You took your love away
I'm trying my best to hold on
I know that if I let you go
You will forever be gone
I cannot accept that scenario
A life without you next to me
Would be a life I couldn't live
A nightmare i never want to see
How could I even try to live
Without you being in my life
The only thing I did right in life
Was simply making you my wife
I know there has to be something
I don't want our marriage to end
I know your heart is broken now
And it will take time for it to mend
I love you with all my heart and soul
I'm tired of being the reason you cry
Please give me my last last chance
Before you say your last goodbye
the rhythm changed before the ending came
not with thunder, but with delay.
not with cruelty, but with absence.
calls that once carried warmth became quiet corridors.
Messages arrived like late rain, thin and uncertain.
replies lost their color, their reach, their want.
the distance entered first, then made itself at home.
Sometimes the deepest ache is not betrayal.
It is watching something fade while still holding it gently.
Every journey
carries
its own arrival
folded inside
what it first
let go.
A stone kept
the other pocket.
The skip
noticed neither.
A bridge
pretends
to be its arch.
The span,
hung in chains,
remembers.
The ladder
offers
one rung
to tomorrow,
one
to yesterday.
Both feet
know.
The escape hatch
grows lighter
without opening.
The room
learns
its counterweight.
The kite
believes
the string
is holding it.
The string
believes
the wind.
Neither
touches the sky.
The grandfather clock
unwinds
its weight
until
the floor
begins to listen.
One day
the other pocket
forgot
its stone.
The hand
didn't.
With what you've done to me
And what you put me through
Even with this broken heart
Why is it I'm still in love with you
There should be no problem
For me to finally walk away
You could no longer hurt me
With the games you like to play
That's not what my heart wants
And I'm not ready to let go of you
You know my heart will forgive you
No matter what you put it through
My heart can't take much more
And the pain is too much for me
My heart keeps holding on to you
Why does it refuse to set you free
Why do I
hold on to someone
who doesn't want
to hold on to me
It comes in many forms.
For love is not always peaceful.
It is the friend who laughs beside you in chaos.
Sometimes it is holding on,
sometimes it is letting go.
Love lives in forgiveness,
for it is not just a feeling,
but in unseen, quiet acts
"yet strong enough
to hold the world together."
We loiter in Winter
when it’s already Spring
Still hearing that Starling
with snow on its wings
We blanket our longing
as Tulips unfold
Transfixed by the fire
— of memories old
(The New Room: October, 2025)
Purposely off center, on tippy toe.
What a feat; completely nuts.
Tummy tuck, umbrella in hand,
just clowning around; on the brink
of a niagara fall. Tintinnabulation of
power, provoking an audience cower;
…over the rainbow it seems.
The audience holds on for dear life.
Colors blossoming like sunbursts.
Muscling up courage to close my eyes.
The ringing in my mind, an eruption
of a pale face, red honker, on the edge.
Blinking umbrella with ab rise and fall.
What was I thinking? Can’t turn back,
losing my grip, decentralized.
The audience holds on for dear life.
You gave me your heart and I gave you mine—
not in silence, but in the rustle of stars,
in the breath between waves.
Two birds exchanged their skies,
two rivers poured into one basin.
There was no contract,
no promise carved in stone—
only the trembling of hands
and the slow unfolding of trust.
We made a country from whispers,
a home of glances and fingertips.
Even our shadows knew each other,
shadows moving across the walls toward
each other.
Now I walk with your voice in my chest,
and my name sleeps in your pulse.
I gave you my heart in the dark,
you gave me the light that taught it to sing.
So simple. So vast. So clean. forever.
I’ve been Holding on to silence
All the times that you have hurt me
All the times you told me lies
Made me feel like I was drowning
In the tears of all my cries
I don’t know if I have helped you
Or been part of your demise
Was I right or was I just another
mask for your disguise
Your actions speak much louder
Than a thousand sorrys spoken
I’m holding onto silence
But inside I’m truly broken
I have a wife, a son and two granddaughters,
I have nightmares.
A 'having' cannot be held onto,
a Keep, a Fast, a Hold, all are synonyms
for a fortress....
my aspirations crumble like ancient walls.
When I pluck a pretty wildflower
from a verdant meadow -
a momentary kiss of joy,
an enlightening ray of sun....
then cometh the regret, the withering,
a racing time outpaces any moment.
I have bad nights,
the dark always wins over any internal light,
I am transfixed, wide eyed looking at phantoms
that burgle my mind,
or do I rob theirs?
Who built this machine that
both devils and angels struggle to maintain?
Grace is doled out into my open palms,
and I must watch the blessing evaporate
before it reaches my lips.
I have bad dreams.
Holding on to me too tightly
Having you cling to me closely
Helping you not to tightly squeeze
Hoping you would let me breathe.
a bluebird dives
graceful sullen and dramatic
as if performing its last swan song
then in late afternoon gone
the sun in backdrop
tickles wispy clouds
speechless i inhale the magic
of an exquisite day of fall
wishing it would never end
AP: 1st place 2024
Dismantled and fractured it seems
Life pushes us all to extremes.
We seek to perform
And weather our storm-
Try hard to support all our dreams.
Don’t be the first to reach out this time.
Don’t stop them from falling on their own knife.
No more chasing shadows, no more pleas.
Let the distance grow, and just breathe.
Echoes of love feel like a ghost,
But holding on tight may cost me the most.
Stand still in my space, let the world spin,
Trust that in time, they’ll find their way in.
Connections that matter will find their own way.
I’ll find my strength in the quiet today.
So exist, just exist, and embrace the unknown.
Sometimes being alone leads you back home.
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