Everything

Encircling one another with naked arms,
the enigma of creation,
all that could be called god
is in this.

The world begins with our love,
warmed by our mingled breath,
and set in motion by our own beating hearts,
echoing each other's voices across the gaps,
pockets of potential between us.

All that is warm, fresh, and new,
bursting with honest joy,
true euphoria sings
beneath the skies of our contentment.

We hold this world
between our brushing bellies,
and pin infinity between our blessed foreheads,
and in the end,
here between us lives
all that we will ever need.

For You, Buddha

And it was then
when my words
dripped
from your lips
like rain falls
on the surface of the river
the body where it began

It was most surely then
when I smelled
the poetry
on your skin
through the forest
and over the mountain
so many miles away

I do know it was then
that I breathed
knowing that you too breathed
and I burned brighter
just knowing that you
were out there
looking for a reason

Bone Love

Your love is my joy and my sorrow.
It is your profession of love,
unsubstantiated
that creates this fear in me.
It is not you I doubt,
but your constancy.
I am assured that you
are firm in your belief,
in your opinion,
of your love.
It is the endurance,
the reality of that love
that leaves me cold,
questioning.
A love unsaid is dead.
The love we force upon ourselves
and the love to which we cling
feel the same.
Both have bones of desperation.

Fight Fair

I am a detester of whispers.
Hater of hushed laughter-
the slivers of spite that wedge themselves-
into eardrums and tear ducts,
beneath nail beds and
rupturing the smallest of the heart's blood vessels.

Shout out your discontent.
Clarify your contentions against me.
Use facts and speak plain,
that I may refute your nonsense
and retain my pride.
Spare me all your veiled contempt,
I refuse to be shrouded thus
and spoken of in third person.

The River Whispers

My river speaks in whispers
the sound of it's voice reaches me beneath the rumbles of traffic,
grievances of sea-birds
and the chorus of leaves in the wind

It's breath smells of mud and stones
as it smears the dampness of growing things
inside my nostrils

To me, it murmurs secrets
why the maples crowd it's banks to watch
it's slow parade to the sea
how it's waters, siphoned from beneath the mountains,
tastes in the mouth of the ocean

It unravels mysteries of being bridge, hurdle, artery
to the beating heart of this world
and in it's hushed, trickling voice
it imparts the wisdom of enduring-
the beauty of moving, always to bigger things



The River Whispers by Dakota Farley

Whats Left

The world wears away all that is
into nothingness
billboards and road signs
now tattered and indecipherable
are testaments to what this Where used to be

Grooves worn in dirt roadways
and footprints in soles of shoes
are evidence of steps that took
all the Them's
from this Once Was
and into oblivion

Shards of glass
in the rotted window frame
flash in the sun,
brief flickers of memories
from when our Whys lit the day
and night
and kept Us roaring through all the Wheres
picking up Hows and
throwing them to the side of the freeway,
as aware of When as the ruins are
here in this ruined Now.


Whats Left by Dakota Farley

Divine Mysteries

I hold them before me in my mind-

On my left, a perfect golden youth
small in stature but so steady
a father's eyes in a young face
so solid is my Peter,
the Rock form which all I have
is built.

On my right, a tall, thin, dark shadow
pale as a ghost with the stance of a broken man,
a ruined temple
pain and passion swim in bottomless brown eyes
so wretched is my Judas
whose betrayal came in loving kisses.

How I can love one so selfishly
and the other so selflessly, always in the wrong order-
is more Mystery than Divinity.



Divine Mysteries by Dakota Farley

Jewels

Somehow,
as I look up at the turquoise-copper sun-setting sky
I am simultaneously reminded
of grandmother jewels

Wire and shining stone
treasures from a far desert somewhere
and you,
or more truly, us

How somehow despite being hard,
thin and unapologetic as strands of copper
and smooth and placable
as round blue stone
we fitted together,
oddly,
but together
just like some of the most beautiful things,
together.



Jewels by Dakota Farley

Motel Mornings

When the dawn light clatters against the windows,
and it's racket seeps through the shades and curtains

When the small sounds of stirring daytime
build into a tidal wave of waking,
drowning our brains in consciousness

When we once gain begin to recognize,
to relish the feel of skin on skin,
the smell of last night's love

When we open our eyes in increments,
only to get lost in the sight of one another-
the parting of your lips,
the curl of my hair-

Only then will we know the pain of parting
and how grating is goodbye

Leaving us on the sheets,
and alone
rejoining the world.


Motel Mornings by Dakota Farley

For Corey

I look at myself in the mirror
and I think of you
Its that close to my heart, this song of you and I

Your brother was your side-kick
and probably still is
but you and I were just as thick
for all that what was ours
didnt resemble yours and his

While you might have left me
I havent been alone
Theres parts of you with me
these pieces are in my pockets,
weighty, like stones.

You showed me how to own
what I liked, what I was
To say it out loud in uncompromising tones
To tell people, not when they asked
but just because

Its because of you
I love over sized jackets
that smell like smoke
and tucking my hands
deep into their pockets
finding eight ball keys, lighters,
Swisher Sweet wrappers
and receipts
for food you bought
for you and me

Youre why I like parks
Just sitting in my car
listening sometimes to the radio,
others giving voice to my own thoughts
just to hear how they
bounce off the windshield

Youre why I like fields
driving through them and
imagining myself as safe
and anonymous as a tall
piece of grass, only as lost as I want to be

Youre why I get tattoos
on my birthday
Using the occasion to
poke holes and flood myself
with ink
Pictures that yell out what
this heart is loud enough
for evne the most blind and
deaf to purposefully misunderstand

So, when Im asked
why months of your silence
hasnt made me stop
waiting for you, I laugh
in their questioning faces
because I could never hate you
without first hating myself

I know you never had much use for my words
going about your deeds silent and uncompromising
but please, hear me now
When I said I couldnt live without you
I didnt mean that your leaving would bring me death
but that until my last day comes
you will always be with me
For Corey by Dakota Farley

My Haunted House

My past is full of poisons, precious
my heart, a home for horrors past
Once, these devils near overcame me

Gladly, that moment didn't last

But as you wander in those corridors
in those chambers of my heart
Beware of shadow creatures
and from lamplight, never part

I have chained them in these inky places
and once in every while, dear,
for you, those Ghostly claws may reach

Still though, as I said,
with me close by to guard you,
there is nothing real to dread
and with this warning comes a question,
a hope, a siren call
are you brave enough to love me,
full of darkness, demons, and all?

My Haunted House by Dakota Farley

In Your Land

In your land, in your broad flat
plain land
we took shelter in small towns,
eddies around which the wind and
railroads thundered
It smelled me, tasting the soles of
my feet, painting me with its
burnt colored dust
What is this forest child, this
daughter of mountains and
foothills
Smelling of lakes and bracken
creeks and clay?
I, a far wanderer with a gypsy
heart
Will always reek of frost and
orchards. In Your Land by Dakota Farley

For Elizabeth and Tyler

Its smiles in the morning and
holding hands in the car

smiling silently and listening
to you soaking up sunshine

finding us in between the lyrics
and the static on the radio

touching knees and tangled shins
under restaurant tables

whispered laughter and breath on
earlobes

Its kisses on knuckles and fingers
grazing jawbone

It is all these every day intimacies
that outshine loud sung devotions,
claims of affection that shout
down and bully doubt to give
cover to empty promises.
For Elizabeth and Tyler by Dakota Farley

My Apology

If only I could reach deep inside,
and find the right words to apologize.
Id dig them all out and make a rhyme.
To show you just how sorry I really am.
You'd feel the tears behind my eyes
and see your face in my dreams.
Maybe then you'd know
what your forgiveness means to me.
My Apology by Dakota Farley

Rescue

Salvation comes outta nowhere,
but never to me
I look for it out there
cause right now I cant breathe

I need someone to save
just for once to be a hero
To pretend to be brave
and feeling them cling to me so

A perfect rescue is waiting
for delivery to us
It'll help us deserve love
Show us the meaning of trust

We'll keep patiently staring
into that sapphire sky
Together just hoping
it wont pass us by
Rescue by Dakota Farley

To Be As Stone

To give all my love
without holding on
To get what little
you have, whats not yet gone
To think of you seeking
and finding some other
safe harbor
How have I been insufficient,
lover?
Im sinking, holding on
for dear life
"Not too tight" I think,
frantic in my strife
Because Ill crush you
like glass in my desperate hands
You'll shatter and scatter
to the distant four winds
Leaving me where you found me,
drifting in the vast ocean, alone
Unthinkable, unacceptable,
the only option, to be as stone
To silently, and so serenely sink
Sever that obsessive link.
To swim isnt a choice now.
In all these long years,
I've forgotten how.
My lungs full of seawater,
to you I dont even matter
So now, into the waters
of eternity I sink
Given now, the room to think
on mistakes and choices made
and suddenly, no longer afraid
Better to die than be
a person someone else has made
A smile now on my stoney face
I peacefully go to my watery resting place


To Be as Stone by Dakota Farley

Hopes

When did I stop believing
that love could cure all ills?
Was it when I started sampling
a few too many pills?
When did I stop believing
friends would stay beside me?
Was it when the demons started
spilling from inside me?
When did I stop seeing
each day as a gift?
Was is when every moment
became a burden for me to lift?

I want to see the sun again.
I want to see it on your face.
I want to feel it in my heart.
I want to believe in something,
anything again.


Hopes by Dakota Farley

Sugar

Sugar, sugar, shiny sweet
the yummiest part of a candy treat.

Sugar, sugar, sticky sweet
mouth is full, but still I eat.

Sugar, sugar, sickly sweet
fills my blood and slows the beat.

Sugar, sugar, deathly sweet
Of the heart I filled with even more to eat.

I never liked my sorrows half so well
as when I made them taste so swell.


Sugar by Dakota Farley

Burning Pictures

Burning bridges, like burning once treasured photographs
after tearing them in half.
So much easier than expected,
so much simpler than I'd predicted.
No pain, no wrenching of my soul, still missing the heart he stole.
Just a bright light, acrid smells, loving heat,
and then nothing.
Eyes and darkness meet.
The earth still turns, no catastrophe.
The good, bad, and ugly still lives in memory.
It's well and truly over, that thing I threw away.


Burning Pictures by Dakota Farley

Listen, Sister

Baby sister, I see your heart breaking
I watch you wander
often floundering in your fight.
I see inside you, I know your misery
it matches the stuff
contained inside of me.
One more heirloom, just for us.
You have so much love
re-gifted every day.
We to you and you to him,
keeping none to stay.
Homeless, place-less, superfluous.
You feel so wrongly, thinking places are too few.
So many, too many places fit for you.
I know you, sister, I feel your wanderlust.
You've been hurt before, and lied to.
In me, I wish you'd trust.
I'd give you my last four years of wisdom
just so you could see, bring yourself to wake
and avoid all those mistakes,
I see you poised to make.


Listen Sister by Dakota Farley

Wanderer

Ill wait for you, traveler
As you shoot through time and space.
Ill wait for you, voyager
To come back
and tell me all about that place.
Ill wait for you, far seeker
wait for the day I get to see your face.
And we'll laugh again, my explorer
just as we used to do
We'll be together once more,
Like before your dark wanderings took you.
So far into the spaces
left between the stars.
It'll be just as it was, wanderer
Before you left me waiting,
eyes glued to the sky,
without saying one word of goodbye.


Wanderer by Dakota Farley

Im Sorry That Im Sorry

Im sorry that I miss you
Im sorry I tried to call
So sorry I sent those messages
You probably didnt read at all.

Im not sorry that I love you
Im not sorry for waiting here
Not sorry for hoping
You'll stop hurting, and stop hating, dear.

Just long enough to remember
You said that we were family
That we were best friends once
Words I took to heart gladly.

Ill wait for you my dear friend
Wait 'till it comes back to you
Everything that we shared before
Doesnt have to be through.


Im Sorry That Im Sorry by Dakota Farley

It

The emptiness follows me from place to place.
This sense of overwhelming otherness, just taking up space.
Most of the time, its invisible, occasionally,
its aggravating.
Driving me to find-
more
make-
more

Be More.

More what? Quantity or Quality?
I never know.

It wont be filled, It cant be sated.
With It, I wont know contentment.
It feels like futility, possibility,
wanderlust.


It by Dakota Farley

Pieces

Open sleepy eyes to find
a world I nearly left behind.
Sweep the cobwebs from my brain.
Swallow just a little something for the pain,
and slowly begin to re-assemble
all the pieces that so resemble
my old life,
so brief,
so bright.
Deeply sleeping, left for dead.
How long have I lain there on that bed?


Pieces by Dakota Farley

Candles

Fall asleep with candles burning,
see them dancing in my sleep.
Hope they'll keep me safely,
when through nightmares I do creep.
Just escaped from dark dream's embrace,
I return each night with little haste.
Shards of fire light my way,
that I may not linger in that place.


Candles by Dakota Farley

Fights

All this anger and discord
rents a hole
bigger than you could ford-
Its a chasm where my
anger sits-
No love in the world could
make enough for it's
monumental appetites-
.
Lay me down and read my last rights,
cause trust me it aint worth the fights.
Strangle it, mangle it,
but there's no finangling it.

It holds my heart between it's claws,
crushing it,
without a pause.
I wish my silence was a cause
enough to make you STOP
and think
STOP before you sink
into that tortured dream.
Its not the way it seems,
and although the hurt inside you teems,
all things are not what your anger deems.


Fights by Dakota Farley

No Small Wonder

Heart
Hammers
Fire
Blossoms in my chest
Eyes search, hands shake
Shallow breaths

Skin
Sweats
Blush rises
Across cheeks and breast
All at your likeness

No small wonder.


No Small Wonder by Dakota Farley

The Gift

I got a gift.
I received a gift today, and I must admit,
I received it,
in a most unusual way.

It came addressed
for my eyes only.
It's face was dear,
but somehow lonely.
I was surprised,
when I saw the tag marked,
"Damaged Goods"
stuck on this thing
too remarkable for words.
And I must admit,
I threw the tag away.
I never feared what it had to say.

Because a gift like this,
is far too great
to believe whats written
in another's hate.


The Gift by Dakota Farley

Day at the Park

Raucous voices and clanking footsteps.
Shrieking laughter rings off swings and slides.
The children are loose in their jungle.
Their parents watch their descent into chaos
smiling eyes never too far to shout
commands half headed, voices raised in vain.
The sun looks brightly down on this, it's riches
in high demand today, and across a
small sea of grass, the true water
never ceases to glitter, small shards of light
still somehow lend a serenity
to the bustle of this park.


Day at the Park by Dakota Farley

Travel

Anticipation
never thicker
than in this
hospital
of transit
this
human corral
of travel
Anxious eyes
looking
but not seeing
hearing
tinny voices
steer them
to their chutes
from here
to there
and off
to everywhere


Travel by Dakota Farley

Love Bugs

My love is
a parasite
consuming you
in tiny bites
Creeping, crawling
further in
getting drunk
on just your skin
I never intended to
just wanted you
to infest me too
Just to see
your belly swell
full to bursting
with me as well


Love Bugs by Dakota Farley

Future

I clad myself in daydreams
with wishes I am shod
Hope beaming from inside me
I find my rescue from abroad

My heart in steely safety
to my mission I will keep
When challenge comes to meet me,
fearless I will leap

With patience I will linger
Undaunted, Ill keep on waiting
Poised is my trigger finger
The future,dear, is waiting.


Future by Dakota Farley

Poets

I never wanted to be a tragedy,
not a thing like Sylvia, you see.
I never wanted to write of woe,
a sad, incestuous sap like Poe.
I never wanted the world defiled,
despairing all as Mr. Wilde.
Such is the downfall of this poet,
to be just like them and keenly know it.

Ovens, booze, and lechery,
weaknesses of these poets three.
Death of fathers, wives and friends
make solitary steps to lonely ends.
This the art their pain creates,
alone they form their saving grace.


Poets by Dakota Farley

Happy Endings

I needed more than
standing
Shoulder to shoulder
Climbing stairs and 
becoming breathless


I needed more than
sitting
in the front seat
watching rain
fill up the parking lot


I needed more than
unanswered messages 
half made plans
and stifled dread
dead memories in my mouth


But i never needed more than
the tears
in your eyes when you spoke
to the street light
making puddles in the dark


I never thought of more than
your face
so full of something
tender and caring
but full of ghosts and losses too


Its still all I can think about
cold rain on asphalt
a city-scape of colored lights in the dark
your breath giving words to secrets
more kisses fell on my face than tears and raindrops


That night we opened up so much
I thought Id break in two
like halves of an eggshell
spilling my guts into the world
for you


All the same 
I cant find any regret
to paint us with
no shame, no fear, no hopelessness
just a kind of awe


Because somehow
though parents waited up
and reality spoke through the radio
my hope, a fragile, sad, and desperate thing
was born again that night


Happy Endings by Dakota Farley

Sinister You

The look on your face 
is poison inside me
The sight of your body 
sets my skin in fire
The memory of your smell
stills lingers
The sound of your voice
still batters my brain


In all my secret, deep down places
You haunt me


In the curve of my throat
In the bends and bows of my arms
In the corners of my eyes
In the back of my mind
In the drums of my ears 
and the tip of my tongue you hide


Sinister You by Dakota Farley

Everything

My footsteps, like drumbeats pound
heard for miles, through the ground


My hips swell and fall
as the tide, observed by all


My spine straight and strong
like the trees, moving upwards through the throng


My breath moves through me
thunderous as the wind, wild, free


My eyes open, expansive and wide
as the sky, full of tears yet cried


My heart glows bright as the sun
full of life, the start of deed yet done


I am everything and it is me
I am everything and all you see


Everything by Dakota Farley

Help For the Dead

I need to lay this burden down
make it real on paper in ink
I need to take this weight off 
Take it off my chest and think
The drugs keep me breathing steady
but my heart stopped beating already
I cant keep going on as a sleepy
drone I just cant keep going on alone
I need to get rid of this sickness
I need to stop swallowing pills
I want to feel sunshine on my skin
I want to feel my heart beating again
Someone help me
Help me clear my head
Someone must help me
Even though I'm already dead



Help for the Dead by Dakota Farley

Untitled- 3/1/2012

It was then I painted a portrait of myself

a vision of what I must be

curled up, alone, low light

just a perfectly pitiable sight to see.

Damp and tired, naked and cold

I think a lunatic I must be.

"And stupid too, cant forget," I suddenly curse aloud.

That primarily, foremost of all

I berate myself for being.

All my pride goeth into this fall.

If I had just gave a thought,

I never would have told you the truth, Id have lied  about it all.

I promised you no regrets

but without you by my side or in my ear

how can I do anything but

give in to all my fears?

At the end of it all what matters is

Im alone and youre not here.

Untitled 3.1.12 by Dakota Farley

Today Love- 11/5/2011

Old love pushed

down and away

Old hurts with

scars to stay

I just need some love

not a forever love

I just need a

kind love

to kiss my

scabs away

He may not be the

right love

The perfect fit

love

But he's just enough

love

for today

He's my

soft landing love

no expectations love

He's my easy love

To get me through the day

He's my

healing love

ask nothing love

He's not my last

love

Not the everlasting

love

But he's my

friends first love

My not afraid of

wounds love

And someday soon

when I'm full of

good as new love

When there's a true

love

He'll be the first to

wish me luck

He'll know that Im ready

for that new love

But he'll always be

That love

That held my hand

love

made not one demand love

today

Today Love by Dakota Farley

The Dark Side of Free- 11/3/2011

They don't say that free means

alone

They don't tell you how it feels

to know that there's nobody home

Free means

fearful

self conscious

and tearful

I didn't know that free means

nowhere to go

that it feels like

dying

so slow

They never say that free means

missing you

even with all the nasty shit

you used to do

You didn't tell me that free meant

hurting

you too

That Id feel

guilty

even though my reasons were true

They never say that free means

Still having love

for you

The Dark Side of Free by Dakota Farley

When I'm Free- 11/3/2011

I have to remember that Free means

Being me, myself, who I'm meant to be.

Free means,

having the best,

letting all these secrets off my chest.

I have to know that Free means

control over my own soul,

what I think and how I feel,

Living for the dreams in my heart,

all so real.

I have to understand that Free means

finding courage

when standing on that ledge

across the chasm of tomorrow,

days with no more sorrow.

I can have anything when I become

what free means.

When Im Free by Dakota Farley

Simply We- 11/3/2011

We're just you and we're just me,

and we'll show this whole world

that's all we need to be.

First friends and now family,

Ill hold your hand gladly,

as we make up for what we left behind.

You've got what I need

and I've got what you don't.

Even if we cant stay together,

we'll never really be alone.

We didn't choose this life,

but we'll take just what we've got,

And we'll make it much more

than they ever thought.

Simply We by Dakota Farley

Victory-10/7/2011

Earrings, hair pins,

one by one the pieces fall away.

My armor turns to glass.

Cracking are the ramparts,

Thunder down the walls.

The space beyond is vast...

You wander lustily down the pathways,

spurning every spoil, a stone faced king.

All the while seeing ghosts.

The spirits call you Conqueror, a being most supreme.

You shun every tribute as common things,

they hardly gleam as specters do.

On you charge, beyond my boundaries,

back to your golden haunted house as you came,

Alone.

Denying joy in new found riches,

they all are left with me.

I batten down the hatches,

give life to crumbled walls.

Somewhere below echos, a hollow laugh.

This land was always mine,

hounded king, never yours by half.

The armor closes, the visage assembled,

my pieces all in place.

Your battle not the last of many,

not the first to covet this place.

As always and forever more,

This Guardian stills walks strong. 

Victory by Dakota Farley

Wishes- 7/22/2011

Here I lay me down to sleep

with not a soul to company keep.

Your painful presence gone from me.

Swaddled deep you'll surely be

in arms of sweet maternity,

sure in fiscal paternity.

Wish I may, wish you might

sleep with dreams of woman

scorned tonight.

Wishes by Dakota Farley

Peter Pan- 7/22/2011

How is it that you

a new 

money

white collar

upper middle class

act

created this

a Peter Pan?

A boy yet a man

determined to fly 

feet tangled in 

your apron 

strings.

Does it sting?

to know 

that he will be

forever free

of any responsibility

for himself,

being the only

the most

Lost Boy?

Even this Wendy

is coming to see

that temporary 

may be

the most 

this boy could

ever be,

because she 

cant stay

in this fairy story

one more day.

She longs to grow 

Up, up, and up

past the third

star on the right.

She deserves to see

Morning.

Peter Pan by Dakota Farley