My heart was open.
I think it always was,
which makes it so susceptible
to feeling too much
the lack of love,
the layers of loss.
My heart was open
when you came along.
Lucky, I was.
But I know you were led.
The same light as mine
has found me
again.
Poem and images ©LauraDenise
A petal shell, dried and fragile,
colorless, ready to detach.
Another wilted, drooping
in response, also giving
in.
Hopelessness.
Except
love nourishes, can always win,
just needs
more than waiting on the wind;
love needs help
for love is not always enough.
Love needs lovers
to rise up.
Love then can touch,
surround in green and blooms,
grow the heart,
heal the wounds.
I’ll harness the setting sun,
and feed it
to you.
It’s my turn
to be strong.
Hang on, my love.
Love with nourish us through.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:13)
Love never fails.
(1 Corinthians 13:8)
Dangerous to dream, I know.
Foolish to fly in a bubble!
Either could burst
without notice,
drop you fast in a plummet
to the hard reality surface.
But what if…
the trajectory was directed
by angels’ breaths
and the bubble made impenetrable,
a shield only able to be
forged from the past,
and you were gently lowered
precisely as intended
by the benevolence
of your higher power
assisting you in the navigation
toward your heart’s
deepest and purest desire?
What if the bubble
met passion’s fire?
And in the ashes
two phoenixes rose
and began new life
and left behind
all the rainbows
found in bubbles?
Poem and images ©LauraDenise
If I offered you my hand,
would you walk with me,
leisurely toward dreams
sunsetting upon the sea?
If I shared what’s in my shell,
let you hear the whispers,
would you heart-preserve them
among your dearest treasures?
If I stopped and turned
and looked into your eyes,
would I find there
what I’ve been searching for
all of my life?
If I were brave enough
to let that gaze linger,
would you be brave enough
to close the distance
even further?
If you kissed me,
would you be able to surrender,
to allow me to turn the key
and make you mine
forever,
not by locking,
but by releasing,
freeing the love
you’ve been deep-freezing,
to feel directly
the flutter of mine,
the wings I have grounded
indefinitely from flying?
And if they combined,
these lights in our souls,
would you regret
not having the time
for closure with
your shadows?
If our union ends
up to be the origin
of love,
would this moment
be perfect enough
for the first page
of our album?
Would you fall
each day deeper
in love with me;
would our love grow
until it lifts us
into eternity?
I suppose if you don’t know
all of this now,
I’d still like to walk with you
awhile,
and if you already know
all of this now,
you should know
these feelings in me
I could never
disavow.
As you reach for my hand
even though none of this
I have said aloud,
I feel the universe shift
and know I have been
finally found.
Poem and image ©LauraDenise
Inner chamber protected,
guarded. Scarred.
Misused and abused
before.
Colors over decades
fade.
Doors and windows
boarded.
The softness of you
like dawn.
Patience watercolors
shared canvas in pastels.
Gradually, I reach
to try some,
apply upon my soft shell.
Day by day, ébauche
to a never-final coat.
Overflowing well within
now self-saturates.
Self-love’s ducts
unclogged.
A Master peace of love:
brought together,
soulmates.
Poem and images ©LauraDenise
Kiss me
like the dawn
blushes the petals’ soft pinks,
gradual illumination
that candle-flickers
inside of me.
Chill the red wine.
Don’t cut red roses.
Just be the soft drizzle
of rain upon love’s garden.
We can restore
the passion
when the moon rises,
but for now,
linger on me longer
in the slow romance of
the morning.
Poem and image ©LauraDenise
Some chambers
of the heart
cannot be revived,
but somehow, in time,
the others manage
to thrive,
filling in with extra
color and light,
like fall delicately
preserved despite
the returning of spring,
some things
simply adapt inside,
like a damaged heart
that syncs
to another’s beat,
incapable of replacing
or restoring that part
but giving new life
to a deserved and beautiful
heart.
Poem and image ©LauraDenise
Between my fingers, I slowly twirl
the way I’ve done before,
white petals like the pinwheel
that may in turn propel my heart
and set in motion in the universe
the dreams I’ve protectively harbored,
but now I realize, those dreams have been
all granted by the stars,
so the only thing that fades
in the mist of heaven’s clouds
is my grip on hope
for I can release the hold
now that I have been delivered
to your arms.
Two as one,
not covering
but applying love
to each other’s
torn parts,
yin and yang,
light and dark,
overlapping hearts.
The beam
I refract
from a hole
you cannot reach;
it lights your eyes
and our soul rings.
Our shape
together,
only ours
and ever
green.
I wouldn’t change
a thing…
Poem and images ©LauraDenise
Each moment
I gently hold
so tenderly,
each for a separate
still-life eternity,
seal in a crystal
tear of joy,
baubles of my heart
hung in the field,
suncatchers upon
the Tree of Life,
and I kneel and feel
the kiss on my bowed head
from the Light,
and my Father whispers,
“It is what I have always wanted
for you, my sweet child.”
I rise and return
to the heaven
of your love,
and just for today,
for us,
time slows down…
Laura Denise 