​I would never ask you to be more or less
Than what you are, 
I simply want to know you.
I will not ask you to stay the same, I will not ask you to change
Or to never change.
Growth and transformation
Are part of the human experience.
Love allows growth
Even when it means 
You must get to know another
All over again.
I will not ask you to be what I need
I will only ask me
To be what I need.
If that means being more, then I will grow
If that means crawling deep within
The darkest, most unknown depths of who I am
I will disappear, as it may seem
From your sight
To explore my own
Dark
And my own light.
I will not ask you to follow
And I will not ask you to understand 
Or even approve
Of where I've gone 
Or who I am.
It only matters if I do.
Love does not mean 
You pretend to be
What you think I want
Or need
Love means being exquistely
You.
And I promise
To love
Exactly who
It is
You know you are ~
Even if to find out who that is 
You must disappear
And dive inside
Your own dark night
I will be here
With my own light.
And if you're meant to 
One day
Find me again
I will not ask you
To be more
Or to be less
Than who you are
I only want to know you.
Charity

You owe me nothing 
You have no obligation 
We are simply individuals
Existing in one realm.
I owe you nothing
I have no obligation 
We are simply individuals
Existing in this same realm
for a time, and it passes
Skin and spirit
Spirit and skin.
We are both human 
And separate as it seems
And that's alright
At the moment
It does not mean
We won't meet again
In another age
In another form
You may have loved me
It does not mean
You ought to love me
Today.
It's so easy
To get caught up
In past Connections
When your memory
Encompasses
Multiple dimensions
And thousands of years.
But for now
We have this one exquisite moment
This one day in time
To be exactly who and what we are
Why waste time grasping at connections
From lives long past 
When today encompasses everything.
There is now
There is this morning, there is this earth
Beneath my feet
And if it all
Were to end
Without warning
I would like to believe
Today
Who I am
What I explore in this precious present moment
Is enough.​

Charity

​

​Were you anything ever
Was I anyone
To you
Maybe yes
Maybe never
But I belong…
When the day turns night
Shadows turn
Long
I turn
To a thought of you
It's something old
And nothing new
I do.
Ancient
As our souls
When we began
Younger than we realize
Now and then.
Did you forget
You're ageless
When
I touch you?
Did you forget I was yours 
Before time
And all that
Began –
To be recorded
Rewound, fast forward
Don't forget you're everything
Don't forget you're everything
If I was never anything…
Just don't forget you're everything –
I ever wanted
(And I looked a long time)
Not just a lifetime
But several
And you were damn hard to track down
Ancient
7 wonders or perhaps thousands 
I have wandered
This universe is nothing –
So small compared 
To the places I've traveled
In the hopes
Of meeting you there…
Oh the places I've traveled 
For a moment or two
Of eye contact with you –
And it's worth it, I guess 
To see you 
In the flesh
To know you exist
And now I can rest
Knowing we've met
And maybe in the next
Life 
You won't forget
That we were supposed to matter
To each other
For a little longer
Than a few stolen nights
Of lust and lies…
We were meant to matter 
More
But at least I don't have
To wander
Travel 
Search the universe over
You exist
And I have peace
In this.
Charity

​Closer than we ever were
Further now
Tho I feel you near
If you knew would you return
Or have you always been right here?

Charity

​​When she falls
She falls
Like waterfalls
Crashing into the sea
Beneath
She's Niagara to me
Fierce
Rushing
Dangerous
And Lovely ~
When she falls.

Charity

​There’s a traveling girl reaching through my hands
Curiously testing the lock on every door she stumbles across
As she explores this most interesting realm.
This world with all its laws that seem so real
And she laughs at the part me that believes they are.
There’s a traveling girl,
Timeless, brilliant and mad to live on the edge of every truth ever told
Every rule ever made, every game ever played.
She enjoys the view through my eyes
She thinks outside my mind
From a deeper place inside…
And she never ceases reaching through my hand
Towards the handle of every door that I’d always planned
(For practicality’s sake)
To leave unopened.
She’d prefer the locks be broken
The words be spoken
And reality tested
Till it’s forgotten or bested
By this traveling girl
Exploring this fascinating world ~
Where people believe in the rules of time
The limits of gravity
And oh so gladly
Follow the standards set
By all the others that explored this place before…
But not her
None of the rules apply to her
Because she’s just a traveler passing through.
Charity

Amidst the chaos of life
Despite moments of total and utter defeat
Regardless of loss
Pain, heartbreak and disappointment in love
(Or the hope there of)
We
The artists
Are driven to create.
And this
(No matter what else happens in our lives today)
Is what is remembered.
The art is what carries on.
Civilizations rise and fall
Deities even
Come and go
Battles are waged
And passion is sought
Triumphs and failures
Wrought and forgot –
But the art
The creation
The written word
The sculptures
The paintings
The stories and songs
Through the ages
These remain.
And these are the things that matter.
No matter how we strain at the task of survival
No matter the pain, the loss or the struggle
All of these pass
All of these fade
Only the work we create is displayed
When all else is lost
Fades and falls away –
Art goes on.
​
Charity Janisse

 ~We are a spark
a connection
lightening
brightening the sky
as dark
as darkness has ever been
(the deepest lost black
you've ever seen)
we are the shimmer
that breaks through
the night
the light
for less than a second
the brightest bright
flashing light
we transform
transfigure
transmute 
the night.

And

without the darkness
who would have seen it?
without the night
who would have known
the way
you illuminated my life
for one spectacular millisecond in time.

And I cannot live
inside
that moment of lightening ~
(fast it passed
lovely and frightening)
but I am changed
revolutionized
because
the thunder
the tempest
that came
after the lightening electric
~~~
the storm it came...
(the way it always does)
wind howled
rain poured
washed through
cleansed changed
transformed
everything.

and it was worth the storm
goddamn it was worth the storm
the change you brought

It was worth the storm.

​Charity