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I Wrote This for You_2007 TO 2017

Page 10

by Iain S. Thomas


  Still, courage, my friend.

  Still, all is not lost and you are not yet done.

  Still, there are fires to burn in the darkness and light to cast amongst the shadows.

  Still, there are moments that must be taken, fighting and spitting to the ground.

  Still, nothing has killed us yet.

  Still, the sky smiles on the brave.

  Still, have the strength to try and hold the sun in the palm of your hand, once more.

  Still, ever burning.

  Still, the most beautiful things come from beneath the ground.

  Still, the light is cast from the darkest of places.

  Still, we labour on under the cover of stars.

  Still, we know the truth rides high in our chests.

  Still, the world has yet to end, no matter how hard any of us try.

  Still.

  Until we are still.

  The Red

  –

  Monday, April 7, 2008

  When hurt turns red and a piece of your heart is missing. When the cold bites deep and you’ve got that feeling like you just got out of surgery. When the only way to stay sane is to concentrate on anything else but how you feel. When you count the tiles in the ceiling. When you push the headphones closer. When the first day of winter arrives. When you remember every nuance of every word of every time. When all this happens:

  Embrace it. Feel every feeling. Cry every tear. Sob every sob. Because this is what it feels like to have loved.

  The Corner Of Me & You

  –

  Thursday, September 10, 2009

  I don’t know if you felt that or not.

  But it felt like two people kissing after hours of thinking about it.

  It felt like two people talking after nights of silence.

  It felt like two people touching after weeks of being numb.

  It felt like two people facing each other after months of looking away.

  It felt like two people falling in love after years of being alone.

  And it felt like two people meeting each other, after an entire lifetime of not meeting each other.

  The War Against The Sea

  –

  Thursday, January 12, 2012

  You say that only a fool believes that everyone has some good in their heart.

  You say that only a fool makes music in their mind.

  You say that only a fool loves hate back.

  You say that only a fool leans against the wind.

  You say that only a fool takes on a planet.

  You say that only a fool holds out hope.

  You say that only a fool tries to fly.

  You say that only a fool fights the sea.

  Very well.

  I am that fool. And I will die fighting.

  The Image Repeated Over And Over

  –

  Monday, February 10, 2014

  When you let go, it wasn’t a rock falling to the ground. It was a balloon, rising from a child’s hand.

  The Shape In The Mirror

  –

  Thursday, January 12, 2017

  The Safety Of Death

  –

  Friday, January 16, 2015

  Death isn’t when your heart stops.

  Death is when you give up who you could be for the safety of who you are.

  The Two Player Game

  –

  Monday, October 6, 2008

  I picked up my pieces so I could help you pick up yours.

  The View On The Way Down

  –

  Monday, March 2, 2009

  All the hardest, coldest people you meet were once as soft as water.

  And that’s the tragedy of living.

  The Big Blue Sea

  –

  Sunday, September 28, 2008

  I don’t care how many fish there are in the sea. I don’t want a fish. I want you.

  The Remaining Mirrors

  –

  Friday, May 18, 2012

  And I hide because there’s more to me than what you see and I’m not sure you’d like the rest. I know that sometimes, I don’t like the rest.

  The Ignored

  –

  Saturday, September 15, 2007

  You are constantly surrounded by incredible beauty wherever you go. Stop. And look around you.

  The Missed Appointment

  –

  Friday, June 26, 2009

  So yes, we could kiss. I could kiss you and you could kiss me. There’s no science, plane ticket or clock stopping us. But if we kiss, it will end the world. And I’ve ended the world before. No one survived. Least of all me.

  The Tomb Of The Unknown

  –

  Thursday, February 10, 2011

  I never fell in love with you. I just fell.

  The Lies Are 20 Storeys High

  –

  Tuesday, September 28, 2010

  Some days, all that you remember, is the distance from here, to then.

  The Rain Of Black Umbrellas

  –

  Monday, May 9, 2016

  I’m not saying I know you better than anyone else.

  I’m saying I know better than anyone else what it’s like to miss you.

  The Static On The Line

  –

  Thursday, February 25, 2010

  Don’t talk to me like you know me. Talk to me like you love me.

  The Heart Rides On

  –

  Friday, November 20, 2009

  I love you. I love your eyes. I love your smell. I love your hair. I love your laugh. I love your skin. I love everything inside you. And I’ll try to make all the parts that I find, happy.

  Because you make me happy. So much.

  The Heart Beats Per Minute

  –

  Tuesday, March 17, 2009

  You are the best parts of all the songs I love.

  The Infinite Distance

  –

  Thursday, May 31, 2012

  Your poetry is lonely.

  And yet, you write to feel less alone.

  The Messenger Was Dead When I Got Here

  –

  Monday, June 28, 2010

  You should tell them the truth. Tell them that if they hold on too tightly, love might cut them. Tell them to hold on tightly anyway. Tell them everything is worth it and that the richness of life is only ever enhanced by its inevitable, brief flashes of sadness and loss.

  The Slow, Gentle Continental Drift

  –

  Sunday, January 31, 2016

  I stayed because you were the only one who thought I could be better.

  I stayed so that you could get better.

  I stayed.

  The Reflection In Shop Windows

  –

  Thursday, June 19, 2014

  If you live in your head for too long, you run the risk of becoming your own secret.

  The Station

  –

  Friday, August 29, 2008

  Fuck it. You throw a dart at a map, we’ll go there and start new. Somewhere else in the world that’s not here. Somewhere where we haven’t said things to each other that we can’t unsay and done things which we can’t undo.

  There we can say new things. We can do new things. And those new things we say and do will be more important than the old things. Let’s leave. Please. Leave with me.

  The Rose Is Not Always A Rose

  –

  Wednesday, June 10, 2009

  You can be in love and you can be in a relationship. But they’re not always the same thing.

  The World You Cannot Fly In

  –

  Monday, May 3, 2010

  They’ve taken us from the edge of the sky (where the sky is just our reflection, looking down) and brought us here, my love. I can no longer breathe and you, you and the world have begun to melt and fade.

  They’ve taken us, my love, in their cruel nets and crude boats to their own dark sky.

  T
hey think us ugly. But we are not the ugly ones here.

  The Songs We Sing

  –

  Thursday, July 17, 2008

  Somewhere, someone knows the words to the songs you sing.

  The Cupboard Is Empty

  –

  Thursday, January 1, 2009

  I’m all out of midnight phone calls and flowers sent to your door. I’m out of throwing letters off fire escapes and drawing a cathedral in the sand. I’m out of spray-painting your name on freeway overpasses. I’m low on cute names given between blankets and 9am. I’ve got no dramatic displays of public affection left. And now everyone else I ever love is going to think me boring. Because I used it all up on you.

  The Skyscrapers Meet By The Side Of The Road

  –

  Thursday, March 26, 2009

  We look at the people who tell the truth, who say real things in public, like they’re confused. Crazy. As if everything should be said safely or not at all and what you feel shouldn’t be taken seriously.

  Which is why it’s not polite to say, “I’m going to kiss you now because I can’t do anything else.”

  The Start Of Stupid Stories

  –

  Thursday, February 9, 2017

  I believe that if you’re good, more good things happen to you.

  I believe it rains to let you know you’re lucky.

  I believe that you only get old if you let yourself.

  I believe in trying your best and forgetting who you are as often as possible.

  I believe that there’s a way to love someone like we thought we could love when we were young.

  I believe there’s a way to love like a story book.

  I believe in stupid things.

  The Chance To Disappoint You

  –

  Thursday, March 19, 2015

  I love you.

  So let me disappoint you.

  Because I know that if you love someone, you are opening yourself up to being disappointed by them.

  Because how can you love someone as a human, without everything that comes with that.

  So disappoint me.

  Disappoint me constantly, with all that you are and all that you could be and with everything that makes you, you.

  I promise to disappoint you, with my whole heart.

  The Removal Of Me

  –

  Friday, February 7, 2014

  I know what you feel, when you’ve got nothing left to feel.

  The Strangest Days

  –

  Thursday, March 15, 2012

  And when I’m far from home and I feel like an alien, trust me, somehow I never left you.

  The Night Is A Tunnel

  –

  Tuesday, December 18, 2012

  I have told the sky all my loneliest thoughts of you. And all it does is shine starlight back at me. But I guess that’s what makes it such a good listener.

  The Impressions On Snow

  –

  Thursday, March 10, 2016

  It can be hard to convince yourself that the things you feel aren’t real. But in order to actually interact with the world, sometimes you must act as if you don’t feel them, at all.

  The Needle And Ink

  –

  Monday, July 13, 2009

  Look at you, like a new tattoo. Because I might not always have you but I’ll have the feeling of you for the rest of my life.

  The Grasping Of Stars

  –

  Tuesday, December 13, 2011

  They’ll tell you that you’re the ground. Remember that you hold up the sky.

  The Send/Delete

  –

  Wednesday, August 6, 2008

  I’ve written you a hundred messages that I’ll never send.

  The Spider Silk

  –

  Monday, March 7, 2016

  Choose good friends if you want to stop growing old.

  Whenever they see you, no matter how many years it’s been, they will look at your face and say,

  “Look at all the things you’ve done.

  Look how beautiful you’ve become.”

  The Billions Of Pieces

  –

  Friday, February 10, 2012

  The human heart is made from the only substance in the universe that can become stronger, after it’s been broken.

  The Sound Of Stars Exploding

  –

  Wednesday, August 19, 2015

  I am asking you to listen to the promise in the static on the radio or the scratches on a record:

  There is a chance for something not quite perfect to happen here tonight.

  The World Needs More Lighthouses

  –

  Friday, April 9, 2010

  You can join the millions talking in the dark. Or you can stand up and scream light, out into the night.

  The Thing That’ll Kill You Is Being Afraid

  –

  Friday, October 24, 2014

  Never leaving your house, will kill you. Staying where you are and being afraid, will kill you. Pecking at the new notifications icon on your social media platforms of choice, cycling through them like a series of surreal fridge doors that might contain something better since you last looked, this is what will kill you second by second until you realise you have none left. You are far more likely to die from fear and apathy, from not having lived and fulfilled the multitude of promises that you make yourself each night before you fall asleep, than anything else.

  The Tender Tinder Box

  –

  Sunday, November 22, 2009

  You’ve made the air flammable. These walls are just paper. And blood is gasoline. You shouldn’t have come here, made of fireworks, if you didn’t want me to play with fire.

  The Shape Of It

  –

  Friday, June 19, 2009

  They want me. I want you. And you want someone else. But none of us want to turn around.

  The Bridge From Solitude

  –

  Thursday, July 9, 2009

  Just like you mistook lust for love, you have mistaken being alone with loneliness. So I’m fine. Thank you for asking.

  The Ghost Ships

  –

  Monday, February 2, 2009

  I won’t keep circling the ocean forever, hoping I’ll spot your island on the horizon, un-colonised and flying an old, tattered flag. You on the shore with the sand between your toes.

  The Blind Corner Waits

  –

  Friday, July 10, 2009

  I just move my lips and my tongue and breathe and the sounds are made. But still, I do not say “I love you” easily.

  The Shot Stars

  –

  Wednesday, February 15, 2012

  If your star falls down, you will find mine lying beside yours.

  The Snow Falls On Forever (Hush)

  –

  Monday, January 16, 2012

  You can’t miss forever.

  No matter how close forever feels right now.

  You can’t hurt forever.

  Even if your heart whispers in your ear and tries to convince you otherwise.

  You can’t bleed forever.

  Sooner or later, you will either die or live.

  Neither of us can do anything for forever.

  Because forever passed away, long ago.

  The Whispering At The Back

  –

  Monday, January 18, 2010

  You say the things you don’t need to say.

  Because it hurts when you don’t say them.

  The Lost And Unfound

  –

  Monday, January 9, 2017

  I said, “I hope you find who you’re looking for.”

  I said, “I hope you find someone to hold your heart.”

  Even though I thought I was the one you were looking for.

  Even though I thought I could hold your heart.

  The Past Keeps Going Away

  –
<
br />   Thursday, September 13, 2012

  After you’re gone, people will forget your name, no matter how important it was, and your face, no matter how pretty it was, and what you said, no matter how clever any of it sounded.

  The things you’ve done will crumble and fade and the places you once loved, will change and be given new names.

  You are only here for one moment and it lasts exactly one lifetime.

  The Light Leaving Machines

  –

  Wednesday, January 20, 2016

  I will record it, and when the time comes for me to die, I, or the nurse, will put the earphones in and I will hear:

  “You have a name but soon you will not.

  You loved everyone you could as much as you could.

  You are only doing the most natural thing in the world.

  Everything, is fine.”

 

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