Words from greater artists

“We were together. I forget the rest.” ~ Walt Whitman

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ~ Lao Tzu

“So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.” ~ Paulo Coelho

 “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” ~ John Lennon

“Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.” ~Kahlil Gibran 

“Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.” ~ Anaïs Nin

“I love you without knowing how or when or from where. 
I love you straightfowardly, without complexities or pride: 
So I love you because I know no other way than this: 
Where I do not exist nor you, 
So close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
So close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.”

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?” 
― Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems

“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.” 

“Ten times a day something happens to me like this - some strengthening throb of amazement - some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.” 
― Mary Oliver

“I like flaws and feel more comfortable around people who have them. I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.” —Augusten Burroughs

Tulip fingers

You hid it
       exquisitely
bruise behind your smile
your beauty fell like flaking paint
       on an ancient home

I knock gently
             daisy in hand
             shoes removed
             awkward feet holding timid toes in holy socks
Waiting . . .
You're not home today

I left a lick of fresh paint on your threshhold,
       a note for curious eyes that read
'you are a child of the stars, you know'

One hundred and eighty four days into my apprenticeship,
I learned something of the structure of old houses
              how they sway in gentle breezes
              there was a view to the stars in your attic but
I could not stop sneezing from all the dust

I'd look for stray planks of wet wood
     build a bridge up your creaking steps
     hold my breath that you'd answer when I knocked again
You never did.

Clouds are out in full force today,
it's not raining so you stay hidden
           ridding myself of all smallness
           I make cumulus my horizon line
                       step into my wings
                       throw myself off the daily cliff
I know the stars will be my streetlights when i've no longer got nightvision

A blind man feels his way past me
pausing
           to ask why I'm crying
I said, I'm losing my sight of the wonder in this world
I said, I am losing myself in splinters and bent nails
           my eyes need emptying
I left the best parts of me
           safe in the chest of a ghost
           gave myself a wheezing lung
           and its burning
from all the smoke
           bleeding
from all the broken mirrors

One hand on his heart, the other reaching toward me
He flicked a pocketknife open
placed a spring in my palm
drew a ring of blood around it
           'Breathe..
See how this tested metal needs blood sweat and tears
            to become

We run about this life following heart lines and hippie trails
Life lines and tales of to-be children
            but no one mentions the scar line
Have you never seen freckles, ridges and warts
That speak of your mortality too?

The stories of the skin are forever ever-changing,
Do not forget the blood of scars is the same as the blood of blushing
Do not forget that you exist, no matter what condition you're in
Child, feel blessed for your splinters and failures
They show that you have lived.
Know that you will bounce back like the spring
Even with blood on your lips.'

I look down at my hand.
See dirt under each nail, carefully placed
So when you left, your tulips could grow
From my fingertips
Your roots could infuse my nervous system
Fuck
I miss you

Blind man taps out of frame
leaning heavily on my words,
Taking my burdens along with all the others
I am alone again.

I tip toe back past the old house
leave buds in your letterbox
plait some grass together
leave the path to your door free of weeds
           this is my peace offering
           yes it is too late
           no I will not stop trying

There's never anyone home anymore
in the abandoned shack of a memory,
though I drop all my tears in your gardens
nothing will grow there
the ground is frozen
I know it's not my fault, it's winter,
Still, I can't think of anything to say other than
I'm sorry

I'm sorry I did not accurately capture the scent at your neck
that the stain on my pillow 'pon waking is
         wept rememberance
         instead of
         leaked dreaming
I used to lose myself in your smell

We were safe
My nose in your neck
heart bashing against lungs
climbing my rib-ladder
to reach your tongue
'taste my vibration', I'd whisper

I leave incense on your window ledge now,
a glass of sweet water to wet my lips
somehow swallow my dusty vocal chords.

Sun drops
the spectrum
on your stoop
Colouring ciggie butts
Old ash leaving charcoal smudges
in your creases

I've seen so many thresholds since you left
I've found myself a stranger everywhere

I don't know what to do with myself
          so I go on
          playing with the flaking paint
          sanding a rough patch away
          admiring the layered warmth of the wood

I pray you're having good dreams
I pray your new reality is less battle and more beauty
I see your ghost waving at me still
but I thank God you finally got to sleep
though I no longer believe in 'Him.'

The fucked thing is
no one else got to see your
      vintage lace curtains
      broken oil lamps
      the pieces of sea shells by the back door
      hanging on tangled strings
but me

and now i've gone and lost the front door key.

up

the insatiable pull of the sky
      an anti-gravity
crying out to me
inter-mittently

fall
     into
           me
               softly
or at great speeds
fall somehow, whether lost or completely free,
jumping, tumbling, screaming,
fall into me

toes bouncing before long
to take off
pile as many hearts into this basket as I can
fill up high to our eyelids in helium,
we fly away while

the world
shrinks
underneath us

heart y o u

paw paw shine from a distance
hair coiffed
just a hint of deoderant
or cologne
high-collar, thick heel, long coat,
fitted

companion leans in for a cheeky whisper,
he throws an appreciative smile
down a delicate neckline

subtle blush
dropped bottom lip
mind in last night's midnight
rendez - vous

their little secret

cory wrote andrew a note;
               '  ever notice
how the neckhole of a lifevest
resembles the saving grace inside my chest?
              i heart you andrew x'

WORKSHOP ALERT!

Hello lovely ones,

I am very excited to announce the first workshop in a series for SpokenWord/Performance Poetry at a wonderful space on Broadway called Work Shop. Check out the invite here, get involved and find your inner voice! http://www.work-shop.com.au/course/spoken-word-with-jessie-ray-from-art-party/

you inspire me

you inspire me like there's a wire tugging all the magnets in my chest / like the best parts of me are suddenly freed up and stick feverishly / to your heartstrings / you add fuel to my fire before letting the sky take her embers / remembering it cannot burn you if you keep the staff turning / remembering that we learn each time the fire dies, of the power of starlight /

you inspire me pulling up corners of the carpet of drudgery / til the floorboards underneath are gleaming / til we tapdance on the wood leaving little dents / kicking legs in the air / dense shadows the only indication that we have been here / we are still here / together / bent out of shape and more beautiful for it

you are the fireflies bringing stars to our gardens / sure they fly in lazy circles but small suns shine out of their arses / and sure they only live for two days, but those two days are filled to the brim with crazed flying, sparkling bodies and and the belief that they will remain, somehow, stay somehow, long after the somedays are over

you inspire me like the last peg in the basket / holding me up to the wind to mask the dampness / I'll amplify my vision through your glasses and never will we let the bastards get us down / for you, frowns exist only as upside down kisses and you dance a little jig just to prove you've kept your silliness / fill me up with a spark for a second, love / power in me the shine I give on / even lightbulbs need a power source sometimes

you inspire me like the birth of an idea growing wings / like the light in a childs eyes when they learn of possibilities / there's a whole world of wonder you claim as your own / grown from a seed you buried carefully in the middle of your imagination / there is no nobler a pursuit than creation

when i fell over into a bucket and drowned / you tipped it over gently sharing the water around and said, hey, listen, buckets are for putting fires out / or collecting drought water, not for drowning in / there is no sin in sadness little ray but you'll choke if you swallow it all yourself

i've not spoken to you about this yet  / true I'm not even sure if you get it / if you fully understand the impact you've had on me, friend / you are the truest definition of godsend