Inspiration inspiration: "Pain! And lots of it." Misery loves company . . . but generally, company does not love misery back. I mean, when a person is suffering... experiencing strong emotions and such, it can be a catalyst to expression and there fore, inspiration. It gives you something to say and a strong desire to say it. Pain can clarify things like nothing else. However, most people don't appreciate being dragged down by someone's misery, so you can get alienated. This is a good thing! Nature always finds a way. Pain gets internalized. That's why so many artists are introverts. We meditate on things that we're not permitted to discuss out loud. We have internalized conversations that give us a very clear and unique perspective on something with which we are intimately familiar and passionate about (we tend to become "passionate" when we are emotional). Creative expression is the natural consequence, as the mind reels to find comprehension through metaphor.

Only As A Poet Only as a Poet Can I see you Or anything Or speak Or even breath Only then can the world exist for me For me to exist in And be As nothing grants #life like poetry Through the #poem itself We are Things are And are defined Noticed Loved Abandoned And left behind Or caught up In a butterfly net And pinned down To remind Memories Fabricated and bottled Like the pills we pop To feel How we want to feel At will A book of #poems Like a tapestry of time This bottle poured out Creation itself ...divine

Like Leaves Birds fall Like leaves From the sky Broken promises Still held on to From days gone by Stillness squeezes into An old room Now emptied of #life Childhood wonders It's joys And strife And in the darkened corners Where old memories Pretend to sleep A mind grows colder Still sinking Deep

Portals To The Soul Portals to the soul They call them But through these same Twain Thresholds saw them Looking back And judging me. Determined And so plainly searching Like demons So insanely lurching For something just beyond their reach My soul they seek But it's not them Nor through these portals do they see within. I look out. That's what living's all about. And all I see Is all I am There is no stranger And no strange land.

Pour In Pour in Pour in Pour in Displace and replace Like storm clouds into a peaceful sky A shout into a quiet room A tragedy into a dull day Or common sense into an otherwise Republican mind Pour in like the sun pours in On a winter morning Through a window shielded only by bare trees And upon my pillow to kiss me Pour in like a suicide In a small town Playing dominoes In the hearts of every neighbor Pour in over coffee and ice creme Pour in over every memory and every dream Pour in over a #lifetime of miseries and every obscene Gesture and every unclean Thought that my minds eye has ever seen Pour in And fill me up Push out All these demons in my mind Push out the people that no one loves Who love the art that no one looks at Which is devoid of emotion or technical skill But belongs to the student and future master Push out fear Hiding in an apple Hiding in a basket Hiding in a horse stable And push out the one thing I have left Beyond the clutter of my mind And all the nonsense that chatters Push me out.