud man,
Hunched behind my husband's beard
And growled from behind his widening grin

This was the smile which had loved me
When my beloved returned from sea,
And the man who would embrace me
Beside the empathy of the waves

This had been our life
But now that face has gone afar
With the glint of light in this old dog's eye
And the silver that buried him in the leaves

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