Reflection

Life proves to be a curious trip

Said I as I sat down

Just When I think, boy, this is it!

Everything turns around.

Should hope be lost,

Should I give up,

Or try a little more?

All this feels so familiar,

For I've been down this path before.

If life proved itself to be so simple

Would I be content?

Or does it prove its own true value

Through its storms and self torment?

If a riddle solved itself

Then I'd be puzzled nevermore

And if my life came with an answer key

My life would be a bore.

So perhaps through all my struggles,

I'll discover who I am

And maybe while I think I walk alone,

I'm in a greater plan.

A plan that molds me here and now

Builds men from little boys,

That teaches me the stings of pain,

And temperamental joys.

I pray that there is something more,

That love in sooth, is true.

And that it works for everyone

For me, and not just you.

You see I've come out on the bottom

Time and time and time again,

And with what started out as nothing

Lies the ash of fallen friends.

Which brings me hither pondering

Still sitting by the way,

Should I bring end to my tomorrows?

...Or continue on astray?

-Victor Tinsdale

Four dreams

#1
Hear the screams of my fevered soul
Thy pilgramage ensnares me.
Mine hearty deeds like twisted coal
And a broken heart that ails me.
#2
A sacrifice too great to make
To put thee on an alter.
Perhaps the gods, for both our sakes
Would take my cousin Walter.
#3
My lips, my swollen scabby lips
Kankered by thy citrus taste
I've painted them black, so black, so black
To cover my folly with haste.
#4
Breathing, Grieving my wretched heart
Tears flowing like stagnant rivers
My true love and her stinging reproach
Poach me.

-J. Thadeus Richie

Blue as the flowers that sway in the meadow

Still as the water caressing my head-o

Potsing and shushing is all I recall

Speaking in tongues to the head on my wall

Off times true splendor so freely was bleeding

Words that ran silent with wisdom entreating

Trapped in the vase of a love long forgotten

Toxic the taste of a flesh that was rotten

-J. Thadeus Richie

Thieves will steal

And pirates plunder

Dentists drill and babble

A knight defends the true and just

And Thor sends thunder from his hammer.

While painters paint

And robbers rob

And skiers always ski

I'm not quite sure

Just what the world

Has got in store for me.

-Victor Tinsdale

Sweet Mallory
The thought of thee
Can save all wilting flowers.
Your smile's hold
So true and bold
Contains a healing power.

Brightness follows all your footprints
As you lift others and inspire,
And now within my heart, once kindling,
Gently burns your loving fire.

Now hold me close
I beg, sincere,
A simple honest notion,
When out the corner of my eye I spy
You slip my drink love potion.

-Victor Tinsdale

Oh honey, how I love thee so
I'll work ten thousand hours
To come home and simply know you're there
You sweeten all that's sour.


With you all wrongs I know I'll right
With you there my hopes can't end
And with you I'll cure a thousand sores
With you my life begins.




Oh money, how I love thee so
I'll work ten thousand hours
To come home and simply know you're there
You sweeten all that's sour.


With you all wrongs I know I'll right
With you there my hopes can't end
And with you I'll cure a thousand sores
With you my life begins.




It's funny how a single letter
Changes love to greed,
And how something, though important,
Can priorities, exceed.

-Victor Tinsdale

A cornucopia of knowledge
Profits nothing if it's rotten
And a thousand of life's lessons
Are invalid when forgotten.

-Victor Tinsdale

Sin

Who me?
   My friend, I'm just a thought,
   No harm can come of me!


Oh What?
   You're liking what you hear?
   I knew that you'd agree!


What now?
   Perhaps you'll try me out,
   I will not tell a soul


And now?
   You're broke,
   Alone
   And cold...


...And I've consumed you whole.

-Victor Tinsdale

A Lament

My baby’s gone away and left me sore
For she’s the only one that I adore
And all that I can do is close my eyes
And dream of her beneath the auburn skies

One night as I lay wretched and bereft
She came and kissed me twice and then she left
And sad to find her gone when morning flew
I wondered if she dreamt about me too

Deep inside I feel so very torn
For a true love once conceived was never born
But maybe in my dreams she’ll come again
And with a kiss she’ll take away this pain

Mine eyes are waxing dry
From all the times I’ve cried
My heart has sunk a fathom deep from sorrow
Suffice it just to say
I pine for you each day
Oh, won’t you come on home to me tomorrow?

-J. Thadeus Richie

While in silence I sat

Some gas I passed

It didn't make a sound!

In my cunning act

With a grin i sat

As it spread to those around.

Time then went by

While beady eyes

Silently screamed, 'Wasn't me!'

In my seat I sat

My gas now passed

With silent glee 

   Said I, 

      'Twas me!

-Victor Tinsdale

Oh dreams, sweet dreams

Please get thee hence

Plague me not with desire.

Though my life plain 

And days mundane, 

I Needn't be inspired.

I'm plenty happy,

             Can't you see?

                  I hope not to be moved,

     Though through my once stagnant waters,

                    Dreams,

     Now flow the hopes of you.

I once galloped in my indecision,

Gloried while in vain,

But now where once lived happy nothings

Lies an emptiness of pain.

Oh life that once had seemed worth living,

Dreams have spoiled you,

And if this all brings new beginnings,

May the new be free of you.

-Victor Tinsdale

Swift as the daybreak, yet long since forgotten,

The pains and rage of a damned soul linger

The bitter tarnish of regrets unspoken

Ripple throughout uncovered graves.

And yet I move, with hope unfailing

And I reach for things unsure

And while my tainted heart needs ailing

My aspiration hits the floor.

Oh heart, oh twisted heart

Why art thou mangled with desires,

and torn while being worn

'Longside emotion's bitter sleeves

For love, though sang since times of old

Will never bridle passion

And passion's hold brings pains untold

With thorned, yet sweetened pleasures.

Oh be forewarned, my blinded friend,

Avoid damnation's thunder,

That you may live, still free from pain

And never love another.

-Victor Tinsdale