shelter me

Feel the life in my tiny fingers

Opening up is my tiny hand

Reaching out for warmth and comfort 

Confused, am I, of this bless-ed land.

I am alone within myself,

with you I cannot conversate.

I see the fear in feeling eyes,

I feel the sorrow, love, and hate.

Touch my nose, my tiny face,

you and I are made the same.

Yet, you know more about our world,

and I don't even know my name.

Feel that I am just like you,

know that I have lonely fears.

Keep me safe, for I am weak,

I need your strength to dry my tears.

I'd like to do the things you do,

this world, to me, is all brand new.

As I grow, please don't desert me,

Love me much and never hurt me.

Please take special care of me,

without your love, I can't survive.

Weak and helpless, here I lay,

amazed and dazed, for I'm alive.

-D. Erick Bryan, 1995

One true constant

There is no choice above the soil
There is task and there is toil;
Boil the bread and bake the oil
Always task and always toil.

my only

I never make you feel beautiful, I guess I think you should already know you are.

You wake me in the morning; you kiss my eyelids to open them. I am forever yours.

Orion the Hunter

something too easy might be a waste of time but

don’t go making things harder than they have to be

nothing worthwhile is easy

when getting up feels like giving up

true plans begin in hearts of men

surrounded on all sides

by the battered who refuse to fall in line

the hunter has a solitary thought:

“Obtain by force the blood of which I ought.”

skilled as though he is, the hunter always dies

sacrificed to fate without a prize

true plans begin in hearts of men

surrounded on all sides

by the hungry who refuse to fall in line

and lit at center stage,

illuminated ballad of the age

Orion shares his final thought

the sun will rise

and the hunter fades into the skies

In the Woods

For the master of the trees

independence came with ease.

On the trails of his abode,

up and down the hills he rode.
Take a leaf and break a limb,
make them show respect to him.

When the summer went to hide,

no more shade did they provide.
No more leaves to take for fun;
limbs were breaking on their own.

Now what's this? the master said

when the winter came to call.

Freezing rain and chapping wind

doth surround me one and all.

Must the flowers be reminded

to withdraw to winter sleep?

Must I tell the forest creatures

where to go for winter's keep?

While the season chills the charges

I'll protect them, this I swear,

'til the gentle winds of springtime

come again to warm the air.

a fricative snore

Soon winter brings a fricative snore
to chill the air just as before
A timely desertion by the heat
reluctance in its warm retreat
the trees and plants will wither and dry
discard their leaves, appear to die
embracing the bite of icy wind
while waiting for the freeze to end
the cold is not so frightful to feel
to feel at all is quite a deal
if not for continuance of the sun
the life on hold would not return

iambic

I’m running down the sidewalk hot from sun.
The tiny islands pool the cool green grass.
Now scatter, creature, change your current view,
and know I only want to see you fly,
because it’s what I think that you do best.
If not, then by all means you must pursue.
Please tell me what it is that makes you free
so maybe it might shed some light on me,
but let me have my fun as I move past.
I promise not to crush what dreams you seek,
forever may they live inside us all.

death before devotion

Life as seen through wandering eyes:
mists of evil fill the breeze...
they breathe in deep the morning's cries
to spread their hatred through the seas.
If, by chance, their fate appear
to them in sudden fashion,
will time enough they have
to understand what they have done?

in dreams of a child

spawn subsides
slumber presides in state of mind
not far behind
rare journeys lay
arisen they
unlock a world
star-studded and pearled
or distant and wild
in dreams of a child

the moon whispers as we slowly say goodnight
brief encounters are all - I go on
talking points are mute
existing to exist in twist of stargaze this maze
impossible to resist for once I'm in I'm in
or am I, I never can tell
when or where swell my emotional heart
in time a rhythm in rhythm with this
my compilation of moments keeps time all its own
unaffected, uneffected but a part of it all...
always. I go on

rain

I like to write on rainy days
the clouds arrive with whites and grays
the sun does not reveal its gaze
to fantasies at play