The Meaning Of Us A little girl asked me the other day, “What is the meaning of life?” I found myself tongue-tied from the depth of her question And the vast range of explanations I feared that conveying the wrong message Could make her fragile belief system crumble Or steer her on a road to nowhere So I dug deep I shoveled through the thick of my mind And found nothing So I tried again And dug a little deeper Through all the useless data But the answer still wasn’t there I tried a third time This time I looked in my heart It was there that I found something Something that emitted a golden light And filled me with a warmth I couldn’t help but trust I told her the answer in a single word “Love” What better purpose could there possibly be Than to love and be loved To let it wrap you like a blanket Or take a running leap of faith That feeling that can’t be measured Or summed up in any words And holds your trembling hand When life becomes too much to bear It can be the reason you live to see another day And forfeit all the rest It can move at the speed of lightning And defeat a world of armies It nourishes our souls And asks of nothing in return Because it’s so much bigger than us And far beyond our mind’s capacity to understand This is how I choose to see our existence And this is how I choose to see the meaning behind it With the only emotion that never expires “Love”
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Prerequisites to Standing Tall Darling, you're not broken You're healing You're learning to weather the storms And soon the thunder won't even faze you You're not small You're growing You're blossoming into a radiant sunflower But wilting is a prerequisite to standing tall You're not your past You are who you are right now Who you were before is dead and buried And it's never too late to be your best self You’re not drowning You’re ebbing and flowing The tides are there to keep you humble Throughout all life’s fluctuating rhythms You're not lost You've been there the whole time Your face just got covered in dust Wipe it away and look again You're not unloved You just forgot to love yourself Do so with the wholeness you would for another And the rest of them will follow
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Interpretations Of The Universe I searched for meaning in galaxies And came back empty-handed The universe is however we interpret it Like signs that are either coincidence or fate But I haven’t discovered where I fit amongst it And am left to aimlessly wander without a compass I wonder if love is the reason we exist If our souls are as old as Cleopatra Or if we truly are just aging bodies Waiting to fade into death Like the ending of a movie What a tragedy it would be to only exist To never collect stories that document our evolution or love like our great grandparents I want to hear the thunder even if a storm is coming I want to feel the wind tickle the hairs on the back of my neck If life is just another grand illusion Perhaps love will sweeten the bitter pill I don’t mind staring up at blank ceilings and wondering If it means this beating heart of mine is real I choose to believe that even once I perish This part of me will subsist This part of me that knows it can never be hollow For there is far too much love in this world to go around Can’t you feel it?
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A Piece of the Puzzle Some call it universe Or cosmos Others call it God’s handiwork What if we’re talking about the same thing? In religion, spirituality and science And everything in between What if only our language is different But the core of what we preach Stems from a similar hope That we are puzzle pieces fitting Into something bigger than ourselves What if the separateness is an illusion And together we form one masterpiece Why fight each other When deep down We all want the same thing To be loved We all just want to feel Like a part of the puzzle But instead we shove pieces to the floor To craft a narrow image That is far from who we truly are How do you want your piece to be remembered? And how will you mend The whole that you’re a part of?
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Depths Of An Old Soul You’re misunderstood by the human ensemble And yet so in-tune with the hymns of every passerby You inhale emotion, eat it raw regardless of the pungent aftertaste You speak in metaphors and see in throbbing technicolor Where everyone else sees in black and white You’re surreally aware that the trees are like wise ancestors Connecting an invisible thread to every living thing You’ve witnessed it in your dreams A place your body and soul separate like oil and water You’re the ghost inhabiting a vessel you don’t remember selecting And it’s here that you’ll learn heart-wrenching lessons that thaw your insides Mistakes teach you in shaky rhythms And you feel them like an earthquake in your bones To you, beauty exists in everything that’s overlooked by man And love never ages the way man does You believe in destiny even when you’re scolded for it And despite your stab wounds you keep fighting to heal others Every sunrise is a whisper of opportunity Which is why you think all humans are capable of greatness So much so that you won’t ever stop trying to add color to a grayscale world
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Wasted Youth What is it that youth can teach us? We’re constantly shoving lessons down their throats But what if they’re the ones who have it right? The way they find magic in all the things we’ve grown immune to Like the thousands of ants that swarm our juice spill Or the pocket-sized houses that shrivel beneath our airplane They see everything through eyes of wonder Without filters on their mouths Or restrictions on their minds The world is brand new The asphalt streets are unexplored Their first snowfall is likely not forgotten Or the way that magician pulled the rabbit out of his hat Our souls once were exhilarated by the routines of life Until the day we became numb to its splendors We stopped seeing miracles and started seeing mediocrity We lost touch with the very core of ourselves What ever happened to the brave little kid in us The us that saw enchantment in every sunlit forest The us that found adventure in every opportunity The us that believed we could become anything we desired We were so much more than just fantasy buffs Or lovers of bedtime stories We were the architects of our wildest dreams The ones whose hope never dwindled
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Bundle Of Love People aren’t born evil Just as people aren’t born with animosity or fear From birth we are perfect little bundles of love Waiting to be molded by the perceptions of others We absorb every gleaming smile, every furrowed brow And we mimic the expressions of the world Until we can speak the language ourselves We quickly learn the infiniteness of a mother’s love And the hot sting on our cheek from the punishing hand We witness the seasons of love from first spark to last fizzle And then sometimes discover it was all just a wicked game We may not have the best hand But we can still play the cards we hold well We can paint our own truths, narrate our own stories We can choose not to become like the things that threaten us We can choose to open our hearts To sprinkle kindness where it doesn’t grow And if we can’t Then perhaps those who’ve known compassion Can blaze the trail Perhaps those who have had it given Can give it back in return To help the lost souls find a way back Back to how they entered this world A perfect bundle of love
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Insomniac Counting sheep As sand tunnels down the neck of time Shadows dance in the night The mind plays tricks I hear my childhood on a spinning vinyl I see my older self and all her uncertainty I'm not okay Pondering the stars And where I fit among them Sinking into the dark space of the crescent moon Asking it if I did it well Reopening sacks that had been double knotted shut Wary of the purge that's past it's due date Ocean eyes emerge right on time I'm not okay Pangs of sorrow And bitter aftertastes Linger on my palette Echoes of the past are deafening And dormant dreams taunt me like a child What once was my refuge Is now my hazard I'm not okay As I finally surrender I fall beneath gravity And descend into the void That renders me helpless And screaming silently Unable to rouse myself awake Cold sweats, heart attacks Is any of this even real? So I continue counting The myriad of sheep Then a voice from my unconscious Speaks to me so softly I almost talk over it “I'm not okay, but that's okay”
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I Am You want to know who I am I am an unsolvable equation A labyrinth of enigmas A museum of penetrating history I am a paradox capable of thirsting for affection Yet abruptly shoving away that same velvet touch I am a prolonged work in progress A disaster in disguise yet a beacon of hope I am an aging soul starting over as a newborn again An anonymous being packaged with the label of someone else’s choosing Humanity insisted I attempt to fit the mold And I honestly tried but it wasn’t my size I am a charcoal sheep enraged by herding A misfit toy returned to the shop I will always be the student, zigzagging and plateauing Crashing and burning, but learning and growing I am courageous like the lioness But sometimes I confuse myself for the wolf, howling at an unattainable moon When I love I give myself fully And I don’t ask for any pieces back When I see someone hurting I feel it like shattered glass And I can’t tell whose wound is whose I try to find meaning in life’s no vacancy signs And then try to make a home in the ones that have space I once was convinced I held within me a deepening void But the void was illusory and so was the fear When I’m not frozen inside a nightmare my dreams become lucid I’ll be sliding down the rings of Saturn or cartwheeling on water I am constantly humbled by the world we inhabit It’s unshakable grandeur is far too much for me to grasp I have an insatiable craving for bold adventures But I found the best ones without even trying Sometimes I feel like I’m in a simulation But then I realized that’s probably not the half of it I used to break all the rules but I forgave myself instantly It’s not worth carrying around a load that heavy anyway I used to think that I was lost and desperately needed to be found Then I realized I was there the whole time, hidden beneath layers of expectation
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Remember Me Seduce me like a drop of golden sun Swirls of tangerine and coral horizon Choose me like your lucky number Time and time again without hesitation Caress me like the lacy froth Of the tireless waves along the shore Read me like a heart-throbbing sonnet One whose verses intertwine with yours See me like an invasion of long-stemmed roses A summer’s daydream in the heart of winter Dance with me like the diming flames of candlelight With sweet melodies humming in our heads Run away with me like two reckless teenagers And pinky swear you’ll love me til’ the end of time Understand me like a map of destiny Of snaking roads and one astonishing reality Desire me like the forbidden fruit or femme fatale With intoxicating auras you can’t resist Remind me what it felt like in the age of innocence To be free from duty and fearless of risk Love me like the obsidian sky loves the stars With an infinite explosion of freckled light Remember me like the happy ending of a movie The long-awaited kiss at midnight
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The Dark That’s In Us
A beam of light awakens the darkness
After years of hibernation
It was never known and so it always lingered
Waiting for its great escape
It seeped through the cracks of unlatched doors
From past wounds that remained unhealed
Fear manifests, consumes, repeats
Forcing lessons to be known by heart
Or else
Demons surface, fighting for a burning reaction
For echoed screams, shattered glass, broken bonds
For a tsunami of salty tears and defeat
This is how they claim their victory
But if we swallow the fear
And face the demons in our shadow
We confiscate their power
In a moment of bravery we see our own reflection
We see the darkness we once kept buried, is a part of us
One that is not a burden but a blessing
For without our darkness we may never know our light
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She Believed In Storms She believed in storms And so came the raindrops Like rapids falling to the earth Beckoning spirals of wind and electric skies She believed in beauty And so she found comfort amongst the shade Of a welcoming weeping willow Eavesdropping on songs of red-breasted robins She believed in demons And so she remained captive to tiny slivers of light Promising to keep her safe from any nightmarish terrors So long as she stayed tightly tucked beneath her quilt She believed in soulmates And so she tried to recreate a storybook romance Ones that had her falling in and out of a hopeless kind of love But always left her grateful to have loved at all She believed in betrayal And so came the tunnel throat screams The hasty packing of tired suitcases That forced her to let go of what was She believed in magic And so she observed strange coincidences everywhere she went Undeniable signs emerged so that she’d continue On a winding path full of endless possibilities She believed in karma And so her crimes came right back around Just as truths of her past resurfaced Like excavated skeletons She believed in the limitless power of the human mind And so came her steadfast determination A force that can create something out of nothing One that can find beauty in the most savage of storms
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