I Would Have Loved

Tags

Communication, creative, I would have lived, loss, Love, nostalgia, poems, poetry, verse, writing

I would have loved you then,

Your tumbling hair

A cascade of words

Around my heart,

Your silken skin

A sliver of hope

Amidst the dark,

But my eyes had not yet opened.

I would have loved you then,

Your precious lips

Their berry-sweet taste

Against my own,

Your endless eyes

Welcome drowning pools

In which to dive,

But my heart had not yet thawed.

I would have loved you then,

Your gentle touch

Warm electric glow

Against my flesh,

Your turning back

Sign for me to say

Deep hidden words,

But I knew I was too late.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2021

As It Ever Was

Tags

age, As it ever was, creative, Depression, hope, loss, nostalgia, poems, poetry, time, verse, writing

And when at last the dust

That had crept into our eyes and

Scratched its frozen images

Deep within our hearts and minds

Began to fall

Did we find that we had found

All that we were looking for

The prizes and rewards that we

Had promised ourselves

So many lifetimes before?

Or did our vista still contain the

Dreams that we had always known

Were nothing more than that

No more than the pictures that we

Had painted with the hands

Of children fleeing from the night?

And all the promises that we had cast

Like yarrow stalks, now pebbles on the beach

Had given up their secrets to the sea

And washed themselves with the briny tears

That we had shed so freely

Thinking that they would be gone

Spent like the pennies we cherished in

The youth we dreamed away so soon

Before we learned to mourn its death

And let the black sank deep within

A storm that never passed

The ghost of all the days we thought

Would one day come to life

And take our hands

And lead us to all that grew on trees so near

So far from reach

But now through thinly veiled eyes

The scratches fall away

And through the sinking mists we see

All as it ever was.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2021

Change

Tags

Change, creative, poems, poetry, verse, writing

A change is coming.

I can taste it in

The butterscotch sky

Hear it in the song

Of the midnight clouds,

As the winter birds

Cast their wings out wide

Leave these barren shores

Steal a final glance

Frozen in their eye.

A change is coming.

I can feel it in

The dancing willow

And for a moment

Hold to me the scent,

Of dreams taking flight

Their fingers touching

Rainbows in the blue

To drift their passion

Falls like rain to us.

A change is coming.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2021

Paint the Day

Tags

Communication, creative, Paint the Day, poem, poetry, verse, Words, writing

I guess that I’d lost sight

Of all that I was

Looking for,

Drowned beneath the words that

Tumbled from my mouth.

Aim to please and try too hard

As all I say is

Left behind,

Shrouded by the clouds we are

Passing by the door.

Wanting always just to please

And hold a candle

To your face,

Burn a smile into the sky

But smiles always fade.

Close my eyes to paint the day

And hope that you’ll

Remember this,

Close your eyes I am not here

And never truly was.

Aim to please and try too hard

As all I say is

Left behind,

Shrouded by the clouds we are

Passing by the door.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020

Something to Say

Tags

Communication, creative, Depression, loss, Love, nostalgia, poem, poetry, Relationships, Something to Say, verse, writing

There was something that I wanted

To say to you

Before the feeling was drowned

By words

In the moments when the ghosts

Moved amongst us

Like silkworm strands

Their delicate beauty their strength

Eclipsing the hands as they swept away

The stories that we had been sold

Before the skies grew dark above

Our heads

In the days when the ghosts

Drifted from our sight

Like cataract clouds

Their flailing hands now skeletal

Lost behind the numbers that fell from our eyes

Leaving nothing but the dust.

There was something that I wanted

To say to you.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020

Metal Boxes

Tags

Communication, creative, Depression, loss, Metal Boxes, poems, poetry, verse, writing

We hide our thoughts

And faces behind

The fantasies we build

In metal boxes,

The melted sand panes

Reflecting back the cold

Outside,

Holding in our voices

As if they belonged to us

And yet still they slip,

Unruly children,

Through our fingers

As they grasp too late

To ideas on the winter breeze

The chill that keeps us

Safe inside,

Open-mouthed we gasp the poison

That bleeds into our sanctum

Wishing that the journey was worth

The destination,

That our voices would join

With those we hold

In silent esteem,

That we could stay

Forever cocooned in glass and steel,

That all we would be

Would lead us home.

P

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020

Hamster

Tags

Belief, creative, faith, Hamster, loss, nostalgia, poems, poetry, verse, writing

Kicking around in the dust

Of another directionless day

Wishing on a long dead star

That revelation is real

We were stillborn in this place

Reached up through the lattice of weeds

Grew old and tired and died here

As if we had ever lived

And floating high above the clouds

We see at last what all this if for

The hamster running on his wheel

The time that nevers ends

The pull of procreation

That withers in the dying light

And leaves our winters colder

Than the ghosts that haunt our heads.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020

Set Free

Tags

Communication, creative, hope, Love, poems, poetry, Set Free, time, verse, writing

And one day all of this will end

And all the pain will go away

The days that in our hands we held

Will take their flight and set us free

And I will watch you rise once more

And hope that you will take my hand

These days we grew within our hearts

Will take us deep into our dreams

And one day all the clouds will clear

And all the things we ever saw

Will shower down before our eyes

These days we hold within our hands.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020

Out of Sight

Tags

Communication, creative, Dependency, Depression, lyrics, Out of Sight, poems, poetry, verse, writing

Well I don’t think that I

Can take this anymore,

When I’m lying here again

On the kitchen floor,

With a drowning heart

And the bottles all dead,

And the countdown ringing

Echoes in my head.

Outside in the black night

Where the voices still ring,

Each one a bit louder

To mask out everything,

But later much later

Beneath blankets they crawl,

In stuporous dreaming

Denying the fall.

And when the Sun comes around

See the time’s just the same,

Don’t reach too deep inside

To find someone to blame,

Close your eyes to the day

And hold on to the night,

Keep the cellar door locked

And the demons out of sight.

Well I don’t think that I

Can take this anymore,

When I’m lying here again

On the kitchen floor,

With a drowning heart

And the bottles all dead,

And the countdown ringing

Echoes in my head.

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020

Different Shores

Tags

Belief, Communication, creative, Depression, Different Shores, faith, hope, isolation, nostalgia, poems, poetry, Roots, verse, writing

We set sail for different shores

A chance to greet new horizons

And carve a name where once was none

To plant our feet on holy ground,

We threw our maps into the sea

To trust to luck and winking stars

And casting dreams upon the winds

Our faith forever in the brine,

We sought the land birds on the wing

Strained our ears to hear their song

And when the call came from the crow

We took to task with hungry hands,

We welcomed in the virgin green

As if we’d never loved before

And set our rootless feet upon the shore

But never felt the tendrils grow,

We let our restless eyes look back

To all the things we’d left behind

And heard our past love’s whispered words:

“Come back, come back, come home to me.”

© All original writing copyright Chris Nelson 2000-2020