Lullabies

Sharing your thoughts can help us improve our ebooks. We would appreciate your feedback. Thank you!
[email protected]

For Michael

I love you, I do
—

you have my word.

You have all
my words.

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1
Duet

Chapter 2
Interlude

Chapter 3
Finale

Encore
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Index

Introduction

“A mind possessed by unmade books.”

This line, taken from the poem
Lost Words
by Michael Faudet, illustrates my lifelong preoccupation with books. All artists have a motive, a passion that wills them to create the things they do. For me, it has always been about books. It always will be.

It was from a very young age that I fell in love with this wonderful artifact
—
the turn of the first page is almost like a sacred ritual to me. Whenever I walk into a library, it is never without some degree of reverence.

Over time, my love of books spilled beyond the joy of reading and I began to dream of books filled with my own words and pictures.

This dream turned to reality with the publication of my first book,
Love & Misadventure
, and continues now with the follow-up,
Lullabies
, the very book you are holding in your hands.

I have always thought poems were a little like spells
—
incantations that are as old as time. There is a certain quality to words that
—
when strung in a certain way
—
has an almost hypnotic effect. This combined with the universal theme of love, becomes ever more potent and intoxicating. After all, what greater magic is there than love?

I hope you enjoy reading
Lullabies
as much as I enjoyed putting it together. I imagine it to be a bedside table kind of book
—
hopefully, one that you will pick up on some windy, restless night and it will help sing you to sleep.

Though it has a start, middle, and end, you can begin reading
Lullabies
from any page you wish. Some pieces will sing to your present, others may echo of your past, and the rest could whisper of your future. Remember, while the words on these pages remain static, this book
—
like all other books
—
is a living and breathing thing. Much like a mirror reflecting its ever-changing landscape,
Lullabies
is a book that, over time, will reveal itself to you slowly.

Much Love,
Lang

Lost Words

A midnight scribble,

a morning sigh;

you watch the words

curl up and die.

Madness lives

inside your head,

of poems lost

and pages dead.

A mind possessed

by unmade books,

unwritten lines

on empty hooks.

    —
Michael Faudet

Chapter 1

Duet

In books unread,

we lie between

their pages.

As they turn us to lovers

like season’s changes.

—
EXCERPT

Her Words

Love a girl who writes

and live her many lives;

you have yet to find her,

beneath her words of guise.

Kiss her blue-inked fingers,

forgive the pens they marked.

The stain of your lips upon her
—

the one she can’t discard.

Forget her tattered memories,

or the pages others took;

you are her ever after
—

the hero of her book.

My Heart

Perhaps I never loved enough,

If only I’d loved much more;

I would not nearly had so much,

left waiting, for you in store.

If I had given away my heart
—

to those who came before;

it would be safer left in parts
—

but now you have it all.

Metamorphosis

I am somebody else’s story. The girl who served their drink, the person they pushed past on a crowded street, the one who broke their heart. I have happened in so many places, to so many people
—
the essence of me lives on in these nuances, these moments.

Yet never have I been bolder or brighter than I am with you. Not once have I ever felt so alive. Whatever vessel we pour ourselves into, mine is now overflowing, brimming with life. It is transcending into something new.

Hands are no longer hands. They are caresses. Mouths are no longer mouths. They are kisses. My name is no longer a name, it is a call. And love is no longer love
—
love is you.

When

When every dream

has turned to dust,

and your highest hopes

no longer soar.

When places you

once yearned to see,

grow further away

on distant shores.

When every night

you close your eyes,

and long inside

for something more.

Remember this

and only this,

if nothing else

you can recall
—

There was a life

a girl once led,

where you were loved

the most of all.

Tsunamis

Be careful about giving your heart too quickly,
I was told.
Boys only have one thing on their minds,
they cautioned.

I don’t know if he truly loves me
—
how can I be sure? I can’t say with any conviction that he won’t break my heart
—
but how could I have stopped him from taking what was already his?

He swept in like a tsunami, wave after wave, and I didn’t stand a chance. All those warnings, all the things they tried to prepare me for
—
lost in an instant
—
to the enormity of what I felt.

Thoughts of You