The Little Poet

The little poet,
That didn’t know it.
Will she go far,
Or will she blow it?

I’ve rhymed this rhyme for many years,
Through sun and storms, smiles and tears.

I don’t remember where it came from,
But it keeps the rhythm, a beating drum.

It takes me home, then beyond the brink,
It gives me pause and time to think.

It reminds me of times not long ago,
When I still had such a ways to grow.

When I was small and careless, free,
My thoughts surrounded what I would be.

The choice to fly or to decay,
Grow up, grow down, or the sides give way.

My fear is that she would condemn,
My roots and the love I have for them.

Would she look at me and appreciate,
The twist and turns and whims of fate?

Could she see across our great divide,
Would she understand my wild pride?

My accounts of life tend to amaze,
But is this far enough to win her praise?

Something inside says… further to go,
Time to fly from this meager plateau.

So off I run, adventures await,
I’m bound and determined to fill this plate.

I’ll heap it high so she can see,
The gifts, the joys bestowed on me.

And when I die she’ll smile and say,
Welcome dear friend, you found our way.

~ Alexandria Englander-Tuttle

The Long Way Home

The long way home winds through forest trees,
Under clouding skies and by salty seas.

She marvels at the crashing waves,
At rocky beaches with driftwood bays.

Dirt and stone, tired and warn
This path I’ve tread since I was born.

The long way home leads far away,
And a blistered soul is the toll I’d pay.

Paid in full for a change of mind
True North, true self, to forever find.

She bends me this way and then turns back
Prayer steps in remembrance of what I lack.

Patience, stillness, and soft hearted ways,
Are the lessons I walked with the passing days.

I learn to wait, to watch, and to wonder
But this lesson was learned through pain and through thunder.

Over the mountains and onto the plain
Open sky, sour heart, and a smile to regain

Then she twisted me round, to see and to hear,
To stand my ground and to face my fear.

I stopped and I looked, long and hard
At a piece of my soul that was blacken and charred.

I see it now, poor sunshine girl,
Shattered little pieces still trying to twirl.

To fit inside your tiny box,
To bend a spine that was made from rocks

But learning to watch, I learned how to see,
Your boxes weren’t made for someone like me.

Facing the wind is how I was built,
To stand and to fight, without sorrow or guilt.

True North, true self, to forever find,
Paid in full with a change of mind.

And the road… it goes ever, on and on,
And I start again with the each rising dawn.

To learn, to praise, to love anew,
This is the blessing I wish for you.

To be self aware and to walk in its bliss,
To pass each day in happiness.

My long way home… it lead far away,
But change will lead me back someday.

~ Alexandria Englander-Tuttle

Into The Kaleidoscope World

The colors are brighter. The sun brings more joy, more laughter, more promise. The nights aren’t sad, or lonely, sleeping in shady color, dreaming in moonbeam light. Singing songs from a different time, from a different age, from a different life.

She has changed the way I look at you, and the person next to you, and ground beneath you, and the sky above you. She bent the way I hear you, and the way the breeze feels, and the way the flowers smell, and the way his kisses taste… She twisted and twirled me. She rearranged my mind. She cooed to the little black rock in my heart, she made it live again, made it believe again. She made me a child again, made my voice laugh again, made my faith breathe again. Melted and molded, styled and shaped. I made her, so she could make me.

Her tiny hands pulled me into the Kaleidoscope World. I left my shell, my cape, my callus nature when I entered into the Kaleidoscope World. And the butterflies gathered in celebration as I landed here with painted wings... over the rainbow and second star to right… inside of the Kaleidoscope World.

I sing bird song in the Kaleidoscope World. I listen to dancing trees in the Kaleidoscope World. I embrace the long grass in the Kaleidoscope World. I play with the chasing waves in the Kaleidoscope World. I race the swirling wind in the Kaleidoscope World. I kiss the pretty flowers in the Kaleidoscope World. I pray in diamond sunshine in the Kaleidoscope World. I believe in fairies and fairy dust in the Kaleidoscope World. I know wild adventures live just around the corner in the Kaleidoscope World. I tell stories to a beguilingly beautiful baby in the Kaleidoscope World. And I love with an abundance that cannot be matched. Not by the stars or moon. Not by the land and seas. Not by heaven above or hell below. I love you with my soul, the infinite part of me, inside the Kaleidoscope World.

And it’s here I will sleep in stillness, dream in color, and die a smiling death… here forever inside the sublime sweetness and the silent serenity of the Kaleidoscope World.

~ Alexandria Englander-Tuttle