Monday, November 4, 2013

the warm eyes of innocence

it is so easy to just give up
say that the world is corrupt and vile
that there is no hope for it
that it should just run its course
and be done

inside of me there is a child
who refuses to see the world in such a harsh light
a child that loves willingly
shyly at times
and longs for goodness

that child feels so alone
but he isn't
and the greatest moment of all
is when my child's eyes
finds another

thank you

Saturday, October 26, 2013

a cold wind blowing down Whitney Avenue

There was a cold wind blowing down Whitney Avenue. 
I hadn't been to this bookstore in a long time, at least ten years.
It was a lovely place, even more now than it was then.
It had an adjoining cafe, with a narrow doorway between them.
I had drifted in there, having not been there in so long. I wasn't really after books this windy late October day, I simply wanted... escape.
After looking around for a few minutes, I went to the other coffee stand, the one in the bookstore itself.
Within a glass case, rows of wonderful pastries could be seen, so I decided to try one (very sweet), and accompanied it with a latte. There were two couches near the counter, a nice place to sit and relax.
The music they were playing was nineteen nineties fare, maybe no later than two thousand and three. Aside from the young woman behind a counter with a new iBook, it could have easily been some day more than a decade ago, and my mind began to drift back to that time.
A younger couple walked in. They were perhaps in their mid thirties. They struck me as the artistic type (kindred spirits), though not as radical as many. There seemed to be a sadness between them, conveyed in facial expressions and gestures. Something was sad between them.
I watched them, studying the clearly sad interplay between them.
After watching their few minutes of silent shopping, Eagle Eye Cherry's "Save Tonight" started playing. I could see her look up briefly, coyly, with hurt in her eyes, but then back down to the book she was holding. He caught her glance, put down what he was holding, and walked up to her.
They were standing in a section of shelves that formed an open box, the fiction section. As he got to her, he reached his left arm around her waist, and slid his right hand into hers, and pulled him to her.
He began to dance with her.
I never knew you could dance to that song.
Yet they were.
It was a slow, tender dance.
She rested her head on his chest, now wrapping both arms around him.
There were tears in her eyes, causing them to sparkle, which could be easily seen even from where I sat.
They danced until the song ended, and then stood still when the next song played.
She looked up, and he kissed her lightly, tenderly.
Then, hand in hand, they walked out.
Into that cold October wind that blew down Whitney Avenue.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Darkness Speaks

I had stopped along the road one day for reasons still not known
Looking beyond a bog, into the deep, dark woods found there
On this autumn evening a feeling chilled me to the bone
As the shadows grew longer and my breath hung in the air

The wind was cold that autumn day as I looked into those woods
Reminding me of winter's approach in due time to arrive
The fading light, the shadows, the wind made me shiver still more
Together with my mind these things did conspire and contrive

Perhaps it was a trick of light that confused me as I stood
But something soon caught my attention, soon I was aware
Of a face! A face! I know I saw! There in the tangled brush!
That faded when I looked again where I once saw its stare

I gasped and turned to walk away, convinced it was just nerves
Playing with my mind the way that anxiety sometimes can do
The wind picked up, carrying a voice that sounded in the leaves
A voice so faint but clear that I felt shivered through and through

"You know me well, you always have", the voice in whispers spoke
"You know that I am always there, barely a heartbeat away
You see me yet I'm not really there, your mind knows this is true
The feelings that you feel tell you that I am real as day...

"Those shadows that make you stop and look again with pause
That sometimes appear to come perhaps at the oddest time and places
The creak of the floor, the squeaking door, that make the bumps arise
Those times like these when you know you've seen my many faces...

"For I am the absence of all light, but not the nightly sky,
With thousands of stars it is still blinding when compared to me
No, not the night but something else you fear, you just can't see me still,
Hiding in plain sight and everywhere yet somehow you still can't see...

"For I am darkness, eternal, still, infinite and yet confined"

The voice soon faded from my ears as the wind died down
Leaving but the clattering leaves blowing down along the lane
The Sun appeared one last time as the clouds blew on by
Yet in my mind that voice I heard in a haunting refrain...

"For I am darkness, eternal, still, infinite and yet confined...
For I am darkness, eternal, still, infinite and yet confined...
For I am darkness, eternal, still, infinite and yet confined..."

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

when once i saw the stars

they glimmer and glisten
a reminder of how small i am
a speck on a speck
in orbit around another glowing point
in an endless sea of stars

i look at them
i know something of their distances
and on this night
they look back at me
and remind me of what was

one glows with light from when i fell in love
another when i was trapped
and this one's photons from a time
from so long ago
when my ancestors roamed the hills of eire

when once i saw the stars
and they glowed upon me
with reminders of what was
what still might be
what i am

a speck on a speck
a reminder of how small i am
they glimmer and glisten
and care not
they just are