Odyssey

The tears?
the fears?
the years?
I tear at!
Stare.

“Beware friend
have care when peering at the beginning
be aware whence begun one must beget an end”

So, I must end they say!
I must die they say!!
I must leave this place
like wind in my face.
Cold callus wind I taste.
Yes!
Death is there.
no fairness
Death knocks at my door Grace
I hear
but I don’t answer see
I live and breath
day by day
I live and breath the blessings of life
There is good and bad of course
There is chaos and calamity
I must admit
But there are happy times too
Here at home
I listen to my thoughts
fluttering through my mind
and I know deep inside
I will continue through tomorrow
to the next day
Through sorrow
and happiness
I will pave my self
a story worth telling
one so full of emotion
all who listen will feel human
like me
life is a potion
a facsimile of a dream
and we each journey it seems
across an ocean
through a sea of storms
and in the end
discover the world flat
and your journey
a one way trip...

Heal

A good friend has a lot to think about on this day. Heavy thoughts of times that were, sad thoughts. So a sad poem...

----

If you do shed tears
Let them be real tears
Cry out of self-pity and shame
Cry out of hurt and loss
Blind your eyes with tears
And feel better
feel better
--- better
Then hold your chin up
Dry your eyes
Feel lighter
As if you could fly free
Your burden is released
You are happy
And so a smile appears
You are happy
are happy
---happy
Smile and be glad
Feel emotion blend
and descend back to an earthly place
and face
turn and face
mend your future
and blanket your life
with love
such powerful loves
that protect you like a glove
until you reach the comfort
of home and bed
Go to sleep
and dream
---dream
"Sweet dreams."

Trial and Error

You try and try and try and try
without success
You TRY AND TRY
no success!

Take failure, suckle it, be a friend

and try and try and try
TRY AGAIN

And if you win, think not of winning
but of failing and the journey there
and you will be most fortunate and fortuitous
because you did, not because you didn’t

Great Escape

What are you looking for, sir
when you look out the door?
What do you see out there, sir
beyond the convenience store?

I think you imagine life different
not like what you’ve gotten
Maybe you’ll leave this moment
and the worries forgotten?

Are you looking for these dreams
you left back in grade school?
Are you looking for these things
you thought made you cool?

what are you looking for?
What are you looking for?

Tell me the bird flying low
isn’t what you really want?
Tell me it doesn’t carry your soul
away from this life you stunt

Tell me the car driving away
isn’t you at the wheel?
Tell me I shouldn’t look and say
“It is you, you want to steel!”

What are you looking for, sir
when you look out the door?
What do you see out there, sir
beyond the convenience store?

Surly not this wide city scape
that is not your vision
what you see is your great escape
out toward blue horizon

A beating heart

Time is strange when it fastens onto me
it doesn’t taste or smell, feel pain or suffering
grow or die, love or hate
and somehow, to me, that isn’t exactly honest.
Not how it flows strangely by
like currents through the sea!
Not how it faces me in the mirror
with less youth, more wisdom!
Not how it courses through me
with less heart, more confusion!
Not how it opens the door to fear
to death and the passing years!
Not how this time confounds me?
Leaves me chasing it, a tail I cannot catch
Leaves me missing it, a bone I cannot fetch
Leaves me loving it, a glow that does not dim
Leaves me hating it, an ocean I cannot swim
Leaves me cursing it!
But without it, no forward or backward
no living or dying
no loving or hating
no giving or taking
no nothing at all that isn’t the same
and the same
and the same
and the same
not me!
not anything!
what a horrible game that would be
if from time we were to depart
all life and its beating heart?
We’d all be apt to forget the measure of life
how precious these moments...are

Lighthouse

For most of my life I have had a fascination with the sea. In books I'd read of it the times of pirates and sea battles were most enjoyed. This poem is a story of a ship and her crew. It is told from the perspective of the ship who comes upon a lighthouse which disappears and appears again, hidden at times by the storm.

---

Throw these waves into my side
strike them against my very hide
Curse me with thunder and lightening
booming, blooming and frightening

There so awfully lonely we meet
how lovely, so very sweet
as quiet and swift as a mouse
out from the storm a lighthouse

Carry me along these waters tipping
listen to sail so wildly flapping
rock me side to side, up and down
don’t dash me against the very ground

There so awfully lonely we meet
how lovely, so very sweet
as quiet and swift as a mouse
out from the storm a lighthouse

Off so swiftly along these waters
carry me safely won’t you mother?
Shiver my bones and crack my timbers
sail the way my heart remembers

There so awfully lonely we meet
how lovely, so very sweet
as quiet and swift as a mouse
out from the storm a lighthouse

Evil wind don’t rush me swooping in
oh brave souls have the courage of men
wash your fears off my tossing deck
don’t leave me to sink an ocean wreck

There so awfully lonely we meet
how lovely, so very sweet
as quiet and swift as a mouse
out from the storm a lighthouse

But storms heavy hand levels me
I turn and sink into the sea
and wash up onto sharpened rocks
far from the safety of the docks

There so awfully lonely we meet
how lovely, so very sweet
as quiet and swift as a mouse
out from the storm a lighthouse