If Not For You

* Originally written March, 2013, I thought I would post this and see what you all think. The style and tone are different for me. 

If Not For You

If not for you, who would complete me?
        When winter blows glacial winds
        you warm me with your smile
        your arms a shelter against storms
                that graze my delicate soul.

If not for you, how would I cope?
        Lend me your strength to combat
        apparitions that visit me at night
               when darkness shrouds reality;
               Pull me to the light, extend
        your hands so that your caress
               soothes a pliable heart..

If not for you, where would I be?
        I cannot fathom a forest with trees
                that block citrus sunlight,
                that chafes my face,
                deters me  from victory;
        I would wither in shadows, cower
        underneath the heather that supplies
        pillows for this weary head.

Thanks my love for your tenderness
        for the acceptance that comforts me
                in vulnerable glass houses
                susceptible to pebbles concealed
        in lace ups that pinch my toes
        when I walk towards luminosity.

If not for you, I would sleep
        a thousand days, never to return
        to this realm, under turquoise skies.

Sandpipers and Terns

* This was written for a competition. It was a word bank where we had to create a poem using the ten words supplied in the prompt given. This is what I wrote in response. The highlighted words were the words required to write the poem.

Purple sandpipers and White-winged terns
litter beaches where their portraits
cast shadows upon ocean shores
in August before they leave
to migrate, wipe coastlines clean
innate lessons that drive instinct.

I always had envy for their ability to fly
to fantastic lands when in truth,
their journeys are often sour, perilous
to weather nature’s truth
that these creatures may never reach
their final destination intact.

But it was their gift to fly, push up
from the ground and soar to new heights
surveying all that I see:
the elements of rain in dying seas,
changes of clouds that cast
misty dyes into the atmosphere
or feel free from constraints
that entraps us, life’s consequences.