Flowers & Fire Poetry, Flowers And Fire Poetry
and you ask me…
how will i know it’s him
when he comes along?
i’ll know it’s him
by the way he walks in
wearing respect like a nice suit
and holding that
take. it. slow. magic.
with his self-love, self-required,
just radiating liberation from old men’s tales,
and because…
before he lets me love him…
it will matter that i love myself.
– butterflies rising
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why would
we ever ask each other
to come out from our corners
of self-safety
and crumble down our walls
for anything that wouldn’t
be as true and deep
and beautifully wild
and as gutted open and as
raging as to be living, breathing
thunderstorms in each other’s arms,
tracing our fingers through starlight…
why would i move
when i’m this. terrified. to move.
so if you’re going to ask me
to shed away my safety
…let it be for everything beautiful
imaginable under god.
– butterflies rising
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what if the raging inside of you is something beautiful…
your curiosity stretching and your soul stirring
– butterflies rising
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you are allowed to be lovely
and important,
to speak up, and out, and convicted
from the same mouth that tends
to love and cradles lilies
it’s stunning when you let
why you’re here spill out of you
– butterflies rising
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it’s so delicate here.
but it’s where i’m the most brutal.
it’s where my raging gets careless,
and the delicate things end up crushed.
i fight my hardest fights
trying to love the deepest love,
but i’ve never been more unkind
than i’ve been in these close quarters
…in this head, and to this heart.
and when others have been unkind,
how quick i’ve been to betray myself and just agree.
and i’ve let it all hurt so much that unworthy has felt
like the only feeling i may ever again know…
like a flower whose every last petal has been torn away and
thrown to the wind with nothing left to recognize as beautiful.
just wilted. and bare with pain.
but what if it hurts this way for a reason…
because that ache in me is the fight in me
to learn to feel different.
because somewhere deep inside i know
that i want to be delicate here… desperately.
and when they’re unkind, and when i’m unkind,
somewhere deep down, i know that i fiercely. disagree.
and there’s a wild blossom in me and it’s too beautiful
to ever just be torn away and thrown to the wind.
and there’s a tenderness that i’m made of and an intimacy
that i’m part of… one that i’m going to learn
to take such delicate care of.
– butterflies rising
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Ways To Break This Southern Girl’s Heart
after Diane Lato’s “Easy Ways To Break My Heart”
– give her unsweetened tea. there are no two more terrible words to a southern girl when put together
– tell her you’re an alabama fan. you’ve gotta know that she’s gonna bleed volunteer orange ‘til the end no matter
– tell her you don’t like the mountains. her heart has east tennessee sunrises imprinted on it… and she wants to show you every sunlit, treelined, starkissed view
– turn down the volume when ‘country girl’ by ray lamontagne comes on. papa used to play it for her on the porch, and she’s gotta hear every bit of it, every time
– you wanna really crush her heart? then ask to meet her daddy. because he isn’t in her heart anymore. he was the first one who broke it, and in too many ways, long ago
– and if you wanna just completely shatter her into pieces… then try to give her an ordinary love. because she needs love like wildfire. like forever-fire. until every last southern sun sets. till the stars burn out. and to know her heart is finally safe… with you
…she needs to know that breaking her heart is the very last thing you would ever want to do.
– butterflies rising
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and maybe tonight we just dissolve into stars…
leaving gravity behind, quieting our heads and
trading all our dreams and curiosities
between soul and skin
– butterflies rising
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