When Princess Lemon went to bed that night
she knew for sure that everything had changed.
She knew the pounding hoofbeats would pursue
the quivering night-time body of her dreams,
would shake her upside-down and inside-out,
would set the tempo of her shuddering sleep.

The horseman spurs the horseflesh to obey
his strict command: "Up now, and clear the hedge!"
Together, man and beast perform as one,
combining will and power; and at speed.

The huntsman and the Princess are a pair.
They dance to Pan as only lovers can
and twine their bodies in the open air.

I'd like you all to be happy.
If I could erase your secret apprehensions,
and kiss your lives better,
I would.

It's not that easy.
When my needs conflict with the general good,
and require me to offend,
I do.

I cannot be a prisoner of your expectations.
When my limited stocks of bonhomie are exhausted,
and contempt suggests I scream,
I will.

The road continues to its vanishing point on the horizon —
where over-ambition falls to earth as delusion
and toil is sublimated into wonder.

Will you travel with me?
Will you relinquish the almost right and the fairly good?
Can you scrape away the detail from the essence?

Navigation may be difficult.
There is a route to perfection, but it is not signposted.
Sometimes tarmac gives way to dirt and mud.

The light is fading, now.
Eventually, sleep will be unavoidable.
Tomorrow, we can steal the lightening.

"Please consider an alternative," they said.
"Imagine the delights of Venus,
from tentative rising to satisfied sigh;
the shared warmth in solemn darkness".

"For others, such journeys are permissible," I said.
"But they do not reveal the bloodied peaks of the martial way.
These are my challenges to myself:
— to meet danger, and shake hands with it;
— to be there, where heroes struggle, and suffer, and struggle again;
— to make a difference."

Love is not true love,
without a willingness to sacrifice.

Catastrophe is inevitable;
nice people like us are not exempt.

No use to claim we did not realize.
We know now.

Do not expect help from our elected officials;
their long-planned exit strategy has been withdrawn from public use.

As for the charismatic leaders and the Town Hall ranters —
how could we have let them impress us?

Catastrophe is imminent.
Have you soiled your white cotton underwear?
You might as well do that now — it will save time later.

After cocktails at Luigi's Bar, and then The Golden Bowl,
I proposed we play a gig of jazz-inspired rock and roll.
We all thought we'd make the fans cry out for encores every night.
But our schemes were dreams that faded in the morning's ruthless light.

My blue guitar should captivate the people every night.
But the dream crumbled, the dream tumbled.
My dream faded out of sight.

Playing keyboards was Patricia. (Never 'Trisha', never 'Pat'.)
She'd a taste for gracious living in her small art deco flat.
She would practice chord progressions, sipping lapsang souchong tea.
Then she played away at weekends with her special friend, Marie.

She trained her dainty fingers to explore new grooves each night.
But the dream crumbled, the dream tumbled.
Her dream faded out of sight.

We had Ritchie on electric bass, with tap-and-pull technique.
Such a clever devil — Ritchie almost taught the bass to speak.
Ralph the drummer's backbeat cymbal crashes measured out the bars.
We agreed the speed — then found we could not play like superstars.

Would the crowd be wowed by passion from my lovely blue guitar?
No, the dream crumbled, as the band stumbled.
Our dream faded overnight.

The Blue Guitar Quartet
was as close as we could get
to our vision for the music of today.
But we bumbled and we fumbled,
our aspirations humbled.
So we slowly put our instruments away.

"The Blue Guitar Quartet
is down, but not out yet.
With practice you will crack it," said Marie.
"Let Patricia be your singer;
she's a musical humdinger,
and as soulful as a solo girl can be".

"She can improvise a blues
based on any riff you choose.
Let's have handshakes and embraces —
this quartet is going places!
Here's to jazz-rock, and The Blue Guitar Quartet!"

I leant over, and read her notebook.

Treasure pleasure:
seize the azure instant!!!

She never forgave me for laughing.