"just listen"

sun moon rises
sing sweet surprises
wise disguises cover your eyes are
blue my skies are gray
kiss my pain
till the pain runs away
dark poem writer
doubt love - fire
you see in me
you see not me
i'm a two-faced liar
a lover pretender
gaze in the mirror
you beg to differ
life worthless be ruthless
experiences unchanged
memories unpaved
remember gut feeling
recall love living
inside of me
one time
i felt needed
but now just used
felt once i loved you
but now too soon
or too late
my hate i restate
my face i retrace
remember how cute i was
comedy catcher - laugh
star gazer
dreamer of things to come
emotional seeker
passionate looker
searching for things today
remove my depression
understand my confession
and maybe you'll surrender
to my lonely obsession
for love in those blue eyes
turn my gray skies
into happiness - smile
sun moon sets
this time i regret
my true feelings were never told
too cold
to be so alone
just tuck me in
and say you love me
kiss goodnight
light turned off
hope not lost
not today
thank you for just listening

published in washburn university's literary magaine "zietgest" in 1999

 I wrote the poem above in about 15-20 minutes in '97-'98, my senior year of high school.  It is a self-portrait piece that remains my personal favorite because it is in a style unlike anything I had written up to this point.  It is the first to have no capitalization or punctuation because I wanted the focus to be on the words, not whether a line was properly written under the rules of the English language.  To this day, I rarely use punctuation or capitalization.

If ever you were curious why my http address is 'burntpoetsbio.blogspot.com,' it is a surname that I created for my poetic persona as a teenager.  During those years of searching for my wife (I jokingly believe that I wanted not a girlfriend but a wife since 7th grade), I had some short relationships and had my heart broken many times.  I became jaded and thought, "Just like fire, if you play with love too long you'll eventually get burned.  And I'm burnt."  Thankfully, I am now happily married with a beautiful little girl but somehow the name 'burntpoet' stuck.  I only use it for my poetry.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know me through my first of two self-portrait poems I'll be posting.

Bless and be blessed, my friends!