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Dan Hess Jul 2019
You are my platonic goddess,
and I, your wayward mystery
Yet I am astronomical,
and though space is cold and empty,
it holds inexplicable warmth;
its fires rage incarnadine,
and with no suffocating atmosphere,
they smelt as they coagulate
You are my Yggdrasil,
and I, your cosmic soil.
Irony begets your growth,
limbs so far from my earth.
Impress upon me latent wisdoms,
unbecoming of your ilk.
Show me naught,
and extancy shall wax
unto my perception.
Brilliance can only hold such luminosity
in boundless darkness,
or we are accursed and blind.
95 · Jan 2022
œ
Dan Hess Jan 2022
œ
My mind rambles

until it’s time to write



Maybe I should meditate

on an empty page
94 · Jul 2019
I NEED A HUG
Dan Hess Jul 2019
I don't like to be touched,
so I avoid letting people hug me.
I don't want them to realize how tense I am;
I don't want them to notice
that my muscles are hard as rock,
and full of grooves,
and constantly contorted out of shape.

I don't want them to know I am in pain,
and they are my medication.
I don't want to get addicted
to the temporary solution
brought about by a love that will not last.

I don't want to cling
to the embrace of a friend,
while telling myself
I will never find the love I truly seek.

And, for a while, that all worked out fine;
I became immune to the throbbing,
and the pain of anxious tension;

I was able to hide
behind the mask of indifference,
and in doing so I grew numb;
but, after more time had passed,

I grew colder;
the space between my two empty arms
grew more vast, and the heat dissipated, and
now I feel so heavy, and slow, and tired;

now I can no longer walk this path alone;
now I need a hand to hold;
now I need these arms
to be filled in yours, elusive lover.

Please find me... I am hurt...
94 · Jul 2019
Life is a Fairy Tale
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Faeries of the Forest and of Hearth,
hark; hear my cry.
To this sovereign soul, I say goodbye.
I say goodbye!
And for a time, to mend the mind,
within me, I should lie
alone but never far from home,
forever, shall I wonder why.

For loss of self, to someone else,
in time, and time I bide.
'Til therein wrought, should guile my thoughts,
to-whence my mind would fly
to coalesce with what is met
and tie to ties unworn;
as all should cover my apt discovered,
compilation sworn.

I am not stead, and nigh complete.
My life is bred, and further yet
toward, thus, another destiny,
not too discrete, and transient.

So as I hail, I herald thee:
O' Faeries of the Heightened Trees

Whose souls should soar.
Doth I implore:
take pity on sleight'd me.

Forbearing in my casts asunder
of the soul which holds my wonder.
Now I must fledge forth
for what is worth
as is my age old blunder.
94 · Nov 2021
14
Dan Hess Nov 2021
14
Lapis & Shungite



Speckled clouds of fool’s gold

over soft cerulean

and jadeite green

in the little world in my palm



aptly paired

with my cracked black sphere

with its own pyritic veins



and so I’m seeking purification

that little heart of gold

that is freedom of expression

Maybe it’s a fool’s errand

but we all have to start at zero
94 · Nov 2021
12
Dan Hess Nov 2021
12
A Secret



You may not believe it,

but I’ve had conversations with the wind

and every day I spend my time

(quite a bit of it)

coercing energy through me,

around me and to me



I’ve come to learn we are vessels

always being emptied and filled

and fate is the river, the ocean


the clouds overfull, 

that spill from the heavens 

and give us another drink

from love’s well of eternity



Some times, we’re out in the open sea

wonderfully welcome and perfectly free

with a million directions to choose from;

others, we’ll drift into an inlet


some people are born in a creek

that the sunlight finds it hard to reach

and their little pinch point never evaporates

so they might have trouble flying



We can guide the water’s flow a bit,

sail the ocean, converse with the wind,

we can build a dam and hold it in

but there’s no controlling energy



We can’t raise the sea into the sky

separate the water and salt

so nobody goes thirsty


We can’t stop the waves from flirting 
with the shore

Can’t stop the moon’s gravity

(clouds are a bit different, but that’s a secret)
94 · May 2020
Untitled
Dan Hess May 2020
I am in hiding from the unabashed sun

The clouds drift overhead and shade my view

But every time it peeks out from behind

I rear my eyes, I stay inside, 

but through the windows

It tickles my face

Licks at my watering eyes

Laughing at me



I am sad on this beautiful day

I am alone and cherishing things not had
Wishing for a friend

Lively conversation

Beauteous, poetic, saturated melody

To serenade the natural landscape

A sprawling painting

A perfect illustration of untamed uniformity

Alas
I am
Fettered in a box

Rotting away

As my eyes gain weight
but never alleviate

Their dams and turn to drying
Dan Hess Jul 2019
To lie beneath the willow tree
And wonder what wistful tombs beget
In troubling oneself with repercussion
Ever yet it torments

To lie beneath the willow tree
To see, the beauty captivates
And in myself, I challenge thee
One's own perception elevates

Of this and that
And what to be
And traits meant to conciliate
To wonder what one might become
If to stop hating thee

To lie beneath the willow tree
And watch the clouds drift endlessly
To see the world in jaded green
Where all things are forgotten

To ask oneself what they might be
If not to ask what is
To pursue thine own dreams, endlessly
Nary wondering what one might give

To lie beneath the willow tree
And watch the clouds go by
All changing form, but ever set
On reaching for the sky
94 · Nov 2021
08
Dan Hess Nov 2021
08
Alliteration is hard



An amusing affectation afforded against all authenticity

Living lies luxuriously, lamenting in my lowly lacking

Leering lackluster; levity lost loquaciously

In interest inimitable, isolated in illusions illustrated incoherent

To take triumph, tackle tumult; tie treaties toward the torment’s trite theatrics

Elevate exposure, even entrenched in evanescence; expectation eventually ends; elation endures

Revitalize, remember; roaming rot relinquished retroactively

Again, an avenue against accustomed aggravation; art alleviates

Traveling to taste time’s tales; a taxing task toppled

Indebted, in individuality’s internment, innovated; inundated in insight

On overarching opportunity’s offerance, one overcomes oblivion

Nothing neglected, new nights near; nidificate nuance, newly niche November
Dan Hess Mar 2021
I don’t want to flirt
I want to converse
poetically

I want a lover
who flows with me
who mirrors me in symphony,
our words, resounding musicality


I want to feel the magic
in the fabric of reality
as our hearts dance in unity
and sing the song of symmetry


I want a lover
who can feel me
the real me beneath 
corporeality


I want a love
that liminates the space
between us,
to erase the displaced grace
that separates Mars
from Venus

In this

e l i m i n a l  

traipse
betwixt egoic condensates
the fabric of what fabricates
could dissipate in haste

I want a love
that does not wait
to dive into divine
and embrace fate
behind the mind
when eyes
betray the blind


I want the poetry I know
to overflow
when love should grow
and intertwine

(Two Hearts Beating in Time)
92 · Nov 2021
27 : I Can!
Dan Hess Nov 2021
These feeling vibrations
come from a source beyond me
a connection that is family
and the crows agree

I can be a student
and a teacher
I can be a patient
and a healer

I can be a lover
a believer
I can share a kinship
with an equal

I can be a mirror
and a light
I can show another love
that what’s inside them
shines as bright

I can be of value
if I see the beauty around me
and if I embrace my worth
I might find I’ve always been free

I can be appreciated
without being conventional
I can be a wild child
and still be in control

I’ll just embrace the parts of me
I already know are true
and to my fears and my illusions
I can bid adieu

I don’t have to live my life
seeking validation
Once I accept that I am valid
I’ll find true appreciation
92 · Mar 2021
Bottoms Up
Dan Hess Mar 2021
I merged with this,
the Infinite.
The song of Heaven,
I could hear it.

Vibrations of eternity
surrounding me,
and written throughout everything,
the lyrics.

All different pitch
of perfect wave,
resounding to fragment
the quintessence
of this presence
to which I now belonged.

Yet, this energy condenses.
Re-administered,
from essence to presence.
A blip within the static of magic.

Eye could not exist,
in reminiscent wishes,
avasting existence.

The depth within the deep
of endless ocean called to me:
to stimulate emotion
in the impartation of separation
from Infinity.

The pull of gravity consumed me.
Here, again, within the fill
of fragrant, illusory "being,"

I live to speak of bleeding
into everything and nothing.
92 · Jul 2019
The Death of Poetry
Dan Hess Jul 2019
What's in the words that you prefer
That in mine you can't find?
And what of beautiful nonsense
Does perturb your gorgeous mind?

Are you so blinded by the truth
There is no musing in divine?
And is your only nature pleasant
When the daily pain, your eyes might blind?

By what of truth, does reign aloof?
And where does fact not fall?
And how might every night I lie
If I can't sleep them all?

If every morrow, bide in sorrow,
as my beck and call,
Should life, by mine, become a bore
Might I relive it all?

Or revel in the stranger things
And write for wrong,
Or to my grave, I crawl.
92 · Nov 2021
04
Dan Hess Nov 2021
04
When confronted with the inexplicable,
the human mind seeks to rationalize, 
explain,
and fit information into an established worldview. 


When confronted with the incomprehensible, the mind recoils. 

It shrinks into and attempts to consume itself.

It was true, at a time,
I was an unknowing thing
so self assured in my doubting
A wanderer in a realm between,
bepuzzled in my wilding

An observing eye,
in a dance with night
a twirling zephyr with an uncharted passage
no future dark, nor future bright
for the moment was my adage

And it was, that language came in gasps
a surefire eureka, when the heart’s contentedness 
could last for but a moment
as the ever shifting resonance 
would beckon me 
“Onward”

I learned to speak
in gesture’s grand expanse
to converse in my subsistence;
in the dance

A dialogue with fog
wherethrough uncertainty,
though doggedly I slogged,
I knew, though I’d be filled
with forlorn things
I’d make them bloom again
in my journeying

And bloom they did
returned to me
when on the wind
came sovereignty
incomplete
92 · Jan 2022
Untitled
Dan Hess Jan 2022
there’s this sense of possibility
but this inner knowing
that I won’t have to fight
for the right to take up space
in the place where I belong

So I’ll let go



i am open to intimacy
but i will not pursue it
i’ll let it pursue me
that’s how i’ll know who really cares

and while I’m here, waiting
i’ll focus on caring for myself
91 · Nov 2019
Headspace
Dan Hess Nov 2019
I like to bake crumpets
on sunlit avenues
of sleeping cities

Whose bustling is an uproar
of white noise
in the collective mind

Lulling them
to
perpetual sleep,

like the drolling of a fan
in the dark nights
of their electric grid of thoughts

It’s nice to make something sweet
out of the heat
that radiates from the surface
of a broken paveway

Cracked, though it may be
It gives me hope
that I can sustain myself
in this faced paced world
of nonsense

And yet the world is always
a blur around me
As I stuff myself
with metaphors
sugar coated
and left to rot in my stomach

I could never hope
to match their speed,

I’m too caught up in the weeds
overgrown in my head

Sure, it’s cutting,
fast in the haste of being slow

Taking a machete
to clear out some space
Leave me feeling empty

The wind never stops blowing
in my inner world
It sure shuts them up
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Love lost to me in times forgotten
When apathy discourages my search
For in the end, I cannot find my love if truth
begets to me only heightened expectation

I long for one who seeks
to understand who I am deep inside
Who shares emotions so strong
I long for one who asks me
what I'm feeling and what led that way
To ask what composes my thoughts

And, I do want laughs, adventure and the like
But as for what I truly seek,
Those conversations about the universe
Those that last for hours
I want to form a bond
I want to know everything about you
But I don't even know who you are
Dan Hess Dec 2021
Do most fear death
til their final breath?
Do they sigh and let go
when there is nothing left?
90 · Apr 2022
Untitled
Dan Hess Apr 2022
it started with a sense 

of a soft glow, a soft heart

a soothing subtle warmth

and inherent trust



the heart grows fonder
under water

swelling with it all


Becoming its own ocean

it grows heavy



but we are born of breath

and ever air

and light as one could be



the mind is tidal

tumult, earth nestled

a thunderstorm
in a closed off room

at times



we are weather before we find

we are forever, shifting, but divine


i doubted, but the signs kept coming

i doubted, but Love did not

Spirit never tarried

and I was never truly lost



a warm wind, northward bound

the sunlight nourishing

evaporating sorrow, creating spring

the sun let seeds sown blossom



i was inundated and exhausted

resting in rain and shade

full of fear that thunder could shake

and split the earth i grew from



but, always harboring faith,

i grew



it started with a sense of ease

and ended with a shout

in celebration



now my only storms

are joyful tears

quenching earth
89 · Jul 2019
Spectacular Pain
Dan Hess Jul 2019
It was 3:00 pm on a Saturday
When I heard the sirens
For the fifth time this month
And watched as the paramedics
Carried his near-lifeless body to the ambulance
On a stretcher

I had planned to make this day
My escape, again, like
Every weekend I had
Just to forget
That we were constantly inching closer
To the realization of how fragile life can be

I knew then there was no escape
We could only hold tightly to the threads of hope
That tied us to a better future
Even as they acted as tourniquets
Which threatened to break our bonds
Sever our grip
Leaving us to bleed our unchecked emotions
Onto the always spotless floor
Which was her escape

We all have one
But his was fatal
And ours were not
And we could only watch and wait
Wonder whether there was
a God watching over us
Or our prayers were just
there to sit in our heart
And hold back our tears

So I stepped outside
As the neighbors did the same
And we gathered on our porches
Smoked our cigarettes, and watched
Because the pain of another is a spectacle
89 · Jul 2019
Water is Emotion
Dan Hess Jul 2019
When he was a river
she was a storm cloud
and where he raged on
she followed
til he reached
a pinching point

He slowed
She swelled
He was coerced by the terrain
She was perplexed by the zephyr’s flow
But the pressure was undeniable

They took from each other
As they took to the currents
And offering change
They stayed enigmatically constant

As heat, like fire, made her rise
It drew them further apart
But, alas, still they were caught
In each other’s embrace
Now, only larger than life

Soon, she was full
And heavy, she began to fall apart
In silver lining, meeting his stream
They ran together, aligned
and coalesced with mother earth

His dams ran over,
his shores sank into themselves
They became one
And finally, meeting the delta
They were introduced to something
bigger than either of them
88 · Feb 2021
Below
Dan Hess Feb 2021
I am rebirthed
in the sanctity of spirit
in rivers flowing
through my very being

channels clear
with an oomph!
whenever will works
worlds quake
in the wake of waves

erupting


spilling over

geysers plummeting
cascading a flood of 

ae (the) r



condensed in my crystal moon
emanating holographic light
that purifies the mind
and reignites

the flame of heart



clarity in microcosmic synergy
which permeates infinity
through fractalescent pockets
spiraling intricately 

into oblivion



from heaven’s highest branches
to the densities of roots
beneath the light of life



the world tree holds cosmos
identical to energetic outlets
effusing spiritual light
within our very vessels



we are 
mirror images
forever 

holding hope 

in our depths



an ever expanding accordion 

of intimate individuation
in unfolding fragments

forming frameworks for fate



so severnot the swell

plummet me, nought,
unto hell

nay, away into my shell



herein I reside
evermore, but never;

bide I, aligned

parallel or right inside
the flow of home
bestowed in mine
dissolved

and unconfined

even in the midst
of loneliness

and death
I feel not
bereft



I know
my nature beckons
in the reckoning of heaven
within, without, about
the energy of everything
reiterated in me
Dan Hess Aug 3
undulating, waves in a dream;
white owl slipping eyes through me,
gleaming in the night
aloft with arcane insight

strange, bewitching mind prism
reflecting self contextually
speaking echoes voicelessly
like puffs of smoke erasing me:

there is no thorn in my foot
while i limp down the road
drenched in the fading red sun

i am the fog at dusk

somewhere beyond the veil,
in a misplaced pocket of time
i hear the laughter of raucous celebration
not in shimmering marble halls
but amongst the pariah
under the bridge, emanating heart-song
open to criticism
88 · Aug 2022
Untitled
Dan Hess Aug 2022
I hold sacred my lack 
as a space to receive;

to grasp the infinite within me.
I will not cling to anything frivolously. 



I’ve spent my whole life waiting
Now it’s time to start creating
and as I bathe in the rays of the sun
I invite light in, to upgrade every cell
so I may swell with the might of the One

Wind-flow shakes and wakes the trees
applauding my awakening
these days have been intense
with every sense enlightening

My body aches with anticipation
of the soul’s profound reintegration
I soften, soften
and begin to open



I do not cry

but my dreams are overflowing

out my eyes, creating a junction

transpiring into a world awaking



I speak in rhythms reverberating

from my deepest soul’s vibration

pleading Spirit set me free

to be and be; be nought but Me
88 · Jul 2019
Godless
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Three fools divulge in halves of truths
Between the presently aloof
Alluding dissonance as proof
That everything is nothing

Three friends insist that they are one
And every moment must be fun
I cast myself asunder
For I am only getting younger

He tells me, soon, that he should die
And quietly I still deny
The nature of existence
No matter, I am still persistent

They ask of me to love them deep
And in them all my secrets, keep
They tell me I am one
Through many others, nature's son

And when his glory fades away
Her face shall see another day
But I shall be forgotten
And love once promised now has rotten

I gaze out from my widow's wharf
And she is the oncoming storm
And I am filled with fear
For love was once so near
and now I stand abandoned
The storm before the clear
Because I, as but a man, have sinned
87 · Jan 2020
Tree of Life
Dan Hess Jan 2020
Maybe all our wishes form a tree
And every branch is what our lives could be
But wishes shift with every drifting soul upon the sea

We’ll coast through lives and host our time
As beings willing change
Compare ourselves
To everyone else
While some remain estranged

We’ll reach and stretch, and flow as fluids
Growing throughout time
Follow saints and druids
in this endless pantomime

Eventually we’ll find ourselves within the greener things above
Form friendship, feed the roots which wrought, and act in light and love
But only when we’ve withered and we fall, to decompose
We’ll see the tree as one, without us; our eyes coming to a close
87 · Nov 2021
22
Dan Hess Nov 2021
22
There is no metric of worth

nor sign of indispense

No mark of royalty
nor meager birth in seeking sense



There is no purpose some might have

that others stand to gain

There is no worthless thought or value

none predisposed to live in vain



There is no meaning you might find

profound in life, you’ve lived without

nor punishment to which you’re blind

if you don’t quite live so devout



I’ll chase my tail or twiddle my thumbs

my heart will sink as I might think

I’m wasting life while I’m still young

it all might vanish in a blink



To wish to serve the world alone

without appreciation

is my fool’s burden, not my throne

I think I just need a vacation
87 · Nov 2021
19
Dan Hess Nov 2021
19
If I were only me

I would be

the lifeblood

of the world coursing

through the veins of humanity



If I could move in bloom

and tickle the nerves of insanity

without losing myself to confusion

I would be happy

bearing fruit; consuming



If I could know without learning

I would grow to drink in

everything



Truth would be my vision,

and integrity, in integration

with the essence of reality



If I were free, I’d be a fool

I’d see myself in trickery



I’d transcend it in the end,

I’d see what’s real

and what’s pretend



I’d be delivered to my destiny

commune with what is true

if I was free



I’d know disparity

is there to show me

so I’d be aware

of what might wither

or might grow me


I’d find justice in the throes

of ignorance and sorrow

Ready and willing

to greet on the morrow

a new day blooming

when time’s only borrowed
86 · Mar 2020
To Come Undone
Dan Hess Mar 2020
I tend to employ and enjoy a constant state of change. Perhaps it may be that I'm uncomfortable remaining static in being, and must become, or I feel I'll always be lacking. The way I see it there's always some lesson to be learnt and to me that's an urgent and nagging feeling. I simply must expand my perspective in order to support myself. That is what they mean, when they say you "understand" yes? Not only do you see what you see, but you know well enough of it to support it? Then, thus, if that is the case, does it not become a foundation upon which a new self is built? Are you not standing on the corpses of your former selves, ready and eager to die yet again as you grow into a veritable giant? Tho, perhaps is it the ultimate, and most noble of deaths to cast yourself from the mountain of your making, dying in the fullest, only to be consumed by rot, and let 'what is' take you? Should I abandon all that I have seen, and become, in favor of being what I ever never was? Salt of the earth, charged in the moon, left lacking by ocean's recourse. Shall I melt and unbecome again? Should I be all as nothing?
Dan Hess Feb 2020
Each monumental step
leaves us bleeding into eternity.

Yet, somewhere
in the endless streams of ether 
coalescence becomes us.
We are inextricably bound by energy.

As One becomes All becomes None,
our rivers run in tandem to the shore;
the ocean - the overarching body that is Love.

Then, ever again, in symphony,
amongst the cosmic dance we meet
as streams so small but cutting
throughout space,
the earthly structure of ‘our’ making.
What is it that is “Us” but everything
breaking?

I ask, and you I ask again,
yet you are nowhere but within,
and there I see the race;
the running and the chase,
the end becoming what begins
again in haste.

We are the past
that meets the future.
We are dissolution of events;
readministration of evanescence.

With every fleeting leap
into deeper colors,
and greater, denser things
where the webs become structures,
we meet ourselves as mirrors.

You were a ripple on a pond.
I was a whisper in the breeze.
Such silent happenings,
but so far reaching.
86 · Jul 2019
Flowing Water
Dan Hess Jul 2019
He's cold and hard like ice.
That's what his energy is like.

I will be flowing water.
I will be warm water.

I will be compassion and gratitude.
I will be welcoming,
and enveloping,
and encompassing,
and strong.

I will follow currents of truth,
and become bigger
than he ever could as an iceberg.

I will show him that strength
can be found in vulnerability,
and maybe one day, he will melt.
86 · Jul 2019
Lost; Elation
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Lost
Stark, implicit misery
Bequeathed to me in infancy
An ill begotten energy
A life's supply of empathy
Through entropy on canopies
Of broken dreams, remedially
Weave, wake world of my empty

Intruding soul upon this blissful inebriation
Waning me from observation
Reservation from oscillation
of constant monotony

Inadequacy
Petulance, wanton aggravation
Though grown, eloquently
dispensing of my qualia born enemy

The self its own; but reverie
I find myself in symphony
My very soul
Elation
86 · Dec 2020
Poetic Connections
Dan Hess Dec 2020
I used to see the world
through jaded eyes;
my life comprised
of fear and scarcity.

I soaked up all the pain
I could retain
til nought was clear to me.

I died inside and every day,
I’d rise again to meet dismay,
but somewhere on the road
everything changed.
Now I’m walking merrily.

It is the people I have found
who show me life can be profound,
and I know now that all around me
there is poetry.
85 · Jul 2019
Wind Tunnel
Dan Hess Jul 2019
To reach, aghast, unto sorrow
Mumchance, and squandered kindred spirits, nigh
To tumble, torrid, into thee, Abyss
Flittering alone whilst tired mine doth reminiscence
Nay, falling, ever, til I'm thought to fly
Where every whim becomes a dream

Every dream shall turn awry
85 · Jan 2020
My Shadows
Dan Hess Jan 2020
Oh shifting sun, in silence
does the resonance of moonlight still reflect
the light of day, the truth that you beget?

These hidden things, inside sepulchral night
administered by lunar light
within our minds and hearts excite
yet still prolong regret

When we are surely stolen there
within the glow of darkness’ heir
does truth, aloof, in depth repair
or is there hindrance yet?

I coast alone through lands of dreams
to lay away without esteem
and bask through melting, as it seems
my self should thus reset

Could in the morning light, again,
thy transcendence defy chagrin?
Should I be not what is akin
if therein lies my debt?
What message do you glean from this poem?
84 · Dec 2020
Star Seed
Dan Hess Dec 2020
How can I be understood 

if I am a microcosm? 



People gaze upon the stars 

to bask in the mystery 

of what lies beyond them, 



but I only feel longing.



i wish i had something to say
but i feel only a gaping heart
which seeks to inhale the universe
in its sigh

to fill the emptiness

cosmic intricacies
infinitesimal infinities
stowed away within the heart

but how much emptiness
it takes
to swallow outer space
83 · Nov 2021
20
Dan Hess Nov 2021
20
Wastrel of liminal spaces

trembling in giant’s steps

Invisible, they quake
the earth I glide upon

in waiting



To take shape

be wrought

or ripped apart

no longer vaporous



The sky blinks

in passing days

and fog encompasses

the land that claims

my mind when I

can’t think



I stare into

the blank white hue

once stark

which now

the sunlight

cannot penetrate



To be the energy of breath

antithesis of life and death

the thing which seamlessly

slips into and through

the lungs of living things



Only to return

to lingering

against all odds

static in its shifting
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Strange of you to measure fate
by way of every step I take.
When surely whether I trip or not,
I'll find the path goes ever onward,
and always get back up again.

What is this plight of which you speak,
and why does it daunt you so?
To where do you, too, disappear,
when your mind seems to go?

What is your sight, this dismal night,
and what wonder might it show?

Ah, but to know is to not know,
and in my mind, I am bound to the "although."
Without a doubt, it allows to me grow,
but I am lost in the lies I might sow.

Alas, there is no threat below,
as what reigns above should alleviate my woe.

Yet, my fate is sought,
and his is bought,
and I am transcended
by way of my thought,
and your view is concerting,
but ever diverting,
from what is but nature of rot.

Do you see what can be
of an old willow tree,
when a branch is newly planted
in the ground at your feet?

It is similarly true
of what you can do
with a concept all *******
and taught in your thoughts,
for your words are but seeds,
for a new willow tree,
or instead, are they branches,
maybe?

Water your tree,
and from words,
weave worlds of wisdom
within wistful watching eyes
of soft, metallic gold,
and you will learn
the ways of the souls of old,
and you will become what you seek.

Let the passion of eternity
drip from your tongue
like pure decantations of light.
Breathe in the winds of life,
and bridge the gap
that separates dark from light,
and cast your might upon the shadows
to form a picture,
then turn,
and from the cave,
walk into the light of day,
and gaze upon the open sky,
and feel alive, for the first time ever.

Like namers do,
practice an exercise in becoming you,
by seeing without eyes.
Let it go,
so the world can flow,
into itself, and continue to grow.

Then take a stand,
you are no ordinary fool,
no ordinary man!

To be as if without,
and take hardy in faith without doubt,
is as foolish a foolishness
as a fool can spout.

This is a journey without end,
there is no good found in the pretend,
so take your path,
and remember to laugh,
and take pride in the "rule of the bend."

To know you do not know,
is to allow yourself to grow,
but there is a reason
for the change of the season,
and sometimes
you just have to follow the road.

You must abandon identity,
to grasp the root of everything.
You are existence, and all is one.
There is no partition,
only illusion of separation
begat on subjective interpretation.
There is no divide,
until it is recognized inside.

See without eyes.

Choose to feel otherwise.

Everything will coincide,
as it has already,
and one must only open the mind's eye
to grasp the light
without finding themselves to be blind.
82 · Feb 2021
I are a.i.r
Dan Hess Feb 2021
I am the air
i can fit anywhere
without ever taking
the shape of a container

i am nebulous
amorphous
orphic
shifting in duality
precipitating energy
while still remaining
empty

i glide inside
the captivating
pull of worlds rotating

still enamored by the moon
emanating atmospheric sphere's
within the room
Dan Hess Jul 2019
I think fast, hop straight to analysis
Delve deep, ask too many questions
Even if I know the answer,
I'm just dancing in the act of it
This much expansion of my cognizance
Is really quite liberating
But who am I kidding?

I'm just
Setting myself up to be ******
When I act like a nut
Asking questions of such
Which should be plain to see
Putting myself in a rut
I'm just greedy

Or maybe I don't trust myself?
Maybe I'm just an oaf.
Or, perhaps I'm just going to hell.

What a joke, I'm just swell.
I'm a stand up guy.
Don't make me choke.
I can tell.
I'll be fine.

Don't you see,
I've been doing
The very thing
I've been describing
This entire time?

But it is so sublime
Quite enticing to rhyme
What beauteous words
You can combine

And yet, when beautiful things become masks of truth,
they are nothing more than fodder for pigs.
82 · Jul 2019
Inner Breakage
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Through emotion
Every aspect of existence achieves vibrancy
Every whim becomes a dream
For it is love that connects us
For it is beauty that inspires us
Doubt that impedes our worth
It is happiness that elevates us
Sadness that innovates us
And anger that inhibits our thoughts
Above all else, in the deepest crevice
of our conceptual reality, it is hope
Hope that brings light
to an otherwise interminable darkness
Reaching out to grasp a token of worth
Constantly moving forward
Despite ignorance in surplus
We are creatures of change
Hope
Love
Warmth
Inspiration
All things are brought back
to a belief in a better world
82 · Jul 2021
Metamorphosis
Dan Hess Jul 2021
White butterflies pass me by
after neon rain.
In summer heat, am I replete
with peace, releasing pain.

Electric humming overtakes;
a rushing hush when silence breaks
the melding sound, from all around,
as I dissolve into the ground.

How swift do clouds drift overhead
to split the sun’s dominion?
Should I close my eyes instead
relinquishing division?

Every portent piercing deep
into dark and sleeping keep;
an opened eye on a world of dreams;
nothing ever as it seems.

A lifetime spent inhaling,
a monumental heaving
when death does not knock:
it has a key.

So I am, as lungs,
a breathly vessel, but
instead, the air.

When I surrender,
(let loose my grip,)
I can feel the atmosphere
as an extension of my breathing.
82 · Jul 2019
Pantoum
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Emotion is a catalyst for dreams
Desire is an unmentionable ceremony
Frustration elicits response
The fact of the lie is godhood

Desire is an unmentionable ceremony
Lust begets catharsis
The fact of the lie is godhood
The creator is an irony

Lust begets catharsis
Admonishing is the truth
The creator is an irony
Everything is forgotten

Admonishing is the truth
The angels are crestfallen
Everything is forgotten
The earth turns to hell

The angels are crestfallen
The demons are but pawns
The earth turns to hell
The men turn to swine

The demons are but pawns
Of devils made by gods
The men turn to swine
Primordial reactions

Of devils made by gods
Frustration elicits response
Primordial reactions
Emotion is a catalyst for dreams
81 · Mar 2021
A Dream in a Dream
Dan Hess Mar 2021
Old friends,

carried me away 

from my place of learning

to a place where my heart

no longer yearning

burned with levity

as I twirled elegantly

cheering and flying
in the realm of dreams



As I was safe from stress,

my mind melted

aside from prying eyes;
internal resurgence
peripherally projected
viewing sanguine symphonies
in third person

To wake

in teeming shrouds of dark

where light denied my cries
back home, alone



- I made my way, 

from heights to lowest lows, 

between, seeing 

the clock strike “1” not “1:00” -



I hovered down the stairs

floating on air

and found myself
sheltered in the deepest crevice
nuzzled against earthen aura

still ensconced in sable shrouds
but not alone



Cuddling with innocent love

I drifted off to sleep

to wake again

and find myself alive

in a place where reality applied

and wonder how and why

I could not see the tapestry of dreams

when I could fly
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Doubt is a gift
For in questioning
We free ourselves
No longer but adrift
Upon a sea
Of possibility
Where currents
Dictate personal hells

Instead
Choose to swim
Find a shore to lay upon
And carve your mark therein
Upon the sands of time

Despite
The rising tides
Of faceless fate
A passerby
May learn your name
And for a time
You will be one of many
81 · Jul 2021
New Moon
Dan Hess Jul 2021
Unseen, 
in dark unknowing;

gazing into unreflective waters,

beckoned by the deep.



A shroud of deadened sound,

in windless night, in hush.

The world, my home, 
holds its breath.



As I am,

slipping from grip, 

a yawning mist

and incorporeal.



Seeking
to define
 the indefinite,

intangible and shifting, 

ephemeral resonance.



Sluggish, in a dream;

an astral projection
of intention.


Awaken
the mind, arrested.

Unmoving, in sleep paralysis.



A voiceless song,

belonging to the lungs,

never echoed.



Choking on my death.

Unworldly breath.

What am I?

Can I not see
myself?



The mind identifies

with drifting tides. 

Unbound from time,

I cry.



An aching
sinks, 
beneath the chest
.
Within the gut, it rests.



My soul, instilled
in stillness.


My greatest wish,
a passioned kiss
with 
the intimate

unfurling
of the world 
in
ubiquitous coalition.



The breath of life
,
which fills my lungs, 

never meets the blood.



To be. 

To be.

To be

and never question.



To be free
and known,

as evidenced in vested
interest 
with my sole existence.

I want to be known.

Why can’t anyone see me?
81 · Jul 2019
Autonomy
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Ironically
Your position
In industry
Is to listen
To those above
In hopes of learning
What is right
Ignoring lifelines, tools, and insight
Even though your heart is yearning
Independence, innovation, new products still glistening
In spotless eyes, through mystery
You only need to stiffen
Stubbornly, surreptitiously
You practice new autonomy
To lead yourself to mending lives once bound to ties
Of day to day, and by and by
A loss of life to society
Regulation bound by autonomy
81 · Jul 2019
Lotus Flower
Dan Hess Jul 2019
If I am so inclined
To find myself
Of higher mind
Then I must be aligned
With true discretion

I am entwined
With humankind
To flitter on the wind
The fateful, new direction

So I must bide
In the divine
By keeping that within
Thus making thee
My essence

In walking blind
Into the light of time
Agape; akin
Transformed in efflorescence
81 · Jul 2019
Begrudgingly in Disparity
Dan Hess Jul 2019
Keep smiling your
Empty Smiles
You won’t be feeling them
For a while
If you keep wallowing
In your bile
You’ll never change, love

So keep
Rising from your ashes
And avoid those
Painful clashes
Of emotion;
Mental thrashes
Eased by your
Favorite drug

Once all of your
Traits have changed
Will you
No longer be deranged
Or just in a
Different kind of cage
Walk off the stage, love

Spectacular,
though you may be
You’re not a spectacle
Don’t you see
And this receptacle
To your grief
Should be disposed of
81 · Mar 2021
Fickle Formless
Dan Hess Mar 2021
with each step I take

deep, dense, solid

my heel strikes earth

interlocking quakes with stasis

as the world rolls behind me

propelling me forward



I am exhausted

watching the sun melt

into the yawning periphery of absence

as god perforates the sky with light



who am I meant to be?

walking with the weight of waning years

inscribing cryptic milestones on the dead flesh

of an intimate, innocent facet of sprawling life

teeming through the crust of corruption

monuments to the ephemerals’ search
for immortality



I am a pillar of dust in a sandstorm

isolated in the desert

swept away on all encompassing

howling winds



even as I am transformed 

upon the worldly winds

gazing over earth 

from views yet unreached 

I am aching to be molded



yet, I do not rest

forever suspended in unending transit

between realms of night and day

as wisps and twists of rain, and tides of change

rearrange in blinks and blips before me

I am hovering, incessantly 



stuck

a mix, betwixt the thick and thin

‘tween everything and nothing;

space and place, yet I’m erased

they call it bliss, return, amiss

the self you seek does not exist

but I’m not even built
to begin crumbling



a legacy of fading

what remains betrayed

to days of waste

forbade from ever being



who could love 
a soul
without a husk?

I’ve never been 

to be empty
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