September

The Summer sun is hot and bright,

The sky a cloudless blue

But this warm breeze blows cold on me,

In August without you

I miss the days I had with you,

But how the time has flown

Now I’m alone this Summer day,

And you’re somewhere unknown

I held your hand when June began,

It never felt so right

As when we kissed beneath the stars,

One rainy July night

Those happy days, a golden haze,

Were far too short for some

It was as if you fell away,

As soon as you had come

Your Summertime has ended and,

My August still goes on

But whether it is over soon,

Or goes on far too long

I’ll meet you in September,

When days turn short and cold

I’ll see you there when trees grow bare,

And leaves turn brightest gold

I’ll see you then, at August’s end,

When all my summer’s done

The wind may roar, but cold no more,

With thoughts of you to come

I’ll meet you in September,

When all the flowers die

And the song of our love story,

Turns to a lullaby

But while the sun shines high above,

And I have life to go

I’ll revel in this season’s heart,

For at the end I know

The clouds will come; the wind will blow

These Summer months away

And I’ll wake up and see you there,

On that September day

I’ll meet you in September

The Well and the Ray

Sitting there, I don’t know where,

A place that’s purest black

Lying here tied up with fear

I can’t see front or back

The darkest place, an empty space

Bereft of sound or light

The walls are steep, too high to leap

A prison far from sight

The sides are sheer, and far too near

Around me like a cell

As if I’ve been trapped tight within

A shadow watered well

A hopeless fear, resides in here,

Built into this dark place

While black despair, has found its lair

Beneath my weeping face

My cage is built with stones of guilt,

Cemented by my crimes

The walls are strong, held up with wrongs

From all my darkest times

While wild shame, too fierce to tame,

Has built the walls too high

And heavy hate has sealed my fate

To keep me where I lie

My memories, like nocturne seeds,

Grow high up from the floor

And ev’ry leaf is sharp edged grief,

That cuts me to my core

Remembered wrongs are pricking prongs,

Whose poison holds me fast

A grief-struck tree that’s grown ‘round me

Here where no light is cast

My darkest fears, my bitt’rest tears,

Surround me like an ocean

All my worst sins, trap me within

The well of my emotions

As I lie there, I now know where

I gaze into the black

When suddenly, something, I see

Is gazing softly back

A single beam, of diamond gleam,

Far sweeter than a choir

It sheds bright light upon my plight,

Like sudden kindling fire

Through darkest hate and long lost faith,

This beam cuts like a knife

Warm sunlight fare, it warms my hair,

A gleam of far off life

I know not where its golden glare,

Comes to my self-made hell

If it’s of me, or something free,

Above this shadow well

A piece of soul, still somehow whole,

A waking, bright intrusion

Impossibly, it shines on me,

A ray of absolution

The grieving fronds, my poisoned bonds,

Unwind from ‘round my hands

And raising one, I feel the sun,

From far off, better lands

I grit my teeth; I gain my feet,

The dark still holds me tight

Through all this pain, I do not wane,

As I look to the light

So Long

Do you have to have felt something to write about it? I hope not.

Poets have written incredible poems about death, and very few of them were postmortems. Authors have written amazing sonnets of the stars, but none of them had been to them; unless Neil Armstrong's '--one giant leap for mankind--' counts as poetry. Also, to quote some guy named Rumi: 'Poetry can be dangerous, especially beautiful poetry, because it gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it.'

So poetry seems to be founded in writing powerfully about something that has never happened to you, which allows you to apply to it a fantastic element it would otherwise be harder to add if you'd actually been to the moon, instead of just looking at it.

All this to say, please don't discount the fact that I've written a love poem even though I have never fallen in love. I do have great experience with familial love, to siblings, parents, friends, etc., but the different love that comes with two unrelated people I have yet to discover. I hope I wasn't too far off the mark with what is written below, and hope that those of you who have experienced true love will comment and tell me how I did.

______________________________________________

The one I cannot live without asks this,

‘Will ‘So long’ be two words I ever hear?

Could you leave me without another kiss?

Go, vanish, love me no more as I fear?’

‘Will your love for me wither up and die,

And if not can it stand the test of time?

How long can this love last ‘tween you and I,

How long can we keep reason paired with rhyme?’

Before I say a word I draw her near

Into my arm as I so love to do

Then after my reply has become clear

I tell her just how long I’ll love her true

So long as stars shine high above us all,

And this earth spins beneath us constantly

So long as wind can blow and rain can fall

And while there still is salt within the sea

So long as the sun rises in the east,

And sets behind the west horizon line

So long as all this goes on un-decreased,

My love for you will outlast even time

So long as day breaks after every night,

And sunlight warms us walking hand in hand

So long as the moon shines above us bright,

And waves still break upon the golden sand

So long as the sun rises in the east,

And sets behind the west horizon line

So long as all this goes on un-decreased,

My love for you will outlast even time

So long as people fight for what is theirs,

And nothing worth acquiring comes with ease

So long as answers come to heartfelt prayers,

And people do what’s right, not what will please

So long as the sun rises in the east,

And sets behind the west horizon line

So long as all this goes on un-decreased,

My love for you will outlast even time

So long as I can rise above defeat,

And when you need me be there firm and strong

So long as I draw breath and my heart beats,

And even after both of those are gone

So long as nothing heals like joyous grief,

And all the truest lovers say ‘I do’

My dear it is my firmly held belief,

So long as that goes on I will love you

Lady Sorrow

My truest friend had gone along,

The path I could not follow,

So suddenly, he had left me

Bereft, with no tomorrow.

My unshakable and constant friend

Was gone, swift as a feather,

No more we would nor could again

Laugh or cry together.

No comfort came from any mourner,

To me they all were hollow,

But then one morn, with black adorned,

Visited the Lady Sorrow.

I knew her name though never had I,

Seen or sat down with her,

But friends had told me when they grieved,

She came swiftly thereafter.

She swept into my humble home,

Grief’s very emissary,

It was as though, she came just so,

All my tears I wouldn’t carry.

For I knew, ‘twas very true,

That a mourner by himself

Will heal what’s broken twice as fast,

With a friend to give him help.

And though my friends were all gone then,

Lady Sorrow took their place,

And sitting close we wept as one,

Recalling my dear friend’s face.

The next day Sorrow had got gone,

And with her went the pain

That had plagued me all those dark days,

When alone, I fought in vain.

The time together with that Lady

Had healed my sundered soul,

And my dear friend now safely stays

Within myself made whole.

And there he’ll stay, all thanks to that

Dear Lady Sorrow who

Showed how one grieved could heal their pain
If it is healed with two