dawn .

i lay on the roof beside him
watching the stars fade
as the sun made its ascent
into the morning sky

and i wondered where you were
and how it was that you became so far from me

i wondered whether i'd ever know you again
the way i once did -
when i could read your glances and your quiet
better than anyone else's voice

i wondered if you could still locate
the star you called by my name,
and still find the one
i picked for you

and as i raced down that rooftop
in the ripeness of the early day
i wondered if one day i could climb onto building-tops
or trace out constellations
without, also, wondering after you

[you, who still rules my heavens.
you, who still rules my heart.]

S.

{Photo: Leigh Ellexson Flickr}

it's okay .

Everyone who terrifies you is sixty-five percent water.
And everyone you love is made of stardust, and I know sometimes
you cannot even breathe deeply, and
the night sky is no home, and
you have cried yourself to sleep enough times
that you are down to your last two percent, but

         nothing is infinite,
         not even loss.

You are made of the sea and the stars, and one day
you are going to find yourself again.

by Finn Butler

{Photo: Elmira Minkina Flickr}

Breathe deeply -

I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry 

{Photo:  Adriano Sodré Flickr}

Constellations.

Will you take me to where the stars are brightest,
one more time?
Where they touch down and make their homes
upon your soul? 
Because I tried to memorize how our bodies moved
and how rocks felt against clothes-less feet 

But time carried me away before memories were sealed
So, now, I move in clumsy circles
stubbing bare toes on harshest pavement.

Have all the constellations fallen down,
A giant flood of unclaimed wishes
Followed by pure darkness?
Because I'm trying to explain the lack of freckles in
These barren night expanses, and 
Heaven refuses answers. 

Will you lead me back through blackened roadways
So I can show you to the place
I lost my heart.

S.

{Photos: (c) 2012 Thomas V. Davis}