These were each written with a full heart...
I am by no means the only poet at the Perch, or even amongst the best....
but I am afraid I have no other gift to give.
Hope they don't bore anyone to tears!
Oscar Night
Final Irony
To a Lone Wolf
The Thief
One More Tour ( Song )
Unrequited
Ode to a Reluctant Teacher
OSCAR NIGHT
He walks the red carpet,
Startling cool blue-greens
I would wrap you,
"Come away....far away...."
This life that you chase
...And you forget for an instant...
And will love you even tomorrow.
(for Russell)
The crowd breathing him in
In one selfish gasp.
He walks down their plank,
Fearful of losing them,
And moreso, of drowning....
Smile a good lie,
Wave at the sea,
Your face a map
Of fifteen odd years
Of hard-won award...
Invisible cloaking,
To shelter you through
This evening's parade.
Soft hands, brush warm on you,
Breath in your ear,
Sweet low I'd whisper
(Clear, but not seen;
Not ghost, nor quite memory...).
I would call you away
From that moment, the glory,
To the end of your tether
Devouring you whole.
I would wait, to say it - -
...And your name is called...
...And they all breathe you in...
--I would wait, to say it - -
...As your hands caress metal,
So heavy its weight....
But Stop! Do you not know?
I loved you even before!
FINAL IRONY
Sweet Caretaker,
Hurt-forged Sage,
Cruel Dream-weaver,
Quiet Dream-prayer,
Forever lost to you,
(for Russell)
Kind almost-Friend,
You hand down wishes
From the self-hewn throne
Where we lifted - and left - you.
From there you might stoke your
Belief that a ladder is still possible....
Down and out Beggar,
You settle into yet this role...
But this one may kill you,
May murder your soul, and
The price of bravery
In your Eternity is safety, this time.....
Unabashed Sinner,
I know that you ache.
You know that you crave.
Funny how Love eludes you
Now the dream is built...
Sturdy stairs beyond the throne...
Child-hearted Man,
What if you're climbing
The throne to the stars
And the One Dream that would save you -
SHE, left down on the ground -
Stayed beyond your grasp,
The price of an eternity of dreams?
TO A LONE WOLF
Once, I saw the place where you'd been.
Evidence, then. You aren't a fairy tale.
I've heard you howling from a stage in a pub -
My hand, pressed into the dust beside your mark,
Suspicion, born of years of my kind's stalking you,
So I stand, stretching to my full small height
To struggle, and adjust years of your point of view
And GOD - who has cursed me with a fighting heart and true -
And create our world in between.
(for Russell)
A sign left there -
A proof that you'd passed by that day.
I knelt, by the side of a river running
To trace the mark
Your heavy foot had left there in the earth.
You work, you play,
In a world so incomprehensible to my eye.
I thought I felt your eyes on me,
Shiver down my back,
From the far grove's shade across the clearing...
A song for ghosts -
Across a moonlit field of faces unknown,
Miles and miles of prairie invisible echoing empty.
Your song is sung
Rather for your own hearing, to fill up your night.
So small and foreign...
I see beyond sight...you over there in your far world.
How I ever ache - to seek you, touch you, hear your call -
Friend in the grove - but
I cannot dream the necessity of your cunning silence.
Brings us to impasse
(hunters both love and yet hate that which won't be controlled).
Magnetic, you visited here - at times - on your own terms,
And stole soft again
Back into the shadow from whence you now watch me, safe.
And peer toward your stage,
Daring your eyes to cross the expanse to meet me here.
Dangerous, this challenge I'm sending, and selfish it is.
I know it is...
I know the risk you would take to cross in full view of all,
Just to touch me,
To join with this soul from the other side of reality -
Then move, out into the light, across the clearing grassy,
Across this room,
And before you got to me they'd cut you down - Am I right, Love?
Knows my intentions.
That I'll bleed to clear a safe path through this chaos, to you.
But Trust - which in truth can make us no real promise -
May elude Generosity,
Requiring, perhaps, that we both call the bluff
THE THIEF
Help me over the fence!
He skipped on rocks, over
Don't run!
He told me just the secrets
He sang love songs for ghosts
Don't run!
He laughed and rode a horse
Afraid to be a fool for me
Don't lie!
(for Russell, and others for whom fame is an obstacle.)
He laughed as I held his
Arm to brace my balance...
But never offered his hand.
The river running fast...
Stopped, looking back to laugh
On the other side, to me.
Just wait!
You'll ache for my pardon...
Don't blink!
Just reach!
You'll yearn for my sigh....
His friends already knew...
He never told me the things
That would make you cringe and cry...
He'd forgot or never knew...
Comfortable with wisps and mists
Of women, not with blood and flesh like me....
Just wait!
You'll ache for my singing...
Don't laugh!
Just reach!
You'll cry for my smile...
Fast and bigger than my sorrel,
And teased me catch up
But didn't share his plan.
He never stopped to wait
And lived his life on wind aglow
And made a fool of me.
Don't cheat!
You'll not hear my dreaming...
Don't cry,
Not now;
You never heard my heart.
ONE MORE TOUR - A Song for Russell
NOTE: I am a walking encyclopedia of celtic-inspired traditional melodies, and one day I was walking around with this one in my head...it was shortly after Russell had been to Italy, Spain and London for the POL premieres, and all the hoopla and nonsense. I did this with that in mind....I posted it at the Perch with the musical notation, for those who wanted to hear it too! It's HERE for you if you wish it - don't laugh too hard at me! P.S. If you can't read the music call me, I'll sing it for you. LOL!
( . . . to the tune of Bushes and Briars)
Through hanging clouds and starry space
From reaching hands and curving lips
There, young and old, and dreaming hard
Then up again, into the sky
But oft at night when all alone
I boldly went my way...
To meet with smile the gathering throng
And cheer the surging fray.
To meet with smile the gathering throng
And cheer the surging fray.
The greetings freely flowed
And I passed amongst them trembling soft
And thinking of the road...
And I passed amongst them trembling soft
Still thinking of the road...
Each wants from me, some prize.
Nor looks beyond this towering myth
To see burning in my eyes.
No one looks beyond the towering myth
To see what's behind my eyes.
The silver bird does wing...
She will take me to another crowd,
And the same song I will sing.
I'll give all to yet another crowd,
Who'll demand the song I sing......
I dream of distant shore....
Where songs I'll sing and friends I'll hold,
And lack for truth no more...
Where friends are true,
And hope is new,
And I'll lack for love no more....
UNREQUITED
And so it comes to this.
Tonight, I lean back
Romantic, you think it.
You sing of those you can't have -
And so we come to this.
I'm weary with your notions
And afraid of Possibility,
I'll catch you.
And inhale the strum of your guitar,
Sweet heavy spices in your voice
Rubbing me raw with wanting....
Your happy parade of other men's jewels -
Just Life! you say, and Look! it's
Oh so sad.
(You fancy yourself a gypsy.)
Of fate and fulfillment,
Your hiding behind that curtain
You call Necessary Precaution,
Lamenting those you couldn't have.
Afraid to pick up the damn scissors.
Which demands falling.
And real courage.
Fall.
I dare you.
ODE TO A RELUCTANT TEACHER
( NOTE: This one is also written to music, another celtic traditional melody. You can see it HERE. )
I have seen the tide turn, and the road rise before me,
It's a year since I first knew that my soul was dying
I am no one, just no one....just one more in so many....
That this courage you live, and the fire that surrounds you
But perhaps I can offer a prayer for your path now,
May you heed your heart's voice - to its teaching be true, Love,
A road that will take me to the life I await...
It's been years - oh yes, years - that I've lived my life silent,
All trembling and silent, scared to open the gate....
It's a year now since I felt a hot terror fill me,
The spark that you lit, that would force me to wake,
Would force me to look at my quiet life's safety,
All my comfort and safety, and force me to break...
That I had been trying to live with this lie...
That courage was something I just had no need for,
Just a word made for people with their heads in the sky.
So many who dream just to see you one day.
I've no right to the thought, and no right to the wish, Love...
No reason to think you would look twice my way....
But deep in my soul there's a flicker that lingers
That burns on despite what my reason might say -
Just to buy you a drink, and then wish you good-day, Love...
Just ten minutes to whisper what I've needed to say...
Has scared me - and changed me - and set my soul free!
It has shown me the way to a life so much braver...
How could I ever give you what you've given to me?
A prayer to the Spirit who knows your heart and mine...
May He comfort and guide you, may He fill you when you're empty.
When the melody escapes you, may He fill you with rhyme.
When Hope seems your foe and Life's cruelties hound you,
Misfortune has bound you, and Fate's not so kind...
May God keep you in the shelter of his own great heart's safety,
May you always feel its beating, and good fortune find.
May those nearest you be those you're fondest of...
May Time touch your dear face with hands gentle and forgiving,
At the end of each day, may you know you were loved...
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