Not everything that breaks me keeps me down

I rise to be reborn among the shards

Accepting what I’m dealt, I play the cards

Until the downward spiral turns around

Collecting random pieces as i go

Until the day my strength is born anew

I put each piece in place as though I know

That everything that’s whole contains some glue

Some days I sing

Some days I rant

Some days I reap

Some days I plant

Some days I weep

Some days I sleep

Some days I can

Some days I can’t

Mischievous thoughts

Perilous plots 

Nurturing seeds

Of dastardly deeds

An ominous omen

Of a ghastly Gloaming

Dividing the haves and have nots

The breeze is making music
As the wind chimes play their tune
A clanging, church bell melody
Invades the afternoon
In between the gentle gusts
The cricket bands continue
A harmony unfolds for us
Outside the Autumn window
With all this tunage going on
Although it’s played with flair
Without the Robin’s evening song
A silence fills the air
In weakened states, they spend the day
On guard, prepared to bolt
Without a peep to give away
Their presence, as they molt.

I question my ability to fit into your sculpted world

So fashioned, so tidy and so very predictable

My creative and utterly spontaneous nature

Does not easily conform to rigid expectations

My heart was fully invested in this fairytale love

But my mind was quietly preparing me for the reality of failure

And so, as we endeavored to write that first beautiful page 

I was already dreading the final chapter.

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

Carl Jung

I must confess

That I feel blessed

To live on nature’s land

But how I miss 

That goodnight kiss

And walking hand in hand.

The nights are short

And days are long

Remembering a time 

When loneliness was someone

Else’s problem, now it’s mine.

“Good morning” said the oak tree
To the dark and gloomy stone
“Would thou prefer I go away
And leave thee to thine own?”
I sway your way on a gentle breeze
With warmth for you to hold
But as a tree, I ask of thee
“Do stones prefer the cold?”

“You’re going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it’s always their actions you should judge them by. It’s actions, not words, that matter.”

– Nicholas Sparks

Hope is such a fragile thing

It is, in essence, what makes

the world keep turning for each of us.

Even when we wish to get off

at the next stop, we continue – we hope.

We hope tomorrow will be a better day

than today, we hope our tears will stop,

that we will smile again and love again.

We hope for love and acceptance and

to not feel forgotten, lonely and scared.

Eventually, we may stop hoping and simply

give in to the inevitable truth that we

may not yet be without hope but

we have indeed begun to hope less.

If you had known the fate that day would hold
The future, that would in its wake, unfold
Would you have chosen still to wander in
And find yourself somewhere you’d never been?
Or simply walked away and missed the chance
To hear the song that caused your heart to dance.
No explanation ever will suffice,
A twist of fate that mingled fire and ice.
To what great end, perhaps you’ll never know
But can you say you’re worse off for the show?
If you have found the heart your soul commands,
Believing it is one of fate’s great plans,
Then parting should be neither sweet nor sad –
Remember well, that one sweet dream you had.

A love that felt as true as love can be
just disappeared, with you, at morning light
Yet souls that once connect will always be
connected, whether grounded or in flight.

New leaves glisten
on air that’s still
the bird sits on
my window sill
and sings a song
that makes me long
to fly with him at will.

Life goes on, or so they say
Another hour, another day
Another month, another year
Another try, another tear

The blinding sun arrives to paint the dawn
With red and yellow strokes against the sky
The frost has melted on the dormant lawn
While crickets chirp a lonesome lullaby
All birds retreat as worms have disappeared
Their daily song a now nostalgic tune
Escaping to a fruitful atmosphere
Where days are long and daffodils still bloom
The song of spring must now be sung within
Until the ice and snow begin to melt
The songbirds will return and once again
The birthing of a season shall be felt.

There’s but one thing that’s left to circumstance
Can hearts endure the song without the dance?

Heavy, humid morning air
a gentle calming breeze.
The remnants of a nightmare
I enjoy, though ill at ease.
Barefoot in the morning grass
soft rain against my skin.
I feel a hint of yesterday’s hell
in this heavenly moment I’m in.

© Shirley Allard 2005

New love can be a painful seed to sow
And always must be tended to with care
It sprouts, and then a thorn begins to grow
As hearts collide endeavoring to share.

It takes a willful soul to overcome
The trials and tribulations of romance
And giving up may be the cure for some
But love that’s true will take another chance.

If we can plant the seed of love that knows
Accepting thorns are chances to forgive
Then love will always blossom as it grows
Within our hearts as long as we shall live.

And so we wait to see what we have sown
A love that wilts and dies or one that’s grown.

Sometimes two people fit perfectly together

like two pieces of a puzzle that were never completely

separated. One small part of a bigger picture

that becomes clearer when you realize

that all of the other pieces are missing and

There is no big picture in which you appear.

Anger will not feed you
Nor pay the rent that’s due
But if you let it seize you
Taints everything with rue.
Rather, let it run its course
As atoms rearrange
Returning as a wealthy source
Of spiritual spare change.

And if the world should end for me today
Tomorrow would arrive just like before
Unchanged in such a small and minor way
That I would wonder “what was I here for?”
As war and peace continue on at odds
My presence never stopping fatal blows
As hungry children worship faulty Gods
Believing this is just the way life goes
A sadness now has settled in my heart
And failure is an option I embrace
As suddenly I realize my part
Amounts to nothing more than wasted space.

As every day grows more and more the same
It seems that I find less and less to blame.

At last, the sun returns to warm this day
The gloom that filled this room is dead and gone
And like a child, I find myself at play
Now prompted by an urging to move on

For what is done, is done. The past has passed.
What purpose would be served to linger there?
The precious moments passed us by too fast
Consumed by unknown futures we’d prepared

I know this day could be the last I see
But all the days I’d forfeit led to this
My future is the present found in thee
This very moment spent in sunlit bliss

So just in case said future slips away
I’m cashing in my yesterdays each day.

She’s found a place where she can hide
And when she’s scared she crawls inside
In there, she can escape reality
She goes there often on her own
To think or cry or be alone
Where no one can malign her misery.
She tried to hide within the room
But seekers flocked to fix her gloom
They’d find her under table, desk or shelf
And so she chose the only place
Where no one can invade her space
When she’s afraid she hides inside herself.

The snow capped trees are drooping from the weight
Of crystal ice and snow I’ve come to hate
A little taste of beauty is enough
I’ve had it with this fluffy, flaky stuff!
The skiers are elated as they glide
While I am irritated as I slide
Around a yard that’s now a skating rink
And so I close my eyes and calmly think
Of daffodils all lined up in a row
Beneath the several feet of ice and snow
I see the hollyhocks all standing tall
And creepy crawling vines along the wall

Excuse my manners here for just a bit
No more snow! I’ve had it with this shit!

*25 inches of snow last week and I am still shoveling!
I need to rent a husband. lol

Suddenly, the magic begins to subside
And reality crashes through the barrier
I’ve so masterfully maintained
The truth invades my heart and soul
The tears begin to flow
Like a river that has outgrown
The holding power of the mighty dam
I begin to ask “why”
There is no answer. No solution
No quick fix or patch that will stop
The flow of pent up fears and tears
Or this feeling of helplessness
And inability to fix what is broken
I am powerless to heal what needs healing
Unable to fix what needs fixing
Including my own broken heart

Two eggs, resting side by side
One shell, in which two chicks reside.
One grew strong, as cells divided,
The other disappeared inside it.
Together, they grew as one, these two
Now so conjoined, that no one knew.

The innocent victims of nature’s flair
United, yet perfectly unaware,
That when they reached maturity
The one inside, would grow to be
An equal but opposite identity.

Now the one we see, in reality,
Unknown to us, would share
With one inside, who’s been denied.
The ‘one’ who isn’t there.

Might every rooster in life’s pen
Have inside himself, a hen?
Or an evil other, awaiting the chance
The proper time and circumstance
To ‘come out’ from within?

When examined with an open mind
More of us, I’m sure would find
A truth that others simply won’t
In what we see, and what we don’t.

Poets paint their art with words
Their brush, a mighty sword
With innuendo here and there
They strike familiar chords.
With words absurd, their meaning blurred
They seduce a fleeting thought
But never assume it’s their personal gloom
For often it is not.
The pain and joy they oft employ
To render their reason to rhyme
Are tainted by the readers’ eye
Unequipped with a poet’s mind.
So when you read a poet’s words
With toil so well defined
That a miner, with a lifeless bird
Is planted in your mind.
It may well be reality
Just not of their own kind.

© 2007 Shirley Allard