A Poem Riddle

This came to me a couple of nights ago. A lot of times I don’t know where my poems come from, but I usually have an idea what they might mean. This one I am at a loss. What I do know is this poem appeared in my head with a force that said it needed to be written. I have tried to see if there is maybe more, but nothing comes to mind. Maybe it will make sense somewhere later in my life, or maybe it will resonate with you. If it does I would like to hear why. 🙂

I walk under the ocean
where the green grass grows.
Thunder wakes me
and I wonder where I come from
is where I need to go.

© 2015 Heidi Barnes

Let me know, because I would really like an answer to this riddle. 🙂

 

The Blue Door – A Free Write

 

The Blue Door
Source: We Heart It

The wall seemed to go on forever. Not unlike the road I was traveling that was my life. And endless nothing that was only broken by the cracks and cranny’s filled with moss and grime, clogging up what was once beautiful shiny new. I’m not sure how my life became this way, or how I came upon this wall. All I knew was it seemed endless and daunting and worn. Worn away from time and neglect. Never turning, never changing, always endless.

A flash. Nothing more. Just a quick glimpse of blue in the faded orange and grey. Stopping I wonder if maybe I was seeing things. Wishful thinking for something that I could never have. A different path, a bright light in the dimness around me.

Change.

But it cannot be. Not for me. I have done nothing to warrant a chance to evolve, to change. I take a step forward then stop again. Uncertain of what I should do. Should I keep going on the endless path that is taking me nowhere, or should I turn back and see if what I saw was true.

Curiosity overcomes me and I turn around. I was always told never to look back. That the past is in the past. Yet today, this moment, I look back and I see…nothing. Frowning I almost turn around but now that I have looked I cannot look away. Another step and I see a sliver of something in the wall. Something that is not natural, that is…blue. Now I move quickly, wanting, no needed to know what it is that has broken this endless cycle. And there it is. The flash of blue now revealed in all its glory.

As I stared at the door, as worn and neglected as the endless wall, I wonder how it came here. Who put it here and why? Where does it lead? There is no handle, although it looks as if all I have to do is breath on it and it will fall open. Before I realize what I am doing, I reach out, my fingers hesitating just before they touch the frail wood and peeling paint. My heartrate has skyrocketed, my breath coming in gasps and I struggle to suck in precious air. I have no idea what lays behind this door. How can I just push it open? I know the path I am on is endless and worn, but it is also safe. What if whatever is behind this door is…new? What if it is one of those dreams I used to dream come to reality and everything…changes for the worst? What if…?

I look to my left and I look to my right. Endless crumbling moldy wall greet me and suddenly I realize that I cannot do this any longer. I cannot live in this safe world I have created around me because it is slowly suffocating me. I need to live. To enjoy the precious gift I have been given called life. I need to soar.

Determination takes a hold, and before I can say no my hand pushes on the peeling paint and the door flies open revealing…..

2015 Heidi Barnes

Each of us has our own journey. Whether we go left or right or simply open the door everything we know will be changed for better or worse. Or you can continue on the path before you that is safe and maybe a little worn. I did not finish this because I believe you need to find your own answer as to what is behind the blue door. If you wish to share I would be interested to hear what it is.

If you would like to join this Free Write or read some more submissions visit Writing Outside the Lines.

Have a wonderful weekend. 🙂

Just Breathe

To think we are the only ones
That everything revolves around you
Your beliefs
Your truth
Will only keep you from understanding
Love
Compassion
Life.
Open your mind
Your heart
Your soul
And see things through another’s eyes.
Maybe then the hate
The anger
That chokes you everyday
Stifling your ability to enjoy
What this time on earth has given you
Will slide away
And you can begin to live
To grow
To just
Breathe.

© 2015 Heidi Barnes

The Power of Words

They are just words
to tell a story,
sing a song.
They are just words,
to lift you up
make you strong.
They are just words
sharp as glass
scars will forever last.
They are just words
once said
never forgotten.
They are just words
choose wisely
judgment unforgiving
when the mirror you gaze.

I Reach for the Sky

I stretch towards the sky
The unattainable just out of reach.
I do not give up nor turn back
For the lessons I learn I will teach.
I hear the naysayers,
Their poison thick in the air.
Dragging me down into the depths of despair.
I claw and scrape
Trying to escape
The darkness below that suffocates.
Craving the light where the song birds fly
The warmth of the sun
The blue of the sky.
Seeds are sown
The roots run deep
I don’t know how
To earn my keep
The end is near
Please do not weep
For peace will find me
When I finally sleep.

~ Copy Write 2015 Heidi Barnes

 

 

 

When Do You Say…Enough.

When is it too much? When do you finally say enough? Some people’s threshold is very high, reaching for the heavens and above. “They have the patience of a saint,” people would say. Others are so low not even Lucifer in his realm can find it, settling in the deep core of the earth to simmer and burn. All it takes is a look or maybe one certain person walking into the room and their patience is gone, flying out the window as if the very demons of hell were nipping at its tail.

There are situations where walking away can be the most difficult act you will ever play. The one that not only will affect your life, but those around you that you thought you loved and those you still do. How do you change your life without destroying theirs? Yet if you don’t change, won’t your life be destroyed? How do you betray those who depend on you in order to keep what little sanity you have left by leaving them in the frozen wasteland that has become life? Or the scalding desert that has become your hell? What is that final act that forces you to say “I have had enough” and you walk away, never to look back.

How many people can you save by saying “No more” to the demon who possesses the power to harm those around them? How many will you sacrifice to end the misery? Strengths come in many levels, many ways. The strength to keep going, to fight that which yearns to destroy everything you hold dear. The strength to say “Enough” and walk away to live, to breathe, another day.

Some say those who refuse to step out of the darkness that has become their lives, that stay and just endure are cowards. Are they? Just because they see no way out. That the demon that holds their life in its hands has every exit sealed shut with vicious words and violence promised to those they love, or to them if they dare to seek the light. Maybe they have been beaten so far down that there is no strength left to fight for what most of us take for granted. Freedom to think and choose for ourselves. Freedom to say, “Enough.”

~ © Heidi Barnes

New Years Resolution…or Not

It is the beginning of the new year and the tradition is to make a resolution that we are expected to keep through out the year. I have made my fair share. All the usual. Lose weight, do more outside, lose weight. Where I still need to lose that weight, making a road map on how much I will lose and how I will do it seems never to work. It would be as if I wrote an outline for a story idea. I have tried this, and every time the story just stops a few pages into the beginning. My muse cannot work under the pressure of following a certain path that has been laid out for her. I have a beginning and an ending, but how I arrive at that ending is a mystery I find out along the way. And many times it changes the ending. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. But what is important is that it all works in the end.

So I have decided this year not to make a resolution. That I would live my life as best as I can every day without the constant little voice in the back of my head telling me which way I am suppose to travel. Will I lose the weight? It is a distinct possibility, but I can live with it.

Have a happy new year and if you have made resolutions I wish you all the luck and joy of reaching them. I will see you in the days to come.

Heidi

An Emotion Based Piece of Fiction

I had an…emotion. I guess that would be a best way to describe it. An emotion that was pushing it’s way to the front of my brain wanting to be let out. I needed to write words that I really had no idea what they were. So I sat down and began to write. I didn’t stop to edit, I didn’t try to find other words that might fit better, I just wrote.

That was the first two paragraphs. The rest came to me as I thought about what I had written over the next few days. I think it’s a culmination of a book I wrote that will probably never see the light of being published. I know I should be working on the second book to Destiny, but this one I call Broken Promises was calling me to pay attention to it. So in order to be able to concentrate on what I should be concentrating on, I took a little detour and worked on something quite different.

Here is it, the unedited version of an emotion that would not let me go. I hope you enjoy. 🙂

I didn’t understand what it would mean. I could see, feel, touch him, but to give in to the power that surrounded us, let it wash over us, through us, I never realized what it would mean. How it would consume every fiber of my being leaving me unable to say no to the feel of his skin against mine. How do you explain the unexplainable? Answer? You don’t. You get washed away in the tide and all you can do is try to swim against a current that comes at you from every side until you have no strength left to fight and you give in. I had no energy left to fight, and neither did he. We had fought so long against what we were, denied our basic needs all in a bid to stay human, stay sane. When this tidal wave of power smashed into us all we could do was try not to drown. Try to ride it out the best we could and pray when we came out the other end we could live with the consequences.

Hands, lips, teeth, nails. Pleasure became pain. Pain became pleasure. There was no end and no beginning of who we were. Our minds, our bodies, our souls, the very cells were all intermixed into one. One being, one entity, one soul. And the closer we became to the climax, the high the power rose, the more lost we became until in one explosion, one long ragged scream, the universe stood still. The choice final.

Afterglow is a wonderful thing. All troubles seem trivial, all threats non-existence. Then the glow fades and reality comes crashing back in and the warmth that covered every inch of your skin turns cold as ice as you realize what you have done. What it means. Who you have betrayed. As that reality descended, my skin tingling not with afterglow and warmth but goosebumps and chills, arms and legs wrap lazily around me, pulling me into a warm slick body. Slick with the sweat of our lovemaking. A body I know knew as well as my own. Thoughts of lazy days and sweaty nights plagued my mind. Thoughts that were not mine. Thoughts that should not make my body shiver in anticipation.

“Do not fight it, love,” his voice husky with desire whispered in my ear, his breath sending another shudder down my spine. His hands began to roam, sliding up my stomach to by breast, gently kneading, tweaking, making things lower in my body clench tight. “Where I do not know why we are here or what happened between us, I do know that I will not let you go easily. You are mine in every sense of the word, as I am yours.” He moved so he was propped up on one elbow gazing down at me with a small smile, though his eyes were confused and concerned. “The thought of not having you at my side every moment of every day clenches my heart to tight I can barely breathe. Please, Kara,” he breathed his forehead touching mine, his palm gently cupping my face, “Do not leave me to a fate worse that than the death that surely awaits when they find us.”

How can I say no to a plea so full of pain and promise? Especially when my own heart feels the same way. In that moment I decide, knowing with that decision I damn us both. Looking into those eyes that are everything to me I whisper, “I will not leave.”

The smile awarded me was more than all the treasures of the universe. For that smile I would promise anything, endure any consequence, pay any price. And in the months to come we would pay. Dearly.

~ © Heidi Barnes

Into the Shadows

Image Nexus Desktop Red Eyes in Shadow
Image Nexus Desktop
Red Eyes in Shadow

Step into the shadows

The voices said.

Step into the darkness

And be fed.

Become one of us

And rewards you will reap.

Become one of us

To obtain the desires you seek.

But beware the price

For it may be steep.

Beware the price

Because true love’s heart

Is what we seek.

 

~ 2014 Heidi Barnes