now and then ~

I hang on words
verbs and adjectives
that distill time’s crazy hold
on my life
souvenirs kept
in spiral bound notebooks
with tiny locks
so easily broken
like dreams
or promises carried forward
from past generations
a chapter neatly finished
but always incomplete
tonight I unplug the yellow bulbs
strung to seasons of evergreen
sons of the tree
that rose silently one year
in splendid happiness
crystalising the summit of my childhood
the night you disappeared
and distress replaced your love
too young then
I neglected to listen to your words
thinking surely you’d be around
to speak them hundreds of other times
and now –
older than you were that year
I’ve forgotten
even the sound of your voice

. . .

Author’s Note: For D.B. & Annie – missing you now

unexplained ~

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

becoming, bliss, connection, destiny, faith, family, fearless, grace, life, love, old maps, passion, relationship, soul signature, spirit, spirituality, strength, truth, understanding, wandering

touch
as word unnoticed
spilled onto my page
silent as a poet
falls to rhyme
of reaching out for something
take me I am home
here am I to catch you
every time

touch
in ways unpracticed
suffer me your truth –
written once when all the lights
burned down
years away and still
you know me
meaning unexplained
a place of nothing works
but holding on

touch
and almost always
I will plead one more
season
without cause –
a blossom bends
flush against another
time I thought to go
leaving –
but a place
where we begin

. . .

tumbled down ~

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

becoming, bliss, cherokee, destiny, grace, gravel roads, kentucky, knowledge, life, living, love, memory, nature, poetry, reason, relationship, restless, spirit, truth, wandering

I am a dancer
spun into the trees
fingers born with memory
of the sun

fragile scarlet ribbons
taut beneath the sky
robins wake
to purple lullaby

am I unknown
as tumbled down
from the tallest tree
early now my resting place
to leave

forgotten to the splendor
of breath
against the night
forever finds
a lover
in pieces of the light

. . .

your keeping ~

10 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in folklore, Poetry, verse

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

becoming, bliss, connection, destiny, empty, faith, fearless, forgiveness, grace, life, love, nature, never empty, old maps, passion, poetry, postmark, reason, restless, spirit, spirituality, truth, understanding, wandering, woman, wonder

pour me out
a river –
one ocean at a time
set with no direction
(but the sea)
fill my veins
warm the course
of love along my banks
rains are falling (lifetimes)
into me

pour me out
a thimble –
quench me
with your thirst
fill me with your keeping
(every tide)
caught between eternities
home to ancient shores
bless’ed moon –
(my emptiness) to hide

pour me out –
a tender heart
take of me (your fill)
with stories of a time
before you came
pour the truth –
(take the truth)
emptied to the night
stars are burning (somewhere)
– fill me now
to flame

. . .

of dreams ~

10 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

age, becoming, bliss, breath, connection, destiny, dreams, fearless, grace, life, living, love, nature, old maps, passion, reason, restless, spirit, spirituality, strength, truth, understanding

of yesterdays
I’ve spent my share –
pockets empty now
the path ahead much less
than left behind
of dreams – by sleep
remembered
nights I lay between
practiced in a breath
of make believe
surrendered as to sorrows
counted not to home
the sound of water rushing
o’er my stones
silence keeps a record
of where I lingered here
trading bits of heaven
for wilderness
unknown

. . .

here I remember ~

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

becoming, bliss, connection, dreams, fearless, love, memory, old maps, passion, postmark, reason, relationship, restless, soul signature, spirit, strength, travel, woman

despite my hesitation
I’ve discovered where you were
e’en now my fingers
roll o’er aching boards
fumble with the presence
of something
I can’t see –
takes my breath
and skips my heart a beat
of consequence
I’ve known to curse
the way that time concedes
tho maybe this –
my way of missing me
an evermore
I’ll never know
to ease my hurts this way
tracing now the tender chords
where once your music
played

. . .

shadow of still ~

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

becoming, cherokee, connection, death, destiny, dreams, faith, family, forgiveness, grace, knowledge, life, love, memory, old maps, passion, reason, relationship, restless, soul signature, southern, spirit, spirituality, truth, understanding, value, wonder

sworn
to believe
the seasons have passed –
how many ten thousands
are stilled by this one
rolled into years
without reason
to count
how many forevers
this sun

as legions
forgiven –
to lie at her heart
soft in the shadow of still
faded as cotton
gathered to light –
are songs from lips
ever sealed

yet
when the morning
stands from the dark
silence – their voices
abound
dew glitters sweet
on petal and pine –
as passion wells up
from the ground

. . .

threads into silk ~

09 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

becoming, connection, death, destiny, fearless, forgiveness, gravel roads, knowledge, life, memory, old maps, passion, reason, relationship, sorrow, spirit, strength, truth, value, woman

of scars
all but faded
the beginning is lost –
no reminder is left
of the pain
of stories we started
forgotten us now
were given us choice
to remain

more than a few
are sealed within lies –
a place I was going
when fell by the way
given to truth
I thought would oblige
souvenirs kept
with the blade

crisscross
remember –
threads into silk
moments reweaved
by their coming apart
letters have worked their way
into skin –
scars running clean
to the heart

. . .

learned by the losing ~

08 Saturday Jun 2013

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Rambling, Storytelling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

becoming, bliss, faith, fearless, forgiveness, grace, knowledge, life, love, memory, old maps, passion, postmark, reason, soul signature, spirit, strength, truth, understanding, wandering

of lessons
unlearned –
where silence takes hold
and plans that were made
have been folded
away –
while the dreamer
still dreams with want
for the real
and a place
not so much – for the taking
to hold

a welcome
resolve –
comes a lingering peace
when forsaken
to night – the gathering light
a notion becoming
a journey too far
to go back
no longer a road
once was known

fated decisions
black and blue lines –
as someone waits up
with a story to tell
and arms
without need
for another resign –
a hole where love
is poured in

of coming
and going –
the world doesn’t mind
what is learned
by the losing
in the ways we begin
were eyes
hardly dried –
when we opened them first
and skies fell again
into wishes
for light