Every thought of you
Conjures up the memories
I’ve tried to suppress
Spilling out my weaknesses
Leaving me spent and hollow
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Tag Archives: pain
Steel Bars – A Tanka
Steel bars of prison
No match for my jailer’s wrath
Sentence self-imposed
Cruelty and deprivation
Are the penalties for sin
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Peeling Back The Layers
Peeling back the layers
Like an onion of marble, brick, wood,
Concrete, steel and plaster.
What lies beneath this man-made skeleton?
Flesh, blood, bone,
Hopes, dreams, promise,
Failure, disappointment, longing,
Pain, suffering and sorrow,
Wrapped in the package human.
Wealth nor status makes one immune.
Life infects rich and poor alike,
Birth and death spare no one,
Entering into their pact with nothing
And fulfilling the contract with no reward.
These truths are guaranteed
Despite a desire to bury them in denial, religion or alcohol.
Make what you will of your life
Ignore those that cry to you with outstretched hands,
Divert your eyes from malnourishment,
Turn your back on humanities fallen,
Do this and more without conscience
As a soulless miscreant is bound to do.
This is your choice.
Or join this race we all run…offering,
Time, money, love,
Compassion, sympathy, understanding,
A helping hand, encouragement,
As much or as little as you have,
This is what it means to be human,
To be in communion,
Asking nothing in return.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Random Events
Torrential storm of random events
Beyond control your mood doth set
Thrusting outward in time repents
A heart in sorrow, forgiveness gets
~
I know not why I shelter inside
Negativity of others inside my mind
Or what I create I cannot hide
Instead of release ‘til death do bind
~
Should not happiness instill us all
Casting out that beyond control
Living in joy postpone bearer’s pall
Before its too late to corpse console
~
Random events are as they say
No path nor end hath fate defined
Life as we make and live this day
Should not be treated as a grind
~
Up to us all, our inner smile
Nourish and nurture to heart’s desire
Striving to best our every trial
Patiently dousing our temper’s fire
~
Easier said, more difficult to do
In this life we live on lease
Being as one with nature wrings true
Thriving and resting in peace
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Silence Deafening – A Tanka
Silence deafening
Alone with my thoughts of you
Tormenting my soul
Will loneliness be my fate
Led by love’s vicious blindness
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
The Question
I was once asked,
“When death stares you in the face what will you say?”
I pondered and sighed and smiled a smile I could not erase.
Thank you…
That was my answer,
Thank you for my life,
It has been full.
Thank you for my wife,
My lover,
My partner,
My children,
Thank you for every sunrise,
Every sunset,
Every shooting star in the heavens,
Thank you for all the love,
The sadness,
The joys,
The pain,
I couldn’t have gotten on without you.
These are but a simple few of all for which I’d give thanks.
Of all that I am thankful for, I am most thankful for time,
Not for how much or how little,
But thank you for the time that I had in this beautiful tortured world,
Amongst those I love,
And those that loved me.
For these I am most thankful.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Sanguine Is This Soul Of Mine
Sanguine is this soul of mine,
Joyous in being, breathing, loving, all that this creation has thrown at me,
Be it pleasant or not I am thankful.
Goodness does not come without pain..this has been my experience.
I am not bitter for the anguish I have endured,
The blood I have tasted on my tongue, the bruises worn in honor,
They have strengthened my resolve,
Enhancing that which brings me solace and jubilation.
You are not alone!
This misery, your father and your father’s father before him withstood,
All for a chance to taste euphoria,
Are these not the jewels for which we spend a lifetime in search?
Dear friend, be not weary or disillusioned;
Beyond this torment is bliss– be it in this world or the next.
We, one and all, are pawns in this game,
One whose end is synonymous,
Whether rich or poor, with the victor being…
The human condition
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Lovely Is The Rose – A Tanka
Lovely is the rose
Petals soft it’s anger hides
In thorns menacing
Drawing blood,it’s color joined
This…a match made in heaven
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Outward
Sand, coarse and hot runs through my fingers,
Blending seamlessly with others of their kind,
This endless sea of granulated wonder.
Alike, of similar origins, living in their same world;
Not so unlike the vastness of our own terrarium.
Under the skin, are not our similarities overwhelming,
Blood, bone, tissue, mineral, hopes, dreams, ambitions,
Born, living and dying as we all must, it is not a choice,
Nor an option given to us at first breath.
Look hard around you,
Oh, how the tricks of the eye are so convincing,
Seeing only that which is physical.
What does this tell of the being?
What of their hearts, their souls,
Their minds, their aspirations,
Their pain and suffering?
Nothing! For the eye is a fool,
Easily leading and misleading the mind,
Diverting maliciously from another’s essence,
Their true being and all that is important.
The shallowness of outward impressions limits us,
Preventing us from knowing, befriending, understanding.
Ignorance feeds us foremost,
Our temporal gluttony gorges us,
Making us something less than human,
With our flawed vision of what should be.
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
What Does Not Kill Us – A Tanka
What does not kill us
Makes us stronger so they say
The heart disagrees
Love makes us suffer to grow
Before we are freed
~
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 