Drip drip drip

Drip drip drip
Down the water fall
Drop drop drop
The man who's lost it all

This man, He walks alone
Down the ally, without a dream
These demons he holds dear
Are more than they seem

If he cast them away
Drip drop drip
Take one chance
Let the memories slip

Then could he remember?
what he truly needs to know
Or would the demons consume him
As his fears continue to grow.

Down the walkway
He steps in time
Stepping perfectly
Walking the line

Down down
Never lose sight
Away from up
Flee the light

Limbo

Sitting in the corner
Thoughts filled with black
Knowing all the qualities
Of things i'll always lack

My heart is so untamed
My life is such a mess
The fears i have consume me
My doubts I must confess

Give to me my freedom
Let me go from here
Tell me that you hate me
Or tell me you'll be near

leave me not in limbo
Don't let me sit and cry
For i would rather lose my heart
Than deal with this and die

Writing with fate

Have you ever stopped to wonder whether you write because you enjoy it, or if you write because fate deals you those cards? This is providing you are able to wrap your mind around and accept, to a degree, the concept of fate.

By fate i don't mean all things are preordained of course, that could be considered silly. Instead define fate as the path you take yourself down through all your decisions. We create our own fate. A self fulfilling prophecy if you will.

What I mean is. Have you ever fallen in love, utterly in love, which draws from you a great new aspect of writing, and then that love fails. The failure launches you into a great despair, which of course causes even more deep and meaningful writing to come from you.

For me, sometimes, it feels as though every endeavor I take myself on is simply a subconcious guidance down the road that will improve my writing. I sometimes wonder if I can find love, or happiness, or if the IDEA's of love and happiness only exist for me in order to brighten me so I may be plunged deeper into the realm of my writing at a later point.

Now this is not meant to be some Emo, depressing "My soul is bleeding" kind of thing. Not in the least. This is just a simple question to anyone who reads this:

Do you write to express life? Or do you LIVE only to influence what you write?

Style

I've read that the best means of developing ones writing ability is continual use combined with the reading of as many different other sources of work as one can.
If you continue to read more and more books by one person, you're style will begin to reflect the style of those you read, while if you read from different sources a more robust writing ability will emerge. I feel its important to practice writing in styles you don't naturally feel comfortable writing in.
To use poetry as an example, if your favorite rhyme scheme is abab, now and then make sure to write aabb, or free form. Experience the other way's of writing, *flex the muscle* if you will. By doing this you're ability to adapt in certain situations to meet new requirements grows stronger.
If you constantly write in a dark tone, you will fall into the habit, and soon the dark tone loses its impact. If you describe every little thing with a heavy and dark atmosphere, the atmosphere ends up less potent. training yourself to be able to flex into a lighter mood, or a comedic mood is extremely important. Once you are able to do that, you may soften the reader up, before dropping into the heaviness of your message, or vise versa, using dark to emphasize light.
Its the same principle as stepping from a bright room into a dark one, or a dark one into a bright one. After having been in one, the severity of the other increases.

Struggle

The following is my view on poetry, in fact its my view on writing in general.

Writing is much like painting, with one minor difference, "Aha," you might say, "The difference being that you paint a picture with words instead of paint." You would be wrong in that assumption however.
A good writer produces an image in your head just as clear as any painting, perhaps even more clear. Then what, you might ask, is the difference I speak of? Number of colors. Imagine each word is a color that a painter might use to create his/her image. Now say they wish to paint a blue sky, there are several shades of blue one can use, several variations adding green adding yellow, more black less black. These in the end produce one color. Perhaps that shade of variant of blue we will call "joy" blue, another might be called "perfect" blue, one might be called "pristine" blue, all of these are colors, but in the end the painter can use only one of those colors, for if you add them together, it creates another color entirely, which may not be blue at all.
This is where a writer differs, we may use as many colors for one object as we wish, "The sky was a perfect blue, pristine in its majesty and filled with an aura of everlasting joy that would bring forth a sigh from the lips of any who viewed it" I've just used several colors for one image, each working together in its own way. Admittedly this is not the most beautiful of word combinations to achieve an amazing effect, but it was merely to point out the idea.

Going to a more basic level, art is the hope of evoking within people things that do not have words or colors, feelings that can not be described. For to look at something that is awe inspiring, it is beyond words. The combination of sensory details and feelings that arise in you can not be matched. A painter tries to copy it with an image, while a writer attempts to use words in combinations to draw out the emotional response that has no words.
This in itself seems odd. I've just stated that writers try to use words to say things that have no words. Odd, but true.
Through all of this, writers inevitably seek to widen their mastery of the human language, to gain more and more "colors" to continue the analogy, to add to their painting's, but knowing a word is not the same as knowing how to use it perfectly. Every word which means the same thing, draws out a slightly different image from the reader. Further more using some archaic word which means exactly what you are trying to say, is not always a good answer. If it is a word that only you know the meaning of, the reader will instantly become color blind to your image of the sky.
For example, if I were to say "The sky was fepondoropick in its presence" its just as though the word were not there, a gray spot. Feponderopick, as witty and large as it is, has no meaning. If you look it up in a dictionary it will not be there. Any word that is rare among rare, may as well not be in the dictionary, because few people will take the time to stop what they are reading in order to better gain insight as to what a writer may mean.
Further more, even if they are one who DOES take the time to look up a word they do not know, the illusion has already been broken. Your image is lost.

Thus I feel it is important to write smart, not witty. Writing is not about showing your intellect to the world. It is about making others feel as though they are on the same level as you. The more in sync they feel with your mind, the more immersed in the story they will become. If they feel you are talking down to them, the immersion is lost. If they feel you are talking up to them, the same effect is achieved.

With all my heart

May I ask you to Love me?
May I ask you to dance?
Swept into a moment.
Of perfect romance.

May I offer to hold you?
May I offer you light?
Lost in this moment.
Where hearts take flight.

May I keep you forever?
May I keep you near?
Swept into love.
Without any fear.

I would hold you so close.
If you would only be mine.
Forever keep you safe.
For all of our time.

I love you with all my heart.

How can i walk this line?
Day by day
The same old way

How many times is this?
That I've lost my chance
This sweet romance?

How can I step up and sing
When the darkness calls
When my heart now falls

With a smile on my face
I'll meet each day
With me please stay

And every moment locked in joy
Come to me
And you will see

Sometimes things are different
Life is just so bright
Now its time to face the light