A young girl
Pale
In grey rags
Sits outside Tower Hill station

I walk past
on my way to work

I hesitate

Can I really walk past?

I return

‘Are you ok?’
‘No’

‘Have you anywhere to go?’
‘No’

‘Do you have any money?
‘No’

She has a slight accent, somewhere European
I give her a five pound note

She smiles
Truly, smiles

‘Thank you’

I leave

And my heart aches for her
And all suffering

One million
Grains of sand
In my palm

When will you
Become nothing?

A million stars
In the night sky

Are you become nothing?

One million thoughts
Pass through my head
Are but a few of you
Worth nothing?

What is nothing?
Silence?
Non-existence?
Death?
Waiting?

One trillion voices
Calling out
For peace and hope

Everything

Whether on the edge of oblivion
Or amongst the peaks of perfection

Above all things
I believe in kindness

How
Can I respond?

How
Can I connect?

What
Will I do

Now?

Why do I do things?
The way that I do?

Why am I happy?
Why am I sad?

Why do I search
For reasons
Each season?

Why am I free
The next time, mad?

When will I reach
Pure satisfaction?

Is this too much
To ask of my life?

Will I be stuck
With continual yearning?

To want this
To want that
To want more
From time?

Each moment
That passes
Will never return
Take it
Grasp it
Make it
Eternal

Take it
Grasp it
Make it
Eternal

This is my sunrise
This is my golden morning
Not even the fiercest enemy
Can wrest this from me

So dazzling that I can barely look
So bright and true
As to leave glowing imprints
On my retina

Burning golden orb
Owning the cloudless sky
Radiating warmth wherever you go
You bring life to all around you

Melting the overnight frost
On blades of grass
Filling me with hope
Warming the inside of my bones

You, the sun of hope
Are rising
To banish the darkness of the night

Trees lean into you
Their hundreds of years of life
Nurtured by your offerings

I wish that your rays
Would fill my blood
And travel through every vessel in my body

You, our sun, could never die
And we, your children
Are given eternal life

I finished my book
A classic novel
And now I miss
The companionship
Built through journeying with
That main character

For the last few weeks
I looked forward
To being with him
Thinking with him
And wishing for him
As he travelled
And lived out
His fictional life

In that sacred space
Our two lives intertwined
And I was transported
From my own cares
Into his world

And now it is over
I must address
My own life
And
I must find
Another book

Be resilient
Make tenacious efforts
Win at something every single day
Advance cheerfully and on good terms with everybody
I promise you I will build a society truly worthy of your love and pride

Shine with the light of courage
Shine with the light of capable people
Shine with the light of unity

Do your best in each moment
If this is where I am, this is where I will fight
Make courage bigger than fear
Sometimes, all we need is a thimble full of courage
Have the conviction that we can change the situation without fail
Don’t sell yourself short
Shine just as you are
In your own way
Bring out the light to penetrate the darkness you are facing
Achieve a great breakthrough
Lead a winning life
You can achieve anything

In sleep
Free
From the uncertainties
Of modern day life
We restore
Our selves

We wake
And struggle
To tread the long road of life
With dignity

My country
Isolated
Spawns
Rich politicians
Who play games
Quoting Shakespeare
As they go

Madmen
Toying with each other
In the playground of their privilege

What have you done?
Wake up!
Remember
The people
The people

It is they
You should serve

Be
For them
Serve
Them
The people
Are sovereign

They
Are
The country

Why let others
Tell you how to feel?

Why let others
Tell you what to think?

Emotion control

Thought control

Control
Control

If we forget
How to feel
We lose who we are

If we forget
How to think
How can we change the world?

And the world needs
Change
Doesn't it?

There are those
Who want things
To stay the same

There are those
Who are frightened
Of change

Change will come

How we experience it
Is up to us

I have come for you

But can't I go any further?

Life has happened to you.

But I wanted to live differently!

Life has happened to you.

But I need to live better!

Your life has happened to you and now it is done.

I could refuse, I could leave this, find something better, make you see what I mean?  I could stay, fight, change things, make them better...

Life has happened to you.  This is what you have done, and now you must come.

But I don't want to.

Then you must fight, harder than ever before, or die.

A thousand and one things
Happen
In the playground of our lives

We are given what we are given
And then
We make what we can
With what
We have received

We embroider strands
Of proffered and discarded materials
To create
Uniquely fabricated realities
For ourselves

Through our education
We kid ourselves
That standards are the standard
And grades are the grade

But should we not ask
What do children need to know from us?
What do they need to learn?
To become happy?

And what was it that we learned?
What was it?

All this information
All this expectation
Are we yet beating ourselves down with it
Battering our children?

As one climbs higher
The air thins
And so I yearn to feel the closeness
Of your body

I desire to be with you
In my illness
As winter grinds on

Spring!
I call to you
Embrace me
In the milkiness of your *****!

Refresh me
As I present
My naked self

Though we are weak
We struggle
Onwards
Together

Perhaps towards uncertain victory
Imperfect as we are

What is there to say
When love has died?
When it seems
That there is
Nothing left to say...

Two people
Drift slowly apart
Too eager to criticise each other
Dismissive of their beautiful talents
Silently resentful of their ageing bones

When love has died
Joint creations
Shared possessions
Memories
Tarnish and rot slowly
Disappearing into a tunnel
Of nothingness

Frustration simmers
When what you once thought was love
Turns out to be something else
Something time limited

When the person
You thought you loved
Turned into someone different

Just like you did

When love has died
All you can do is reinvent yourself
Re-examine everything

When love has died
Nobody is to blame

But somewhere in heaven
An angel
Takes its last breath

Eat less chocolate?
Give up caffeine?
Exercise?
Learn a new skill?
Give up meat?
Get a new job?
Spend less?
Earn more?
Go to bed earlier?
Stop drinking?
Stop smoking?
Spend more time with the family?
Live healthier?
Live longer?
Say ‘Thank you’ more?
Be braver?

Yes
Be braver

A day
Of waiting
With nerve endings
Tingling
Slips by

Finger tips
Tremor
With evolving
Expectations of
Celebrations
And gatherings
Of loved ones

Time advances
So slowly
As we wait
Together

And then
Suddenly
Like a bullet
Time accelerates
Rapidly
Unstoppably

And we approach
The moment

And the show
Begins

On such a dazzlingly bright day
I can only wonder
At the beautiful light show

Marvel at the freshness of the air
Ponder the beauty of it all

Develop my sense of gratitude
Gratitude which is surely missing
In my heart

These efforts of mine
To lead a good life
Have brought me to this point

And yet I am still dissatisfied

Though many battles have been won
Many have been lost too

What have I learned?

Treat people with respect
And ultimately you will win the day

Circumstances change
And with it our security

We must be vigilant
And prepare for upheavals
For life is changeable

The wheel will always turn
Bringing in new life
And taking all who live
Closer to death

Frown lines weigh
Upon my brain
Again again
I’m here again

Torment bubbling
Inside and out
Great concrete towers
Rise up too high

In the distant future
Celestial light
Illuminates the green foliage
Of untold growth

I don’t understand why
We suffer as we do?
But we do
We do

When you are tired and empty
Hungry and ill
The world seems grey
Colourless, the day

Gone
Are the dead
Gone
From the now

So what to do
When we are living?

Sometimes, I know
That I don’t know

Perhaps it is just
To join the flow

Or beat through the crap
Of a mindset trap

And that is that
To beat the crap

I prayed for something this morning
I prayed this morning
And now this?
Now this
Now this?

So far
I’m lucky
So why complain
I got a seat
Upon my comfy train

But if I were to go
Against the grain
And fight the pain
To find the will
To climb the hill
Remember the prize
Before my eyes
To struggle home
And I'd have won
I'd have won

But I didn't win

Or did I?

Did I?

If I let the sun rise
All will be well
Will all be well?
All will be well

But who can tell?
In the split second of now
What is the victory?
What is defeat?

It’s just me and my cat
Left sat on the chair
To ponder the last day of the summer holidays

Everyone else is getting ready
For the first day back to school

There are only the sounds of movements upstairs
The opening and closing of drawers
The search for train passes
The late evening footsteps up and down the stairs
And the hum of the dishwasher
Cleaning the dinner plates

Summer is over
A new autumn term is about to begin

Children will become young adults
And young adults will become adults
The old will get older
And the earth will continue to rotate on its axis
Revolving around the sun
Just as it should
Just as it always has done

The politics of hatred
Are at play in our nation
A drama of conflict
Marching in, rolling out

Aggressors jeer drunkenly
Assailing integrity
Opponents lash out
Tottering, unbalanced

Our children are dragged
Deep into the fray
Positioned by gladiators
Engaged as arbiters

Small lives lie shaking
And torn asunder
Forced to take sides
In a war of monsters

We are pushed to believe
In a dichotomous world
A heaven and hell
A right and wrong

A world of extremes
Where people divide
A dog eat dog world
Where the dogs are raging

Rabid with rage at the love
That's denied them
Furious at loss
Of a life never lived

Incensed at the dreams
They birthed and destroyed
Withered and brittle
Encased in concrete

While one is left standing
Another's defeated
Crumpled and wheezing
Ribs shattered, skulls cracked

An ill gotten prize
Grows intolerable to bear
The chains weighing heavily
On the winners and losers

The instruments of power
Work ******* the people
Wearing away
At self belief

We are told to think thoughts
That the state has invented
Daily demands  
To expose our weakness

Crushing humanity
Beneath tabloid mountains
Hatred and jealousy
Abound in this time

In this age of quarrels
And vicious reprisals
The people stand desolate
With eyes red and bleary

Hands reach out trembling
With broken fingernails
Yearning for hope
That has slipped from the Earth

Backwards
Forwards
Backwards
Forwards
The pressure
Of time
Is always
At work

Day
Night
Day
Night
We act
And rest
We act
And rest

Me
You
Me
You
Together
Apart
We live
And love

Living
Dying
We share
Our lives
The new arrive
The old survive

Ebb
Flow
Inspire
Expire
Hush
And be
Just who
You are

The morning sun
The glass of the pond
The waves in sand
The criss cross of clouds
The sparkle of frost
The curling of fallen leaves
The wrapping of scarves and hats
The ripples of ice
The chill of the air
The puff of breath
The jag of metals
The fire of the morning
The silhouettes of bare branches
The purple haze over rolling fields
The sound of stillness
The dance of a bird
The sleep of spiders
The blowing of noses
The huddling of bodies
The shiver of wild horses
The undulations of rest
The promise of spring

It is here
That the bees gather nectar
Freely

It is here
That the birds sing
Happily

It is here
That flowers display
Their most fragrant blooms

It is here
That nature
Meets
Artistry

It is here
That I send
A message of love to the world

It is here
That I send
A message of hope

It is here
That I send
A message of peace

It is here
That I send
A message of unity

We can
Look with friendliness

We can
Connect with kindness

We can
Understand our purpose

We can
Create the world once more

I see
The green of ivy and bindweed
Drenched by the
Flooding water

I hear
The cries of honest children playing
And dishonest men shouting

I feel the tired people
Travelling on the rat race commuter train

Whilst grey skies
Threaten
Overhead

And amongst
The chaos
Bestowed  
By the wild fantasies
Of the emboldened egomaniacs

I decide to hope
I decide to believe
To campaign
Fully

To use my life
For the sake of the future
To make a vow
For our children

To fight for the right
To battle for peace
To persist for our planet

You speak
Words
Of such beauty
That I find
I am lifted
From my cares
And cradled
In comfort

Your truth
Resonates
Beyond death
Each sentence
Rich with layers of meaning

Animated by the living
For the living
We listen
Enchanted
By the eloquence of your great insights

Those who use their voices
To speak these truths
Though ordinary
Are champions

Together you celebrate our complexity
And through exploration
You come to know yourself
And to know others

To act
To share one’s voice upon the stage
To bring the authors message to life
Is nothing other than an act of heroism

When you are at your lowest ebb
Who do you turn to?
Who would you trust
With your life?
Where are the role models?

The young step through
The mirror of ages
To confront
Crushing anxieties
Of self doubt

Wondering
Wondering
What if?
What if?

Dialogue with oneself
Can drive one crazy

Problems
Are there to share
They are
The keys
To our connectedness
A pathway to friendship

No one should suffer on their own
We are one race

Your pain
Is not separate from me

Your happiness
Your victory
Is something
To be celebrated
Together

There is hope

It is stronger
Than all human pain

The future is
Ours to create

And it should shine
With the bright rays
Of true humanity

I have dived
Into the depths of my life
And found discontentment there

The fatigue of driven efforts
Weighs on my dizzy head
Like sandbags

And I can only hope to find a new route
To re-surface

The fragility
Of this life
Reverberates around my skull

And I carry out my motions
Of pure survival

In the end
I have to open
And let go
Of all former experiences

For I have challenged head on
My very fragility and brittleness

My glass encasements shimmer
And crackle as I strive to hold
My head aloft
And locate my mission

My mission
Not the one
Others would choose for me

I am like a wax man
Whose heart burns brightly with flame
But whose body wilts
Beneath the strain

Tomorrow sometimes looms
Sometimes beckons

But the adventure
Is
A wonder

And so I explore
Who I am
And who you are

You are not
Who I am

And I am not
Who you are

To whom
Do I belong?

Because I do want
To belong

To whom
Do you belong?

Is it to us?
Are you with me?
Or are you with them?

Who are they?
They who see things differently
They whose thoughts are so powerful
And terrifying
That they become somehow alien to me

I was born with us
You were born with them
If I was born with them
Would I leave them to join us?

Would I see things the way they do?
Would I believe what they believe?

Could I leave us to join them?
Could I?
Could you?

Is it really me and you?
Is it really us and them?
Are we a binary race?
Or are we just as one,
Reflecting the different truths
Of our environment?

Silent piano
Soft is your texture
Beneath my fingers

Infinitesimal
The potential combinations
Of your ebonies
Ivories

Sweet is your grace

Up and down you go
Deep and high are you
Running
Majestic
Soft
Booming

You could decorate
The air
With your response to the touch of another

My room is reflected in your varnish
Your smooth corners
Decorate the banal white contours of this place

Your voice is a flight to another world
Solace from angry words
The gift of harmony

Silent piano
Your precision
Mathematical
Tense
Still
Awaits
A friend
To bring life to you

You stand patiently
Listening to the sounds of this house

The clock
The washing machine
The soft pad of a cat's footsteps
The rumble of traffic

All of these
Are nothing to you

Silent piano

For you know great secrets

Water creeps over
The surface of a pier
Lending it
The appearance
Of a great black whale
Basking in the shallows

Golden sunrise sparkles
On the glass planes
Of distant shores
And I begin
A most unusual journey

It really is a brilliant view
Which, somehow falls
Beyond my grasp

Bobble hats glide through the morning air
While noses run and sniff

And then
All is quiet

I softly, methodically dance
Through the daze, the maze
Of my morning

As fellow voyagers
Struggle
To find their way

The sun
Perfectly golden
Utterly invincible
Arises

Nothing could approach it
Or ever destroy it
Except
Itself

My sun
My heart
Waits

Will it burn brightly?
Or slowly suffocate?

You stand
Cracked

Your trunk
Shattered

And yet
One strand of you
Holds on

As your body
Lays still
Like a beached whale
Across the field

Inside your hollow
I peer
And see the effort
Of a century
Exposed
Revealed
Completed
Decaying

Broken oak
Even in death

Yours
Is
Majesty

At half past five
I find a moment
To sit on my own

Alone at last
Against the darkness
Of the winter evening

The swirl of the day’s activities
Have ceased
For just a moment
And I sit in this old building
Listening to the moaning of the wind
As it rushes round the tall concrete walls

I wait for the moan again
A rubbery wail
As if an icy monster
Was lamenting the loss
Of its only child

In the distance
Children dance
And adults make their way
Through space

Contemplating
What it means
To be alone in this world

We are all alone
But we are in it together

A look
A smile
A word
A touch
Transports us from the loneliness
Into communion

I hear the children playing and screaming
Experimenting joyfully with the motion
Of each others lives.

Are we really thinking of bombs again?
Can it ever be justified to take a life?
The cycle of blame seems so never-ending
Who will state ‘Enough of this violence!’

How can we let our children grow up thinking
That killing is a defensible act?
Do we really believe we are curing the malady?
Are we really thinking of bombs again?

In my sleep
I will dream of unborn
Realities

But now
I have woken
Though am I still asleep?

I am wrong placed
This expected place
Unexpected

Someone has taken my body
And I am in theirs

I am attached
To this experience
In a most disconnected manner

We ancient beings
Travelling within fleshy physicalities
Are novices

Wading through miasmic soup
Holding our breath
Plunging for meaning
Nothing but ambulant meanderers

Rays of energy
Pass unnoticed
Through our cartilaginous joints
And groaning sinews
As fellow bipedals
Led by hemispheric glossities
March army like
Into diurnal rhythmicals

Heart warmth
Lifts deep dungeon dwellers
From their plight

And sweet juices of hope berries
Revitalise the old

This is the Eden foundry
This, an altered nirvana
This but a displaced unreality
Is our temporary
Habitat

Our strange
Fangled
Home

I made a mistake
Am running late
When I thought I had it under control

But wait,
Nothing’s really under control
It’s only what’s done
Or not done
That creates order
Or disorder


Slowly surely
I try to build and re-build
But if I have to bend
Too far
I will break

Or have to change

Decide
Stay
Or go
But don’t be complicit

And regret it
Forever

At the end of this day
Two children no longer have a mother

A husband no longer has a wife
She was gunned down

Swept away by the fury
Of a political argument

I think of her children
Tucked up in their beds
Stunned at the madness
Of the adult world

Silent on this night

Young people
Do not despair
Do not lose hope

The tragic frailty
Of your forefathers
Need not be your destiny

This society is yours to change
Choose another way
Pave your path with dignity and empathy
And never join the ranks
Of a violent few

One day
Guns will only line
The cases of museums
No longer will they terrorise
The citizens of the world
One day humans will live as one people
And children will no longer mourn their lost mothers

Take care of every word you say
Each syllable
Creates the future
That you will inhabit

You are the one who can win
You have to succeed
You have to breakthrough
Stand proudly at the edifice
And scream at the world

'I am here to make a difference!
All the things that I abhor
I will transcend
I will live and laugh and love
I will break through the confines of my small self
It is only I who can make the changes
I will not wait for others to make it happen for me'

Most noble life
Filled with challenge and opportunity
How you have battled

But now you must fill your bones
With the spirit of Josei Toda
You must fight with every ounce of strength
You must muster the strength of a million men
And push forward never thinking of defeat
Only thinking of eternal victory

The future is determined
By the hearts of people

Strong hearts
Brave hearts
Will open up
A bright new dawn

Cynical hearts
Weak hearts
Leave it to others
And suffer under their misdirection

To awaken courage
Lying dormant within
Is the fulfillment
Of mission

I have been lost
In this mad world

Constructs
Surrounding me
Have engendered beliefs
That are not my own

Falsities
Introduced
By the faceless few
To guide me from
Truth

These constructs
Of gain and acquisition
Make up
Our modernist slavery
And blunt our humanity

Why aquire?
Should we not
Concern ourselves
With giving?

I have been lost
And wandered for years
In the fog
Of so called development

Trying to find
Solace
In the answers
Of others

How foolish I have been
How naive

I have been lost
And yet,
Moments of connection
Have returned me
Awakened me

And with one look
You may
Observe my heart

Looking
Deeply into my eyes
You will
Find my soul

There you will know
Who I am
There you will find
Humanity
Humility
Grace

These worldly affairs
So transient
Are of no import

I am but a spirit
Lost for a brief moment of eternity

And for a brief moment
Once more
With you

I am found

The art
Of holding it all
Together

The quality
Of
Honesty

The ability
To uphold
Strong moral principles

United
In one body

Do we disintegrate
Or integrate?

Do we separate, conflagrate?

Become irate
Or negotiate?

Integrity

Oneness

Unity

One

Fight
With your last ounce of strength!

Stand up
For what you truly believe!

Politicians
Will come and go
Eager for their moment in the spotlight

But
The brave
Give their lives
For truth and justice

Fight
With your last ounce of strength!

Stand up
For what you truly believe!

Give honour
To yourself

Surround your life
With dignity

Be a great human being

Be a great human being

Every second
Every minute
Every hour
Every day
We paint patterns
On the great canvas of our lives

Patterns that direct us along
Familiar avenues

Patterns that lead us
To draw predictable conclusions

Patterns that drive us
Into the same dead ends

Patterns that can make us feel
Helpless
And subject to the forces of destiny

Until
One day
We realise
That we cannot live happily
In this way
That we must change our canvas
And describe a new pattern

Through the re-orientation of our minds
And a revolution of
The beliefs we hold firmly
In the depths of our hearts
Somehow
We decide to change our pattern

A new canvas
Is born
And a brilliant
Work of art
Is created afresh

It’s a small distance
Between success and failure
Happiness and sadness

It’s all in the mind
It’s totally up to us

Happiness is a state of being
It’s nothing to do with what other people think
It’s only decided
By what we choose to do

Your temper flares
Like an alligator
Flashing forth from the water’s edge
And I ask
Why do I endure?
Why do I carry on like this?

The sea roars
Incessantly
Like the sound of a gale
I am drawn to its power

Clouds have emptied
Ceaselessly today
And the earth
Which holds so many secrets
Lies sodden

My feet cool on the wet grass
And I wonder
What will the future hold
For the likes of me?

Is there a promised land
Or will it all be over
In a flash?

Sometimes my day disappears
And all I have done
Is struggle
To arrive at some place
Just to arrive

I could gaze up at the stars
And they would tell me more
Than your eyes do

Perhaps I should expect less from you
And more from the universe
In forty years time
I will know the answer

Glassy and still the river
Boats rest gently
Atop their reflections

The junction
Between river and air
Crystal clear and sharp

Tired faces
And bunched up shoulders
Populate my train
As two towers of smoke
Quietly rise

A pitched whine of closing doors
Makes a strange music
And a pair of sneezes
Is sent my way

Outside
Frozen water
Clings to grasses

Parallel steel lines sparkle
As smoky sky trails
Signify the industrial art
Of this landscape

Squabbling gulls
Fighting for leftovers
Pay no heed
To what I see

Two towers of smoke
On the horizon
Remind me
Of the insidious dance
Of war

When I feel as tired as this
When I feel put upon from the moment I awake
When I am battered by stormy words of criticism
When I am stuck at the gates of my own weakness
When I am torn up by indecision
When I am dazed by the dawn
When I simply think that I will never be able to achieve my dreams
A voice inside me says
Never give up
Never be defeated
Continue
Just continue

One mistake
Alters
The course
Of history

One error
And everything
Changes

Maybe
For the better

Maybe
Not

One mistake
Alters
The course
Of history

One mistake
One

To feel
To experience
To concern oneself with
The daily sufferings and joys
Of all humanity
Is to be cursed
And blessed

People make their living
Among other people
And the great swarm of people
Celebrates winners
And casts out losers

Occasionally people rise up
Exhibiting higher qualities
They burn brightly
Differently
Embodying
Deeper purpose

To feel
To experience
To concern oneself with
All things
Is to be cursed
And blessed

To transform feelings
Into thoughts, words and deeds
Is to purge
To cleanse
To purify

To free

Rumbling
Rolling
Dense
Clouds

Thick
Clustered
Blustered
Pounding

Lamppost - shuddering winds
Meet explosion of sunset illumination

Too much
To take in

The air
The light
The sounds
The temperature

Bodies
Viscerally
Eternally
Alert

All alive
Living in the extra ordinary

Is there a being of great wisdom
Who can answer me?

Would you tell?

Is it possible
To live a hundred lifetimes
In the journey of a single life?

Is it possible to shed skin
Time and again
And evolve?

Like a first watery creature
Emerging
Crawling
Gasping for breath
Labouring under the sun
Before one day
Flying
Into the brilliance of sunset

The ghosts of my emotions surface
As music tips my buried tears
Beyond my eyelids

My ageing, beating heart
Swells and groans
With the release of grief
And I experience sensations
Long trapped and then freed
Like great wide bubbles
Working their way slowly upwards
From the deep dark silent depths
Of fathomless oceans

What is the meaning of living?
I ask the stars on this still night

What is the meaning of being?

I whisper questions
To the endless expansive space
Above my misty head

Is it to wonder at the quiet miracles of life?

My heart, my body and my soul churn
Like molten butter, syrup and chocolate
Melding and reforming into one
And I soak my sorrows in silent solitude

I call to the ghosts
Of my dearly beloved departed
And hold their hands
In my wakeful sleepwalk

Dearest companions  of times passed
You have carried me with you
Through time
And space
Without ever asking why

My arms are open
And I offer to carry the universe for you
Although my shaky legs will buckle
Arthritis will weaken my white bones
And death will one day still my flesh

I will carry the universe
Because I don’t know how else to be

If I were another man
I would hold you close
If I were another man
I would let you hold me closer
If I were another man
I would bring you flowers
If I were another man
I would read you poetry until you fell asleep
If I were another man
I would carry you over the ocean of your sorrows
If I were another man
I would honour you just as you are
If I were another man
I would be the man I want to be
If I were another man
I would be the man I ought to be