The Woods in Winter

When a gray cloud of confusion hovers
over the life that I have made for me
I know that a quiet calmness covers
the woods in winter where I long to be.

When my peace of mind's lost and not yet found
and my own company I cannot keep
that is when I know that I should be bound
to the woods in winter where the trees sleep.

When the crumpled paper's piled too high
then I'll push back from my desk and I'll go
to the most quiet place beneath the sky -
the woods in winter, covered deep in snow.

When it's peace and quiet I need to find
the woods in winter calm my troubled mind.

The King of the Land of Regret

I am the king of the land of regret.
I am the seer of all that might have been.
I am the empty promise, the bad debt.
I am the gambler that can never win.

I am the sad ghost of my ambition.
I am the shadow of what I should be.
I am the unrepentant contrition.
I am the painting you will never see.

I am the shriveled seed stored on a shelf.
I am the dream forgotten when waking.
I am the ego in search of a self.
I am the plan always in the making.

I am the telephone that never rings.
I am the letter that was never sent.
I am the song bird that no longer sings.
I am the rose without a pleasant scent.

I am the sum of all I was before.
Given that, shouldn't I be so much more?

The End

There's not anything that you need to say.

Like birds in autumn know they should fly south

I know that soon, maybe even this day

those tired old sad words will fly from your mouth.

It is funny how I could see the end

how I knew that this pretending was done.

Don't even think of calling me your friend -

that's like I'm just some random anyone.

Perhaps that's really all that I could be

after all so many parts of my life

were not ever really left up to me.

It's hard to love in a life full of strife.

So let's just turn away and say goodbye

and fool ourselves that it was a good try.