Outside of the story
Survival in structure
A roof for our heads
Growth with reward
Embellishment with glory
Kudos and cash
Frontiers of ease and security
Inside of the story
Euphoric reflections
A baby’s eyes
A lover’s kiss
Happiness and bliss
Kindness and kinship
Frontiers of correlation
Outside a world to sell
Shadows to compete
Souls to bargain
Glory to placate
Crowns to receive
Empty hallways to fill
Vacant stares to conciliate
Our dynasty gathers dust
The hearth grows cold
Chatter turns to reason
Reason turns to decoration
The roof grows heavy
The walls grow frail
Time waits for validation - Oct 2009
Survival in structure
A roof for our heads
Growth with reward
Embellishment with glory
Kudos and cash
Frontiers of ease and security
Inside of the story
Euphoric reflections
A baby’s eyes
A lover’s kiss
Happiness and bliss
Kindness and kinship
Frontiers of correlation
Outside a world to sell
Shadows to compete
Souls to bargain
Glory to placate
Crowns to receive
Empty hallways to fill
Vacant stares to conciliate
Our dynasty gathers dust
The hearth grows cold
Chatter turns to reason
Reason turns to decoration
The roof grows heavy
The walls grow frail
Time waits for validation - Oct 2009
Validation
To Live
Bring me some sadness
To soothe my ills,
Some desperate, heart-rending news,
To help me cry away the pain,
Of being nobody.
If this I can experience,
To gather together the tears
That glaze my vision;
To see inside the compassion,
That -begs my heart,
To be human again;
Then, at least, I can live
Bring me some sadness
To soothe my ills,
Some desperate, heart-rending news,
To help me cry away the pain,
Of being nobody.
If this I can experience,
To gather together the tears
That glaze my vision;
To see inside the compassion,
That -begs my heart,
To be human again;
Then, at least, I can live
A Guiding Light
Beauty is the star love seeks,
Energy flowed through form,
White harmonic colours,
Of clay and flesh.
A shared, elusive common ground,
Pursued in all Man's spheres:
Expressed, bartered, bought and sold,
In rational and inspired thought.
A guiding light - a Star Divine,
Whose light we grow to know,
And follow.
Beauty is the star love seeks,
Energy flowed through form,
White harmonic colours,
Of clay and flesh.
A shared, elusive common ground,
Pursued in all Man's spheres:
Expressed, bartered, bought and sold,
In rational and inspired thought.
A guiding light - a Star Divine,
Whose light we grow to know,
And follow.
A Material Death
Terminally ill in life,
Approaching the end without joy,
He stood with his possessions
Cluttered around him –
The padding,
The crutches,
The broken dreams.
He talked loudly in convoluted arguments,
That could not be challenged,
And led nowhere.
The ends belonged to richer patients,
In better wards.
He aspired to die a better death.
When they found him,
His resolve had crumbled,
His body was old,
His mind moved in smaller circles;
And he dreaded,
That all he had done,
He had done by his own choice.
Terminally ill in life,
Approaching the end without joy,
He stood with his possessions
Cluttered around him –
The padding,
The crutches,
The broken dreams.
He talked loudly in convoluted arguments,
That could not be challenged,
And led nowhere.
The ends belonged to richer patients,
In better wards.
He aspired to die a better death.
When they found him,
His resolve had crumbled,
His body was old,
His mind moved in smaller circles;
And he dreaded,
That all he had done,
He had done by his own choice.
Then We Found You
Sparkling amidst valleys soft and green,
The sweet scent of life,
Carrying the gift of Earth's celebration,
Flowed down from the mountain stream,
Flooding the resolute plain with joy.
A gift carried in the heart you made,
And hidden so long in the twilight.
Our hands in the soil, our eyes on the hill,
Hoping, and weakly fighting –
When forth you burst;
And then again in hours of purity,
Tearing our sheaths to see ourselves,
Riding on your pillars of love,
Together for all eternity.
Sparkling amidst valleys soft and green,
The sweet scent of life,
Carrying the gift of Earth's celebration,
Flowed down from the mountain stream,
Flooding the resolute plain with joy.
A gift carried in the heart you made,
And hidden so long in the twilight.
Our hands in the soil, our eyes on the hill,
Hoping, and weakly fighting –
When forth you burst;
And then again in hours of purity,
Tearing our sheaths to see ourselves,
Riding on your pillars of love,
Together for all eternity.
Come Flame
Come flame burn the hearth,
Scour the cold,
Warm the breast.
Fill your black indolent coals
With heat.
This dank closeness,
That lies bereft and dormant,
Wounded by worldly ways,
Awaits those lips to lick
The wounds of a dry wind.
Come flame, curl back into the blaze,
Protect the twilight,
Consume the dark,
Reveal your image,
Flickering in the embers glow.
Come flame burn the hearth,
Scour the cold,
Warm the breast.
Fill your black indolent coals
With heat.
This dank closeness,
That lies bereft and dormant,
Wounded by worldly ways,
Awaits those lips to lick
The wounds of a dry wind.
Come flame, curl back into the blaze,
Protect the twilight,
Consume the dark,
Reveal your image,
Flickering in the embers glow.
Acceptance
Who was I the fool to think?
'Tis me the World rejects!
In my craving for acknowledgement,
I reject the mirror of my kin,
And isolate myself,
In the name of selfish vanity.
Who was I the fool to think?
'Tis me the World rejects!
In my craving for acknowledgement,
I reject the mirror of my kin,
And isolate myself,
In the name of selfish vanity.
Escape
The flame died by the smouldering fire,
Yet frozen there I lay;
Close-by the sounds of society,
Calling though I ignored.
Face the heat,
Cold on my neck;
Vast, obnoxious plagues of feet –
That great body of common law.
The flame died by the smouldering fire,
Yet frozen there I lay;
Close-by the sounds of society,
Calling though I ignored.
Face the heat,
Cold on my neck;
Vast, obnoxious plagues of feet –
That great body of common law.
(1983-1987) Except where noted