Insomnia

I sleep dreamless.
And yet when I wake I dream.
Unreal images,
reality merged
with fantastical illusion,
faded at the edges,
creased and worn.
I struggle to breathe,
drowning in uncertainty.
A world turned inside out.
Through closed eyes
I find peace in oblivion,
in dreamless sleep,
where the world makes sense.

Love's End

What happens when love dies?
Does it go slowly and softly,
a whisper of silk sliding off the end of a bed?
Does it go violently and with passion,
a hurricane of tempestuous proportions
slamming against a brick wall?
Does it drift away in the night,
a thief stealing off in the shadows?
Whether loud or quiet, passionate or passionless,
it leaves a vacant, empty void when love dies.
A patch of painful barren ground.
But where there is death,
there is hope
that one day life and love will spring anew.

Cherry Blossoms

A cloud of pink petals
blows around my head
dancing delicately in the breeze.
Lightly
they drift like pink snowbanks.
Releasing, as I crush them
unintentionally,
with clumsy feet,
the sweet fragrance of spring.

It has been silent in my mind for a time. Well, not silent, but not loud enough to write. There has been a gentle thudding in the background, a strangled croak every time I've tried to sit down and string words together. I think a storm is gathering once again.

Sadly, when contentment and joy pervades my existence, I tend to be less creative. My dark side is my muse and when joy is at the forefront, the darkness is pushed to the edges and is less dominant in my mind. I miss it. But the sacrifice has been worth it.

I find myself increasingly restless and dissatisfied, but not with the personal aspects of my life. I find myself increasingly irritated at the youth of today and their sense of entitlement. As if just for living on this earth, they deserve more. It enrages me. The laziness and the disrespect enrages me. It is hard to hold it back and I don't know if I care to anymore.

At any rate, it seems that summer is my season. The season to stretch my muscles, to have an opinion, to express myself. As soon as the sun peaks his head from behind the clouds, I begin to awaken again. My creative streak goes into hyperdrive and I write and create again. I do hope that will happen soon! For I've much to write if I can only get it down in black and white.

Hush

In the stillness,
in the silence,
there is peace,
there is truth.

If you listen,
if you hear,
there is peace,
there is truth.

Pointless

Increasingly lately, I wonder why anyone cares about all the commercialized bullshit out there. I'm sitting here watching later night television tonight, sick in my soul at the egos and materialism displayed on television. Whether it's celebrity egotism or people overly obsessed with the material goods that ridiculous wealth can bring, I wonder why anyone cares. I'm concerned with today's youth who seem increasingly obsessed with these material things.

There are so many more important things in the world than brand name or designer objects. There is so much that is more worth time and energy than the acquisition of the newest technological gadget. This commercial society that we have built is driving our society into ruin. It seems to me that very few people can continue to acquire without credit, driving them further and further into debt. And once they are in debt, they are doubtless in it for a good long time.

Why is the government bailing out companies when there are so many people stuck in personal debt? Why are we continuing to allow advertising to make us want stuff? Why do we continue to acquire that which merely clutters our lives and prevents us from seeing what matters?

But on the other side of that, what is it that matters? That is dependent on the person and on the perception. But the way I see it, life matters, people matter, relationships matter, survival matters. Anything else is secondary. Anything else is pointless. Technology has made us soft. It has made us forget. Life used to be hard, truly hard...not dramatically hard the way it is today. Life used to be a struggle to survive day to day. Now that survival is relatively simple, we have forgotten the simple pleasures of life. The sun, the rain, the earth that feed us, the fire that warms us.

I yearn for a return to the simple hard life that once was. I yearn for an appreciation of what we have in this country, in this world. Why have we forgotten? Why do we no longer appreciate? Why are we no longer grateful? We have forgotten how to love one another...we no longer even make eye contact on the street. As for community, it is largely a thing of the past.

If not for the continuation of life, why are we even here?

Maelestrom

Knowledge lost?
Knowledge betrayed?
Knowledge protected?

Couched away in myth and legend,
hidden in supposition.

Grains of truth
blowing,
swirling,
floating away.
Within reach,
but too fine to grasp.

Waiting for the winds to stop
and the onslaught
of the storm to ease.

Truth as grains of sand,
lying at my feet,
free for the taking,
ready to be taken,
too numerous to count,
irresistible nonetheless.