By on

Despite
How clouds
Surround me
This sun inside
Burns bright
And relieves
What darkness
Lingers
Before my eyes
Obscured

Like such plumes
Of desperate smoke
Whose example
Proves
Our blindness
To these symptoms
Keeping silent
Till that pulse
Provides us
Warmth

Shining beams
Upon those woes
While resistance
Builds
Some courage
Through its brilliance
Everlasting
During times
God offers
Light

When believing
Day may come
Even if
Bad feelings
Idle
Within distance
Growing closer
As we face
Life’s somber
Sky

Gray enough
But not quite
Dim
Looking blue
Beyond discretion
Twisted sadly
By experience
Watching weather
Change
So much.

– J. Pigno

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Why do I
Wear this cross
Knowing full well
There is
Nothing,

Lying
Each time
That necklace
Dangles freely
Off my throat?

Faking
Faith with chains
Which yield
No proof
Or meaning

While believing
God goes missing
Just before
Our time
Should come

Watching jewelry
Sparkle bright
Around necks
Whose collars
Suffer

Flashing myths
To those who witness
Such adornment
Held
Like hope –

Praying fables
Weighted down
Upon shoulders
Weak
From pendants

May excuse
Apparent errors
And relieve
Their certain
Doom

Before sinning
Once again
Thinking heaven
Must be
Waiting

For regalia
Ever doubtful
Through expressing
Fear
In gold,

When old trinkets
Seem absurd
Learning truth
Might warrant
Tarnish

Feeling symbols
Brand impressions
Into flesh
Where silver
Sits.

– J. Pigno

By on

Relieve me
If you will
By assuming death
Convenient
In attempts
To make things better
By agreeing
What comes next

Is the fate
No man avoids
Through each turn
Of final chances
And believing
Sudden pauses
Imply sadness
Life expects

When existing
Just for laughs
Crying loudly
Without reason
Hoping heartbeats
Slowly steady
As disaster
Hits too soon

Where this youth
Has some excuse
If such dreams
Were never healthy
Putting off
Another chapter
Drifting wildly
Towards my goal

Finding feeling
Proves that cure
Testing play
I take for granted
Since all breath
Becomes one moment
Held within me
While it lasts –

Pure emotion
Drawn from grace
While my pulse
Climbs ever quickly
Chasing freedoms
Between illness
God insists
Art cannot fix

Still remembering
Time builds walls
Through expressing
Chains not present
Hidden deeply
Among poisons
After taking pills
With words

Losing semblance
Though I speak
Along paper trails
Mismanaged
During crises
Often easy
Unexplained
Until they pass.

– J. Pigno

By on

God waits
Beyond me now
In a place
I fear
Is imagined

From the minds
Of men more fortunate
To believe
That heaven
Exists

As faith
Doesn’t always stick
When pain
Insists
We are ready

For truths
Which assume
Our courage
Endures what death
May entail

Since feeling
Proves it all
Wrong
While revealing
Logic tattles

On fables passed
Like assurance
Such gospels
Preach
Without sense

Though reason
Often fails
Among numbers
Lacking
Their patterns

Varying
Ever so quickly
If examined
Now
Under prayer –

Despite how sin
Can claim
This uncertainty
Killing me
Daily

I suspect
Some sane
Realizations
Are divinity
Shrouded by hurt.

– J. Pigno

By on

What will I do
With my time
Now that
There isn’t
Any?

Perhaps
Just sit complacent
Jotting poems
If they
Come

While believing
Life may end
Dreaming words
Whose lines
Are comfort

Still surprised
How hours linger
On behalf
Of meaning
Lost

To this hurt
Which mustn’t wait
For some cure
No man
Can fathom

Calling strength
True twisted healing
Without prayer
Some think
As weak,

Though its not
The drug they seek
Or that pill
Such doctors
Promise

Missing faith
In long equations
Balanced only
By our
Fears

Wishing death
Undue delays
Judging God
Like ancient
Magic

Despite answers
Often summoned
From intent
Once chasing
Proof –

Yet instead
Remains unseen
Gifting grace
Beyond
Old shadows

Casting doubt
Upon dark faces
Choosing daylight
Be their
Veils

So each moment
Seems sincere
Growing brighter
Since
Those questions

Might persist
Outside existence
Known by artists
As new
Birth

Feeling blessed
This morning bleeds
Thudding heartbeats
And brief
Pauses

Between headaches
Hope has murdered
Knowing heaven
Can be
Said

Where defeat
Is not unique
Like each symptom
Fate may
Worship

Turning phrases
Into conquest
Via stories
We leave
Here.

– J. Pigno

By on

The light we seek
Is false
As it only leaves us
Wanting
For a moment
Eternally lasting
With safeties
Held in place

Unlike darkness
Since provoked
By that gimmick
Claimed enticing
Ever transient
Through illusion
Of what peace
Just doesn’t stand

As this air
Flees from our lungs
Wasting lifetimes
Soon escaping
Beyond capture
Chasing seconds
Now elapsing
With each breath

Losing days
On simple chores
Missing years
No man remembers
Finding God
Their humble servant
To what numbers
Plague His gift

And demand
We mustn’t sin
Showing protest
If resisting
Such deliberate
Modes of conduct
Deemed befitting
Without chance

Any hope
Should then exist
Praying doubt
Inspires anger
Letting passion
Cast some shadow
Over reason
Proven wrong

Since assuming
Faith can cure
Any danger
Within bodies
Caught between
Two worlds conflicted
Trusting souls
Before our flesh

Where this earth
Is all we face
When these feelings
Only matter
Praying symptoms
Start abating
Staying hurt
But still relieved.

– J. Pigno

By on

I’ve thought about
Getting it
Over with

Dreaming
Of myself
In past tense

Believing
That might
Be easier

Than suffering
A morning
Again

Unable
To shower
Or dress

Sensing
My pulse
Grow erratic

While pressure
Increased
Without reason

Takes blame
From fear
Showing proof

Through numbers
Telling
But fickle

Measurements
Apt for
Disaster

When feeling
Your worst
Every second

Even if
Those pains
Aren’t real

Since death
Does not
Appear calm

Though peace
May follow
Thereafter

Assuming
God isn’t
Guilty

Of lying
How kings
Often do

Watching judgment
End
Our reward

Where forever
Seems
So elusive

Beyond this
Shadow
Still waiting

Agreeing
Light may
Exist

Consuming
One empty
Shape

Convinced
His body
Projected

Can find
Release
Off of panels

Upon lifelike
Walls
Laying flat

Now drawn
By dimensional
Rules

Between hurt
And prayer
Ineffective

To endure
That formless
Existence

As figures
Stuck
On a space.

– J. Pigno

By on

I’ll reply
Online
To avoid my fears
In person
Till the keystrokes
Hide this grimace
Barely worthy
Of real
Eyes

When such dreams
Each finger speaks
Finds new courage
Hitting enter
Sharing stories
Only backspaced
If these hands
Should lie
Some more

Telling strangers
How I’m fine
Even though
Those words
Sit empty
Upon pages
Barely witnessed
Among forums
Marked for dead

Amid places
Left untouched
Hidden well
But always calling
Out to people
Feeling desperate
Where they plead
Without
Much choice

Searching nightly
For their chance
Between voices
Crying lonely
Across venues
Made of shyness
Lighting stages
Bright
At home

Like my spotlight
Gone unseen
Begging roses
Though I edit
Taking bows
While growing
Crippled
Living only
Behind screens.

– J. Pigno

By on

Strength
Isn’t facing our fear
But accepting
The fact
It’s consumed us

Or agreeing
Such nerves
Remain heightened
Knowing death
Is a heartbeat away

With air
Which mustn’t escape
For what time
These lungs
Keep breathing

Speaking their mind
In protest
Through words
That defy
This release

From suffering
Heaviest weight
Upon chests
Not privy
To burdens

Still praying
Those answers
Await them
Within lifetimes
Already passed

Like mornings
When light
Doesn’t come
But diminishes sun
Behind grayness

Obscuring day
By obsessions
Hanging low
Beneath
Heaven’s fence

Seeing God’s saints
At their rest
Watching each man
Fail
How he changes

Stopping us
Catching
Quick glimpses
As children
Indignant for proof

Our existence
Endures
Beyond pain
Within that realm
So unhappy

Leaps of faith
Aren’t taken
Yet medicine
Saves
Without grace

All of them
Taking
No chance
On those who insist
They can jump it

Into yards
Containing salvation
Where souls
Find relief
Being safe

Since bodies
Delude
This belief
When Christ Himself
Appears naked

On a cross like ours
Between bedsheets
Stealing youth
Through age
Every night

One more sleep
Toward reprieve
Even if
Some hurt
Lingers daily

Pursuing
True resurrection
At request
Of the flesh
Unconvinced.

– J. Pigno

By on

I know only
Of empty lungs

And joy
In appearing reclusive

Behind closed doors
Where sickness
Is the light
Which creeps on through

Despite what world
Remains
Beyond walls
As distance needed

From day
Still peeking gently
Through cracks
Like precious breath –

An ecstasy
Deemed unfit
For pleasant men
Who suffer
Through lands outside
My window
Where such poetry
Goes unseen

And burdened not
With grief
Or weight of pain
That lingers
Till sadness
Finds its treasures
Among virtues
Learned by verse,

But only through
Each phrase
Which should capture
Words insistent
On affirming
Time has passage
Within bedrooms
Missing sun

Telling me
I’ll wage
Daily war
Across this margin

Agreeing
Blood holds meaning
Being spilled
From mind and pen

Coughing up
These prayers
Toward forevers
Grown indignant
Inside chambers
Trading whispers
For my heaven
Fallen dark

Begging angels
Bless this page

While muses
Steal their thunder

Fighting madly
For survival
Choosing art
As faithful death

Convinced
God had no chance
At relieving
Such expression
Once believed
A healthy outlet
Now instead
My only gift

Per His staunch
Yet fatal hope
Slaying lines
From welling trauma

Using writing
As my altar
For whatever feelings
Kill.

– J. Pigno