Thursday, December 23, 2010

Winter Without Snow

The cold has set in

Without its accompanied beauty

The sky is uncomfortably blue

The yellow sun shines oddly down

But the grass has turned an ugly brown

And the pond reflects a gray-blue frown

I know -

- because I looked deeply into it

To find an answer that remains unfound


So I stand alone in the cold
To look up at a strange blue
And wonder – when and who
I will be between young and old.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

You Said

You said you love me again
In your unsound sleep
A daytime secret you selfishly keep:

From me.

You said you love me again
In the spins of your desperation
Afraid of how it would happen:

My leaving.

You said you love me again
In a moment to keep me
Comfortably by your side:

Your lies.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Misnomer

Her name rolled off your tongue
Just as mine once did
Its noise had the same ring
Your voice, the same feeling

You said it like you know
Of how her cheeks glow
And how her eyes close
The moment she lets go

Her name spoke familiar
From the corners of your lips
As though you could love her
At least the movement of her hips

Her name rolled off your tongue
Just as mine once did
And there was none else to think -
- but: "Congratulations."

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Tired in November of 2010

And the wrecking ball continues to swing
          Once again only the bluest birds sing
(their saddest songs)
               
WE 
ARE
TIRED:

o f   t h i s  tragedy thing


It is
taking a serious
                          toll on everything


A toll that's getting tougher to pay
With each one that passes away

Whether it's:
Sadly with INTENT
Or unexpectedly by ACCIDENT


It seems as though
The ever presence of the word go
Has us questioning:
? 
Will we ever grow
UP AND AWAY
From the DARKNESS we've come to know.



Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Atlantic Rain

I close my eyes:

To see, to feel, to hear,
To know intimately
The weight of the rain
The overwhelming screams,
The intensity of Atlantic dreams

I close my eyes to feel
Water needles sink into my skin
Playing on the specific strings that -
-remind me what the weight of water is

I close my eyes to hear
Liquid drums carefully beating
To a melody always worth repeating
But lost in moments that are painfully fleeting

I close my eyes to know
The intimate intrusion of the wind
Wet and heavy as it soaks my soul
And it reminds me of when...

...I closed my eyes mid-wave
And hid inside the Atlantic rain.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Recovering from the {f}all

September came too quickly
Opening doors so swiftly
And I found myself unready
For things that fell abruptly

September went too quickly
Opening doors uncomfortably
Into October, all too soon
As though we already knew...

(once recovered from this fall)
...that it has come be the truth:
When sadness finally escapes me
A piece will remain for you.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Calling Because

I'm calling to tell you not to call
And also to ask why you didn't fall

I'm calling to say I can't hear your voice
In the early hours when I'm left with no choice
But to answer when shaken from unsound sleep
When I've waited alone in untangled sheets.

I'm calling to hear the words you won't say
While you hold out your arm to keep me away


I'm calling to tell you not to call
So that maybe someday I'll recover from the Fall. 

Monday, October 11, 2010

Rained and Fell

I ran
From the hauntings yesterday 

It rained
As though to wash away pain

I cried
When the ghost of you remained


They fell
Bright pieces of things misplaced

I heard
Words in my head with no escape


It repeated
Confusing nostalgia of what's gone away

I rained
To cry your words away

I fell
From a lonely place

I screamed
To push the pain away

And hurt
When pieces remained.


Sunday, October 10, 2010

Une Fois De Plus

“Just one more time” echoes in my head

And I'll wait impatiently

Tangled in words so carefully unsaid
Unraveled and empty in a shallow bed

“This will be the last” pushes me to your door

And I’ll trip ungracefully

Into the unwished dreams you silently hope for
To hear silent screams of the things I wish for

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Unfinished Poetry

A pressing moment
Weighs on the poet
To finish her sentence
As she currently knows it



Urgency quietly calls
Through paper-made walls
In a form that makes sense
Of the daily rises and falls

If left unfinished, it never will be
For the way life unfolds so quickly. 



Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Fell

A slippery step on the ice is hard to take
When the weight of past seasons won't go away

Summer left swiftly and wordlessly
Every un-answer remains a mystery 

The bright shatterings of Fall are on the floor 
And there are skeletons knocking at the door
- not begging for tricks or sweets -
The ghosts are my own. They haunt relentlessly.

With the facade of holding on - 
- the reality of letting go

Their words talk, 
Their laughter echoes,
Their sadness cries -
Into my ears 
                 and out from my eyes.

Welcome Winter,

You're just in time.

To hear me say,

                Good-bye.


Blue Green

She tempts you with her blue green eyes
And reflects her beauty in changing skies
You feel a pull with the outgoing tide
That abruptly steals you from my side


She holds your gaze from seas away
You imagine you'll drown in unruly waves
Yet she makes you wonder if you'll stay
Or take this chance to run away


It's not just that you're overtaken by her beauty -
It's that you know the affair will end quickly
- that she'll most likely leave you lonely


Just as you left me
When I lost the battle against the sea.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Sails in Colorado

We could sail away
If your boat would reach me
But the mountain shores are dry
And I'm not waiting patiently.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

A Questionable Portrait

Slumped over the bar
Sagging skin and a heart
Both his spine and his eyes
Were a question mark

His weathered face searched
For reasons behind the hurt
Of lyrics differently heard
By each of its interpreters

"This is the saddest song written"
(Words slurred from his frown)
His gaze turned to his drink
As though he might drown

I studied him, then looked to you
And wondered out loud, "What did he do?"
Understanding my question, 
You avoided the reflection

And silently wondered
                             if that would be you 

Slumped over the bar
Sagging heart and skin,
Questions in your eyes,
Longing for something.



Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Storm Intercepted

I saw lightning mimic the color of your eyes
I heard your voice whisper in a song
I felt your skin in the grass that grazed mine
I almost tasted you, sweet on my tongue

I recognized the electricity in my spine
My heart raced to the thundering skies
When lightning mimicked the color of your eyes

Music played where it shouldn't belong
I knew the sound well before it was gone
When I heard your voice whisper in a song


An almost kiss disappeared into the night
And our faces aligned eye to eye
An imagined moment was lost in time
When I felt your skin in the grass that grazed mine


I realized,

Your eyes were just a trick of the light
Your voice just the lyrics of another's song 
Your skin just an imagined brushing of the night
When I almost tasted you, sweet on my tongue


Friday, June 18, 2010

Fire Trucks and Fishy Kisses

"I'm hungry" wakes me up at seven
Then three more times before eleven
"I want..." this one and that one and more
"What will you get ME at the store?"

Green eyes with "black dots in the middle"
Peer through the white spots on the mirror
A furrowed little brow and a pouty mouth
Are revealed when it's time for lights out

But there's a smiley drawn with crayon
And "I love you" behind his smile
A big fishy kiss after PJ's are on
That make every hiccup worth while.

Friday, June 11, 2010

The Contents of a Promise

for Kaden.

I promise you the world -

- will ask you questions
To test what you thought you knew
Then teach you that more is less and


{the world}


Will subtly show you
How less can be more and

{the world}


Will surprise you to no end
And end with surprises
That teach you to be appreciative

{the world}

Will lie to make you feel better
And hurt you with the truth

Then mend you with the proof that


{I}

have loved you and always will
No matter what happens.


*

*Girl in Grey Dress Photography: MyKelle J Tieman
[http://missmykelle.blogspot.com/]


Friday, May 21, 2010

Wishes

I wish...

there

is an empty space
in a forgotten place

where

shadows are whispers
of unheard wishes

when

a ghost silently haunts
a heart that painfully wants

no one

is there to listen

...and wishing hurts

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Grateful Remnants


Thank you.
For evoking the tumultuous poetry
That once laid dormant in hidden corners
Behind the locked doors of my heart
For unlocking those doors
For being just distant enough for me
To safely fall in love with you
And then recklessly, ungracefully out of love
Then back again at the slightest hue
Of the colors I saw when I met you
For being the mirrorrrorim to my past self
Showing me the outside view
Into the windows of a cowering heart's home
For giddy laughter, shy smiles, fiery anger,
For held back tears behind stone faces,
And unabashed emotion--
That cannot be accurately named
For making me happy enough,
Angry enough,
Sad enough,
In love enough
To utter words both shakily and eloquently.
For pushing me away and down
Scary, exciting, untraveled paths beyond the last
Of my remaining barricades.
For freeing me from you.
Please free me from you.
Thank you.


--
Kendra Lise

"El amor es alegria. No te convenzas que sufrir es parte de el." Paulo Coelho

Truth or Dare

[Are You]

brave enough to be raw and honest in each moment you live in?
Can you break free from the norms understanding you wont break even?
Can you love and let go, can you escape what you know -
To openly embrace all of the truths that you don't?


[I Dare You]

to be brave enough to be raw and honest in each moment you live in.
To break free from the norms - understand that you won't break even!
To Love and let go, to escape what you know-
To openly embrace all of the truths that you don't!

Friday, March 12, 2010

Silence Heard

What if we heard...

What is hidden inside reinforced walls
The lingering potential that silently calls
What if we heard the words that allow us to fall?

The words that desperately need and unabashedly desire
The words that fear the flames of our own fires

What if we heard the I love you's that shiver behind hello
And the I miss you's that cry from beneath the pillow
What if we heard the sounds that explain the unknown
What if we heard the words that tell us not to go?

The words that exist clearly in peaceful dreams
But never come out quite as loud or as clean

What if we heard the mumbles of a broken heart
Or the muffled sentences of a new start
The words that are whispered below fearful breaths
What if we heard the words that die muted deaths?
What if those words rested on our lips and not in our heads?

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Whispers

In the dark, we knew it couldn't last
But there was something in the shadows we cast
And the whispers we heard
They told me, "Hold on until it's over"
So I dressed myself for a long, long fall
Then let go gracefully to leap from my walls
In the light, we saw things we could be
But something in shadows slowly creeped
And the whispers we heard
They told you, "Let go, before it's over"
So you looked to see how far I fell
And became overwhelmed by a storm of guilt

When we realized I landed by myself
In the remnants of everything I felt

The shadows whispered to you and they whispered to me
And in the same sentence, we heard the words differently

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Unready

"I'm not ready to let go"
Of your hands, of your grip
Of your kiss on my lips
Of long silences and small talks
Of winter rides,
And summer walks
I'm not ready to let go
Of loving you
.
.
.
"I'm not ready to let go"
Of my past,
Of a belief that good doesn't last
Of the shadows I've cast
On the walls that I've built
Of walking on stilts
I'm not ready to let go
Enough to love you




Sunday, January 31, 2010

Once in an Orange Moon

Once in an orange moon
I was taken from my dreams
Down tree-full roads we flew
To follow a whispering gleam
We drove to an open field
To see its beauty loom
A vision I could feel
An end that came too soon

Once in an orange moon
I was innocent and free
Until swallowed by the truth
When childhood went to sleep