Asleep and dreaming
By Sarah E. White
　
My head still swimming in rhythm and verse
Words flip and fold themselves
Around each other in a graceful dance
Words longing to join together
To make beautiful poetry
I dream of words
Like others may dream of people
How people might dream of love
Words can intertwine and create an idea
They can twist together and make something lovely
Just like strangers can fall in love
And have a beautiful life together
From their first meeting so many things can grow
Two people can form nations
Two words can too
From words to a line
To a sentence
To a thought
To a lifetime of ideas
Words like people can create
Can hurt
Can feel
I prefer words
They help me express
My most complex of feelings
People often hinder that expression
People confuse me
And misunderstand
So I continue to dream of words
　

Seasons
By Jason E. Hodges
　
With morning comes soft rays of light
Petals from the sun, the mighty sunflower
Open up to a course of buzzing bees bumbling about
Swarming round and round
Franticly searching for the next fix of sweetness
The spring buds are ready to bloom
Bursting out from their wintry shells
Opening up after a full moon’s gravitational pulling
Dripping with pigment of red, blue and green
Drawing us in with their incredible sight
Butterflies flap their bright wings about
Smearing the air with an orange colored haze as they gently float by
Showing us spring is finally here
Like being colored by a giant paintbrush
The spring skyline is soaked in a red dripping light
I wish this day could stay forever
But it has to fade for the long days of summer
Where crickets chirp loud in the midmorning's sun and birds sing deep in the night
Where lightning bugs flurry about with their light streaks a streaking
Then fall comes with its bright burst of colors
Leaves dropping to the ground in all shapes and sizes
Then comes winter with its cold wind a blowing
Snow drifts in from a dark starless sky
Making a white covered city for all to start digging
Then we’re back from which we started
　

Lost
By Sarah E. White
　
In the darkest of nights I stumble
Through a tangled forest of roots and branches
This treacherous overgrown path of mine trips me
I have not kept it well
Letting it lie neglected for far too long
Instead I have wandered
Veering left and right
Almost aimlessly
Venturing into unknown places
New territories where I don’t belong
Breathing in the air
Feeling the soft tickle of the grass beneath my feet
I have lingered there for more days than I care to mention
Luxuriating in its comfort, in its pleasure
Now I must return
I have to struggle toward my home
Find my way back
To the place I left a lifetime ago
It all looks strange to me now
Why is it all so unfamiliar?
So unkempt
Overgrown with years of neglect
It’s time to tend to my own path
Clear the undergrowth and lay new bricks
Light this path so I no longer stumble
　
　　
A Woman’s Woman’s Woman
By Jason E. Hodges

There’s a woman’s woman’s woman that feels all she is feeling
Over and over again
Again and again over and over
Honestly looking into her soul
With eyes that see into the depths of her existence
Seeing the raw power of heartbeats a beating
In the most wonderful way
Spinning in a world brought on by her need
Her need for the woman’s woman inside her to feel love
To be heard
For someone to walk quietly beside her and listen to all she has to say
To comfort her fears
Wash them away
Like the sea gently brushing footprints in the sand
Her need to be needed
Is the biggest need of all
And one that is long overdue
The touch of this woman’s woman is all but entrancing
Her skin turns warm in my hand
Her hair lays gently about her neckline
Patiently waiting for fingers to slowly slide through
The smell of her body is the most alluring scent of all
Intoxicating
Enthralling
Gripping me tightly
So much so I feel dizzy
Confused in the most clear minded way
Perfectly honed this woman’s woman is
With a touch as soft as a cool morning breeze
A touch that only one can feel
Waking me from a long sad slumber
Opening my heart like the flowers of spring
Bringing me to a state of short breaths a taking
Is this woman’s woman’s woman
　

Came To Be
By Jason E. Hodges

Making up stories from the pictures in a book
From the books I could not read
But being up against it early on wasn’t all that bad
My outlet became art, this was my purpose
My constant
Always with a smile folks would say, man you sure are creative
I replied, no, I just grew up poor
For imagination keeps your spirit alive
When your body has long since gave out
Sold and broken to pay for minimum wage housing
Where you don’t walk out the door at night
Where candied apples are made from government tickets for eating
Then sold for cash to buy liquor and cigarettes
Cigarettes that were flamed to ward off the worry of living
Exhaled smoke that drifts in the night
But you can climb out of what hell hole you’ve been given
For a shovel is a great motivational teacher
Making you think, how do I change my life
Change for the better
Change by reading every book in sight
Callused hands shuffling flash cards
Spelling was the unspoken viper coiled and ready to strike
Anything can come to the ones that will work for it
Obstacles only exist in your mind
　　
　　
The Unleashing of My Heart
By Sarah E. White
　
I wanted to touch you
But their eyes were watching
I wanted to confess to you
My many, many sins
But if I spoke I might unleash my heart
So instead I sat quietly
With my anxious hands in my lap
Thumbs wildly twiddling
I wanted to lean in to you
And gaze deep into your eyes
I wanted to see if they were really the color unseen by the many
Like you said they were
I wanted to scream out your name
I remained silent instead
As I sat bolt upright
My neck rigid and tense
Peering down at the table
Longing for your eyes
Never experiencing such paradox
Fighting with myself over you
Paralyzed by perception
Not allowed to be real, even to myself
Living in a memory of “what if” and “I wanted”
Never in the now
I write about what might have been
I write about regret
　
　
The Mighty Trees of the City
By Jason E. Hodges

The cold wind brings the last freeze of winter
The last frost of a bitter spring morning crunches under my feet
I watch as the sun reflects a thousand colors of light off an icy ground
Starting my day of work in what’s left of this ancient forest of trees
The forest that lives in the city that no one stops to see
Or what’s left of the forest after the city’s moved into where it once stood
Giant trees that survived the roads and bulldozers
Mans quest for bigger and better
Mans greed
Yet, just a few rings in their massive trunks of time
Growth rings that stretch through a century here, a century there
Rings from a time when their kind were many and man was few
From stone axe to chainsaw
From campsites and tribes of few
To suburbs and real estate signs of many
Somehow these giants still stand amongst us
The buildings and cars
The roads of hot oily asphalt poured all around them
Forcing their roots to dive deeper for life giving water
Or to push up the bump in the road
The crack in the walk
Fighting to survive surrounded by the city of concrete
The Mighty Trees I see


Island Breeze
By Sarah E. White

Blow through me breeze
Providing much needed strength
Well deserved clarity
Much needed serenity
If only for this one moment
Breathing in its sweetness
The salty sea air
Nurturing my spirit
Making me whole again
Soft birds call all around
Flowing through the air like a melody
Its chaotic song is soothing
It has its own rhyme and reason
No cares
Listening to the leaves gently clatter
The tempo quickening as a gust bursts through them
Then silence drifts through
Leaving in its wake
Serenity
A quiet surrender of deep calm
Let it linger on for another moment
The endless breath of the sea
Blowing again through my heart


Bonnie Elizabeth Parker
By Jason E. Hodges

The Redheaded Texas poet who was beautifully shrouded in danger
Four foot eleven and ninety pounds of raw emotion
Her misunderstood love affair with walking the edge of life
Only fueled the love affair America was having with Bonnie
Their infatuation with her choice to make her own rules
To live free when most were barely alive at all
To take from the ones who had been doing the taking
Your life will always be a mystery Miss Bonnie
Complex would be a better way to say it
From your red locks down to your high heels a standing
Understanding you was not easy to do
But something was there beneath that hard outer shell
Something that shined through to the masses
Made them almost obsessed with what would come next
For the same hands that fired machineguns wrote poems of heartfelt beauty
The same woman that smelled smoke of gunfire a blazing
Would stop to smell wild flowers on the roadside
Maybe it was the excitement that fed your existence
Maybe it was love
The love of madness living life with no rules
Or just rules of your own
A path few were willing to walk
A path you walked without hesitation
Without even a flinch
Until, at last you were cut down by the bullets from a lawman
Cut down in your prime
Fading into legend
　

The Whirlwind
By Sarah E. White
　
Thoughts weigh heavy in my mind today
Conflict buzzes over me
Shaking up my insides
Stirring up my emotions into a frenzy of sensation
Happy but scared about it
Worried but hopeful for what’s to come
Anxious and fidgeting, pretending to be patiently waiting
Wishing the hours would speed their way faster
Like heat lightening flashing its way through a southern sky
Speed its way forward in time and space
Propelling me home to you
Conflict in knowing that even once home we are still so far apart
Wishing circumstances were different
Longing for some release
Some ease with this
A way around this world that stands between us
I will stretch as far as I can to reach you
If only for a short while
Each stolen moment will be treasured
I want to immerse myself in you
Love you with all of my being
I will give you everything in those precious moments
Before being yanked back to the other side of the world once again
Back to that conflict
Returning to that struggle
That frenzy of sensation
　　

The Long Drive
By Jason E. Hodges

It seems getting to you is a journey all in itself
A journey on a blazing hot road
A road that leads out off the sands of a desert
Surrounded by dunes that can easily trap a man for eternity
With its slippery grains of time
But this road always leads me out
Leads me to freedom
Of the mind
Of the soul
As long as I keep driving
I will make my destination
Shooting for the stars
Never veering away
Never going off course
Just a moment of rolling into an endless sunset
Relaxed by the hum of the motor as it opens up
Calming me down from the chaos my life has become
From the storm that surrounds me
With its black and blue sky
Yet memories hold me together
As the still frames play over and over in my mind
The road seems to be growing longer and longer
Escalation and shifting through gears
Brings me closer, and closer to the end
And the end is always tomorrow’s beginnings


Unknowing the Knowing
By Sarah E. White

Something about his voice stirs me
As if awakening me from a deep slumber
There is more to it than just sound or words
The tone and vibration make me tremble
Its rhythm makes me whole
As he speaks I am lifted to freedom
Where do I go now from here?
How can I recover from this?
It can’t be unheard
I feel lost now without his voice filling me up
This change in me can’t be undone
How did I ever pull through before?
I stop for a moment and breathe
I hear it again inside my mind
Remembering
It comes back to me in a rush
Lingering within me making me tingle
It wraps around me like a heavy blanket
Comforting me gently
I long to hear it once more
To hold it close to my body enveloped in its depth
If I could breathe it in
It would fill me up and sustain me
Hold it inside forever luxuriating in its sweetness
Its softness lingers on my skin like the most delicate kiss
The power resonates inside me like a fuel I can’t live without
Let him speak to me again
So I can once more dream of his voice
　

The Freedom of Feeling the Flow 　
By Jason E. Hodges
　
The waves they’re a crashing in the distance
As a surfer sits for the first morning ride
Now comes the perfect transition
It’s time to catch this mountain of fury
This watery wall wildly building behind him
He paddles with arms full of adrenaline
He knows the drop is upon him
There’s no turning back at this point
Fear is a good thing to have
When you know what’s lurking below
The undertow will straight pull you under
Unforgiving if you slip into its grasp
But fear has to be push back for now
It’s time to stand
Drop
And hold on for life
Rushing down and cutting to the side
He seems to be gliding on air
Twisting and turning to coast through the pipeline
As his hand drags ever so lightly along this crystal like tube
Now he’s in his full moment of Zen
No bills, no traffic lights, no boss, no people
Just the perfect ride
Seeing light at the end of the tunnel
He cuts sharp to rip up to the top
To a slash of tailfins and power the peak of his incredible ride
The freedom of the wave
The freedom of feeling the flow