Are You Going to Stay?

Are You Going to Stay?

by Thomas Meyer

What was it I was going to say?

Slipped away probably because

it needn’t be said. At that edge

almost not knowing but second

guessing the gain, loss, or effect

of an otherwise hesitant remark.

Slant of light on a brass box. The way

a passing thought knots the heart.

There’s nothing, nothing to say.

What Came After

I found this buried in my Facebook Notes. The poem itself I wrote for a friend. The first part I have no idea why I wrote, but I'll keep it, since it's an original artifact. It's what I'm thinking most of the time.

What Came After

No one wants to read your melodramatic poetry with the awkward diction and nature metaphors. Also it's not very good; you've really been sucking at this lately. It's too personal to post. Everyone says "be honest," but no one actually thinks you should do that. It's like saying "we should hang out sometime." Oversharing is weird and only works in the movies. Don't do it don't do it don't do it.

You have to leave,

and I have to stand here and watch your heart break open.

I had to leave once,

so I too have leaned over that chasm.

And you're going to fall in, you know.

Somewhere between saying goodbye to your mother

and resigning yourself to never having spoken what was truly inside you,

your heart's going to turn into an open wound,

and I have to stand here and let you take it.

So in my heart I give you the sunrise in Alaska,

the sunset around the pier,

that May morning overflowing with resurrection.

I give you all of my What Came After,

all of the solace that healed me.

I will to you all of the undeserved beauty 

that taught me in the end

that it was worth it.

cls

When love beckons to you...

When love beckons to you...
by Khalil Gibran, from The Prophet

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height
and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots
and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart,
and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love’s peace and love’s pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness
and pass out of love’s threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh,
but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love.

To a Friend

To a Friend

by unknown, public domain

I ask but one thing of you, only one,

that always you will be my dream of you;

that never shall I wake to find untrue

all this I have believed and rested on,

forever vanished, like a vision gone

out into the night. Alas, how few

there are who strike in us a chord we knew

existed, but so seldom heard its tone

we tremble at the half-forgotten sound.

The world is full of rude awakenings

and heaven-born castles shattered to the ground,

yet still our human longing vainly clings

to a belief in beauty through all wrongs.

O stay your hand, and leave my heart its songs!

Sonku [what i want] & Haiku [for you]

Sonku [what i want]

by Sonia Sanchez

what i want

from you can

you give? what

i give to

you do you

want? hey? hey?

Haiku [for you]

by Sonia Sanchez

love between us is

speech and breath. loving you is

a long river running.