Death

Life is not authentic unless there is death. Symbolic and metaphorical death as well as without exception at some point literal death for us all. Each death is a door to the possibility of living. It is not the prolonging of something but rather the acceptance of its temporality which frees one to live. 

Abishag

 

The barstool prophet

Looks down the long dark road

At all the empty glasses

All the forgotten names

Listening to words not spoken

Feeling what is not given

 

Moses with his staff and broken speech

Elijah calling down fire and hiding in his cave

 

       laughter ~ deserts ~ loneliness 

          friends of prophets

 

Noah plants a vineyard

Ruth uncovers her lovers’ feet

The scarlet cord of the whore dangles for us all

       salvation out of Jericho

 

Jesus turns sewer water to Roman wine

While Magdalen finds comfort in the carpenter’s arms 

 

       pain drowns in the flood

       blood waters the garden of anguish

       emptiness fills with a tender touch

 

Broken beaten abandoned

Raise the cup

Drink deeply the healing tonic

Spill the wine

 

David write another psalm

To soothe aching souls

 

        Absalom

        Absalom

        Absalom

 

The barstool prophet buys another round

The hangover proves you're still alive

 

 

New songs for old hearts

Resurrected from cold tiled bathroom floors

To dance and leap

            in

Rebellion against resentful gazes from windows on high

In Michal and her sister’s eyes

 

All the stolen Judas kisses

In back alley dive bars

Can't turn around the broken promises

 

The barstool prophet turns to the girl on his left

            at the Red Sea Tavern

          David's old friend Abishag

 

He says baby, "my bones are getting colder each night - winter is coming soon"

Be my promised land

Maybe we’ll find God in the space between us

Take my hand

Be my muse

One more drink

For the fallen and misunderstood

In captivity tonight

Who write graffiti on wailing walls

"I'll love you forever...

But forever hasn't happened yet..."

~ cf

Camus

"My dear,

In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.

In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.

In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.

I realized, through it all, that…

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.

Truly yours,"

~ Albert Camus, The Stranger

Surrender

Sweetly

Surrendered

To you

In awe 

Of being 

Loved

Wanted and accepted 

Just as I am

To do everything and nothing 

With you

In moments 

Stretching into forever 

Grandfather

Leaving Poland

That day 

Separating yesterday from tomorrow 

He must have said goodbye

He had to have said, "I love you"

What did he think when he walked away

Did he see their faces when he closed his eyes

Did love fade away

Or just interrupted 

By war and circumstance

Letters back and forth

From one hand to another's 

After all the years 

Why didn't he go back

Caught between hearts

What did he think when he walked away 

Sunday Night

Sunday night

dimly lit room

Looking at photos and words

listening to Jackson Brown

Drinking tea

thinking about a beautiful woman

I really like

wishing she was with me

Sharing silence

soft touches and candle light

Sunday night

Anchor

Want to

Be

Connected to you 

When all the craziness of life whirls around us 

I want you to be my anchor 

And I will be yours 

In the storms

In the night

I will be your lifeline 

No matter what life throws at us

Connecting 

Everyday

Even in the briefest or smallest 

Of ways

To know where our hearts are

Day by day

Connected to you 

With Me

I hear your voice

I see your face

Without trying 

You're always with me

Carrying you in my thoughts

Walking with you in my heart 

Jackson Browne For A Dancer

Naked Poetry

(http://yidan.tumblr.com/tagged/my%20art)

Lazy afternoon love

Naked poetry on white sheets

Smiling and laughing 

As sunlight dances on our bodies

Gazing into each other's eyes

While

Kissing with teasing tongues

Entre Nous

We are secrets to each other

Each one’s life a novel

No-one else has read

Even joined in bonds of love

We’re linked to one another

By such slender threads

 

We are planets to each other

Drifting in our orbits

To a brief eclipse

Each of us a world apart

Alone and yet together

Like two passing ships

 

Just between us

I think it’s time for us to recognize

The differences we sometimes fear to show

Just between us

I think it’s time for us to realize

The spaces in between

Leave room for you and I to grow

We are strangers to each other

Full of sliding panels

An illusion show

Acting well-rehearsed routines

Or playing from the heart?

It’s hard for one to know

 

We are islands to each other

Building hopeful bridges

On a troubled sea

Some are burned or swept away

Some we would not choose

But we’re not always free

~ Neil Peart (Rush)

Refuge

“Who will pull me up from the ashes?

Who will lift me from the ground?

When the one who built my refuge?

Is the one who burned it down…”

~ Larry Campbell

I’m a heavy soul

Will you bare the weight

Inside I have darkness

Will you be the light

I really like you

Really more than like

I want to say

The three sacred words

When the time is right

I feel you in the wind baby

In my thoughts

The sun sings your name

As my heart is turning to yours

For refuge

For healing in the night

Sweet Addiction

Once lost

Buried in the bowels of darkness

A candle lit in a window

Gleaming hope of desire

Writhing

Climbing

Fighting

Our way to the light

A beacon inside so beautiful

A lighthouse

Always shining

Always guiding

To our safe harbor

Pain and hurt peeling away

Layer by layer

Day by day

You’ve become my sweet addiction

I crave you

I’m a junkie baby and you’re my drug

My addiction

The needle to my vein

Bury your love needle deep inside me

As deep as it will go

My sweet elixir

I need you

Pulsating through my veins

Giving life

Making me free

You are the lost and forgotten words

The forgotten words

I’ve been searching for

The love

I didn’t think I deserved

The love

I dreamt about

Our path

Our journey

Unfolding in front of us

Day by day

You are the song moving inside me

The song I want to sing

My sweet addiction

You...you...you...

My drug

My addiction

My ceaseless urge - my fix

The needle

Under my skin

The cold chill of desire

The pill

In my mouth

The shot of sweet intoxication

The opiate

In my lungs to erase the hurt

A momentary suspension of existence

Our bed an oasis

Floating away

Hibernating with you

Held in each others arms in a smoke induced otherness

Incense filling my nostrils and you my senses

Between sheets soaked in desire

Mutilated with passion

Love stained heart

Track marks on our souls

The darkness envelops us – you my only light

My passage to life - my release - my high - my trembling compulsion

Only breath

A faint heart beat

Only...only...only

The night between us

The candles flicker

And moonlight casts shadows
On our naked tangled bodies

Our Story

"Wasn't that the definition of home? Not where you are from, but where you are wanted?"

~ Abraham Verghese, Cutting For Stone

“Know the difference with sleeping with someone

And sleeping with someone you love

I love you ain't no pick up line so

Always stay humble and kind…”

~ Tim McGraw

Her eyes

Captured his imagination

Like no eyes have

In a very long time

Light dancing with beauty

(he wanted to sit across from her)

Look into them

Share time with her

Telling their stories

To each other

As the day turned into night

~~~~~~~

if blessed

he imagined meeting her

on a bridge

over the Seine

as words in a poem

while it rained

as they danced

like stars falling

her eyes translating his feelings

writing a story

like Hemingway in a cafe

characters forever

on the pages of time

~~~~~~~

Caressing the waves

To the shore

The wind

Like my feelings

Pulling my thoughts

To you

~~~~~~~

They stopped walking.

He held her hands.

Standing in front of her.

Looking at her for a long time.

She asked, “why are just standing looking at me?”

He said, “I don’t want to forget this moment – it will never be here again.”

She smiled and her eyes laughed.

He said, “stand still, I am going to take your picture with my eyes”

She looked at him like he was crazy and maybe he was a little but that didn’t matter to her. The sun lit up her face like a flash on a Polaroid camera.

He said, “got it. I have a photo of you that can’t be erased.”

Then they continued walking along the Seine.

That Sunday ~ The Sunday ~ When everything changed

Coffee and cookies

In comfy pajamas

Lazy cozy and cuddled

On an October day

Her hair tangled

They talked between the easy silence

Like old friends

Without expectations

Warm together while crisp autumn air rustled leaves

She asked him about dreaming

He asked her about cookie crumbs

She told him she was like a cookie, "crispy on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside"

He smiled and said, "I like how you look"

They spent the day on the couch

Hundreds of miles apart

I want to come home

To a place where I am wanted

To a smiling face

Open arms and a warm heart

To a place I left long ago

I want to come home

To you

 “We are all just waiting for someone to notice—notice our pain, notice our scars, notice our fear, notice our joy, notice our triumphs, notice our courage. And the one who notices is a rare and beautiful gift.”

~ Rachel Macy Stafford

Connected

And

Drawn

To you

Like…

A lyric to a tune

Needle to a vein

Comfort to pain

Grace to the fallen

Stars to the night

Anxiety to need

Runner to the road

Thief to the night

Lovers to a bed

Flowers to the sun

Water to the well

Connected

And

Drawn

To you

 ~~~~~~~

He spun around

She reached out a hand

Catching his heart

Before he crashed to the ground

Wrapping herself around him like the night

Her body his

Wrapping her legs around him

His arms tight around her

Sharing the same air

Whispering

Laughing

They slept and played

And made love

Writing memories

With their eyes

He spun around

~~~~~~~

Together baby

You and I

Looking for words

To express

What I feel

Devotion baby

Devotion is what I feel

Deep

Daring

Delightful

Devotion

To you

To us

Lover and friend

Devotion

~~~~~~~ 

 He felt a calmness come over him

Like the soft grey clouds hanging in the sky

She calmed him

Caressing his heart

With her love

He felt still

Like a lake without waves

Still and calm

With her

“THERE IS NO SLEEP SO DEEP I WOULD NOT HEAR YOU THERE.”

~ Samuel Beckett, The Footfalls