Seeking Release

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Each time the house shook I knew
A storm was brewing
With unbridled rage
Knew that pools of acrid magma
Were rising to the surface
Seeking release

Each time the house shook I knew
That nowhere was safe
There was not enough time to escape
The maelstrom was coming
Wrathful and vicious
Seeking release

Each time the house shook I knew
I would stand against the gale
Diving deep into my power
Drawing on an ancient strength
Of ancestor, element, and divinity
Seeking release

-gws

A Love Poem

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Your love has me floating
Like a helium balloon
Tethered to the ground
By a heartstring

Your love caresses my senses
Like the sharp, clean freshness of pine
Endlessly stretching heavenward toward the azure sky
Crowned in misty clouds and enduring

Your love has me believing in forever
Like the love found in bedtime stories and fairy tales
Two hearts forged into an infinity loop
As twin souls merged will do

-gws

An Education I Have Failed to Get

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I often wonder if I'm missing something
I keep seeming to make the same mistake
Unable to avoid the pothole I know is there
To avoid the nail that snags my sweaters
Every time I walk past
Always forgetting the indulgence that makes me ill
Perhaps these continuous tragedies are the result of
An education I have failed to get
Or failed to learn from
The ripping and tearing
The tripping and falling
The banging and bruising
All from things I know will cause me harm
Things I should know to avoid
And yet I cannot seem to hold the lessons
I cannot seem to employ the learning
And I wonder what is wrong with me

-gws

Bad Habit

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You are a bad habit
Like nail biting or tobacco
Like loving the villain more than the hero
Like being addicted to pain

No matter how many times 
I reshelve your story in the bookshop of my life
The familiar weight of it always ends up
Going home with me in my bag
Even though I know how the story ends

No matter how often I quit
No matter how much will power I employ
It's never enough to break the habit of you
And like the power inherent to so many bad habits
You may well be my undoing

-gws



Judging a Book By Its Cover

A Book of Images by W.T. Horton & W. B. Yeats
Published 1898

What wonderment do you contain
Are you an account of actualities
Or a tome of terrors
A book of observations
Or imaginings
Your title so simple
Your cover art surreal
With its hand drawn landscape 
Or is it a dreamscape
Did you inspire
Did you create controversy
Did you find a home on many Victorian library shelves
Or did you gather dust in obscure bookshops
Unnoticed and unread
Your goldenrod cover calling to patrons like a beacon

-gws


A Mother’s List

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Wake them
Dress them
Feed them
Then it's off to school
Pick them up
And bring them home
Provide a snack or two
Help them with their homework
Hold them when they're sad
Help them learn to regulate
Themselves when they are mad
Attempt to feed them dinner
Then it's time for bed
Pick out a book or two
From favorites we have read
Bandage up their owies
Make sure they brushed their teeth
Check beneath their beds to prove
There's nothing underneath
One last kiss for comfort
And then to tuck them in
Then off to sleep for mommy
To begin it all again

-gws