I feel each heartbeat like a wardrum
Echoing across empty fields like a
Battle cry sung from the mouths of soldiers
Desperate to come home
I hear each breath like the wind in the willows beside me
Whispering short and shallow in time
With the rise and fall of my chest
I am awake
But I do not wish to be
Oh to fall asleep
To see that endless night cover my eyes
A starless blanket
A moonless darkness
A welcome friend
Who for too long has stayed away
I will welcome you with open arms
Sleep my love why do you allude me so
Like a scorned lover you refuse to come
So I sit and listen to my internal drum

I lie awake remembering
as sunset's drawing near
of golden days far in the haze
of loving without fear
I lie awake remembering
your hands soft on mine
saying see that you love me
of having enough time
I lie awake remembering
when nights are filled with pain
us dancing in the sunrise
and singing in the rain
I lie awake remembering
how much I miss it all
the touch of you, the feel of you
I won't forget at all

The soft caress of inky night
Eventually will fade to dawn
And reach out towards the growing light

With fingers black but turning white
Until the tips are all but gone
The soft caress of inky night

Comforts in the morning bright
The melodies of dusk go on
And reach out towards the growing light

To clear their mind, improve their sight
To seek the grey eyed swimming swan
The soft caress of inky night

Captures hills without a fright
Traveling as the hours withdrawn
Reaches out towards the growing light

The mourning sky brings red tinged spite
And of it does accept the pawn
The soft caress of inky night
And reach out towards the growing light

As the subtle dusk takes the sky in dampened hues,
I crouch exhausted on my sill,
Tonight I will not sleep,
Tonight I refuse

My eyelids blink as heavily as a mountain,
I try to straighten, to bend back my curved spine but I cannot,
Crisp night claims the air,
Silver drops falling from the sky as those from the youthful fountain

Until at last I'm darkness deep,
I will,
I do,
Succumb to sleep

Like billowing sheets they rose
grey wings beating endlessly at the air
silver bellies dragging over the tops of trees
tendrils of fog tapping at faded window panes
waking the city

Like a lazy cat it stretched
yawning widely showing its fangs
even before breakfast time
as slowly it padded out of its doors shaking its fur
against the rain

I am not blind now,
but once I was

Blind to the hate of man
Blind to your hate of me
Blind to your lies and tricks
Blind to the dying sea

Blind to the setting sun
Blind to the rising moon
Blind to the birds and the bees
Blind to the silv'ry dune

Blind to the whispers that followed
Blind to the stares round the halls
Blind to the pointing fingers
Blind to the iron walls

I was blind once,
but not now,
no.....
now I see

There is a girl I know,
she writes poems, stories, dreams

captures unwilling words and strokes
them into submission
like a lazy cat on a summer day

There is a girl I know,
she writes poems, stories, dreams

weaves vibrant tapestries with her tongue
crossing one colour after another
weaving a blanket of words

There is a girl I know,
she writes poems, stories, dreams

constructs gilded cathedrals with
deft fingertips tracing over a page
blank but not for long

There is a girl I know,
she writes poems, stories, dreams

paints pictures with words
each letter building off of the last
constructing a familiar face

There is a girl I know,
she writes poems, stories, dreams

reads to the trees
the great kings of the forest
and her words sing the song of the loon

There is girl I know,
she writes poems, stories, dreams

each page winding deeper than the last
i read quickly closing on the end
only to find

the last

sentence

unfin-