escape from a deep gaze
so the sun could also rise
and i could fall asleep

spend a moment of your day to explore someone
it's strange.
it isn't easy.
        
try for a minute and you hate it
for a lifetime,
and it's not enough.

step into the streetlights
where the darkness lays
and the forest leaves never fall
        
think of what this used to be
of what this day could hide
that the city can never change.

Empty puddles mark a new day,
Protected by the fire,
Quietly fading away.
No one to watch them pass
As people pass all day.

Flowing as the train sounds.
Lots of empty machines
Just inching forward.

We march these streets,
But no one to watch me pass.

The day is eating me alive
And I hate that I am not afraid.
Do I have what is left?
Do I have what it takes?

In this loneliness, this happiness,
The time is slipping away.
It spends your day
And gives you darkness.

I slip from my usual pose
And enter the void.

I set my pace into the streets.
Parting through the city,
And through the open clouds.

The world can only move forward.
We move forward for ourselves
And for each other.

In the cold
Just before we head home,
We can only make much of our time.
If we can somehow lose track of it
We'll find a way to make the most of it
At least until we die.

I'm just passing by
It's cold.
I should probably head home.

Do we think when we dream?

If we stop
Do we live? Do we breathe?

I love to think.
It's how I know I'm awake and how I know I'm alive.

But I love to sleep.
I stop to think and when I give up,
I fall into a fantasy.
It's how I dream.

But when I drop,
Do I live? Do I breathe?

Does dreaming steal me from reality?
Does thinking take me from my dreams?

When I breathe, I like to think it's what keeps me 
alive as I sleep, so I can dream. And perhaps when 
I awake, I'll thank this sleep and I'll think that 
this dream is what I now believe. 

But sometimes I forget to dream and I wonder if I 
had forgotten to live or had forgotten to sleep. 
I doubt that what I know is more important than 
what could be. Everything matters when we're awake. 
But so much can happen tomorrow.

The more you try to take,
The harder it wants to stay,

And it steals lifetimes
In days.

So how do you do it?

You wait
Until you escape,
Until it comes to you,
Until you forget.

A collection of other words for safekeeping.


The Rowing Song

'Round the world and home again
That's the sailor's way
Faster faster, faster faster

There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing

Is it raining, is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a-blowing?

Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of hell a-glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?

Yes, the danger must be growing
For the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing.

- Roald Dahl[1]


Sonnet 141

In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes
For they in thee a thousand errors note
But 'tis my heart that loves what they despise,
Who, in despite of view, is pleased to dote
...

- W.S.[1]


Do not go gentle into that good night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

- Dylan Thomas, Interstellar (2014)


Untitled

We fly like blackbirds,
Through the orange groves,
Floating on a warm wind.

When we run, we own the earth.
The land is ours.

We speak the birds' language.
Not immigrants no more.
Not stupid mexicans.

When we run, our spirits fly.
We speak to the gods.

When we run, 
We are the gods.

- McFarland, USA (2015)


Song of Myself, 52

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

- Walt Whitman