The Invitation

A piece an old friend posted, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer.....


THE INVITATION
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own: If you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. i want to know if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see the beauty even when its not a pretty day, and if you can source your life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the moon "yes!"
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn't interest me who you are, or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.


Peace
Mandy

This Came to Mind

http://hermajestysstockr.deviantart.com/art/glass-crystals-II-79405315



The cobwebs flutter like the wings of butterflies against the ceiling.

Some Kind of Love

http://decadentiablue.deviantart.com/art/Ripples-21820278

Like a rock dropping to the bottom of your stomach, she came into your life determined. Her hands traced streams like afterglow across your skin. And with each gasping sigh, you were afraid to lose her to the troubles of night. You lay between sheets, painting the universe, mapping out a life. And in each fantasy, you found yourself reshaping the gestures and motions. She was the picture, the combustible, the glory. She held much power in your mind and hers.
But upon rising on that rainy Saturday, you were faced with a stark reality. The ways of the world struck with full force, and somehow she had drowned within the world which you had feared, denied, and fled . Glancing out to the lawn, you notice the puddles accumulating on the lawn. The darkness had seeped into your corner of the world; she was yours no more. The days passed quickly, but you found yourself unable to draw new habits, consumed by thought and at a lack for words. She became the silhouette imprinted in your mind. The sun rose, and you thought of her. The street vendor rang his bell, the sweet scent of cinnamon buns drifted by, and you immediately remembered the time you sat in the small French café lost in conversations of Thoreau and where the penguins sleep in Antarctica. She had worn a yellow dress that day, and coffee spilled down her front. A stain was left across the perfection that was now your obsession. The streetlight cast a shadow across the dew-streaked lawn and again you found yourself, wine bottle in hand, spreading a blanket to protect you from the damp and cold. However this time you were alone. You drove past the old signpost, dangling from its rusted hinges, only to hear the creak it made in the yard the first time you made love. What the signpost would have said, had it known the fate of your world. Months had passed, days bled together. Your mind became the snare, entrapping every last shred of the memory. Those days still felt like water freshly sprinkled across your skin. Countless hours glaring at the accumulating puddles, incessant flood of the streets and fields.
But one thing always struck you as odd; it had never rained when she accompanied you.

Your life was read by a stranger. The manuscripts and artifacts long ago lost, but the story remains. In your mind it is untainted, even simple. You recognize the struggles in the story of a man who loved a woman more than life itself. She could never accept her inability to live beyond herself, and so you were lead down a most troublesome path. You had to watch her mind consume her, until one day she was gone.


Peace
Mandy

Volumes of Oceans

It was like that again
Like realizing you’d never fly
Like saying your last goodbye
It was like it used to be
No personal army to flee
No heart to drift to sea
It proved difficult
To recognize the look
To see all that you took



Teeth chattered
She
Uncontrollably
Shook
The cold, The sting
The depths
Of situations
She never thought
He
Could break
Her Heart

The others just filled up space while I worked on how to figure out the situation of you. It’s odd how we find ourselves desperate for the comforts and yet unwilling to even dare to allow ourselves the rest. Perhaps we have not quite found ourselves, and the search is beyond the need to fill the heart. Perhaps it comes with time. The further we go, the more we will know.

I was prepared. I live in wait no more.


Peace
Mandy

What's Your Reality; Realizations For All

We struggle to hold onto the materials of our lives, as though they will complete us if presented in the right light. We fill the holes with candlesticks and jewelry. Decorations for the life that would, if stripped bare, be found truly desolate. Some breed the unquenchable thirst for unnecessary products. We prove ourselves impoverished as we struggle to fix an undeniable image for the world.


We will forever remember the silence of conversation held in the dark of night.
What makes us speak our hearts only when we feel safe. And not when we are at risk of creating significance?


The brilliance of
your mind
Becomes my
Understanding
Of you



Peace
Mandy

Frames Remain

The last days of winter
Spent Visiting bedsides
Respectable frames
Destined to disappear
We will grow and we will go
Decay with the earth and matter
We are infinite
We are marked
With the curse of humanity
The ribcage support
For organs so vital
Protected heart,
Protected breath
Pacing the sterile room
Where we watched you take your last breaths
An audience to sigh and slip away with you
We hoped for an answer
Listen close to
Whispered understandings
Of how to embrace
The greatest moments of life



I loved the way your shadows fell across the hard wood floor. Like ghosts drifting between light and the world. And so you drifted through our lives, carrying a message none could ignore.



-----------------------------------------------



I wrote to tell you the truths of my heart. I wrote because sometimes the heart doesn’t know what to say. I wrote just in case someone was listening. I wrote to create a steady stream, to open the soul in which I have come to count on

She had something to say
She lay awake at night
Wondering
What wake would it leave
To incorporate
Private conversations
With the world
In which she lived


Peace
Mandy

His Hands

http://shmobert.deviantart.com/art/One-Mans-Ocean-4574844


Small Similarities
His hands were like yours
Structures and motions
I could have sworn
They were your own
But hands are no reflection
Of the heart
And I know none of him
I wonder if he questioned
My obsession of hands
And wrists
Oddities worn from habit now
I see your motions
But nothing more
I used to wonder
What it would look like
To fall out
Of love



Peace
Mandy

The River

We're all just strangers sharing the same space

Along the banks of the river
the children stood in a row
hands stuffed in pockets
feet bare against the Ground.
Leaf gently by
a constant surge water
shades of Sunrise emitted
in the never-ending drone.
Hands clasped tightly
entangling every Finger
as if the pull of the river
will personify their fears.
Leave this side of the river
in a rush of youthful courage
Feet stretch out like hands
to find a lack of solid Ground.

Pebbles drag along the bottom
remnants drift with the flow
one small Shimmering token
the remainder of a choice.


The memory of their future
settled in the bed of the river
Consuming the dreams of children
a Constant ebb and flow

Constant like a Heartbeat.

पास
Mandy

Quotes.

"A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds." Percy Bysshe Shelley

"With our Love, we could Save the World."
George Harrison

"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well."
Vincent Van Gogh

"I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."
Groucho Marx

"Sucessfully Disappear in a Room"

Didn't I tell you
Things would drag on and on
It isn't easy to hear the silence of an empty room
Didn't I tell you
I stood upon the threshold
Asking where I should begin
Didn't I tell you
I'm so full of the works that we undid
Splattering of matters across consciousness
Didn't I tell you
The dog barks in the dead of night
Waking in us a childish fear
Didn't I tell you
The lark calls me every morning
To raise to the occasion of another day
Didn't I tell you
I wouldn't stand for such treatment
Yet forever I wait for you to come around
Didn't I tell you
It meant the world to me
To know the truths of your heart
Didn't I tell you
The words run together
There was no mail again today
Didn't I tell you
You could have said anything
I would have chosen to save your world
Didn't I tell you
To just trust yourself
And do what you felt was right
Didn't I tell you
I can't hold on like this forever
The world screams my name
Didn't I tell you
He came to me last month
And begged for my freedom
Didn't I tell you
They grab my face
Try to shake this out of me
Didn't I tell you
I can't wait for the day
When two years is a decade
Didn't I tell you
You're a ghost among the remains
Of my mind's greatest wanderings
Didn't I tell you
I've found a light in the middle of woods
That guides me down from the mountain
Didn't I tell you
How it shone in my eyes
Blinding me to the world I once knew
Didn't I tell you
It's not as bad as you think
I've never seen a thing like this before
Didn't I tell you
I watched the animal pace in its cage
Dreaming of a dangerous freedom
Didn't I tell you
The animal killed itself last night
Against the hinge of the opened door
Didn't I tell you
I stood at the floodgates
Watching water pour into our lives
Didn't I tell you
The contamination spreads
Just as quickly as little lies




______________________________

She was a prodogy

She finds herself uttering goodbyes
to Long-gone Childhood




Dear God,
I will miss this place.
A little piece of my heart
Left with those who taught me what to love.
But the question now is How.

पास
Mandy

Unworthy

There's something incriminating about the way in which you replace me. As is true in every storybook setting, we forgot to mention who we are. In some other life, none of this was true. You forgot to fight the scene. You forgot to try to fly. You forgot to remember what I said to you that night.

Empty out this head of mine. Give me a little peace of mind. This greedy ocean will swallow me whole. In the end, you do not get to have this life of mine. You never truly knew I was running at all. I take it back, in shaking hands. I place it inside me somewhere deep, though planning to expose. Sleeves a perfect debut, despite traditions of the past. It was never my style to give up easily. And Nobody knows what they want. Only fools chase rainbows after they fade into a distant memory.

Past. Present. Future. I let it go from my mind. Where have you been when I told you the truth? I say the words to convince myself. And some day they will become truth.

Wishing away the ways in which I've gone mad. I put your picture up months ago. I cleaned the surfaces of my life and lifted myself up for a few months at a time. Vicious cycles will come to an end.

Once the wrath of the puppeteer. Now the wrath of the hands of one so cold.
Frigid; Ice against my heart.


The sun rises to greet the world
I look up and smile at drifting clouds
We began this journey together, my private universe
Let's begin again, for the hundredth time
The holes are deep but I'm quick on my feet.
My words are swift
Articulate this meaningful "______ ____"
My days are beautiful
My heart so filled with grace
I stand upon the life I've made
And smile to myself
Every once in a while, I hit the concrete wall
Prove Yourself. Unworthy.



पास
Mandy

Mine. Yours. Ours.

Since the Space here is Infinite, I will fill it with anything and Everything that comes across my mind..













_______________________________________________
Death Cab for Cutie- "I Will Possess Your Heart":

How I wish you could see the potential
The potential of you and me.
It's like a book elegantly bound,
But in a language that you can't read just yet.

You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spend some time with me.
And I know that you'll find love.
I will possess your heart.

You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spend some time with me.
And I know that you'll find love.
I will possess your heart.

There are days when outside your window,
I see my reflection as I slowly pass.
And I long for this mirrored perspective,
When we'll be lovers, lovers at last.

You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spend some time with me.
And I know that you'll find love.
I will possess your heart.

You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spend some time with me.
And I know that you'll find love.
I will possess your heart.
I will possess your heart.
I will possess your heart.

You reject my advances and desperate pleas.
I won't let you, let me down so easily, so easily.

You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spend some time with me.
And I know that you'll find love.
I will possess your heart.
________________________________________________________________


What were you hoping for at the end of the day? What do you want from me, we've been through this before. At times there is only so much that can be said. At times the silences I should be filling somehow are left unrecognized. What do you say to that. What do you want from me. Where are we going, what does it matter. What if we never get there. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations we never never thought possible. Unfamiliar, yet existing just as unquestionable as the breath in the lungs. My thoughts are so scattered.What is happening half way across the world?

I'd like to sit by the sea
Watch the waves crash
And remember what every year has meant to me

Words and Words and a few more Words.
Mine. Your. Ours.
Can you own your words?
Or do they belong to the world?

पास
Mandy

Just Thoughts, Quickly Conveyed.

The voices of the past call me into the present. I begin to wonder what I was so determined to leave behind. Why would I hide the truth of who I am; it's all I have. And as I come upon the blessing of the return to my true home, I must accept what I find.

We lived our lives
In colors and scents
Conversations we wished would never end
Streets I've walked a thousand times
Don't seem so familiar any more

You look different my dear
What happened this year?
Cheeks flushed
Your mind Closed

Where are you headed, old friend?
Do you remember what you said to me last?
How the days come and only memories last.
Do you remember the lake and trees?
The photograph I snapped
And filed away

I hear your voice
And smile
Like a hurricane in my mind.

Oh the places we've been
The secrets we know
Sometimes I cringe
And the world knows
For a moment I am removed

Where are you going old friend?
Can I accompany you there?
Will you still want my words
The laughter and tears
Do you need me now
In the separation of years?

And what do I expect to find, gently drifting back to the place I once knew so well.
As we pass through our lives, we gather a list of places and events... memories kept deep inside. A part of who we become, a part of where we will go. But what leaves the greatest impression ? The friendly face across the table, cup in hand. The smile behind the camera, waiting to catch those who fall. The hand that's offered and held.. and held and held and held. The hands through hair, the powerful embrace. The knowing look. The laughter shared day after day. The motivation. The endless seas of inspiration. The fence quickly jumped. The swings that flowed in tandem. The eyes that knew. The words so loaded. The comprises. The moments spent reflecting. The love, the hate, the ecstacy. The trust. The evenings.

Evenings remind me of myself the most. Of the places I've been. Sun setting on a land so flat , seas of asphalt. Phrases said a thousand times. The stripmall horizon. That hill I slide down time after time. The lamp-post against the vibrant skies, a setting sun. Slow and quit songs. Loud and unforgettable memories.

Where are you headed, old friend?

____________________________________________________


"The past and present wilt-I have fill'd them, emptied them,
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.

Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a minute longer.)"

-Walt Whitman, Song of Myself.


____________________________________________________

May your path be long and winding.

पास
Mandy

Where will we Go

I have found, upon venturing the experience, a new perception of You.

We have wandered through fields in our dreams. The wheat brushed against our thighs . We skipped and ran. Footfalls on endless seas of golden stalks, our own private celebration. Shades of lion. Whisps of gray. The sky. The land. The dirt turned to mud as the solstice comes, and quickly goes. Two worlds emerge, two hands submerged under the cover of our ocean of dreams. Sometimes I dance. Sometimes I cry. Sometimes it seems like I could fly. In the field, the sum of spring, summer, winter, fall. Fall down in the shades and bathe in tubs of beauty. We come here to never wish precious moments of life away. Always want to stay, safe in the embraces of earthen aroma. Hint of heart, scent of the mark. The mark on the hand that embraces the world, swallows experiences whole. Desperately dragging the depths of existence from the depths of the soul. To savor. To regret. To share and shave away the darker parts of our walled off hearts. We open. Extrapolate. Symbolically appropriate. The steps in the dark that reached the ears of children hoping for praise. Dreams filled with gardens. Trees filled with birds. Their song drifts to us, familiar yet unheard. Our field. My venue. Our stage. I stand and produce sound. Celebrated gifts and dandellion whips. Streams and flows. The mind keeps working and waiting and laughing. They laughed at your simplicity. Folds of the scarf gripped so tightly around necks to hold in the warmth. To hide until the skin is open to the field in which we lay. Lay down your head. What do you dream of when you have a world of everything?

पास
Mandy

One Night

It began one night in the dark. What history shall we write tonight? With determined action comes determined advice. Be certain of the uncertainties before driving into the night to ask the universe for a bargain.

[Where was your true motivation]

He struck the keys so elegantly, a simple tune released from strings struck in tempo. A rhythm. Defined and recognized. Measurable, countable. Execution; the simple calculated movements of fingertips on black and white keys. Beyond. What hours were spent laboriously searching for the notes. For creation. For renunciation. For meaning in the resulting collection. Greatest moments of the mind's selection, one must find fortitude in the face of floods. of Inspiration.

पास
Mandy

Simple

Sometimes we Smile
for the
lens
poised and waiting

sequence of memories
Captured
yet remembered?

I saw the photographs on your wall. And I wondered, were these some of the greatest moments of your life, created and captured with a simple contraption that has become the icon of memories? Do you see beyond the lens, and acquire the understanding of a new kind of beauty, forever your own? Each image tells a story. Moments we missed, cherished, shared, forgot. There's something so personal about photography, and the universe exposes itself to the hands of the practiced eye. Inconsequentially captured, these are the images that rot under our beds and fill our hard-drives. We try desperately to package that feeling and store it in our banks forever, to be called upon on days distant and unknown. Will it matter if we smiled?
I saw the photograph on my wall, and realized it was pouring that day.




Chicago, ice rink in Millenium Park, a few years ago.


flakes accumulate on sleeves
crunching footsteps
fall in
Ineffable silences

Repairable
The Cuff
of the sleeve
torn long ago

And so is true
for the heart
found in the
chill
of night


पास
Mandy

Inspirations and Beginnings

Days slip through my fingers like sand through an hourglass.
Scratch that-
The greatest things in life are those that come to us naturally, as though it demands our recognition among the infinite possibilities available to us. I find the possibilities are limitless, and I must recognize what makes me truly happy.

And so I recognize a gap in my life. Where I once allowed the words of my life escape my lips (or fingertips) at an easy ebb and flow, I have for the past couple of years just allowed them to jumble up in my mind. Through the days I've spread a few words across a page, but never really allowed myself that opportunity again, for simple irrational fear. Fear that my words are only those of destructive discontented youth. And reflecting on the writings of my past, I tend to recognize thoughts I'd rather not have included in my histories. But one doesn't go through life regretting experiences, and I never will. I wouldn't trade those words for anything in the world, they are the purest experiences of the days of my youth; a youth I am beginning to grow through and with. As I approach my twentieth year, I hope to find a more complete presentation of what it means to be conscious off the fleeting joys and tribulations of this life. Most importantly, I'd like to explore the inner workings of what I perceive to be my soul (Yes, here is the beginning and the infinite continuation or Me, if you will allow). With these perceptions I hope to find optimism among my many fleeting thoughts.

The opacity of one's perception of reality come in many forms of expression. In this space, it will be through tidbits tapped out in a blog. Having said that, I would like to give my one and only apologia, along with a few other goals for the works that will follow. It seems to be ingrained in me, perhaps due to the nature of our culture, to devalue my own works before allowing a full presentation. But at the same time I suppose I will say that this is something I enjoy, and a talent I have often been pleasantly surprised to find. Expressions through word have always inspired me, even as a child. Sometimes words come to me like a waterfall, and they must be recorded, or seemingly lost in the abyss of inspirations that were never pursued. If for nothing else, I record this simply to remember and celebrate the mystery of the thoughts of the human mind. I trust that you might find a little bit of yourself in my words as I take this journey that we generally call Life. They say we put time into the things that really matter to us, and so I am here in hopes of finding my ability to Write.

No matter what I'm doing, I put my soul into it.

पास
Mandy Simmons

The Evolution of Friendship