Tag: poetry (Page 2 of 3)

Pen In Hand (A Poem)

February 18, 2019 / Tom

I sit praying, longing pen in hand,
The paper calling out in wanting,
Pulsing – dreams cutting to the bone
Yet the throbbing vein just will not bleed.

The sweet flavor that seeps from our togetherness,
My god! Words clotting as I seethe in this departure,
A half of my truth rumbles through my reasoning,
“Stay!” I just wish to yell across the pavement.

Yet nothing – the pen again falls silent,
Absent go my words, I’m forgetful while proving my resilience.
I just smile and wave with the other half of my truth singing.

Goodbye, I love you so.

~TG, “Pen in Hand”
© 2019 Tom Grasso All Rights Reserved

In Sanity

January 28, 2019 / Tom

There is as an essence of me, in sanity,
A moment to reflect,
To sing lullabies to the demons of my existence,
Lull them to sleep as they tantrum like the children that they are,
Find stillness in the mountain winds that wreak havoc on my neighbors.

I sit in sanity,
Watching the dandelion seeds blow haplessly about my scene,
Like snowflakes from the winter I have endured,
Waiting for someplace to land beside the Aspens,
Giving birth to something that looks nothing like themselves.

While awaiting the cool rains of Heaven’s soaking spring,
Mud made thick by the melting snows around my feet,
The seeds dancing to the waves of earthen ether,
Calling me onward though I love the muck between my toes,
It reminds me of a beach where we once stood, together.

There seems nothing quite like a transition,
Where fear and uncertainty marry the guise of faith to tortured men,
Holding a light of truth as the Sun burns off the morning dew,
I hear something moving the grasses laden with anticipation,
Could it be I’m hearing you?

My heart left beating, I have surrendered to our altar,
I have no certainty in the noises I’ve been hearing,
Yet I’ll sit by eternally adoring the sounds, in sanity
Watching my life beat on the sacred marble where I wait,
Longing for the flowers these seeds and rains conceive.

I trust the prose spring has rushing down the mountainside,
The water’s sounds painting smiles on my soul,
Hand-in-hand we dance to a promise notwithstanding,
In a truth our hearts knew before the moment we were born,
Or so we say as we sit still watching things born in sanity.

For reality comes like a tsunami cascading through the valley,
The monsoons of spring building with every winter storm,
I hear a promise whispered through the ages,
It moves like a breeze through the soaked grasses on our time,
I still wonder, could it be you that I am hearing?

This night, I close my eyes with the truth I find in sanity,
Daring demons to resurface despite the visions I have found,
Silent laughs and slight oaths made in the darkness,
I swear I can feel your hand upon my chest,
A prayer, may I awaken in your arms. (tg)

Nature (A Poem)

July 9, 2018 / Tom

To feel the vibrations of Nature’s song…

The smell of Her forgotten pines,

Eternity encapsulated in the droplets of cool mists,

As water falls,

As Her sweat sprays against the rocky mounds of Her exuberance.

The soil beneath your feet never quite the same.

I’ve heard the calling of Her ecstasy,

As the song birds greet the arrival of the Sun,

As man stirs in his unconsciousness,

Distorting Her truth with the lies of his existence.

Though I falter, I hear the beckoning of Her breezes,

Tried and true I stand beside Her majesty,

Bruised, but sure to the task for which I was born,

To climb, to fall, to bleed upon Her fertile soil.

Forgotten the truest womb a babe has ever known,

The willows weeping their joy and I cry beside them,

She knows no bounds in Her acceptance,

And no judgements of misguided expectations of survival.

Hold this tired form, swaddled nicely in the torrents of despair,

Her rapids flowing beside me,

The sounds deafening me to the point where I can finally hear

That howl that rages deep inside me.

Tear away these shrouds, and leave me naked in the field somewhere,

I beg you, bleed me of the humanity bestowed on me from birth,

Rugged, let me know the steadiest of stones

As I seek my way downward once again.

Her Song He Sings

December 19, 2017 / Tom

There was a man,
He loved a woman,
Who was nowhere near his touch.
So he slept alone,
And wrote her songs,
He loved her soul that much.

He’d walk along,
And hum her tune,
A lone figure against the Sun,
He knew one prayer,
That she would come,
He knew she was the one.

He’d touch his scars,
And mend his wounds,
Swim strong against the tide,
He’d kiss her lips,
In fancy dreams,
And snuggle by her side.

For things that come,
Are things that go,
But truth remains the same.
The Sun may rise,
And the Sun may set,
Eternity resides within a frame.

Forever known,
Yet forgotten still,
Love blossoms where it can.
To live so strong,
To live so free,
Few can understand.

He’ll hold his heart,
He’ll bite his lips,
And wait to tell her things,
He’ll walk alone,
And when he does,
It will be her song he sings.

~TG

Under the Moon

November 9, 2017 / Tom

I once heard a sparrow’s song,
“Tis me, your soul, in Spring,”
To which I replied “hello my dear,
I never did learn how to sing.”

I walked a little further til,
A flower called out in bloom,
“Won’t you come and rest here awhile,
And share a song Under the Moon?”

A man so full of wistful thoughts,
Who’s seen this life’s sunsets,
Knows the path his heart and mind must take,
From all his life’s regrets.

In the end the sparrow always leaves,
The rose, it wilts and dies,
But the man who’s learned to love again,
Forgets to say goodbye.

One day will come that final dusk,
For some it comes too soon,
But the lucky one, he got to sit,
With you Under the Moon.

~TG

From this…(A Poem)

March 7, 2015 / Tom

From this end...
A new beginning.
From this pool...
An ocean born.
From this emptiness...
A sacred space.
From this soul...
An endless truth.

From these bounds...
Springs liberation.
From these tears...
A slow release.
From these quakes...
A mountain rises.
From these remnants...
A star is born.

From this goodbye...
A new hello.
From this word...
A sentence born.
From this destruction...
Creation follows.
From this hallowed silence...
I hear it all.

Peace.

And We Loved (An Erotic Poem)

December 13, 2014 / Tom

She woke me with her mouth

I stirred

Growing in that moist embrace

Hardening in the moment

Finding her desire in my own.

She took me to her sacred places

I followed

Trusting in her loving guidance

Finding truth in her oasis

Realizing heaven in the rush of mindful pleasure.

I entered her – deeply and without reservation

She surrendered

Accepting love in our embrace

Reaffirming truth in each thrust of our intentions

In each moan, in each scream, in each testament of our hearts.

The pace quickened in the Divine instruction

She listened

Taking me to the brink of insanity

Showing me what’s beyond that glorious ledge

But never allowing me to take that holy plunge.

Until…

The tsunami broke free from the horizon

We came

We jumped together, took the plunge to heaven’s gate

We lit the darkness as one mighty flame

And in that space revered a new universe was born.

And we loved.

We loved like there was no tomorrow

Like there was no yesterday.

We loved like there were no others

Like there were no tainted waterways within our Ocean.

We loved like love was all there ever was.

A Solid Truth

November 4, 2014 / Tom

Through the numbness gaze I see

Cloudy, murky, beholden to the current

Leaning, listing, the stormy sky emblazoned

Calmly, the whitecaps form.

Through the blinded folds of skin I feel

Nothing, lost moments, surrounded by light everywhere

Laying still yet falling into the whirlpool

Rising, the foamy surf left evidence to the dying.

Lovely, I’m lost to the bliss of my own ignorance

Awakened in a moment, I cannot stand to shout

Aware in a flash, I cannot look to see that spark

Forever changed, the light enters me where I am wounded.

But such is the way of great fortune

To be wounded but alive

To be silenced but not forgotten, then heard again

She reaches for the coldness and brings a warmth renewed.

One wobbles, but does not fall

One stumbles, but finds sure footing

Somewhere, beyond the certainty of the next step

Comes the power of where the feet now stand.

One regrets, but accepts what cannot be changed

One worries, but gives himself to the great Ocean on which he lives

There, in the horizon that we call our home

Come the Sunrises and Sunsets that define our days.

Goodnight, dear, see me in your dreams

Goodbye, friend, hear me in your laughter

Feel me as the waves caress your feet, as the Sun warms your face

Know me when the light appears as a new day comes.

There is nothing to fear there, in the waves

Dance like you’ve never danced before

And know me there, everywhere

No surrender, no retreat, just calm acceptance of the Warrior.

Now, let’s go, to that healing place

Let’s bask in the warm water

Play in the lush fields where the color is blinding

And hold this moment dear.

Let’s leave the worry to others

Go crazy in the surf, find ecstasy in the sand

Together, as lovers sitting on an Earthen altar

Together in every breeze, in every wave, in every squawking seagull.

There is heaven.

There is hell.

There is everything in between

And it is there that we will find ourselves in a solid truth.

God I love this place!

December 13, 2013 / Tom

I walk.

I marvel at how the once soft, fluffy sands have become hard and unforgiving in the winter’s chill. I’m alone with my thoughts save the sounds of the surf crashing behind me; the sea hidden behind a shroud of darkness that allows me to focus on that music and the Universe exposed around me. I sit in the chill, gazing up at Gemini hoping to see the faint streaks of light created by the end of things likely born long before man was a dream. I give thanks in each passing blur as I am reminded of my own mortality, my own beginning, and my own end. I am reminded of the distance between the two, and I am grateful for this step in the journey of remembrance.

Through the shivers and the wet feeling of coldness upon my skin, I realize I love this place. I love the drawings I see as my mind connects the dots on Heaven’s canvas. I love the bright gaze of Jupiter staring down at me as I stare up at her. I love the orange flicker of Betelgeuse lighting my way toward the Hunter I’ve loved so much since my youth. I remember gazing up at his belt, staring at its perfect alignment and marveling at how the dots seemed so close together, yet were so far apart. I remember realizing then that what we see from where we stand can make all of the difference in how we think.

God I love this place.

I walk.

I walk through the paths others have cut through forests created long before I was born. I embrace the stiff silence that allows the wind to make music through the brittle, dead leaves on their Mother trees. I notice how both seem to hold on to what was, neither truly wanting to admit that the time of their union has passed. It’s a certainty that the winter wind will separate those who cannot seem to let go on their own, and that the tree will sleep and the leaf will fall, lightly, to return the gift it has been given.

I cross a stream. Little tufts of earth peek through slowly moving surface of crystal clear water, reflecting Heaven’s gaze. I notice how everything reflected seems the opposite of what I see, and I wonder which is the truth. Am I seeing things as they are, or am I seeing things through a reflection in my mind that is the opposite of how they are? Whichever, I continue walking, realizing that time and space can change everything, including the distance between giant stars that likely pay no attention to each other.

I allow the cold winter winds of my life to separate me from my leaves. I let go and say goodbye as they drift away toward their destiny. I know those things I think, those things I see, are mere reflections that exist only in my mind. I am a man, after all, and can enjoy a view through both tainted eyes and the crystal clear waters of Love that exist in the calm stillness I dive into. Both exist for a reason, and a purpose to which both can be known.

God I love this place.

Here I sit. I’ve done nothing on my to-do list, yet I’ve given birth to an entire universe. To whatever blesses me with these words, I am grateful. To whatever inspires me to see beyond my flesh and bones, I am grateful. To the power that takes the ingredients of a man and makes them so very special, I am grateful. To my eyes that see and my heart that feels, I am grateful. Though I am no longer who I was, I am grateful for who I am. To the music I dance to and the voices I hear whispering lightly in my ear, I am grateful. To the scars and the wounds as well as the dream I had that gave them life, I am grateful. To the love and kindness offered that has held me steady, I am grateful. I am grateful for it all.

So I sit, in peace and in stillness as the Sun shines gently through the window, its glow changing colors through my closed eyelids. I inhale its warmth that contrasts nicely through the chilled morning air, realizing both in the same moment. I realize the stretch of time that has brought me here, the limitless experiences and infinite possibilities of what “now” has to offer. The raised bumps on my skin tell a truth, a truth that says, “Yes, you are on your way.”

God how I love this place.

And Now I Write…

May 28, 2013 / Tom

And now I write.

Having been blown away by the solemn wind of something other than this world, I write. Having fallen from a spot on which I’ve stood toward a hazy-blue tale of the unknown, I write. Having found the lost sense of purpose on which my heart does beat, I write.

It’s those eyes. Where have I seen them before? How do I know them? What commands my heart and soul to speak a truth my mind cannot yet fathom? What compass points to my true North which is not heading north at all? I do not think here, for reason has no place at this table. I am lost and found, completely at odds with my thoughts while knowing so certainly that what twists and turns outside my head is right.

To what paradise do I see when falling in those eyes? Only heaven could have pushed me from the cliff on which I’ve clung, and only Love could have gently forced me from the perch on which I’ve stood. I spread my mighty arms and soar through air that I once feared, now knowing the dream I’ve dreamt a million times as a new reality.

To you I fly,

my sweet lullaby,

To tear this mind apart.

And though I try

I can’t deny

That sweet and gentle heart.

And so I write. Onward and endless flow the eternal words from the deepest part of me. Harnessed intentions I see in the moving clouds and hear in the rustling of the leaves that are seldom dormant in my mind. It is a truth. It is the truth, and a purer diamond you will not find in the entirety of our Universe. Hold it. Keep it, and view the world through its perfect eye.

Goodbye, for now, as I will write again when the winds stir me to that hallowed estuary.

Peace.