alone

you gotta open your heart...
let the light shine in
let the warmth of love have a chance...
right now all you do is delve in self pity...
and love ain't got time for that noise
it is what it is...
we all have felt pain
we all have suffered...
do not for a moment think you are alone...
but...
you keep this up...
and you're gonna be...

you forgot how to pay attention

man, just sit and be quiet!
breathe and listen...
this be the forest and for as big and bad as you think you are...
you ain't.
listen to the wind, use your nose, smell where it's been...
did you catch that? jasmine faint, but it's there...
pine...deer...a bear hunting salmon...
all this going on, did you know?
no, you forgot how to pay attention to what's real...
too busy being distracted by 'agreements'...
money, power, boundaries...all agreements...
to which i disagree...
if only i could harness the desperate, crazy pain i feel
for all that's been lost...
i would use this power to bring it all back...
and shatter these agreements...
just give me the forest, let me sit quiet and listen...
and you can be damned sure,
i will know to pay attention...

bloom before you wither

'bloom before you wither'...
she read these words on a bathroom wall...
sage advice offered in the strangest of places...
matters not from whence wisdom comes...
wisdom simply and quietly makes it's presence known...
'bloom before you wither'...
a call to all...drop the reasons why not...
and face the sun's light...
move forward, declare and demand that your gifts be known...
explore your colors and songs...
and then blast them loud and proud upon a world so eager...
for even as you enjoy the passions that move within you...
so do we all enjoy what you got to offer...
crazy concept that rings true to this Spirit's own song...
we are each gifts unto each other...
yes, yes indeed...
'bloom before you wither'...

gotta see this thru...

gotta see this thru,
even when all the advice sits
deadset against my takin that chance...
gotta see this thru
such a mess...such pain...
but i know there's a clearing in there,
somewhere...
got my foot right outside the door...
my heart ain't so fragile i can't take the truth...
but, i gotta see this thru...
when all is said and done...
no regrets do i carry...
because i'll never have the words 'what if'
haunting me...
i'll have done all i could...
my exit won't be hasty, rather...
it will be a graceful parting...
because...
i saw this thru...

mi salma...

i know this girl...
she is my storyteller...
i know that i can count on her to make things make sense...
she is my soul sistah...
my friend,
my compadre...
she is crazy in the kitchen...
can cook like nobody's business...
i do believe that when she's creating that incredible meal...
her grandmothers are living thru her...guiding her to know what spice
goes with what herb...
she is magic...
she comes up with analogies that make me stand in awe...
cuz they make perfect sense...
crazy chic could write a book from those analogies...
she is a mother who has raised her children from the deepest of loves...
her sacrifices have been great but, she would have it no other way...
she took on her role as Mother ready to give all of herself...
and all of herself she gave...
and gives still...
profound are the children she has raised...
these 3...Leyla, Donta, Maya...
man, they light up any room they enter...
they carry their own innate magic and...
they carry their Mama's magic...
my only wish...
my greatest hope,
is that she know...
she is my storyteller,
my soul sistah...
my friend...
and blessed am i to know her...

love knows me...

always i have felt things from such a deep place...
i remember, 6 years old, inconsolable over a dead bird in my backyard...
until mi madre showed me that with the death of that bird,
came life...an exchange that meant, in essence...
the bird would go on living in other living things...
i remember camping and my father teaching me to be quiet and listen...
the woods were speaking to me...the trees had secrets they wanted me to hear...
i learned to respect Mother Earth...and, to have compassion...
because, not everyone was as fortunate as i...
not everyone was taught their inherent value, their innate worth...
it is my belief that if people...all People, were taught how precious they were...
they might, just might...know to value all that was around them...
i learned to have love even when whom i would love was immersed in self hate...
i grew up knowing that no one is beyond healing...
it's a choice after all...
sometimes this deep place i feel from is too hard...
hurts this living soul...
but the pain i feel ebbs with time...
and oddly enough, only adds to my being...
i regret nothing...even mistakes i've made...
because those mistakes served as doorways to worlds
i needed to explore...
and i am grateful,
because i know love...
and love...yeah...
love knows me...

intention

i don't believe in promises...
too much can happen to stop the promise kept...
i believe in intention...
i believe in the effort set forth to keep that promise...
and if, for some reason,
that promise is not kept...
i believe in waiting just long enough for the reason...
i believe in the intention behind the promise and...
if i know that the intention was pure...
and the promise maker did all he could...
then, as crazy as this may sound...
in a sense...
in essence...
this promise unkept...
was indeed kept...
because the intention was there...clear...pure...real...
the intention wanted to become reality...and i...
i feel a need to honor that intention...
even as the broken promise threatens to break my soul...
i won't let my soul break because i know...
he tried...he tried with all he knew...
he tried...
his intention was right...
even as he wasn't right...
his intention was right...