*Smiles with in Solitude*

Agreed. That one is definately awesome, a good showcase of your talent.

""As I sit before the fire, I wonder how many before myself have been burned.'"

I was crying and for some reason I couldn’t stop.
A storm brewed with in me,
As my tears destroyed me from the inside--there flow would not cease.
Scattered through out my being,
I could not gather myself.
The outside voices of life swallowed up by inner screams,
Which were only heard by me.
The pain, the utter fear went through the world,
Like an earthquake.
The roads and bridges connecting me to the outer world were shattered.
All I could feel were the tears.
Days and Months passed,
Still the tears would not stop.
My pain was unheard of,
My fears never seen.

As gravity pulled down the empty vessels of water,
I found myself standing in a crowd,
I was not alone.
The roads covered in bodies of shattered souls,
While I stood there feeling the storm with in turn in to chaos.

I was torn by utter hatred,
As battles of past wars and conflicts raged through my system.
Perplexed with the lack of control,
I was not confused of my being.
I new what drove me to my actions,
I was angry.
Not at myself nor at those that surrounded me,
But at the one who chose to create another rather than stand and protect me.

In cased in my tears,
I stood there hoping the truth were merely lies.
But hoping got me nowhere,
I was right and I hated you for that.
"PROVE ME WRONG! SHOW ME I'M WRONG!"
I wasn't and I knew from the start.

I stood there crying with out control,
As you walked on pass me with out even flinching.
I was fighting, struggling to get out
And you just ignored me.
I fought through the shattered souls,
And still you shunned me.

My tears just an illusion.
You let me drown in my own blood.
I was killed by my own blood
And I hate you for that.

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"

Summer Freedom
sunlight song
playing upon my ear like children on the sidewalk.
The mower purrs across the streeet
while a weedwhacker releases that fresh-cut smell to my nostirls.
A car drives by, a cheer within
as high school students celebrate thier freedom from stifling classrooms
and incarcerating textbooks.
The birds are singing a sunlit song
bright and liberated from the cold.
The sky is a deep light blue
like a mirror tinted with slight cobalt.
I hang my sunglasses on the bridge of my nose
since the sunlight song is too loud for my eyes
and I need to drive. But my ears strain
for what the glasses filter out.

""As I sit before the fire, I wonder how many before myself have been burned.'"

A four-year wait,
An endless battle to make the list.
Warriors of the highest quality compete,
Many destroyed on their first try.
A crowd gathers and the halls are silent by scream of the believers.
They work as one,
Assimilated but not lost.
Characteristics that defines each one.
Families’ gather,
Our differences become a similar trait.
Our goal becomes harmonized,
Their future at stake.
We cheer with our battle cry in hopes of success.
This battle presents it self our spirits in rest.
At the edge of our seats,
We wait in anticipation.
Our heart skips a beat for each minute that passes.
Time dwindles down,
And the pressure increases.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
As the dust settles,
We wait for the final tally.
Have we won? Or
Do we go home with our tail between our legs?

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"

Two weeks with nary a sight of the angel
who ducks behind clouds and plays beyond eyes
day in and night out, she toils loyally
walking the golden paths to the stone where she may engrave her name,
a stone wrapped in clouds, visible to the high,
while I stand on the earth, looking up and wondering, wishing
"am I here?"
Fourteen days, three hundred thirty-six hours, 20160 minutes, uncountable moments I've sat back and wondered, wished, dreamed
that I'd be near her for an instant.

I saw her today,
weary from her trek through time and space
her eyes still smiled, her arms were tired
(her mother was outside.)
I kept my distance, stepped away, close enough
so her eyes were warming yet my touch wouldn't alight the sentry.
We talked about her journey and mine as well,
hers in the clouds, mine upon dirt
I felt unworthy, I always have.
And now, after that brief half-hour,
I went along my way, thinking, always thinking,
being eaten by my mind.
She will remain so busy, for two more weeks
then a week of freedom I dare not step upon
then two more weeks, then I dive again into the labyrinth
of education. And she will remain so busy.
I date the invisible, for I seem to be nearsighted myself.
Where am I falling?

""As I sit before the fire, I wonder how many before myself have been burned.'"

I was told of a place I can call home with out prying eyes watching my every move,
I've been looking for it sometime now.
Side to side I move,
Digging left and right without finding a way out.
I’m beginning to loose hope.

A door opens day and night,
I'm yet to see what's on the other side.
New life comes and goes,
We don't seem to last long here.
I'm afraid, and alone.

Tales of the outside begin to die off,
As many lose faith and give in to the madness.
Laughter of children, as the elderly vanish.
My past becomes a myth,
And I drift into sadness.

I bang my head on the glass,
Which seems to show me glimpses of the outdoors,
I'm hoping it’s an illusion.
The unseemly sight of freedom disgust me,
The land before me a wasteland.

My origin forgotten,
Not many of me are seen now.
A legend of my ancestors,
A relic of my time.
I am dying without a way back home.

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"

I wake up to screams of disapprovals,
I'm tired of these words.
Created emotions that go up on canvases,
My work's misunderstood.
My beauty an acquired taste,
I'm not what I reflect.

I walk through the screams of disappointment,
You dislike what I've become.
Feelings through imagination,
I draw what I find with in.
Lovely through touch,
I sting when I am held.
I am everything I seem to be.
To some I'm nothing more.

I watch the screams with the eyes of disdain.
I find myself alone in this world.
I know I'm not alone.
I write down havoc and destructions,
Weaving in all the lies that consume me, and those that have destroyed me.
Hideous and Appalling,
You can't help but be lured in.
I am living proof of evil that is lost with no way home.

I sleep to find discomfort,
My surroundings seem unsafe.
Empathy is just a notion
Gagged and bound with in my soul.
I'm protected by deception that I've created through the year.
My radiance is quite hypnotic,
Killing all that touch my skin.
I am the definition of nothing
And a summary of everything.

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"

I feel like an iron bar
one of many building the jailer's door
cold steel, I've seen many through my rusty gates
some lean up against me looking for strenght
some for support.
All of which I gladly give, in return for warmth.
It's my trade, my price for being there.
A few lean for the sake of leaning, fewer still
see the iron bar as a friend, a brother.
They kiss me, and my cold steel morphs into livened flesh
and I return the honor.
She let me have no more heat than the rest
but hers was a flame I desired so deeply
I would have died for her life.
But I did not return enough, or I became so enamored
I lost my strength.
So she god up and walked away
and I watched my flesh solidify
stiffen
and the Iron Man crumbled into dust.

""As I sit before the fire, I wonder how many before myself have been burned.'"

There's a scar on my wrist I'd just assume stay closed
a memory of a lie.
There's a scar on my leg where a dog onced latched on long ago
it's faded, and the dog gets taller and taller as I grow.
There's a scar on my heart that hasn't yet scarred
and I'm flooding it with the salty tears
trapped within, and unable to escape.

""As I sit before the fire, I wonder how many before myself have been burned.'"

Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.
Don't cry because it's over, smile-
it happened.
The cut.
A clean break. Set it in plaster
in time, healing.
For now, we'll stab you with needles laden with memories
yellow dresses, a mark upon her hand
soft voices, sparkles of a woman's eye;
(You know, usually the doctor puts the needle in, we'll do it for you.)
Oh you don't need our painkillers, says Doctor Mind.
Your throat, your sturnam is squeezing itself to the point of
ceasing to exist. You head will simultaneously implode, explode
and remain the bloody same all at once.
Can we stop it- no. It has to happen.
For only that way will your eyes pop, lips deflate, and mind stop.
So you can jump up and cry "I'm ready, World!" from your current position of spattered upon the boulevard of broken dreams. (Ah, I said it, Green Day, the check is in the mail.)
So go ahead, sir, scream if you wish
cry if you can. (You cannot? Dear me, this is worse than I thought.)
Well, very well, you're in isolation
a camp within nowhere, no people, no sound
a lake to save you or a lake in which you drown
endless cool water, not a drop to drink, the hot water tank is in the dump
a cold shower is all we offer, so freeze in peace.
World, close the doors for a while.
Let him be.
We'll check on him perhaps when it's time
to close the facility for the weekend.

""As I sit before the fire, I wonder how many before myself have been burned.'"

I once had the honor of knowing an angel
with the turn of a card, my hand laid in hers
while hers lay in mine. Beauty and the beast
for with her, my smile had some meaning to it.
We rose together, scrabbling seperately for more light
her kiss of fire, hand of silk.
But as battles and promises took their toll
she drifted, I stayed, catching fleeting glimpses
until the last I saw of her, pushing away
from the last kiss, not of passion but of chore.
And then- she was gone.
Rising higher, white wings embroiled in winds
as I fell
fell down a tube of reaching hands
whom I'd grasped on the way up
they're like a blur as I dive, eyes wide open.
The chalice flies from my hand and shatters in my visage
(why not the floor, please lord, let it stop)
But a hand grasps mine, than another, than another
as they turn me around, trying to make me look up.
My eyes are tight and stabbing, but I try to open them.
Someday I'll see the light
when she reaches her summit and looks down for a fleeting instant.
I'll hide my face, for she deserves the best view of all.

Once she's finished, I'll resume my climb.
In the company of dear friends failure and remorse
resolve, doubt, dispair
I'll need to pull together if
I am to grasp another hand as I did hers.

I loved her. But now
to love is to leave. Very well.
She may read these words, and I just want to know
that for once in my existance
I did something right for a change.

""As I sit before the fire, I wonder how many before myself have been burned.'"

Impressive!

Here we have several good examples of the manipulation of meanings to create imagery.

"Dont drink the water"

The slaughter of the endless screams.
They are crying yet the pain never ends.
The swift breeze of fresh air hits my eyes,
and yet I can't seem to enjoy it.

My life is given a new purpose without me even knowing.
I've become dispensable,
My limbs are just a toy.
My life has no real meaning to me,
I'm used as merely a tool.

The precision of the incision becomes a clever game.
Not many get the hang of it,
And it is I who feels the pain.

Motionless, emotionless--I've lost it all with in a day.
My nutrients abolished,
Experiences cut short.

I'm tided down and cut down,
I'm lost through all the noise.
I'm made into a learning experience,
And yet it's not I who learn.

I'm motionless and dispensable.
And you’re the only one to blame.

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"

I peel the skin one layer at a time. I’m falling apart, at no fault of my own. The floor around me fills up with layers of what used to be me. I’m renewed and refreshed, my skin feels the painful breeze of the summer winds.
I kneel down next to my past, as I continue to peel back the layers of what once used to be me. I look profusely for answers to my past but still I find nothing disappearing into the night.
My blood flow frozen and yet my heart burns on as I search for the answers that elude me through out time. I leave no follicle unturned; the flesh around me stays alive. I wait to find the answers as I take my self apart.
The smell of death is all around me and yet my past seems fresh and pure. My eyes seem to deceive me as my skin starts spewing lies. My skin holds all the answers, which I am unable to uncover. I’ll continue to destroy myself in order to learn the truth with in my past. In order to find the truth that hides with in.

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"

I seem to understand you,
Your tears seem all too familiar.
Your pain and fears go right through me,
I know what you are going through.
Your fragments of illusion are magnified through my imagination.
My flaming torch burns through your lies,
Your anger visible with in my mind.
You seem to understand it all,
Yet you’re lost with in yourself unable to escape.
Your made of stone and memorable,
Your words unbroken by time.
But I can seen you falling,
A vortex of shame undoing your thoughts.
I see the unseen,
I understand it all to well.
Our pride will keep us silent,
Our pain will be unknown.
We’ll stand there understanding,
Without sharing it with the world.

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"