Not Enough (2012)

Despite the many hardships they had known,
They tried their best, no matter of the cost.
Their sufferings changed them, greater they were grown –
Profounder for the chance they took and lost.

They tried their best, they loved each other well,
Forgave if ever words came out too rough;
And yet they failed, despite what poets sell,
For sometimes love alone is not enough.

The Lily (2012)

Last night he dreamt a nightingale flew
To a field in the dawn of May;
And in that field a lily grew
Beneath the warm sun’s ray.

The lily rose from the waving grass
And stretched toward the sky,
It danced with the winds that come and pass
And leave us with a sigh.

He watched it as beneath a trance,
For it turned a maiden fair:
The light of spring was in her glance,
And the sun was on her hair.

She came to him so gracefully,
And took him by the hand,
She drew him into that waving sea
He did not understand.

She drew him into that waving sea
The sun had set on fire,
Then danced and sang of what could be
And filled him with desire.

And there upon the grass they lay
Beneath the noon-hot sun,
Passing the hours in lovers’ play,
When two meld into one.

At last, as sleep stole softly on,
She sang a lullaby –
Of evening, night, and of the dawn,
Of the sun and stars and sky.

He did not know how long he’d slept,
When he woke to the rustling air,
But he knew he was alone, and wept
For the girl who was not there –

The maiden wreathed with heaven’s flame
And robed in blooming spring –
With only the winds to sigh her name,
No more to hear her sing.

No more to hear her sing, no more
To dream upon her breast –
No peace until the final door,
And the bed where he would rest;

No more to watch her graceful dance
And hear her lullabies,
Yet ever trapped within the trance
That caught him in her eyes.

He gazed across the golden plain
He watered with his tears,
And cried aloud, for he heard the strain
Of the love he’d sought for years.

And there, again, above the grass,
He saw his lily fair:
She danced on the winds that come and pass,
And the sun was on her hair.

Ten Thousand Names (2012)

When I am silent I hear him speak:
In the winds that rush from the mountain peak,
In the waters that sing on their way to the sea,
In the fire that burns with life’s mystery.

For the winds descend to the valleys below
To gently caress all the flowers that grow
By the light of the fire that lives in the sky,
And the beds of the streams that will never run dry.

In all of his creatures, in all of their places,
I find him – my God of a thousand faces;
In even the tiniest grains of sand
The cosmos is there, like the print of his hand.

This elegant world in its splendour proclaims
That God is but One - yet with ten thousand names.

The Road Goes Ever On (2012)

The road goes ever on and on
By smooth and rough, and straights and bends;
We walk awhile and then we’re gone.

We wake before the warming dawn,
Soft with the dew the morning sends;
But the road goes ever on and on,

And soon by the peaking sun we’re drawn
To race until its flame descends;
We trace its arc and then we’re gone.

The late day follows with a yawn
For all the frantic earth expends,
But the road goes ever on and on;

So when the evening comes upon
The weary world, the road still wends;
We totter along until we’re gone.

At last comes the flight of the midnight swan
That sweeps all things unto their ends;
For we walk to our sleep, and then we’re gone,
Though the road goes ever on and on.

Homeless (2012)

I breathe my grief upon the aerial stream –
The sorrow in my heart that I cannot say;
For what I’ve lost and what is now a dream,
I breathe my grief upon the aerial stream.

The homeless wind sighs back and takes my theme
Of loss, perhaps to her, or where it may;
I hear it passing on the aerial stream,
The sorrow in my heart that I cannot say.

The Call (2012)

I heard its call upon the wind,
A voice of far away
That beckoned me – the wind, the wind!
I heard, but longed to stay.

Yet then I wandered by the shore,
And heard it in the sea,
And there I changed forevermore:
Content I cannot be

To stay with all that I have known –
There is no comfort now.
The restlessness of youth has grown
And weighs upon my brow.

Content!  I hear the distance cry
My name – exquisite spell
Of all that childhood dreams imply,
Which deep within us dwell.

Content!  I hear the waters sigh
Content!  The winds exhale:
Never! though you believe the lie
That life is meant to stale.

Content!  The word is doom to me,
My God!  I cannot stay.
I’ve heard the call of destiny:
There is no other way.

True Beauty (2006)

If I should say with time your beauty grows,
Would I be deemed an honest man or liar?
Experience much proof against me shows:
The gravestone, tomb, and funerary pyre,
The seasons' turn, the augur of the Sun -
To rise, peak and decline - our Sovereign Change;
The lines on cheek and brow not yet begun
To furrow where men's glances still do range.
So call me liar if you deem it just
To make yourself a victim to your age;
But ask if there be beauty we might trust,
Not held to some slight moment on the stage.
Then call me honest when you realize
True beauty can't be seen by human eyes.