If I should find myself in bleakness
I am the fool who dulls it all
Come and find me in the palace
Come and meet me down the hall
And I shall jest and sing and merry
Merry round the dining guests
Come and frolic through the evening
Once the king has gone to rest
Come and frolic till the morning
Has hung her glory up to dry
Till the wine’s gone out of favour
Till the sun has burnt the sky
I shall tiptoe to the wandering
To the wasted, to the weak
Jest! Jest and be merry
And never wonder what you seek
If I should find myself in bleakness
I am the fool that dulls these plays
I have known the verse, I’ve known the stories
I’ve seen the fervour in each face
Come and gambol till the evening
Has found my hour gone astray
Far from court and king and legend
Come and take this blues away
Nov 5, 2021
Nov 5, 2021 at 12:21 PM UTC
The heart is fond, so is the hand
That fed this fickle flesh of mine
That fell and bowed and loved and vowed
That lost and loved her shrine
That self same shrine where once, I know
The Mirrors followed free
And all who prayed for rights divine
Were wronged as wronged can be
The promised land came to the dreams
And sang a song or two
But fled along when winter came
To a land where summer grew
The pilgrims, they through night and day
Still worship never ending
And like beggars fled when distance came
When death and life carme pending
For death and life the emperor fought
The promised land claimed he
And of steel and fire were his spurs
His horses of the sea
“The earth’s ablaze!” I heard them cry
I heard their maddening shrieks
The hollow madness of their eyes
Fell down all to their cheeks
“Arise, arise” I heard them cry
The dignity dropped down
The emperor there stood shamefully
Amidst a smouldering town
For in these hands, the promised land
Was crushed and so was he
And with the horses and his pride
Sank down into the sea
And deep among the waves a song
Rose up for every soul
That was promised to the broken hearted
That was promised to us all
And brick by brick and stone by stone
The marble statues filled
The halls of gold, the hollow crown
Where once a king we killed
“Arise! Arise!” I heard them cry
I saw their limbs like mould
The glazing in each weary eye
Of brightest emerald.
Their temples stood rebuilt for good
The Mirrors followed free
The shrine was loved forevermore
And lost to that sad sea
Well I limped on to beat and drum
Limped on like one forlorn
And I shall wake only to break
The silence of the morn
Through the land the myth’s own hand
There wrote its own account
The old man and the sea were found
Down by the promised land
Oct 17, 2021
Oct 17, 2021 at 3:30 PM UTC
Having laid myself to rest, I could not get myself to sleep, nor could I entrust my own mind to dreaming.
Laying there, an empty head on a lifeless pillow, I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling besides the things he had constructed. Carefully picking up the remnants of a sanctified artwork, shattered about the room, he turned towards me. Piercing eyes in a frame drowned in nostalgia.
I saw the fallen poet battering his quill, tired of his incessant fight. The hideous phantasm of a man-made oracle.
All fought, their arms tied to their devotion, their armour fastened to their solitude
And only I could keep them company
Oct 17, 2021
Oct 17, 2021 at 3:27 PM UTC
The music that haunts these misty woods
Would make the earth beloved and yet
The notes she harbours gently play
In solitude their strange duet
The song that owns these frightening woods
Must needs be calm, must needs be eloquent
The melancholy in its tunes
But tell of days in goodness spent
The wasteland’s weary of destruction
Yet we danced around in hollowness
The grave spits out the wasted bones
And mourns and mourns its idleness
The lark, the sparrow shall keep singing
The uncontested voice of ceremony
A song that brings and will keep bringing
To peace a finished melody
The final beat’s oblivion
And many died before the stroke
Thus silence rounds the symphony
The great unfinished never spoke
Jun 8, 2021
Jun 8, 2021 at 8:37 AM UTC
I shall arise and raise a glass
To writhing verse and broken prayer
And pass through minutes of neglect
I hoped I’d find you there
The hazel wood is rich with fairies
The Sirens move through dappled grass
Fervidly chased by child or lover
And I shall rise and watch them pass
Long were my days when the summer came
But the fishermen bade me beware
Dark as red wine was the sea that I sailed
I just prayed that I might find you there
For the ocean was dressed in its fancy
Of sea nymphs and monsters of glass
Often fought by hero and wizard
O I hoped that you might let them pass
Well, in all of this rumour and roaring
I had cast my soul to the sea
And passed through neglect and high fancy
And hoped that there you’d find me
Jun 8, 2021
Jun 8, 2021 at 8:36 AM UTC
My thoughts bend into idleness
Towards the love that needs be vain
I know that reason bears divinity
But I’m too young and quite insane
At night I wove a veil for sorrow
To hide her from men’s sight
Even though I knew the morrow
Would make her footfall light
At day I sailed away with her
She took me to some far off place
And all the ocean was in tears
For I stole sorrow from her face
At dusk confined in solitude
On an island that we owned
And sorrow cast her veil of fear
Upon the moment we postponed
At dawn we heard a distant drum
And sorrow nimbly fled away
Towards the men that waited there
So eagerly for break of day
Apr 13, 2021
Apr 13, 2021 at 5:12 AM UTC
I held it truth with every look
That it dreams away her own effect
That the saints have thought themselves too high
And begged the sinner for respect
They cried “go fetch me water from the desert
Force a drop out of this stone
For nature now needs watering
And cannot live by rain alone”
But the rain has ceased her effort
And I loved the subtle agony
What land is that which harbours
Every height and depth of me?
But from grace to grace we lived and lived
From truth to truth we died and died
The common ground proves us ephemeral
The highest deeds are misapplied
I danced with fools, the old, the ragged pasts
Of worlds that hid themselves for shame
And the beggar girl has played the tunes
Of which only she will know the name
Apr 13, 2021
Apr 13, 2021 at 5:10 AM UTC
The sun had hid her warmth
For a ragged girl with blistered feet
That sold her ware with all her voice
That begged for justice on the street
And still she cried "buy here my goods"
She was the sun, she wore her smile
The world had ripped the rags she wore
And only gazed a little while
It gazed and gazed and soon forgot
The cries, the tears the frail demand
The light it took without remorse
From this her garish suppliant
And still she smiled for she knew well
That streets have harboured yet so many
No hope was lost, no word undone
"Come buy my goods, t'is but a penny"
But winter clenched its iron fist
The seasons took the earth with ease
And drew the line; the rich were warm
The poor were famished by degrees
Her voice died out, her cry was muffled still
The curtain fell with little care
Her final bow she took, one faint applause
One last shrill cry; "come buy my ware"
She had left the world a memory
But the graveyard still is ignorant
Of the life it took without remorse
From this her loving suppliant
Mar 9, 2021
Mar 9, 2021 at 5:12 AM UTC
I've made a world from fields and flowers
And head the unforgiving call
Behold the tears that found their rest
Behold the love that found a soul
I know the tunes, I've played them all
I've torn the violin apart
The song it died, I watched it fall
Between the centuries of the heart
Yet the world I loved seemed sweeter still
The light was garish, the dark was gay
I played the fool, I played with fire
And let the ashes steal away
I passed the watchman on his tower
He rests and sighs and rests and fears
He watches every passing hour
For very soon the morning nears
And as I stood, the time stood still
He bows his head, he sighs and prays
"Such was the longing that was mine
Such were the authors of my days"
Feb 25, 2021
Feb 25, 2021 at 5:21 AM UTC
I have to leave this palace
With its unforgiving gaze
The jealousy's meticulous
The green eyed envy of its face
This heart shall have some peace then
For it comes away to thee
And it shall write for pangs of love
And the art of liberty
This world has asked the ransom
For some forgotten child
That learned to fear her own ambition
That never wept nor ever smiled
But the quality of beauty
Is hidden from itself
Her mirror cracked from side to side
What cause had I for vanity
For I knew that dark was right
But this mind shall have some comfort then
For it comes away to thee
And it shall love for reason's sake
Her own deformity
Feb 9, 2021
Feb 9, 2021 at 11:38 AM UTC