Sunday, August 24, 2014

A Broken Heart, A Shattered Mind

A Broken Heart, A Shattered Mind
The scars of my heart take their tole
Moan and gash through to my soul

My eyes can find no light
In the shroud of the night

My ears hear no song
They have not worked for oh so long

My nose can smell no flowers
Nor the might and beauty of those April showers

My tongue can taste nothing
Not even the sweetest sweets can end my suffering

My hands can feel no one
How I miss the heat of the sun

You've left me senseless
So terribly hopeless

Temptress

Temptress
Fall to your knees
Beg me please
Fighting your charm
Is what I do best

Take your dance
Take your show
Only you could sink so low

I'm not here for you
I'm here for what's mine
You owe me for two
Two lifeless lifetimes

I suffered and fell
You ignored all I had to tell
So this I have for you
You will suffer through and through

No More

No More
No longer does my heart
Beat for another.
No longer do I share
The joys and sorrows of another.
I love no more.

My tears shower the heavens
And as the angels writhe
In the despair of my tears.
They will feel ashamed
For not guarding my love,
keeping it protected.

When heaven's clouds clear
And I stand tall
I will have my revenge
Only then, shall I fall.

The Balance Between Emotion and Imagination

It's not an original statement, but the fact is that writers are driven, guided, and tempered by their emotions.  It's our thoughts that construct the ideas, yes, but it's our emotions that put the pen to page and bring the literature's statement to life.  Sometimes, however, it's possible and even preferable to have a moment of imagination.  To tap into the well of imagination to try and express emotions that as a writer one has not yet personally experienced is an essential skill to develop.  It takes courage, yes, because we have to be willing to risk showing your misunderstanding of the subject.  It takes humility, because we have to be prepared to face our misunderstandings and listen to constructive feedback from those with a greater understanding of and/or personal experience with the subject.  I am fortunate that while I have dealt with anger, pain, sorrow, I have never been hurt in such a way by a romantic interest that my anger is aimed at them.  Yes, I am grateful to say that I have been spared the kind of betrayal that would turn one's anger against a former love interest.  Therefore, when I look back at the three poems that are soon to be posted ("A Broken Heart, A Shattered Mind," "Temptress," "No More") I realize that at the time I wrote them, I was most definitely using my imagination.  I am especially certain of this because I wrote each of these while still in high school and as some of you may know, my heart was broken only weeks ago.  Furthermore, when the aforementioned heartbreak occurred I was left with no anger or resentment.  In fact, I was left with a deep respect for the person.  So, as much as I wanted to explain an essential part to the writing process, I also wanted to make it very clear that these poems are not aimed at any actual person.  The three poems mentioned in this post are indeed poems of the imagination, an expression through experimentation and analysis of unfamiliar emotions.

A Poet's Possession

A Poet's Possession
I weep ink
I bleed ink
I speak ink
I hear ink

I sweat ink
Beading from my whole person
I scream ink
As it fills my desperate lungs

I weep ink
And
It's with these tears
That the page
Is watered
With my passion,
Sorrow, and soul

I bleed ink
And
It's with this blood
That the page
Is stained
With me
All of me

I speak ink
And
It's with these sounds
That their ears
Are ringing
With my words
Their message

I hear ink
And
It's with that call
That the poem
Is formed
From my heart
My honesty

My vulnerability

Ah, at times
My own words perplex me
Ink is not a language
To be mastered
Ink is a language
To be loved

One's devotion to the truth
Will be rewarded
With ink's influence
Flowing from one's pen

Friday, August 1, 2014

A Battle Fit for Legend

A Battle Fit for Legend

Two weapons drawn
Two weapons clash

One weapon falls
One weapon rises

One weapon falls
One weapon buries

One weapon rises
One weapon stains

One weapon scars


Angel's Blessing

Angel's Blessing

I've never felt so far from alive
Trying so hard simply to survive
To exist in the angel's blessing on high
Too proud, too vain, too often I lie
Shame has fallen upon my try
I have failed, utterly failed to survive
Only with the angel's blessing
Will I revive.

You Saved Me

You Saved Me

You came!
You saw!
And you saved me

From the weight on my shoulders
From the pain in my heart
From the scars on my soul
You saved me, you saved me

My life, everyday
It all just seemed the same
Forgotten from time
No place in history

I faded from the densest crowds
Just to find myself
Alone and afraid!

You came!
You saw!
And you saved me

From the weight on my shoulders
From the pain in my heart
From the scars on my soul
You saved me, you saved me

I fall in and out of these places
Knowing no one
Seeing no faces
I feel my heart beat so lazy
I feel my mind going crazy
I fall to my knees!

You came!
You saw!
And you saved me

From the weight on my shoulders
From the pain in my heart
From the scars on my soul
You saved me, you saved me

Now I'm on a mission
My story to be told
To those faceless crowds,
But you know them by name
Each of their souls

My story may be similar
To pain felt in the past
But now I'm here to tell my tale
To let these people know

You came!
You saw!
And you saved me

From the weight on my shoulders
From the pain in my heart
From the scars on my soul
You saved me, you saved me

You saved me, you saved me

You saved me, you saved me

You saved me

My Textbook, My Only

My Textbook, My Only

Read, read, read...

Memorize, memorize, memorize...

Read, read, read again...

Memorize, memorize, memorize some more...

Read, read, read once again...

Memorize, memorize, memorize it all...

Three times I had to learn
the same thing.
Three times I went to the same school
The people just got bigger is all

I Read
I Memorize
I Pass
I Forget

Repeat.

A Simple Promise

A Simple Promise

To explain a lover's spirit
Would be a lecture
In pain, a pain
Inferior to the might
And ferocity of true love

For a lover's pain is real
A reality that can only be felt
When one feels
For the sake of their sanity
And all that matters
In the eyes of another

It's in those eyes
That one sees
What it's meant to be free
Of the shackles of loneliness
Of the fear, of the greed
For one no longer believes
That they are their own
Most important person

So they stand
Beside, next to, in support
Of the one person
The one person who is
That most important person
And will forever be

This is when the knees ache
The ankles break
The back creaks
And the mind seeks
To find the strength
To Overcome

For a lover's pain is real
And it's in this most
Important person
That a lover's strength
Overcomes

For there is no challenge
No trial or tribulation
That could hope to withstand
The power of true love
A power so great and yet so simple
That one could hold it
In the palm of their hand

So long as that hand
Is joined with another's
Two hands forming a bond
The strongest bond

I love you
And I promise
To hold your hand

Where I Stand

Where I Stand

This is where I stand
Not in judgment
Not in isolation

This is where I stand
With my own two legs
Upon my own two feet

This is where I stand
With no one below me
But everyone around me

Everyone I've loved
Everyone I've cared about
Everyone who has loved me
Everyone, except one

The one I believed
To be the one
This one is nowhere to be seen
This one is not so much
As remembered

In this one's place
Are the lessons learned
The growth
The development
But not this one

For I cannot stand
So long as this one
Is ever more again
Than a lesson

This one's eyes
Hair, smile, and charm
All lost to the shadows
Of my scars

It's the scars
That teach me
It's the scars
That stand beside me

The scars
Not her.

Where I Am

Where I Am

Forever trapped in a void
Eternal light floods my senses
To find a path means to lose
My hands stretch for the light
It is too far
It will forever be too far.

Tomorrow Is Mine

Tomorrow Is Mine

We will not be ruled by the greedy corrupted
We will not fall to the failed construction

No

No, they say that land is the only thing
The only thing they aren't making more of

No

No, that ain't true cuz you can see it
All around more land is made
Made for us to bury our heads
Cuz that's where they want'em

No

No, we will not stick our heads in the ground
The ground they polluted with their lies and deceit
They have no plan that doesn't keep them on top
On top and in charge while we go nowhere

No

No, they have no faith in us
They have no interest in us
They are cowards on the throne
We are the brave they steal from

No

No, they will not give us the chance
The chance to fix their mistakes
Instead they will go on blaming us, accusing us
Accusing us of being apathetic and ignorant

No

No, we are not ignorant just because we are young
They are not wise just because they are old
Wisdom is gained from experience
Experience is nothing if time is wasted

No

No, they have not done anything worth calling experience
But they continue to insist we have none
But we have experienced their cruelty, their cowardice,
Their ineptitude, inability, and sheer stupidity

No

No, they are not smart just because they are old
We are not dumb just because we are young
We have minds, we use them, we think, we see, we grow
We know enough to know when a person does a bad job

Yes

Yes, we can tell when the self-proclaimed capable
When they prove to be anything but
The have failed and they aim to blame us
We can succeed where they have failed, but they will never admit

Yes

Yes, they will never admit that we could do a better job
They want us to need them, to believe such blasphemy
The wrong people get paid for doing a terrible job
While we don't get paid at all because there are no jobs for us

Yes

Yes, their inability leads us to need them
But only because they have poisoned this land
With the division of the people
With a battle for power in which only we suffer

Yes

Yes, they have no interest in doing their jobs
They have every intention of cashing in their paycheck
But they will never earn it
We pay them for a job not done, because they make the rules

Yes

Yes, they make the rules, but we will break them
They will try and keep us down
Keep us down with their red tape and insults
We are not helpless, we don't need them

I

I am part of something special
Something new
Something strong
Something smart
Something real
Something unstoppable

Something greater

All these things
And that's why we don't need them
That's why it's time
It's time for us to take control over our own fates
Our destiny is ours to control
They will not like us for refusing their lies
They will punish us for finding our independence
But we will find it

They

They cannot stop us and we will come at them
They have no chance and we will not relent
They have no fire and we will burn
They have no faith and we believe in one another

Those

They are not those we care for
Those that loved us unconditionally
Those that raised us and cared for us
Those are the people we fight to repay
We will give those all the things they didn't
We know that it's not because they couldn't
No, they decided they wouldn't
We love those and will free those from them

We

We are united
We are brothers and sisters
We are the very best of friends
We are lovers
We are forever, till the very end
We are the revolution
We are young

We
Are
Young

The Quiet King

The Quiet King

The rubies resonate,
The sapphires shimmer,
The turquoise twinkles,
On the quiet king's crown.

Bearded ear to ear.
Bald, hidden by the crown.
Eyes so dark,
They pierce the night sky.

He raises his scepter.
He raises it high.
He points it forward.
He points it straight ahead.

A holler!
A scream!
A cheer!

Today's the day.
The day it comes to an end.
The king has issued the order.
The quiet king with an order heard.

An order heard by all.
The quiet king orders his kingdom.

The Pain of Beauty

The Pain of Beauty

Her beauty speaks to me in a whisper.
So quiet, so perfect, beyond melody's compare.
Stories to tell, endless journeys.
From beginning to end, I listen intently.

Shadows close in seeking to silence.
The flood of pure light in her eyes rages.
The shadows drown in seconds.
All that's left are those eyes, they are crying.

The Faintest Plea

The Faintest Plea

We strike tomorrow.
Our fate is sealed.
My wife and children pray.
For me, for my safety.

Restless in the barracks reserve.
My legs tremble.
Certainly from fear.
I'm not excited at all.

My bed creaks,
Mimicking my moans.
My whole body aches from anxiety,
I feel as though there is no air.

No air,
Nothing to breathe.
What's the point?
It's tainted by sin anyway.

Sin flows through the airless sky.
It fills our lungs,
And clouds my eyes.
Sin will win this war, a sole survivor.

Thanks Dad

Thanks Dad

Thank you Dad for your support.
Thank you Dad on and off the court.

Thank you Dad for your smile.
Thank you Dad for each and every mile.

Thank you Dad for the years.
Thank you Dad for those silent tears.

Thank you Dad for all that you've done.
Thank you Dad for being the one.

Thank you Dad, thank you.