Beware

Beware the Dark Force sucking hope from

The life blood

Revelling in the discomfort

The depression

The despair

Of the once proud companion.

Who can drive the demon from

The soul?

Who can deliver the prisoner from his bonds?

Who can offer a hope in a new redemption?

Friends stand by in heavy eyed helplessness

Guilt wrapped desolation

Held only by the memories of a beauty

Wide eyed in laughter

Stolen, clawed from their grasp

By the brown eyed nectar,

The evil of the sweet tongued temptress.

The Breath of the Spirit

2.09  precisely, the air parted

Rippled imperceptibly.

The island of screams rose

Volcanic from the crowd

And there stood the cancer

Calm now

Gazing to the ebony cliffs

The jewel in his arm

The land beyond him,

New born, rich with

Green life- hope-love-

Stood naked, shorn of companionship

Yet there lay a seed

Burning in the dry heat of expectation

In the hope of tomorrow

Expectant in a faith unfounded

Silently the burning seed smouldered

Burned into existence

And the breath of its spirit

Smouldered across the plains

Life was different now

Unseen, yet moved into liberation.

Freedom beckoning

Calling to tomorrow

A new horizon not to be denied  

Beyond the Streets

Wind racked side-walks

Fume filled and littered

Sound-backed by man and machine

Echo with nostalgia’s dirge.

Restless, forlorn walkers,

Minds-closed to humanity

To earth’s inbred beauty,

Walk the monotone paths past

Smirched window panes and

Dust painted doors locked

To nature’s whispers seeking the soul.

Let the sirens cry for the people,

Let the air-conditioning

Sing their song

Let the musac be their

Call to prayer

But let me for freedom long:

City let me go

I do not belong.

Nov 2011

Patient Waiting

The waters flow to the mountain tops

As spindrift reaches for the sun,

And the winds gust in the ebony sea

Working the ocean’s heart into fury.

The mourning veils cover

The women’s heads as

Jackass cries confirm the dawn

And still

Hope smiles, unhurried, stubborn,

Forever persistent.

Oak leaves hang trembling,

Forlorn,

As the beaver cowers

In his lodge.

Three score and three days

Pass into memory

And the followers step from the

Vale of tears-

A new day begins.

Gaining but Not Attaining

And the horsemen rode from the east

Relentless in the chase

Following, following the Breath of life

Gaining but not attaining.

Darkness fell, lingered

And melted into day.

The Breath moved on

Quenched by draughts of living smile

Belling laughter

And the life of love

Felt in the touch of a hand.

And still the Breath moved on

Tasting the sighs

The heart's flutter

And loves warmth

Accompanied not denied

Celebrated not decried.

And still the Breath moved on...

And the horsemen rode from the east

Relentless in the chase

Following the Breath of life

Following, following....

The Season of Despair

And the west wind cries sorrow

Cuts the heart deep

Deeper than loves love

And purges the pity from the lost

The warm tides of hope

Lap the sympathetic stones

With the warm strokes of love

As the cold winds

Harden their hearts in desolation

Still the season of despair

Wrapped the cold and desolate land,

Unsheltered by hopes whimper, and

The hoar frost of the lost

Whiter than the departed’s shroud

Cry hope, cry compassion

Bring forth faith’s gasp

Sip the thirst quenching juices of optimism

The nectar of desire and

Hopes hope in the self

Live life as if the dawn is breaking

Stand tall on the crimson cliffs

Walk hand-in-hand with fate

For with the dream you belong

With the new dawn sing the new song 

Nov 2011

Beyond the Ebony Cliffs

The ebony cliffs fall to the seas of parched green.

Dust, like spindrift, shadows the sun

As it casts a crimson skyline reflected on the bloodied earth.

Morning comes, gently from the night

Stealing the shadows and

Warming the heart with a warm light,

       A calm light

       And by midday, finelight.

The reawakening sees hopes enticed,

       Fears dispersed

       And joy reborn

With the smile of the eternal.

The breeze stirs the willow’s whispers

       The hazel’s mysteries

       And evokes the rowan's charms:

The world is breathing deep.

New life, bending as the

Reeds in the blustery spread,

Eager in an expectation which rises as the sap

Of the sacred holly,

Burns hopeful until the growing dusk.

And time rides the horizon once again

The breath of existence keeping pace.