Secrets Don't Die

When I love you now,
I'll love you in secret,
In hidden verse
And treasured rhyme.
I'll hold it in
And keep it quiet
So you can't know
How much I pine -
For you, and me
And us as one
For all we had,
All that's gone.
Maybe some day
You'll realize,
As you look at me
And in my eyes
(If you so choose,
For choose you must,
Someday, before
We turn to dust),
That love though silent
Ne'er went away
Though you did,
Along your way.

These Words Are Broken

These words are broken
And will not write
Themselves into beautiful lines
Of elegant verse.
These lines are crooked
And sound so off
Everything's wrong
With all of this song.
These letters are dancing,
But it's no parade -
Maybe a march,
A funereal one -
An elegiac dance
Mourning a battered hope.
These words are broken
Or maybe, it's just me.

The Dreaded Gulf of Fearfulness

Alone I stand upon a precipice
And look upon the rocks
That litter the landscape
That's been my life.
Alone I stand, as do you
Upon facing cliffs
Across a wide ocean
That you dare not cross
For fear of who-knows-what.
You see me,
But you look away,
As I stare out towards you.
I know you've seen me,
I see your eyes.
But do you know I see?
You want to turn
And look again,
But you don't.
Why? You can't? You won't?
Why? Is it fear?
Is it not enough?
Is it too much?
You look at me
But avoid my eyes,
Windows to this soul of mine.
Are you afraid to see me as I am -
Just a man who loves you,
Enough to change time and space,
Though flawed he is
And always will be?
Or are they mirrors
That reflect only your uncertainty
And doubt, and fear,
And who-knows-what?
Look at me across this sea
As I look to you,
Look to me.
Look into these eyes, and see
Look, please look...
Trust me.

A Secret Part of My Heart

In a secret part of my heart
Where awe and reverence mingle
Where gods could exist,
Or fairies and elves even,
A whisper sometimes stirs
The hairs upon my neck
And raises armies of goosebumps
On my arms and flesh.

In a chamber locked away,
Where the world can't get at it
(Nor the idle hordes
Hold their sway
Against the beauty of this),
A wind sometimes blows,
Where the world is no longer flat,
Through the undulations and the folds
Over your skin
And through your hair
And over the ocean
Inside of your eyes.

In a secret part of my heart
Where only you have been,
And only you belong,
A light shines on forever,
A light that never dims.

Something Heavenly

I used to retreat
To a cave -
My own private growlery,
Full of the stuff
That loses it's sheen,
That goes to dust.
And verse and word
And poetry
Were but means
To free from me
The demons and pains
That clutched my soul,
The things that broke,
The empty holes.
But then you came
And word and verse
And musical lyrical rhapsody
Became the norm -
An ecstasy
Of words and their ocean,
For my soul to be -
Calm and drifting,
Ne'er at sea.
So I'll lose the cave
And it's misery,
And wrap myself,
Instead,
In your mystery
To elevate these words,
These feelings, these thoughts
To something more,
Something heavenly.

The Sea of Ignited Passion

We start off quiet,
We always do,
With looks and words
And minds in tune.
We drift off quickly
Upon the swell,
Lost in each others' hair,
Each others' smell.
I am lost
In the taste of your kiss -
A half-chewed apple piece
Mashed 'tween lovers' lips.
And I whisper to you:
The velvety words
That make your hair
Stand on end,
The quiet, urgent words
That make your pulse go quick,
The soft, stroking, longing words
That languorously swim about you,
Swimming you into rapturous ecstasy.

I want to crawl inside of you
To get inside your bones
To melt into your skin
To be a part of every fibre of you.
So the wind rushes by,
As the world's breathing quickens
And, in little gasps and bursts,
Teases our ears.
And your nails dig into my back
As we dig deeper into each other,
As we ignite as one -
Two golden dragons
Leaping from a mountain top,
As the seas boil and bubble
Trying to keep up
In our rolling wake.
Churning, heaving,
The seas move with us
Ebbing and flowing
To a heavenly beat.
We feel ravenous,
Surrendered to desire
Though this be more than that.
And I feel my soul,
As I melt away,
Dripping out of my skin
And into yours.

Set in Stone

I know that it is scary
And that the world is hard.
I know that things don't work out
Even when you do your part
And I know some things
Just aren't
The way we wish they were
But some things,
Like us,
Are beautiful.
So remember,
When you think
That things won't change for the better,
That nothing is set in stone,
That no relationship is static,
That love is a movement,
And that we have moved
And will move
Together -
Two swimmers in tandem.

That's How They Know

Eyes brighten,
Heads move together,
Smiles widen
And lips glisten.
The talk is fast
And easy
And we're lost
In a breeze of conversation.
A whisper is spoken -
A flirtatious something,
A secret
They cannot know;
Or nothing,
Though they assume
It's not -
Our eyes light up so.
Our hearts are pounding,
To a common rhythm.
Our knees are weak
With the lightness in our feet
The world spins, in our heads,
Restlessness in our hands,
And fingers, and minds,
Every time we meet.

The Cliffs of Longing

Upon a rocky shoreline
Above the surf's foaming
Whispers,
Where the world seems a distant nothing
Stretching on forever,
I came across a maiden,
An elven beauty, pure,
Whose presence
In the world
Blessed that rocky shore.

One glimpse,
One look,
One word,
And I am possessed -
A siren call
Upon ocean winds,
Who bear
Her sweet caress.

How I long
To talk those eyes to life,
To lose myself
In those black pools, those gems
Silent in their splendour,
To burn in adoring flame
If only to mirror the light in them.

But night arrived
And darkness took you away.
The shore seems empty,
The rocks forbidding,
The night's gone cold,
The moon has gone astray.

What is this thing
That ties me to you?
The meal is dreary
And takes forever.
I wish I'd stayed at home,
If only to have heard from you
To know where you were
And that you wanted me
So I could come to you.

How much worse is it,
That this vision,
This elven princess
With bright pixie eyes
And a mischievous,
Thoughtful twinkle,
Should not be here today.

And all I can think of
All I can speak of,
Is one thing,
One thought
One pretty pixie's smile.
The dinner is over,
And still no sign of her.
The talk upon the table
Is wasted 'pon my ears.

Ever since I saw you,
I've longed for your smile
Your eyes alight and dancing
As you hold my hand awhile.

Three days have past
And another chance was lost
And now I can wait no longer
So a message in a bottle
I send forth in hope:
That though oblique,
My aim be right and true
No matter the obstacles;
That it find its way to you.

And so I wait
And hope
That tomorrow will come
And you with it.

Sometimes (Things Are More Than They Seem)

Sometimes,
If you go quiet
And listen
And maybe,
Just maybe,
If you're lucky,
You might hear a soul
Rustle quietly
As it slithers up your arm
And nestles against your neck,
Whispering quietly,
Breathing
Sweetly in your ear,
That you are loved
And cherished
More than you ever have been,
More than you ever thought
You would or could be,
More than you dared to hope.
Sometimes
A shimmer is more than a star,
A mirage isn't quite a dream,
That would disappear into the morning
Or the sandy, joyless desert,
And if you look carefully,
You might see
The shimmer was only a sign,
Not a thing, itself,
Of beauty;
Like this,
Like you.