What is bliss?
Red roses budding and springing up from the soft brown earth,
Their fragrance so sweet it drips from their crimson petals,
Filling the air with their warm smell.
Rolling hills alive with greenery are capped with new wildflowers, opening their soft faces to the young sun for the first time.
A babbling brook rolls by, skipping over the smooth stones on its bed.
Rumbling and gargling as its cool blue water bubbles along.

The soft, pale pink tongue of a baby doe submerges into the cool waters,
Lapping up the cool, blue gold as its tiny ears swivel back and forth.
Newborn salmon twist and flip above and beneath the bubbling surface,
Flipping to and fro so their bright bellies catch the sunlight and it dances off their luminescent scales.
Billowing clouds fly overhead with not a whisper of rain.
The clear, blue sky, smiling down at the beauty held below.
Pink tinged edges, like paper burnt by strawberry flames,
A streak of orange slowly growing more prominent with the waning sun.
This is bliss.

A warm fire just lit in a family's hearth, blazes high releasing its heat.
A baby's small, round hands pressed forward to feel the flames dance around her fingertips,
A book too big for her lap, rests against the crossed knees of a sister as she reads the sweet poetry from its crisp, young pages.
All the love and warmth of the sweet family locked inside the small house,
Forbidding the cold to enter,
This is bliss.

Yet no thing, earthly or heavenly, is more satisfactory to mine eyes than the beauty of your face.
No sun as bright, no babe as soft, no rose as sweet as just one look from you.
A painted picture can hold expression no more than kind words written on paper.
But the depths you hold beneath your fluttering lids is greater than all the beauty in the world.
Your words, soft when spoken, are a melodic tune sweeter than a jay could sing.
Every action a generous token bestowed upon the figure of your choosing.
Every lash, counted and numbered,
Soft to the touch and a pale soft black,
Call to me as my fingertips brush across their soft, curled tips.
The smooth planes of your cheeks, obstructed only by the protrusion of your jaw,
Is like silk against my hands as they glide across its surface.
Your movements an art, so perfect and melodic as if dancing to music only heard by your ears.

But no sight could possibly contain the beauty held in those soft, blue eyes.
Piercing into my very soul they hold more wisdom than any eye known to man.
Yet they are soft and gentle, kind as they look upon my being,
No greater kindness has been shown to me than the simple kindness exuded from your vibrant eyes.

What is bliss?
Behold all that is young and all that is new for they hold all the beauty of our world.
A promise of new life and of things to come.
That is bliss.

Every step to your life an adventure, a new chance to discover the undiscoverable,
To chase the unknown and bask in the glory received for your trials.
Yet some are satisfied to merely drift unknowingly along,
Not daring to dip a toe into that which they hold no knowledge,
Instead they lie in the bed of safety and fulfill comfortable lives inside the small four walls of monotony.
Waiting patiently, with no trace of curiosity for the mysteries of this world,
Waiting for Father to call his last time.

That is how I lived my life, I existed.
I existed purely for the purpose of existing.
Always standing on the edge, on the brink of something great,
Yet never stepping forward to embrace the mystery and dive into the
glorious unknown.
We sit in our silent halls of conformity never questioning why we were made to be,
Only existing in the lonely solitude of our monotonous unity,
Only made to blend in with those laid before you.

That is how I existed, not once questioning it,
Until you came and forever changed my life, casting me into the black oblivion.
Like a blazing fire you burned down all that stood before you,
And from the ashes made me anew, like a phoenix I rise and prepare for my new life.
Plunged onto the path of the unknown, guided only by your voice,
A new mystery found at every turn.
Only now have I grasped the true meaning of what it is to live.
However, my life, lived completely submerged in the pool of adventure, is lived solely for you.
Yet how can I exist when my thoughts are shrouded by your face?

How can I breathe?
How can I think?
How can I live when all I can see is you?
Consuming my very being
I am intoxicated by you.

Like a mist, a thick cloud of smoke, you’ve captured me in your depths.
My head, shrouded and confused by your strong opium.
Your touch, stops my racing heart,
Your breath, like fog on a window pane,
Raptures my soul.
Your very being exploding my life,
An earthquake crumbling away the rocks of my past.
You’ve erased the displeasure,
Imploded the exhaustible,
And become an irreplaceable piece to the puzzle that is my life,
An irrevocable replacement unable to be left.

Your tongue like acid and your actions a poison,
But your touch a waterfall and your looks a passion.
How have I lived so long without your fiery love?
Your passion a fury,
Incredible and awe striking.
Like a blast of ice colder than the arctic,
Yet warmer than the sun’s core.

You are the same, yet you are everything that is different.
You are the unchanged, the untamed and the uncaring.
A daredevil in your own right,
Yet hidden away in your center, a safe locked tight.
Guarded by the mistakes of your past,
Your arms take pause when in question,
Not willing to be exposed in full light,
But instead, carefully pricked together in an effort to ward off what one no longer considers imperative.
Yet unable to contain the exasperations and solidifications of one’s deepest holds.
They burst forth un-obscured yet shrouded in subtleties.
They lie in waiting to open themselves as a flower opening its petals to the golden rays.
But only can you find them open when your eyes in concordance are open.

You have nothing, yet everything.
You invest in the material with frivolity, holding no thoughts for yourself,
Yet that is not what you hold that is the source of my desires.
Unlike so many others who’s shallow minds have only eyes for the glitter and the shining,
It is the occupant of your innards that caught my gaze.
The cool sense of civility and the way in which your own wishes hold no regard in your mind.
Instead, your mind is consumed with the comfortability of those whom you dote,
And even those whose eyes are incapable of being opened,
Still bask in the glorious light of your benevolence.

And still, it is only the hum drum of the contents of his perfect chest
That continues to captivate my entire soul, locking my only tool down for one.
How can I already be so enveloped in your being that I see no life outside of you?
How can this be?
How are you already the only one I see?
My life intertwined with yours,
Weaving its way through yours like a woven basket until our strands have made us one,
Yet I am frightened,
A fear settles in my chest, coaxing me to bolt.
Like a poison it spreads its blackness like a silken web,
Until finally its spidery fibers are all that holds my fragile frame from pieces.
You say you’re scared yet your fears hold no echo to the horror of mine.
Yet I cannot run, I cannot leave, for all I hold in this life rests by your side.

Like a tempest you have brought my whole life to a storm,
And when the rain stops, I am anew.
For you have washed away all that is unsightly,
My past, forgotten, washed away by your benign graces,
Yet still the strings of my heart cannot stay rooted,

My fears too great to hold at bay,
Frightful of the day your eyes are opened.
My dreams consumed by your face,
My nightmares haunted by your voice,
When I wake I am unsure,
My dreams a more believable reality.
For no one could be this good.
No one could hold the power you hold and not be an essence of the unreal.

The picture, once so clear, is now tainted with the scent of confusion.
Drearily, my thoughts run wild, racing through my mind.
I have no sense of what they mean or what they don’t.
But they darken with every turn as I walk through the bleak and towards the unknown.

My insides laid bare, open for the world to take its view.
For all to judge me, but their consternations hold no grounds.
I cast them aside for there is only one who’s thoughts make relevance.
It would be ignorance, if I did not already hold knowledge of my stupidity.
My indiscretions are of no secret to my innermost eye.
I know what my heart holds, yet I try to turn blindly.

My emotions run wild just at a very drop of you to my thoughts,
And I never thought I could contain such feelings.
You bask in the warmth of another’s skin, yet my eyes hold no affections.
You know no boundaries and your actions run feral.
Yet I wait.

Your hold on me is inexplicable, unexplainable, yet undeniable.
I am at your beck and call, any desire you hold I lay down all to achieve.
But was it sound or pure?
That is what haunts my waking nightmares.
What follows me through the halls and, like smoke, fills my body.
It consumes me with your intoxicating fumes until I can no longer bear it.
Until, like ice, I melt and crumble apart.

Ripping apart at the seams I scream out in agony,
Begging to be released from your iron claw, your vice-like grip.
Yet my screams come out silent and my begging turns to pleading,
Pleading eyes trained on you, ready to jump upon request.
How could I have let this happen?
Let you enter me, body and soul, and grasp my strings until I can no longer breathe.
You are my breath, my life, my death

Like a black angel you devour all that is good,
Yet you bring all that is great.
Disaster rains down upon me when my thoughts run astray,
Yet I can’t help a gander at the locked door who holds so much mystery.
Clamored with questions, my heart beats with them on time,
The tune of the song has changed, and it’s not one I’ve sung.

I lie awake in torment, a tempest raging in my core.
A fire ignited deep within, slowly burns my knowledge to ash.
Everything I knew, all that I believed, every hope, all my wishes,
Cut to shreds before your feet.

One gaze at me and I am lost, one look and I am gone.
Your eyes see depths right through mine and hold the key to my soul.
You know my reasoning that I can’t put into thoughts,
My desires that I do not dare voice aloud.
You know this all by just one look,
You know, yet you do not say.

I long to reach out my fingers and graze the warmth of your skin,
To stroke the contours of your face,
To rest my palm above your heart where it always had a home.
Yet I practice restraint, and master the art of the mask.
The pain, so evident in my eyes, in my very being,
Closed off, preserved for a time of reflection.
Yet I am too sure you know, for there is little you fall short on.

My fingers ache to feel the security of the one hand who calms my soul,
My life a storm, crashed to and fro by the waves of change.

My stormhold out of reach, I am at a loss.
Blown apart by the winds of injustice, my frailty becoming more prominent.
A black void continuously opening, is becoming my only hallow I have left.
I stay strong and hold my own but only for you to see.
I hold none of you, but you hold all of me.

Every distance reminds me of you,
Every thought filled with you,
Every fiber of my being, consumed by you.
But do you think of me?
Do I hold any sustenance with you?
Are your words as true as they say?
Or are they tainted by the poison that drips off your tongue when you address another?

Are your dreams filled with me?
Or does someone else dance along the edges of your fantasies?
Will I ever know, or will I forever be in the dark?
With only these questions to haunt me.

My dreams drip endlessly to nothingness like sap from the black oak.
My dreams flown away on the wings of ravens.
Doubt courses through my veins like a deadly virus.
A black plague turning to dust all hope in its path.
My heart aches for you, a pain shooting outward from my chest
Taking control of my body as the spasms concur.
An abandoned house called Sorrow is all that lies in wait,
Like a dark shadow of impending doom.

Yet my arms are spread wide in patient apprehension,
Oh ye of little faith holds no regard for the tales of what to come.
But I of age-d prose and petals whom long have wilted,
Hold fast to the knowledge of the present,
But also to the strings of the wondrous 'to be'. 

Though time has shown its shadow,
Scorn has come to play,
Guilt and sorrow dance in the moonlight of their glories,
And wisdom has taken in all,
I still hold the soft planes of your figure, vividly in my mind.

No other drink can quench my thirst,
No food will satiate my hunger,
No fire can coax warmth into the hallows of my brittle bones.
But one word from your coral lips, so soft and sweet when spoken,
Can draw even the deepest of my dangers out,
Lay them bare in their abandoned house.

One word is all I need to heal,
One word I feel renewed.
Yet words released from behind those white gates,
Are rare where words can be concerned.

The affect you hold for those in question,
Is never before your eyes.
Yet every eye not naked to love’s beauty and graces of all that is good,
Can see your shining beacon, your surrounding halo, your glow of rays.
For your figure radiates all the warmth once held by the sun.
It permeates all boundaries and crushes all walls to rubble.
None can stand before it and still wish to use its legs.
The glow of promise you bring is yours to take away.
But when it is shown on me, no force can stop the jubilee.

Reborn from what was, rebirthed from the ashes,
Hope flies on white wings and boasts of things to come.
Love soars through clear skies and settles down like a dove.
All trust unbroken and feelings kept safe.

The world you hold by the tips of your fingers,
Too insignificant to be cast in full light,
Released before my eyes, granted at a privilege none other can brag.
Mine alone is the secret, yours alone is the gift.
Enwrapped in your world, covered by your golden light,
Only I can know the true magnificence of what others have merely guessed.

But guesses and glories, talks of the unknown,
Can hold no justice for the true beauty of the oceans that crash behind your eyes.
The waves, a frightful endeavor, cast to and fro,
Rocking the calm world beneath those perfect lids.
No other wonder or beauty of this world,
Can be found than the calm oceans of pale blue and sunsets of pure gold,
The rays dancing across the surface in laughter.
The reflections twinkling back as I gaze into the depths of its beauty.

Eyes that hold more beauty than all that is known,
Yet shrouded in secrecy, locked away, yet screaming to be found.
Only I was granted this key, no other possession held more regard for me.
But to have it stripped and held at a distance,
Was almost too much for one heart to bear.
But the small pieces and tokens I receive,
Slowly allow themselves to fall into place accordingly,
By no known pattern seen by my eye,
Or perhaps that was only your plan.

A small piece moved and checked in your game you control.
But it is your world, what is there you don’t hold power over?
Every breath I take, breathed by you.
Every step I take, walked in your shoes.
You hold my soul and yet I have no restraint in your power.
No doubt in my being where it belongs.

For, though the rooster crows its last tune, and the dawn breaks its last horizon.
For, thought the meadowlark hums its final melody and the trees creak and groan against the wind in farewell.
And Father has called for his last time,
My heart is still yours and your love is still mine.
This is bliss.