In those moments of pain
When the raw wounds of my heart
Gush their vivid shades of red
I hold out my hands to feel the
Warm pulsing rivers
And in doing so
I allow myself to connect
To my own bleeding precious
Truth
Tag poetry
Truth
The brutal truth is that
I view the landscape through
Romanticized spectacles
When the reality is an ocean
Removed from romance
In any shape or form
Happy
I am dragged from a
Bottomless ocean
To cough out thick
Slime-coated grunge
And as my body is purged
From a suffocating
Ribbon of weed –
I finally –
I finally am happy
Chess
‘Neither will win’, the audience says
Now that the contest starts
For black men move without their heads
And white without their hearts.
‘And if one shall advance’, they said,
‘So much as one short pace,
His fellowmen shall shun him then
A traitor to the race’.
‘You wooden men give up the game,
For what are all these squares
But black and white and black again,
The pattern of your cares?’.
The chessmen quickened into life,
For love has conquered pride,
Those that were angry face to face
Are quiet side by side.
Discovery
I hid in a box
Locked myself tightly within in
I provided no view
But only the darkness inside it
I lived in the dark, I struggled to see
I looked for myself, I couldn’t find me
And then as I gave up
To surrender and die
I felt a strange object
A smooth, solid gold
I pondered, and wondered
What is this to me?
There is a purpose
I know this to be
My dreams came alive
In the blackness of night
Coldness of air have no reason
To fright
I knew right away
I knew what this was
I had found it
My treasure
I had finally found me
I had found what I needed
I found my own key
Mercy
Night doesn’t last forever
And with the breaking of each dawn
We are promised strength for the day
Everlasting mercy
And the brightest
Of sunlight
Fill Your Life
Fill your life with beautiful things
With warmth and comfort and love and grace
Take an empty heart
And pour overflowing joy into its depth
Feel the sun
Embrace the moon
Dream sweet dreams
And Sing!
Songs of praise
Look Higher!
When surrounded by darkness
And we cannot see in front
Look Higher!
When distressed by others
And happiness is brief
Look Higher!
When discouraged by the way
And all our hope is lost
Look Higher!
We are life
We are joy
We are love
Life!
Battles are a part of us
They walk with us every day
Hand in hand
I used to fear my battles
Hiding behind corners and tears
And obsessive behavior
Anything to avoid those battles that defeat
This morning I realized
They are nothing to be scared of
We may fall
We may stumble
We may be defeated
We may be tormented
But we are Life!
We can get up
We can stand
We can obtain victory
We can survive
And just when we do
It might happen all over again
And it will!
Because we are
Life
Tripping over Shadows
Dark shadows raise their head
Creeping out of the wooden beams of my fragile existence
Taking a few steps into the sun, I trip over those shadows that have devoured me in my past
Reducing me to a shell of empty space and a universe of internal strife
Mixed messages emanate from my being as I fight a battle and yet submit on the very next breath
Black shadows go away! Dark shadows, if you please, No, rather, evil shadows, I demand (!) let me be!
Poems and Petals 