Love Poem

Her essence lingers on the breeze,
beside the lake, beneath the trees,
on every path i walk alone
she is my darling, and my own.
She haunts my dreams.
She is my home.
She cherishes the best of me.
She holds me close
and sets me free.
She is my glory and my joy.
She’s made a man of this lost boy.

I’d drag the stars from out the skies
to show her how much light she brings.
There’s heat and warmth to every day.
The love I feel I cannot say.
Words seem weak and faded things.
I give my heart. She gives me wings.
A fire inside me blazes, burns,
as I wait here for her return.
My heart is bursting with such love
it challenges the sun above.

 

Feathers

A magpie gave me two feathers today.

I stuck them in my hat.

When a bird in flight gives a gift of joy,

you can’t ask better than that.

Apples and Bees

I would lie beneath the trees
And dream the hours away, in heat
And listen to the hum of bees

The apples tumble at my feet
Full of warmth and summer sun
Dripping juice so ripe and sweet

How smooth this nectar on the tongue!
I steep my sense in joy, replete
And feel that I am ever young

The sun will sink, the evening comes
As the hourglass, tireless, runs
But I will stay here, in the night,
To look up to the endless stars,
Rotating glimmers fill my sight

Hawk and Hare (a San San)

A sudden hare, across the field,
Swerves and shifts, avoids the breath of death,
In shadowed cloud and sunlight leaping.
Against the light, dark wings revealed,
Downward sweeps, a shifting hawk,
A breath held tight in frozen time.
The hare escapes the talons keeping.
This life, this shifted breath, this joy, is mine.

Balancing

such shadows come and fall on me
from joy to sorrow, like a switch
i fight to turn the light back on
i don’t know where the joy has gone

a single note in some old song
a word not said
a thought unwise
i try to see where i went wrong

the tender sweetness
on a breeze
can turn my heart
and make me freeze

and then i go and sit a while
and lean against a steady tree
and wait to smile again
and see

like the earth we reach for warmth
and the thirsty kiss of rain
all things in nature
are the same

it’s all a mirror of ourselves
dimmed and scratched
things unclear
and things not seen

this constant flow
of dark and light
is just the deep souls day and night
and the turning of the year

Hidden Weeds

with this sorrow comes the sorrow
of every loss I ever had
it’s a pool of hidden depths
full of hidden weeds, obscured

is this the same for those occasions
when I’m glad? do i recall a well of joy?
gladness seems to stand alone
no predictions and no source

I know too well the ebb and flow
joy transcends all of itself
that moment like a rising wave
that bubbles up with light and air

today I cannot turn the tide
I sleep the sleep of constant loss
I’m sick with sad complexities
and all the tears I ever cried

if love were simple, as I think,
this stream would never lead
another sorry sigh away
but would swim me back again

Two Magpies

The magpie perches in a tree

His fellow flies across my view

Static sorrow

Passing joy

Changes

the seasons keep on turning
i gather wood for flame

i think i see you leaving
this time last year you came

the time for winter fires
is never twice the same

this time it may be sorrow
where it was joy before

all the things I had last year
i see i have no more

i remind myself again
to fill the winters store

we must live to journey on
together or apart

i gather all that i may need
before the dark days start

there’s safety in the cellar
and in the hollowed heart

Berries

looking out of my winter window
to ice cold streets below
i see huddled figures
trudging through the snow

the children skip faster in winter
that’s what we all should do
imagine the shopping centre
full of skipping people

then christmas shopping would be
a dance of joy so merry
flocks of people like robins
seeking the shining red berries

adieu

sorrow sat on the chimney pot

in the form of a solitary magpie

 

joy flew in to join him

but it winged away

and sorrow followed after

 

a dove came to coo on the garden wall

adieu, adieu, adieu