Poetry

(I have not written nearly as many poems recently as I used to. Most of my poems lately are more journal entries that take poetic form, so these are still in raw form. I'm open to suggestions about revisions, though)

2-22-08

When did I become so world-hardened
My skin turned to shell and
My eyes to bullet-proof glass?

Who knew that innocence was such a fragile sphere
Shattered with a single wrong touch
Pieces hitting the floor with a shrill silver clatter

This hardened shell is
a poor substitute
For that lovely globe of innocence.

-------

Abba
won’t you re-create me
Make me anew
A innocent child in your arms
to look upon your face
and rest content in your arms
born again


12-5-07

I’m not happy now
But I wasn’t happy before, either
I was a ticking time bomb
painted pretty colors
of worldly success
and accomplishment
cheap paints that chipped away.


11-6-07

You were always the vein of gold in the hardness of stone,
that glint of precious that makes miners shout in the underground darkness
and clap their bleeding fingers with the joy of their find.


10-31-07

Please, won’t you look at me
Please, won’t you think of me

I’ve tried to give selflessly to you
over and over giving and forgiving
Is it so much to ask of you
to simply think of me?


9-11-07

When separation and heartache
has stripped away
all the trappings of this love
the handwritten notes
the clasped hands
the boat rides
and car rides
the nights gazing at the stars
the whispered dreams
the laughter
the tears

I see my heart unveiled
and my love standing
stark and naked
and still very much alive.


9-9-07

I sit here at the end of summer
acutely aware of the shortening days
of the fading green
of the drifting leaves
of your absence

And I know that I should stand up
brush the grass clippings from my sleeve
pick the fallen leaves from my hair
That I should bundle myself in my jacket
and step forward
towards winter
and a new spring

But the last of summer’s warmth
still radiates from the ground beneath me
and when I close my eyes
I can still feel the grass on my toes
and hear the cicadas buzzing in the trees above me
and if I listen hard
I can still hear your laughter
and I can pretend that it’s not over
and rest here for a while yet.


4-12-07

Abba, you cradle our hearts
in your gentle hands
the hearts your hands
once formed and fashioned
and set beating with your touch.

See how heavy they have become?
the soft clay cracked and hardened into stone,
cracked and crumbling.

O Loving One,
who conquers death
and resurrects life,
breathe upon our hearts again
and bring the stone to life.