I search the world with hunger
FURTHER, to the distant shores
and way up in the air
The glare
of sun shines down my optic nerve
bouncing off of surf and sky
I cry
aloud with joy to be alive
to gasp and leap and run and strive
Take my hand and in we dive
each moment, every vista
opening wide to swallow the universe

I search the shelves with hunger
for a story to enlighten, to inspire
I desire
a tale of unceasing fire
that flickers off the pages
licking my fingers, my eyes, my mind
I find
myself behind a hundred faces
my future in a thousand places
visions there of agony,
adventure, crime, and ecstasy
racing through the scripts
incomplete, my focus shifts
beyond the pages,
into life’s proscenium arch

I search the cast with hunger
faces round or long or soft or hard
or crazed or glazed with ennui
I look for stories here as well
the stories that the people tell
of conquests made or suffered
the episodes they utter
fill me up like rich food
I dine on points of view
and recline and see the world anew
but rest can’t last, and fullness passes
hunger surges, I have urges most people can’t subdue

For I hunger, not for fullness, but to raven once again
I long to reach the summit, just so once more I begin
to gasp, to wonder what more is in store
to be floored, shocked and shaking, to feel never at rest
but always chasing options, gazing
rushing, coursing through, feeling, being felt
to pause
sniff in deeply, taste and touch the world and face
it, take it in and process, tracing webs of meaning
binding, finding patterns, and with each identifying
growing larger, filled with multitudes of songs

My story
weaves its way through fog, unfolding
daily, holding secrets meant for moments not yet come
I run
looking up to see the sun burn clarity
across the air, preparing me for each new turn
Breathing deeply, moving faster
devouring each day with laughter
til joy aches and makes me sick
Love lays me low, exploding in a myriad of feelings
loud and so tempestuous, hurricanes that rack me
a consumption from consumption, from absorbing all the world
until I bubble over, torrential, blinded by potential
escalating until waxen wings give way and tumble
casting hope into the bay

Yet even as I plummet, new sensations
delight my nerves, they tingle to be so alert
that it hurts, they sing out their mortality
with pure electric fury, searing a finale
on the sky

I search for poems of longing
knowing somehow, nothing I would find
could quite compare
to sweet despair
welling up and counting down
but into screens I stare, I’m blind
from reading all these stanzas
that just don’t make sense
I’m incensed, but not disheartened
for in my heart, in the end
I find the words

Hunger draws me up and out and open
words convey the intensity
that I see, twisting cables to support a tale
that can cross the gulf between two lives
and resonate, externalize this hunger that I feel inside
sometimes, I’m surprised
I find someone to dine with
who slows my pace
and helps me taste in rich detail
new flavors, opens up my cadence
breathing deeply still, but slower
as I savor each sensation, sizzling
as time dilates, each moment radiates
A sureness of purpose, wholeness, nourishment, and truth
my frenzied heart rests in the richness of their souls
and for a moment, something sharper
than hunger
and sweeter than longing
rests like crystal dew in the golden light of morning

Hunger drives me forward
and home is no particular place
but a feeling of love
a notion
that in this moment
I am complete
But always once again
I surge on, unbridled
screaming like a bat diving into caves unknown
I’ve grown to relish the echoes
feeding me feedback of places unexplored
racing to the frontier of possibility
as the world expands before my throbbing mind