The dew of the morning
Sunk chill on my brow;
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame:
I hear thy name spoken
And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me -
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee
Who knew thee too well:
Long, long shall I rue thee
Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met:
In silence I grieve
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.

-byron

Surrounded by sound drowned out
By my own thoughtless thoughts and tears
Dropping down to the ground without a doubt
Through a million miles and a thousand years
I've learned all but know nothing worth knowing
Now I'm stuck in a no-win, no-lose situation
Trying to find the escape
Looking in my soul, seeing from my heart
My eyes no good to me through tear-stained cheeks
Ears that hear no sound, fingers stretching for something
Anything to grab hold of, to know what it seeks
A feeling to know it has a place, to know it is
To know it is not lost with no one to search
On a neverending journey to the unknown.

Darkness closing in, light breaking away
Leaving me to stand alone in the field of life
Again
Dawn seeks better places for its birth
Daylight quivering away from me as if to say
My God, what is it? that stands so still
Like stone, so silent like night, so alone?
The truth lying in my untouched heart
Searching to find a voice amidst the darkness
Of the night that is my only friend
No hell below, only a heaven above
Out of reach, gone from me for good, forever
Cursed by life, waiting for you so far
So far away, I can't see you, hear your voice
Do you really exist? are you really there?
If so, do you really care?
No hell below and as the last star fades
I no longer believe heaven's above
Nothing, only the endless light.

-bjt

If you do not learn to hate
you will never be lonely
enough
to love easily
nor will you always be brave
although it does not grow any easier.
Do not pretend to convenient beliefs
even when they are righteous
you will never be able to defend your city
while shouting.

Remember our sun
is not the most noteworthy star
only the nearest.

Respect whatever pain you bring back
from your dreaming
but do not look for new gods
in the sea
nor in any part of a rainbow.
Each time you love
love as deeply
as if it were
forever
only nothing is
eternal.

-Audre Lorde

I wish mom had
Told me the same
Thing about guys
As she had about
Horror movies when
I was five:
"Don't worry, honey,
it's all fake."

-jk

Two small words,
Spoken with not just a hint of the meaning
They once held.
Faded memories restored
In a brilliant flash of light;
The forgotten hugs and tender kisses
Relived in vivid detail;
Tragic - for such a love to end,
Leaving boundless regrets and distrust -
Still forced together time and again
By sheer morbid fate.
The nickname
He used in adoration,
Now a mocking reminder
Of happier times;
I left with him a piece of my soul
That reflects still in his eyes, in his smile.
Each meeting, a glorious reunion
Of two souls so desperately in love,
Ending too soon
In a too familiar way.
No hugs, no kisses, not even a tear
Just a wistful look and a wry smile,
And two small words - so very small -
That break my heart in two.

I'm cut off, I'm stale
I'm dry of feelings and emotions for you,
you selfish bastard,
without the slightest regard for me
but that's fine anyway
I got over you
still in your arms
still in your life
still in your heart so
you stabbed a dull knife through my back
through my heart and
I didn't even know it was happening -
you turned it, you twisted it
but I didn't bleed
I may have died inside of you but
these remains brought me back
from the dead
and I'm going to be bigger than
you'll ever be.

-lh

Oh, when I was in love with you,
Then I was clean and brave,
And miles around the wonder grew,
How well I did behave.
And now the fancy passes by,
And nothing will remain,
And miles around they'll say that I
Am quite myself again.

-aeh

Broken shards,
Glittering fragments -
Like shattered glass, the pieces of our love clutter the floor,
Sparkling -
Mixed with drops of crimson blood,
Diluted by tears.
Days and nights of equal length,
But both are just as dark.
Man is only human
And can be no worse;
Yet the ghosts linger overhead and
Underneath -
Above and below -
Inside and out.
Sorrow has become my friend,
Reassuring me always that I don't care anymore
And hurting me when I believe him.
Love, too, follows always -
Chastising -
And has now become the enemy.
My tomb -
Blanketed in light and rainbows.
My head is laid to rest
On blue satin,
My tired body encased in a downy black shroud;
Inside the coffin a snowy bear steals my peace -
I remember.
A river of tears rages against my body
I scream and tear at the lid of grave, desperate for air;
I call out the name of my hero, my love -
My life...
Trapped in a watery grave, Sorrow surrounds me as I sleep.
How long must my life be taken from me? How long
until he realizes that I am missing, and comes
To rescue me from an early grave?
Perhaps he never will, my Prince, and I -
I shall die here all alone -
Waiting
Declining to be freed if not by He;
My love will never cease nor lessen
And I will spend eternity here
Alone.

I would like to write a poem for you -
Lines bloated with sugar lamentations,
Bursting at each seam
With bloody passion and fiery bits
Of my desire.
But the truth is...
I don't even really like you much.

-jh

goodby Betty, don't remember me
pencil your eyes dear and have a good time
with the tail light boys at Tabari's,
keep your teeth snowy, stick to beer and lime,
wear dark, and where your meeting breasts are round
have roses darling, it's all i ask of you -
but that when light fails and this sweet profound
Paris moves with lovers, two and two
bound for themselves, when passionately dusk
brings softly down the perfume of the world
(and just as smaller stars begin to husk
heaven) you, you exactly paled and curled
with mystic lips take twilight where i know :
proving to Death that Love is so and so.

-eec

After great pain, a formal feeling comes -
The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs -
The stiff Heart questions was it He, that bore,
And Yesterday, or Centuries before?
The Feet, mechanical, go round -
Of Ground, or Air, or Ought -
A wooden way
Regardless grown,
A Quartz contentment, like a stone -
This is the Hour of Lead -
Remembered, if outlived,
As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow -
First - Chill - then Stupor - then the letting go -

-ed