The Jazz Singer

If I won’t be remembered for my songs,
I want to be remembered for your words.

Never stop talking my love.
Never stop.

7

Sarah’s Poem

img_0516Your love is like a rose.
With each touch,
your thorns make me
Bleed.

My love, a deep red.
As deep and as the red as the Blood at the Cross, bleeding (and dying) for your sins.

Your love is like a rose.
I give you my light, my sunshine.
You grow before my eyes,
as you wilt in my hands.

I am your reservoir.
You drink.
And drink.
And drink.
And drink, until I run dry.
And still thirsty, you drink more.

Your love is like a rose in winter.
Grey, cold…lifeless.
Naked.
Exposed.
Vulnerable.

I am your gardener.
I see your beauty during the long, cold winter days and nights.
I value your nakedness, your vulnerability.
I am your protector.

Your love is like a rose.
You only know when to love when things are good.
That’s when you bloom, with your petals ruby-red,
as ruby-red as the Blood at the Cross.

Your love is like a rose.
Each day,
you dying
for…
your…
sins.


*This poem is not about a ‘Sarah.’  But the real Sarah, Sarah Haines, who challenged me to write this, my second poem, by giving me the opening line, “Your love is like a rose…” and told me to run with it.  And to her I am, as the cliché goes, I am eternally grateful.

You Won’t Let Me

57ca8d18-4ea7-41cf-9b1f-d8f638c02b14

I turn the page.

You turn it back,
your hands dirty with old ink.
You let go of your future, so you can hold onto the past.
I want to dance, but my legs won’t let me.

Odourless.

The smell of yesterday’s worries.
I worried too, not for me, but for you.
Worried with songs and laughter, not for you, but for me.
I want to sing, but my voice won’t let me.

Tasteless.

I feed you a taste of your tomorrow.
This is your chartered trip to your undiscovered lands.
I watch you cry.
I want to speak, but my mouth won’t let me.

I am your pod.

Consume, replicate and then duplicate me.
You cling to my future, so you can hold onto your past.
I want to breathe, but my lungs won’t let me.

Empty words.

You feed me your empty words.
I take your words and fill them with meaning.
My meaning.
I want to hate you,
but my legs,
my voice,
my mouth,
my lungs,

and my heart

won’t let me

 

Jump

img_1973Standing on the edge of the dark and cold abyss, I heard you yell….

“Jump!”

The Other Day I Wondered

40d16a01-3944-4ec4-8736-e7fcabf663ccThe other day I wondered, who you spent Valentine’s Day with?
Was it a him?
Was it a her?

I wondered the other day, was that look for me, or was that look at me?
Did I mis-judge your smile?
Your stare. That stare, was it in my mind?

The other day I wondered, if you knew, I once stared (and stared),
and stared, at the back of your neck, waiting to ask if you needed a seat.
I lie, I just wanted to know if you needed my seat. Instead, I sat.
And I sat. And I sat, eyes closed, listening, listening, listening.
I listened to your voice.
I watched. I watched as you found another, a seat that is.

Gone.
My first of, what I now know, many chances, gone.

I wondered the other day what it would be like to lay next to you. No I lie, I wondered what it would be like to lay with you, entangled, enveloped; to look in your eyes; to kiss your lips, your neck; to touch your skin;

To…
To…
To…

The other day I wondered,
do you even know,
I exist?

My Never Ending Poem

My ears may never fall upon you again.
And for that, I want to create something that is lasting, perennial.
For you, my words have no beginnings, and no endings.

They are timeless.

If I could, I would leave everything to you.
I gave you a song, I give you my words.
When I am gone, the words written about me, will be all about you, there will be no question.

Some days, I spell out your name, in my mind, over and over,
and over again, making each letter consonant with each vowel sound, open, never closed.
I close my eyes, hoping the letters you give me will never end.

A memory of me laying with you, locked in an embrace,
listening, like a voyeur, to your breath, each exhale becoming my inhale.
I mourn that you are not with me.

I see your picture.
I close my eyes, and frame your voice,
your deep, deep voice.
I close my eyes, never to open them again.
For you, my poem will never end.