From above
We can see anything
From beyond
We can glance back
As
Waves of wanting
Push us towards
One another again
And then 
We can dive in. 

​Charity

​What are the falls that fall
What is this catch that calls
At the corner of a soul
It stands near the window
Lifts its voice like the distant instrument
Of a street musician
And speaks all

It tells my story
It slips
Fading fast from tongue
As breath beyond lung
A universe
That lined us up
Precisely
In thousands of seconds
One after another
Each step taking us closer
To one
Then Another
Closer or further
Still always together
We keep meeting
We keep meeting
In the most recessed spaces places
In the mind
You’re a fleeting floating reeling thought
Spinning like a dancer
Released and caught
On a ledge
On the edge
Lingering lazily on a cool spring evening
While the breeze
Teases me
With your name

Like a violinist playing exquisite
Measures on the corner
Maybe for her dinner
Your name it plays across my thought
Like that
That lone musician
On an mid-may evening
The way the music trails
Just near enough to hear
You are that sound in my ear
The breath in my chest
I need not request
As it is always here.

You are a presence
That I have accepted
You are a presence
That I have accepted
You are a presence.
Charity
​

​It seems like six years 
- Except that there is no such thing as time 
(Accept that there is no such thing as time)
It’s just the amount of repetitive daily experiences you must exist in
Before you are unwilling to accept them
And you shift into a new dimension
Out of what was never actually yours
(Except for a while because you took on what was told you by another)
But you are not another
You are none other
Than the breath of relief you feel in a moment
Where truth and peace resides
In your being
And you smile knowing deeply within
That all is well
These are the moments that are real
- Except that there are no such thing as moments
(Accept that there are no such thing as moments)
You are here
And this is all
The rest was a dream
Something someone else told you 
You ought to believe
But you know what’s yours 
And you know you are free
You are free
You are free
To be 
You are free 
To be.
Charity

​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 exquisitely
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
​2/9/2018

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

Charity

11/20/2016

 ~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

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
1/1/2016