Do You Know?

Do you know?

By

Lisa A.Williams

Do you know

the words

 distant heart,

Eden still sings

in her paradise

so long buried in the

 dreams of men?

How she rose

from the thorns

wiping the blood

of time

from her garments of

forgiveness?

Her heart,

 though wounded

still beats

the numinous song

of angels.

We Can't Leave This

We Can’t Leave This

(December 14, 2012)

By

Lisa A.Williams

We can’t leave this

emptiness

even the earth feels

in her core,

from the loss

of innocence

taken under

a bright sky

who could not see

what lurked in the shadows.

Heaven now cradles

what earthly love cannot.

Their empty arms

embrace each other,

seeking solace

for a grief

                                                                        like no other.

Wednesday's Wishes

Wednesday’s Wishes

By

Lisa A. Williams

Wednesday’s wishes

followed Mercury’s muse-

So much to say,

enough to fill an empty

sky-

Wishes for more,

another life

to begin again

holding death at bay

To remember

all this-

 Cache of understanding

and acceptance

in a place where time

has no mercy;

on the heels of the messenger

                                                                         it flies away

What Can be Said?

What Can be Said ?

By

Lisa A. Williams

What can be said

about the darkness

which filled

a sunny school day

where a raging monster

took their lives away

with cold metal

so easily put in his hands

bent on destruction?

As little lives

were sacrificed-

 time stopped

for all of us

uniting us in a sorrow

screaming to heaven

as God looked down

and wept on a world

                                                                     gone so wrong

Records in the Snow (reposted from 09/2012)

Records in the Snow

By

Lisa A.Williams

                   

Mother-

thin blood

between us.

Fathers-

one stood by,

one abandoning

his absence

always feeding

a green need.

Cast into the cold,

we found our music-

45’s

haphazardly tossed

like Frisbees,

landing upright

in a dead of winter snow,

our treasure creating

a warmer air

between us.

Rushing in

to hear old songs-

“Hey Paula”,

our first discovery

followed by

The Tokens

and their sleepy lion

then the Beatles asking

                                                                  if we “want to know

a secret”

and did we “promise

not to tell?”

Girlish giggles

filled the tiny room.

For a short time,

we were bonded

by our love for the music,

only for it to be consumed

by old hurt’s homecoming.

I wonder

after all this time,

if she still remembers

the records in the snow?

There is a Window

There is a Window

By

Lisa A.Williams

In my house

there is a window,

murky with doubt

and duty.

I know there is something

beyond the pane

so clear, revealing itself

to my half closed lids.

Fear filled years

to wipe it clean

and see beyond.

So tainted by debris,

the time consuming task seemed

endless

but I grew tired of dreaming

wishing to see

all that I had missed.

A rain of words-

some following a thunder

deluged,

I refused to sink-

and tasted truth,

seeing my reflection

In The Doorway

In The Doorway

By

Lisa A.Williams

The masses,

cloaked in ritzy black

passing without

notice-

 Girl in the doorway

 beautiful face

bathed in addiction.

 Staring

at the life not hers-

 huddled in embryonic loss

shivering in

 December’s cold embrace,

thirsty veins in want

of Utopia.

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis

By

Lisa A.Williams

And so we stand

facing each other

ghosts haunting our past

fear lingering

in the dark of ourselves.

Years have made us strong

we embrace it all-

the old we couldn’t let go of,

the new which

 fills us with hesitation.

We sift through all

 those days we

 breathed away,

scattering ourselves

to a merciless wind

who will transform us-

                                                                    in spite of ourselves.

Says The Moon

Says The Moon

By
Lisa A.Williams

I will tell-

says the moon

of

the beginning,

of rising seas with

 their hungry waves

 lapping thunderous tongues

 once tasting

 sweet, salty earth.

Now

earth cries tainted tears

darkened by

 the greed growing shadows 

of more..

Her core hollowed soul

tired of giving,

weeps poison

                                                                    tasted in silence

Stain

Stain

By

Lisa A.Williams

Hands-

dirty

no pureness

could erase.

Eyes-

tired,

dark

remnants

from so  

many years

in the confines

of a modern day

sweatshop

 The bitterness

of regret

for seizing

a livelihood

which beckoned death

with each passing year.

The wood-

its smoothness,

 bathed

in the dark stain

of pretty poison

summons the riches

of buyers

who wish

to lavish homes

with the labor

of

a poor man’s hands.

Another man gives

up the ghost

amidst toxic

occupation

to feed a family

he leaves behind.  

His passing

haunts his child’s heart.

Another man dies

in his living,

this time, it is my father.

The Skin You Don't Know

The Skin You Don’t Know

By

Lisa A. Williams

Wear it gently-

Feel its unfamiliar sheath-

Hold

the one it was born to,

in all its keloidal ache, and

need.

Savor timeless

brine

trickling down, crimson faces

 burnt by enduring

 winds.

Wear it

until it molds to the shape

of all it must embrace.

In the '66 Malibu

In the 66 Malibu

My dad, singing,

“I’m so lonesome I could cry”

How the wind loved to tousle

her thick dark, hair

as my mother, leaned her face toward

 the evening sky.

 Blue eyes

closed to the darkness.

Me, in the back seat

wishing dad would choose another song,

 when he sang the loneliness into safekeeping

  only to be taken by his voice into

 “I can’t help it if I’m still in love with you”

 I chimed in with “How far is Heaven, I want to go,

 I want my daddy, I miss him so”.

As the car pulled gently into the driveway,

he finished his rendition of

“Make the World go Away”.

Now, all these years later,

my parents, gone,

The 66 Malibu but a memory,

I wonder did the love they had

for each other, make them so lonely

they cried until

 the world did go away?

And did my soul

know I would later

sing the same song

about my dad, holding

that heaven in my heart

 while missing

my mother’s eyes,

 hoping

one day she would truly

see me?

Common Thread

Common Thread

By

Lisa A.Williams

Those stories-

how we own them.

Dark witches

casting spells,

knights in shining armor

who never arrive

 to happy our endings.

Silence doesn’t dilute

sorrow’s bitter taste;

It rests inside

coma sleep,

shutting us down

until someone stands up,

arms outstretched

and says

“this is who I am”

then we awaken.

Phyllis

Phyllis

By 

Lisa A.Williams

We don't speak of it-

the loss

 silencing our world.

How arrogant of the sun

to rise

when we were facing 

the black hole emptiness

beyond,

not enough breathing space

for our own grieving.

Some pain can't be shared,

sometimes we are islands

surrounded by restless current,

fearing if we were

to plunge,

we'd breathe in 

another's tears

and drown.

It was good to love you,

but oh how the earth trembled

when we had to say goodbye.

Providence

Providence

By

Lisa A.Williams

Words-

lost in long held breath.

She sits and stares

through the pain,

feeling

all the years-

Wondering if this journey

was her true destiny

or

did she just lose her way?

Mine

Mine

By

Lisa A.Williams

You cannot

  take what is mine-

 cloth I have woven

  from fragments

of a lifetime,

weaved

in hopes

it would shield me

from the blows

of arctic winds.

I learned the cold

would penetrate,

 and I would feel

the icy  bone bitter,

 stillness

of  winter-

The timeless trek

my heavy feet

traveled

in the age old desire

that I could feel

warmth

in someone’s understanding.

Enigma

Enigma

By

Lisa A.Williams

Distance

Desperation-

Creators of the mystery

that is me.

In a cold want,

the embrace, seeds

of  my beginning.

Parts of both-

one I held dear-

the other a denial

until I felt her sorrow

in my own woman world,

man denying dimension;

the dark endless sea

where only woman

can rise to see

the horizon

                                                                       that is her.

Bard

Bard

By

Lisa A.Williams

If the moon

had no sheltering

sky-

alone in the vastness

of a wasteland,

holding all its light

within

so it would be

if pages were left empty

because fear silenced

                                                                            the cry.

Deep Water

Deep Water

By

Lisa A.Williams

I know

the way she feels-

Immersed

 in the turbulent tide,

torn between the freeing

of the waves

and the steady

earth
Standing still,

    eyes fixed on the horizon,

the moon

casts heaven’s reflection

skimming the deep.

How the lunar light

pulls to call her home

but she is earthbound,

turns away

from her reflection.

 Blanketed in

darkness,

she wears the shroud

of “happy”

and returns

to“life”

 drowning

in all its illusions.

Mermaid's Song

Mermaid’s Song

By

Lisa A.Williams

Echoes-

from sea to stone

ascend to kiss the sky,

ancient muse

earth cannot recall.

 Fins

of forever

sweep the tide

in a dance

 only the free remember.

 Her glistening rises

with the waves

as she breathes

 both sea and sky.

How the jealous land

aches for her.

I Have Three

I Have Three

By

Lisa A.Williams

I have three daughters-

 old souls

 of

my being.

In their company,

peace comes easy

as I look into our shared blue eyes.

We talk of history,

of rights and wrongs

the world has committed

 in all her glory.

We wipe each others tears

when life has dished out

more than we think

we can bear.

We hold each others  hearts,

precious beatings that they are,

blood remembering

of how they were all

once shared in a tide

of dark understanding.

I love them more

than they will ever know.

Poor Man's Eyes

Poor Man’s Eyes

By

Lisa A. Williams

I looked into

a poor man’s eyes

where darkness

filled a need

and

want filled the room

as he sat

in his corner

shutting out the world,

no longer seeing

the child’s smile-

so far from his hell

he couldn’t bear

it.

Life took his body,

riches stole his soul,

living was no answer

so he died-

a little more

 each day.

Years

Years

By

Lisa A.Williams

 World riddled

with  uncertainty

and endless

letting go

just as we begin

to taste and savor.

Roots-

steadfast spreading

through the dark soil

of our beginnings,

breathing in

life, then

watching as it vaporizes

into a faraway heaven which

sighs at the slightness

of our being.

Centuries of timeless songs

unearthed by

the aching which

fills the silence

                                                                  of a newborn dawn.

Desert Heart

Desert Heart

By

Lisa A.Williams

Desert heart-

nomad in a lonely land of

                                                                     fallen memories

brittle pieces of self-

cracks in the surface

only we ourselves can see.

Parched heartland

which can give no more

than what is

beneath the stone

we have set

in our solitary quest

to quench

the  undying thirst

for the why

 of us.

Records in the Snow

Records in the Snow

                                                                              By       

Lisa A. Williams

 Mother-

thin blood

 between us.

Fathers-

one stood by,

one abandoning,

his absence

always feeding

a green need.

Cast into the cold,

we found our music-

45’s

haphazardly tossed like Frisbees,

landing upright

in a dead of winter snow.

Our treasure creating

a warmer air

between us.

Rushing in-

to hear old songs-

“Hey Paula”

our first discovery,

followed by

The Tokens

and their sleepy lion.

Then the Beatles asking,

if we “want to know a secret”

and did we “promise not to tell?”

Girlish giggles,

filled the tiny room.

For a short time,

we were bonded

by our love

for the music,

only for it

to be consumed

by old hurt’s

homecoming

.

I wonder

after all this time,

if she still remembers

the records in the snow?