"What are you afraid of losing? When you own nothing in this world".
To cherish a flower yet to perish
To gaze upon the ways of life
As you slowly fade away
Tell me or better yet ask yourself
Why bother?
Conversation,Communication,Comprehension.
To start a topic and give suggestions
Discuss on concepts and break down steps
The assimilation of the other
But then nothing is equal
So why search for it?
Why bother involving
The ache on my lips
The constant itch in my eyes
The heavy swallows at night
A recurring routine
I believed if I said my mind and explained
Once, twice
I could be understood......
However I'm surrounded with translucent figures
With a clear conscience
A lot unsaid, my tired heart can't continue
And so I've a reached a state
A DREAM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A wisp of smoke, a phantom limb,
the dream dissolves, a sugar cube in rain.
Gone.
Morning light bleeds in,
erasing landscapes built of moon-dust.
A fiction, spun in the quiet dark.
But then, a shard remains.
A glint caught in the corner of your eye.
A swan's cry,
impossibly clear,
reverberates,
caught in the hollow of your chest.
It returns, unbidden, unwelcome,
a landscape
of tilted angles and knowing eyes.
You stand there, powerless,
caught in its gaze,
a stranger in a familiar place.
Inclined to wonder,
to dissect and trace,
the questions remain
bewilderment etched upon your face~
What did it mean?
What does it mean?
hark raven
up above
i know what you're thinking of
i've seen you before
perched up high
you only stare
every time
in my nightmare
i see you once more
now
a crafty knight does wield
a blow
which evades my shield
you know what's in store
blood is rushing
darkness looms
all that's left to see
is gloom
i am on all fours
I clasp my hands in prayer
and cry
as you wait for me
to die
like a thousand times before
Today again, I went to go teach, totally unprepared.
And fearing the principal would come observe me had me so scared,
I rambled through the room, floundering and fluttering.
And then a student asked, "Mr J, why are you muttering?
Do I sense maybe ~ you're just a little bit impaired?"
Living one foot in the past
Yes, okay, sometimes two
Is not by choice
When it’s a past that holds you
By a tether
To your core.
Could it be any other way
When you love
With all your heart
In youth
In innocence
In foolishness?
(8/27/24)
Some nights I dream of an empty home
Nothing from how it was before has changed
I know to expect monsters
so I board up the windows and lock the doors
I find a place to hide
Though I have the tools to fight
Every time I've tried more appear
Then there's the anticipation
A fear that I'll be found and devoured
Darkness cold and heavy
Sweat droplets on my face
Eyes darting back and forth
South to north
Up and down
I frown
I stand colliding with a wall
My hands don’t work at all
I fall
Hold my knees to chest
My breathe does the rest
My anxiety creeps up
Goes down just to buildup
I’m stuck
The shadows creep around
The room is so still with no sound
I crawl on the ground
My knees make a scratching sound
My eyes search all around
The shadows start to surround
They reach down
I scream so loud it hurts my ears
This is my biggest fear
My eyes pop open suddenly
I look around uncertainly
It was a dream mistakenly
I still breathe unevenly
I grab my covers
And as I recover
The dream plays in my head
Something I dread
Like something I said
But there is nothing here
The monster is gone, disappear
I shake off the fear
Hold my covers over my chest
and lay back down to rest.
Darkness cold and heavy
Sweat droplets on my face
Eyes darting back and forth
South to north
Up and down
I frown
I stand colliding with a wall
My hands don’t work at all
I fall
Hold my knees to chest
My breathe does the rest
My anxiety creeps up
Goes down just to buildup
I’m stuck
The shadows creep around
The room is so still with no sound
I crawl on the ground
My knees make a scratching sound
My eyes search all around
The shadows start to surround
They reach down
I scream so loud it hurts my ears
This is my biggest fear
My eyes pop open suddenly
I look around uncertainly
It was a dream mistakenly
I still breathe unevenly
I grab my covers
And as I recover
The dream plays in my head
Something I dread
Like something I said
But there is nothing here
The monster is gone, disappear
I shake off the fear
Hold my covers over my chest
and lay back down to rest.
Stranger
She said he was her healer
A hero of sorts
Seldom did she realize
Mesmerized mixed in girth
She was lost and yet
He was a moral compass
Not found
Is this non stranger Christ
1/28/22
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr ©
He’d taught me
to disbelieve
ghostly things.
Skinning and chopping
superstitions,
I cooked a poem.
My thoughts grew
under his eaves.
Desolation dominates me
after his funeral.
A vague shape vanishes
from my windowpane.
A stray dog
magnifies mystery,
barking.
Being his son,
I say boldly
this is an illusion.
Can he rest in peace,
when I’m restless?
His smell
mingled with an ointment,
I often feel.
It floats
in my evening room,
giving me goose-bumps.
Gravitational pull
of a profound love
creates wonders.
First published in The Literary Hatchet
”You Can Become Dreamy In A Spa”
(by Rainbow ?? Promise)
Soft Erie-like musical strains -
Guitars, flutes, banjos, violins
Float in the Air with rhythmic flare.
With rhythmic flare you lay bare,
Soft lights, candle lit, flicker there,
As Erie-like strains drone on.
As Erie-like strains drone on
Facial being done, masques run
Dripping, nostrils squeezing, squeeze.
Nostrils squeezed, can you breathe?
Hot chemical-filled towel like a wreath
Placed in triangular form, chin to nose
Triangular form chin to nose
Droning, Recurring soft music you pose,
in solitaire,
O, a Spa can be Erie like a Morgue!
I had a recurring dream
It visited me now and again
An elderly lady riding in style
In the backseat of a car
She caught my eye
And held my gaze
Locked without words
An expressionless glare
Familiar eyes yet not a nod
I can’t say how many nights
I dreamt this dream
It was almost haunting
Significant by its silence
It was all in the eyes
One day it dawned on me
Her telepathic message
Had to do with my breathing
Slow and deep
Slow and deep
It was like an enigma
Shared from beyond
Slow and deep
Slow and deep
Like a connection
To the other side
A secret door
AP: 1st place 2025, 2nd place 2025, Honorable Mention 2025
Submitted on June 9, 2018 for contest AN INNER KNOWING, AN ABSOLUTE FEELING, MY MYSTICAL SOUL SELF sponsored by CAREN KRUTSINGER - RANKED 2ND
imaginary
overenthusiastic
hippopotamus
AP: Honorable Mention 2026
My Recurring Thought
Written: by Tom Wright
11-4-2009
There are times in every life,
When at God’s urging, we do things
That we aren’t able to understand His reason for doing them;
Things that perhaps, to us, make no sense at all;
We think, it’ll disrupt things, let someone else do it,
Or someone else is better qualified, or has more time.
But God isn’t asking someone else. He knows our heart,
And wouldn’t be troubling our heart over a matter
If He thought we weren’t the best fit.
Sometimes, in my life, I’ve been severely chastised
For failing, or being reluctant, to heed His still small voice;
God didn’t assign the path in which I’ve walked,
in life, to me alone; but has placed others in my path;
Some received help, or helped me, and moved on.
Others have stayed, but those that truly have blessed my heart
Are the ones who moved on and returned, at God’s urging,
For in them I am deeply humbled, in that they saw something,
Deep within me, that was worth returning for.
God’s Love.
Don't know what happiness is.
Only what I should think it
should be, running away
to prove a point.
Just don't know what it is
and I'm repeatedly running
into a wall.
Breaking everything
that isn't my soul, yet.
Pacing myself,
knowing that this is it.
The truth is ugly
and I'm done here;
but can't leave just yet.
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