In Mind: A Poetry Collection
Diya Das
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2009 Diya Das
October 3, 2002
Autumn
An abundant harvest is gathered
Unvarying beauty all around me
Trees of color surround me
Under me is a pile of leaves
My birthday in September
New school year starts
October 10, 2002
The Frog
The frog
Hopped over a log
In the bog.
His mate
Was late
For their date.
The angry frog
Hopped over a log
As he left the bog.
His mate
Came hopping late
For
their date.
She, the female frog,
Hopped over every log
In
the bog.
She left to get a new mate
Who would not be late
For
their date.
As of late,
She has a new mate.
He is late.
November 5, 2002
A thank you note to fall
Thank you fall, for all the gifts
you give me,
Especially the chance for me
To see
Pretty
leaves falling off a tree.
There’s red and yellow everywhere
On
the trees, and in the air.
Of all the leaves that dance without a
care,
There isn’t one that I could spare.
And for me, there’s
even more
Presents galore,
Spread all over the floor
And a
birthday party with much more than four.
A fresh new school
year,
With many friends willing to lend an ear:
Without a
smear,
Clear of mistakes and full of cheer.
There’s many more
gifts, I know,
That you can’t give out before this year’s
snow.
I’m sorry that you have to go,
But I'll wait for you to
come again, even though you're slow.
November 27, 2002
Fall Is Gone
The tree is bare.
Its branches do
not move in the cold air.
The birds have left, too.
But the sky
is still blue.
The tree was alive,
And the birds would
dive.
The tree would sway,
And the birds would play.
It was
always fun
To play in the sun.
We made much noise,
With all
our joys.
That was fall,
Without a single snowball.
But now,
fall has withdrawn.
fall is gone.
December 2, 2002
The Mice and Lice of Christmas
Deck the halls with a giant snowflake;
Christmas is the time to give and take.
May there be snow and ice,
Free of dust, and free of mice,
And a trip to the frozen lake.
December 22, 2002
The Birdies and Me
One day, a birdie flew to me,
“Can
I build a nest in this oak tree?”
I said no,
But the birdie
wouldn’t go.
He said, “I’m using this tree.”
“You
will see.”
On the first day
Of May,
The birdie built his
nest,
While calling me a little pest.
And at the end of the
day,
The birdie flew away.
The next day, the birdie brought his
bride
And she cried.
When I offered them a branch of the
tree,
The two little birdies smiled back at me.
She said,
“Thank you.”
Then he added, “Me, too!”
On the first of
June,
Five little birdies were born under a full moon.
I fed
them a worm,
And they began to squirm.
I knew their babyhood
wouldn’t last,
And the five little birdies grew up really
fast.
Now as I write,
It is not yet night.
And even though
it is still light,
Thirty-five little birdies chirp, “Good
night!”
And happily they sleep,
With an occasional peep.
December 24, 2002
Wind
Blowing softly on a summer day,
A
light breeze in the month of May.
A little stronger down the
road:
August is another load.
Tugging and playing like a
child,
In the spring and summer the wind is very mild.
Fall is
a little stronger now,
Strong enough to make a tree bow.
Winter
is another story,
The wind is howling in all his glory.
At the
start of a new year,
The wind does not appear.
Then quietly he
works his path,
Until he lets out all his wrath.
The wind is
very nice,
But sometimes he blows pellets of ice.
In the
spring, the wind is timid and weak,
But as the year goes on, he
becomes slippery, sly, and sleek.
Be careful, there is a slight
breeze.
The wind is howling in the trees.
January 2, 2003
School
Last year
The school year was
nowhere near
The second bend.
But now it’s almost at an
end.
Difficult and yet full of ease,
The year went like a
breeze.
The first few days were hard
And far away was the
dreaded report card.
Going from the start of a new friendship
And
on past the first field trip,
The Retreat,
The year does not
seem near complete.
But the year is almost over
And at summer the car will pull
over.
It is hard to believe it could end so soon
The classes, the friends - all before June.
February 12, 2003
The Fun on Valentine’s Day
Red and pink hearts decorate the
halls,
Gifts appear on display in the malls.
Bows appear
everywhere
The spirit of Valentine’s Day is in
the air.
A silence settles in the room
It is as silent as a forgotten
tomb.
The moment is abrupt:
Suddenly, all the rooms erupt.
The
party starts.
Soon, balloons are besieged by little red darts.
Eat
and play That is the schedule for the rest of the day.
As
stragglers leave,
The teachers grieve.
The mess is complete It
is not a job they happily greet.
And yet, the teachers smile
As
they begin a garbage pile.
The party was good for everyone
The kids had lots of fun.
As the
teachers go,
They are relieved to know
There are no more
Valentine’s Day parties anywhere near,
The next clean-up job can
wait for a year.
March 9, 2003
Winter Into Spring
Through the winter we have
come,
Through the cold, and through the glum.
Winter is not
quite over yet
But there is some resistance that
winter has not met.
Strong wills winter will meet,
The next
time he tries to make us go back for a treat.
Spring will not let
us go,
That is something that winter really does know.
But
winter does not like it you see
He is the greediest of the other
three.
Month after month, year after year,
Winter does not like
to see spring come near.
Spring is reminder of all things that are
nice,
But no one spring will ever come twice.
That is the sad
part you see,
At least, it seems so to me.
For those who
believe winter is not bad,
I agree with you, although the thought
makes me mad.
Not a thousand words would say it all, but one
single phrase could –
Everything on Earth is both bad and good.
May 15, 2003
I, the Butterfly
I flutter
Through the trees
In
the cool breeze.
My name is butter-
Fly
On land and in the
sky.
I hop
Onto a tiny perch,
And as the tree blows forward,
I lurch.
No time to stop!
Quiet as a tiny mouse,
I may be
hiding in the tree just outside your house!
September 22, 2003
Too Sleepy
I am too tired to go to school today,
I
was too tired yesterday.
I’m not getting out of bed for another
hour or two,
Why don’t you go back to sleep too?
I tell you,
go away!
Bother someone else today.
There isn’t anyone else
you say?
Then come back another day.
Mercy! Don’t pull my
hair!
It isn’t fair!
I’m too sleepy to hear.
No, please
don’t shout in my ear!
I don’t want to hear another word.
I
don’t want to listen to any mockingbird.
I don’t want to
talk,
I don’t care if it’s ten o’ clock.
What did you
say?
The stars are shining pink today?
Why does it matter what
day it is today?
You said it’s Saturday?
October 1, 2003
I Am…
I am busy, I am busy,
Like a little bumblebee.
I am “Small,” I am “Small,”
Even if I’m twelve.
I am manic, I am manic,
Even if I’m tired.
I am laughing, I am laughing,
Like a crazy person.
I’ve got a cold, I’ve got a cold,
Even if I feel fine.
I’ve got homework, I’ve got homework,
Even if I waste my time.
I am going to work, I am going to work,
Even if I don’t want to.
October 7, 2003
My Homework
I don’t know what I have to
say.
I’m not sure what to do.
Should I mention that the sky
is gray,
And that the water’s blue?
The story is all muddled
up in my head.
I don’t know where to start.
What I have said
so far has probably all been said,
Or maybe, accidentally, I added
an extra part.
Anyhow, I don’t remember how the story goes.
I’ve
got it all mixed up in my mind.
Was it about the pig with fourteen
toes?
Another moment to think, I say, if you would be so
kind.
Wait a minute, I’ve got to ask my karate uniform if it
knows.
I can’t hear.
Oh, it’s saying something about a
bloody nose.
I really do hope the answer’s somewhere
near.
Teacher! Teacher! I remember it now!
I t ’s not about
your hamster, who has suddenly gone berserk,
Or your two-headed
cow:
No, it’s about the dog that ate my homework!
December 8, 2003
Time
Busy as the little bumblebee
That
my parents used to call me.
Running everywhere –
Trying to
figure out if I’m here or if I’m over there.
The clock decides
my life each day –
I’ve never lived any other way.
From
here to there and then back –
It is free time that I lack.
Time
to just do whatever I want to do:
No limits or anything –
nothing that’s due.
But if I did have time, nothing would ever
get done–
And then nothing else would be any fun.
I chose to
have a busy day –
For me, there was and is no other way.
I
wanted to do everything, everything I could.
Now I wonder if I had
to choose again, if I really would.
When you’re little, you have
all the time you’d never need and more ,
You’d never think
what life has in store.
Oh sure, my parents told me what it’d be
like,
And as usual, I ignored the things I disliked.
I think as
I get older, I’ll try hard enough,
But I still won’t have time
for all my stuff.
Since either way, I lose,
You tell me, what
am I supposed to choose?
February 19, 2004
What should I call this?
What have I got to say?
Almost
nothing, at least today.
Almost, I said, you see.
Now you are
going to hear what yesterday and today did to me.
I had medicine
after breakfast.
I always remember it last.
It’s for my cough
and my cold,
I was told.
I ran out today
Anyway.
I’m
not that much better.
The medicine says it can cause
Drowsiness.
That it does.
I had a piano lesson and talent show practice
yesterday.
I nearly forgot my medicine, I have to say.
I got
home a little before ten.
I knew my homework would make me late
then.
I’m not that much better.
I got up really late.
For
that statement, you couldn’t wait.
I could have fallen asleep at
breakfast today.
It seemed like everybody should have been doing
that anyway.
In a nice, warm bed the whole day.
Oh, did I
mention that I nearly boiled anyway?
I’m not that much
better.
I’m still sleepy, you know.
I guess I’d better
go.
I’ve got more homework and work to do.
So I’ll say
goodbye to
(I fell asleep here.)
(I forgot this here.)
(I
remembered here.)
you.
March 2, 2004
Me
You said today would have been Dr.
Seuss’s 100th birthday.
I calculated on the bus that he was born
in 1904. Is that right?
Today was a nice day.
For once, I
didn’t start my homework on the bus.
We opened the windows so
that we could feel the breeze.
My hair blew all over the place,
But the wind felt nice so I didn’t care.
It’s such a pity
that you gave us homework.
The clouds outside my window look
pretty.
They actually look the way they do
In all of those
famous paintings.
The sun shines down on them,
So they look
like stretched-out cotton balls.
It’s almost as if somebody
pasted the rest of the world
On top of one of those
paintings.
Everything else that normally looks pretty
Looks
ugly next to it.
Today was a good day.
I hardly made any
mistakes.
That’s amazing because everything’s been jerked
around so much.
My schedule hasn’t been fixed yet, but that’s
okay.
At least right now.
Tomorrow’s going to be a bad
day.
We have no SAT, and I’ve got an hour-long piano
lesson.
I’ve also got to write two essays tomorrow and study for
a quest.
That ruins today.
I wish it was summer.
I don’t
want to be here.
I don’t want to take the finals.
I wish I
didn’t miss school in the middle of the summer.
I wish school
was less demanding.
I wish we’d be able to learn whenever we
wanted.
That wouldn’t work well, would it?
I think it could.
If we had deadlines.
That’s how life is isn’t it? It’s full
of deadlines.
Nobody telling you when to do things.
You just
have to be done by this time.
I wish life was more fun.
Do you
think I complain too much?
You see, there’s so many other
interesting things I want to do.
Do you think I write too much?
You see, I did cut out four lines.
May 6, 2004
Beginning to End
A fresh, clean sheet of paper
Marks
the beginning of the book.
Pencils, pens, and erasers
Tell all
without a look.
Classes start,
And everyone pretends to be
good,
But they really poke around,
That much nobody has quite
understood.
Parties, jokes,
And all sorts of other fun
Are
added in
As the year goes on.
There are messes and mistakes
And
tons of trouble, too,
But there’s nothing
That ever keeps you
blue.
There are ordinary days
Like school was meant to be
But
nothing is always normal,
As you can see.
Field trips there
were too,
All different places,
And we filled in
All the
empty spaces.
Lastly, and not quite lastly then, too,
There
were evaluations, assessments, quizzes, and tests.
Some were good,
and we did just fine,
While others ended in a mess.
And yet,
before we can say it ends,
There are five more,
Some will be
easy, while others won’t,
But they’ll all be longer than ever
before.
I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
January 19, 2004
The End
Words spill put onto the page
From
inside my head
As I swiftly censor
Things best left unsaid.
My mind is a razor
Sharper than my blade
But I won’t, not yet,
The silent scissors
Behind all things I ever made.
I
wonder if I could do any better
Than I am right now,
I wonder if
it’s the time
To take my final bow.
Or perhaps I
will
Temporarily.
Rest assured, you’ll see me still.
April 7, 2006
Second Surface
What would you say to me
If only you
knew
What would your expression be
If I said it was you
I’m
tired of second guessing
Making up situations in daydreams
I
guess what I’m saying is
Things are just deeper than they
seem
You wouldn’t believe
If someone told you
So they
don’t speak
But they show you
Just like everyone else
I
have that second surface
You asked why I keep quiet
I’m just
nervous
Your opinions, your criticisms
I can’t handle those
things in the same way
The first time around I break
I created
that second surface so the first would reflect you away.
Do you
think less of me
As I stand here speaking to hide?
I put
everything out there everywhere
But there’s still more of me
bottled up inside.
April 23, 2006
Write
I want to write
Something that you will believe
Something that’s more than these words
That mean so little to me
I’ve said so many things
That mean absolutely nothing
You search for hidden meanings
And somehow you find something
That you like
That brings other thoughts to your mind I know you like it;
I can see it
But I’ve left myself behind
The beauty of these words
Is that I’ll never know what you see
But I can give them to you
And you can think you understand me
Or perhaps you know yourself
A little better than you did yesterday
They’re for you, not for me,
And I won’t regret giving them away
This gift of speech Seems so small
Coming from my hands, my mind,
I don’t understand it at all
But you like it or you hate it
So I’ll leave it for your sake I hope you’ll understand
This thing I’m trying to make
April 23, 2006
Hiding
I’m hiding
So you won’t hear me
So I can speak without guilt
So that I won’t see
You listening to me
Your thoughts flying across your face
And only I cannot match
My reading with your steady pace
I value your opinion
But I want it to come slow
Sinking into my flesh, hitting my nerves
Under my control so I know
What’s coming But I want you
To tell me differently, but comfortably,
Something I know, but I never knew
The words falling
From the waterfall, calling
To me: old and unexpected,
Mistaken and not corrected
So I know what you really think
But it doesn’t hurt so much as it would I want to change your words to fit my mood But I don’t want them and you don’t want to be misunderstood
Again
So I’m hiding
So I can listen to the truth
Through this protective barrier
Those words not meant to soothe
My soul – I wish they would
But I could ask any more of you
Than to listen to this confused rambling
And to see something new
Growing inside of me
So you’ll help me carry it
Beyond these thoughts, the conception in my mind
This candle that’s just been lit I understand it now
But I’m falling behind
And I need you not to hold back
Because you don’t know what you’ll find
If you want to know If you don’t understand
Then ask me and don’t leave me hanging
Running my feet through the sand
Worn down from beginning to end
I want your help and I ask you once again
Can you push your own barriers aside
To see something new?
May 6, 2006
Anonymous
An anonymous writer
To say what she dares not to say aloud
A reputation to hold
That these secret symbols won’t allow.
Whoever said it would be easy
But no one said it would be this hard
If everything could be told without judgment
I wouldn’t be playing this card
It would have been easier
Just to fall within the mind
So much easier than to write
And leave everything unsigned
May 6, 2006
Joyous Pain or Painful Joy
Bouncing off high
It’s sad, sweet song
But it’s not to fit the mood
It sounds all wrong
Discordant ideas underlie
The notes springing off the page
And into my mouth
Flowers in a cage
Clearly not meant to be
And yet they still are If I let them go
Would they wander far
I uplift myself
With joyous strains
And yet underneath it all
All you hear is pain
What kind of hope is this
That catches you unaware
At the height of the ride
All you can do is stare
At what you used to know
So changed Such hideous beauty
Nothing made plain
By these confused words
To describe a joyous pain
Or a painful joy
Which I would not repeat again.
June 7, 2006
Scribbler
Silent scribbles in the dark
A thousand letters off the mark
No one in this time to hear
Always far off, never near
Writer sitting all alone
Almost no verse to call his own
Heedless of time scratching away
He does not catch the break of day
What work is this
That will make him miss
One precious moment today and tomorrow
Drowning himself in an endless sorrow
That he cannot resolve for himself
He’s searching for something else
That will make him live another day
Until someone will clear his mess away
And it all falls apart
As he sits in the dark
Watch it clear
There’s no one here
July 27, 2006
Pessimism
I can’t be your acclaimed writer
Right now I haven’t got any time for it
You see
Or you don’t and you wonder
Am I pushing too hard For perfection In everything else
I wonder sometimes
Not wondering, I think,
Would leave me
Too far behind myself
I can’t hold myself back
From jumping headfirst
Without knowing if I can stand it
When I am immersed
Will you still let me in
Or will you cast me out again
Will you gently draw me out
As you drive around the bend
I t ’s not that hard
To let me fall apart
You could easily
But strangely enough, you don’t
July 28, 2006
Night Visions
Muse of the dark
sits at the worn desk and reads
the fruit of his labors
burning the midnight oil
as he lies in dreamless slumber
sprawled across his bed
Dreams and hopes
the agonies of a mortal man
fall before her eyes
new depth to a once shallow character
as she spares a thoughtful glance
to the body collapsed from exhaustion
Her consideration of what gifts
to give, what inspiration
will come to him tomorrow
gives him a chance to live again
to make a life out of the gutter
on the narrow, grey street
Is tomorrow his second chance
or will yesterday come again
and take away his life once more,
what lot will he earn
from the goddess of misfortune
or is she just another phantom
Today is when his life collapses
back upon itself
Tomorrow is when the universe in which he lives
could be shattered into pieces
Is one night of revelation
worth the destruction of discovery
August 4, 2006
Insanity, if you please
An insane urge
To prove something, anything
Consumes a deadlocked writer
What shall I say
The genius comes on
But what shall it say
I want it to explode
A thousand fragments
Littering the page
To let them know
That I think harder now
How much worse can it get
Today’s the end of yesterday
And tomorrow’s staring me in the face
And won’t go I want to run freely
But there’s too much holding me down
January 16, 2004
To Remember
I ran from place to place
I had a plan then
Now it’s all
over
And I don’t know what I’ll do again.
I learned the
same lesson
so many times before
What I think will change
I’m
not sure.
Every time I
Don’t have to be there
I am working
away
Without a care.
It’s too late to change
for me, right
now.
I’ve made up my mind
To take it to the final
bow.
Someday I won’t be there
They won’t remember it at
all
But it’s something I tried to do
That I’ll remember
every time the snow begins to fall.
January 19, 2004
Hidden Water
All my words
Have fallen out the
window
Floating on the breeze
To rest on the ground.
A
graveyard
Behind my house
To play in
Forgotten
lines.
Syllables slipping and sliding
Off of my tongue
To
hang in the air
And suddenly fall like hailstones.
Buried in
the forgotten grass
In the depths
Uncut, moss growing over
The
broken stones
An abandoned hut
That was once a schoolroom
In
that hidden corner of my brain
Where I first began to
learn.
Rotting paper still flows
Out of the unemptied
wastebasket
My first attempts to write
Something more than I
was.
I have moved on since
But have come back for a few
seconds.
I don’t want to drown, die, and be buried
In the
depths of my memory.
November 28, 2004
Circuit
A blank page sits in front of me.
I
quickly fill it up with words
About nothing
That I can
see.
It’s a figment of the imagination
As they speak of
it
It’s a darkened room
With a candle that’s brightly
lit.
A thousand more images
come to mind
A million more
words
that slowly blind
A mathematical principle
In what I
think.
In everything I make
I create a missing link.
It’s
one equation with
multiple variables written down
Infinite
solutions
one goes around
Confusing,
just like my convoluted
brain.
Too many things to say
that are all very much the same.
December 14, 2004
Imagination
Imagination
Running wild
Gave me
nightmares
As a small child.
Now it comforts
Now it hides, a
curtain
A thin covering
Over something still uncertain.
New
ideas taking form
Blurry shapes on the sketchpad
In motion,
doing everything I can’t (yet),
Little creatures glad, sad, and
mad.
A room of
A thousand and one treasure chests
A room
full of thoughts, memories, and ideas
I didn’t know I
possessed.
A search engine
Runs my imagination (my mind)
Hidden
by a thin curtain
Easily torn, infinite gears continuously
grind.
Much to guess,
Much to think
A thousand entries
Make
me blink.
Imagination
Faster than my hands,
So much of
me
Written in the sand.
January 14, 2005
Flash
A little light flickers
Inside my
head.
A way to reveal the things
I haven’t said.
Something
that I would create
If only I knew
what I meant
Before it
goes away and it’s too late.
Nothing is ever
Good enough.
In
the end, everything I’ve written
is just a mix, a pile of
stuff.
Everything
I’ve ever wanted to say
My mind is
haunted
my fears and doubts will not be allayed.
My life is
just like these lines
A poor attempt
to scrawl something on
this paper
“If only I’d known what I’d meant.”
January 17, 2006
Aluminum Foil
Old stories
written in the
rain
Old memories
to draw away a pain
That never existed
and
never will
That once I thought,
but would not stay still.
The
past
never held me
The present,
an instant in time
impossible to see
The future remained to lead me on, reaching,
but
not without fear,
But my imagination welcomed me,
a
conversation in my mind to ponder that lost year.
The choices I
made
in passing moments
The secrets I kept
impressed me with
the tiniest of dents.
The aluminum foil,
the fabric of my self
laid bare
One sheet of paper touched,
forever changed by
something never there.
If the things I did were not
satisfactory,
who is to say?
No one knows me as a sheet of
aluminum foil
molded to the tray
No one ever sees another in
every moment
as they truly are
There is no truly in this
thing,
only reflections that fall upon the eye from afar.
Perhaps
I find it disturbing
to be something so easily crinkled and
crushed
But the formation of aluminum foil, like my life,
is
not something so easily rushed
The paper still remains
to be
shaped to suit its goals
For what is life, what would it be
called,
if one person did not have so many roles?
March 11, 2006
Things I want
I want my corner
To sit in peace
Separated
From all conversation around me.
I want my bed
To sleep alone
Undisturbed
By my parents when they’re not home.
I want my CD player
To believe in a dream
Unshattered
By noise that says things are as they seem.
I want my computer
To give me a voice to say
Unhindered
By any second thoughts today.
The things I want
To give me a freedom never known
Accompanied
By choices not made and very much alone.
May 7, 2006
Streamer
An endless stream
Parades through my brain
I wonder why I hear these strains
When I hate them I want them gone
I tried so hard
And it’s all wrong
May 7, 2006
Stranger
The weirdness in my soul
Opens doors I would not try
To touch if only I was stable
If only I did not cry
At the strangest things
That seem illogical in retrospect
Is it not sad
When I have no respect
For myself?
June 3, 2006
Fall Apart
I almost fell apart again
But who would hold me up
So I pulled together
But what if it wasn’t enough
A thousand situations
I ponder today
My actions deny them all
But my mind won’t take them away
July 22, 2006
Vacancy
An empty mind
With little slits
Holds the secret to the past
Crumpled into tiny bits
January 11, 2007
Stuttered apology
I said I wouldn’t
But I did I knew I shouldn’t
But only for a little while I needed the break
And I don’t know how to stop
January 22, 2007
Riddling
Today is tomorrow’s yesterday
Yesterday is tomorrow’s day before
I lived today and yesterday
But who says there’ll be more?
April 27, 2007
Under Construction
Railroad tracks
Come alive inside my head
First the construction
Pounding in the long nails
Into the softness of my brain
Driving deep
Lest they come lose
A brief relief
Until it begins again
Then it’s over
And I cautiously pop the constricting nails
But the train comes
A slight rumbling
Then a roaring
As it passes over my brain again
Pushing the tracks into place again
As it travels the loop
Faster and faster
Until it derails
A twinge of pain
And a brief ache
As I push the bloody nails
Out of the softness of my brain
And my headache is finally over,
But the pain remains.
April 29, 2007
Tightrope
A brilliant blue against the red sky
Loyalty to a dying cause
Brings out one last chance
Before the heavy drape falls
Glory in a moment against a glowing sky
Tomorrow is my life’s desire written out
Across the path I wish to take
It’s not that simple
I’ll leave you behind to live my life
It isn’t hard-hearted anger
That makes me this way
But rather an appreciation
Of what we used to be
Always reaching far beyond
What we could ever hope to accomplish,
Whatever promises we could make
April 3, 2003
Moments of Spring and Summer
The trees whisper as a breeze blows
gently.
The sun shines upon a grassy field,
And shadows dance
as children play
Outside once more.
The rain pours,
And kids
hop over puddles.
Flowers bloom and are picked by loving hands
And
carried to a special person.
The thought of summer
Cheers
everyone up.
School is over,
With parting words summer
begins.
The beach is crowded with noisy people,
Playing in the
sand, and surfing the waves.
In a solitary spot, a kid watches
The
waves wash against the rocks.
In the months to come,
Everyone
will relax and have fun
Every moment of warm weather
Will be
cherished forever.
November 29, 2003
The pains of the wind
A tinkling of bells.
A white
object rolls across the entrance to the storage yard .
I can hear
the breeze now.
I recognize the chimes.
Cars pass.
A gust of
wind.
The chimes are louder now, ringing a shrill cry of anger and
warning .
The leaves rustle loudly, torn apart by the wind.
The
cars still pass, unheeded by the wind.
Trees sway, like aged
dancers.
Canvas flies up, attached, but longing to be free.
For
a minute, it looks like summer.
Then the wind blows again.
Far
off in the distance, the gathering of trees does not move at
all.
They must have their own rhythm.
The chimes ring, as if
they are a child wanting my attention.
They still do not think
that I have given them enough mind.
Then they are silent
again.
More cars pass, like the sound of the wind.
Suddenly, I
can hear my clock tick out the time again.
I’ve got work to
do.
The trees and the chimes and the cars will wait.
May 9, 2006
edge
Tell me now
Of things done and not done
Dangle me over this side of the rainbow
And let all things become one
Celebrate the dizziness,
The
giddiness of it all,
Rejoice in the headiness
Just before the
fall
May 9, 2006
void
An empty void
Where things once grew
Bubbling over each other in their quest for life
A garden I once knew
Now it’s gone
And I can’t remember why I left it long ago
And stayed away until it died
June 3, 2006
Afraid in the dark
I wish for you in the darkness
But I don’t know you
In fear I shrink back
From this thing so new
When did I begin
To rely
On a stranger
Nothing to hide
Hold me far off
Without knowing I don’t care for more
But with you I’m going
Instinct guides me
Down a forgotten path
The only thing I want
Is for this dream to last
June 17, 2006
I dream
I dream
of riding dragons and conquering demons
while you stand here
and praise me
for doing well in school
I dream
of heroes and heroines
who have the courage and the strength
I do not possess
June 21, 2006
Cracks
Growing up between the cracks
Unnoticed by everyone
But the little boy
With his face to the ground
Crackle flowers
Dragon breath
Purple eyes
Hide a secret
June 27, 2006
A Need to Breathe
A pattern of threes against twos
A thousand wishes you would not use
To fulfill another’s dreams
Though you’re splitting at the seams
Running from here to there
Convinced that what you need
Isn’t what you hold in your hand
Until you can barely breathe
And then Everything’s clear
All you ever wanted
Has always been here
Not at your castle
Up in a cloud
In your dreams
But right here and now
June 28, 2006
Of Horses
I dream
While you sleep
Of thousands of horses
That I cannot keep
From running wild
In wind and pouring rain
I would lose them completely
If this should happen again
And then where would I be
There’s nothing more dear
Than those thousand wild horses
That I do not fear
January 22, 2007
Fickle
Falling backwards gracefully
Leaping into the air
To twirl around until she flies
Is this my faerie?
January 22, 2007
Fantasy
This belt of wool-wrapped
steel
Gently unraveling to full length,
Unyielding all the
same
Keeps me prisoner of my own fantasy.
February 6, 2005
Not There
Little birds flapping in the trees
Small words whispered back in the breeze
I wish I could be there to make it come true
I’d throw it all away and come sit with you
I didn’t mean it to end this way
On a quiet hill so far away
But I have my life no matter what you say
You have yours and another day
In the wind and the sun I won’t be the one
That comes to bring you back
When the skies turn gray and world fades to black
You might think of me
But no matter, you won’t see
The chalk drawing on the other side of the wall
My future written out by a hand so small
I am what I do
Anything else doesn’t matter to you
You don’t care
But neither do I, it’s me that isn’t there
So what to do
There’s nothing in it for me or you
Just get up and walk away
Frayed ends of a broken rope to end this day
October 13, 2005
Mask
I was here one day
I didn’t think you’d remember me
I left my mark the only way
Now faded memories are all you see.
I was here one day
I had hoped it would be my last
In this place fell away
What you saw of me - that happy mask.
It’s all gone
But you couldn’t be there
Nothing is wrong
Though suddenly you care.
February 25, 2006
Sinking
A last parting glance
A final farewell
One last chance
To match the ocean’s swell
I could have gone on
I would have stayed afloat
But you decided it couldn’t be