The Beast slants in to the girl in yellow
Her brown eyes smile, as wide as her lips
With candles the light of the hall burns mellow
In dappled light Beast leads Belle by the hips

Across the whole majestic hall
The couples glide and slide like water;
The burnished flicker on the candle-light is tall
In its background, a million shadows saunter

Gold-gilded hands in spiralling dance
Like Catherine Wheels spinning on parade
The guests whirl in their waltzy trance
As billowing notes of the music cascade

Free at last, Beast recites his verse
It banishes the witches’ curse

Illusion persuades by coy mimesis
So I never dared to host the thesis
That our love was never real
My world gets filtered through a warp
It bears no semblance, the truth distorts
Where the spectres of madness play their deal

Now then you might think it's odd
That I could entertain the fraud
Of a lie that's whispered in my head
But there's a multitude of phoney speakers
As they grow stronger, I grow weaker
And the resistance to them in my mind drops dead

So I ask: are we kin, darling, you and I?
Or do you refuse to be an alibi
In this cruel and cosmic delusion
Nothing changes for all the desire
You're still not here, I'm still the liar
Suffering a truth contusion

Yet we often cross our paths like two wee duck
And when we do I thank the gods and luck
Praying that we will cross again
But I've learned our paths are a parallax
Like the horizon, or train tracks
Love is lax; we end up cleft in twain

Now you, I made "you" up inside my head
So now I want you somewhere else instead
Put you where you can't torment
My porcelain psyche is fragile, cracked
and broken. All the odds were stacked
Against us anyway: Call this love's lament.

The sky leans down to laugh, the trees uproar
It's impossible to tell who's laughing more
Or if the laughter's even true
Yet in unison the world mocks me
For the frivolous, foolish flight of fancy
That pivoted footloose between me and you

Now exit love this prodigious charade
My best laid plans have been waylaid
It's time to call the curtain
But if there's one thing that I've learned:
To stop my heart from getting burned
I should be more cynical, uncertain

“Love” is the thing which decorates the soul
That makes it bright, effulgent, warm
Love’s work there never stops at all
And is not by time erased or deformed

But a wall was built around my soul
To fend off the touch of the unknown
But one day I’d like a stranger’s soul
To take inside to meet my own

But who would want to paint my soul?
I’m one of billions in the throng
Maybe in time I will bloom
Or learn to capture them with song

Consider Socrates, sauntering through Athens
Testing his thoughts and his tales on the throngs
And think of the first moment of perfect insight
they had. From this guru who’d made Reason his song!
There in the crowd balanced wisdom and madness
But there were those who were raged by a rebellious creed
Thinking of innocent youth, corrupted with gladness
They fought to bring Socrates to death for his deeds
that threatened the state. All admire her name!
Athens collapses in to panic. The jury assembles
To decide whether Socrates is to blame
For the corrupted thing the youth resembles
See the lawmakers bring justice to her knees
As fate chooses Hemlock for Socrates

The moon hangs ripe, the wind is sharp
I lie restless on my bed and sigh
Suddenly there’s the sound of the harp
Its melody ringing, crisp and sharp
Notes billowing like ribbons over the sky

The moon hangs ripe, the air is cold
I lie satiated on my bed; I'm glad
Suddenly a seahorn’s sonic boom unfolds
I stamp and I shout and I swear and I scold
Without the lilt of the harp I go mad!

When I hear the harp’s sweet blare
I forget all my suffering and shame
I hearken to the music there
Which bears me aloft up heaven’s stairs
Where my troubles are peacefully slain

He talks in riddles wrapped in mystery.
The words are enigmas. They have history.
He thinks in ways that can’t be known.
His mind is wild and overgrown.

I never saw a soul so deep;
Spirit so fair; temperament meek.
His mind is free of any stain.
In these words he'll live again.

I speak of times when love was strong
And I was faithful, although wrong
I lived in thoughts that fractured me
And made it known, albeit angrily

But my deepest thoughts I could not speak
And that was what had made me bleak
Like damsels and the moon I’d weep
And then I’d only wake to sleep

But deciduous, I shed my leaves
And at the loom of my life I weave
I have become a babe anew
And I wake to watch the world in bloom

When magic bowed out to causality
God was the main fatality
Verdict: Reason’s lacerations
Now the solar system spins on and on
As the scientists with sin look on
Destroying nature by isolation

In a solitary, single flash
The gods were all replaced with cash
And for a while it all seemed sunny
But when we went and killed the bees
And the crops died out, we began to see:
It’s impossible to eat your money

So I could rant on, darling, all day long
And **** this world’s misdeeds in song
Like a losing woman’s lullaby
But nothing changes for my complaint
The earth still gyrates with the taint
Of its jilted, jaded sky

Illusion betrays with its edifice:
Forms always change and grow, they shift
In front of the mind’s swivelling, gimlet eye.
Reality is always playing
I guess to illustrate what I’m saying:
You’ll never twice see the same sky

So then, if we agree, it's good
That perception pranks us as it should
And nothing can be sure
We no longer have to live in suspense
Or dwell in ambivalence
Any more

You’ve got a soothing, healing hand
You’ve got a soft, tender look
You’ve got a gorgeous gift that gives
And leaves its subjects shaken, shook
You’re the frenzied fury in the flame
You’re the fire in my art
You’re the pinnacle of grace my friend
You’re my lucky heart

Look in to the sky my friend
And tell me what you see
Do you see a prison of blue?
Or do you see eternity?
What do you think of friend
When you look up in to space?
Are you bored by the cosmos?
Or are you touched by its immortal grace?

We’re lost on the magical frontier
Way off the well worn track
We’re lost on the magical frontier
And there’s no looking back
We’re lost on the magical frontier
The way that chaos wends
We’re lost on the magical frontier
This magic has no end

Look in to your soul my friend
Tell me what you find
Do you find a hollow husk?
Or a blooming heart and mind?
Look inside yourself my friend
Find the enigma within
If you search within your soul
There’s treasure to win

We’re lost on the magical frontier
Way off the well worn track
We’re lost on the magical frontier
And there’s no looking back
We’re lost on the magical frontier
The way that chaos wends
We’re lost on the magical frontier
This magic has no end

The Elephant her treasure brings
She stores it safe and sound
Its place is in the heart divine
Where faith and fire are bound
What wonders of the other world
Could Elephant reveal
But that most coveted of treasures
May have to be a secret still

Burnished leaves of sanguine red
Adorn the branches of the trees
It really is a sight to please
Until the leaves drop dead

An omnibus across the way
Scuttles like a big red bug
Brighter than a silk red rug
Shining under light of day

As seasons change, red leaves go bald
The world loses its magic hue
It turns my heart from red to blue
To watch the world turn cold

I have an angel, I have a Seraph!
My guide within me like a heart
It’s solid, sure, for I know
It never leaves, it won’t depart
It lifts my soul, bright with joy
Everlasting love I see
My eyes are opened up to all
That’s written in eternity

Magic the moment when
In this realm of dulled perception
Where minds tick regular as clockwork
And thoughts and ideas
Never change direction:

Chaos and beauty collide
In a dance infernal
Hinting at the immutability
Of the universe
To the withered eye, exposed to the eternal

We’re blind men on the stairwell of life
Groping, reaching higher
Towards the source
Towards the light
Of the divine fire

No animal throughout the land
So majestic as the hare
If you could see what’s in her heart
You’d marvel at what’s there

Bounding past the meadows green
All throughout the year
The hares play and while away
Their hours with their dear

No animal throughout the land,
So sweet and so refined
With tender hearts and tender minds
They fawn and frolic with their kind

No animal throughout the land
So majestic as the hare
If you could see what’s in her heart
You’d marvel at what’s there

He dwelled in ancient, precious sites
His spirit swelled and bubbled
He knew no longer of his pain
He knew no longer troubles
He danced and played across the globe
Around, along the ways
Robust, he strolled, wild and bold,
For the rest of days

Morning sparrow do not fly,
But stay aside my stoop and sing,
Your warm, effulgent songs of joy,
That give your life to everything.

Her sharp melody rung,
And spilled in to the air,
The sweetest that was sung,
Arresting and fair.

Joy is the thing which flies,
That frolics in the sun,
Resplendent in the sunny beams,
Eternal life just begun.

Little babe
Do not cry
Stretch your wings
And learn to fly

Soar and soar
Above the stars
You'll dance with angels
And swoop by Mars

The universe
Will flutter by
You'll burst
In to a butterfly

With gorgeous wings
And gorgeous dreams
You'll frolic in
The moony beams

Just remember
When you are sad
You are loved
And all is glad

God, put reason asunder,
Hark at the skies and yield to their thunder,
Barb our hearts with the fire of madness,
Let them be touched by joy and sadness,
Beyond safe, stony sanity hides the cosmic field,
Where passion reigns and passion yields,
Where God's fire fills the heart with sparks,
And burns away the cobwebs of reason.

There is a peaceful silence
A sweet serenity
A quantum of solace
That lives inside of me
My sombre solace quells
The vast infernal sea
That swells inside my stomach
For infinity

I saw an angel on my stair
I asked "what are you doing there?"
His kindly smile betrayed no words
Still I knew in my heart I was one of his herd

I saw him again, up a tree
Smiling, beaming back to me
His locks of flame, his fiery might
Burning softly through the night

I asked him again: what are you doing there,
Angel who appeared on my stair?
he flashed the smile that I revered
And then he winked and disappeared.

I saw a spirit dancing
Through the wild grass prancing
Thus she danced all day
In the sunny rays

Till the moon rose new
And night around us grew
She pointed to the sky
I felt my spirit fly

Soaring hand in hand
We zoomed over the land
She winked and disappeared
The angel I revered

I had grown quite fond
Of our divine bond
It kindles in my heart
And lives again in art

Where faith and fire dwell
Peace and love do well
So to my spirit I pray
Lest I go astray.

Angel, angel, spirit true,
Blessed fires run through you,
What fine art could frame thy face,
And capture thy immortal grace?

On what distant shores or sands,
Do you work the magic of thy hands?
When Seraphim frolic on fair wings,
Does thy Creator sing?

What skilled hand, and what mind,
Could craft the beauty of thy shine?
And when thine eyes began to see,
Did you see the world with amity?

Where there's beauty, where there's love,
Can Seraphim be found above?
Where passion burns its fearsome sparks,
Does the Angel move in arcs?

When you were born of His imagination,
Did He rejoice in thy creation?
When your wings were finished whole,
Did He rejoice in thy soul?

Angel, angel, spirit true,
Blessed fires run through you,
What fine art could frame thy face,
And capture thy immortal grace?

Little birds
Thy tuneful songs
This city's noise
Has drowned in throngs

Were not we
In harmony
A union
From you to me?

For I cheep
And sing and feast
And lark and lounge
And play in peace

If love is blood
And heart and cell
And the want of love
Is hell

Then we are
A flock together
That bray and bite
At the city's tether

I had a vision, of divine precision
That I had a quick collision
With an elephant, dancing wild
Who winked and laughed at this meek child

And then I looked unto the sky
All its beauty in one eye
My soul ascended, rapt in flight
At one with universal light

The elephant winked and disappeared
And the magic of night gave way to fear
I rubbed my head and went to bed
Wondering where my angel had fled

That night she came again with songs
A rhapsody around, along
I hearkened to her delightful blare
For heavenly music dwelled in there

In love and nature, good things come in nines:
Nine planets in the solar system, cosmically aligned;
Nine lives in a cat, closely intertwined;
Nine ladies dancing, twirling in a line;
Nine choirs of angels, harking divine,
And nine fruits of the holy spirit, telling us to be kind
Nine, Nine is prime

Morning sparrow, do not fly
But stay aside my stoop and sing,
Your warm, effulgent songs of joy
That give your life to everything

Sing about the sparrow's world
For friends that are gone, rapt in flight
In their skies all love shall soar
And burn its fire through the night

Yours is the music of the mind, sonorous and sweet.
The sound ferries me to your kingdom. I rise up by your side.
An old flute spills seismic song. It is enough to transfix me.

Yours is the force that put the spark in matter,
The hands that sculpt, making me less inert.
Your lively palms are akimbo to the sun.

The light that kisses the sky is yours too.
The balmy moon begets her glow. She is remote,
a pearl disquieted by treads of men. She gyrates on her wild axis.

beating tho the slabs cage it
beating for passers in the street
back and forth it's searching and
the fibres are trembling dolorously
looking for a twin

pulsing tho the spark is weak
swings to a rhythm which moves like speak
but no sound from this broken beak
the severed twin has flown
looking for a yin

melodies tho twin's gone
song dissonant and wan
she's walking with no spirit on
dreaming rocking to and fro
looking for a twin

Ventricles decay with passing time
Muscles weaken from chime to chime
But despite the heart's mortality
True kin are what they seem
And life is like a loving dream
Yet connected to reality

One, together, without a seam
Pure hearts are what they mean
Fluttering beside the light
Hearts waltz across this cosmic scene
Forever suspended on a beam
Love is eternal delight

Wild flowers are falling
Falling through my mind
Every petal open
Every petal kind
In primeval colours
And a time set free
Those wild flowers are falling
Falling over me

Everywhere that's living
Everywhere in bloom
Every mote of nature can't be yielded to a loom
All the parts we're missing
Grown beyond the tomb
Wild flowers are there
Wild wild flowers

leaves flutter down
blanket the ground
without a sound
leaves all around

betwixt the trees
with low fruits ripe
a phantom looms
snares with a pipe

to and fro
the spirit glides
and comes inside
two lights collide

speaks with a voice
for eternity
an insatiable mouth
speaking rabidly

though a spectre
with a snare
it has a heart
with fibre there

we digress
with dancing feet
where fear dissolves
and twin hearts meet

an ochre shadow
blankets me
i fall asleep
in an amber glow

and wake up with my body in throe

Sparrow, sparrow
in the air
wings like arrows
feathers rare

tuneful auras
shroud her song
a rhapsody
around, along

no gray reason
restrains rhyme
as it spills
throughout time

sparrow, sparrow
in the air
what wry spark
is hiding there?

We learn to forget
What truth begets
The transcendental blossom

We learn to deride
What flickers inside
The transcendental wisdom

We turn up kind
Then leave behind
The transcendental love

But turn out open
Where light falls
Through the cracks

A yarn of angels play, loose-braided
Blazing wings have dawn blockaded
Devil's duplex dance undoes their knots
Ropes their oath has plaited rot
Mannacles enslave perception
Realms of sight dulled to a dimension
The fallen world a ruin, grim
What are you doing seraphim?

We must throw off this darkening curse
Feel the irrepressible light of the universe
Yield to the cosmic flow of love
Make peace on earth, as above
Heal the agony of a world,
Then Chaos which has now unfurled
Will be compelled to give its' way
To reason's day and harmony

to you my head
a tulip, bends
its' rolling tongue

in odd directions
where light wends,
akimbo to the sun

to you my heart,
a bulbous bud,
swills the sunlight shards

of love,
splintering the petal tongue
which longs to learn its beau regard

to you my bones
a scaffolding,
buttresses a staunch shell

inside we'll move
in lazy arcs
and dance ethereal