Connection & Belonging Poems

We try our best to keep them alive But cannot best a mother's pride Each bough and bush and twist and bend Nature takes all in the end

Dead wood and rot we cut away So ants and mice have space to play But who has let these trees decay Nature always finds a way

Guard new growth in a tiny cage So deer don't crush in fits of rage But lightning strikes the newest shoot Split in two down to the root

The apple is, by far, The fruit I like the best I drink it behind the bar Dressed in a shirt and vest Tight lines and freshly pressed There's knowledge in this glass Forbidden though it's true Still! Knowledge I will pass For a drop of golden hue For a drop of molted you I'll take from you forbidden fruit You offer platters sweet I taste its juice, my precious loot The flavour can't be beat I'll drink your cider neat

And in her eyes, I do declare Such wonders to behold Other worlds, both bright and fair Miracles new and old With tenderness I cannot bear And something brave bold But still I'm locked into her stare Of blues and greens and gold

There is a special kind of intimacy In the way she flinches when my lips catch The tiny hairs along her shoulder blades An intimacy beyond heat and need. Just My chest against her back My breathing and hers And a kiss to her skin that shivers through Her nervous system

Then—my darling, rest Let's stop and linger here Hold me close, I'll hold you closer Friend, lover, dear

Her eyes find me; dark, blown Secrets and fags on her tongue Shares them all between my teeth She holds me like a prayer She kisses me like I might burn up She holds me like a prayer Shares them all between my teeth Secrets and fags on her tongue Her eyes find me; dark, blown

I thought I was a boulder Dusty forgotten thing, I was, Dirty and bruised and cold, I was, Alone and made of stone, I was Igneous, hollow thing

You put me on your shoulder Carried the weight of me, you did, Cradled the violent shake, you did, Palm soothed the ache of dread, you did See something I could begin

And split then did that boulder And hollow I was inside But many a gemstone glittered Trove in the fractures gaping wide

It looks like this Like a hug from a friend Like a whispered joke Like a breath of wind through the trees Or like a curl of chimney smoke Love looks like a quiet smile A recommendation of a song Love looks like a shared meal A space where you belong Love looks like a borrowed pound A coffee date for friends Love is a shared video game Fight side by side until the end Love looks like feeding pigeons Holding someone when they're blue Love looks into the horrors we hold And love says 'I see you'

There's a wind blows through this house It rattles every door It quakes up through the chimney flue It reaches, seeking more It follows me through every room And cannot be ignored Its voice like ice, its words a shard I'm everything abhored

There's sunlight in her flat Though it's passed midnight A warmth seeps into my bones And leaves me feather light It dapples through the coffee mugs Plants both green and bright And she tells me, soft as the dawn I'm a rare and welcome sight