Seeing the Tree Through the Forest

The tree standing tall
amid the forest,
needing nothing but the
light of the sun, the mist
of the rain and the nourishment
from the ground;
never feeling the touch of
another tree against its own
rough bark; not attaching
itself to another;
standing completely alone
amongst the crowd of trees.


Copyright © 2002 by
Shawn Murray

You Can Never Go Home Again

The house I call home
now has a third floor
instead of only two;
a doorway where
the dinning room once was
and a bay window in
the living room.
The burn mark in the
rug where Daddy once
almost burned down
the house by using
gasoline to light a fire
in the fireplace
is now hard wood floors
and Mom and Dad's bedroom
is now half the family room.
The closet is a
stairway and my room
is an office. Mom and Dad
don't live there anymore
but the cubby hole
under the basement stairs
where I used to hide
is still there.


Copyright © 2002 by
Shawn Murray

Hate

the monsters in my childhood closet
seem to have swallowed me whole
or is it I who have engulfed them?
their angry, spiteful, vicious bile
regurgitates from within my soul
to spew forth hateful venom
attacking my foe's weakest illusion
of himself; or is he friend?
never again, nevermore.


Copyright © 2002 by
Shawn Murray

Questions

Who? What? Where? When? Why? and How?
Six simple words that turn our world upside down.

Who are you? Who am I?
Do we really ever have an answer?

What do I want? What do I need?
What makes the world go 'round?

Where are you? Where did you go?
Does anyone ever really know?

When are you going to stop playing games?
Do you know the games that you play?

Why does this always happen to me?
Why? And why not? Be happy with what you've got.

How do you stop your world from falling apart?
By living what's truly in your heart.


Copyright © 2002 by
Shawn Murray

Somehow

I don't know how to do what You ask me to do.
The harder I try the harder it gets.
It doesn't look the way I think it should.
It doesn't work quite the right way.
How can You be pleased with what I've created?
But somehow You are.

Even though it's so much easier
to sit back and do nothing
to complain and do nothing
to allow life to pass me by
How can You be pleased with the lessons I'm learning?
But somehow You are.

Delving into the intoxicating lifestyle
of the fast lane
to feel something, anything other than what I feel
to lose responsibility, to not care
what happens.
How can You be pleased with me?
But somehow You are.


Copyright © 2002 by
Shawn Murray