Fine Lines

Been a bit scatterbrained lately, but this was a nice moment of clarity on the train...

"Fine Lines"

It's unusually hot
Sticky moist one wants not
When you're deep underground
And you can't move around
People mumble and groan
Yet the machine moves on
Wherever we need be
For a moment universally...

Stops they come and go
Maybe half wants to know
Why the powers that be
Strangle so completely;
And she's looking to me
'Cause I came across her face
Attempting to line
This space and this time;
Fine...

Chill comes
Yet here I am
Sweating profusely
Lost in the rock
Over bridge and sea
In my corner of life
I attempt to maintain
On the tattoos of her
Inspiration comes again
As they look to me
Curiosity
Streaks across the mind
If not the face
In this place and time
Where I attempt to line
Minutes that pass
Fine...

Faces come and they go
Places one never knows
Beyond their interest inlaid
What's willing to be paid
For discovery
The chance to expand
Beyond their corners
Their private miseries
And the seconds that pass
So fine...

Always leaves me with new lines.
©2009clarencecbess

The Hard Way

This is an oldie... Was going through my collection and came across this one. It seemed to sum up a present situation and none-the-less the road to which I will have to take to solve it. I have never done anything on time or the easy way and often joke that knowing me, I'll be the last to die amongst those I know and I'll be late to my own funeral...

"The Hard Way"

And I like it
Place I want to go sit
Think about the torments
And what is really known
Shit
There I go once again
Wrestling with the truth
Sin
And the way my youth is ending
The way my soul
It grows thin
A whisper of a shadow
The broken pane of a window
Looking so together
Yet fragile to the weather
Of life's spin
Wonder where my story ends
Is it here upon your lips friend
As you kiss me and the truth swells?
Looking for answers to questions at hand
Innocent
Like a child's glance
I am at the road's bend
Caught between a rock
And caught in the questions
Of a hard plan...
©2004clarencecbess

Second Glance

Just that. Sometimes on the train you see people. You don't really want to look, but you are drawn somehow. Then you assume. You assume until you are given a reason not to... Even the most hideous of creatures has a moment of beauty.

“Second Glance”

She looked taken.
Jagged
Removed
With the strangeness of her face
A topographical holocaust
That never made it
To reconstruction;
He stroked her
Lovingly
Purposefully
Reassuring her thigh
What lay hidden between
That he was the one
Would always be there
Even amongst the destruction
As it was
Or could be;
The train slowed
Announcement came
He rose and parted
She all alone
Confused I became
In my perverted mind
I replayed events
Bringing new meaning
To vision fresh beyond my eyes;
Disgusted I wrote
Trying to snap a moment beautiful
Out of what I’d thought I’d seen
Till she rose
All now so clear
With the protrusion of life
Beset on her range…
Beautiful woman, man, and child
Bringing a little sunshine to my rain…
©2009clarencecbess

Gold

Said it’d like to define my soul
Said it’d like to remake me
As I’m lost in the cold
Said it’d like to break me
But unto I hold
All the joys that take me
Into the gold
Said it’d like to know me
In the midnight stark
Said it’d like to show me
Heaven within the dark
Said it’d like to break me
With truths of the face
Said it’d like to stake me
To finish last in the race
But I go
Into the gold

All the voices I hear
As I go through life
All the stares I fear
Knowing nothing’s right
Beneath façade I beam
My attempt to tip-toe away light
Into imagination
It’s freedom the sight
So bold
It’s power the call
So gold

Maybe it’d break me
If I gave it the chance
Maybe it’d take me
If I asked for a dance
Maybe it’d know me
If I weren’t so old
To damn myself eternity
Beyond the gold
©2009clarencecbess

Morning With You

Based on the previous post, you may think me bipolar...lol! Strange, I have always operated that way. I can go from a rather intense internal sadness to the utmost joy in a matter of seconds. Thanks Mike for the inspiration! Totes...

“Morning With You”

Breeze through shades
Shadowed
Playful
Teasing us views of the world
Outside
Inside
With you
Sunrise
Heavy-eyed
Surprise
Liquid grounds
Your pains
Quiet
Your kisses
Loud
Communicative
Consistent
Why leave?
Breeze through shades
Across me bare
Of body and mind
I’ll leave you be
For the moment this morning
Only to lament the goodbye…
©2009clarencecbess

Love Song For Mediocrity

I tried to know
Trespass upon the hills of growth
Tried to steal
Everything I could
In the land beyond the real
For how could I
Make my way beyond
Shadows of the night
Staying through days
With my knowledge locked away
Upon the verse
A tired love song
For the man cursed at birth
To die upon the wood;
Maybe that's where it all comes from
That which makes me come undone.

I tried to show
With a big side of blessing
And just a little bit of the know
You too could grow
But my bed's too full of weeds
Not enough roses there did seed
For how could they
Even though I know the best they tried
Sometimes I wish a little they'd danced
And lied;
And maybe that's where it all comes from
The reason why I come undone.

Just behind every fight
My eyes grow a little more tired
From the secrets I keep inside
As all the little things I thought that mattered
Won't help to pay the bills
To get me ahead in life
For survival and manners aside
It's all about selling the rights
(And I 'aint talkin' about the Saturday night fights);
Maybe that's where it all comes from
The reason why it all comes undone.

I tried to know
Trespass upon the hills of growth
Tried to show
Even in this state of being
Possibility's all one needs for reason
And that's gettin' hard to believe in
Just like he died for my sins
When shadows of the night
Follow me through days
Leaving me to languish on the contributory vine
Wilted
In the reality of subsistence...
©2009clarencecbess

Evolution

Or is it de-evolution? I informed a friend today of a notice I received in the mail. His response, 'You're such an idiot'. Sad part is, he's right. One would think I'd learned my lesson by now, and yet here we are...

"Evolution"

Here it comes
The cresting of the waves
Troublesome breaks
Upon the shores of my existence.

Waves
Created in places far away
Small at their conception
Now thunderous
Ravenous
Seeking to devour
My ramshackle sanity
As I somehow knew they would;

The worst of it all
As black foretold the white
'Death, but not for you'
I
Forever go on
Collecting along
The debris that will clutter
As it has before
Art from destruction
Symphony
From shrill winds and sea breeze
Misting my path
Erasing the memory of me;

I'd ask
What have I done to deserve this
But it is to my nature
As surf to the shore
Remaking
Remade
In the constant destruction
That is evolution...
©2009clarencecbess

Bowed To Love

So I'm conflicted. I have a deeply held belief (that is somehow based in fact) that if I write for someone who I am emotionally attached or attracted to, the relationship falls apart. Though those close to me might disagree, I am not much of a talker. I've toiled over how this came to be, but have never minded since I have my poems to speak for me. With that being said, I met someone. Over the past few days I have tossed about several ideas for pieces but have made a rather concerted effort not to pen them. As a hopeless (or is it hapless?) romantic, I can't help but to wear my emotions on my sleeve. But it is draining when time after time the very tool I am to use to express those emotions leads to unfulfilled potential. I will never understand why people run away. The 1st entitled "Nothing" won't be posted here as it unfinished and will very-likely remain that way. The second is "Bowed To Love". I only hope that for once I can break this curse... I know. I ramble...

“Bowed To Love”

I’d like to love
You
As blue skies in spring
Love
Like a robin’s song does sing
Free
Clean
Renewed
Bowed to love
Beam
My brightest smile
Attempting to think of things
I’d love
To bring to you upon my wings;

I’d love to love
You
As sweet as my daydream
Love
Lost in your eyes that call
Me away
Free
Consumed
Cleared to love
Scream
Greatest relief
As I attempt to hold
Spell cast
With first touch
Spread wing
Desire’s flight
I the robin sings
Bowed to love
The summer that I dream…
©2009clarencecbess

Damask And Blue

I stand alone
Sifting through doubt and reason
My heart a home
Boarded and vacant through seasons

No light was shone
In dark I despair this treason
Your eyes did show
When at last the question was given

To dance without
Heaven in my arms forever
Betrayal did damn
On waltzes of sin so clever

Damask and blue
I drift away
Yet somehow I want to hold you.
Would it be true
If I stand to say
That life should part me to want you?

I stand alone
Sifting through soul and reason
In one hand atonement
From your flowing tears that glistened
In other my stand
To go on alone without you

Should I be damned
To walk paths so close to dales and
What could be shallow remorse
From a heart still too cold to comprehend?

Damask and blue
I’m here to stay
In this moment a man of decision
So I dare to love
For love is the way
For love is the sweetest gift to be given.
©2009clarencecbess

Rocket Ship

Feeling like total crap today... Between the medication and lack of enough sleep despite having slept pretty heavy due to the NyQuil, not to mention just feeling plain loopy, this is the result... I do these sort of pieces from time to time...

“Rocket Ship”

Resisted
Drowned in this
Escape
Missed
Freedom a kiss
Waits upon lips
Makes heaven the time
Lost in a rift
Drowned in this
Rocket ship

Spirited
Drowned in this
Surprise
Dismissed
Fantasy a pinch
Realized bliss
Upon dreams
And rocket ships

Out among stars
Drowned in this
Escape
Trip
The iris splits
Drowned in this
That makes no sense
Makes splendid the time
Alone
Confess
Pilot on
My rocket ship…
©2009clarencecbess

Good Night

I got up early this morning
Annoyed by the stench
Tossing and turning
In broken dreams
Looking for arduous eyelids
Rest;
Heard the thunder clap
Eternal
Momentarily vibrating my world
In this hour of darkness
I am usually using
To eat
Those little slices of death
Succulent and free known as sleep…

I got up early
Tried to get lost in the rain
Let each curtain
Blanket me
Carry me away
Beyond television and computer screens
Their contents staring back at me
With the inevitable question
‘Why are you here?’
Always on the cusp of each conversation held…

Got up
With all of these things
With creation standing by
Waiting to hold me
Capture the moment
Making vacant my mind
Enabling the black vision that comes
When at last I can lay
Lost in the rain
Letting it’s sporadic fingers play
Across the keys of my soul…

At last
Good night.
©2009clarencecbess