Category: poetry

Were flesh as hard and cold as stone

Like grey church steps, worn smooth with time ,

Then surely we could love

And unconstrained here, fearless fall.

To give all without asking back

To take more than can be consumed

And wild and wanton, without care

Crash headlong to sweet simple bliss.

But flesh is weak, such tender hearts

Do feel the thorns of reddest rose

And lovers past steal joy and hope

There leaving cuts that tell such tales

So take this love, this life, this self

And gentle be its guardian

For scars I bare, and freely take

This is your heart to freely break

Those glimpses, stolen moments, few

Sweet solice sweeps dark clean away

And brave she stands, heart lost at sea

And on his beach, finds refuge, free.

There grows, and roots reach deep and down

And summer brings that golden crown

Face to the sun, soft wind through boughs

Gives shelter, shade and sweet respite

And guard does drop, at night his light

Does fade and wane and in her shadow

Bitter sits on traitors lips

As seasons change and love does fade

With light grown pale and tender touch

now lost, too much her beauty spread

and cold winds strip, leaves line her bed

where love once blossomed 

now lies dead.

 

 

When bloom has failed and frangrance passed

and thorns now all that does remain

that into soft flesh dig and draw

tears scarlet which run down pale cheeks.

…

These nightimes fall without sunset

and lifeless love lies tossed aside

and joy once wild and filled with hope

sits silent, strangled, without voice.

…

Yet onwards, duty, oath’s fulfilled

and aching smiles speak not of pain

through days they shuffle, numb to loss

and into night , not to emerge

 

 

Should I regret this life well lived

when night time comes and stars look down

then I should surely reassess

and count the costs, repent the loss

to find the joy that like gold veins

runs through this rock on which we built

and lived and loved and spent our days

for these are all were gifted free

until like sand they run away

through fingers old and worn and laced

across our chests and unto sleep

How beautiful you are

Beneath the stars alive, so brightly burning

And all about, the darkness yearning

For a word, a touch, a glance

That sweet romance, the slightest chance

To feel that light and love and grace

And like the sun warm on my face

We are, always, here in this place

And lights we pray won’t dim

Like far too many, gone before

those promises they sweetly swore

But time moves on, they are no more

But that is not our fate…

If lost, the things I hold most dear,

these minutes, hours, months and years

that helter skelter through my mind

swim intertwined with all I am,

and without which I could not be.

Still I would cling to hope and faith

that were we ripped from life and love

that in that place of darkest loss

not knowing where or when or why

I would reach out and find you there

and once again sweet love would taste

and life renewed, new memories make

this destiny once more to live.

This dance, this tender back and forth

blown on the wind, true north, stars bright

seem gone at dawn, but night burn white and linger still.

When passions red paint rooms and beds and will, aflame

here in this embrace call your name and then

complete submit and without blame or guilt lose track

of time and lack no thing for all I have and need is you.

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and cake.  I like cake too.  And biltong and great tv and my van and my family and the rain and comics and Judge Dredd and tattoos and boobs.   Oh and my drill.  It’s a cordless bosch and I enjoy it a lot.  Great battery life.

Oh how we fell from where we soared, burned by the heights for which we reached

And helter skelter in this place , this now, this dark, this night we crashed

and broken, bloodied, bruised and fighting still the urges to be right always

and onwards we will drop beyond green pastures where we played.

Until, at last, in cold and dark

we recollect but now too late

this compromise, sweet give and take, was always that which gave us flight…

Oh how we fed so hungrily

our bellies fat with lofy lies

love whispered in the soft warm dark

and tongues drip empty promises

.

And time and tide do steal these things

that tender once now feel so spent.

I see you, cold and breathless still

Uncaring gladly watched you pale,

yet yearn, fools heart, for one last touch

while like bright stars dissolved at dawn

you fade yet hold tight to lost truths.

.

And there alone reside in tattered robes of rage

And home made crown of sharpest thorns,

so safe behind tall castle walls

untouched by all but darkest self.

At days end, somewhere in the darkness,

Memories fade of endless firsts

and how I took your hand in mine

and promise poured so sickly sweet.

Cold breath, warm skin, sweet recollection

footsteps in the snow that slowly

brought you to my door

with liars dreams of ever more.

Those roads, we knew where they would lead

and need, such greed breed treachery

and love it twists, obsession births

and

In the darkness her tears flow through him,

Carving winding canyon’s in the barren hills of his existence

Bubbling and swirling, filling the arid wells of a hundred lonely lifetimes

Where he searched for her across all of time.

.

And then at last paths crossed at sunset

Stars align and fondly smile

Lie wrapped in arms still scarred and shaking,

pain of their making , yet oh so sweet.

.

And in her tempest feels her rage

and calms and comforts, calls her name

into the wind and soft returning

promises to never fail.

.

Deep and far and beyond memory

her rock through ages, dusk and dawn,

But river beds run slowly dry

when storms give way to golden days.

.

No blame. No fingers pointed harshly

Lived and loved but slowly lost

Bliss for a moment, Stratos soaring

Knowing, eyes wide, at such cost

Words wise, oft thick with sickly praise

malaise spills at her dark demise

and in those final hours she beckons,

nightfall, crooked finger calls.

.

This halo tarnished, pious pride

held back, regret digs talons deep  

and wide and far she searches longing

for one more chance at ever more.

.

Again she watches as he turns

Each moment replayed thousand times

She burns and rages at the loss

This cross she bore, redeemers bride.

.

The tears, cold fears, though seldom solace

Bring yet anger sweep away

A heart entwined, yet always empty

At last peace finds in sunset’s rays.

.

She softens this last time as all

She was and is slow slips away

And summer days and grass that sways

Bid walk one last time until rest.

Cold I sit, consoling words still tossed upon the wind,
Your fires burn bright where embers slowly died
reminders of our sighs, sweet lies and smiles forced wide
oh how I watch you shine.


There in the grass where once we lay
you watch clouds chased through skies as blue
as eyes that wept when days grew grey
and we forgot that love can’t always last.


And so, wings spread, wind carried far and wide
lost to these arms and calm caress
the things you hide, unsatisfied
I watch you fly away.

This verdant land where through the grass 
 names long forgot by men on wind
 are whispered still and walk abroad
 when mist shrouds veil and hill and dale.
 Their sacrifice, such love and loss
 Still carries over valleys deep 
 and mountains, white capped, tell their tales, 
 forgotten take eternal sleep.
 These millions, each beating heart, 
 Such hope and longing for the day
 When old they look upon a life
 Well lived and sons and daughters roar
 And shine and blaze or silent sit
 And contemplate what came before.
 So take this banner, pen and book 
 And let not time this life forget
 And in the hearts a story write
 Tomorrow’s child to still remind . 

 
 These things from which were crudely hewn 
 And in this expanse shaped and formed
 Give way to  heart and hate and fires
  that burn and fiercely do refine
  
 This love that cuts and scars run deep
 warm laughter hollow peaks then fades
 And darkness melts at growing light 
 Which swells and soars, illuminating.
  
 So come what will, we bend unbroken
 Buffeted by winds of change
 and edges soften, time moves onwards
 rearranged and stained and aged.
  
 Now take this thing I have become 
 With artists eye see shape and form 
 And lines, deep colours, shades and tones
 this creation ever changing.