Category Archives: Writing > Poetry > 2008

My path any­thing but what it seemed,
Inerasable sin star­ing from the mirror
Cry­ing soft­ly as these lives stir the air
Recall­ing knowl­edge paid for with pain

When they said the stars are in reach,
The one thing I’d neglect­ed to know –
They burn hard­er on every approach
They sear deep­er than eyes can see

A chrysalis of flame
Is burn­ing behind these ocean eyes
Rewrite that life a thou­sand times
It’s nev­er going to be good enough

Rewrite that day
The call of an inerasable sin
Some­thing gained quietly
For some­thing deaf­en­ing­ly lost

I walk for­ward on these legs,
Shape this future with my hands;
Rewrite that flame-kissed scar
By the price of what I gained

What’s left over felt incomplete
As if it was a burned-out town
A reminder of a pur­er humanity
That had lived before the truth

Now this leg stands inert,
And these hands far too slow
While I qui­et­ly bear the grief
To stay true to my heart

Rewrite that day
A thou­sand times
Can’t give back knowledge
No mat­ter how hard you try

Can’t mask the pain
Or return to that life,
Its pow­er and love bought
By yes­ter­day’s choices

So I’ll rebuild this body stronger
With my own creations
Steel hands, burn­ing stars for eyes
And take this silent chance

… to rewrite today.

Red tide –
I saw you in dreaming
Across an old peach-hued ocean,
Splashed in the crimson
Of a hope­ful sun­set sky;

Shells and peb­bles in gold­en glitter
In time with waves a‑whispering
A del­i­cate breeze wraps me round
And car­ries me back to ecstasy;

The waters stand just warm enough
To be tru­ly invit­ing and free
They don’t feel tat­ters of pain
Nor tomor­row’s com­ing tides;

Found objects so strange I see
As I make the jour­ney forwards
You can take a few now with you,
And then you’ll see them fade to air;

A paint­brush’s hope­ful fare and share
Can nev­er hide what truths bequeath
Can nev­er mend the sor­row­ful roads
Will nev­er right the hurt that’s done

And now I wake from dreams to see this –

Per­haps the best partings
are done at such times as
There’s still something
beau­ti­ful to remember.

At least, this was.

What flames may leave behind
No sto­ry could do justice –
Dream frag­ments seared to ash
Silent­ly slum­ber­ing, safe­ly dissolved
Free to live amidst what killed them
And we’re watch­ing fragments
Set­ting with the sun

Awake!
Under a nascent moon –
Amidst a ruin of destruction?

I’m not what I was when sun last shone
Or what I could have been today.
Inter­lop­ing and interjected
Has become this course I walk.

Dying is more than lit­er­ary, or literal,
For you can feel its end­less chambers
While yet warm hearts still beat

But after good peo­ple utter­ly failed
And secret fairy­tales turned to dust
It gives pause to feel its throes
Ask­ing if deter­mi­na­tion yet survives

And I stand up, eyes cast upwards
To gaze up the beams of star­lit hope
To say one hum­ble thing –
I’m still here.

For why? when dreams so eas­i­ly die;
For what? if love and hate are one;

Between crys­talline tears I wonder,
Watch­ing things beyond my influence
If this was nev­er what I came here for,
None of the dream gave satisfaction,

So,
What now?

A thou­sand life­times ago in a hand­ful of years
We all thought this would look different

But it’s not.

Though final­ly I know cours­es ne’er to travel
With the wis­dom gained to change my future
I can’t begin to fath­om its cost.

That’s what haunts me
When I close my eyes.

I’m still here.

There will be no great work, no mag­num opus
No poems to line streets or glit­ter of send-offs,
No pedestals to raise this to some­thing it’s not
There shall be no chance to cel­e­brate or mourn

But to let this place heal, let bro­ken rebuild broken
Through the days, all to be heard are rus­tles of wind
As they pass me by, ye star­lit mes­sen­gers unrav­el secrets
Strip­ping away the chrysalis moment, to burn tears away

Renew­ing hope with the foun­da­tions of stone
From a dream built with­in these two hands
You deserve no good words
You are dead to me now.

My light cast into these flowers
Counts the silent after­noons away

As I lay here now encircled
In your heal­ing warmth again

The dreams tonight

The know­ing calling
Of a thou­sand past ages
All is gath­ered here
Unto a sin­gle flash

Explode into light,
Reach­ing all the skies,
Pierc­ing the secrets
Of deep-shad­owed souls

I can feel it, see it
Even with my eyes shut
Fly in a chain from eyes to heart
And heart to glo­ri­ous eyes again!

The cur­rents are puls­ing deeply
As they cir­cle around once more

sat­is­fac­tion,
fulfillment,
warmth,

A dream now,
Alive.

[inter­lude]

The spark flies far –

Let the fires delight you,
Let the stars’ joy alight you,
Ascen­dant in dance,
Nev­er let­ting go,
Nev­er to dissolve
Now…

Not to teth­er you down,
Nor to let your sparks drown
For we’ve flown this high,
Burn­ing new trails,
Peach-lit morn­ing skies

[inter­lude]

The veils fall –

O, I’m watch­ing the world,
Ocean eyes,
Deep within,
Death’s self­less firstborn,
Cre­ation and heartbeat,
Sil­ver keys,
Sap­phire soul

Your heart is aglow,
Bright cin­ders and passion
Embrace in the moment,
Let it journey
In flight …

The world’s qui­et promise stirs again
With her indi­go body and smil­ing moon,
A sleep­ing soul that awakes this night
Beneath a sky that stirs the memories

Life itself shall hear those echoes
Shap­ing anew in the dream­er’s hands
An armour of ages and haloed stars
Dis­tilled by heart to pro­tect the brave

That call to arms is rare on this side
Where dreams and exis­tence are as fluid
As the ebb and flow of cerulean tides
But to this clar­i­on, the land’s eye opens
Tonight cuts anew the found­ing stone
The blast­ing cry of a cen­tu­ri­on’s voice
Over a thou­sand years to meet today
And share the epic of our sto­ic song

Yes­ter­day he stood beneath the stones
Of a hun­dred ran­sacked Roman cities,
Fall­en in flame, their peo­ple mortar,
Foun­da­tions for hope of a bet­ter day

Yes­ter­day I heard the whis­per returning
When life was breathed into old secrets
And the world revealed a sim­pler place
With­out the guilt of our spoiled hopes

So tonight this call to arms has come
And I’ll wear my armour as remembrance
To nev­er for­get that win­ter’s day
When my own world died and slumbered.

Lov­ing­ly I wrap thee, Fury
In steel-armoured ribbons
Around a frost­ed heart of bronze

Whilst I wan­der among the stars
Strik­ing the last tomor­row’s fire
In aware­ness there shall come a time

How wan this world has become
It all its fad­ed, faint-heart glories
So now, how fierce a song will grow

Majes­tic sym­pho­ny of hatred’s guile
Entwin­ing each fiber of our hearts
Build­ing us up to shat­ter us whole

Today I sit in a cold­ly famil­iar place
Rap­ture and fury to the end of all days
It was as if I nev­er left, so long ago

Away the veils!
Away the cover!

Let all be seen and heard –

I am the Eye of War, wit­ness to this world!
Blood-stained and cast aloft in crys­tal palace
Watch­ing emo­tions die smil­ing and proud

I am the Heart of War, a gold­en trum­pet blast!
Scream hav­oc and loose the hounds in prejudice
Now the hard­er we’ll clash, the brighter we shine

I am the Hands of War, the finest crafts­man alive!
Laboured dusk and dawn, forge brim­ming a‑fright
Nev­er feel­ing the beau­ty with­in anoth­er vel­vet eve

I am the Voice of War, buoy­ing all courage of men!
Birthed with­out ears or any love of gen­tle touch
To lead the charge, remain fear­less past all ends

I am the Feet of War, thun­der of the eter­nal march!
The clank of armored troops, Death’s uneasy grasp
To walk until the end of time, nev­er miss­ing a step

I am the Mind of War, labyrinth of fol­ly’s riddles!
Cre­at­ed by we mor­tals to feel what can’t be tamed
In silent hands to flat­ten hon­our, smash our trust

I am the Spir­it of War in flight — whith­er my caution?
Falling away in flash­bulb hue, in slow disintegration
You can’t feel regret once there’s noth­ng left to feel

I am the Spir­it of War,
And in being consumed,
My down­fall is complete.

I am overtaken,
I am vicious,
I am overpowered,
I am burnt barren,
I am tear-quenched,
I am lost.

I am the Spir­it of War:
I was not made for human consumption.
This is my legacy.
Remem­ber it well.

Once
A time not long ago
I loved you,
A beau­ti­ful soul
Wreathed in a lagoon of stars,
Embell­ished with radi­ant heart

A splen­did love’s promise,
Danc­ing towards tomorrow.

Once,
I knew you
The real you

Now those days seem boiled away,
The end­less waters of memory
Wrapped in a cir­clet of gold,
Laid to rest on the dusty planks

That soul I thought I knew, came undone
Dis­ap­peared, enig­mat­ic as the desert sands

And as I looked o’er my shoulder
A gaze as gold­en as the wheat-stalks
From all our yes­ter­days’ summers
A wink of set­ting sun

But the glint I saw was a reflection
From the hate­ful embers of loss

Once
A soul I shared
In viva­cious mystery
An oasis for secret hopes
Inspir­ing me to dream

I stand alone now,
But I knew you once

Once

It gives me warmth
To glance back and see

What we did,
And gave

Wings to the beloved,
New life to one so tiny,
Foun­da­tion to the lost,
Love to the abandoned

Eyes of turquoise ocean
Eyes of har­vest gold

Sis­ters in arms

The end­less trea­sures we knew,
Only deep­est seas could speak of

I knew you once

You taught me courage.

Hands touch­ing
Begins the odyssey
Two of the same
Delv­ing deep as the soul

Else­where, a key turns slowly,

Slow­ly,
slowly.

Sparkles!
Do you feel them?

Every­thing stand­ing on end
Qui­et becomes loud
Every speck of detail
A beat­ing heart
Two beat­ing hearts
The rhyth­mic pulse …

Into the arms of fairies
We watch our­selves slip
Soft­ly, sensually,
Deeply from a distance
And then completely.

The world moves around us,
A pock­et of time all its own –
Soverign land float­ing freely,
No rules save one

… inter­twine!

Lost in trance, ebbing bounds
As the body lets go its borders
The sun to set a thou­sand days
In this moment, eter­nal and safe

It feels like minutes,
Only hours,
Only days.

Time los­es her meaning

An old moon dances high,
Filled with joy’s blessings

The great­est awareness,
All things from love,
Soar­ing in the touch
Of two inter­twined hands

And my wings nev­er left me,
They’re flut­ter­ing, here?
Glance behind, glance above
Watch the world pass­ing by

I will grow this realm of love,
To scat­ter its hue among the stars
That all may find,
And intertwine.