5 Minutes til the New Year

The streets are lined

with smiling faces

and though they bring with them

the sense of joy

and sense of hope

I find none in my heart

without you by my side.

Soldier of this nation,

knight of my honor,

angel of my soul,

how I miss you so

and long for you to stand with me

as you stand with those

who fight along with you.

As the morn

of the new year approches

I sit here at my desk

and wonder if someone will knock at my door

to rescue me from this solitude

of loveless evenings without you.

I pray that person is you.

And now

they have started to count in the streets

and I will watch them from my window

as they cheer

and celebrate one more year.

I, instead, will sit here and wait.

Wait for you to bring yourself

and the essence of the places you've been

with you.

Blasts in the distance

tell me the time has come and gone.

Blasts that strike more fear to you

than they do to me.

But somehow,

I sit here and feel...

like you're no longer here...

New Beginning...

...to and old story.

Happy new year to everyone who has patiently waited my return. I hope that everyone's holidays were a blessing and that this new year is prosperous for us all. A new year for me means new material, new dreams, more work on my stories, and, of course, new poems.

I have been saving the energy to write this new poem for afew days now. I didn't get the inspiriation for writing it 'til a couple of days after the new year. After that, I let it linger inside of me and let the story build. When I finally finished it in my head, I realize that it was not really much of a story, but more of a love letter. Two love letters to be exact.

While I'm not known for my love poems, I do have a huge heart big enough to write them. But for anyone who's ever been in love, you know that some poems can be all the same and some can miss the point of love altogether.

Today, I'll give you something that's real on so many levels and you can decide if the love that was meant to be in it, was expressed the right way. It's a story written in two parts and the first starts with a soldier. I'll leave you, my fans, to read the rest.

I must give a thank you to the person who gave me the inspiration. Much like most of my friends and fans, he comes from far away and tells me that I should take my place among the pantheon of writers. I don't know about that, but I do know that I will keep doing what I'm doing even if I'm never recognized. For those of you who frequent my blog and those who are writers yourselves, you know that it better to be discovered from the many by many, than to waste an eternity trying to be recognized. Thanks, Tomas.

With that, I give you... Seven Minutes after Midnight.