last time ~

15 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

Tags

connection, destiny, dreams, faith, fearless, grace, gravel roads, knowledge, living, love, old maps, restless, spirit, star crossed, strength, truth, wisdom

The last time
I held you –
the train was just leaving.
A pink piece of twilight
was burned soft as coal.
A whistle of promise –
came sweet
down the canyon –
for a moment
forever
was a hand
we could hold.

The last time
I saw you –
was just around morning.
We rolled into Beaumont
and stopped for a bite…
I remember that look –
how distant
how dreamy –
reflecting on something
we’d lost
to the light.

The last time
I kissed you –
was two o’clock Sunday…
bent over choices –
some place
never been.
A dark stretch of highway
and no place for turning –
back to beginning
we wandered
again.

The last time
I called you –
I suffered my longing
how deeply the missing –
a place you once knew.
How tender –
these memories
of roads left to travel –
ere time give me
pardon –

a last time
with you.

mercies ~

12 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

breath, connection, destiny, dreams, faith, forgiveness, grace, living, love, memory, mercy, old maps, reason, restless, resurrection, spirit, strength, truth

it seemed a moment longer
than a thought had passed away
and silver spun
around my fingertips

eyes grown dimmer
by the sun
nights I rubbed them red
swore a curse I couldn’t lift
again

but kneeled the same
as once before –
and begged to rusty nails
might daylight ease my longing
fore I go

to know of other lives
and where they went
without direction –
stronger for the truth
I stumbled on

there is no salve
in looking back
(if only to remember)
what makes no difference now
but for days
to mark between –

were not for them
who knows –
where goes the road
we missed returning
a pause beneath the willow
ageless rocks
to sit below

free the past
from keeping more
than reasons to remind us –
knew we not by name
another time

kneel with me
where shadows fall
across the dreamer’s slumber
speak to me of fate
and ways to home –

cross the stitch
to fill the void –
evermore to answer
bless my prayer for mercy –
let me wake within
the dream

yet the same ~

11 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

becoming, connection, destiny, dreams, faith, fearless, forgiveness, grace, gravel roads, knowledge, love, memory, old maps, reason, spirit, truth, wandering

I wonder sometimes
what’s the last you recall
was I not (yet the same)
as you knew
when remembered my name
as a sigh of hello
and a wind barely gone
like the breath
of a storm

for all that I write
some words will not shake
though I’ve waited
with pen to my soul
and scattered my pages
as morning to noon –
never written
(even now
are unknown)

there’s a place
in my dreams
somewhere I once lived
with nothing –
no remnant of proof
just a house (with me standing)
someplace I can’t say
four rooms
from the front
I’ve been counting so long –
ten steps from the porch
to become

where and I wander
more and more
as I must –
tis a life
where I’m dreaming
awake

you and I passing
on paths to the sun
as once there were moons
on the rise
thirteen seasons –
(returning us home)
days come to days
come to light

for all that I was
I am not
yet the same

backroads ~

10 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling, verse

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

becoming, bliss, connection, destiny, faith, forgiveness, grace, gravel roads, life, living, love, old maps, reason, relationship, restless, spirit, strength, truth, wisdom

senseless seems
the passing fever –
warm then cold again
as weavers weave
to fields already brown
a yearning soon forgotten –
else beauty turn away
to find the blooms
though hidden there
lost within the grey –
daisy with the weaper

cinderella
surely passed this way

a mile or two
to wander back –
o’er paths we meant to follow
kept for this a map –
the best to find
when once before encountered love
along these lowly backroads
remembered how we sat
here in the shade

and spoke with words unspoken
eyes a story told
berries ripened faster
than our truth –
the trees forgot to tell us
one day we’d understand
of lifetimes left
in moments here –
drying in the sun

plastic roses ~

08 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

breath, connection, death, dreams, faith, family, grace, gravel roads, life, living, love, memory, old maps, reason, relationship, restless, resurrection, spirit, strength, truth, wandering, wisdom, writing

within the depths
of aging hearts –
are memories of love
though some a ways have gone
and paths grown thick

so few without
a name recalled –
for where they sleep (I wonder)
with pieces of my past
to resurrect –

in stillness now
a soldier lies
beside a fallen angel
while rows of plastic roses
grieve them gone

wherever grace be given
their silence warms the breeze
a kiss to seal
(stories left untold)

forgiven me
these rites of life –
might I their voices carry
o’er words another saved
of times to tell

bring them back
with tears of truth –
midnight recollection
of places come to light
within my own

let not them rest uneasy
or music be denied
a place to play
beyond the moss –
where lies eternal love

coalesce ~

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

becoming, breath, connection, destiny, dreams, gravel roads, life, living, love, old maps, poetry, reason, spirit, strength, truth, wandering, wisdom

In the stillness left of standing –
dare I will you (come again)
as drenching rains
to save a crop of stone
so long ago the noonday
has burned across my brow
and yesterday has garnered
more than most

with all but one
of where you were
and where you’ve gone (away)
though someone thought they saw you
on the path we took as one
I wonder was I walking
there beside –

tis not so much for taking
as it is the letting go
though freedoms can been found
in both I’m told –
of destinies
I have no choice
but to speak into the wind
and pray my words will reach
the place you hold

for every one
another comes
and from their best intended
a life conspired by touch
(we won’t deny)
memories distracted
by the way you tie your shoes
and how is my eyes
are just as brown

something more
than one small thing
can change our ways (becoming)
and fade against the canopy
of what I meant to say
nothing stays so long
that I’ve forgotten
how it feels –

to look into your soul
and find my heart

facing south ~

05 Tuesday Jun 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

change, cherokee, dreams, grace, gravel roads, nature, reason, spirit, strength, truth, wandering, wisdom, woman

I papered peacocks
o’er the roses
and moved the walls around
were facing south
the barn – to block the moon
but who am I complaining
to the gods
of northern lights
when shadows dare to grow
beneath the pines

who goes there
yet no one ever answers
though I swear I’ve heard
gossip after dark
listen – can’t you hear me
would they rather that I worry
fearful of their presence
on the lawn
who am I
I wonder what they know

do they haunt the night
to question where I’ve gone

sunrise ~

04 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

becoming, connection, destiny, dreams, faith, fearless, grace, knowledge, life, living, love, nature, reason, relationship, restless, self, spirit, strength, truth, wandering, wisdom

In the vastness that is life and creation, we are
connected one to another ~ everyone and everything.

Becoming one together as we return to LOVE.

We watch and we learn as little children, filled with questions
and wonder ~ for what has been (and what is still to be).

In this, we find our place.

(our sunrise)

before this purple sunrise
another there was then ~
as blue the sapphires seas
were made to roll
as black ~ the cape of diamonds
tossed two lovers to the dark
a silver moon made jealous
by the night

serenade of oil and ash
embrace of ancient winds
willows hear the story
of the tides ~
when on the banks we tarried
as one to moments made
life became of language
never knew

riddled me
a nursery rhyme
til I could barely breathe ~
forgotten everything
I knew before

teller ~

31 Thursday May 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

becoming, destiny, dreams, faith, fearless, gravel roads, life, living, love, memory, postmark, reason, restless, spirit, truth, value, wandering, wisdom, writing

came the words
unwanted
for lives were not my own
and ears were pricked awake
by thunderstorms
lightning flashed
as dragonflies
were swept into the black
and somewhere
promise melted
to a sigh
with no one left to tell
just how the story started
of how it felt to know
the past was gone –
better now remembering
years forgiven years
jars of age old harvest
hands beneath the page
winter blows against
this house
and I am (soon) reminded
of lips that would not move
without my pen
awaiting now
another story starting
with ears to pry
yesterday to speak

crazy moon ~

30 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by tornadoday in Poetry, Storytelling

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

destiny, dreams, fearless, grace, gravel roads, life, living, love, reason, restless, signs, southern, spirit, storms, tennessee, truth, wandering, wisdom, woman

I can’t be made
to be the one –
the one to make things better
Been working that
so long I can’t recall
a time before
of month old tears –
and nothing in my pocket
I wonder what it means
to see it all

to lives before
and I can’t do a thing
about those choices
– been nipping
at my heels
and I can’t pay
Unsure of my uncertainty
a balance to my breaking –
Gave my body to a preacher
just to take my sins
away

The land is hard
where weeds grow strong
and no one seems to notice –
got troubles of their own
they can’t see
Who am I to think
there must be
something here I’m missing –
the whole world thinks
I’m crazy – I must be

Though not the same
as anyone
much deeper than they bother –
how many times
been broken
just to have myself remade

Coming back
for taking back –
I search the sky for answers
Damn that yellow moon
so far from me –
spinning wheel
the wind to blow
orchards needing water
The creek’s been dry
for nigh on fifty years

Burn the barn
unlatch the screen
and throw away my apron –
don’t worry long
for stories I believe
There’s something here –
more than storms fortelling

Lord I need to feel
the arms of rain