Seen It All Before by Amos Lee

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i hold this book  i
hold it in my hand

my past. future. present:

all wrapped up
like love in a box.

pink crocodile tears  i cried
on the cover   i
flip        the pages and
think of you

i read things here
that i forgot

and it dawns on me
like sun in massachusetts:

some sweet day     this book

will be my ticket
back to you.

i take it with me
when i leave,
afraid
it might catch on fire
before i finish.

i touch the little golden edges
with my time worn fingers

at night

and i dream
about how
it will be.

locked up tight
inside your story,
i see

a little piece    of light
getting through.

If I Could Be Where You Are by Enya

exact change

call for money
you: vigorously inhale life
out of me

i exhale
and sink to my knees

it comes
cheap, this realization

of the debt
i have incurred
in my dogged pursuit
of you--

i forgot
how much it cost
to live your dreams.

somedays
it is more than others

but altogether,
i fear
not living up to your

expectations
the most.
i am just shy

of having more
than i can handle.

i like it.

Gravity by Vienna Teng

hummingbird

i don't  eat cake
but
seeing you

after all this time

my clothes
start to fit a
little  bit tighter

all those rules
and ruminations

in my head,
                      without you
                      are only
recipes for disaster

and baby,
i wouldn't take you back
for a ton of splenda...

but just knowing
what we had,
how it tasted...

i can't stop craving love.

it tastes like sugar.
better.
i am just a bird,

flying faster.
it's my heart

on fire

It's You by Tony Lucca

soft box

red lights
shine down
from the sky

a bomb in iran

but not today.
i'm afraid
i might die

before
you can love me, baby.
the light turns
green       above your head

(you have to wave
your hand to get
its attention)

but nobody knows
how to fix it

besides me.

how can it be easy
when my eyes are tired

i cross   across  my heart
i will love you

no matter who
shoots us.

but you gotta
hold me, first.

Look At Me by Keri Noble

green hey

intrepid bales
that sit along the bay

turn green
in texas light like
algae

in a field.
i wrestle myself

every day

to walk by them,
   to not call you.
it's a fact.

in the morning
i wake myself up
saying strawberry galaxies

and

you are like
hay fever in my head

on my mind too
all the things

we rolled in, laughs we reaped
in the beginning...

like the hard edge of tractors
as they swept us
away,

the death
of being together.

it's hard this time of year.

Mad World by Alex Parks

gangrene

half-painted
red heart

my feet
mock my summer days and

september's
      almost gone.

summer has its wispies here:
long blonde strands
stretched out

like spider webs,
reaching for sunshine.

lens flare and
whitening strips aside,
i think we had

a pretty good season.
don't you?
we haven't been running

in a while,

but that's okay because

like bikinis the
translucent swaths

of summer
always seem too small.

don't you worry.

my hair
will be blonde again

before you know it.

Perfect by Doria Roberts

biscuit

you know
those days

when i looked at you

to feel the sad
behind your eyes

you couldn't communicate with me
and i know
what you would say:

you are like
some body's half drunk tea,

in a cup,

just waiting
for my lips.

you'll burn me.

this i know (for sure),
but some epic hunger

in my soul
reaches out
to grab a hold, anyway.

i tilt my head,
look at you.

did i ever drink before?
no, not this time.

without you, i am
in desperate need
of caffeination.
and love.

always love.

Stationary by Casey Dienel

rampage

so hungry
i go for days
like a zebra

between lines
of black and white

(non pareils
and cellophane umbrellas,
shapes little tiny shadows
on my head)

they shield my heart
and cover my truth.

i grazed
on bended knees,
i hooved myself in front of you

in front of love:

i cannot get enough.
feed me. i,

hungry
as a lion, left out
of your pride i

need you to need me

or else:
some african bird
will no doubt
rejoice

as he swoops in
to watch me wither away

and die of neglect.

Chasing Pavements by Adele

samantha

it is odd returning
to you
this time.

i cannot remember
who i am
                   to you.

i am still valedictorian

and captain
of the varsity
soccer team,

the girl
your son has loved
since high school.

it is seven years later.
you've changed,
she said.

and i have.

i am like
flat eggplant

on the kitchen table,
all fuzzed up

in some sort
of weird
vegetarian shell.

Pages by Keri Noble

colour

it doesn't matter
anymore
if it rains...

i will still
be pink
on the inside.

if they washed
all the blue
out of my eyes

i might be albino,
but in the sun shine
i would still be

the whitest white shine pink
you've ever seen.

i am
the stark contrast
between pink
and insanity...

that's me, baby.

i'd forgotten.
took some rain
to make me remember.

it doesn't matter
if our love turns black...

i'd still be here.

i'll take any color
you can give me.

Apologies by Grace Potter

janice

likenesses inherent
in this inscrutable
history of us

drive me mad.
i will never find

another man
like you

as sure as daylight
savings time

you keep
my tomorrow
always with you.

likewise
i lock your
yesterdays
in my heart.

i live in greenwich
where no matter
what you do

it's
always tomorrow
someday.

i am on a cruise,
crossing chasms

of time

in search of a seine
from God

Indiana by Jon McLaughlin

impromptu


go on:
              i'm an artist
break my heart

it will
make my colors brighter

like a flashlight
my heart bleeds
across canvas i

never feel things

except in songs, and
i paint moments
on paper so they
can speak forever. so

go ahead,
take away my brush.

i will draw
with my fingers
on your pulse.

it's a long
slow dip
in savage breakers:
you took

back what you said
but i can't undo

how i feel.
             i can't unpaint

the paint.

Be Be Your Love by Rachael Yamagata

harmless

there was a lizard
on my wall today.

i thought
he was
something else.

it frightened me how
quickly
he went by.

i heard you'll be
in tennessee
on tuesday,
all your chances
with me
diminished.

it never rains on tuesdays
(at least not in memphis)

all the lizards
streaking by on the walls
bore me to tears

i am tired.

it is finally true, that
all the things
i thought you were

just aren't,
anymore.

Samson by Regina Spektor

mon mur

you write on my wall
in french.

the only words
i understand
are truly, madly, deeply...

without you
nothing matters.
sadly,

i am cuckoo
for you too.

i think about angels
having wings. they sing
for you in a courtyard
in an old
swedish church,

bells ringing
as the sun goes down.
it is almost time

for my heart
to be broken.

our siren song
plays to the empty walls around you.

we are full of
memories like birds

saying coucou to the night.

we fall madly in love
with people
we have never met.

I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You by Colin Hay

recital

hanging on a word

the magic
imperfections

of things finally coming
together

(like tulle
on a ballerina's skirt)

they make me reminisce.

an invitation,
a lark.
the thought of

going to see you

impedes my
impediment
to success, but

i press onward anyway.

eight weeks out
and i still love you
more than
nothing
on the walls.

i'm a child, simply,
and i wonder

what you would say
when you see

me dance.

You're Not Sorry by Taylor Swift

surfer

i come in waves
i

only need you when i need you:

but when i do, i have
so many edges
they just keep on rolling.

i might catch you
in an instant
my pose to

weigh you down like tide,
sprinkle salt
in soggy wounded love.

i run with fishes.

alone.

i never know
how long it will last, you know.
the moon does

all the work
(with gravity, of course)
but

when i come to you
in the morning,
please stay with me.

you can
watch the sun come up
on my face.

Just Another by Pete Yorn

bliss

ocean water
in my eye

i have a problem with words

i keep them
to myself. someday
like a bottle with no top
i will burst

from the tension
of this sea.

notes i
took along the way
will show clear

and muggy beneath whiskered glass:

dirt has come
to take them away.

they will probably go
wherever
the pacific does,

but
somewhere on an island
most likely in the sun

stands somebody who

might read my starstruck words:
the backwashed, submerged, seasick ones
i wrote to you

which came out
of an abyss of affection

to travel across time to your heart

Other Side by Melissa Rapp

phantom

i saw
someone last night
in my room.

as if he were you,
i put out my hand...

reaching for a ghost.

although terrifying and
quite cold--i could see his eyes
glowing in the dark-- it
satisfied me.

i reached at
nothing at all.

i cannot touch you either.
my hand

came back to me
as empty as she left.

i waved her
in front of my face.

your words echoed hard
in my ears.

i felt all the things
i used to feel
for you, and

suddenly i was afraid.
he will
come back for me,
i know it.

that's how i
knew he wasn't you.

Sweetness in Starlight by Matt Wertz

scatter

awake
         (wretched early)
i watch
plants diffuse in
early morning rain...

not even Carl
Linnaeus could define

the leaves growing

in my soul
at this particular moment.

how long must some thing
bloom

before some body
sees it?

i am waiting,
just watching furls unfold.

i wait for trees to
know my name

so we can talk for
hours in our     mornings
  all alone:

just so, as i told the swede,
i can feel some one knows

that   i  exist.

Hero by Mariah Carey

agape

red hard half
of a heart

yellow me

green sky

blue spilled blue
all over the place.
the orange frame
cannot

hold us.

we are a thousand
shattered pieces,

leaves on a fire-painted plate.
twisted in the air
we rewind

until the day in the kiln,
the day

my heart

was soldered to yours.
the day they put
our colors     together.

i remember.

Spell by Marie Digby

style

when i wear
my hair
like this i think of you,
how it
accidentally happened

that we fell
in love

because i was tired.
i pushed

it behind my ear,
where all hair

belongs.
i berated the nuisance wispies
with a braid.

i stuck them in a place
for myself.

you saw me sleeping.
you said
it was perfect.

every time
my hair
is slightly mussed, i will

think about you and me,
and how
we mussed up our
own     perfection

with too much lying down.

I'm Yours by Jason Mraz (Hallmark '09 this is for you)

zappos

it is my only solace:
knowing
you are gone.

people who are
                        together
cannot wait for each
other.  it is chemically
impossible.

me, my magnet-ism
attracts incredible
impediments... but
none so good as you.

no,
instead
i repel the

ones i mean to love.
i pin them  in opposite

corners of the periodic
table.
it is my way.
and yet, some days,

when the weight of the
world is pressing down on me--

i regret the polarity
of my heart--

and its entire
physical being.

A Beautiful Mess by Jason Mraz

luna

did you
see the moon tonight?
i saw him
     in the corner
of my eye

in the corner
of the sky,

behind a star,
   behind a house,
      behind a tree,
behind a me   who
       hasn't bothered

to look
at the sky
since you left.

did you see the moon
tonight?

i looked at
her and thought of you.

nebulas couldn't steal
    me away.
i belong to you   like

night does to the sky.

Waiting on an Angel by Ben Harper

alas

the bliss--

the absolute bliss
of the fall--

of the magic   we once had
in here in

our

relentless pursuit
of perfection and happiness:

a piece of The Bliss
breaks off.
it is mine.

i carry it in
my pocket like a rock,
and it is mine...

my piece of bliss
to feed you

next time
your feet get twisted
 in the
chains of growing up.

Dreaming Wide Awake by Lizz Wright

tuesday

i am like a cat
without claws,
baby:

i purr you to death.
every
curtain they close

is an open
invitation.
Garfield, Einstein,
and world domination:
that is

all i have to say.
i fold
up tight in your arms.

i wrap my paw
around your face.
all the lions
in the world
cannot fool me.

when i am yours,
all I say is
what i need to say:

(when i land,
straight up,
on the ground):

roawr.

Winding Road by Bonnie Somerville

natural habitat

my favorite boots
are back in the box,

the winter solstice left spinning.
will it
ever be cold again?

i need the air:
my red-skinned cheeks
crave it
and my body feels better

wrapped up in it.

i like cold.

my
favorite boots
are back in the box.
i packed them in bubbles.

i also put my heart
in there.
it needs a cooler climate.
plus,

it wanted
to go back to you.

Gravity by Sara Bareilles

allergy

torn apart
by dust
  on window   sills

i'm sappy sweet
without you,
somehow,
cleaning out

compartments
nobody's seen.
you sway

around my head
like ceiling fans.
      you're slices of fun.
my shades

can't remember
how to fall, but,
like two legs on stilts,

you're somewhere
i don't know...

i can't prove it

but i'd swear
you lived
in my nose,
a particle of grime i
could not sweep away

As This Sets In by Patrick Dunn

rappelez-vous

with one sock missing
i venture
toward the memory of you.

it's september again:
this time cleaner, wetter,
rank with
thoughts i
learned to think from you.

hallmark,
where'd you go?
it seems i had
so much
   in my eyes

i never saw you
while i could.
please
take me back.

you'll be
like that dryer
who eats socks,
one of which

i lose
each time i launder.

you're my muse
each time i wander.

Breakdown More by Eric Hutchinson

sparrow

you're like
landing in a tree,
and all the
branches move below me.

i
bellow your name
to the sky.
it sounds like tweet.
you're so sweet...
(you were) to me

in retrospect

i can't imagine leaving
without you     but

the winds have changed.
i am south
and
you were always north.
i feel summer's much too short.

so
i sit here and sway,
bending with the broken
edges

of the love
that brought me down.

The Wind by Amos Lee

flower

monkey gauze
like peanut butter
in my eyes

i mix the chocolate pudding
but my
life won't stir

i feel a distant package
come rumbling,
the smoke smells
thick as crumbs.

it's nestlé in the air.

it's not enough.

you're like the inside of a car.
people don't eat
in their cars anymore

except for me - i ate
marshmallows, and then
threw up
on your dashboard.

Personal Project

Today marks the beginning of a personal project I'm SO EXCITED to start. (Thanks Tobias Hibbs and Konrad Brattke for the inspiration! I love yall's self portraits.)

Since usually I keep my writing to myself, I've decided to step outside of the box and publish it... every day... on the web. My writing and photography is so interchangeable and organic that often I don't know which comes first, and each inspires the other.

So here's the project... A poem and a picture every day for a year. The blog title will be the name and artist of the song I'm listening to (and loving) that day. Please enjoy and please comment... good or bad, I want this to be a learning experience, and nothing helps me learn like critical feedback.

I love you guys... hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful year. Hallmarkers of 2009, you are the best: I miss you all very very much. Hallmarkers of 2010, yall better buckle your seatbelts!!!

Love,
Leia