poetry

Responsibility of Life

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Use more than imagination
You have a body
To put life in action
Demonstrate your words
Through creating ever lasting
Moments of inspiration
Bring the change we’ve all been asking for
Wishing for
Prove that you can rise up off this sullen floor
Life’s too short to live it like a bore
Become the hero of your heart and more
People will follow once they see that you’ve sworn
To grow and encourage others
Moving forward, but without the scorn

As if you were born to be a conduit of Love
Remember there is no defined purpose
Only choices that resurface
In the ever continuing moments of time and space
Enter your mind and look to replace
A moment of regret with a moment of choice
A life of fret is an injustice to those without a voice
Taken by death, unable to read these words
Forever gone to the existing world
But not in our hearts

For we sing for those who lived

Those who died
We remember because WE ARE ALIVE
So don’t just cry
Match those tears with laughter beside
Let gratitude overwhelm you
For the ground below a stunning sky
Appreciate our lows along with the ecstatic highs
Take this moment to recognize
The responsibility of being alive
Is to appreciate the world
While it’s your turn to wake and rise

—
For EDM lovers, I wrote part of this song while listening to Galantis – Runaway (U & I)
Photographer: Jake Hills

Calmness in the Air

Calm is key
Relax good friend
You are here with me
Momentarily aware of air to breathe
Dependent on the external
While always in need
Desire inescapable
When urges repeat
You have the strength
To not give heed
To past impulses
Addictions of greed
Escape in consumption
Is not truly free
All it takes is for you to believe
That your soul is calm
So long as you breathe

—

Photographer: Joshua Earle

 

Move Forward – End the Delay

Writing as if I found salvation
When in reality I’m merely just venting frustration
Of the fact that I see what needs to be done
But yet I’m still waiting
For that other day
As if life will just come my way
All the while feeling my health
Deteriorate against the truth
That you can’t procrastinate your youth
The most powerful thing in the world
Is your ability to grow
When once curled in a ball
Like a baby — oh so small
Now an “adult”
At fault for the events leading up to this
All the while this writing bears witness
To the tragic juxtaposition
Of time only spent wishing
Thinking tomorrow was meant to handle today’s mistakes
As If I could borrow my future
To be selfish for some days
Purposely blind with delays
On paying off the debt
That my past still needs to pay
With a growing regret
That I can’t seem to shake
Unable to take off the mask that continues to fake
A sense of understanding with sanity
Wondering the line between art and insanity
Frustrated by all this useless vanity
Lucky to have friends who still stand with me
Growing in their own direction
Acquiring strength surely and slowly
Inspiring me not to just give up on myself
Keeping me from stowing my dreams on the shelf

—

Photographer: Dustpuppy72

Ticket?

Ferris

Overflowing with lies
Excuses building walls to hide behind insincere intentions
On the wrong side of life’s fences
Too busy dreaming of grass on the other side
Without even attempting to water
The green in front of eyes aged with years of growth

There’s no excuse for giving up hope
So don’t try to make the case
For a mind stuck in that painful place
There are others too, who need to embrace
The honest truth that Love is shared
So long as we share it
Our fate can be changed
So long as we bear it
Together hand in hand weathering the storms that pass
Taking a moment to mourn the past
And look forward to the future
Knowing what we want most in life
Won’t simply arrive in an Amazon box, neatly tied in a bow
Self-respect and pride in tow
No it’s not that easy
But this you already know!

The problem is the doubt
That infects and clouds
Visionary ideals
Converting dreams into topics to never again be revealed
As if the love was locked away,  and then forever sealed
Without any armor or even a shield
We numb the pain but continue to yield
And refrain from following that which resonates
With the heart and the brain
Hesitating to jump onto life’s train
When already given the ticket
I’m here to remind you
That there’s still time to miss it

—

I found this poem in my notebook — the date was 7/28/2014. Had I not come across it while flipping pages, I may have forgotten about it completely. By chance it caught my eye and has now become a new post. This is a perfect example as to why I love this blog. I recently reached a point where I was writing so many rhymes that If I didn’t start sharing them, then they’d simply be lost in my notes. This way I get to share them with you and for this, I am grateful.

Photographer: José Martín Ramírez Carrasco

Symphonies Against the Silence

I want to be Eminem but high on inspiration
To lead this generation to create a better nation
Become a hit sensation
Just by telling people to believe
Look in deeply to see you can achieve your wildest dreams
All that’s stopping you is effort and a whole lot of time
Don’t let up and a world you will find
Of impossible creativity
One to share
Between the next you and me
No longer rocking to those old CDs
But feeling it all online
Your voice is growing
It’s more than ready to shine

And the world will spin on by
Regardless of whether or not
You make the choice to try
So why not let go
Of the pain you used to know
Instead see it differently
Almost as if impossibly
New perspectives start entering
Changing the outlook on what’s always been the same scene
Now strong enough to face the pain
Embracing weakness without disdain
Blessed with the Love to still feel sane

Making the choice not to escape
Upon understanding the importance
Of a future left to shape
It’s too soon to give up on your heart
Not when music like this is in the air
Symphonies against the silence invoking feelings to share
When we’re all rocking to the same beat
We can feel that we care
No longer alone
Among those here and those there
Together we can mutually bare
What our future has in store
No matter what — no matter where

—

Photographer: Björn Simon

 

Becoming a Legend of Inspiration

Right now you can call me contemporary
But my aim is to truly be legendary
For if I live on
In these words I’m generating
Then I can continue to inspire
Individuals to not just wake
But rise
With open eyes
A disguise unneeded
When our dreams top the skies
Arms open wide

I write for the love to resonate
Because the ultimate wish is to eliminate the growing hate
You know this
There’s no more time to wait
Make the change today
So do something you feel is great
Abandon the idea of fate
Your life is random
But you can still grow-create

—

Image: Todd Quackenbush

Artistic Alchemy


We’re changing
With a choice
Using a voice
To bring people together
With art to rejoice
Able to block out
The useless noise
So we can get in
Hearts with a desire to sing
Coming together
So that we can bring
Some peace
To uneasy souls
This is our role
To inspire the world
Before we grow too old
So use the current moment
To create a thought and hold it
Craft it into something that your heart perceives as golden
—

Watering my E-Tree with Feelings of Gratitude

This blog is now alive.

I know it now because I have a new feeling. It’s powerful — almost to the point of overwhelming. When I find myself reading through my poems, I can feel the love. Each new piece delivers a fragment of it. A single moment devoted to making sense out of chaos. A fleeting thought now given the highest priority in the world.

With the ultimate goal to be worthy of sharing
Exposing my heart to still feel the world caring
Inspires me to continue through times overbearing

See? This is how it happens. I’ll be writing one thought

And it will turn into a rhyme
Not intentionally
But just on time
As if my inner mind
Broke free
Just to find
A pen to write with
A canvas to fill
A desire to figure out
The meaning of free will

Similar to how plants require sunlight and water, this blog needs sustenance too. Each new post is like a rainfall. Your warm reactions are the accompanying sunshine. Both working together to make up the very fabric and life of my blog, or as I like to call it, my E-Tree.

As I post new content, you become aware that my E-Tree has not died. When you warmly respond to my work, I become aware that my E-Tree is appreciated. With these words, I ping the universe, and with your response, the universe pings back.

I am so grateful.

Don’t bother asking questions
About cups half empty or ones half full
Mine’s overflowing with a moment never dull
Feel the music flowing throughout my soul
Guiding me towards love along with the pursuit to grow
Aware of this blessing to just enjoy the show
Now that I understand and have come to know
That it won’t last forever
Wherever you go
It’s ok to stop for breath, you’re free to take it slow
When facing your own death, you either sit still or you grow
And I write these words so that you can feel it too
That through the chaos you too can be renewed
Misery overwhelming has now been subdued
By gratitude of plenty, appreciating the blues
No longer feeling that there’s nothing left to lose
A moment of love and hate, with an extra one to choose

Thank you for your sunlight. Without it, this blog — our E-Tree — could not exist as it does right now.

 

Learning to Love Amid Modernity

What does humanity mean in the modern age?

Is it Facebook likes
Twitter follows

Replies and hollow
Messages of affection
A reflection of pain
Masked in updates
Notifications
Always able to talk
To new and old friends
But not in person
Separated by screens
Of pixellated writing
Status updates
Often just hiding
The frustration of it all
Building underneath
We’ve built all these walls
Behind the premise of being free
Free to express
Individualistic ideas
To post whatever we wish
From our hopes to our fears
But really we just try to impress our peers
By putting a filter over our heart
To say what we think they’d like to hear

Lets change it
Make it more sincere
Right from the heart
Straight to your ear
We have the power of connection
Whether far or near
Let’s spread the human affection
Compassion meant to share
More than just a link
Or a post to like
Its time to spread the message
That this is life

That as the days and nights roll on by
We can be more than just zombies
Refreshing ad-polluted news feeds
Clickhole sites and lists of pointless things
Let’s not be distracted by a society that thrives on our attention
But rather, lets grow strong
By sharing our affection
Deciding a direction
Finding skills and talents
To form our own expression
Life is the teacher
And class is in session
Until the moment you die
There will be another lesson

Break the Apathy

There we go
Almost lost the show ya know
Couldn’t find the Evernote
Writing stories just to say I wrote
Cause you’ll never know
When you’re gonna grow
Next challenge on the corner
Now you’re stronger and can afford to
Take a hit or two from life
Standing tall like a human being
Supported by a wall
Of friendship and family
Altogether just breathing
The same shared air
On a planet numbered one
Whose story still unsung
A moment to be aware
Of how far we’ve been flung
In a universe both here and there
Polarity undiscovered
Between whats wrong and whats fair
People living separately
Hatred and animosity
With a sense of such ferocity
In difference of another
Take on a heartbeat
Organs still the same
Just the visuals and culture differing
What if we thought differently
Somehow, just magically
Ideal didn’t have to be
So damn far from reality
This is why I’m writing here
An attempt to guide you much more near
A sense of understanding
That questions remain outstanding
And change will only come after the moment we all demand it

—

For those wondering, Evernote is the application I use to record my fleeting thoughts as I go about my days. I’ve been using it pretty consistently for a few months now and it’s beginning to pay off. Here’s one example: My recent post, Blip, was a fleeting thought from last month on August 13th, 9:07 AM. Must have been during my commute into work. That little thought — that fleeting idea — I probably hadn’t thought about since. Upon revisiting the idea during some time spent browsing notes, it struck me as something powerful and worth sharing. And thus, a moment later, a new post was born.

—

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center – Sunrise/Sunset Over Earth (NASA, International Space Station, 07/31/14) (Woah, they took this photo on my birthday. Sweet!)