1
...some nights I'd sneak out and listen to the radio in my Dad's old Chevy - children need solitude - they don't teach that in school...John Geddes
2
...the wet brush of snowflakes was like your kisses everywhere ...John Geddes
3
...no good writing flows from a polluted well - you can write about monsters, but you can't be one...John Geddes
4
...I don't just wish you rain, Beloved - I wish you the beauty of storms...John Geddes
5
...true love is an irrevocable act - you can only give your heart away once - after that, you give as much as you have left ...John Geddes
6
...I retreat into my fictional world where everything makes sense - but even there I can't even control what people do...John Geddes
7
...wherever there is society, there is authority and the temptation to disobedience because our individual wills refuse to submit...John Geddes
8
...you think so logically...like a hawk soaring - I feel so chaotically...like a kite without a tail plummeting to earth...John Geddes
9
...you fantasize about me reading my poems to you - it doesn't work that way - I write down everything later - living is not an after-thought...John Geddes
10
... here's what I believe - sometimes God has a Plan B...John Geddes
11
You cannot teach art–you cannot make a soulJohn Geddes
12
After life has broken you open, perhaps you may create artJohn Geddes
13
...if you always move in certainty, your writing will be flat - creativity is a rugged terrain...John Geddes
14
...is worship too strong a word? yes, I worship you - to worship is to give worth to something — isn’t that what love is all about?...John Geddes
15
...art is weaker than life - in the end I have a bag of letters to scrabble into order - rune tiles to cast my fate...John Geddes
16
...how are you sacred to me? your lines are golden threads - your patter, my patten - I explore the liturgy of your words...John Geddes
17
...being with you was so easy and natural - there was no strain - I never had to guard my words...John Geddes
18
...all this time I've been worshiping you - when other men wanted to kiss you, I've been offering the praise of my lips...John Geddes
19
...you know I wanted a Madonna, not a whore - I made you sacred offering you my words...John Geddes
20
...words are so strong and I am so timid - my soul ignores warnings and I end up covered with your paint ...John Geddes
21
...I gave you painted air - tears I couldn't weep - truths I couldn't speak - all the words that caught in my throat...John Geddes
22
...you can be angry and silent, but it's no use - there's no distance in the spirit - besides, my words touch you more softly than my hands...John Geddes
23
...when you're hard and unyielding your words score me with lines - I hate lines - I want curves - curves are happy like a snowman ...John Geddes
24
...I need you to be a listener - you need me to hang word on. We're friends because neither has discovered a limit where the other ends...John Geddes
25
...you can use words if you wish, but I'm warning you - I've learned how to read your heart ...John Geddes
26
... only a seer or a lover would know that I'm making a jewelry of words for you -drawn from your essence -to flash and burn with your fire -so you can bedazzle with your own light ...John Geddes
27
...good words - that triumphalism of positivity- but life will claw and eat you - chew you over and over - if you carry such a small knife ...John Geddes
28
...why is my cat a Muse? the cat has the rare grace of never saying a word too much― Mark Twain ...that's why ...John Geddes
29
...come lie beside me again and understand - the others can show by actions, but I alone will immortalize you in words...John Geddes
30
...perhaps in actions I'm less of a man - but, oh the words - such lovely words...John Geddes
31
...you are my Lady of Shalott lost in a dream of isolation - I care too much for you - I romanticize depression...John Geddes
32
I see you kneeling in church–stained only by colored windowsJohn Geddes
33
...all my life I prayed to a star — Later discovered it was Venus — I was praying to Aphrodite and wondering why she was sending me you -sad...John Geddes
34
...poetry is paying attention to life when all the world seems asleep to its beauties and truths...John Geddes
35
...goodness is not the absence of evil - it's the light that pushes back the darkness...John Geddes
36
...when you enter a room, my wound opens, but there is light, always light, when you come in...John Geddes
37
...you want the sweetness of our beginning without the bitterness of our struggle - what are you asking - do you want light without shadow? ...John Geddes
38
...I'm innocent still -inside me are stained glass windows that have never been broken- and when I see your light it stains my soul with color ...John Geddes
39
...I will find once again the light of your beauty - your colored windows in the night...John Geddes
40
...you either forgive a lover for abandoning you or you forgive God for taking them - either way you have to forgive...John Geddes
41
...the best way to forgive someone is to enter into their sufferings ...John Geddes
42
...it's easy to express romantic love - harder to manage daily love - to forgive failings close to feelings - to divide self from soul...John Geddes
43
The heart aches through nights–the broken places of neglectJohn Geddes
44
My soul has shadows — nooks and crannies where griefs, like cobwebs, collectJohn Geddes
45
...there's the suffering from love and the suffering from grief - either pain permanently scars the soul...John Geddes
46
...you must never partly love or stop half way - because then, you become superficial and cannot be deeply hurt or loved...John Geddes
47
...beneath torrents of spring rain, buds come to life - and we do too, beneath torments of tears...John Geddes
48
...all winter the acorns and red Maple leaf moldered in silence - in the same way grief is gnawing at me - slowly, imperceptibly... consuming...John Geddes
49
...a passing face together with his grief turned you into a weeping Madonna...John Geddes
50
This will be a winter so desolate, only memory can fill the emptinessJohn Geddes
51
...in my dream the shadings of your soul are the dark tincture of rain...John Geddes
52
...sorrow binds us - I will always cherish you - my only disillusionment is unspoken words ...John Geddes
53
You don’t read to exercise the mind but to take voyagesJohn Geddes
54
The only difference between you and a dream is I haven’t woken up with youJohn Geddes
55
...I live in Ireland every day in a drizzly dream of a Dublin walk...John Geddes
56
December's wintery breath is already clouding the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summer's memory...John Geddes
57
...dark embers smolder inside me - one touch and they flare - who would have thought memory combustible, or near you bright sparks appear?...John Geddes
58
...your memory is a warm stone hidden in my hand I'm always turning over...John Geddes
59
...I want to live doubly - first with you and then afterwards in memory ...John Geddes
60
...I've decided ... love is an eternity of slow motion replays ...John Geddes
61
I am your stone of necessity calling up spirits from rain puddles–your Magus of wordsJohn Geddes
62
...Moonlight possesses no alchemy to transmute good motives to base, but it does excite love magic...John Geddes
63
...loving a fairy lady with a magic song will leave you desolate on a cold hillside ... but from there you can see the stars...John Geddes
64
...the magic of love runs at cross purposes with the rhythm of living...John Geddes
65
...yes I understand your spells–your sex magic–at least, I know this: all lights dim when you walk in...John Geddes
66
...writers, like priests, should have compassion...and a sensitivity to pain...John Geddes
67
...it took me a lifetime of glimpses, but now I see you completely - did I tell you you're beautiful? so kind to animals, children and me...John Geddes
68
...my heart rides the wind and my thoughts sail away - to a land below the horizon where I know you hide from me...John Geddes
69
...all kinds of images swim like tropical fish in the bathysphere inside my skull ...John Geddes
70
I write small poems– the kind that fit on a postcard… and still can break your heartJohn Geddes
71
..snow gently settles like dust in a shaft - for one moment there is no one else - only the wind like the hiss of an ice skate ...John Geddes
72
......and not out of fear or loneliness, but only to find myself again... for we have come too far my Life, to turn back now...John Geddes
73
...across the snowy field the barn light gleams - it's the loneliness of November twilight...John Geddes
74
...the monk beat me to break my spirit, incensed I knew Acquinas - angry, I knew his riddle - beauty is what is pleasing to the eye - he wasn't...John Geddes
75
...here's what I've learned - people will hurt you, but you don't have to respond - not every mean comment or cruel act deserves to be noticed ...John Geddes
76
...a sensual life is a ghostly existence where you live on the surface and your soul passes through everything, touching nothing ...John Geddes
77
...if you don't regard your word as a sacred covenant, then there is nothing in you I can honor ...John Geddes
78
...futility is being sorry while doing nothing to remove the cause ...John Geddes
79
...when people oppose your view, you can become a lightning rod, but if I were you, I'd let them stew...John Geddes
80
...I lost my illusions in a black rain of bitterness - now what do you see in my eyes? How can you still love me? How can I be tender? ...John Geddes
81
...I'm not afraid of the opinions of others - but of being needed and coming up short ...John Geddes
82
...I deliberately spilled the black ink of despair because my perfect soul was a stained glass illusion - can you understand that?...John Geddes
83
...what is sacred is the other person -we forget that sometimes - and fail to honor who they are ...John Geddes
84
... the scarlet thread, the red clay from which we were made, runs in tiny streams through all our veins, reminding us of where we began...John Geddes
85
...we have entertained ourselves with the pornography of violence and inflamed passions that might otherwise have slumbered...John Geddes
86
...we fear monsters because we fear the dark parts of ourselves...John Geddes
87
...we each harbor a shadow self with shadowy motives and murky desires...John Geddes
88
...people demonize certain types of crime - it's a way of distancing ourselves from the monsters...John Geddes
89
...ambition or contentment? This simple question led me back to a more balanced view of life and put me in touch with the Me I used to know...John Geddes
90
The abyss you stare into and that stares back at you is your reflection in the mirror - we all have it - that shadow self - that dark heart...John Geddes
91
...to know an other's interior life you are his confessor or a writer - the one is admitted freely, the other intrudes by discerning of spiritsJohn Geddes
92
The struggle is not with others, but within us, to do what we are called to doJohn Geddes
93
...you don't need a calling to minister love...John Geddes
94
...there is no map of the soul because we make it up as we go...John Geddes
95
...the wounds of the past and the scars of the present don't disfigure me in your eyes - because you know the price I pay for loving you ...John Geddes
96
...the answer is not in the damn blank page - it's in the days or years before and you have to dredge it up - exhume the past again ...John Geddes
97
Suffering breaks us until there’s nothing left but gentlenessJohn Geddes
98
...it was inevitable I loved you - we were soul mates - for the same reason, we were fated to suffer...John Geddes
99
...everything I treasure is broken - it's of no use to anybody but me...John Geddes
100
...love is suffering - that's the happy ending...John Geddes