Believe

Believe

I was an explorer, looking for love,
Searching for something, I didn’t understand,
A feeling of security, sanctity, to be desired and accepted,
When I turned around, there she stood.

She had shiny beads, sewn on her old jeans,
Soft lips, and a strong jaw,
Long dark hair dangling down to her waist.
A timeless sweet familiar grace surrounded her face.

She was raised in a small town near the Tennessee Mountains,
She is Southern wise and Southern free,
and the prettiest girl I’ve even seen,

When she rolled her bright blue eyes up to the sky,
And she laughed out loud,
I wanted to cry instead a only a mournful sigh,
I want to be deep inside her eyes,
To greet that feeling of happiness again.
Hold it tightly, and never say goodbye.

All around me,
I see and feel the unforeseen snow falling,
But all I do is gaze upon the long legged girl in front of me.
You should have seen her.
Did you see her?

On a sidewalk, in a small town, people are rushing here & fro
To be saved from the wetness of the snow and the icy cold winds blowing faster.
I found it funny, even strange, she doesn’t seem to notice them at all.
But she is staring directly at me, pulling me inside those ash eyes.
I don’t even know her name, but she is making me feel alive.

She just smiled and stood up, so tall,
Began to play her banjo, singing softly
A Cajun melody,
And I’m mesmerized.

Could this be the love, the haven, I’ve been searching for,
Or is this a mirage, a beautiful disguise?

She sang, in a whisper, soft and low.
Mister, do you believe in heaven and
can you show me which way to go?
I’ve been lost and longing,  
for a place in time,
When life was carefree,
No worries on my mind.

Mister, where have you been
Have you cast away your sins,
Do you have any faith at all
Will you be my friend?
The truth is just beyond the door,
And you will be forever free,
Do you have the special key?
When the time is right, you will see.

But at that moment I remembered,
 the granting of our wishes,
Like the true love we all desire,
Is not like a flowers bloom,
It does not stay with us,
It may burn like a blazing fire,
But will dissipate like the daylight,
And we may forget about the truth.

I began to remember her song about the key.
The door is unseen, hidden until
the key is presented.
It has been shaped by our history.
Even the most minute sway of our thoughts and choices
changes the chambers, like a safe.
Each is unique and when the watcher of our time, rings the bell
we can only hear,
Our key is ready and we will see the door and know,
Behind it lies the answer to everything we will ever need or desire.  

Some keys are shiny, like the beads on her jeans, twinkling,
from the streetlamps above.
But some are matted, worn and dull.

Her song is playing a changing melody.
She sings, Mister, look in the mirror and tell me what you see.

So I looked, but the reflection was in the mirror of my yesterdays.
Maybe all this is recognizable because I’ve opened that door before; maybe many times.
And the pains of my yesterdays,  
Reminded me of my youth.
And I feel that strange hollow empty feeling again,
But know I’ll be okay,
It’s as if she has always been with me.
I guess I’ve always been searching
For the right key, the melody,
For the one true love meant for me.

I hear the bells ringing and the door
magically appears,
but I know I must be courageous to enter and show no fear,
And in an instance I realize, to love, to truly love,
Is the scariest, most petrifying experience.  
That has been my quest.  
Just thinking of the loss of the ability to love is so inexplicably horrible.
But the door opens when we are ready, even if we don’t think we are
mature enough, lived and experienced a true gauge of sorrow and pain.

In a small amount of time, she has
picked me up like a phoenix out the ashes of my self-pity and pain.
I’m smiling, excited, grateful and hopeful as I insert the key and turn it.

There she stands in my doorway.
She begin to speak in that surly Cajun accent and said:
There’s a crack in the mountain,
And it is covered up with snow, but if I look
below it,
Great words of wisdom are written on the stones.

She said the words are forever changing.
Written exclusively for me,
an experience undertaken by many.  
And the words can be so sorrowful, people can go insane.
For the words tell a person who they really are.
It comes from the part of our spirit, our soul we hide,
Even from ourselves.

I trust her and she holds my hand and we walk toward
The mountain, through the icy gaps, footsteps behind us in the snow,
We reach the destination.
My hand lets go and I breath in the cold air and reach down.
The stone is feather light and easily finds my hand.

The words look scrambled, but then I clearly see
the ancient letters lining up for me.
Have faith.
A miracle is created when there is a righteous belief in anything at all.
You are the miracle.

And I knew,
It doesn’t have to be a religious belief,
It‘s simply love for everyone or someone, like her.
I believe, do you?

Author's Note

Poetic Prose -

Reviews

[M.A.Rathore]

First of all I would like to say that there is not such a word "poetric" in English so it should be "poetic" which you corrected in your comment. The second is that your poem is so long that it is not easy to maintain the connection to the whole story.
As for as the poetic attrubutes are concerned your poem is vividly exposed in the simple manner that is apt in story form. It is very good that you related this story in simple diction but the description is so lovely that the readers feel at easy in the process it goes down with the so beautiful girl living in carefree nature being overwhelmed in love and life not thinking even the rainy and snowy season outside.
I really enjoyed the beauty and story to my heart.
Thanks for sharing so great a post!

[kitty]

Profound. Connecting right through to your reader's heart ~ to the very soul. I agree wholeheartedly ~ Love ~ the true emotion can put us in a place of ecstatic bliss. It is everyone's dream to find our 'soul mate'. Sometimes we do but circumstances put us in a difficult place. We then realize that 'consumation' is near impossible so we trust in faith to do so in another world so to speak. Thank you for sharing this wonderful pice with us.

[TL Boehm]

love the way this meanders from song lyric to story to the deep thoughts of what is religion/love the purpose we find in the eyes of someone else - music and snow and atmosphere... a lovely write.

[Pushkar Prabhat]

wow!!!!!!!!!!
beautiful story!
first long poem i have ever read...........so glad i did!
i loved it!!
:)

[Rudi J.P. Lejaeghere]

Wow, Dale, just fantastic, beautiful and so deep. It is a story, okay it's poetric prose also, but it reads so fluently and from the first lines I was drawn in it, mesmerized as you say. This is a very strong piece of writing. Very well done and thank you for sharing. :) Rudi

[Terrence Chang]

You left me speechless. That's all I have to say

[wordman]

a great story of love and mystery well if shes from the tennessee mountains she has to be good

[Matching Socks]

Dale, this was wonderful. I just got so lost in your words. In the story.
What a wonderful tale you've spun. Great job!

[Confuser]

I am so thankful you read it. I could never change it to Poetic Prose. Believe that's the category; so unsure about writing. I really appreciate it so much.

[Coyote Poetry]

"Mister, where have you been
Have you cast away your sins,
Do you have any faith at all
Will you be my friend?
The truth is just beyond the door,
And you will be forever free,
Do you have the special key?
When the time is right, you will see."
I loved the above lines. Simple and good questions. I enjoyed the poem. Took me to good places and thoughts. A very enjoyable tale in the poetry. A perfect ending to the excellent poetry.
Coyote