To Play or To Sleep!

The stars are bidding me come play,
Come dance with them tonight,
But I think I'll slip off to bed
And sleep within their light.
For that is where new dreams are born,
They're nurtured by moonlight,
That's why I never close my drapes
To go to sleep each night.

That and I live where no one else can see in my room! :)

Ripples and Reflections

Sorrow ripples through my life,
In many ebbs and flows,
Too many loved ones lost this year,
While pain just grows and grows.Reflecting on the setting sun
That lights the rippled sea,
I recognize that pain will pass.
Will joy return to me?

I love you, Popsi, March 3, 2010 and I love you, Brian, July 19, 2010.

Misty-rious Moon

Beauty and the Beast

Even though his friends all said she was bad for him, he loved her dangerous beauty.

Dancing in the Moonlight

Dancing where the moonlight strays
Upon the darkened bay
Her feet were lighter than the breeze
That tossed her hair astray
Then wrapped its arms around her waist
And kissed her tears away.

Watering the Garden

Over time she came to understand that sorrow is not something that heals... it must leave the body in the form of tears or it will build up until it drowns the heart. So she promised herself that she would find the prettiest flower in her garden and sit beside it while she wept. That way her sorrow would water her joy and there would be a bright purpose to it after all.

Once the Sun Shone in my World

Silence, darkness, the stars won't even peek out from under their covers. Perhaps tomorrow the sun will shine. Perhaps it will never shine again. But once, while I knew you, it shone so very brightly. I will always remember the way it sparkled from your eyes when you smiled and that memory will warm the silence and light up the darkness.

Too many loved ones lost. Too much sorrow to carry in one heart.

Brian Piercy, Killed in Afghanistan July 19, 2010

I wept when I heard you’d fallen
I can’t believe it’s real.
A fine, sweet man, so much to give.
I wish I couldn’t feel.
My body stayed there in my chair,
My soul fell down to kneel.

I tried to drown the pain in wine
And chocolate by default,
But the chocolate tasted bitter,
The wine tasted like salt;
Since bitter tears pour down my face,
It’s probably my fault.

The news is dry and meaningless,
Another hero dies,
And somewhere in a America
Another mother cries.
But this time when the tears spill down
They’re falling from my eyes

Oh God, I just keep praying that
This news will not be true.
I lift my prayers to heaven, but
I don’t think they get through
Because the world still turns around,
But it turns without you.

Face Off

The night opened its sleepy eyes
And squinted down at me,
A tiny spec here in the dark,
Almost too small to see.
I barely moved, my breath held still,
I sat there quietly
As all the burning eyes of night
That filled the darkened skies
Watched patiently to see themselves
Reflected in my eyes.

How could such creatures, born of fire
Be interested in me
I have no ancient soaring soul,
My heart’s not fierce and free,
Yet still their gaze is downward bent
And focused intently
So I peered back as fixedly
Into night’s sparkling skies
And suddenly I saw myself
Reflected in their eyes!

Echoes

My head is empty tonight
The little songs that bubble from my heart
And spill from my fingertips are gone
There is only silence where
My dreams used to waft in misty shades
Of what if and why not
I miss them, the silence leaves me hollow
I echo with the sounds of dead songs
And their dying whispers are soon lost.
My head is empty tonight
My heart, my heart,
My heart can’t even weep

Deadwood, South Dakota

On August 2nd, 1876, James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok was shot and killed in Deadwood, South Dakota. Hickok spent only 57 days in Deadwood before he was murdered, yet the town has been woven so tightly into the legend of Hickok that you can't say one name without the other popping into your mind.

Hickok was only 39 when he died.
I spent one day in the mayhem of tourism and gambling that is Deadwood. While the countryside around Deadwood is breathtakingly beautiful, the town itself is .... not. I couldn't figure out what allure Deadwood could have for anyone until I saw this... One of the most beautiful sunrises of our entire trip.

Mt Rushmore

Wild Flowers of Little Big Horn

Little Big Horn

I walked across the sun splashed field
The river wound below
The tall grass swept the hillside where
The sage and yucca grow.
Wild flowers danced in the warm breeze,
A sea of waving fluff.
For me, that day, the sun and blooms,
They would have been enough.
But something moved within my heart,
A sense of history
Was stirring on the bright hillside
And calling out to me

I saw shadows of lost men where
No shadows should be cast;
I heard their voices whispering
In each small breeze that past

They asked if we remembered them,
Knew why they fought and fell.
They whispered to me of that day,
Of death and fear and hell.

Peace would have been the easy choice,
But that choice was not made,
And so we met upon this field;
And on this field we stayed.

One hundred thirty years ago
Where dandypuffs now wave
We fought through smoke, and dust and lead
To lay without a grave

Two days we waited for our graves,
Our bodies hacked and torn,
Some comrades fighting still, nearby,
While others ran, foresworn,

To fall beneath a rain of lead,
And die beneath this hill,
Where we now lie in shallow graves
While peace eludes us still.

We were soldiers, Horse Cavalry,
Our orders: “Bring them in”.
But legends have consumed the truth
Unchallenged by dead men.

Some call us butchers, some heroes;
The truth lies in between.
We were just men, like those we fought
Here on these hills of green.

We fought to hold the future for
A young and growing land;
They fought to hold the life they loved.
They had to make a stand.

Our battle lost, their war unwon,
All those who fought now dust.
Cold, marble stones remind the world
That we fulfilled our trust.

And when the whispers fell silent,
The shadows turned to go;
I stood alone in summer grass
And watched a puffball blow.