Saw you again so beautiful,

These brown eyes slender frame,

This moment when you know peace

Wait and don’t run away.

Speak but do not shout just touch.

Reach beyond the borders of desolation

Reach out beyond your darkness and loss

Reach into the heart of me

My deep pools of sorrow my tired pain.

And we are not alone any more

Nor so bereft, nor so lost

For to each other we can be candles of hope,

Wells of relief and songs of love.

Don’t you see how we walk the same desert,

Stumble upon the same harsh mountain,

Fear the same shadows and darkness,

Phantoms of loss and desperation

Memories of love fading, time gone.

But with you there is joy to live

Wild ways to walk a mountain to climb

And this life to live not hidden

Not of fear but of love

And of joy.

A moment of spring even if autumn is coming

Even if we have seen the end and felt it beginning

Even if all is vain and nothing lasts

There is something beyond dreams

Like this love I would live with you.

Sitting on shelves as if waiting

As if wanting to be claimed

To be taken

Or consumed

But this won’t end well

But life never does

Just an inevitable end

Down by the river

Black river of blood

Black day for us

But certainty at last

For the ferryman waits

And clarity becomes all there is

And death…..

So we understand the allure

Coming from such confusion

Where uncertainty is everything

And only pain a given

And only anger the medium

Through which all is conveyed

Through which all is lost

Because the truth was raped

Too long ago……

I wonder if you have a home,

Because I do

I wonder if you know where you are,

Because I am.

And this song is my home

And this call my heart

And this day who I am.

Sad because I would hold you

Sad because I can’t touch you

Sad because this song is for you

and you are gone.

But I walk the lonely mountains

And I cross the eternal desert

And I sail the silent sea

And this is my heart

And here is my song:

The howl of the East wind

The whisper of a Southern breeze

The beauty of you that I saw:

In the flickering promise of candles

In the hope of a gentle spring morning

In the sound of your heart that called to mine

For these a long night full of grief and anguish,

A vigil around a dying man’s bed.

A vigil waiting for news, so fearful.

All waiting as these together in an upper room.

But for us no cleansing wind or fire of love.

But the pall of silence as lights go out

And dreams fade into a life that was

And illusions of our permanence are broken again.

How we stand by the Dark River.

Not wanting to accept, less still to pay for this crossing.

Oh there is anger now, for it should not be this way,

For how can we be without this person?

Or this life that is so much of who we are of what we mean.

Silence…….

These long corridors, this empty room.

And sorrow is grey and cold.

And dust settles where no one lives,

And silence.

Before there was singing

Or the laughter of children

Mischievous escapades on a bike

And marvellous stories.

Before there was kissing

And love making

Passion and pain, love and hope.

Now silence, now darkness.

Now the desolation of the empty park

The barren womb,

The broken heart.

But what can be said?

Except………

“Where did you go?”

Love
And love does not blow away like dust in the wind
Or when challenged turn dark and cold.
Love is not a moment or passing feeling
Or a blast of passion that burns meaning away.

And love is the partner of forgiveness and compassion,
She dances elegant and untiring through the long night.
And love is a man open-armed nailed to a tree
And the parent that knows when to hold and when to let go.

Love is not condemnation or judgement, a curse or burden
Love is an eternal hope, a road that we travel together
It is not the prison of the closed door or deceit and lies.
It has a shape and value a meaning and a memory.

Love has purpose to build truth and goodness,
It searches the city for the lost and looks to lift those fallen down.
Love is a shelter for the homeless, a song in this desolation,
A touch for the leper and mercy for the sinner.

And love will not crush you or leave you in angry pain,
It will speak with meaning and reason not wild emotion.
Love will be a light that leads us to the eternal lands
And the embrace of our Father when we come home.

Do not let us fall into silence,

Friendship drift into estrangement and unknowing,

The warmth of love become cold distant memories

The beauty of your face fade and become unfocused.

Do not let these paths we walked become overgrown

Or these ways well known become strange.

That your touch would seem gentle and familiar

And your love warm enough to last.

Choose to take this harder road

Walk the mountain, face a dangerous way.

Turn from the prison of your comfort

Live today, live this day.

Oh the wind on the moors is vicious

Oh the storms of the desert harsh

But the light of our love is a bright star

And the song of our souls strong enough

So reach out from the island of darkness

Step out from the shipwreck of your home

And dance on the uplands and wild ways

Make here a new life on the mountain,

Choose here a new home.

For us this day,

A chance to live again,

An opportunity to hope,

A day to love.

A possibility for friendship for meeting.

A time when we could share our bread,

Dream our dreams and remember

Or better then make a memory

A sculpture of joy for tired hearts,

And listening hear these eternal songs

The melodies of creation and of life

Infusing everything around us

A spark that keeps our hearts beating

And the endless wind blowing

And our thoughts rising from depths of silence.

For today is ours a gift given freely

A moment to live a time to be.

 

 

(For a daughter)

And the mountains remember us,

Where we walked, drenched by sun or rain,

And the woodland has kept the imprint of our souls

As we wondered through the land.

And how the sun has smiled on us,

By sea and sand, by rock and stone.

High near clouds where the wind lives,

And low where all is drowned by the song of eternal waves.

So how hopeful we can be for all this beauty was ours.

And all this time that flowed lovingly through our hands.

For we have been blessed by a hundred days,

By a thousand days we spent together.

And so I will remember the child I carried up a mountain,

And so I will remember the rain-sodden clasping hand,

And so I will remember words and songs and games,

So much we have done, so many dreams we’ve had.

And as time moves on and our worlds transform,

I will remember that nothing can change all the good that has been,

For the truth of memories can never fade,

As Love and Hope and Faith will always remain.

So what good a collection of old things?

Coins rusting in damp places,

Or memories eaten away by time, by age.

What good yesterday for it is gone.

And what good these amazing dreams?

These well made plans, lofty destinations,

Wild ambition and the tastelessness of success.

For now is where I am

And you are gone.

These rooms do not hold your sounds,

Nor this bed your warmth.

The nights do not find you by my side,

And in the days I cannot see you.

Even the anger in your voice is lost

And the wildness of your heart

And above all………

The touch of your hand in mine

For that I could not collect,

Could not keep except in my mind.