The below are short writings and drafts that ultimately led to my final solo piece. I have also included specific poems used most for my solo piece.
Redefine Success
It All Begins Here
Small Steps Create Big Shifts
It All Begins Here
Turn Intention Into Action
It All Begins Here
Make Room for Growth
It All Begins Here
To be planted in a time before yours;
To yearn slowly, to love passionately;
Ink that spills while writing a love letter,
Your quill adding the perfect touch to words
You write from the spirit of your soul, from
Light within that manifests into words,
Into emotions, and imagery—the
Quill cutting out a part of your soul and
Imprinting it on this single paper,
A symbol of your entire being—of
The good, the bad, the light, the dark, ev’ry
Part of who you are—and you gift it to
Somebody you love and trust and care for—
No matter what—as long as Stars shine
In the sky, a being lives on the earth,
This piece of me will always be with you;
And you seal it with a kiss of melted
Wax in the color of your love’s eyes, the
Final element of love that’s given
Openly, fully, with every particle.
The feeling of longing for somebody –
Aching for them –
Trying to be one with my emotions
And not letting them control me –
But I just long to be near them,
To feel their energy in the room,
To feel their skin against my own.
We all have boundaries or walls that we build
To protect ourselves –
But sometimes we meet a person that changes that–
Whose mere presence breaks down the armor –
Dissolving in a flash;
The cage I put myself in disappears
Because love and care and unconditional support does that –
So I stand here bare
With my heart on my sleeve – open
Risking it all for a chance to love you.
To talk of love makes targeted your heart –
Weakness that constitutes showing your soul;
The colours within will scare friends apart:
A stranger, a love, and all who enroll
In this hellish dark landscape called life.
I wear this armor to protect what’s dear:
Then iambic pentameter that’s rife
Inside my chest – pumping with urgent fear –
That irregular beats will cause unrest,
Choking my soul as vines wrapped around
Abandoned pillars or arches that manifest
From Man’s neglected construction abound –
And nothing will stop this trembling idea
From infecting all parts of my being;
What’s once a health mind, now a stria –
Grooves and cuts, a reminder of fleeing –
Of attempting to forget who I am –
How noone can truly understand me,
Because every time I open the dam –
What protects me from a premature glee,
Thinking that I am accepted and seen
By those I believe I can fully trust –
And I’m shown to be a fool with now chine –
Left tearful and alone – in a disgust
Towards myself and who I thought I could be.
What if the sun slept in
And the night continued,
The cold consumed,
And the moon killed itself
From loneliness.
How do I escape?
I thought it was right –
I run from the past,
The monster I once saw
The golden rays danced around us
And my mind went to the forest –
The path of green moss –
magic
2:21 A.M.
Thinking, Pondering, Wondering;
The silence speaks volumes;
The sound of nothing,
Until the beats appear:
Iambic pentameter thumping,
My heart filling and expanding
With armor protecting my chest,
2:27 A.M.
Chainmail links cover the bones,
My body—my being
But how can it protect me from myself?
It blocks others—Making their intentions
Difficult and worthless.
2:58 A.M.
Distractions
Guard down
Tension, pain, sleepiness
Thinking of you
Your eyes, your soul
“I’ll always come back to you”
We see ivy grow up walls of
Buildings destroyed long ago;
Nature reclaiming the earth
As plants twist around columns
Crumbled from time.
Yet I wonder if the purpose
Is actually to heal—
To hold the structures in place,
Solidifying the union in history—
So that we will never be forgotten.
The sun greeted me between the spaces,
Blindly rebuilding the creeping ruins—
Turning back time as dandelions dance
In the wind of my heart.
The pearl in sight—a treasure
Given so openly, so fully—
Rewarded with disheveled ways
Now naked.
The sky expanding amongst the fields;
The curvature above in sight,
Waiting for the signal—
An amber lined flare.
Lost in a maze—unwilling to leave,
An ocean persists—waves overtaking me,
I let go.
I give up the fear and worry
And lay in your arms;
In perfect harmony.
A canopy of petals soar above;
While the magic around us propels them
To the heavens of the stage,
An equal share returns them back,
With us to witness the spectacle.
The feeling of warmth overcomes me,
Filling my soul with safety and happiness;
Experiencing what I deserve to feel —
What I was always able to hold,
I just wasn’t aware.
Doves float in the sky, stems of clouds swirling;
Time frozen with the bows, with the joy;
An end of a run — my dream in a frame;
A future with you by my side, up there,
Standing proud for all to see.
Seventy times mentioned in his words,
Conveying nearly every aspect of humanity —
A symbol that carries on for hundreds of years.
Yet when I think of it — a white rose,
What comes to mind now is this moment with you.
Seventy mentions turns into countless possibilities;
A constellation forms above — never before seen;
Invisible connections that led us to each other —
Serendipitous: our entire lives apart,
An ocean of change — of transformation.
Yet all of those decisions, minuscule or vast,
Always written to get us here:
Under the flowers, under the moonlight;
A story written in the stars,
A connection incomprehensible.
T'aimi πάντοτε et in aeternum.
Electricity fills the air, humming
In the darkness; small rectangles open
Our eyes to the maddening chaos of
The world, the chaos of ourselves; wires
Tangled inside, connecting us all.
The thought of you, your touch upon my soul,
The warmth and comfort that you fill me with,
Ignites within me sudden and quick;
Your eyes reflect the lightning of our souls,
Connecting, intertwining, becoming.
We dance above the fated threads of life,
Our charted path chosen by us, lead by
The Stars, by Orion’s belt, lighting the way.
There’s something beautiful when I cry.
My emotions are so high
That they form into tears:
My eyes glaze over,
Red and reflective;
A still pond.
Is this what the gods see?
The image of humanity:
A person’s soul leaking out —
Pouring into the world?
I stare at a mirror
When my eyes start to tear —
Building up aggressively —
And I watch as they fall down my face.
I look into my eyes,
Now puffy and blurry,
Yet I see myself clearly.
It’s different from the mask I wear
Because when I cry —
It’s me.
There’s no room for pretend,
There’s no room for show.
And I feel as connected
As ever to myself.
I smile at the purity,
At the beauty.
I wear my heart on my sleeve, a freckle for all to see,
And I love at full strength without a second thought.
It can be beautiful and wonderful.
Like finding a seashell in the middle of a field,
Miles from an ocean; a rare gem,
An unexpected treasure.
Yet you feel isolated, alone in this vast world.
Nobody else seems to love, not in the same way at least.
Not the friends that you care for as deeply as you would a partner,
People you bear your soul to – more than anybody else.
And you feel safe – you feel loved and appreciated,
You’re told how they will always be there and you believe it.
Yet time passes and things change.
Out of nowhere they treat you as they would treat a stranger.
They avoid you and ignore you,
Making you regret the trust you gave so openly.
And it happens constantly.
You either are taken advantage of because of how much you care –
Or fully disowned, without a word.
And that pain – it hurts as much as losing a love.
You mourn the past and what could be, imagining that version of yourself.
Yet then you find someone, a person who opens the cage you put yourself in,
Releasing the colors of your soul that you have hidden for so long.
That love, the love you feel when someone truly sees you –
The good and bad, the light and the dark –
They love you for who you are.
And that is the rarest love of all.
Those moments,
With people who see through your barriers and make you feel safe –
Make opening your heart worth it.
But it doesn’t change how hard it is:
The pain of loss, the insecurity –
Feeling like you did something wrong.
Maybe it was from being honest, being true to yourself.
It’s a constant contradiction.
And you know that you should continue to flaunt who you are,
How much you love.
But the pain of those friendships
That you have lost makes it difficult.
And you go back and forth
Unsure of how to act, how to be.
I look into the blue flame
As it flickers with gold,
Mimicking the beats of my heart
When I think of you.
Some moments hold steady
With an even tempo,
While others burst from the base;
Like fireworks exploding—
Emotions so profound that their depth
Challenges the challenger deep.
Through storms it lasts without falter or strain;
Untamed and vibrant, it goes on.
I picture veins on a pine—
Vines in the wild;
Braided together,
Weaving through time.
A tree so old that Methuselah would be shamed
And General Sherman would bow to the spectacle.
As we journey upwards towards Orion,
Our path of bark is clearly defined.
The fire is our companion;
Even and continuous,
It moves along our time.
His belt notched with a trinity of stars,
Lining our future and our past—
The myths of future generations.
The scent of rain fills my soul
As I walk past flowers that grew wild.
The sky varies in shades of gray –
But as it sprinkles for the first time,
I find myself wishing for a downpour.
So that I can dance under a canopy
And fill the world with my happiness.
II have always wished for time to stop when we’re together,
and for a moment,
when we both uttered those words to each other,
time didn’t exist.
It was just you, me, and our love –
outside of time and space.
It’s a moment that I will treasure forever.
I step into a rose colored room
Where so much joy occurs:
So many laughs and deep conversations,
A sharing of auras, of energy;
Healing my soul in a place where I didn’t know was hurting.
The feeling of becoming a better person
Just by sitting in your presence.
But in this hued room, time speeds up:
Hours feel like minutes.
So much happens internally that can’t be comprehended,
And before I know it, time is up.
But that time, however long it is –
However long it feels,
Is something that is worth it.
To spend a part of my day
Or a moment in my week
With a kind soul like yours –
It is something I didn’t know could exist for me.
When the sun rises over the mountain,
Coming just into view,
The light fills the world
With a golden glow.
The flowers covering the ground
Bursting with colors –
As if Persephone herself walked there
And spring sprouted from her footsteps.
A path of moss leads me
Into the forest
Where flowering trees shed petals
From the soft gust of wind.
I feel the warmth on my skin
As the light peeks between the trees –
Turning into a holographic starburst.
The path ends in a clearing
With the ruins of something
From long ago –
Vines have taken over the stone.
All these things are how I feel
When I remember your eyes
Looking into mine –
Filling me with butterflies and joy.
Happiness that is constant –
Making me realize that I am enough as is.