Starblind

When the brightest light
In all the world
Stands before you,
You are lost to it
And in it.

When the brightest star,
The one that sets your heart aglow,
Shines for you,
You are blessed
As few on earth have ever been.

When the most precious soul
In the universe,
Lies beating
Quivering in your arms,
Your soul moves too
And they sway together
To a secret celestial beat
That reaches through creation
Igniting all within its path
Causing stars to flare up
Where none were
And setting your world on fire.

When the most beautiful star
In all the skies put together
Glows before you,
You are blind to all else,
Starblind,
For only its light exists
And that is all you ever want.

Reach

I wish that I could reach
Into that heart of yours
And hold your soul
Unto my own
To keep it warm
And loved
In loving palms.
That I could hold you close
And tight awhile
Or brush your hair
And kiss your cheek...
Anything to make you smile

Wider Horizons

Stare trough the looking glass
And what do you see?
Fearful visions
And fodder for fearful dreams
But pull back a moment and you will find,
As your view expands
And your eyes start to see
The fearsomest things are tiny yet
When compared to the strength we have
And the strength we get
From loving to pieces
And peacefulness, too,
Each other,
Saying I love you..

A Ray of Hope

There's a ray of hope
Shining right here
There's a ray of light
For you
There's the possibility
Of true joy,
True joy,
'Cause there's a ray of hope
Shining in you.

Nothing matters more
Than you
Nothing makes my soul glow so
Nothing makes the world
Dazzle in so many colours
But you.

There's a ray of hope
Shining right here
There's a ray of light
For you
There's the possibility
Of true joy,
True joy,
'Cause there's a ray of love
Shining in you.

The Ocean of Deep Transcendent Love

Deep inside me,
Where only you have been,
There is an ocean
That is ours
And ours alone -
A place of peace
And rest,
Where weary bones
May sleep
Curled in each others' joints.

The water is calm and patient
A thing of many years
A wellspring
For the hope
That dispatches all our fears.
Lie here with me,
Upon this floating isle,
Lie with me a moment,
Rest here awhile.

There's a fire burning in me -
A fire you ignite.
There's a fire burning in you -
The flame of our love's light.
The sky at the ocean's end
Glows gloriously
And pushes her black veil back
To show
The flame of our love,
Sparks scattering across the sky,
Filling the heavens with stars -
Just to tell
Of this meeting
Of two incandescent souls
That have set the world aflame.

A single candle burns,
As the wind blows its flame to sea,
The wind that calls to us
And puts us at ease.
Our souls are filled with light
As we melt into each other,
Like two oceans flowing together,
Under a starlit canopy.

You have turned me
Into a seeker
Not only after you
But of the universe -
I will scour the heavens
In search of beautiful things
To bring back to you
To experience your joy
In them,
In me.

There is a serenity
That radiates
From within our conversations -
A peace that comes,
From our two souls,
An electrifying spark arising at the contact -
That spreads out into the world
Changing space and time
And the future.

This time-line is confused
And wraps itself
Around itself
As our love folds it
And twists it
Bending the universe -
This sea of electric impulses -
To its unchanging will.

Conspiratorial whispers
Flit about on the wind
As it blows through the world
And our souls,
Calling you and me
Into a future that is ours.

This Star Won't Die

If you look carefully,
The shadows will fade away
And the phantasms
That force you
To lock your love away
On hidden cloistered shelves -
The ghostly premonitory feelings
That exist only in darkness
And occupy your mind,
Will release their hold,
Their incorporeal selves.
And this is good
Because, if you look
Through their pall,
While suffocating
Under the shroud of fear,
You may (mistakenly!) assume
That the light is too bright
To be real
And even if it is,
Real and alive and whole,
Even if it's bright and strong and near,
You know the brightest flames
Die fastest...
But do they really?
If you think about it?
If that were true,
If that was it,
Do you really think
That this love would exist?
One occurrence
Of tremendous ignition
Set this universe aflame
It set jewels in the sky at night
(In the day-sky too!)
And stars don't die...
Not quickly, nor easily,
Not in a hundred years,
Not in a lifetime
Like yours or mine.

I Know You

Sometimes you scare yourself
And think
That this couldn't possibly be true
It's too big
Something must be amiss
(Even if the truth is,
The only thing wrong
Is thinking that it must be)
But if you sit and think
With your heart open
From within,
You'll feel a surge inside you
As the memories tumble out
And you'll see,
The way I see it,
That no one has ever gone
As deep within you
As I have
Or you have
Within me
So stare those fears
In the face
And remember
No matter what the fears may tell you
I know you
And I love you

Read Between the Numbers

Floor by floor
Year by year
A magic lantern
Plays here

3
You disappeared. I
Don't know where
There are people,
People are everywhere
None are you

7
The stage is empty, the theatre too
You're beside me,
Both of you, protective, loving
But you cannot protect me
From myself, or my mind
Or shadows that creep through you
Without your notice.

15
Act out
You don't fit in
So go break everything
It isn't worth having, is it?
You fool

22
Such joy
It cannot be
Such beauty as this is
Not possible, one would wonder
It is

23
Emptiness found itself
On a barren plain
And looked over its shoulder
To find nothing there
But air
And dead skies
Please stay

35
Death tried
To claim my soul
And steal it all away
But I still have you to live for
My elf

Is it enough to say
I told you so?
I love you.

50
From here
It came to this
From then and forever
Two hearts that have beat in tandem
Years pass

100
Is it this already?
It seems so soon.
Have we reached?
Where?
There was no destination?
Oh.
Well the journey was nice, no...
Together?

A Future And A Present

Sipping quietly
You look out to sea
As the sun dips below the horizon
Clouds pass through your mind and heart
Like a swarm of locusts
I miss you
And the fear
It was so different
So unfamiliar
I'm not scared
Not of you
Not in any way that means anything
I am a cloud lost on your breath
Waiting for you to blow me on
Suck me in
Breathe me deep
Never let go
And there's nowhere
I'd rather go
Than deep inside of you
To the forest hidden
In the folds in your eyes
See that tower
See the walls
See that moat
Obstacles?
They're nothing
Empty verse has slung itself across the stars
In search of meaning
And never found a resting place but here
Vaporous
But golden
Silent
But full
You are whole
Though you don't yet know it
The world has taken it from you
But it was never theirs
They cannot have it
This soul is mine
And I am hers
The ocean rises to meet
Your parted lips
The hint of a smile
A crinkled eye
Lost in time
It's been years
And still it stands
No ice upon this water
No desert either
Full and vibrant and beautiful
Your hair is gray now
Mine too
And I still long to touch it,
Hold it
Breathe it in
I long for you
Like I did before
Dragons perched upon clifftop
Aware of what they are
Who they are
And who they've been
Who they might become
We are whole
And wholesome
You are
Don't stop
Don't hold back
There's life in here
Somewhere
Yours
And so we flow
Like endless currents
Returning ever
To the point where this began
While stars collide and die out
Music stirs
The strings in me
Pulling at the edges of my heart
Wrapping it
Like a little present
To be given freely
To the one I love
You
There's no snow upon the tree
But Christmas came early this year
And never left.

I'm Yours (In different forms)

Haiku
Wind blows by water
Playing, ruffling your hair
My heart is yours now

Cinquain
You are
A song that sings
My heart to higher planes
Then lay me down in peaceful love
I'm yours

Let Me List The Ways (Part II)

I love the way you nuzzle into my neck
Like you'd melt into me
If that were physically possible -
The way you lose yourself
In watching me
Trace the landscape of our hearts
Upon a piece of paper
That is so much more
Than just that.

I love your hands in my hair
As you stare longingly into my eyes
And at my face,
Like you're drinking it in.

I love how it feels like home
Lost in the ocean
In your eyes
And safe in your smile
And there's nowhere I'd rather go
Than deeper into your soul.

I love how pain and fear
And hurt and bitterness
Fall by the wayside
Like silly distractions
(Which they are,
If we're honest) -
How this love endures
And conquers,
Reaching out into the world
Making it dance
To a deeper tune.

I love how we find a sheltered cove
Overlooking a quiet bay
And cannot stare out
To the horizon,
Beautiful though the view is,
So caught up we are
In each other.

I love how the secret places
Where I'd never take anyone
Except one special person,
Seem made for you
And us
And our love.

I love the love-filled messages
You send me
After a night in which
You've set my heart aglow,
And how they'll steal away
My concentration,
So I get lost
In the beauty of your soul,
Your feelings,
Your words.

I love how you'll walk
And brave blisters,
Which always seem to dog us
(Like that horrid Akon song)
To enjoy a romantic stroll
I love how those hurts
Make something melt inside me
So I have to shower you
With kisses and caresses
And the abundant love
That keeps welling up in me.

I love how vulnerable I feel
When you look deep into my soul
And how I feel comfortable
To let myself be that way -
Naked before you.

I love singing to you
And hearing you sing back -
That sweet silky voice
That starts as a hum,
Hidden in your throat
And quietly, softly
Breaks out,
Moving quickly into my heart
And taking its place
Where it belongs.

I love how simple things
Like an innocuous menthol sweet
Or even just breathing
Can become so much more,
An object or an act
Of beauty
That we just seem to create
In the world around us
So that each becomes
An exultation
In you,
In us,
In our existence
As we breathe
You into my soul
And me into yours
And lose ourselves
In that moment
When we're so connected,
We're even breathing the same air.

I love how everything
Takes on a deeper meaning
How words like starlit
Become more than just an adjective
And how only we know
What they really mean.

I love how our conversations
Seep into the world
Changing existence in subtle ways,
Nudging stubborn maybes
Towards something brighter
And bigger
And whole.

I love that every so often,
A new name comes to my lips,
Like a tender kiss
Waiting to alight upon your own,
Because you mean so much,
That no one name is enough
To even come close to
Describing the beauty in you.

I love how you get lost
Even after you decided
To hold me at bay,
How we both find it's not half as easy
As it had seemed,
How this love of ours
Finds a way
To make its presence felt.

I love even the moments
When you hold back,
And how you always come back,
Like you just needed to wind down,
Your heart's been racing so,
And that even in those moments,
Although I can't be with you
And hold you
And kiss you
And melt into your arms,
Your voice says so clearly,
That you love me
Even if you can't act on it right now.

I love how it feels
Like the natural order of things
That I give everything I can to you,
That I need to pamper you and spoil you
And baby you -
Showering you with kisses
And hugs and foot rubs
And more -
Because that is what you are..
My Baby.

I love that even after seeing
The worst of each other,
We can look deep in each others' eyes
And see mirrored,
What each is feeling,
And say in simple words
That mean so much:
I love you.

There's So Much

There's so much beauty between us.
There are so many layers
To every single interaction
And sometimes, for days on end,
I could pick apart things we've done,

And things we have,
And find more underneath.
This feels infinite.

There's so much beauty between us.
There are sparks that fly
In directions
We've never had cause
To think of before -
Making my hair stand
And my skin tingle
And my eyes light up
As my brain overloads with joy.
This feels exquisite.

There's so much beauty between us
There are words,
That trickle through my consciousness
Like a slow
But relentless flood,
Tied to emotion
But not bound to its fate -
Expressions of everything
We'd like to be,
Expressions of everything
We long to have,
Expressions of everything
That we could
And are meant to
Be.
This feels special.

This feels unique.

This feels like love.

Affirmation

Without pause
Without limit
Without boundary
In any form
With every single beat
That makes my heart quiver
With joy to know you
To experience you,
To live in a world where you exist,
With every electric spark
That ignites in my brain
With every breath
That fills these lungs of mine
(And, sometimes, yours as well
And then returns to me)
With every action
On my part
With anything,
Everything
I could do
To build you up,
I will affirm only one thing -
I love you.

If I Could Choose

If I could choose
One thing about you
That I, and I alone,
Could have,
I'd choose your eyes -
Those windows to your soul
That light up when we talk,
That fill my world
When they're aflame.
Oh how I long
To stare into them endlessly!
No...
I'd want your smile -
That cutesy half gurgly giggle
That tells me you're happy,
That I bring you joy,
That the stupid shit I say
And do,
Makes your heart lift.
No...
I'd want your fingers
And the urgency in their tips
As you stroke my arm,
My face, my back,
My entire being,
Or run them through my hair.
No...
I'd choose your voice -
That nuanced song
That's always, without fail,
Sung my heart into a trance -
A bringer of rhapsody,
A whirlwind that lifts me up,
Carries me to stranger parts
And brings me back,
Stronger, braver and whole.
No...
I'd choose your mind -
The force that defines you,
Of which, the rest
Are but artifacts -
That electric consciousness
That plugs right into my own
Sending impulses roaring through my nerves
Tripping circuits everywhere.
No...
I don't think, I can make a choice -
I'd always,
Always,
Choose you.

A Wish

I wish I was perfect.
I wish I could be everything
You ever want or need,
Not just enough
To make you happy,
I wish I could only bring you
Unadulterated bliss
And nothing less.
I wish I could never hurt you
Or have it in me to cause you pain
Because you deserve so much more
Than anything less than
All my love,
All of me,
Everything I could give to you,
Every last bit of my soul.
I know that nothing
Is ever perfect
And I know that expecting it to be
Is unreasonable,
But I hope it counts for something
That I really wish it was.

I'd Follow You

You exhale soft puffs of moist air,
Gravel crunches under soft soles,
As you breathe me in
And I breathe you.
I'd follow you,
Can't you see -
It doesn't matter where
As long as you're with me.
I'd follow you into the void,
Into the cold dark emptiness of space
Just to get you back, you know,
To where it's warm and safe.
I'd follow you into the darkest mood -
The hopelessness and unending gloom
And a light a candle for our love,
Watch its flame build and bloom,
Plant a little garden of candles,
Little love lights -
Orange scents and more.
And then leave it to spread
Out into the world
As it did before.
And I'll keep an eye out
To the distant horizon
Hoping, wishing forever
That we'll find this again,
That we'll lose ourselves
In each other.

The Straits of Stability

Upon this pristine shore
Walks an elven maiden
With long strides but slow -
There is no time in heaven.
And beside her perfect form
Walks her love, a man,
With stride matched for stride,
Just a different span.

As one follows the lines,
The other goes between
And the moon shines 'pon water
That fades before the sheen
Of smiles and radiant glow
That lights their holy night
One of many, come and gone,
Part of futures bright;
Of love burning in earnest,
A rare and true gift
A mark of the thing
That makes heart and soul lift.

A starlit night glistens
And shimmers out in space
As the waters flow between us
Making heart and soul race
Two stars are caught up
In the vortex of love so warm
And the universe expands
In a way unlike its norm.

We walk through cobblestone lanes
And to the sea shore
We walk down starlit avenues
And then, walk some more.
My hand is locked in yours,
The place where it belongs,
Held behind your back
As we walk along.

We kiss
Though we planned not to
We kiss
Because we know we ought to
Hold each other close,
Drinking in each others' smile
Breathing in so deeply,
Staying still awhile.

And the skies
They whirl above us,
As the winds
Blow down to greet us
Lifting our souls up
To a purple-black canopy
As if they needed lifting,
So buoyant are we.

So we go ahead,
And make our way
To a quiet little cove -
A cafe held above the grime
Of a city of old.
We stare out across the bay -
Lovers lost in their view,
Sipping coffee
That's neither too sweet nor bitter,
Just like us two.

Your eyes shine as you look to me,
As way back then, they shone,
And your lips glisten as they part
And press against my own.

Let Me List The Ways

I love your mind,
I love its probing, questioning nature -
The way it picks apart
At all the little details,
And the grammar, and the spellings.
I love our anal arguments
About what's pronounced how
And why, and what it means.

I loved you
From the minute we first talked.
I loved the way your eyes lit up
At the words, 'I don't" -
A response to your probey question,
About reconciling reason and faith -
And the fires that burned in them
As we spent an hour,
That seemed so much less,
Talking, just talking,
Oblivious to the world.

I love your heartfelt messages
And emails and letters,
That you send all of a sudden
And ambush me with,
Kidnapping my heart and soul,
And taking off
For an imagined tryst
In a faraway forested glade.

I love your stumbles
And how you try
To walk only on the cracks
While I try only between them
And we bumble along,
Arms linked,
Lovers lost in their own world.

I love your intrepid fingers,
And how they trace the lines,
The corns on my own,
And how they poke,
In almost tickle-inducing ways,
At my pockets,
When we go exploring
The countryside by bike.

I love how you're contrary,
Sometimes, just to be contrary
And arbitrary, just because
And stubborn, though you rarely are,
And then, suddenly yielding,
Like a southwest-sauced fingertip,
Because you feel like it.

I love how my mind feels
After conversations with you,
Like I've drunk a potion
And everything is clear,
Like wisdom checks don't matter,
So bonused am I.
I love how geeky that sounds,
And how true too
Of what you do to me.

I love that through your fears,
No matter how scared you are,
You turn to me with love.
And when I'm scared,
And the shadows creep long and nimble,
You hold me
And love me to bits
Till the morning comes.

I love the way our eyes meet
Across the table,
Even when we're trying,
As try we must
Or we don't manage,
To be sociable -
So we don't weave ourselves
Into the comfortable cocoon
Of our conversations,
Of our love,
To the exclusion of all else.

I love the stolen moments,
When stuck in a group,
And feeling so un-groupy -
When we'd get away,
If we only could,
But can't
And make do with what we can.

I love your naggy girlfriend mode,
Even back when things were 'unofficial',
And how you force me to sleep
Despite my worst protests.
I love the constant indignation
At my need to refine and refine
And refine some more -
The way you push me to finish my work
And publish it,
Instead of letting it languish -
Unread and unloved by you -
A lost child in limbo.

I love your lips,
When they part,
And your smile shines through,
When they press against my own,
And send me flying across the universe,
Awash upon a sea of you.
I love the way one kiss
Leads to just one more,
And then just one quick one,
And then some -
The way we have to try so hard
Just to pull apart.

I love the way my head swims,
In a way it never has,
When you do more than kiss me.

I love how eight hours,
Or six-and-a-half, or seven,
Can disappear so quickly
In a breeze,
Of shared food and kisses,
And both in combination.

I love how natural
It feels to lose myself in you,
How I feel almost subsumed,
And still myself,
How I feel more like myself
Than I've ever done before,
How the image of the me I want
Becomes more real every day.

I love the exquisite taste
Of you upon my tongue
And the way I drift off
Into a surreal, gooey trance
With your arms wrapped around me
And mine around you -
Our lips and hearts pressed together
Like facing pages
In the most beautiful story ever written.

I love how words,
Even the most beautiful yet,
Are just not equal,
And never could be,
To the beauty of this thing we have.
I love how every time
I think I ought to finish this,
One more line, then one more verse,
Pops into my head,
Full of love and memory.

I love that I spent so many words
And lines, and ways,
Just to say a simple thing:
I love you.

Loyalty

Love is not conformity
Or based upon agreement
Or even mere opinion.
Love is not about
Doing what you're told,
Or what is best for you.
Love is not precluded
By different beliefs or thoughts
Or heated argument.
Love goes beyond that,
To something bigger
And soul-encompassing -
Love is knowing
I love you,
Even when I'm angry,
Even when I hate what you say or do,
Even when I wish you'd just go away,
For just that moment,
When rash feelings cloud out the truth.
Love is loyalty;
Not in the sense
That you or I do
What the other mandates,
But that it exists
Despite not matching up,
In spite of our differences.
It is saying
My loyalty goes deeper
Than mere opinion,
Deeper,
Than what you say or do or think,
It is saying
That you don't have to be in my image
For me to love you.
It is saying
That I will always love you
Despite disparity.
And that
Is what I love most
About this family.

Quenchless

You are the force behind me,
Driving me forward
Into uncharted territory,
Then dragging me back to the map,
A tired but triumphant explorer.
I want you beside me,
As we roam the deep blue yonder,
With wonder in our eyes,
Awe and love in our hearts,
And a yearning in our hands and souls.