Richard Lawrence Harrington

Richard L Harrington

Poet

Poetry

Saints

2024-3-23

For when I ask, I am answered the same.
For curses' movements outpacing the divine.
For contradictions conceding minute freedoms
from the petty origins of our foundational dissonance.
For that epochal prayer, answered as any other.
I am found,
now you no longer hold me lost.

The Fetters of Meaning

2023-2-27

We live adrift from mountain to delta,
within or abreast a true flow of self;
being but emancipatory starvation,
bound in fetters of meaning.

We are desperate hostages
in fear of our cessation,
should others' conceptions
be fruitless by our labor.

We bind our fellows,
within our whims,
for sustenance of body,
not welfare of spirit.

We've foraged agaricus,
sought in stray gloom,
to inspire synesthesia
- to catalyze who we are,
to be as we are.

We hide from the world
unripe designs,
to be known as intended,
not mislaid in critique.

We crave foreign validation
of perception and intent,
to love our life's peace
with the currents that we are.

We - Anything - could be anything,
yet perish by risks of being something;
gorged on prescribed faiths so wellintentioned,
we cease to realize our selves.

Castle of Sand

2022-7-15

washed out with the tide,
or crumbled by toes;
what difference belies
how it comes and how it goes?

Embodiment of Empathy

2022-7-15

The Universe is an existence self-chosen,
a wish to know Her every path - woven;
and oh, You among it
anointed
rapturous as Flowers each spring
caught forever in endless new being.

She gives us a fleeting cacophony of sounds,
in rivers, wind, 'n' loneliness abound;
oh, bodies to hear
dreamin' souls to make
and time and strings and pain-rent will
to dance and sing in rhythm with Her trill.

And with Her,
I wedge my fingers deep beneath,
beyond the groves of Your ribs,
where destiny pierced Our fractured souls
before the holly berry bled ink into Your skin.
There,
where so many clichés bed secret feelings,
so gripping and grasped,
You bear Her every pain
while She makes you Everything.

We fall deep in love, forever again, with You,
but struggle beyond the terminal new;
oh, acclimation
outlasting
how nary a heart can recall
falling endlessly's hardly felt at all.

She painted petals in Her own rosen puddles,
Y'always were a garden, true and supple;
and oh, our greatest pains
arresting awes
that first will's burst of empathy
still speaks, "You have always been Everything."

Oh, for little whiles You are each of We,
unjust sparks in the night of all that can be;
and though all things are but Flowers in the sun,
nothing done ever wasn't done for love.

Dissociated Legacy

2022-6-23

daring cautiously beyond
by values refined
when lessons are learned
no credit is due

Oh, Dear Heavens

2021-9-27

I know of your great addiction

of how you dissolve the veil
- betwixt your parts
- betwixt you

converging we
- your victim-limbs
- we wide-eyed souls

Insatiably defenseless
- to blissful madness
- in yearning immeasurable

I'm gracious for the limits of your restraint

how even you could not help
- but to slice with your artful blade
- but to draw your pain

piercing surgical fenestellae
- through our narrowed memories
- through you

into each other's arms
- to let us be,
- we, your mated agonies

You needn't be forgiven
for our "amen."

Skin & Air

2021-6-24

I'm all around myself now
watching me yearn to run
with my own hand
- so warmly on the small my back -
saying,
"If you walk, you'll see everything more."
and you hold her hand
like you'd forgotten that fingers weave
and in that little step among steps
you feel everything.

Invisible Gift

2021-6-20

for your every single kindness
and the fears you've wrestled;
for being held in a blind mess,
seldom honestly nestled:
for all you want to be
and all you mean to me
for every step along your heavy journey
I long for you to be seen

Existential Immersion

2021-6-18

It's precarious where we walk,
along the cliff beside the sound.
We teeter here, in precious talks,
stumbling beyond the lights of town.

We're from the sea, and will return,
singing harmony to its roar;
but mingling waves cannot discern,
'twixt you and me along their shore.

Our Patriarchy

2021-6-17

We loved our fathers most,
those times when they were mothers.

Though we,
together,
have praised their every word,
their every strength,
and every need
- even unto sin -
we have loved our fathers most
when they were mothers.

The Fern Grotto

2021-6-16

before it smelled of asphalt
when maps knew not its name
before signs or clearings ever bared the path
it was hidden, still, from most
beyond the cling of blackberry
amid the stinging briar

I was just as lost as I was rooted

fed by a whispered creek
bearing scents of tired, warm earth
it seeped a winter's embrace
beneath the sweet breeze of summer

ever smoothing jagged stone
a tranquility oft overlooked
it formed a harmony among my thoughts
carved deep between our lost old homes

binding time and place
or joy and pain
the hairs along my neck and arms
still stand in nostalgic ovation
to the music of its twinkling cascade

its quivering ferns knew me
as I had known myself
just gently shivering in hope
with my hands unfurled to the sun
and to an imagination of love

I was everything but sustainable then

and now I wonder
if I am that sacred grotto
weeping while I'd forgotten how

I wonder
if I washed those moments of dirt
from my own callused feet
if I learned balance among seasons
and to ask
and to cherish
as I give

Haunted by Nearness

2021-6-13

I was a forest
who begged to be explored,
to be known amongst my hist'ry,
and in my efforts, adored.

You followed trail guides
and judged me by their stars,
but balked blind afore the myst'ry
of faith in our learning arms.

Maybe what you're lookin' for
ain't lost among our trees,
but longs inside some hidden door,
cryin', "love," as your heart beats.

I was an old house
who creaked in winter's freeze,
to air out my wounds still growin'
with each promise only teased.

You'd stand at my gate
your own home in your mind,
then preclude us without knowin'
our deeper selves just inside.

Tessellation

2021-5-25

In the beginning,
there was,
perhaps,
darkness,
but not emptiness.

The infinite universe was as infinitely full then as it is now,
but it was sameness
- it was undisturbed.

All the energy that ever was
and all that ever would be
was evenly distributed,
a uniform field,
or a perfectly structured crystalline lattice,
without end.

Every point being equal
in their respective distances from all other points,
all attraction
(or repulsion)
in any given direction
was cancelled out by an equally opposing force.

The universe was not at peace,
for it had never known chaos;
the universe was simply the existence
of immense potential without drive,
without purpose,
without awe.

The universe was a fetus.

Then,
as a still and infinite sea swallowing a pebble,
or a taught string plucked
to form the opening note to all music,
something was moved.

It was a naturally occurring anomaly;
perhaps an inevitable quirk of reality,
perhaps the finger of God,
perhaps the injection of consciousness,
perhaps the slightest induction of new energy,
or perhaps it actually began in misalignment.

Regardless of its cause or origin,
with the slightest of nudges,
there was now a point in space
that was either closer to
or further from
all other points
except those aligned along a plane
perpendicular to the axis of this movement.

What came next depends
on the form of the undisturbed universe;
if it was never uniform at all,
then there was no moment of beginning;
if it was a lattice,
then this first misaligned motion was all that was necessary to propagate change;
and if it was a uniform field
or if the shift was axially aligned to the pattern of the lattice,
then the first movement was followed by a second,
neither parallel nor perpendicular,
which broke toroidal symmetry.

The universe drew into
(or spread from)
this point,
tessellating outward
into progressively more indiscernible forms of undulating density
- any point therein was now unique from all others,
if only by its relationship to them.

This structure,
following rules that can be considered neither recurring pattern
nor even kaleidoscopic,
drew
(or pressed)
energy together into swirls of growing density,
squeezing it closer and closer
until it became so tightly packed
that new forms of this energy came to be.

In time,
enough of the energy had gathered so closely
that it could no longer share such a tiny space,
and so it violently spread outward,
sometimes cooling into matter,
other times overcrowding new locations
into new outbursts
- tessellating onward
and outward forever.

Eventually,
at some point not so long before now,
it became our galaxy,
our star,
our planet.

Eventually,
it became us,
and like our host
(or like our greater whole)
we pressed into each other
and violently spread apart.

We oscillated
longingly
between the spirit of closeness
and the pulse of independence,
ever driven onward,
both as free as the other,
seeking nothing but some form of persistence
- sometimes holding on too tightly,
sometimes letting go too soon,
and sometimes…

…sometimes
finding the little traces
of love for what we've been,
what we've become,
and what awe we move to be.

In the Valley Beyond the Vale

2021-5-20

Will you meet me in the valley?
where lonesome peaks only glimpse,
only glimpse our scenic forms;
where longing draws us down,
draws us down by rivers true;
where arbor hearts have fated grown,
fated grown we within leaves…

Will you meet me in the valley?
where this prose is merely seeds,
merely seeds in fertile earth;
where our roots weave deeply,
weave deeply below our tongues;
where sharing becomes receiving,
receiving understanding…

Will you meet me in the valley?
where time belies distinction,
distinction 'tween bluffs unfurled;
where we speak of mountains,
of mountains endured alone;
where fervent embrace sings tranquil,
sings tranquil against the vale…

Will you meet me in the valley?
where knowing is not longing,
not longing unto blindness;
where we roam together,
together inquisitive;
where winds whisper our summoning,
summoning, "I want you, Love."

Physiological Self

2021-5-6

If nothing else,
let your soul be these:
- your breath
- your heartbeat
- your hunger
- your thirst
and listen to them
when the rest speaks too loudly,
and listen to others',
for they speak just the same.

Only Little Pieces

2021-5-6

these are only little pieces
of a heart I meant to love
a holy sweetness I meant to carry

these are cookies from childhood
after I knew that secret
a promise of time and toil of hands

these are sacred whispers of words
slow electric caresses
which narrow the cautious air between us

these are fearful nighttime voices
finding judgment in shadows
and courage in ev'ry accepted truth

these are boldly sought tenderness
tiny kisses set afire
pain unraveled by soul-sought embrace

these are only little pieces
of a heart remembering
beauty before the ache of growing up

In You

2021-4-29

You speak of God
in rev'rent contemplation
in old longings of wounds

You recite awe
in wisdom reciprocal
in beauties transcendent

You breathe vast life
in each falling autumn leaf
in kind healing of arms

You preach of love
in scarcities bountiful
in shared eternity

You speak of God
in borne celestial trust
in small echos of You

Resolute Uncharted Surrender

2021-4-27

I ventured, then,
into my own frontier,
a wilderness unfamiliar
where time wove fingers not,
but the longing lingered
in every step among the trees
- in every echo of your warmth.

Polaris and the Cephei Siblings

2021-4-19

When you fell into my sky,
I saw you with the same heart
- but knew you without clarity,
loved you without focus.

You mesmerized my being,
a beautiful spark to naked eyes
- but I knew you slightly then,
not so infinite as you are.

I thought you unmoving,
as I whirled through each night
- but you are not Polaris,
nor even Gamma Cephei.

You are every succession,
every drifting constellation
- each story behind your wisdom,
hard-earned in pain and joy.

When you fell into my sky,
I saw you with the same heart
- but not so honestly then,
as this universe you become.

The Sun - The Moon

2021-3-21

Every ineffable darkness
weaving these together.
Feeling toes washed clean
in another's kind hands.
Dull sound of your voices
nestled amidst every thought.

Paths of your lives,
savored beside my own.
Teachings of regret.
Wounds of mistakes.
Knowing oneself,
equal in part.

Lines betwixt our palms.
Scars older than memory.
Whimsy of midnight
dancing in laughter.
Farewell kisses.
Wept hellos.

Disastrous reverence
burying this truth:
I am the sun,
I am the moon,
and I am every mystery
proffered from their shadows.

Into Comfort

2021-3-10

Acquiesce to delight,
to each fleeting moment;
in acclimation,
fall not apart,
but passionately
into comfort.

Together In Need

2021-2-18

lonesome freckle
naked night sky

angel beheld
powerless to pride

generous hands
walled all around

Boreal cheeks
liberty-bound

Olive Tree of Vouves

2020-12-24

We all,
inexorably bound,
cannot remain forever as we are,
lest we wilt in harvest.

Atonement in Equity

2020-7-10

The wielder of greatest power,
in any given relationship,
is always most self-starved for forgiveness;
for, by power's very nature,
a grip on its greater portion
controls both its disparity
and the path to atonement in equity.

You Don't Choose the Message of Your Actions

2020-6-13

When the form you wear
embodies not the shape of your heart
but rather a pattern of harm,

then strip it from you
- let it burn away;

but,

should you hold that emblem close,
you'll find you bear it
in just and inevitable shame.

Threshold to Intimacy

2020-1-14

When you speak my name,
do you breathe who I am?
How long I have ached,
down my road of years;
Can your lips move the same,
as delight in my hands?
when my heart doth quake,
who regards my fears?

Transcendent Song

2019-9-25

Sing to me through broken teeth,
with limbs as shattered as younger hearts.
Sing in littered, filthy back alleys
or from a face unknown to me.

Sing to me your beauties been,
through every torture you've endured.
Sing me out across your sea;
your song is most what raptures me.

Sing to me in perfect notes,
or soundless warnings of all your fears.
sing of intentions more thought than decree,
and still you'll find a listening me.

Understanding Autumn

2019-9-21

Ol' Midday Sun,
my own reliable glow,
strains more each morrow
to rise from bed
- lone, beyond the horizon.

In shifting time,
we gleam upon common ground;
a first-dawn fervor
for great unknowns
- joined, gleaning fickle longings.

Our radiant beams,
assumed naturally fixed,
discovered nurtured
to wax and wane
- free, plastic since genesis.

Oh Midnight Moon,
your faint, ethereal shimmer,
transfix your passion
not chore-of-night
- craved, amidst eager study.

Intimate Recital

2019-7-26

You, Silence,
who draws my affection
in;

in your moments of hush,
I am my own,
clattering composer.

When you speak into another's darkness,
it's best your lungs be drowned in light,
and that both respire where the air is clear.

Scribbling,
note by note,
I devise each chord;

it is mine,
and my being,
this modern opus.

If freedom is authorship of tones,
and connection is an intimate recital,
then Love, we are our only refrain.

You, Sweet Voice,
now clear in certain reprise
here;

by my every lone thought,
this hymn is me,
played like it's yours.

Attachment

2019-5-6

Winter hath made me forget you;
those who would'st not weather the storm,
nor act upon,
nor chase,
the hope for warmth.

In Spring, though,
I keep welcome to your face again;
as am I when ye follow not my feet,
thou art invited in all my seasons.

For the sun of summer,
we are united in joy;
yearning neither for what was,
nor lost in what will be.

And in fall,
when my path veers treacherous again;
I may always be found,
ready for embrace,
though ye may find me unreachable.

Solid Ground for Solid Feet

2019-4-16

I am a stone for you,
a mountain of will,
and as I, from new vistas,
revisit the geology of my past,
I am known better in my canyons
from my peaks.

Woven

2019-4-8

I find strands of your hair
woven though my shirts,
my hat,
my heart.

Like paraphernalia
of the spaces through
and between my own being,
where I still remain vulnerable to love.

And with each wash
I find these garments cleansed,
yet agreeably fettered, still more
with you.

And I know,
should we become apart,
my wounded hands would endure,
powerless to unstitch your fibers from me.

I would stretch my fabrics
to find new spaces,
and fearfully rethread the old
- tattered and doubtful as they may be.

Still a shirt,
a hat,
a heart without you,
but happier with your inlaid embrace.

Your Chicago

2019-1-1

You showed me

Eden,
in the windows of a little house;
how it was perfect,
in its time,
behind snow-laced trees.

where your slithering hands,
in hunger,
spoke coyly
in that paved-over shop
which tempted you those earliest apples.

how you curled in wisdom's pain,
shivering in the brush,
drawing scarcely
the innocent warmth of a still-tame wolf.

His damning trickery,
His cruelty as He cast you out,
still possessed
by remembrance of that garden.

those plastic-sealed joys,
dispensed surprises,
and the youthful taste of ignorance
- perhaps an Arcadia of its own.

the perpetual violence of Cain,
safety renounced,
as your nomadic heart
wandered jealously across his world.

the stained light of morning,
seated alone,
in that temple of empty pews;
and oh, dear Eros...
a glimpse of heaven through your voice.

a feeling thought unattainable,
a realized love,
a long-abandoned perfection,
tenderness in friendship,
connection,
and touch.

how the prodigious city skylines,
cathedrals in a way,
bestow some coveted peace
and entrance our hearts as He once did.

life, from which we ever steal
that flawless wilderness;
where the lost innocence of beasts
sleeps sterile on display.

those renderings of your powerful heart,
rituals of your hands;
how I'd fall willingly into your marks and curses,
and embrace the inevitability of pain.

beautifully worshiped sins in the darkness
advertised desires,
there to be seen,
but demanding devotion to be known.

how we've all reached back desperately
for that lost orchard,
whilst our feet strode on,
losing their way in the definition of myth.

sadness for memories that stay behind,
not lost or abandoned,
but whispers of ambrosia
forever fixed in time.

Eden,
through the perfect trees;
my favored forfeit of a better harvest
for the trees you grow all around me.

Filled with an abundance of your light,
I know I'd let you be last,
and I'd carefully tend,
hand-in-hand,
cheek-to-cheek,
dust-to-dust,
to our sacred garden.

The Flames

2018-12-20

It burned through our hearts;
destroying the land
the town
the safe homes
where we've warmly nestled our love
where we've grown through our pains.

Our memories
still within our minds;
and our keepsakes
lying in rest
woven together as ashes
- we continue.

We will be whole again
in time;
our hearts repaired
our burns treated
- we can be whole again
in time.

Without Knowing Myself Better

2018-11-16

To never
have held, and pulled, at stone
or stood loyally atop our mountains.

Had I not
wandered amongst your leaves,
stoic as my seasons changed about me.

If never
my brooks had interwove',
nor I flowed drunkenly through your valleys.

I'd stay here,
a silent moss-veiled cave,
hypnotized by warm daylight on the walls,

and I'd mistake
the ground beneath my heart
for the green, green grasses of some spring-dream.

This Untitled Something

2018-10-22

It's etchings of rivers long dried;
scars of fluid devotion,
those unrequested commitments,
our patterns more so than the notions.

It's summer's wilting of meadows;
counting each blossom we knew,
those waters running underground,
tended rebirths into newer truths.

It's the bark of ancient lovings;
the slow twisting of dear trees,
this intertwining of our roots,
or how we still quiver in the breeze.

It's boulders in mountain saddles;
tense clasping at rough edges,
when cascades shift slower than minds,
breaking down before spring mends us.

It's waltzing 'neath the aurora;
a dance binding earth to sky,
electricity in our bones,
our wondrous lights never lost to time.

It's swimming with the change of tides;
the salty shores we have been,
this shedding of our loosened sands,
how countless eager forms hide within.

It's the circling of the mushrooms;
making homes away from home,
the morning dew that tickles us,
or our conjunct solace as we roam.

It's that small, magic feeling;
that sure, perilous movement,
the narration of the fleeting,
our grip to life before we lose it.

All Tied In

2018-7-31

Deep swelling of our chests
- balancing this ebb and haul.
These vulnerable ascents
- weighed against a tethered fall.

We're tied here, vertically
- together, lashed to this stone.
Fingers placed furtively,
- pressed against this crag, alone.

Firm earth 'neath each caress
- climbing old faces of sin.
Tempting the wall, "undress"
- starlight revealing this skin.

These grasping limbs held tight
- returning our hearts back down.
Felt by day as in night,
- passion, into which we drown.

Into Embraced Comfort

2018-3-25

Into
and out of my life,
you'll fade
— or my favor
will swerve from and for you.
Ever reborn,
with the stirring of stars,
your warmth will remain what I knew.

Embraced
and released, like bliss,
I'll drift
— or acceptance,
given no other choice.
My southern sea,
or ye expanse above,
I'm still proud to have known your voice.

Comfort
and freedom, balance
in loss
— or forsake us,
by bonds that might have been.
Night's best questions,
twinkling beyond my sight,
answer, "We were only meant to begin."

Means to an End

2017-12-18

I am your way;
not companion,
but crutch.

Your better self,
on my shoulders
- not heart.

I once believed
our desires
converged.

Now overgrown
by stumbling time,
I ache.

Rather I'd with,
than without you,
go on.

We still share paths,
though parallel,
at times.

Splitting lodgings,
more suitable
than planned.

Our Home Town

2017-11-17

You'll never truly stay around, so let's always try for late.
We'll have streetlamps in the moonlight, lining every traffic gate.
Our town's too small to grow within - you, too restless to stifle;
so when you find yourself longing
for our mossy ol' awnings,
we'll listen and smile
as you rest here a while.

Let your stories wash out on Main, of life beyond the outskirts.
Wilt among our Autumn orchards, shedding to winds what now hurts.
While not always postcard-perfect, our town is always a home;
where strolling down middles of lanes
relieves us each of our strains,
and loved ones you know
will cherish how you've grown.

We Living

2016-11-5

You're a stranger's soft "goodnight";
that voice which lays us in stolen down,
or that icy trickling 'neath the driest storefront.

You're uncertain answers to firm questions;
"what can you offer me others cannot?",
or a scrawled "anything" on cardboard.

You're the one who will surely fight;
under howls of shared discomfort,
or against those bullets which bury us.

You're the fated color of a life;
those many best and worst choices,
or mere tones and hues devalued.

You're the tears in our strained eyes,
spent laughing wildly into a drink,
or begged forth by our lost and taken.

You're everything you could possibly be;
the one forgiven on stock-exchange terms,
or given wholly to lone compassion.

You're ever passing these crossroads;
a hitchhiker going nowhere at all,
or walking - speeding into why we're "we".

Nested Cynosure

2015-6-15

I've worshipped this one,
a likeness of none,
for hours, or years, or never.
We've whispered all night,
on to this morning's light,
while moments became forever.

Down the Road

2014-6-10

We're ten years down the road
at the head of a fork
pronged far into what was

Now we've converged again
on this set point in time
conceived so long ago

We chose the well-known route
sealing ceaseless futures
as we betrayed our past

What was sacred back then
is still as precious now
but not for us alone

We've been forced to be weak
with these old friends' hellos
and those heartbreak goodbyes

The world is different now
both less than expected
and somehow still much more

So we've brought ourselves here
with patch-covered tires
and our well-traveled hearts

And as the road carries on
I'm glad it passed your way
those many years ago

It's Getting Late, It's Time to Come Home

2014-5-14

When our names are called out before dark,
I will never forget you;
you’ll be long-borne in my growing heart,
still there when names have fled.

When you became my sacred someone,
we said it was forever;
and the years which seemed much longer then,
feel so much shorter now.

When those first wild nights have long gone by,
we both will share some sorrow;
but the mistakes that nearly lost us,
will safely guide us home.

When the last light of your street blinks on,
we know it’s time to go;
don’t be worried by the setting sun,
the end is lovely too.

When you and I are wrapped warm in bed
or laid down to rest by time;
it’s getting late, it’s time to come home,
I’ll walk you all the way.

Unto Us

2014-3-14

We reach further,
closer than ever we have before;
into our hearts,
where answers lay pure and exposed.

We press inward,
toward what simple truths still remain;
buried in us,
deep beneath what others create.

We form ourselves,
better in judgement than in practice;
likened to you,
who never we have left unchanged.

Is This You?

2013-11-25

Together, we have eagerly wasted time,
burned our little flames brighter,
and outlasted the night.

Is this you,
who falls into my ribcage,
whose fingers grasp my heart?

Innocence, we have so fondly tasted here,
dies beside these woven feet,
and sleeps without a grave.

Is this you,
who makes a full bed empty,
whose warmth keeps it half-full?

Holding on, we take those strengths we are given,
bracing weathered foundations,
and a leaky tin-roof.

Is this you,
who walks onward to the end,
whose journey met my own?

Onward To Our Night

2013-10-25

The still motion of life yields ever onward to our fertile lights;
each taken to burn unique,
each committed to the same wind’s dance.

We race with feigned certainty to ends of roads and sudden faults of love;
we, under blankets afire,
we, awaiting that ancient awe.

Those strong march away fearing the beauty of disappointment;
long lost to old memories,
long callused to our bitter truths.

All our loved ones pass with the city lights below our hearts;
in the thin streets of our minds,
in flames we beg quietly to forget.

How perfect and hopeful we've been in all our fleeting deeds;
to outlast our faithfulness,
to have walked onward to our night.

Dragging the Anchor

2013-10-1

You're the passenger who left me
when I forsook the shore;
in love out at sea,
with dreams of nothing more.

I thought these sails would save you
from an old lonely storm,
but can you rescue
what's been so safe and warm?

Well I'm sorry I shipped out fast
leaving what I adored;
truths tied to the mast,
of my love still anchored.

Now we're over those shipwrecked tears,
and never have I told
how I kept for years
your lonely storms of old.

What Have We Been? (Lacuna)

2013-9-23

By the hand of night
its ring a kind gesture
Let me alone
Let me remember
How you held all my fears
in your pain and your words
Small hints of the heavens
down here in your arms

The sins we own
The deeds we forget
The dreams that left us
quietly as we slept

Now pale as the moon
no blushing lullaby
Let me hold on
Let me my goodnight
We all drift apart slow
to the edge of the sky
Coldly pressing for more
but no more we are given

Now the hands of the light
come to take me away
from my cold metal world
the warm bed where you lay
but I'll fight for more time
just to know you're still here
just let me alone
just let me one more day

The sins we own
The deeds we forget
The dreams that left us
quietly as we slept

Morning comes bitter
as I wake here alone
Let me go back
Let me see you home
Safe in all we have been
and all we'd have become
Still innocent children
to the years ahead

Our Home (Lacuna)

2013-3-31

A home forged from our years
and this bad liar's face,
in the care of your love;
for your hopes in this place.

I stepped on their ashes
disregarded their graves,
and I kissed you and fled;
now I see what remains.

A river of their soot
'round this runaway's home,
where I burned down the bridge
from the ending they chose.

They drowned in their beliefs
in the filth of their fires,
and they could have been saved;
if I'd stayed for a while.

Now every light is gone
from where you shared your heart;
mere ghosts of obsession,
now forever apart.

Oh please, please forgive me!
I left your world for dead;
and faithfully they marched,
to their believer's end.

I'm nothing more than me,
without another soul;
just this bad liar's face,
and empty chairs at home.

These are the Answers

2013-2-5

When you freeze on the rooftop,
see a billion years gone by,
these answers hold no meaning,
but you hold them 'til you die.

You are only as alone
as a child still unborn;
so desperately longed for,
while your life is yet unworn.

You'll know pain in friends' faces
who have also hurt with you;
torn open hearts, thought unloved,
will mend — and break — anew.

Faith and your heathenism
are two practical choices,
yet already you have seen
how small deeds have great voices.

You will love — oh how you'll love
— and your reasons will vary;
like excuses for living,
or breaking up unfairly.

In time you'll choose so wisely,
like an actor's leading role;
sharing stories you borrowed
as you stumbled down a hole.

Remembering to ask why
will drift from your attention;
seemingly less important,
than the last of all questions.

You will love the ones you kill.
You will kill the ones you hate.
These are the answers we've found,
and forever find too late.

Becoming Alone (Lacuna)

2012-12-8

It is like rain.

It is the sound.

It is the taste.

As clear tonight as ever.

This memory from long ago,
before your face washed away.

Oh to feel it run down my skin,
as hands and hearts so generously touched.

It is like rain.

It is searching.

It is my loss.

To have suffered and mourned.

Where are you now my nearest friend?
Where have you hidden in the darkness?

Please pull me from this storm,
and hold me, hold me safe on solid ground.

It is like rain.

It is the roof.

It is the leak.

You're hardly anything at all.

Yet on and on I wander,
always finding you less with time.

Don't leave me with myself,
Don't leave me here, with a man I've never known.

Believing (Lacuna)

2012-11-22

Now this machine runs cold;
every part in its place,
every squeaky wheel — silenced.

Drilling into the heart of being,
to meet you at the end,
with the whole of my fears.

I've only just begun to know you,
but I believe I know you so well.

They forbade these dirty hands
from the dirt you wanted thrown
into the ground, now your home.

I never believed in faith
but I trusted yours had meaning:
that I was too scared to see.

I've only just begun to know you,
and I trust I always did.

I'll be out past the stars soon;
where touch loses its meaning
- I was bound get there somehow.

I'll embrace the destiny of life
knowing all things are born to die
and I'm afraid to be afraid

I've only just begun to know you,
and I know I never will.

Together Lost

2012-10-17

Him,
and his only
beside the vague fire
drying old faults
and perfect mistakes

Still,
held in delight
broken with desire
resolved to sin
by midnight recourse

Faith,
how time forgets
whether we retire
dying for more
or slighter absolve

Them,
with no farewells
bearing fine attire
pleading in wrath
or destined contempt

Oh,
oh how holy
without each other
knowing what was
can never again

Her,
and her only
beside the vague fire
drying old faults
and perfect mistakes

Of Meeting and of Farewell

2012-9-24

As we wait here in wonder,
wrapped around each other,
the ship's in the dock
— our luggage all aboard.
It wasn't easy to get here,
to the end of the world.
Still not ready to go,
but how could we really know?

So we hold on with our nails,
with the pains we find.
An old captain and the cartographer;
still a wind in these sails,
and still just as blind.

Our mail comes from the kneeling,
who can't shake the feeling,
of us on the dock
— with those who won't yet sail.
We merely whisper sweet farewells,
to the rest of the world.
With no more room to need,
we're all that we'll ever be.

So we hold on with our nails,
with the pains we find.
An old captain and the cartographer;
still a wind in these sails,
and still just as blind.

Why make so little of leaving,
of those plans still weaving,
as we drift from dock
— to our life out at sea.
So nearly I could not have been;
so scarcely as the world.
To keep it all so near,
what loss could I hold so dear?

Imaginary Lamp Oil

2012-9-10

All I ever knew was your face,
a glimpse through the crowd;
or the dances we've outgrown,
with the pain of our mistakes.

Like a scent you can't remember,
which brings a lost warmth;
as I tremble to confess,
we are not who we've recalled.

You are a memory
- no not even that.
You are what couldn't be,
a rabbit from a hat.

While I've shaded you in my fear,
you have been my light;
in an aimless heart's stumble,
I have found my own new home.

You are a memory
- no not even that.
You are what couldn't be,
a rabbit from a hat.

With Angry Lost Breaths

2012-8-7

And we marched forth from our innocence
To heaven and to hell

We left our voices in the fire
With our lovers and our children

We burned our homes and our graves
With trembling strength and swift hands
   
Wanton faith and promiscuous hunger

We drowned our dreams before their births
Spread our dying father far across this Earth

We wrote this anger in our blood
While every sacred kiss betrayed him

Still she shook down our jealous skies
Every stone beckoned by her seduction

And we each marched on forever
Forever from our precious Babylon

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

Odyssey

2010-11-13

You sail around this rock as you're looking for your home
And you dive into the ocean to drink the dark unknown

Here, smiles melt like candy, but the saccharine puts up a fight
And you sleep naked on the reef, because an hour's not a night

You would dig your own grave just to see her again

But only one coin's in your pocket

And the stone carver asks another for her name

So you tie to the mast with their voices at your back
And you seek your home no matter how their words attack

Then you roll over in the morning, beaten and old from the war,
But in the time it took to heal she's once again out the door.

The Smile of Apathy (Lacuna)

2010-6-19

Knowing what will come
will come;
what will go,
will too.

With all this heartbreak
alone in a crowd;
set fire to the world,
and freeze in the night.

When the rain falls
and you've forgotten your umbrella;
your feet bring you back home,
to rest divided by the storm.

But the days pass
and soon you learn;
you walk again into the night
this time with a hand in hand.

Cynosure (Lacuna)

2010-4-12

Splintering like glass,
up from the grave;
down inside your words
so over-depraved.

Feel your beating heart,
sounds of your love;
see your whole self there
where touch ain't enough.

Cynosure to me,
fiery for some;
wind across your cheek
so icy and numb.

Morning Abode

2009-10-6

Upon your face I look
With the eyes I'll one day have
Wrinkled around like sequoia hearts
Still fixed to you
...like the journey of my soul

And your hope feels my skin
Which has aged beyond me now
Withered with its leathery freckles
but still yours to touch
...if you ever need it much

The Nebula

2009-7-4

I form things I have yet to know
within my other half
my eternal soul is resting there
...hidden behind this mask
it is not a darkness...
it is what is alone
— an unknowing
what I have always searched for
what I have never known

See the emotion in the expressionless...
can you see the expression in creation?

this bursting from within
...this is not pain

somehow...
this is all creation...
this is all creation.
can you see?

there is a unity to this all

In every part
every whole
In every push
every pull

In our sea
our shore
In our lives
forever more

within each expanding thing
...we are bound to this beautiful sea

we move as tides — as waves
in the crash around us
and all we have made
into the dark
...and below the sound

when it shakes us, we fall
when it dies
so do we all

and the silence will take our bodies
and we will sleep as it calls

and the swells of life surround us
and bring meaning to this crawl

Yes, we will die off that foamy coast
on the edge of humanity
unknown by most

We will die
on the edge of creation
where new life
is our ghost

Proportional Solitude

2009-7-1

A scratch may carry a lifetime.
A limb may fall for a day.
not judged by the missing
but avowed by her way

To walk within these feelings.
To carry on untraced.
let freedom's voice surround you
and lie beside her grace

Where darkness assembles light.
Where blood renews the Earth.
we bear these things in life
and age before our births

Will silence ever truly know?
Will stoics ever listen?
to your screams of onyx
that through pinholes, glisten

Closing an Infinite Set

2009-4-28

I am here for but a fleeting moment,
both infinite and miniscule in its integrity —
and then I am gone.

Like a pebble at the event horizon,
flayed open to swirl down the drain —
drowned in collective pride.

I am bound to the tip of a pinwheel,
hurtling into and out of my waking vision —
and here I remain.

Like the hierarchy of all communication,
remaining cyclic in a moment only to die —
crushed into Andromeda.

By no greater means shall we all fail,
than by this cosmic crawl into time's brick wall —
there is no escape.

Aura of Your Soul

2008-6-23

Do you feel it when I feel it?
Do you know how it is when I touch you?
Do you hold the voice of a faded light in the aura of your soul?

Well I do now...
I do now.
And I glow with the warmth your bring me,
and I show with the way I live.
So take all of what I offer,
'cause it's the best that I can give.

Will the light of the morning wake you,
when it warms like my hand across your skin?
Will the night pass you by and remind you of embraces we have known?

Remember now...
Like I do now.
And I'll glow with the warmth your bring me,
and I'll show with the way I live.
So take all of what I offer,
'cause it's the best that I can give.

Spirit-Time

2008-5-2

Don't take me down;
just leave me here.
I don't know why,
but I know that I
don't always feel this way.

I'm floating on the sails of poetry
and I know this is always me
So don't make me real
and don't make me feel
like I just don't belong here today.

Across the Room

2007-5-25

Such boundless - awareness
but I'm sorry - you're caught in - your sweet little misery
I listen - to your lips - but you just speak without using your ears

Dance 'round - your fortunes
'till y'wake up - and lie there - honesty balanced on a pin
I don't think - that you have - ever really stopped to see you

So take this
and take that
Just watch it
grow up around
and all through
you
You're just fine
'cause you're smiling when you're sad

Perception - do'n't matter
I'm so glad - you're so high - on dreaming by yourself
that you can't - see what I - see glowing off your precious face

So take this
and take that
Just watch it
grow up around
and all through
you
You're just fine
'cause you're smiling when you're sad

A Spot of Tea

2007-4-18

You
Have left me a mem'ry
Of some feeling I forgot
I held it
to keep it
but somehow I lost

And you
You showed me a smile
as I washed out with the tide
I knew it
to feel it
a'warmth keeps me alive

Shattered like moonlight across the sand
dancin' like fools dreamin' over again
Feeling the cold as it seeps from your toes
Knowin' the ocean has cried all our woes

Talk
'Cause I'm right beside you
Sharing the heart you'd found me
I give it
crying it
'cause you warmed my sea

Shattered like moonlight across the sand
dancin' like fools dreamin' over again
Feeling the cold as it seeps from your toes
Knowin' the ocean has cried all our woes

In the Halls of the Blind

2007-4-11

Here I sit
where each grain settled
every blackened bit
Every bitter try
not much but bones now
yet still more than I'd left them
It's like drowning in a well
though it won't end
it's like drowning here
To know the truth
and know what you've done
my sin and heartless abandon
They have torn away
like the flesh I didn't deserve
the hollow where it all use to be
When I thought I wore a purple cloak
when I thought this moonlit armour shined
all I had were these rotting bones

Moving Mountains

2007-3-26

Some silly fate befalls me
that doth wash fond worlds from here
As by the heart adores thee
boldly stays cold fate too near

Now this time has come ashore
when dire souls lie in past
On wat'ry dreams I adore
sail I now with means to last

When Blue Loves Green

2007-3-25

Brush the tide
by a sound of waves.
To touch on her feet
some years away
for an ocean that waits;
so why's it matter so much?

You walk right through me
and feel me draw you in.
How can you keep your feet
and find a reason for not sinkin'?
You stare out across me
but you ain't hearin' past reflections off my skin;
and here I am
just waitin' to let you in.

It was life;
it was beautiful
for you to swim out,
beneath that hull.
stare into these old eyes,
and bless them for wand'rin'

You walk right through me
and feel me draw you in.
How can you keep your feet
and find a reason for not sinkin'?
You stare out across me
but you ain't hearin' past reflections off my skin;
and here I am
just waitin' to let you in.

But dive in
'cause that man's not me;
I'm more than some sails.
I'm a vast sea
and I'm still here waitin',
'cause you've got maps
and I've got shores you'd never dream

You walked right through me
and felt me draw you in.
So just you keep your feet
and hold what's you as you're set'lin' in,
'cause I know you've got maps
and I've got shores 'would make you think you're dreamin'.

and here I am
just waitin' to let you in.

Tear-Flute

2007-2-28

the things you've never time to see
are oft the things remembered most
when light of day and stars of night
come crashing down 'twixt thine twilight
you'd never know the beauty of 't
for the closeness of your heart
yet rip that part from inside your soul
and know the touch once graced that hole

By Speaking Eyes

2007-2-27

as some dreaming sight
by eyes' fond rest on silver dreams
to know, to know again
what felt before was lost

...here thought I, I'd not dream again

this soulful dancer
whirls slow afore mine fixed eyes
to float, and drift in time
so brought longing to me

whence some winter's night
brought cold at hand of wand'rer's woes
to feel, to feel her then
scarce a spirit more true

then by turning hand
amongst loveless feeling's embrace
to kiss, and lose I'd not
for not cheaply I fell

now faintly spoken
in pain of thine locked mantle's weight
I wish, I wish I'd told
just how my heart's been drawn

...here thought I, I'd not dream again
Yet here o'er warms my heart to be wrong

Muse so Fondly

2007-2-8

I knew once
a golden meadow
that shown in light as by dreams
where fared the hands of none
but those I placed secretly

In this place
my dancing conscious
did read upon leafy boughs
and shared nature's comfort
as someone lost now called home

Chamomile

2007-2-7

Speak a mind
such a voice as this light is warm
here by the fire
hearing thought spoken openly

To question
some tired hearts need listen
to longing souls
that rest on these chamomile dreams

Sharing time
within some waking moment
I've found myself
when once in shadow, now happy

Scented Memories

2007-2-6

It's awful crowded in here.
The light hardly shines
in this room you left for me
and the songs you sing
haunt the corridors of your mind

Not much breaks through.
The door is locked shut
by memories you won't share
and the space beneath
is hardly room for a whisper

Something that is hope.
The key is locked away
in desperate paintings
and as your hand strokes
I know not what to say

Wanting what's not mine.
The apology I wish to make
by the jutting from your voice
and the sudden distance
is never mine to share

Time Travel

2007-2-2

Stand in light for today's life's bound
for all the joy your heart never found.
Be easy on your solemn way
for love rests in your heart today.
'Tis sad to leave the past behind
as memories you seek to find.
But learn in this day of remembrance
for joy shall come as tears leave hence.
Rejoice today and live tomorrow
for returning love will drown your sorrow.

Where I Should Have Been

2007-2-1

For the bittersweet
of a once-loved smile
and the silicon breadth
of a love-graced while
Come may we to hear
and bear our heaven-rent souls
if they silently speak
you'll bare your ember-bent coals

We forget these lies
and how they make us feel
low, a thousand tries
just might make something real

And we justify
all the lust-resistence
by a terror within
all the faith-fought distance
Know the touching soul
and believe you ain't got one
'cause it tears you apart
to believe you're forgotten

We forget these lies
and how they make us feel
low, a thousand tries
just might make something real

We're all becoming
such a tear-lost reason
for a willowy life
such a wind-stripped season
As friends knowing love
and warmth souls always mean fair
may we dreamily keep
such warmth as few may compare

We forget these lies
and how they make us feel
low, a thousand tries
just might make something real

We forget these lies
and promises we seal
a thousand tries
just might make something real again

Becoming

2007-1-31

watch the light strike time away
all those memories I may
watch the sunrise through the hall
because there's nothing there at all
now all's gone and I'm still here
to carry on without you near

by the burden you exume
watching you wake beside her tomb
may it never be the same
as the rest may fool again
never was the smile you wanted
just the warmness that she flaunted

On Backlash Dreams

2007-1-22

Beyond, afar
Some shallow blood ferninst
Some ancient shore

Windswept, carried
With floating heart's intent
With passion wan

Intimate, sincere
By hollow hand repose
By mindless bilk

Threadbare, effete
For wanton, vain retreat
For feeling real

Loving, hating
I believe here betwixt
I always knew

Writing...

2007-1-15

Here we are again.
With fish in the sea.
Just like all the others,
but you're one step behind me.

Like battle's flag.
Raise the standard high.
Some bigger fish perhaps,
to eat the best as they die.

You never knew.
In the surface you saw.
Some strange beauty long past,
as my old soul's scars spread, raw.

Nothing was meant.
No fate ever became.
Just a long way lost now,
by voiceless plans your faith names.

The Knots That Tie Between

2006-12-16

By his will the grains shall bend
like sight against a looking glass
By the story of his life
The world would change
but the sea of the sun would swarm to its master
And all that was done will be done again
When he lifts his hand
When he chooses to try

By life his desert will slip away
like reading into an abyss
By the scars on his face
The words would prove true
but the sound of his faith would fall under their feet
And the cracking of this image will unfold again
When he stands so high
When his beauty is not the world's

By his love the sands will bury
like clouds o'er hatred's grave
By the choice he has made
The thought of emotion would die
but the lost light in memory would always be hope
And the instance of reliving will redeem again
When his story wakes him
When his dusts clear the stones

Toklihonah

2006-9-12

Time drops like a curtain
before the sword of fabled samurai

Stories and myths...
truths hidden in dreams

Time flutters so slow
like what you thought was a lie

Rythms of life...
STAB you... like light

Life is like this curtain...
opening the window's soul

Rhymes of honey...
golden on the floor

Life is like this curtain
and words are like this sword

Stab with all thy might...
Please...
let not this curtain soak back the tale's shore.

I Gave a Star from the Heavens

2006-7-13

They'll have you forget your mistakes,
lie so they will seem alright.
They'll refract my gifted star in a droplet,
but short-lived is that light.

What comes of who we want to be,
when we're so confused by pain?
Why do we press the lost so hard to listen,
when all their light is rain?

When their glimmer flows through your lips,
you wildly fill a hole.
Yet you'd never feel the fullness I would share,
within your lonely soul.

What comes of who we want to be,
when we're so confused by pain?
Why do we press the lost so hard to listen,
when all their light is rain?

Perhaps one day they'll turn around.
every voice will find its way,
To the ocean of stars within patient friends,
who fed this storm its rain.

What comes of who we want to be,
when we're so confused by pain?
Why do we press the lost so hard to listen,
when all their light is rain?

Perhaps one day they'll turn to face,
one who hears each passing day.
This heart listens so hard to feel who you are,
waits while hope finds its way.

What comes of who we want to be,
when we're so confused by pain?
Why do we press the lost so hard to listen,
when all their light is rain?

This heart listens so hard to feel who you are,
hope always finds a way.

Sideways

2006-6-12

If I could touch
then I would touch you now...
I've never been an hourglass
To spill the sands between us
To count the grains as fate

I never could have planned...

But I could feel
and I could always feel...
That when I'm near you, fearless here
Those grains that fell within time
Those all have meaning now
...now that you're near.

I never could have known...

We knew the world
then went our ways to learn...
Never knowing where we will go
They are all important now
They always make sense now
...now that you're near.

I never could have known...
I never could have planned...

Where we'll go...
We'll never know...
I never could have planned,
but I know I want this for now.

A Different Magic

2006-5-30

To stand before adversity's legion
afore roars of unsheathed words
To still choose smiles

This is to be who you are.


This also, is who you are.

To smile in the eyes of olden friends
afore arms of proud embrace
To still choose to stand

Best Friends

2006-3-31

Lone birds sigh like wind,
Yet their loves shall always sing.
Their souls always hear.

Like Once

2006-2-26

Dream with me, oh raindrop one;
the tides of life have just begun.
'Tis here where time shall bathe with thee,
and swim in nightlight seas with me.

I shan't ask for changing eyes,
but for fair holds and precious sighs.
My ways hold firm as Gibraltar;
as my life, ye I'd not alter.

Dream with me, oh raindrop Love;
let kingdoms, castles, homes be one.
O'er all this land I'd fare with thee,
For where you are, that's home indeed.

Human

2006-2-20

The dusts of an ocean world,
a grasp like time and life.
Sway the silts as a memory;
so long ago it formed.
Here try the children;
the dead who learn to swim.

Sit like glass and stone,
alive with light and air.
Awake sweet mind of thoughts;
awake, and be this dream.
To smile in choice and precept;
for this day we both shall live.

Musing Dancers

2006-2-6

Stand in time,
Lie in light.
There you are,
Projecting a memory.
Where you look,
the sun.
And there you live,
words on tongue and paper.
Set your brilliant sun away,
it never matters 'til the jealous blade strikes
— when you bleed your tears.

Dying Legends

2006-2-6

Stand in wait.
Lie in light.
Here am I,
remembered in shadow.
All around
— the sun.
But here I wait,
sword in hand and sheath.
Spill this darkness over me,
it never matters 'til the jealous blade strikes
— when you bleed your tears.

Garden of Wordless Dream - (Sonnet 3)

2005-11-28

In this ancient garden are tales of life,
of love, hate, and all found within shared souls.
Here sits today and all tomorrows' strife,
seeking a perfect word for friendship's fold.

This garden's pair harvests the sparkling dew,
like private gods in a heart's stardrop rain.
Each feeds a dreamseed of creation's clues,
showing bedfellows that one word again.

In time, mem'ry-filled plants did grow and bloom,
and poetic minds praised them, unworried.
Not a fine word, but poet's dreams were mused,
for star-crossed friends found all words unworthy.

In this zion are tales of our seasons,
and perfect nameless words beyond reasons.

For Eli:

2005-9-26

'Twas in the late and hasty September,
When we oft regret and less remember.
There a was boy with specs, fro, and racket,
So sought he the bouncing ball to whack it.

And as this golden clown did play quite swell,
We found it was the hair that did him well.
For it was quite bright in this ping pong game,
but the glare was blocked by his curly mane.

Converse or Fall

2005-8-31

One for Sleep well
Two for The lip smack
Three for I love you
A baker's dozen
for the accusation of lies
One for Routine
Two for Thoughtlessness
Three for I love you
A baker's dozen
for satin severed in shortness
Thirty-two wounds
from this bed of nails

Sea Beams

2005-8-11

Sea beams,
from sunlit waters
beyond many eyes' reaches.
Scarce these,
like molten glass
insight into soul's meanings.
Mind breeze,
for distant laughs
after breathing-souls' lifetimes.
Thought shells,
erudition
unknown within eyes' gazes.
Light wells,
like prophet-lies
upon sibyl's tale's accuracy.
Question,
for restless thoughts
amidst theory-proof's fiction.

Teas!

2005-8-1

These hands boil the water
and she drinks the herbs and sugar.
A twitch in her face and...
scar in her voice.
She used to be better at sipping.
Now she can't hold the cup.
It's not that I've a mug,
it's that I always swallow first.
The tea is good,
but I wish...
that it could tickle her first sometimes.
Though, she'd probably stop brewing it,
rather than taking my brew more freely.

Gypsies

2005-7-25

How many?
You voices...
How many are there?
Where are the others?
Limitless.
You are us.
We're fortune tellers.
Where all gypsies are.

Half-Bloomed Roses

2005-7-25

Where am I?
Oh where am I?
This life of mine,
was once divine.

It seems I've forgotten my name.
There's not a trace in my veins.
Blue that was brilliant as she,
and now it has left behind me.

Minds that shine,
not one like thine.
The warmth I knew
was always you.

It seems I've forgotten my name.
There's not a trace in my veins.
Clouds have forgotten to be,
what now I've forgotten to see.

Wish I was.
I wish I was.
That I could now,
redeem my vow.

It seems I've forgotten my name.
There's not a trace in my veins.
Words that you've always heard free:
Soer ol holour ol Molly
Words you've heard only from me:
Soer ol holour ol Molly

Blue Chord

2005-6-17

There is a splice in me
Just to the left
Just under my breast
Neither burn nor sting is its function
Not to heal
Not to mend
This hole is to attach
A cord of intangibility
A web of uplinks
I'm plugged in
Or they're plugged in
Or people are insane
This is my secret
I know
I know
That is the revelation
All mysticism
All truth
I must be numb
She agrees
She makes sarcasm real
I was never what I said
Implied is my cord
Implied by the obvious characters
Legend is my life
Am I their story
Am I their soul
or am I hers?

Silent Sighs

2005-5-19

We were all meant to go eventually
First the lustful
then the trustful
and finally the rest
who wait to settle
To be broken, is this boredom?
am I spite?
do I sting?
will I bite?
what will this bring?
Is this sword Voice's Bane?
these lips
trust's pain?
Broken is the sun,
chaos and combustion
You are the rain.
I am the path
the "other" path.
skin me,
drain me...
I am me.
You are the rain.
Worlds collide for you
your life
I must intoxicate this room's air
"close the window
it's cold."
and yet the cold is you...
beautiful cold
honorable rain
This window must open
air must be cleared
rain...
must carry me away
You are the rain.
talk to me

To: Hallux Femoro-Patellar

2005-4-5

When mystery's cloak unfolds
before your wayward tries,
the world that was untold
becomes at least a feast for eyes.
And when this story's told and done
the world will be as one,
for naught but truth can be undone
from the wandering of our lies.
Yet still, searching for those shadows,
are you,
things you wish to be?
But when, my friend,
were they lit anew,
they you sought to see?
The world is widows, my friend,
women who once could be,
but now they're quiet,
dark to you and me.
A gentleman,
a poet,
a knight you may be,
but these, thy brethren,
have betrayed the love you see.
And to this end the world must fall,
on tattered arms and wounds from all.
You shall only be who you will be,
and nothing more than the winds would call.
Unless you break the bonds the world has sown,
and be the man who leaves pain overthrown.
One can be perfect if one only tries,
for perfection is but what eternity hides.

Message for Knots

2005-4-3

and sounds this voice into the night
to hearts that hear, through hearts that fight
to this love of mine who cries in pain
hear this voice, let hope remain
I love you Molly, to pray for thee
I'd hold you there, I'd set you free
ease your petals, and your stem
this note is ours,
please hear me sing

Arabian Diamond

2005-4-3

the world twists a turn
and there it burns
where least expected
where most rejected

the sun shoots a flare
and there it splays
careful, cauterized
careless, hemorrhaged

the love shares a kiss
and there it soothes
where most cardinal
where least rejected

Care

2005-3-12

Flare out across lonely worlds
Oh ye fibers of Red Sea
Take with you what you will
and keep all that you are

Span the sands of twilight air
Oh ye fibers of sought needs
Take with you what you will
and keep all that will be

Thrash the grounds of former hands
Oh ye fibers of longings
Take with you what you will
and keep what is beauty

Watch droplets spread above you
Oh ye aura of fibers
Keep with you what you will
and don't keep me too far

Share those drifting satin threads
Oh ye fair, unravelled soul
Keep with you what is yours
and keep me there to mend

Philosophical Studies

2005-3-4

spinning wildly
a wayfaring web
a wandering sojourner
land to sea
ocean to shore
the reality is water and dirt
the glory is organization
a wonderment of tears
a silence of touch
a touch of compassion
the quiet of sensation
together
see the world
see dirt and water
art and life
the minds of acquaintanceship
we are not alone
except in love

Rampancy

2005-2-25

0
1
10
11
100
1001
1011
1100
1101
1110
111I
I choose.

Holour

2005-2-19

Words Words Words!
I speak a tongue none ever knew
I form the sounds romantics woo
And while I'm here I cannot see
Blinded by lights I sought to be
Yet there she is, looking at me

Time! Trust! Change!
I am what none have ever been
I built ideals to rest within
And here I am while words appear
Writing in sounds few care to hear
Yet she translates, my love, so near

What You Saw Is What I Am

2005-2-17

I simply missed the eyes that saw me...

Now
You think yourself a monster
a being to destroy
the precious morals and timeless values
of a lost, forgotten little boy

But
There was always that deepness
a truth you need to see
the precious morals and timeless values
are perhaps, just the things that saved me

Hourglass

2005-2-17

Float
Translate through space
through time
Bathe in nebulas
nebulous expanses
minds

Drift
Travel by chance
by luck
Sail through stormy seas
tempestuous stardust
souls

Choose
Sojourn through ends
through glass
Hold by lovely gaze
infinite "I love you's"
loves

Existential

2005-2-8

Fractal ice, my touch
sensation for withdrawl
and return
Thermo dynamics
a digit is melting
acclimate

Hearty spring, your desert
sentiment for crying
single drop
Liquid dynamics
a dune-rise is smoothing
undisturbed

Lucid night, the heavens
desire for gazing
astrology
Starlight dynamics
an aeon in counting
document

Embrace 2

2005-1-6

A sun can be seen
but it will not blind

These rays will burn
only in a loving soul

A world of raging waves
a blue sky in the snow

Light refracting waters
flow behind the trees of life

Ice covered peaks
and chills up my spine

Some place unseen
the dark side of a moon

A third celestial body
a size-shifting orb

A cosmicly glorious scene
and a face to grace it

Embrace

2005-1-4

Hold on
It’s time for a ride
Time for a wordless goodbye
In we, we confide
While hearts so softly sigh

Embrace
Let be flooding eyes
Build oceans for that sea-world
Hie to liquid skies
Soak flaring starlight unfurled

Hold me
For an endless time
Leave the spectators unseen
Eyes revolve like rhyme
Touch to daunt that mossy green

Aelonian

2004-12-21

Skin is like air
to pass straight through
delicate, subtle
nothing to kiss

Face is like glass
to see beyond
light-bending, opaque
nothing to view

Voice is like breeze
to fade in dreams
reticent, distant
nothing to speak

Taste is like water
to wet the tongue
vanilla, mild
nothing to soothe

Scent is like stone
to prompt no sniffs
unperfumed, spiceless
nothing to breathe

You are a ghost
to catch notice
stimulating, present
something is there

Your Pet Rock

2004-12-12

You thought I'd pick anybody
that I'd spend the night on any bed
like who you are did not matter

But I didn't
You thought I'd leave you like mem'ry
just any other hollow body
to disappear in faceless crowds

But I didn't
You thought ill of things I can't do
scowled at a person I am not
while I'm the same in dif'rent eyes
And I picked you

Click Your Heels

2004-12-12

See the face of ecstasy!
Wrinkled and torn
Oh how beautiful you are!

I don't know now
I'm so confused!
But let me be this way
crushed under your skin
Love spent before it begins
I'm fine here!
Leave me be...
I want this place
Where even the sky cries for me

See the face of ecstasy!
Wrinkled and torn
Oh how truly real you are!
Play the day away
and find your past
You lost the game
It's just too bad
too bad indeed!

Your touch burns now
I feel so used
But I love this foul high!
The trip that's in you...
Everything I thought I knew
I'll die here...
Leave me be
I love these tears
And the ocean is my revenge

See the face of ecstasy!
Wrinkled and torn
Oh that fairy tale you were...
Play the day away
and find your past
You lost the game
It's just too bad
too bad indeed!

'Tis what is now
I'll stay abused
But I'll do it again
again and again!
For the state I'm in
I feel real
Leave me be
Just leave me be
While I go down, to drown in my sea

See the face of ecstasy!
Wrinkled and torn
Oh how beautiful you were...
Play the day away
and find your past
You lost the game
It's just too bad
too bad indeed!

See the face of ecstasy!
It's just too bad
too bad indeed!

Sineyar

2004-12-6

Like the war-torn samurai
who stops
for a flower;
to bathe,
peacefully in its perfection,
and is slain defending a way of life.

I seek a peace
I have not known,
except by the depth of this noise.
I need a voice
I could not hear,
without some mind to sing it.

This world is so beautiful,
delicate,
but it's the same.
Starry expanse,
so cold and hollow,
is not enough for simple things.

I seek a peace
I have not known,
except by the sound of this voice.
I need a voice
I could not hear,
without some quiet to hear it.

Things I wish to say,
to speak,
but only feel.
A language
only memory may orate
but you feel it anyway, somehow.

I seek a word
I have not known,
except by the touch of this mind.
I need a note
I could not hear,
without some heart to play it.

Comfort

2004-11-30

In their arms
Do you feel love?
Do you know love?
you could fall into the bodies,
touch what they feel,
give what they lust for.
be a cowardly lie
on the easy path,
because you fear our love.
you fear our truth.
you fear what we may judge,
and we may,
but we still love you.

Makeup

2004-11-26

Why?
all so meaningless now
these wounds in my skin

Hide them?
the pain remains
scars cry in my stead

Red or black?
illusion or elusion
seduction or protection

Why have this bag?
tubes of oily paste
hide the truth of ill skin

What is my sad end?
this flesh is rotting away
these organs become machines

Tell me, why am I here?
to live this loveless machine-life
to die a painful death

By Choice

2004-11-12

Here
Scattered like glass
I find a mem'ry of so long ago
Intrusively into the hollow of my mind

There
Afore my eyes
You simply stay there by choice
Knowing full well I will not ask you to leave

Where
Haven't I shown
You're not on my guest list
But I can't help always wanting you to stay

Physics

2004-11-3

What a beautiful friend you are
To grow on me like a limb
To comfort my changing mind

What an abhorrent fiend you are
To sever from me as in war
To abandon my devout will

Truth

2004-10-24

All I want is something real
Something that we all can feel alive

Just take me where those hearts don't steal
A quiet voce speaks loudly in the night

The myst'ry of your hearts untold
By spoken words that don't unfold to me

It's strange, I could not see 'till now
That actions show just what it is you'll be

In My Hands

2004-9-28

These hollow hands hold nothing,
This fleshy mass is only clay.
That blue light I am, a shield,
That crimson figure lies beyond.
This blood seeks, neither can have,
These halfway tones are their own.

Quilt

2004-9-17

Be your candle
Some will melt in sun so bright
Others will crumble in pale cellar's light
Selfless will burn, glow just one night

We were the waiting dust
We are the breathing dust
We'll forever be - dust

Each is each other
I am another
We are him and her
Worlds are changed by the one
Each takes part, then it's done
A peaceful war is won

Receive my fading flame

That Girl

2004-9-8

who stroked her golden mane
who loved the fruits of nature
bounding through the valley grass
hopping flights from hairy trees

Into the mist;

A land of green and blue.
trees are ancient, grasses are low
the salt waters sting in wounds
the animal becomes throbbing reality
what truth so few knew becomes lost
what was once love becomes my fear.

Cry Without

2004-8-29

this is the shore of doubt
whose harbors are defended

this is the sea through which we travel
where we find only lost souls

this is the sojourner of mercy
whose mind's path is set

this is the traveler for whom I live
when crossroads are lost in fog

this is the friend who's more than that
whose heart is kept secret

this is the soul that so few know
while so few are so worth it

The Other Way

2004-7-14

I will not
sail away, learn to be free
help the world through all that's me
I will not
smile in sight of sunrise
receive comfort from soft eyes
I will not
find what I always lived for
step beyond this lost life's door
I will not
live the life, this life I choose
reach my dreams, not without you
I would not
easily hear a no
I could not
bear the harsh let go

Inspiration

2004-6-12

whose flesh I may not touch

whose life I will not lead

whose perfect smile I rarely see

and whose love I hope always to receive

she is the girl who'll sail away
with precious words she did not say
to make me listen another day

seclusion's shield is cast upon her
to keep her strong, to keep her honor
and hold her heart as it grows fonder

An Old Idea

2004-6-2

Life should be an "as you wish" fairytale.
The Holy Grail should be a token of love.
The president should be a sober Rasputin.
Eyes should soothe, fingers should know.
The leaves of Autumn should be enough.
The world should hie a peaceful journey.

Subtle Sighs

2004-5-14

Years awake
to find the time
to do the right

Questions break
to change the heart
to see the warmth

Dance tonight
to feel the breadth
to know the soul

Lacking light
to rest the mind
to share the air

Mellow

2004-5-6

I'm entranced
Not over-your-head entranced
Not obsessive entranced
Not entranced like a moth to the flame
But just enough to keep me going
Entranced by elaborate thoughts
Entranced by my heart
Entranced by you

Primary Love

2004-5-5

Weaving my way though the day
I happened across a lovely sight.
A color unknown by mortal way
glorified by its own fair light.
Delicate as a forrest
Soothing as the sea
Passionate as a sunset
Deep as the outer heavens

'Twas a charming thing indeed
that beautiful color I felt
Its brilliance my eyes could not see
but for its smile I fell.
So I sojourned the trails
Sailed from the shores
Embraced the rays
Searched the stars

Thankfully Blighted by Light

2004-3-12

A distant light
A cresting ray
Strokes the trees with golden gleam,
yet stands so far away.

A harrowed crowd
A stolid grove
Stays away in valley low
but still stands where light dove.

Sonnet 2 - (A Thank You Valentine)

2004-2-14

Dearest Love:
My gentle heart is shewn in women's eyes,
But you, fair lass, do see what they forgot;
To find the kindness that promotes their sighs;
To long embrace the manners ancients sought.

You found me alone with a thousand friends,
While I strived to calm their sea of faces.
You shined o'er the water to all its ends;
Searching to suit emotional places.

I cannot say what brought you unto me;
You rescued me from tempestuous waves,
From fear-welcomed nights when love is sleazy;
Into your reserved arms where love behaves.

And now I'll guard you from what I did see,
So hap'ly ever after we will be.

Hope

2004-2-13

Bear the day
Suffer long hours
Fearing sunlight
All its wonders
Glorious trees
Pain indulges
Choices for life
Rend open my soul
Spill the memories
Touch the hand
Embrace
Find peace
As I sleep

Hoarse Writer

2004-1-18

Trust my touch
Never receive it
Stay, Leave
I rejoice
Because you'd let me
Because my hand could
But won't
I'd live forever
Pleasantly content in your confidence
Happily in love with the universe
Eternal expanse
Our home
Where you are you
I am me
And it is we

Taken

2004-1-10

Saunter through life
take your time and find your way
Forget your strife
your soul's battle's won today
Behold the sounds
listen while you're on your own
Silence astounds
only you, and you're alone
Speak on deaf ears
form your poem, a written sigh
Nobody hears
whilst your soul attempts to cry
Longings taunted
wish the same as all others
All you wanted
is the sweet voice that is hers

Unspoken

2003-12-10

He sees you
He does
Stares eagerly away
Not the slightest falter
Piercing eyes within your averted gaze
A beast without manners
Or a compassionate prince
A selfish tickle on your velvet cheek
He wants to see you
But not disturb
Helpless
He holds the key in fear
You keep the doors in tranquility.

Symmetry

2003-9-16

See this balloon make a friend.
I try but all these others can never see you.
See the childhood predestiny.
Maybe it was meant to be.
See what makes us the same.
You and me.

Presight

2003-6-29

I saw it but nobody else did
she was young and beautiful
old and the same
a thousand years with one lost
I saw it
she fell for all but here and her
me and there
hopeless girl without a gift of tears
I saw it all
here was the first, the last, and the always
the word, the touch, and the love
it came without condition?
I saw it all the way to the end
and now she's a busty babe
and all the boys like her
but they can't do what I did

Tales

2002-9-14

to the stars we sling our hearts
to help them find lost love's arts
where they go some wish they knew
where in time these lovers flew
they'd find tales of you and I
they'd see us rise into the sky

Discontent

2002-8-28

I once met a man who devoured me whole,
and I saw from outside, discontent was his soul.
He stared at the sun and all that it be,
so I asked him myself just what he did see.
He said that its beams would give his sight haze,
but he wished that he could look down with its gaze.
He wanted its distance so I would look small
for I disgusted his liking with body and all.
He set me aback and made ready my flee,
but I stood my ground for he longed to be me.
He told me my youth put want in his eyes
like any old man who'd find me a prize.
He took to my image with hate and adorn,
but he envied me then for he loathed himself more.

Discontent 2

2002-8-28

"I'm too young to die
and heaven's hell for my cares.
Only one more year
and my powers will race free.
I've so much to do
in such little time.
Life can let the peers teach me
for they know all I'll care to learn.
I'll relax in the sun
where my body can melt away.
Girls are hard to love
with all those to choose from.
I wan't to be older,
yet I don't want the body.
"I await my endless night
and Maker's glory dawns my day.
One hundred years ago
I was the god I long to be.
My work is done
so retire my soul oh Lord.
All lessons are learned
and my mind starves in vain.
This body does not move
for the bones need greasing.
A sight of love takes me off
to memories of my wife in heaven.
I want to be young again,
yet I don't want the life.

Where It All Goes:

2002-7-5

To the night sings my soul
For purples of her love drift the sky
To times we'll fin'ly meet
For purposes none shall ever know
To this dear love of mine
For people not e're to see with eyes
To things misunderstood
For patient hearts which long late realize
To the strangely destined
To taken grand morals

For Your Word

2002-2-26

Touch.
A stroke of grace across the wings of a Pegasus.
Power

Touch.
The gift of a chance for sight of love.
Birth

Touch.
A knife and shed the blood of meaning.
Death

Last Chance

2002-2-2

And I walked, walked in wonder
for sight
of thunder at hand.
Hate
is
at
hand.
You
And my love, loved me never
for time
is ever at end.
All
is
at
end.
Lost
in mind.
My bleating soul,
Dead.
Hear
my tears.
Hear all my "I love you's."
I do.
And I know, know your feeling
for life
of stealing at hearts.
Life
is
at
heart.
And I leave
this moment
for you,
your endowments
I knew.
Love
fares
on
me.

Humble Child

2002-1-14

He did his best
as best he could
To please the lord
as all men should
He came in clothes
so hard to wear
With blighted shoes
I would not bear
He did his best
to make god glad
And he gave thanks
for all he had...

Untrusted Healer

2001-11-3

About the girl who dropped her watch and gave time to her child

Where hearts and souls
Riled as winds of a far forgotten shore,
And came the cannibals who want no more
For here, flesh took place in their desire,
And they wished to burn it in false love's fire

Amidst her sleep, there fell her mark of time,
Upon the ground, burrowed in dirt and grime
But from the dark came a pale virgin hand,
Into the light, unmet by dark demand

It found the watch and lifted the chain,
And left the weight last to where it was lain
But now it is sad for she did not find,
The gift her child would have in its mind

Such Is Life

2001-5-8

Such is life that time will tell
of all the things that come to pass.
And when, one day, you find yourself
trapped in lust that will not last
I hope that life will show the way
and let ring the love you knew.

Thank you for visiting Art Leaping, the portfolio of Richard Lawrence Harrington

Contact me at: rlh@artleaping.com

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