» Poetry

When The Music Peaks

Matthew — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:20:03 +0000

There is this place that I go when the music peaks

Where many have entered and few wish to leave

A place where cares fall behind the lids of my eyes

And the noise in the room is out of focus but beautiful

There is a door that opens to a world of reprieve

With a smile and a pardon and a moment to be free

In this place I’m given wings to soar over death

And a grace to love until there’s nothing left

My escape to this place is often shortly lived

But my return is life with a purpose for breath

I was made for this world where there is strength for the weak

And I was born to live forever where the music peaks

Behold

Matthew — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 22:38:28 +0000

Changed and rearranged by things that I behold

Sifted then lifted and burned to purest gold

So collectively affected by the popular and old

On strings like puppet things only doing what I’m told

Like me all see that we were free but now are sold

To the system are we slaves losing wisdom growing cold

Change us now.

‘Amender of men’ be so bold

As to stir the many sleepers and arouse the blinded fold

To see the face we traded for comfort and for gold

And upon it lay our eyes till we become what we behold

You see me

Matthew — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 23:45:30 +0000

You sing and you dance as though you’ve only one chance

But the music ended long ago

And there’s this thing in your smile that I struggle to place

As if you move to a rhythm unknown

You toss me a glance that says come now and dance

I look around to make sure it was me

But I’m just stalling because I know if I stand

I’ll have to be the man that You see

The problem here is you’re the only one dancing

And everyone else has taken a seat

And while they look at You now I know if I come

Who knows the man that they’ll see

You turn and keep dancing but your thoughts are on me

And mine are a mess for the night

You’ve invaded my world with one single look

And if I sit here I know that I’ll die

My glass is now empty but I still hold it firm

Like the limb on the edge of this cliff

I close my eyes. I put my glass to the table

And leave my seat to the fear that is left

The heads in the room with a synchronized turn

Sling stares like their killing a foe

But I take every hit like a slap on the wrist

For your eyes have silenced the blows

There is nothing on earth quite as great as the way

You look past the outside of me

Through the fear & the failure, the pride & the pain

To the man that you’ve always seen

Smeared Lights

Matthew — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 03:43:02 +0000

its a rainy night.

traffic lights smear through the pavement

making it simple to weep

without wandering eyes

And hard to sleep

Because tomorrow is dry

The wet has a way

of grounding

The scattered and drifting thoughts

Of sounding the bell

for the herd to punch the clock

Like a settling of dust

On the floor of the brain

retreating within

Justified by the rain

Why do the storms

Make it okay to stop

the sunshine glorify

Racing the clock

Give me a rainy night

Before a thousand sunny days

That I may come alive

This heart of simple ways

I am more

Matthew — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:39:20 +0000

I’ll believe it when I see it

But if I see it will I need it

Or will it all just be a waste

A man so geared to dream

Believing life’s not what it seems

Wanting to swallow not just taste

Am I so blind to ask the time

As if the time was ever mine

And give false hope to my control

Or does the schedule that I keep

Look at me with tongue and cheek

As if to say “it’s cute you know?”

Who am I in light of Him

And what is He if life is me

But a god within my reach

And could I be so bold to say

It’s merely chance that I was made

And still find hope enough to breathe

I am more than filling space

Meant for more than a carrot chase

I am spirit wrapped in flesh

And to think that He is closed

Within the walls of what I know

Is purely madness nothing less

You

Matthew — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 19:42:56 +0000

Was I ever really strong enough

Or silver tongued to the turning of heads

Have I ever made them move an inch

Or awakened the sinful dead

Have angels ever wished they were me

With arms instead of wings

Trading gray hair for their halo’s

And a song they must fight to sing

You avow me as an only child

And fight hell for who I’ll be

Looking as though you never doubt

That I’m precisely what You see

How did I get to this place in Your heart

Where kings have never tread

Where dreams I thought were torn apart

Were only growing in Your head

How did I come to the front of your thoughts

While giving in so often to mine

It’s like nothing I could possibly to know

And yet all I was meant to find

You are over the top in all that You are

Insanely right in all that You do

Your bottomless love like counting the stars

As endless to me as the depths of You

I From The Sky

Matthew — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:55:04 +0000

For a sec I saw

my speck of a self

Seemingly sick

but somehow well

Internally bleeding

from a seed of greed

With a need to believe

I was conceived as free

My purpose the point

to playing the part

Though purple this face

in placing my heart

Looking for love

in the lust of this life

Longing to belong

to a loving wife

Who will dig for treasure

in the depths of my sea

And find my pleasures

never the measure of me

I’ve followed and led,

swallowed and bled

Hollowed some places

and left them for dead

I’ve dreamed in the night,

screamed in the day

Foreseen a plight

and careened anyway

It is by hope I know

that I cope and I grow

And rise from below

by the grace that He shows

Outrageous, contagious

and in stages He loves

Courageously raging

with a passion for us

But a breath to the death

what I do is what is left

With my best to the test

He’ll attest to the rest

What If…

Matthew — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 03:20:38 +0000

What if pain is actually the purest form of grace,

Life in the birthing process,

Façade giving way to honesty in a trail of death

What if strength is but a series of shattered things,

Fortified by falling,

Flawed but priceless in the eyes of a perfect God

What if our two feet are not meant to make us stand

Or to stabilize this feeble man,

But rather give way to the arms of their creator

What if God’s mercies become clearest in our suffering,

In those times we doubt His love.

When we’re washed in tears, born through pain and close to giving up

Things I Love

Matthew — Mon, 07 May 2007 02:18:55 +0000

There’s something about Ella on a rainy day

A mug of coffee without a place to go

“You could be happy” on 40 at dusk

With Sufjan in the cue on a mountain road

I love Manhattan with my headphones in

Where the people are actors in a video

The back porch of The Hollow with Bruiser & Ben

A beer, a bible and how life turns slow

I love the Cape Fear beneath an overcast sky

And jumping the chains to sit by the edge

McMillan & Mathis like blue with a smile

Stuck in my brain & clearing my head

I love bacon, eggs & grits for dinner

It makes me think of growing up

And all that momma did for her boys

In giving her life to show us love

I love the Fall because it’s close to December

And Christmas because God knows why

There’s a chill in the air & a smile on my face

And a beautiful silent night

I love the sun on the trees around 5 o’clock

And how life looks like a dream

When all become stunning and nothing matters

And my fears fall in between

I love the moment after I’ve given it all

And I am drained yet content with purpose

When life becomes more than just another day

And I become more than this

To Scream or To Kiss

Matthew — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 02:58:21 +0000

Show me a picture of something worth fighting for

a glimpse of passion that can move this heart.

Give me a dream that doesn’t end on the rocks

or even better, one that never ends.

You say to sing for you and I sing

until my throat is sore do I sing.

You say to dance but my legs ache

yet I dance again for your sake.

Am I here for nothing more than your entertainment

a pawn equipped only for the lesser of battles?

Am I fated to know love but only so far

and award the pain that has rattled this heart?

I could scream at you Lord

but I want to kiss you instead

you allow me to fall and yet lift up my head

you want me dead, of this I am sure

for to die in You is to ever endure.

It all sounds right when it’s read by the spirit.

It reminds me I am not here for my own.

But its the flesh in me that’ll be damned if I hear it

its the flesh telling me that I’m pitifully alone.

I am growing weary, my purpose becoming clear

it is for one thing I live and that the moment you are here.

Though ever so brief, it remains undying

when this calloused heart is left broken and crying.

Lord lengthen these moments till I find myself more

in this place that I crave and Who’s presence I adore.