Sinking/Rising

 

In the middle

of a great lake, maybe a sea.

Empty blue, all I can

see through

panic soaked eyes.

Water consuming

my dampened spirit. I linger.

Feet slashing the water

over the precipice

of the deepening abyss.

 

The sky slams down on me,

coffin lid clouds. Hammered down

in thunderstrike heartbeats.

 

Flailing, thrashing,

I sink fast. Pressure

from all sides. Crushed lungs

want to scream.

 

Help me.

Free me.

I am the image the dead see.

Lifeline failing.

But to open my mouth

would be to fill myself

in the Dead Sea.

 

So I clamp my jaw tighter.

Fear blinks silent cries.

 

Absent light churned

into darkening shadows

fill the liquid fear of my descent.

I am in stasis. A traveller

to a distant universe.

 

Save me.

Whispers in bubbles from my lips,

I watch them

rise, skipping starlight

specks in the murkiness.

 

My eyes drift as my limbs fall

still.

A stone in a glass jar.

Flatline.

Waiting for

the eternal tomorrow.

 

See me. I let out the last air,

and watch my eyelids

as I fall into the vacuum of fear.

 

Fingers interlocking,

shocking my heart.

Defibrillator love as I open my eyes.

 

The sight. Haloed beauty

holds me in her wings.

 

I've waited my whole life

to feel the feather-soft heart

that sits so perfectly aligned with mine.

 

As she pulls me closer

to her chest, we rise to the surface.

Lips pressed to mine,

breathing hope into my raising lifeline.

Not just a venue

 

Not just a venue

 

The stage lights

blind your eyes.

The crackle of air

buzzing as the

electricity zips around,

before

your voice hits the mic,

and the swimming feeling

lifts you higher, carried

upon the waves of a crowd

appreciating the beauty

in the words we spin, worlds

formed from paper and ink.

 

But it is so much more.

 

This is not just a venue

for our words to soar,

it is community.

The heartbeat of Leicester.

The walls adorned

with local art, music

sounding out from local bands,

local poets speaking aloud.

We stand proud, a united city

all under one roof.

 

Not just a venue, a place of truth.

 

It is a safe space, giving us

permission to be ourselves.

No outcasts in this place,

no one falls, as we lift them up onto

our shoulders and hold them safe.

 

Not just a venue, but a community

of love that has so much more to give.

Heart full of stars

 

Here in this heart

you can be anything you wish.

All that you desire,

you can grow and flourish.

Be strong, sweet flower,

for in this heart. I'll hold you

higher than any stars above,

or any sky-piercing tower.

 

I'll hand you the keys

to fill with your dreamy allure.

 

And I assure you, whatever flows

down the river of time, I'll hold you close

and keep you from falling in.

 

Here in this heart

you can be who you dream,

the reality you've kept

from breaking through the screen.

You can be brilliant, bright,

a shining light on a silver sky.

Be the beautiful you that I see,

and I'll place a mirror to reflect

that beauty both near and far.

 

And I'll hand you my words

in verse every day,

sharing a part of the world

that I hold close to me.

So that any distance is never more

than a mere paper-thin page

of a story that can be written

all the way to the stars,

when the day fades away.

 

Here in this heart

you can feel safe.

There are no sharp edges

or razor-thin blades.

There is only hope and love.

There is only poetry and art.

Only beautiful skies

and moonlit nights, and

space where you can sit

beside me watching the stars.