Delight

Wander down a country road
Flowers in your hair
Dance inside your living room
Without a single care
Wish upon a shooting star
Or say a sacred prayer
Live your life with pure delight
Lay your true self bare

-gws

To Love Me Properly

Photo by Viktoria Slowikowska on Pexels.com

To love me properly

Be vulnerable
Come honest

Practice deep curiosity
Not just about me
About EVERYTHING!

Be emotionally intelligent
Especially about yourself

Dream
Imagine

Never forget how to look at me
Like I'm the North Star

Want me to write books of poetry about
How you and me equals us

Dance with me to the rhythm of our heartbeats

Enjoy staying up into the quiet hours
Discussing obscure and wonderful things

Willingly and gently hold space for me
Be okay with being, and being with quiet company

Give and receive love in spontaneous small gestures

Own your imperfections gracefully
Own your mistakes openly

Love me fiercely and without chains

Hunt for magic in the world
Create magic in its absence

Play for the sake of it

Respect me in thought, word, and deed
Honor me by dancing in the light of all my
Shining diamond facets 
I'll do the same for you

Desire to embrace a prismatic life

Whatever is left undefined here
Treat as an opportunity to dive deeper
Learn more
Know me better
I am bottomless
An endless landscape to explore

Be willing to be broken open
I want to run my mind over every square inch of your soul
Commit to memory the scars life has left on your heart
So that I may know how to navigate your rough waters

I want to listen to the meanderings of your inner child

I want to know you in 360 degrees
And three dimensions

Be brave enough to shine light into your shadows
Unashamed because you understand
How important healing oneself is

Be secure in my transparency

Be like stained glass
Brilliantly and complexly designed 
Beautiful and translucent

Know that love is a lifetime conversation
A dance that never ends
Shifting and changing
Gracefully synchronized

The prerequisites for loving me properly
May sound unachievable
But to the right person
It will sound like a revelation

-gws

No Right Time

There is not right time
No one will give you permission
Reach for the dream
Start learning something new
Say the thing you want to say
Grasp the chance
It's better to try and nurse the bruises of defeat
Than befriend the bitterness of regret for life

-gws

Hinterland

Inspired by comics from Incidental Comics

I looked out from the promontory of life
Across a vast hinterland
The turbid quagmire miles behind me
The frisson of trepidation abated for now
I wish to tracklessly caper in those hinterlands
Beneath a lustrous azure sky
Vesuvian days released to the past
Gossamer hopes eddy about me like a corolla
Hopes of enduring eudaemonia
No longer needing to latibulate in darkness
Before me stands my Elysian dreams
Filled with halcyon days
And tranquil gloamings
I will alight in a new and unblemished existence
A ruderal redeemed
Awaiting rich and fertile soil of a new life
Under the radiant zenith of a new day

-gws

In more common language:

I look out from the overlook of life
Across a vast unknown
The confusing, unstable ground behind me
The sudden fear of trepidation abated for now
I wish to tracklessly revel in those unknown lands
Beneath a shining blue sky
Explosive, volatile days released to the past
Delicate hopes whirl about me like the swirl at the heart of a flower
Hopes of enduring happiness
No longer needing to hide in a corner in darkness
Before me stands my dreams of paradise
Filled with idyllically happy and prosperous days
And tranquil twilights
I will land and settle in a new and unblemished existence
A plant growing amongst the concrete redeemed
Awaiting rich and fertile soil of a new life
Under the radiant height of a new day

-gws

War Paint

I have worn my tear stains like war paint
The flush of agony, despair, and rage, too
I have unleashed keening so potent 
The gods stopped to answer
With a path to deliverance 

-gws

Questions

How did it feel when I was finally arrested?
Did it bring you glee to know I was handcuffed and taken away?
Were you happy your long standing desire was finally fulfilled?
Were you satisfied with yourself?
Did you celebrate?
Did you pat yourself on the back triumphantly?
Did you rejoice knowing I was forced into the company of actual criminals?
Did it make you giddy to know I experienced the humiliation of being strip searched?
Were you finally satisfied to get the mother of your children arrested?
Was it all you hoped for?

Who does that?
Who plots plans premediates such things?
Who bates and berates?
Who starts a fire and fans the flames?
Who then pretends that they didn't create the inferno?
Who has no remorse?
Who shows love like that?
Who did I marry?
How soon can I be free?

-gws

Healing

I have no interest in dating or lovers
I think that part of me might be dead
At least I cannot feel anything where that want should be
It is a dead zone in my chest
A hollow place
A salted field that cannot grow life

I have too much healing to do
So much work to do
I need to learn how to TRUST myself again
How to LOVE myself again
How to BE myself again

Now is the time for quiet
The time to feel complicated feelings
Listen to the whispers of a broken heart
A disillusioned spirit
The time to grieve shattered dreams
Relinquished hopes
And lost futures

When the processing is complete
The healing well advanced
The distrust subsided
We'll see where I am 
What I want
What I need
Who I am

-gws

Tinsel

Among my dark tresses
Magic is sprouting
So many threads of silver tinsel
Adorning my head like glittering filaments 
Filling my hair with starlight

-gws

Unfolding

I used to try to force my day to unfold according to my will.
Now, I try to allow the will of the day to unfold me.

-gws

Scars

You gave me scars deep below my skin
So I keyed this poem into your car
A parting gift 
A reminder of the damage you've caused
Easier to repair than what you did to me

-gws