Lyrical poetry for your mid-week


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Photo Courtesy:  Swedish National Heritage photostream

Green

~lme

I pack a punch

Right to the gut

With a song that I wrote

since I only had so much

I live in a world

You have never seen

Ethereal forests

Filled with evergreens

Remember when there was intrigue

In a disappearing act

Where do you go

When the others act like that

I sought advice

in comrades I knew

but they could not console me

in the mystery of you

I will strive for the higher path

No matter how I’m hurt

I seek comfort in someone else

To the man who won’t desert

Filling up the holes

Where the others fall so short

The one who teaches creation

Is the only one who can bind what’s sore

You don’t sing me to sleep

I do that on my own

The silence is my symphony

I won’t take water from a stone

Love must define me

But I must guard my heart

No matter how it unravels

I know I finish what I start

Water and erosion


Waves upon waves

of searing, new folds of pain

eroding what I knew

Day after day

Why will you keep haunting me

As if you don’t desire me to recover

How will I heal

If I’m not left alone

My bleeding little fingers

Gripping the Rock

While the damp air whips

My hair about my cheeks and ears

And satan whispers

He is no longer here

Lies are in your chest

Lies are what you do best

I know this is just a test

I would not say I’m brave

You said you’d never leave

So perhaps I can hold on

For just one more day

~lme

Scarlet Cord


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Photo Courtesy:  Miami University flickr photostream

Scarlet Cord

You thought that you were coy

Lighting fires from the start

Stealing what was not yours to claim

Right behind a weaker heart

Choosing sides like choosing teams

Dirty shoes within the perfect, fallen snow

I’d love to tell you what I think of you

I’m far too classy for that though

 

Remember what I hoped

When I was young

Remember when the world was newer

And the rope I held

Had no past stories

To tell of the damage

That’s now been done

 

You confirm it was long ago

I wish the phantom was a lie

The vapor of a knife

I’ll always feel her presence in my side

The night we met still haunts me

I know I wont forget

the helpless hole within me

unsure of what the future gets 

 

Remember what I hoped

When I was young

I believed the world was newer

And the rope I held

Had no past stories

To tell of the damage

That’s now been done

 

How could I forget this

Sweep it past me in the room

Unlocking years of promises

Underneath the knowing moon

The art of war, uneven

Thieves come out ahead

While the understudy suffers

Crying softly in her bed

 

Remember what I hoped

When I was young

I believed the world was newer

And the rope I held

Had no past stories

To tell of the damage

That’s now been done

Neutral Hues


Neutral Hues

One late orchid and the jasmine bloom

And then wilt away just as soon

The palest hues have washed these walls

Colors much removed

From the ruddy face of last year’s fall

Stark and minimal, empty dresser

Wooden canopy bed, wearing guaze

Blowing like a feather

The setting sun, lighting on my lowly skin

Making figures from magnolia trees asking when

I sink into the bed,

Into a surface gloom

As that voice escapes across the room

Trapped within a locket or hinged beneath the floor

I let my arm hang lifeless

A reminder of the life I was before

Cracking paint on baseboards where I stare at home

And every imperfection only served to pull this close

This day begins to close its eyes

Breathing is nothing but a sigh

The king provides a parable

With wisdom providing knowledge if the cup is full

And if I should lie here alone

Or chase to be

Let the light come soon,

Let there be some kind of sign for me.

 

~lme

Wrapped in grey


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Photo Courtesy:  NSW photostream

I remember the day

The day the world was wrapped in grey

It came fast

And it stayed

For a good long while this way.

 

The minds plus and minus of the world

The logical

Their intelligence unfurled

Began to notice missing things

All lines became straight which once were swirled

 

The paintings were no more on walls

No music heard down through the halls

the colors in the fabric

began to melt away

and everything began to fade into grey

 

the calculators were there

and the pens and the paper too

but slowly through the day

all the pants, shirts, picture frames and foods

began to drip their colors and what was left was grey

 

people began to disappear

the people who were odd and funny

so different, the laughing stock

the ones we could not understand

the ones with wrinkled frocks

 

oh there was math and science too

the methods above the madness

there was what they told us

was so important

and the color slowly melted

into a massive pool of sadness

 

and as they reveled in their logic

believing they had won

with each passing day their hearts grew heavy

without the variety of the ones who were gone

and upon the lips of the dying man, I heard him say

now I know without the other shades

I am sinking into the saddest shade of grey.

~lme

Monday poetry


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Photo Courtesy: Cornell Library photostream

Validation

I once buried a seed

The need to be filled

The coffin rests in the ground

It’s sinking deeper still

Leaves cover the ground

Over them we walk

And forget we ever saw them

We slowly pass above the fall-en

 

Chorus:

The sickness of validation

All across this sordid nation

Anxious feet near the reflecting flame

There are none who have been tamed

 

You say the way you feel is fine

You are what you are

The truth has brought to light

Just how lonely you are

The dead are walking

In this so-called harmony town

The ghosts of those who had pride

are pulling their own temples down

 

Chorus:

The sickness of validation

All across this sordid nation

Anxious feet near the reflecting flame

There are none who have been tamed

 

Bridge:

You stay on that side Beelzebub

And I’ll keep to myself

If moores are Scottish

And green is the irish claim

I will hold fast to what I know

It will keep me sane

The Well Wishing


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Photo Courtesy: SDASM Archives photo stream

People carry sorrows

like chains around their feet

so carry your brother

when the water gets too deep

Wherever you end up

Just step on outside yourself

Let your word be a promise

Let your love be deep as a well

Chorus:

Into the forests

Out of the past

Running through the trials

Clutching the mast

The darkness may trail

the light of this tune

But someday I’ll make a promise

Beneath a summer moon

All words have two meanings

That get turned in the toss

I don’t understand it

But love suffers long

I’ve seen vice and virtue

From all to old

No matter the substance

It poisons the soul

Chorus:

Into the forests

Out of the past

Running through the trials

Clutching the mast

The darkness may trail

the light of this tune

But someday I’ll make a promise

Beneath a summer moon

Music wafts through us

Like spirits in this realm

Truth becomes us

Once it has been found

Hymns and thistles

Tied up with a bow

Wherever this road carries us

Few will come to know

~lme

The great divide


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Photo courtesy: OSU flickr photostream

Hear the whisper of the dogwoods

Like they could hardly wait

The lust of open roads

Spread out before us

Like a patchwork sheet

Our future was not certain

In the binding of a storybook

You can’t see everything

 

Chorus:

We will follow

the Oregon moon

That will welcome us in

I can taste the halo

Shoulder to shoulder with my kin

You and I will falter

But we’ll see the other side

I was once a pioneer

Crossing the great divide

 

Hey sweet baby

I don’t mind if you grab my hand

Secrets pass between us

As we ride across this land

Across a prairie backdrop

Floating wagon sails

We can only find the heaven

If we pass through this earthly hell

 

Over the horizon

Lies the promise of much more

Bluebonnets bow their heads

In a Western swinging door

The dust settles where it may

On the hearts of those who say no

Birds learn to use their wings

and we were bound to go

Bridge

our belongings packed up so tight

bouncing round and out of sight

the days, the nights

the fireglow

tales to keep us entertained

of gold that could be attained

the days, the nights

Let us reap, let us sow

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French Pastries


Where shall I go

To find myself

The me I do not know

What window shall I choose

To gaze upon a flowering field

To find myself a better view

To where shall I flee

To satisfy

Each tiny need

And which foreign land can host

My daily joys

And all adversity

To whom shall I give

To bestow

My life

Like a mayfly lives

Who owns the crafted hands

That will hold me close

Spinning yarns over fortune

Love as full from coast to coast.

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Photo Credit: US Library of Congress photostream (love this place live)

~lme

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What isn’t, what is


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As I listen to French music, I found this image on the Toulouse Flickr page

Love isn’t just a one shot chance

Love is decisions

Love’s in the overall plan

Love isn’t giddy and summertime lust

It has arrows both ways

But love rests in one you can trust

Love isn’t words and flowers and wealth

Love serves one over self

Love isn’t a picture, filled with some perfect face

Love patches the broken

Love finds strength in grace.

~lme

This poem was written last week, but it was ideal for today.  I have thought a lot about how we do not radically love to the fullest until it hurts us.  We are called to a higher level of love as followers.