Deathless Heart: A Collection of Poems
Elise Pehrson
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Cover photography done by Danielle Larson
“Clean”
Kissing goodbye to bittersweet sorrow,
The luxury of holding back.
Tears excusing every act,
Not looking towards tomorrow.
Bid adieu to a life that I once knew;
A life I thought was best.
Though it was different from the rest,
I dove into something new.
Lacing patches, wounding heals,
Tying bandages around my waist,
When bleeding pain fin’lly erased,
A new view of life reveals
Dancing dragons, piercing rain,
Dreams falling and rising again;
What once was lost I sought to gain,
The end result was worth the pain.
“Life”
When all loved was lost,
My heart still survived,
Through torn, broken secrets
And deep, threaded lies.
When hopes were all gone,
I somehow dreamt more;
No more horrible sobbing
Or hitting the floor.
When life seemed so dingy,
I’d look forward to sleep;
To dream of a life
I desired to keep.
Now my world is enhanced
And my dreams can’t compete;
How is it my soul
Can feel so complete?
Now my dreams seem to feel
Second-rate to my life
And I wake up, relieved,
Having fled from such strife.
The past broke me down,
Once a safe base was built,
To ensure that my strength
Could prevent any tilts.
And though I, at times,
Would fall and would fail,
I picked myself up,
In the end, to prevail.
And when I was ready,
Out of the blue,
God smiled, then lead me
Directly to you.
“A World of Allegation”
The trees all listen and
judge the humble,
the heartless, and
all in between.
A girl walks alone,
Lost in her way
Touching the wrong trees
At all the right places.
What a bigot. A prejudice,
Narrow-minded fool.
How dare she touch that tree!
The leaves all whisper.
She finds another lost soul;
A little bird that has fallen
From the trees so mean.
It whimpers.
She kisses it and is accused
Of flashy, showy views—
Values that don’t exist;
Her innocence nonexistent.
The young girl then picks up
A single, smooth stone,
And throws it naïvely, unknowingly,
Against an elderly tree.
What a hypocrite
The trees all scoff in disgust.
This little girl despises us
And only loves that appealing, small creature.
She chooses what she will love
They murmur branch to branch.
The little girl hears this, in the wind,
For the first time.
I did not mean to harm you, dear trees
She sweetly defends, imploring
Forgiveness for her ignorance.
The trees bend in resentment.
You will never learn, child,
The trees scorn in dislike
You are a bias human being, all the same,
And this you’ll forever remain.
The child somberly lowered her head
And kicked a rock at the ground in grief,
Which upset the cruel trees,
Only scorning the girl more.
The child, now in tears,
pleas she meant them no harm,
The reply to her now was that
No one ever does.
At the puzzled girl’s face,
The leaves billow and laugh
We know no one is virtuous, good, or
Clean.
So forever we’ll search
For the flaws of mankind
Until nothing is safe
To say or to do.
The little girl still looked puzzled
When she replied to the wind:
But all will be silent
If nothing is right.
The trees bent in delight
At the words of the girl
As they replied
In a cynical whistle:
No one will silence
Themselves or their minds,
So we’re here to judge them
For their judgments unidentified.
“The Hallway”
I search for an answer;
Something to guide me,
But all that I know
Are the Questions inside me.
I get up and walk,
Down a long, dark hallway.
I hold tight unto the railing,
Trying my hardest not to fall away.
I see a pure white light behind a distant clear door;
I chase it, losing grip,
It fades away into darkness, causing me to trip.
In the sinister darkness I can’t find the rail,
Quaking in silence, I know I have failed.
I drop to my knees and can’t help but cry,
Until through my despair, I hear a voice, and open my eyes.
In the midst of the darkness, I can clearly see
A pure, perfect hand reaching out towards me.
Comforting warmth filled my cracked heart,
Assuring me it was right,
As my trembling hand made its way to His light;
I followed the direction He led me to go,
Then after much darkness that light rekindled its glow.
I felt the touch of the rail,
And I knew I’d been saved.
But when I turned back to thank Him,
He had already gone away.
With a prayer of thanks in my heart and mind,
The light at the end of the hallway still shined.
This time I carefully followed the path,
And even if I fell away, I was soon carried back.
Finally I reached the end, to that door,
That I felt I had visited at least once before.
As I entered the room, it all became clear:
I was to come down the path to make it back here.
“Deathless Heart”
Piles of shattered dreams all lie
Beneath a scarlet-tinted moon,
Where dreams all gather ‘round to die,
Stopping hearts moments too soon.
When dropping in the last flawed shard,
And your world is at its end,
You turn around your broken heart
And start all over again.
When life is tough and you don’t expect
A greater piece beyond the fall,
You find that one that heals
neglect;
The one you need to move the wall.
The wall we lean on when holding back
Until someone strives to kick it down,
Take us from the world so black,
And move us where it’s safe and sound.
Shattered glass is not complete,
But new candied metal heals the wound
By a man that comes to remove and defeat
A world of pain when all felt doomed.
Light shines through that scarlet moon,
No matter the darkest of night.
And someone comes not a moment too soon,
But a moment that happens just right.
“Hazy Eyes and Foolish Senses”
Hearts will break
And dreams will recreate
The life you thought you
Lived.
Then the fantasy wears off
And you come to
Recognize
The truth of reality’s dystopia.
When clouded eyes
Clear silent thoughts
The heart opens up.
Recalling the flaws
You wonder
In awe
How you reminisced
Perfection
Crazy
Imperfect
Irrational
Love
“Accused”
The words of the world
Hide and strain to fade,
But never are forgotten
And told and retold
Under twisted sentences
By feeble minds.
A bird isn’t a bird anymore;
We mustn’t offend.
Keep your arms by your side
And your eyes down low;
You may look at someone
And be accused a bigot.
Kiss the classics adieu. Farewell
To the life we thought we could
Do.
But don’t,
Or you’ll be accused
For not meeting the status quo.
A mind too narrow is shunned by the new;
A mind too wide is cast away too.
With no equilibrium apparent in sight,
We echo alone and close our eyes tight.
“Song of the Shattered”
The light I saw
With every breath,
Like a firefly
I sought to catch.
With love like a lure
It pulled me in,
Kissed me with venom,
Injecting love like a sin.
Breaking up
Like shattered glass
Left me broken--
Lost in my past.
It hurts to mend
The jagged pieces
I caught the bug
But had to release it.
Heartaches and heartbreaks,
The burns from hot coals,
Will damage the heart
But build up the soul
Now he is gone
And I miss last December
Long after I'm forgotten
I'll always remember.
“Happiness”
Easter, Spring time
As a little girl
The feelings of summer breezes;
Water fights and family trips.
The sunsets in Arizona
The heartfelt home on Christmas Eve.
Butterflies in July
Kissing for the first time.
Cotton candy and snow cones;
Bubblegum ice cream.
Best friends laughing
Last days of school; so exciting.
The feelings of enthralling.
The love of a family
And McDonald’s McFlurries.
Scenes of green;
a pastel scene
Happiness is the little things,
Not what we wait for in our dreams.
“The Little Things”
You love me for the little things;
The little things that count.
Even when I’m just a mess;
With nothing figured out.
You love when I am happy;
When I get excited at it all.
You love me when I’m angry,
Sad or stressing; through it all.
I never knew that someone
Could be as perfect as you are;
You make me want to touch the moon
And fall upon a star.
It doesn’t matter where we’re going,
Or what we will go through,
All I need is love and hope;
All I need is you.
“You Saved Me”
I hear the echoes of my fears
Tearing at the seams
As my own new dawn starts to appear,
Emerging from my dreams.
I feel a light shine overhead
And am saved when all felt lost.
A heart so broken isn’t dead,
Even if buried under frost.
You came for me in blackest night
Just to hold my hand,
And I realized that this love was right;
I began to feel again.
You taught me to stick up a fight
Where true love is achieved,
And when my hope was out of sight,
You’re the one who made me believe.
And now I realize why I'm whole:
You managed to relieve
The stress of my heart and storms in my soul;
You’re the life I forgot to breathe.