Written by Terry Davis

Starting out, down this road, leading to I don’t know where
The hard gravel crunching under the soles of my boots
Making my way in life, somehow going to get there
With each step the dust rising, trailing behind each shuffling foot
Just keep moving one in front of the other
Could have stayed, know I’ll miss it here, but I have to go
My feet moving me on down this dusty road
Dust gathering in the sweat of my brow
Hesitating, looking back, just having trouble starting out now
Looking forward into the sun I feel the journey about to begin
I just know I will be coming around this old gravel road sometime again
Let me see my way, building this memory for all the moments I’ll need them
Let me hear the crickets singing, frogs croaking, dogs barking, children playing one more time
These sounds that start me from this tranquil place
The smells of the fresh air, fresh mowed hay
The zest of life that made me come this way
I feel this place, this time, as it pours into my senses
My feet keep moving right past the fences
Of the fields where I spent this youth
I know already know in some distant time
I will yearn for my return to this place
I shiver as I start saving the memories of this moment I am leaving
Shuffling along before it turns into the evening
My lingering making the memory I write
This place will be with me forever
I know I will close my eyes in bed at night
And see this place and time I started my journey in life
The seed of my soul began sprouting here
It is still with me as I write
I will always remember where to find it
When I begin my journey back home again.

Written by Terry Davis

Tonight around midnight
The quiet chillingly loud
Loneliness creeping into my mind
Thoughts drifting
Desiring to talk with someone
Decide it’s better
To embrace the loneliness
Trying to see where it might lead
Although not sought
It is familiar
And somewhat a friend

Melancholy seeping into my soul
In the darkness
I see it clearly
With this sorrow
I feel a familiar comfort
In a misaligned sort of way
Remembered from the other times
Loneliness was near
Questions, feelings,
Asking why I am here
No answers
Just a yearning for learning
Which comes after loneliness departs.

Covering me like a blanket,
It’s just a blanket
Feels warm and secure
Welling up from my memories
Formed from a comfortable time
Loneliness is similar
Finding me in quiet moments
When my mind can free flow
Given to a vague element in life
Loneliness forms and shapes
Redirecting my thoughts
Reshaping direction without will
With a feeling of anxiety
In what I will become.

Although I do not wish this feeling
I welcome it
For in its stress induced familiarity
I have grown
Not in leaps and bounds
But gently like a light breeze
Through the old willow tree in my youth

Getting back in touch with myself
During these lonely moments
As I am not stumbling
through my daily, hectic life
A wispy vision, warming my sorrow
I will carry you with me
Until you depart
With the sunrise tomorrow
Someday to return again
Another night around midnight.

Written by Terry Davis

“In our emotional journeys
Seek balance by searching beyond this moment
For life flows like a leaf on a river
From its source
Through the curves and around the bends
With a mixture of smooth water and turbulent rapids
Duration of life’s span does not diminish our life’s significance
We can only learn through the journey and have little control over its ebb and flow.”
There are lessons all around us.