Expressions - if only I could live up to the aspiration

To say what's on my mind - I write. Some say this self expression's right. But say, do I the right possess To conjure feelings which distress? To hurt the body is unkind. Do we resist to hurt the mind? A word's intangible attack Leaves pain and scar without a smack. Words cunning crafted by skilled wright Convert mere thought to magic rite, And if they're framed with dark intent What right have I these thoughts to vent? Phrases woven, spells and charms, Rendering comfort and dire harms, Entrusted with a calming power Or to crush ones inner flower. With bitter words, distress we make, Trailing tangles, hearts we break. In what way is pain of mind Than fleshly torment less unkind? The words that I so glibly write Are wrapped in thunderclouds of might. In form, quite empty, vacuous, soft But dealing lightning from aloft. And so I wish that from my pen No poisons ever flow again. But even as these lines I write With bitter barbed riposte I fight.

Reflection

From long before your birth was fact, A true companion, match exact Other half of your conception Shun his face through self deception. Wrought from fabric of your being Wholly spend your life in fleeing This your shadow - needs no sun - Blind panic'd race that can't be won. Are you so ashamed of your mate To catch their eye, you truely hate? At ebbing moment of last breath You must accept your brother - death. ---------------------------------------- ["All component things are subject to decay and dissolution"]

Knowing

[listen to poem]
 The taste of a lover's lips,
A smile across a pillow,
Deeply inhaled fresh coffee.
These are things we know,
Vibrantly alive.

 A Christmas morning's wild excitement,
Heart skipping first kiss,
The first best-friend of childhood.
These are things we knew,

Once so alive.
Recollections of long past passion
Retelling of a might-have-been
Recalling happenings gone forever.
Stored husks, erstwhile known,
Shades of the dead.
 Rumors, gossip, whispering voices,
Stories passed down fragile chains,
Twisted hints and innuendo.
Counterfeits of what is known,
Golems wandering in the mind.
 Dogma, doctrine, forms of words,
Things we learn to chant and say,
Ornate formal speculation.
Few indeed their substance know,
Stoney forts on roots of clouds.
 Shades of knowing
Murky waters
Fictions Factions Lost in fog.

Afterlife (or after life)

We are the afterlife
Of that which came before.
We dwell in the now
Of that which builds our store.
We are the pre-birth
Of beings ever more.
 Each life a spark
Showered from bonfire heap.
Each life a wave
Cast up from ocean deep.
Each life a head
Cut down in harvest reap.
 One life a bead strung,
Eternity's pearl-string.
One life a dust mote,
Universe's world-ring.
One life a ghost haunt,
Existence's being.
 Look up to heavens
See your fragment-space.
Look across time's scope
Life step in cosmic race.
Look into your heart
Of diamond, facet-face.
 Don't dwell in a vale
With small views, selective.
Climb to a high place
Afterlife's perspective.