​​Do what you have to do 
Leave who you have to leave
Even if it's me
again...
Even if I seem to leave too
I never left you.
I've always known you
I've loved you
Without explanation
Cut me loose
Set me free
Break your chains
And let me be
It hardly matters
My connection remains.
Love who you love
Hate who you hate
I can't help but wait
Even if I am waiting for nothing
It is still something
To feel this connection ...

Your eyes.

What is it
About those eyes...?

I know them
I remember
you
From the time before always
Outside of now
Moments uncharted.
I remember.
Past and future
Before always and ever
Long after forever
I remember
Your eyes
(And there's nothing I can do about that.)
{And there's nothing that I want to.}
I love you.
Before always
And after forever

You.


charity

 ~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

You didn't realize the extraordinary importance of your sheer existence did you?
You woke up
every morning
thinking you were just a regular person
or less than that maybe
you didn't realize you were everything
and you were
born to make the world
a completely different place
from the one
to which you came.
You didn't know did you
and you still don't?
but me, well I see things you know.
and you...
you make what you make
each and every day
you do what you feel so driven to do
and you struggle too much the rest of the time
and you never knew
you still don't do you?
but you're
everything.
everything you ever wanted to be
the type who's name
will live on the lips
of millions one day.
You may never realize it either
and it breaks my heart
but if you actually knew
how brilliant you are
perhaps you wouldn't be broken enough
to create
such captivating art.

Charity

​10/29/2015

They left it all
went on their way
 unknowing
that the treasure lie
deep within
the safe inside
the things
they tossed, forgot and left behind.

the world doesn't need me
the world doesn't need me
to fix it
or break it
undo it or make it better
but you

you do

you need me
you do
like breath
and warmth
and life
like the end of endless strife
and I have
nothing left to save
no reason now, to run away
when everyone else
sailed their ships
to new land
and left
the things they sought
deep and dark
tangled up and caught
in the place 
they started from
and forgot

they left
without good bye
without taking the time
to look inside
and see that love is not what we confide
in sacred quiet moments
or shout to the world aloud
it just is
what we are
where we come from
at the start
beyond the heart
it is always
with and without form
it makes itself known
no need of my words to wrap it up
and deliver it to everyone
like a present
no
I'm done

because the world it doesn't need me
but you do
you do.

look at the way
you sleep so peacefully
and count on me 
to come through
for you

no the world doesn't need me, but you do.

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

​7/30/2015

​​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

​I will never change
Because this is how I create
From a desperate sense
Of restless need
And uncertainty

Emotion in color

Flows through me

While I live my life

To these mad extremes ~
Sane, manic, moved or just utterly unhinged (in the best possible way)
It hardly matters

The desolation drives me
The love drives me
The wondering drives me
The need drives me …
And I will not change
I have always lived
And loved desperately -
I create from this place
I live in this place
It is what makes me who I am

And I am not ashamed.

Charity

I am a story now
A simple word in the ancient book
That has always been.
I am
The ink, the paper
The plot twist and the author.
A small part in a novel
More brilliant than any I will ever write.

I am a verse
In a poem of epic desire
The mortal woman that set the gods afire.

I am a girl in a painting
I am a painter looking at the girl.

I wanted to be part of a great story 
And now the story is mine
And I am only a word
A word passing through
A ballad of love
Chance meetings
And truth.

I am the woman that waits
The man that fights
The sailor that travels guided by light

Over the ocean 
Through infinite night

And still as ever
Just a simple word in a legend
A legend written by the hand that writes them all.

...

Am I the word
Or the hand
The hero
Or his muse
Am I the dreamer or the one he dreams of
Am I all of these
Or none of the above.

It doesn't matter...
It is enough
Just to be a word
In the telling of a story
That has always been.

Charity 

December 2014