Tried by tide and blood moon
Hunted by the wolf of darkness
A prize
Not taken by unforgetting.

What does it mean
To hold my own heart
As reverence to a truth?
Not as it seems

As I did mourn the ignorance
Of my own ignorance
And betrayal
Of my own betrayal
Was all hopelessness lost

Foreshadowed before them all
Was a promise written ancient
I could not ignore

To be a seeker was not enough
To be a dreamer was only a nightmare
To be a man among men
Could not answer
The quietness of my bed

What does one love
In love?
Can it even be counted?
Yet before knowing the essence of it
Do we know the absence of it

I take lightly not
The very thing and secret of my heart
I take lightly not
The very longing of my bones and chest
I take lightly not
The very desire of my spirit

Even though such are men and women
To make matter of what matters
To another
Because of what matters not
In them

To be a follower would have been death
Not one shall know
Why
Nor can one know
The origin of why
But I

All things in truth
Find their time
Whereas before its time is great heartache
And afterwards great reward

So it is
That I love how she moves in the garden
Where the dirt falls between her fingers
And the mud collects on her slippers

I love the voice that speaks in her
Amazed I am at what others do not hear
Yet so clearly to me it is

I love the question within her
Proving innocence
And a need not to know of sin

I love the breath of her sleep
How even her body lays in rest
As a lover caressing a passionate song

I love the stirring of her hands
As they craft a meal from nothingness
And abundance from little

There are things of women
That only God himself reveals
To those who love them

I love that I could not anoint my own head
Without the purpose of her
Or that I could not find the error of my mind
Without the need to protect her
Or that I was unable to witness the veil of darkness
And its boundaries and valleys
Without the import of her light beside me

I love that we found each other
Even in the darkest pit of darkness
And touched a light
That flung us into the very stars above
And the realms we only once believed
Made real

I love that we got lost together
And stood together against great evil
Even for our wounds
Does my heart heal
Because of her

For we have survived everything false
And untrue
And I still love hearing her sing
With her children

I still love watching the course of her eyes
As she spots something new
And unknown to her

I still love answering her
Even though I am aware my words are as riddles
And my insight is as a foreign custom
And my reasoning is like that of a fire
While my heart moves my hand
To caress her head
As she sleeps

And in the midst of all that
Does she still follow
My every word
Even if in secret

I love the grace
Unwitnessed by anyone else

I say in all that this man could be
The greatest thing
Is preservation of her old peace
That her safe home is far away
From what waits in rage outside
That I stand at the door
Forever in love
With the song she sings inside

Ryan o0o

All Words and Images (unless otherwise noted)
Copyright © 2014 Ryan Ranney & Colleen Ranney – Ranney Studios
“T is for True” Painting/Image ©2014 Ranney Studios
All Rights Reserved