I listened as the rain swept in over the mountains. I felt the wings of liquid swoop as the skies ignited and cracked beneath a phoenix fire. I tasted the heavy mist which smelled of nature’s thirsting, and I watched as the mud danced beneath her dripping sky.

All the while I marveled and thought, how great of a God had I.

Time shifts, and I feel tense as a new chapter begins. These fleeting moments, like seasons, immerse my world in spring blossom or winter frost, in dark shadow or vibrant flame. Truly, today is a premise of ever-changing constants- a reality that what remains may become concrete, or may slowly be carried away.

Still, I sometimes grasp for the status quo. I fight like a child who holds what he cannot keep and watches helpless as time, like sand, escapes from a clenched fist. But my uncertainty conjures hope. Prayers and possibilities create bridges of opportunity. They lead me to the land of the untamed dream.

It is there, perhaps, that our stories will merge. Two unfinished tales among a library of atmosphere blue. We’ll stand above the pages of a fathomless dream, and we, the authors, will draw from a world of potential, where life’s ink runs constant in our veins.

You fought to win but a lonely planet’s gaze-

A constellation climbing from an ashen, shallow grave.

But some, it seems, are left to roam the ink-night sky.

Too blind these planets are, to see the ivory of this falling, fading star.

Dear world,
…..

Do you know-

Why flames burn deep in lover’s eye?

Why laurels drip in victor’s gold?

Or why a phoenix tail spreads ‘cross the sky,

then fades, like ashes ‘neath the smoldering moon?

Do you know-

How nature heals mankind’s divide?

How hearts in crimson spirit burn?

Or how hope ignites the darkened soul,

then blossoms, in a life that finds itself renewed?

Please tell me dear world both “why” and “how,”

For I gaze at oceans deep and ask-

What must I learn that others know?

Breathe. Breathe.

I feel the rush of fear course through my body. Anxiety flowing fast- its speed moving like black stallions on the wings of my mind.

Breathe. Breathe.

The dam breaks and a flood of emotions crash against the walls of reality. Love and loss drip heavy in the darkness. I recall portraits of joy and tombs of helpless abandon.

Breathe. Breathe.

I am surrounded by hope and fear. Two contrasts- a phoenix of burning, glorious dawn abreast to a muscled dragon, draped in the ashes of utter night.

Breathe. Breathe.

I live in a world where such moments entrance my being. Their sudden appearances haunt my thoughts like a ghost among the promises of all potentials.

Breathe.

I am the silent witness. I am the victim and villain. When you see me- when you see my silent stance- will you understand? Will you see the tides of an ocean that weigh in the balance between storm and sun?

Breathe.

When I see you, when you stand on the brink of high and low, a place between earth and sky- know that I see you. Know that I understand and know dear friend that you are not alone.

And together, let’s breathe.

Her soft whisper sent a prayer adrift across Dreamer’s Bay. The tiny word-ship sailed toward horizon’s edge and vanished into the atlas void.

There, the echo reached me. At the compass crossroads, two hearts collided beneath a sea of stars.

As children, we painted with a prism of passion. The color held its splendor as we shaped a masterpiece of the soul. We called the image “Identity.”

But with time, our lives began to change. The scarlet tones faded, and the crimson heart filled with cracks and tears. We now walk among our peers with but the faded letters of “Entity.”

The child’s colors lie buried in a closet of memory. The canvas, within a breathing vault. We, the artisans, need only to dig; to unlock.

As adults, we need only to paint once more.