
Some loves haunt your soul your whole life long. -gws

Some loves haunt your soul your whole life long. -gws

A strong emotional dance performance sates my soul in the same way that a deep, philosophical conversation does. -gws

I was tasked to write out my feelings regarding someone who was one of the biggest adversarial people in my whole life. The exercise designed to help me relinquish and release my long held rage and resentment. I wrote seven and a half pages. I ran out of words. But I didn't run out of rage. I have carried molten, violent, unfulfilled rage toward this person for at least a decade. This person is dead, and yet I still hold a belly full of rage. Raw, ragged, bitter, acidic rage. It consumes such resources with its existence. I have carried this wicked ember for so long that despite the fact that it no longer serves a purpose, I don't know how to release it or extinguish it. It is a companion I have grown too used to despite despising that it exists at all. I also cannot help but wonder how life will feel without the burn I've become so used to. I feel it sitting like a silent scream, desperate to wrack my body in ragged convulsions of hot tears and roaring sobs. I feel that if I were to relinquish my hold on it, the rage would wring me dry, and maybe consume me outright. It feels like once the bottle is uncorked and the demon released, its force, alone, will use me up in a blinding, all-encompassing, soul-fire blaze. Will I survive it? What will be left of me? What lies beneath it? What will take the place it leaves empty and desolate? Will I be the same when it's done with me? gws

Happy Pride Month! Whether you scream your truth from the rooftops, or live in quiet authenticity, I hope you live as your authentic self, surrounded by love. -gws

Given gifts of joy Being fully seated in the body Experiencing full presence Lingering moments of stillness Rooted in sense memory Reminding me how to be fully whole Fusing me to the earth and heaven In the space between breaths Leaving me in profound and All-encompassing gratitude for being alive -gws

You grabbed me in the airport souvenir shop and took me home You needed me because you were leaving her behind Leaving her to her new life New adventure in a New state Without you The distance was large and though I am small I am a place holder for a love that is larger than time and space You need my fluff to represent her hugs You knew she wasn't really leaving you It was just time for her to start a new chapter in her life You were used to being the one to go adventuring knowing she was Always there to return to She was always home Both a person and a place And now the place was changing And you could no longer just show up on her door when you need her When you are sad or missing her, you have me I am the recipient of her hugs and her love When you need more than her voice on the telephone You imbued me with magic that flows from your love for her And her unconditional love for you I am the quiet but cuddly representation of the love Shared by a mother and daughter Separated by distance But not by heart -gws

Driving down the roads of my past
I see your ghost everywhere
The halls where I met you
The neighborhood where you lived where we first kissed
The theater where we saw that awful movie on our first date
Years have passed
The place we both once called home is nearly unrecognizable now
So much has changed but the memories of you and me are still
Alive in the footprints of buildings and businesses long gone
Bringing a bittersweet smile to my face as I see muted-color memories
Of what we were and what we never became
We live different lives in different worlds
Practically strangers though still linked inextricably and inexplicably
By threads of fate we never were able to understand
But could only accept without question or comment
Permanent tattoos upon each other's hearts
Placed there by a power who knew that we needed each other once
And who seems to know that we need the memories of that connection as they were yesterday
I hope you see my ghost, too
She's waiting with a hug that has only ever been for you
And may our ghosts continue to share what we no longer do
In a time and place that no longer is
Except in faded photographs and our souls
-gws