Poetry

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Part 3

• Feeling Alive
• Merry Christmas
• Friendship
• Thanks, Mr H
• Forever Without You, Forever In The Middle
• Novice Poets
• Marie
• Fate
• A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes
• Eulogy To The Elephant Man

Feeling Alive

Skiing glorious white mountains,
Climbing ancient cliffs,
Hiking long fogotten trails,
Swimming broad sea channels,
Sprinting hot asphalt tracks,
Stealing the bases in front of record attendances,
Plummeting thousands of feet through the air,
Diving coral depths,
Crawling dark, wet caves,
All with the best friends by our side.
Man, this is really living.

Merry Christmas

Bells ring out
Choirs sing
Breaking the silence of fresh fallen snow.
An icy blanket of purity
Under a clear blue sky,
Held off by a fire ablaze in the hearth.
The crackle of wrapping paper
Amid holiday harmonies,
And the tinkle and tone of a busy kitchen.

Laughter
Sounds of joy
Sweet smells
A roast turkey

Memories are decked out
In Red, Green, and White,
Blue, Silver, and Gold.
They glimmer in the magic of love,
Sparkling with enchantment
And tingle in our hearts
As old and new come together.

I wish you bliss

Friendship

We are friends because we chose to be We.
Time is never been wasted when it is time spent together.
Friendship means sadness can be shared, and joy too.
Souls and hearts intertwine, trust absolute.
Old friendships are beautiful.

Thanks, Mr H

Direction is hard to achieve
Passion is rarely found true
I once was lost but know I’ve found
Something that gives me heart

In a world where the power of words
Has the power to raise children
And give voice to imagination and values
In a world where man has learned
To give beauty to his ideas
Made communication an art form
And taken the conveyance of the human mind
To further and greater levels
I have discovered a love for creation

I who am touched by art
Wish to show my gratitude to it
By becoming an artist worthy
Of another’s delight and experience and
Of my own desire to express and give thanks
For the experiences given to me

I have always loved this literary world
To delve into another’s dreams
To experience a piece of them through their art
But, before, I was only a casual, if frequent, observer
One day I discovered true passion
In the teachings of a great man
He showed me Tennyson and Donne
He showed me Shakespeare and Hemingway
He showed me where the love comes from
Why writers do what they do
Why such strength of the human spirit
Is found on the printed page
Imagination inked with heart and soul
And it is from him that I really began
Where my dream of artistry really started

I have found a culture of composition that I call home,
For now, only part time
But one day, I hope, professionally
I have found a way to express myself
Where the spoken word has failed me
Perhaps because I could not gain the courage
To voice it at the time it mattered most
Or because I wish to give tribute in such a way
That I cannot give spontaneously
And give it in a way that shows I mean it

For this gift of a key
A key that let me past the window
And through the door into this literary realm
I can only offer my thanks
And hope that in its simplicity you can see
My appreciation and
My gratitude

Thank you, Mr. H.
You’re a great teacher.

(Dedicated to Mr Hurley, Paul Kane High, circa 1996.)

Forever Without You, Forever In The Middle

I am in the middle of a room.
CHAOS – I am surrounded.
Spinning whirling erratic all around me.

Four corners,
a corner
a corner
a corner
a corner
no escape.

I desire every woman I remember.

Here I scream there I shout inside the pain
Outside the compassionate void
Searching, the world a storm.
No end No beginning No middle

I desire every woman I remember.

I speak I think
I think as the words come tumbling out
In a roar, in a constant barrage of nothing nonsensical insignificance
As I try to say something
The nothing has just a little bit of something
And I Try
And I Try
And I Try
And I Try
And nobody listens because the roar has deafened them
Because they no longer wish to see past the noise
It’s to much effort to see inside
So much inside so much to share so much to give so much love
So much pain

I desire every woman I remember.

And I cry
And I cry
And I cry
And I cry
And nothing.

I have found a stillness.
It is not the warm fires of passion and
The bonding of my soul to another
But the frozen wasteland of loneliness
I see nothing but the chaos all around me
I see the madness of emotions
I see the emotions of madness
And I know I am the cause
My desire has consumed me.

I desire only an end.

On a cool winter’s night
With silky blackness crested with the pure white icy tears of dreams
You can peer into the emptiness that stretches forever
And reach out and feel the satin tendrils of sanity
Slip and glide and play through your fingers
Nothing more than a futile wave goodbye
Knowing you can do nothing to stop them drifting off
Knowing there is no one there to help
And so you watch them go
In silence.

Going
Going
Going
Going.

Gone.

Novice Poets

Many a hand has turned to poetry
Many a thought or an expression conveyed
In rhythmic and unrestrained text
The inexperienced write always
As if our love transcends all
Rises above death
Encompasses the most complex
And profound words
In the end it all sounds silly, ridiculous
Children who think ourselves grand
The thoughts that flicker in our heads
Believed original and so important

They’re not really

How naive and full of the boldness of youth
How we are the center of our own tiny worlds
How introspective without experience
How we never care to see through another’s eyes
Walk a lifetime in another’s footsteps
We need to have that first true love
Not just an excitable infatuation and lust
We need to hold our mother in our hands
As she breaths her last breath staring into our helpless eyes
We need to read the works of thinkers long dead
Who thought all we have thought and more
We need to be more than introspective
To understand ‘why’
We need to see there isn’t always right and wrong
There are only society’s rules
And personal values
We need to understand that we have a future
And that as far as time goes
Our past has probably been a short one
We need to have been truly scared by reality
And not the shadows and the ghosts in our mind
Because anyone can be a hero
When only our imagination runs wild
We need to learn from all facets in life
Because religion does not hold all the answers
We must embrace science and art
To get a much clearer picture
Of the world’s machination
We need to dive into everything
Then sit back and watch it all again
Reflect and draw preliminary ideas
Then look at it from a different angle
Understand it from another set of values
Take life like an open book and
Learn

There is no substitute for experience
It is the substance for reflection
In our youth we often fail to understand this
Because so few of the old do.

Marie

Oh sweet Marie, what can I say of thee?
Soft orange chair wrapped around your curled figure
Mellow sounds of the television a background blur
That look on your face,
Doubting my good intentions as I enter the room
A wary hello at my sly smile as I sit beside you
I lay on the futon, say that I already answered your crossword puzzle
I turn, and face a stone cold look of doom
Witty remarks and smiling sarcasm always at hand
Your conversation always intelligent, never bland
Unfortunately on Jerry Springer does the channel often land
Two clicks of your little red storytelling shoes and
On a grand adventure we shall fly
Drinking Coke-a-Cola slurpees
Its just a work of pulp fiction under a psychedelic sky
In high school they said you were shy
Hard at work I’d say and harder at play
You’re no one to be fucked with on any given day
You hate my camera with ferocious passion
But pictures I snagged of you in glamorous fashion
A fox at the winter formal
You can be a heartbreaking fortune teller
The guys tripping over you to be sure
You’re a pretty flower with a will one can’t bend
And I’m damn proud to call you My Friend

Fate

Time is not mine to control
It plays through human lives
Like the wind plays through the trees
Like fallen leaves scattered and left to crumble
Time blows by and whisks away
Our hearts and ambitions
What brightness we have brought to the world
What colours made to shine bright and vivid emotion
What life we brought to the tree that is our family
The wind carries away that colour
The warmth has left and dullness slowly permeates
We twist and crumple with age
Pain is slow and we feel the wind freeze the marrow
Of our bones

With great fanfare, excitement, and the heralding of a new era
We arrived shiny and new
With all the other leaves that broke free
The warm wind splitting them soft and gentle
Revealing the tenderness inside and they displayed their truths naked
Before the elements
Fresh, we are flexible and strong and few break from our stems
The wind gives us life, it fills our very veins
But the wind takes back what it has given
Time steals tenderness and we become hard
Unforgiving as it makes us brittle and vulnerable once again
Until we are broken

The season ends without celebration
Winds pass by cold and harsh
Recall those warm summer days of yore
Or the mighty spring which ushered us in
Into a world which was seemingly ours to preside over
Deceived, it was all illusion
Time has taken our youth and we are together fading
A generation that grew together dies together
Brittle and bitter we fall
In this mighty forest that stretches forever yonder
We do so with great noise
The scratching and sharp crackling protest
It is Our sound yet the wind has heard it all before
When winter last came to stay

We crumble beneath the changes
That the world is undergoing
Because we could not change with it, leaves were not made to withstand
Not made to last forever
Their time has passed and with change begins the birth of a new generation
The fallen leaves provide nourishment to the tree
They strengthen the roots
So the tree grows taller, stronger for it
The next generation of leaves seem to be that much brighter than the last
Established pillars of the woodland community
Give rise to new saplings that push their way from the forest edge
The new generation grows without regard for the past
The old leaves lie apart on the ground, far removed
Recalling those days long ago
When the world was a new place for us
How jealous we are, forgetting that there were fewer leaves last spring
That they were smaller and that the tree bent much further in the wind
Old generations must give way to new in the circle of life

Time moving forever forward, forever repeating itself
Life forever in the hands of time’s whim
In flux and change that is inevitability
It gives life but for a short while then takes it back
So that it might give it again another day
Each new season a fresh start, a new beginning with greater hopes
Where the wind can play with the leaves but the tree is resilient
The next season bringing us closer to the sky
As the tree grows taller and more stout
Each new leaf growing on a stem that becomes a branch
Reaching forever higher
With time.

Our lives, the leaves
Lived
In the wind

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

Fairy tales and dreams tantalize our heart
Our senses imagine with pent up energy
Sensations and Temptations with Escalation
Such excitement a beautiful treasure
A bazaar, a festival, a pageant
Of emotions running wild
The dreams drifting across the skies of our mindscape
Fairy tales weaving a tapestry of brilliance
With the tendrils of imagination
The strings of song
In adventure audacious we succeed
Failure ever overcome
On the wings of our dreams we climb the stars
The universe is our plaything
Limits we conceive
So we can rejoice in the pleasure
Of smashing them into sixty thousand tiny pieces

We sit with kings and queens, nay we are the royalty
Fly through the puffy white clouds, slipping the jet stream
Lungs filled in a defiant scream
The heat of battle flushing your face as you tear through the enemy
With a sword in one hand and a rescued damsel in the other
Riding the backs of fantastic dragons or stunning unicorns
Swimming alongside the dolphins in the balmy oceans
Cruising the depths miles below with the whales
Watching as wonders are erected in ancient times
Finding the answers to the most dazzling riddles
Did Atlantis really did exist in splendor and enchantment
And does life exist on other planets

Here in your fairytale universe she said yes
Here you are fearless
Here your dog still runs at your side and your cat still curls on your bed
The teacher liked your ideas and your marks were good enough
When you paint, it actually looks like what you wanted it to
And when you cook it tastes great
That bully was finally put in his place, you walk with head high once again
Here in your dreams, love finally comes
Two people passionate for each other without end
Who find no fault with your faults for you are perfect in each other’s eyes
Someone doesn’t crush a heart brimming with unreturned desire

Life and death are yours to command
With the hands of creation and destruction
For you the chaos is modeling clay
Imagination the greatest tool you will ever possess

The ability to dream is power unrelinquishable
A power best left unchecked, wild and free
So go ahead,
Dream.

Eulogy To The Elephant Man

John Merrick,
The sun has risen and the sun has set.
For all those not locked within those concrete shells,
Of society’s demands and rules,
Whose souls do not dwell within their own meager light,
For all those whose souls were touched by a greater light,
The light of John Merrick, which warmed our hearts,
Be consoled, do not lose that heart,
For John will never truly leave us.

As the sun rose, the light was pure.
But as it grew stronger , as the industrial age of man did,
Like the foul black smoke man’s creations eject that smothers the air,
Man has created clouds of fear and hatred for your unknown light.
As the superstitious and religious of old,
The light was given false origins, much like the sun.
But even as the source becomes clear,
And the growing spirit of Merrick shone ever brighter,
The clouds of man’s fearful emotions have covered the clear sky.
John’s human body was marred and flawed for it’s entire existence,
That sun’s light cannot fully radiate
For man’s thick clouds have stopped all but a few rays.
As the sun traveled higher and reached its zenith,
The clouds started to disperse though they never completely disappeared.
We watched and thought that sun could travel a little higher,
And we started seeing the mountains that mark the entrance to Death’s domain.
Without warning the sun disappeared behind those mountains of eternal darkness,
And the light has been forever eclipsed.

The clouds have gone for the source that inspired their creation,
Have left, having only gained welcome in Death’s abode.
Only a shred of light remains, burned unforgettably into our memories,
Adding to the lights inside us, making us brighter, changing us,
For no one can say that after meeting dear John Merrick,
His constant need to be one of us has not led us all to see within ourselves.

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