Copyright 2021 Journey by Fire All Rights Reserved.

Monday, April 5, 2021

Day 6 - Carwash

The act of sitting

Enclosed in a protective bubble

Light blotted out

By alternating pastel clouds and pulsing liquid cascades

While the filth of the world 

Dissolves under the simple weight of water

While stormy sounds surround

As I lean back calm and confident

- Having relinquished all control -

That no droplet will penetrate my glass and steel fortress

Leaving me to bask in momentary mysticism

Satisfied in temporary solitude

A weary soul's respite from war torn reality

A childish delight at the intersection of science and magic

A grateful reimagining 


Maybe this is what the womb was like



Sunday, April 4, 2021

Day 5 - Family Recipe

I sharpened my love

Before slicing it thin

Again and again

I rinsed it 

And chopped it 

And seasoned it down

I hummed life into my love

Or vice versa

As I massaged

And marinated

Stirred, sauteed, shaken and simmered

I baked my love at 350 degrees 

For as long as it took 

To make you taste it

Before it ever crossed your lips

And to savor the flavors 

That linger on your tongue

Belly full

Spirit satisfied 



Saturday, April 3, 2021

Day 4 - Plus One

7 years

7 weddings

Countless questions


Friends and family

Assume 

We're next


As though 2

Is somehow greater

Than plus one



Friday, April 2, 2021

Day 3 - 143

They say we are 

Multi-lingual

Descendants of Babel

Constant chatter

But no comprehension

Failure to communicate 

The norm

As touch 

Misses time

And gifts

Dismiss service and words

As incomprehensible

Talkers, but not linguists

Translation a lost art 


Gods and Earths 

Place faith in

Mathematics

Decoded and re-ciphered


Bridges we built 

Through stories 

And sickness

Struggle

And survival 

Shared moments and memories

Actions that screamed 

I got you

While we whispered uncertainties 

And questioned intent 

Outcomes untold


But the numbers never lied

Ask 1000 times

143 

4ever the reply

Thursday, April 1, 2021

Day 2 - Covenant

I walked outside

Stunned at pre-dusk sky stained by setting sun

Straining to break free from endless cloud cover

Vibrant muted colors seeping through where only shades of gray

Had been at play all day


And something - some je ne sais quoi 

Urged

Look again


Lingering in the spring evening landscape

I felt before I saw the mystical magic

Which had somehow forced its way through

Thick fluffy formations streaking horizon 

Shades of secondary seduction


In that promissory moment

Of light layered over darkening wetness

Fueled by fantasy and near forgotten fact

Certainty surfaced


There's a rainbow coming

Can't you feel it?!

Day 1 - Some Days I Miss You More

Every day

Since you left

The ache echoes

It ricochets off heart walls and oozes into bloodstreams

I can still playback the warm hum of your voice in my ear

And the smell of your space is eternally etched in my sensory database

But sometimes some days I miss you even more


Days like

The first of April 

When the Poets come out to play

And every year I'd look over and say

One day I'ma be like you

Commit and see it through

And while I stay busy debating and procrastinating

You'd sit there on your tufted throne

Overlooking your hard-earned kingdom

And produce

You spun word webs and made magic

Every day in April


Some days, like this one, I miss you so much more


You remember back on myspace

When writing was our secret decoder language

Messages only we could know

Hidden in plain sight

A poetic pact to push boundaries 

Explore possibilities

Flirt with the unfamiliar

And make it learn our names

You remember all the kinship

We shared through rambling reflections 

Vicious revisions

And painstakingly precise word selection

I remember scorched emotions over proofreads and edits

And bitter resentment over drafts too fragile to share

I remember unbound elation at the synergy of

Constructive collaboration

That feeling of being seen, found, felt

Fueled by the recognition that soul-level connections

Don't happen every day to everybody


On days like today

I remember us

And I miss you so much more


Friday, November 30, 2018

Insides Out

One day
My insides slipped outside my body
Right into my hand
Shocked and confused I stared

Reflexively
I prodded pinched and poked
Jiggled them like jello mold 
Trying to understand what I was seeing

At last 
I called out to you
Bear witness I begged
My insides right here in my hand

All the questions
Spinning 
Why and what in the world 
and how and what now

You balked
Then turned and walked away
Cause other people's insides
Ain't to be shared



(C) 2018

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Sunrise Sustenance

Woke up sniffing lines for breakfast
Punctuation peppered
Sipping sugared simile
Heady high notes
Words bleed through nasal membranes
Straight to bloodstream
No chaser

(c) Journey by Fire 2015

Reflections

Balanced on slippery porcelain ledge
She takes in the image

Almond eyes like her mama
and mama's mama before
Each scar a separate saga
She inventories her life
in a single glance

Reluctant to confront
the judgement of decades
Reluctant to confront
truth in the looking glass

(c) Journey by Fire 2013

Cosmic Cycles

cosmic cycles
unbroken
human fallibility
replayed
like deeply scratched vinyl
or a dj's favorite sample

looped from one generation
to the next
between the years
a lost respect
3rd age turned youth
harsh lessons learned forgotten
and re-learned

cosmic cycles
circle back again
ageless wisdom
falls prey to primacy of the now

universal outlet
in bruised fruit
flowers of pain
deathly waters
borderline of beauty
frontier between breath and beyond

cosmic cycles
unbroken
fuel a distant forever

(c) Journey by Fire 2013

I am...**

I am
   unchained optimistic
I wonder
   which questions fit the answers given
I hear
   merfolks beckon with sweet siren song
I see
   footprints of possibility
I want
   promise upheld

I am
   unchained optimistic
I pretend
   their thoughts matter more than my own
I feel
   blessed and strive to bless others
I touch
   divinity like water in cupped fingers
I worry
   that my worries will insult Creation
I cry
   unbidden fear for our children and theirs

I am
   unchained optimistic
I understand
   nothing but seek overstanding
I say
   words have power beyond comprehension
I dream
   technicolor utopia
I try
   living wisdom to make my mothers proud
I hope
   for justice, connection, beauty, legacy

I am
   unchained optimistic


**in response to DC Poetry Project - Half-and-Half writer's workshop prompt**

(c) Journey by Fire 2013



Thursday, April 3, 2014

Prompt #2 - Inspiration: "Street Music" 

Inorganic orchestrations
muffled by 8 panes of glass
and 
incessant distractions of 
gear-shifting, radio tuning, texting-while-not-driving and whirring white noise of one's ever churning mind

And yet in infrequent moments of inattention
all falls still 
allowing aural imagery
to penetrate metallic chrysallis

Uninvited, street music 
insinuates itself first in primal basslines
oozing up through rusting floorboards and worn rubber mats
rhythms pounding heels fallen arches and big toes
horns blare in midday reveille
breaking voices of graceless children longingly stretch past their years 
with too-loud curses, like a toddler clunking along in mama's high heels

In personal silence
worlds pass 
heads nod 
as the beat goes on