Love after Love

One of those pieces I wish I'd written. Can't wait to experience.
Enjoy:

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here.  Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine.  Give bread.  Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit.  Feast on your life.

~ Derek Walcott

Who Broke The Rules?

Who Broke The Rules

Violated that sacred place known as your innocence

Who removed that drop of naivete’ before you could acknowledge its presence

Did this behavior leave you resistant to faith

Further tarnishing the perception of You actually Loving You

Who Broke The Rules

Have the tables turned

And have you been blaming self 

Or have you fallen prey to those manic addictions

Has sex become something you offer as self- sacrifice

Or do you abuse food to comfort your disoriented self-image 

Maybe commerce is your retreat

Do you find yourself purchasing compliments   

Or does your pain reveal itself through the scrutiny of others

They say “Glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”

Yet you offer Bullets

Who Broke The Rules

And have you alone been the sole victim

In fact do you seek others formerly living in that crevice of impoverishment you call home  

Do you even care to learn of their ascension

Or is the destruction they escaped too heavy for you to examine

Might it leave you to confront your current state of accepted stagnation 

Who Broke The Rules

And would you ever consider forgiving yourself

And finally Liberating them

A What To Write Poem

What to write when there are so many exciting opportunities ahead
What to write when today is a much better partner to yesterday
What to write when dreams have revealed themselves in the most unexpected ways


I know
I'll write about Love
Because Love is what's driving this day
This Moment
This Opportunity


Oh and there's also a wealth of Prayer
But can we have Love without Prayer?


I think not
They go hand in hand


Like Hall & Oates
Peaches and Cream
Bonnie & Clyde
Peaches & Herb (for Matthew)


Love & Prayer
Together forever


Yes...that's what I'll write

Layers

Let's write a poem.
Choose a topic
One topic.
A word.


One word with multiple meanings.
What word?


Let's write about Layers.
Not the layers that coat
Or cover.


Let's write about the layers of our lives.
The layers of evolution.


Let's be transparent
As clear as we can be.


And let's be detailed.
Afterall, what's a poem without details?


Let's have a party where everyone will get to share a layer-or two- about you.
We want the person who knew you when you were happy
To connect with the person who knew you in your despair.


Each will tell a story about their experience with you.
They'll toast to the things they didn't know that they learned today.


Everyone will arrive with gummies and chips and of course, an open mind
Prepared to learn the many layers of you.


Each tale will be different.
That person will speak of when you were the biggest cry-baby on the block.
While the guy over there will speak about your ever present star quality 
The girl over there, in that back corner, will tell of how much Love you had to share.
And another will tell of how hard you fight to display that Love to yourself.


We'll invite old friends and new.
People you've recently accumulated.
Like ____ who will speak with delight of how courageous you are.
Right after _____ who speaks of your fragileness.


Everyone will learn something new about you 


No one will judge you 
Everyone will understand that you are like an onion
(and they are too)
The more you peel
The more you reveal
The more that's revealed
The deeper you become
So deep that tears begin to shed
For the many lives you've led.


And that will be your Poem.


Everyone will learn something new about you and most of all, you will too