Christmas Gift

I wanted to paint you a horse.
But that's as far as I got.
A mangled debauchery makes not a good gift.
So I'll leave it as just a good thought.

I thought I might make you a song.
But my fingers can't figure a tune.
A dismembered melody hard on your ears is not one that you'd have me to croon.

So I sat with my pencil and paper in hand- a poorly sketched figure of horse, and just then- I thought up this poem to salvage the night.

I look at my clock. It's morning alright.

My heart has grown heavy. I've wasted my time- with only to show this ridiculous rhyme.
No beautiful pony. No soft serenade.
What good has it done, all the plans that I've made?

I wanted to paint you a pony.
That's as far as I got.
I'm ill-equipped at the moment you see.
But there's some gift just in the thought.

Leave it to Sesame Street to find the right words

Well, I'd like to visit the moon
On a rocket ship high in the air
Yes, I'd like to visit the moon
But I don't think I'd like to live there
Though I'd like to look down at the earth from above
I would miss all the places and people I love
So although I might like it for one afternoon
I don't want to live on the moon

I'd like to travel under the sea
I could meet all the fish everywhere
Yes, I'd travel under the sea
But I don't think I'd like to live there
I might stay for a day there if I had my wish
But there's not much to do when your friends are all fish
And an oyster and clam aren't real family
So I don't want to live in the sea


I'd like to visit the jungle, hear the lions roar
Go back in time and meet a dinosaur
There's so many strange places I'd like to be
But none of them permanently

So if I should visit the moon
Well, I'll dance on a moonbeam and then
I will make a wish on a star
And I'll wish I was home once again
Though I'd like to look down at the earth from above
I would miss all the places and people I love
So although I may go I'll be coming home soon
'Cause I don't want to live on the moon
No, I don't want to live on the moon

I thought I had a poem to post here- one I had written long ago- but it wasn't very good. I've wanted to write more. I've wanted something to say for a long time, but I just don't have anything. I have no more stories I care to tell, no more poems or songs I care to share with the world. There is nothing I hold today that I care to offer this world for one more day. I don't care to see the sun rise in the morning anymore than I care to see it set. I don't want to take a picture of it. I've seen the sun set a thousand times. It does not interest me. I've seen a thousand days just like today, all its beauty and pain. The cold of the winter is nothing new, and the spring will be the same as it has been for thousands of years before I ever witnessed it. The summer will be hot. The mountains will be fun. Water will be refreshing again, even though it's brutally cold now. Nothing will change. Nothing ever has. I see no point in the display. I see no point in the pursuit. All I see is a tired little rock in space, spinning as it has for an untold number of rotations. And it will go on doing so. Is there no greatness anymore to be desired? This blog has run it's course. It has moved beyond it's original intentions, and morphed into something vulgar.

We all have our vises; those things we can't go without in our lives, even though it's obvious to everyone we'd be better off without them. Some times it's a person, or a relationship. Sometimes it's a substance, like a food or alcohol. For me it's misery. Depression inspires me. Sadness moves me. Pain motivates me. Success is boring. Comfort is boring. It's an illusion.

The Angel in My Mind

I looked, and I found an angel in my life.
She spoke with a sound that calmed my aching mind.
And Oh, how she stole my heart, and cut my burdens loose.
She sewed up the bleeding shards of what was left by you.

I know she is real, the angel in my mind.

I looked, and I found an angel for my wife.
She walked down the isle- a wedding gown all white.
And Oh, how it broke my heart, to see her standing there.
For I did not play the part. My finger remains bare.

I know she is real, the angel in my mind.
I know she is real, the angel in my mind.

Life rarely takes the turns we expect, and seldom the ones we deserve, but in each moment passing exists all possibilities. I've said goodbye to everything I've ever loved the past, many of which I've yet to see again. I know the inevitability of all that I love now being lost to me as well. I've seen faces lost to me from the moment I could first recall them. Nothing is constant. We take for granted the people in our lives, the loves we have known. We take our moments as if we have earned them, as if we have valid claim, but nothing is ours. Nothing is mine, and I shall watch it pass. I do not take for granted the moments that I have, but do the moments I have lost, and those yet to be. These are all I lay claim to; abandoned by time, forgotten by memory, and faded by age. I would cling to an image in my mind sooner that one displayed before me. The image before me will always change. It will never be mine. You will never be mine. I will never be yours. My body, my mind will always decay. They will always be failing, always inadequate, always dying. But I will go on in the trees, and in the fishes. I will be the breeze that chills young lovers of days not yet. I will be the burden of storm upon the earth, and the calm of night. I will be in the wars of future men, and in the disease of pestilence. I will be in the dew, and in the prism cast by the morning sun. All these things are my destiny, my future. I will die, and in that death I will be as eternal as the earth, for I will be a part of her; and all the forces of man could not wipe me from her face. Some will say move. Some will say thrive. Some say live. They do not know the meaning. You may live how you desire, but I will live as the stars, burning for eternity and breading new life when I pass; by this a star will never die. It does not turn to ash or decay like a man. It does not fear the war, or threat of any other being. It knows no disease or illness. It only knows its course; it only desires its purpose, to burn.

Life in Standing

So many people. . . I remember most of their names still- the ones left behind. I remember the first person I new as a friend- the only person I can ever remember from my early childhood that I called my friend. I don't remember his name. I don't really even remember him, just a single memory of shouting out across the grocery store to him as I was being lead away by my oldest brother.

I remember one of my first play dates. I was too young to talk, and was barely getting around on my own two legs. I remember we played with legos- or probably mega blocks. Her name escapes me, but I remember her blonde curls and blue eyes. I don't recall ever seeing her again.

My brothers became my playmates. My friends became the trees. My best friend became the sky, because it never changed. No matter where I moved to or how many people were left to the past there would always be a friendly tree, and there would always be the sky.

Everything became simpler that way. People weren't there to be cared about they were curiousities to be observed. They began to fall into categories. Based on their looks, or based on their natures, everyone I met became classified and categorized. Certain looks began to correspond with certain attitudes, certain qualities one might have began to become apparent to me upon site. I could tell things about a person that they themselves could hardly realize, I could tell the ones worth meeting, and the ones better to stay away from. I was never wrong.

I never cared for anyone of certain types. They never warranted it. That one was always going to disappoint, and this one was always going to quit, while so many just don't have a clue about anything- they are hardly worth considering. I began to wonder if I would ever name another human my friend. But as life grew older and circles became more specific people became more interesting, and new qualities began to manifest; qualities that became respectable, or sympathetic. The humans had more depth- I had more depth. Soon I began to name friends along my way through life. No longer were they chosen by circumstance. Instead, they were now chosen by qualities admired. I chose the people I liked, and discarded the rest.

I chose to surround myself with surface qualities like courage, beauty, intelligence, and quirks. These I believed I could either absorb or dominate them. They gave me a place and identity, but none of it was mine. I couldn't absorb the courage of another just by standing beside them as they rebelled. The beauty and intelligence of others simply made me feel dull and plain. And the quirkiness of others merely accented my own social failings, drawing them not into an endearing light but into awkward and painful revelation. I'm withdrawn.

It would be a decade before I try to have friends again. In all that time I would draw near to only a few. Amanda was a charm I carried in my heart for some time. I never knew her well enough to call her friend, but well enough to love her. But love is a choice. I saw something in her that I wanted in my life, something I lacked. It helped me through some of my darkest times knowing that there was something out there that was worth the fighting, worth living for- even if I'd never see it again in any one.

Six years later I called some one my friend. That was wishful thinking. A year later I called some one else my love. That too would pass. Two years later I had more friends that I ever imagined I would. They've all but evaporated since then. Friends based on common circumstances are bound to fade as one's circumstances change. I have no illusions or ill feelings about that. I just wish that in my journey towards expression I could find some consistency to keep me grounded. But then again, if my ideas about friendship where never tested I would never have had some of my most precious moments in life, nor would I have had my most painful.