My Own Search for Happiness

There’s something beautiful to me about stories where some guy goes on some kind of elaborate journey to find happiness.  I think it reminds me of my own journey.  I know at the beginning of it all I felt like it was going to be some epic thing….

My journey started with a simple concept.  Well…I say it was simple.  It all started with the search for love, who I am, what happiness was, and the escape from the madness that dwelled within me from being stuck in the dead end of dead ends.  At 21, I had already had two crazy brushes with love and one relationship where it was obvious that nothing was going to work out.  The pieces of my heart were not going to pick themselves up by themselves and nothing was ever going to be picked up within the confines of the life I was living.  So, I set off….

(poem) - The Age of Rust

What is left for us
Those who dwell in the rust

Days pass by and still we persist
Its almost as if, we are still trying to resist

People still call it ‘The Man’
Because its all part of the Machine’s plan

Its rolling and churning
Doing nothing but destroying

Collecting money for itself
Putting all its riches upon the shelf

We all help it along
Even if you do nothing but smoking a bong

Because it feeds off all of us
In one way or another, in god we trust

What hope is there for a better tomorrow
I feel the death of us in my bone’s marrow

It gives me aches and pains
As fear seeps in, destroying memories within my brain

Is the past the thing I remember
Or did I gloss it all over in November?

I stare into the mirror’s reflection
And fear my face’s deep set aggression

For there is nothing but hatred within my eyes
For those that tell all the lies

Because lies are what got us here
Kiss all the rich people’s rears

We are nothing but the cobble stones
That led them all to there hedonistic thrones

Luckily there is a special place in hell
For all those that poisoned the well

Because poisoned it has become
In this existence that is nothing but bedlam

We strive and strive for things we can’t have
For our wounds, there is no salve

So go out and slave away
At minimum wage all day

As the people above your boss
Reap all the benefits of the life you’ve lost

While I ponder what is left for the rest of us
As well dwell in the Age of Rust.

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!

(poem) - Nightmares

I remember dreams

Where I’d wake up alive

Landing safely upon the ground

After some fateful, deadly dive

I’m sure the screams

Woke my lover

Because of life’s

Living horror

I missed my chance

To die in the night

Being forced to life

Eternity’s blight

When death visits

In a World gone Mad

Those are the dreams

That are (supposed to be) the best I’ve ever had.

But the horror of living

On without you

Is upon me now

And there is nothing I can do

Alone

I fear it now

My bad dreams

Are nightmares of surviving

In a dreary world

Without loving

The world of before

Where living was a tedium

Of managing

Life’s great doldrums

Passing the time away

For when death finally comes

Playing games and watching TV

Ignoring my heart’s rhythmic drum

Yet now I have a reason

To truly live for each day

And I want to seize it all

In every sort of way

But the end of the dream will come

How can it not?

That end visits me in my dreams

Showing me life is all for naught

For in the end

That’s what dreams are for

To show us all the spectrums

Of what we most and least long for

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!

(poem) - Inspiration, Take Me Away

I love to be transported
To another place and time
Be it by writing
Or music’s amazing rhyme

Dreams can only
Take you so far
You have to find inspiration
To raise that bar

Is there a better rhyme
Than this American Classic’s Line?

“Give me the beat boys
And save my soul
I want to get lost
In your rock and roll”

That is how I view music
Its why I listen at all
I love to hear the music
While watching the leaves fall

Trust me in this
When I say
I could listen to rock
Every and all day

But then there are times
That motion pictures set up the best lines

Some people can scoff
At the movie Avatar
When I watched it the first time
I dreamed I was seeing a distance star

From a world
I had never seen
A lush land
With tons of green

Sure the people were blue
But I was one of them
Daring to rise up
And share freedom’s dream

I live for moments like these
When I’m transported through outrageous dreams

If I could live
Under another sun
Or be taken away
By rock and rolls sweet fun

Then I would dance along
With my wife
In a place far from here
Without any strife

Because in these places far away
Where inspiration rules the day
My wife and I, in each other’s arms would lay.
Because each other’s love will stay

The funny thing is, no matter what I say
This is my life already, in every way.

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!

Artistic Work

I have never written so much in my entire life.  I can easily compare it all to my early adulthood, when I was writing 8 hours a day.  I spend so much time in front of the computer now, its crazy.  And I have nothing but a backlog of work.

Thing is, its not just the writing, it’s the photography, the blog’s promotion, the working with Lisa on her newest novel, brainstorming.  I’m completely shocked at how much there is to do now that I have absolutely nothing to do.

(poem) - A Child's Imagination

Dreams come alive
Within a child’s eyes
When they see
A Princess at Disney

Yes I know
It seems like a cliche of old
But imagination runs wild
In the mind of a child



It’s a truly beautiful thing
To watch imagination sing
And see the light
Of dreams shine so bright

It makes me want to create
Or start an intense debate
And suddenly the universe is small
Stars don’t seem far away at all

As your soul drifts upon the air
So very far up there
Amongst the dreams of better men
Who had far better acumen

Sometime or another
The child goes back to their mother
Who knows the truth
Because she thinks she’s a sleuth

But the true fact is
She is not the true wiz
Because reality within a child’s eye
Is where the truth doth lie

Because imagination is the key
That makes the future shine brightly
Cultivate that sense of awe
That’s how we’ll get our last hurrah

Because whatever we can dream
We can make as a team
But it all starts in a child’s eyes
Where all those dreams exist because they are alive....

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!

The reason I create.

Have you ever had a dream that overwhelmed you?  I’m not talking about a nightmare, I’m talking about thoughts of a story that has swept you away, and after you came out of the dream, you just kept adding to it, or editing it, as you went through your day?  Ever see a story or a movie, and think to yourself that you could have done it better, or that it would have been better with certain tweaks?

Unfortunately, I am like this.  I say unfortunate, because sometimes I can’t enjoy certain stories because I see the plot holes, or something that’s just incorrect, or something that the author/director changed to fit what they needed to, even though they had set up something before that doesn’t justify it.  Okay, maybe that last one was a bit confusing due to pronouns.

(poem) Strive

Delusions of grandeur
Dreams of greatness
They can be seen on the horizon
Yet be as elusive as Nessie of Loch Ness

They are figments of the imagination
Yet things for which we strive
Some people fully believe
To achieve them is to be alive

We walk this Earth
Striving for a destiny
Yet most are doomed
To an existence kin to a zombie.

I’ve watched dreams thrive
I’ve watched them die
I’ve achieved my happiness
In the blink of an eye

I crave so much more
Yet that is not as important
As simply learning to live
Within each and every moment

Goals are great
Dreams are good
Enjoy this life
In every way you would

Pain is temporary
As is life
Your dreams are your pinpoints
To move you from strife

Achieve what you can
Smile every day
For maybe sometime
You can enjoy where you lay

I enjoy my dreams
And strive to achieve them
Go strive for your own
I'm imploring you with this poem

--Dan

--Want more Poetry?  Check out my Poetry Collection Page!