Poetry
Autumn
autumn is an old woman now.
you see her coming:
shuffling along the sidewalk in an ugly dress,
muttering about garbage day and the price of onions.
in her youth, you were smitten. made dizzy by her laugh.
she tossed you a sweater and led you out to wander the park.
you remember crunching apples, and blowing on her hands,
the blue behind her, the redgold in her skin.
little cloudy promises, slipping out of you like breath,
if this is death, you shouted, why stay alive?
now you know:
the pained steps, the shaky jaw, the gray stare.
you look away from her, down at the
rotting leaves plugging the sewer drain.
the wind creeps under your coat and stings you.
excuse me, you mumble, and swish past:
you really just want to get home.
*******
Bittersweet
Broken by the summer sun
The moon escapes our sight
Swallowed by golden rays
The moments shared with night
Trickle through the window shade
Dancing through this room
A bittersweet goodmorning
To this day that's now in bloom
Held you close with darkened hours
Now daybreak steals your presence
But your memory's still here...
*******
By Travelling With Heart In Verse
The power of the written word
It becomes more than healing
The glow to the heart returns
By restoring the loving feeling
The power of the written word
Unlocks once hidden emotion
By touching in so many ways
Expressing a heart of devotion
The power of the written word
Where often the soul is bared
Treasures become priceless
Of a heart togetherness shared
The power of the written word
Create tokens of appreciation
Inspiring within heart sincerity
Enriched in heartfelt dedication
The power of the written word
Bring the abilities to converse
Enabling loving connections
By travelling with heart in verse
*******
Graduation's Veil
Graduations are like stepping through
A veil into another, larger room.
Behind, where we can never go again,
Are memories like a shipwreck full of gold.
Strange, the harmonies of pride and sadness,
The dawn and sunset of the new and old,
The bittersweet good-byes while looking forward
To things unseen beyond the ridge of time.
Numb with too much life we stagger through them,
Time passing in the ordinary way.
Relatives and friends all swarm around us,
Buzzing round the silence of the real.
And once the ceremonies and the parties
Are over, and the sweet days come and go,
All we've lost comes back to us as music
Of love departed.
*******
Lonely Soprano
I�ve heard that melody before.
Don�t sing it again.
Those bars that trip over
half-notes
and measures
with tempo beating out 9/2 time.
Shattered arpeggios
that roll on beautiful soprano.
Please, don�t sing it again.
A piano
that I didn�t see
and couldn�t stop
played a harmony I swam in once.
Just a drink of those chords
turned my day into sour milk
and my mind shattered mirrors
of emotion.
It wouldn�t stop playing.
It�s a tune hummed in loneliness,
lost by time,
forgotten in love,
strummed by despair,
trumpeted by rejection
sung on a soprano
that lulled me to sleep.
No more one person walks,
only one ticket to the symphony,
empty arms,
silent heart,
chaotic thoughts.
No more heavy rain
to play the song
echoed in my tears.
*******
Paris By Night
It's a rainy night in Paris,
And the harbour lights are low.
He must leave his love in Paris,
Before the winter snow.
On the lonely street in Paris,
He held her close to say,
"We'll meet again in Paris,
When there are flowers on the Champs-Elysees."
"How long" she said, "how long,
And will your love be strong.
When you're across the sea,
Will your heart remember me?..."
Then she give him words to turn to,
When the winter night were long.
"And then" she said, "and then,
Our love will grow again..."
But in her eyes he sees,
Her words of love are only words to please.
And now the lights of Paris,
Grow dim and fade away.
And I know by the lights or Paris,
I will never see her again.
*******
Rock
I have no weariness of my surroundings,
I have no feelings of sadness and wrathfulness.
I can't hear the freezing irony and the burning satire,
I can't see the snobbish scorn and the defiling acts.
I don't have a heart, it can be broken into pieces.
I have no emotions, there are no differentiations, nothing to concern.
I have no needs for poisonous wishes and contaminated dreams.
I am strong, batter by wind and heavy rain, forbear in strain.
Idiotically standing, silently waiting, endure the everlasting unchange.
If I don't have feelings, what is this emptiness, without you...
If I don't have a heart, what is this hurting, deep inside.
If I don't have emotions, are these teardrops part of the rain?
If I am strong, I should be able to erase this memory of you.
I am still standing, eternal motionlessness, numbed by the truth.
*******
Rose Wood
The old places passed, I never saw...
candlelit rose wood tables, and letters gone.
I use to dream in open lines- write my moons
in silver shine, but long years have been unkind...
so what in me would turn your eyes?
These walls for me are stone and gray,
and words I've seen scribbled, fade.
What one man felt in his time alone,
sheds now his voice from his past on stone.
And in the walls, I'm so alone,
to feel that one whose heart was there...
I know, I could have claimed my own.
Yet, there is no home to where I go,
nor years in passing, to say if so.
For now, that so use to this I am,
but deep inside I do care, to when I sense
a smile from you, and all that dreams,
I know could do, one's ties may scare me
into my room... lock the door...
to dream of love, I never knew.
*******
Sandstone Angels
I long to dwell within myself
With sunlit trance upon my face
And briny scents to clear the mind
Caressed by natures sweet embrace
I yearn for gentle cleansing tides
To soothe an ailing in my heart
And many festive flowered leis
Adorned by love not torn apart
I ache to quench a raging storm
Those pounding waves inside my shell
And calm the sea from seething surf
Receding from it's gowning spell
I know in time this pining soul
Will listen to it's calling sound
Of sirens beckoning to the shoal
Where sandstone angels ran aground
*******
Shattered Vase
A lucid vase holding one red rose
The tender heart of little girl
She stumbles up, dries off her dress
As her misty brown eyes stare at the
Shattered vase on the floor
Break or shatter the vase
Lingers the scent of the rose
The scent of the rose will never fade
Confusion and despair in her eyes
Quietly she scrambles to wake her mother
To tell of the shattered vase
Tearfully lying beneath the shutter
Break or shatter the vase
Lingers the scent of the rose
The scent of the rose will never fade
Her mother gently pulls a petal from the rose
Drying the despair from the girls misty eyes
Explaining; if your heart drops and shatters
Your love will always linger
The aroma of true love will never fade
*******
Siren Song
By: Margaret Atwood
This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls
the song nobody knows
because anyone who has heard it
is dead, and the others can't remember.
Shall I tell you the secret
and if I do, will you get me
our of this bird suit?
I don't enjoy it here
squatting on this island
looking picturesque and mythical
with these two feathery maniacs,
I don't enjoy singing
this trio, fatal and valuable.
will tell the
secret to you,
to you, only to you.
Come closer. This song
is a cry for help:
Help me!
Only you, only you can,
you are unique
at last. Alas
it is a boring song
but it works every time.
*******
Willow
After you leave, I will become a tree
Alone on a hillside, loving wind and sun,
Waiting for you to return home to me
Though centuries of lonely stars may run.
I'll grow tall and give lots of shade,
Sheltering birds and other bright-eyed things.
Pleased with all the progress that I've made,
I'll spread my leafy branches out like wings.
But oh! Every moment of every day
I'll miss you with the passion of the wind,
Gazing endlessly upon the way
That without you must empty, empty wind.
*******