Tag: Love

Know You Were Loved

This all happened

Despite our best attempts

The world closed in around us

The world became too big for us

Both at the same time

Intention was not part of this

It was just the flow of existence

Know you were loved

Do you believe us absent?

This is not the truth

We are still here

We just can’t navigate

With the ease or the agility

That we once could

Know you were loved

We do not keep secrets

Even if it seems that we might

We are silent on subjects

Because we know nothing of them

We would share all we had

If we had the information

We have the inclination

Know you were loved

There is little among our possessions

We would not let you take from us

We do not hold them dear

Those things are plastic and paper

If we hold them close

It is because they remind us of you

Or some other memory of you

Close to our hearts

Know you were loved

You were loved in the first thought

You were loved in the creation

You were loved in all the moments

You were loved in all our breaths

You were loved in all our failures

You were loved in our sometimes successes

You were loved in our last thoughts

Until the very end of us

Know you were loved

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

Exegesis

The towers fell

The gauntlet dropped

The desert hell

Full of cold steel props

It beings now

What is needed

This is how

Introspection is seeded

The broken souls

The bloody fist

The dark foxholes

The casualty list

What of the desert

Its blood soaked grains

What of the fires

Of our shames and pains

What do we recall

Of that day?

What did we desire

Or hide away?

Grief not faced

Is a wound left open

For what’s been razed

And for words unspoken

My heart is bled

Of its hatred

In my head

Glimpsing the sacred

The truth clear

The war never won

The ending near

The heat of the sun

In the towers

As they died

And looked out

Into the sky

They thought not of

Justice

Or noble deeds

Democracy

Or government acts

They were scared

Yet not alone

They thought of you

Your face, your tears

Your love, your loss

Reach out now

It is not too late

To touch their hand

Before they go

The pulsing heart

The slowing beat

We must part

The end is complete

Gene G. McLaughlin 2006

It Is Important To Me

It is important to me

That even if you don’t know

If love was denied to you or not

That it was not

Because

If you never saw the sunshine

You shined as mine

If you never heard happy birthday

It was loudly sung

You didn’t know you cried out

The cries were heard

Because all things being equal

Which they are not

I’ll take you love

Over what others got

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

The Word Human

Language gave me the word humans

To speak of what we are

The map showed me foreign lands

To show me the near and the far

You showed me the corners of my heart

Where the secrets of me do dwell

Guiding your hands with my eyes closed

And my heart and cock did swell

Human is not just a word

But an idea in the wind

That was quietly born

In our redemption and sin

I’ll stand and face you in the flesh

We’ll find our map through the words

We’ll find the way we know best

To make our passion and fear be heard

By the things we don’t understand

That which we can’t articulate

So my sweet love take my hand

And we will face all the cosmos love or hate

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

From Hunger, From Shame

From hunger
From shame
Buckling under
The blame
Of the things
That speak to you

In subterfuge
In rage
Trapped in
The cage
Of the things
That make up you

True to the facts
To which the body reacts
Are desires
Fully intact
Of the things
That make up the core of you

Free yourself
Of their burdens and expectations
Seek for yourself
Love’s feelings and sensations

Genes G. McLaughlin 2013

That Crusoe Must Have Thunk

I have the kind of

Knowledge you get

From spending too much time alone

Books are my solace

When I am lonely to the bone

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I have the kind of old soul

That runs away from pain

I know all about the price of love

And its small and subtle gains

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I might have misgivings

Along the way

But the train’s already moving

And the fare has been paid

Some come on now

All you words and songs

Give me that substitute

For which my soul longs

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

The Quiet Life

I am greedy for the quiet life

For the longing to forever end

Accumulation and achievement leading to

An empty series of dusty rooms

I have already visited

Finding them wanting

Let’s waltz my love

On the porch

While the sun goes down

As the azaleas bloom

And spring comes again

The most important things earned

Are learned by the failures of success

And the victory of the speckled dusty air

Dancing at twilight

Gene G. McLaughlin 2013

Need/Want

I need a hat

For the sun in my eyes

I need a woman

With shapely smooth thighs

I need a job

With a paying high wage

I need a day

Of a world without rage

I need a suit

Of fine Italian silk

I need to find

Some friends of my ilk

I need a sun

Of bright warm orange light

I need to find

The will to carry on and fight

I need a morning

With no direction

I need a taste

Of a fine chocolate confection

I need a tomorrow

Different than today

I need a map

With a clearly marked way

I need a song

Of sweetest melody

I need for you to long

For something in me

I need a salad

With clean fresh greens

I need the ways

To equal the means

I need a world

Without boundaries or borders

I want these things

In no particular orders

Gene G. McLaughlin 2004

When I Met Her

When I met her

I was five foot ten

The next day I felt taller

Yet lighter on my feet

The tape measure said I was still the same

The scale showed no difference

I told my doctor of this

He looked through his horn rimmed glasses

And said

This is a condition that happens

It is unpredictable

It is called a woman son

Gene G. McLaughlin 2012

Short Zen Love Poem

Love I was gone before I met you

Checked out, shoulders slumped, resigned and blue

Now I am all in since I met you

Awake now, head raised, aligned, and true

Simple graces to you love

May the air be sweet and clean

May you life consist of

Things true to what your core means

Quiet and ignite

Dampen and alight

Fight and quell

In the middle

All is well

In the end I have nothing to give you

But everything you’ve always had

Plus

Me

Gene G. McLaughlin 2012