Simple

I want to lead a simple life:
Of morning runs, and yoga in the sunshine
Simple in laughter, smiles and hugs
Of comfy pjs and home cooked meals
Discovering new places and people
And dancing in the rain

Simple in clutter free rooms
And mellow Sunday mornings

I want to lead a simple life
Of giving back and being open to receive
Of placing my hands in the earth and nurturing it

Just simple, no need for wealth or countless lovers
Just one who will love me honestly and completely

Simple.
Copyright © 2008 RNLH

Contemplation

Contemplation

As I sit upon the porch and watch the bushes wrestle with the wind
I ponder the prospects of my future

In looking up at the stars in the darkest of night skies
I hope and pray for something grander

Into the night I beckon an answer
One that is clear and true
In a moment I will really know
What I am suppose to do

But what if it never comes
Will I be sitting here forever?
As time passes me by
Missing all of life’s splendor
Copyright © 2008 RNLH

Revelation

Revelation

How do I harden my heart,
And remove you from my memories?

You have lived in my head for far too long
As if to challenge me
Jeering at me that you can linger
You will… linger

I search for you in crowds
And my heart skips beats
When my eyes play tricks on me
Another mistaken to be you

I see kids
Whose parents look like you and I
And I wonder about our own combination

I am angered by the sudden revelation
That maybe you are not “the one”
That if you were
You would be…here

I am often stifled by my own desperation
Stuck in the story of what was(nt)

I seek songs that would best illustrate my feelings
So complex, a huge mash up of
Lang, Chapman, Kelis, Van Hunt
Is often enmeshed with anger …and hunger

I am enraged with passion
I am torn between the bliss of denial
And the havoc of reality

It no longer suffices—hope
For if you knew me
If you really knew me
You w/couldn’t stay away…

In A Sentimental Mood

Well, not really but I was listening to Coltrane and Armstrong’s classic piece bearing the same name ( while writing my paper, might I add) and these words came out of me. I just had to stop and write:

An Unexpected Memory

I remember those kisses
Ooh those kisses
I could partake for days on end
My lips bruised by your lips
But I loved it

Your body’s heat made me quiver
Before your skin touched mine
And I melted in your arms

The nights…
When you woke me up just to make love to me
And I would be sleepy the next day
Laughing at the incessant yawns

Meeting you at the local coffee shop
Our love mixed with honey
Playing “footsie” under the table
You shy
At your unwelcomed excitement
I’m giddy
Taking a sip of your coffee although I hate coffee
Pretending I was sipping you
It was warm and creamy
Just like you

Then one day the milk became sour
The taste bitter in my mouth
Reality caught up
Lies were spilled across the table
And all that was left for me to taste were my own tears

For months on end my belly was filled with emptiness
Sweetness lost its taste and my heart turned cold

Then another entered my life and tried to woo me
We dined and danced
He smiled
I was polite
And when we kissed
I immediately thought of you…

Free Will

She placed her hands upon her lips
As if to hold back the real sentiments

Her eyes, her Judas
Gave away all that she feared
She loved him and she was vulnerable

He, afraid in his own right
Torn between man and boy
Simply stared, waiting
For some utterance of desire

Both perplexed by raw emotion
Created a shift
That dispelled the purity of their love

Fear grabbed a hold of them
And so they cowered into their corners
She in her books and sad love songs
He into the arms of another

The ease of compromise
Quickly embraced

A mold previously set
Copyright © 2008 RNLH

Encore

Within me lies a poem
That explains the lack of laughter within your heart

Within me lives a story
That will suffice your deepest desire

Please read me

I dare not speak the evidence of your life
I fear the confusion it may cause
And so the pause button soothes
Your restless soul

You stutter
Your mouth houses the spirit within

I dare not tickle your side
The laughter that may escape
Will be followed by guilt and remorse

With regret I watch you die a gloomy death
While your body
Reads from a script
That you do not connect with

In the audience I sit 
Watching the authentic libretto
Within your reach
Hidden under cloaks of your past

Maybe I have been the one
Who fears the inevitable
The truth that reality brings
The spectator who wishes to change the ending
With the curtains already drawn…
Copyright © 2008 RNLH

Strings Attached

Inspired by Susheela Raman’s “Voodoo Chile” at two in the morning:

Strings Attached

Strum me

Pluck me until it hurts

Create a forceful melody with your fingers

Find the right key that suits us
And play it all night
Flesh against wood
Sweat dripping
Separation between man and instrument
Will be unrecognizable

Art will be continued

Discover me in crescendos
Let me be at your mercy
Play me until it hurts

The rhythm will become the true master
The music will continue without tire
It will engulf us
It will consume us

Numb to all other senses
The need for the perfect composition
Will feed our drive

Delight will be found
In between
Each clef
Each bass
And each half-note

In each stroke
The rhythm will be rediscovered
And the song will continue on…
Copyright 2007 © RNLH

Eruption

 

Eruption: resistance is futile
Control not welcomed
Truth lingers

In the light
Pain is masked by smiles and laughter

In the dark
The nakedness of desire erupts without excuse
The want will be apparent
The need is forever questioned

The gapping hole
Oh, the gapping hole
Insistent it is to always pull you in
With a song, a melody

A range of emotion emerges
Without consideration
For its captive
But a smile is never questioned in the light
Copyright © 2007 RNLH

Verano

Maybe it will be different the way we will remember
The summer
The way in which the wind competed with the heat and lost
Remembrance of time lost with things unsaid

Maybe it will be different the way we will remember
The way the mug of chai touched your lips in between words
The taste exchanged with expressions of pain
Creamy spiced pain

Maybe it will be different the way we will remember
The way laughter escaped me in between bites of double chocolate cake

Maybe it will be different the way we will remember
Our shadows closer than our own passive bodies

Maybe it will be different the way I will remember
Five months from now, awaiting another summer
Memories separated from emotions
Thankful for that brief but unforgettable exchange

Copyright © 2007 RNLH

Come to Me In the Silence of the Night

This is what I get for listening to Kind of Blue at 12:30 in the morning:

 

Come to me in the silence of the night
With complexities so deep
It will take forever to unravel you

Come to me in the stillness of dawn
Wake me up with your fingertips
Greet me with the morning
Pray that hundreds more will be like this

Stay with me throughout the day
We will explore life in words
Dissecting Elegies 1-10
I will brush that tear from your eye
You will try to conceal

Welcome another night with me
We will sip liquid cardamom
While exploring Duino 10-1
You will brush that tear from my cheek
I will try to conceal

Lay with me in eternity
The need to discover you will be no more
For you will have greeted me with mornings
Sipped liquid cardamom
And WE would have cried together…
Copyright © 2007 RNLH