Much is lost in times of peace
As shepherds shear their flocks for fleece,
As farmers tiller and toil their soil
And kitchens bubble with pots O' boil.
The ways of war are best not forgotten
For sooner or later the barons boot
Shall have trodden,
Upon that farmers land.
Arm in arm and hand in hand
With brigands and brutes In armored hides of tan.

Though the pastures now lay golden
Beholden to the setting sun.
Keep your scabbard close,
Blade keen not blunt.
For far beyond yon neglected walls
The winds are rising,
The ocean's tidal breath
Brings tidings of war.
This time it may devour us all.

The time comes!
Whispers from seashells
Claim much to be done.
Already the shadows seem tall.
Darkness grows bold
The Sun falls old,
Tired by the sight of all.

And as the watcher slumbers
Stars peek around the curtains
Once drawn tight by the light of day.
Their time to shine and show mankind the way.
But mans gaze is glazed, eyes distant, far away.

Blossoms bow to their God,
Calmly carving paths
Across the evening tide.
Petals whisper their last prayers
Toward the darkening sky.
Tucked up sound within their beds,
Huddled close beside the corner
Of the gardening shed.
Basking in long shadows of
Weary light,
Wanting only to stop and rest for the night.
Until at least the darkness breaks,
Dawn peeks and brings a sense of change.
Today we erase yesterdays mistakes.

What have we become?
When poetry resides
In two lines, then we're done?
Have you nothing more to say?

Pretending to be profound,
Applause all around.
Nothing more than a passing thought.
If thought was required at all?

You call this poetry?
I don't.

Perhaps I'm just old fashioned,
Believing in meaning
And the power of words.
Yet on occasion i have heard
Voices of angels and demons
Faint but undeterred,
Laughing in the face of mediocrity.

A virus fed by popularity,
So what have we learned?
From your instagram friendly
Twitter assembly,
We realise you have said
Absolutely nothing at all.

The rain may fall hard
But do not close your window.
Open it instead.

Would that the windswept blooms
Played soft through a valley's morning dew,
A while rested by sun scorched dunes
Embarked on path neither old nor new.
The wind shall choose what it will do,
Which leaves it leaves and those it shall use.
From forrest dark to desert twilight view
An acorn lays a haunting tune.
Song shines bright modicum of truth,
That we are but sand, swept away anew.

Rigging taught and water bilged,
Sails snap stubborn in the face
Of Gaia's force.
Sailors gripped in terror forlorn,
Sailing round Tierra del Fuego,
Cape Horn.

Limes are long since rotten
And the *** is watered down,
At least three men overboard
Shot to depths where all will drown.

The captain stands to lose his crown
Cursing into the storm.
Cursing at the ocean wall
And the day that God was born.
Tacking starboard long into the dawn,
He releases rudder and draws his Sword.
As if the world his steel had hindered
He grabs the wheel and turns to windward.

We are worn like winter coats
Held close while wild winds rage.
The scarf that suffocates the throat
The cloak that provokes the rain.
While the weather waits and wonders
Whether it will weep or thunder,
What we wear seems outnumbered,
Cotton caught out in the rain.

The coat now hangs forgotten,
Left to rot with wet socks,
Winter frocks and all things sodden.
The ghosts of colder days
Locked up and tucked away,
Moth eaten and decayed.
Waiting for the weather,
Wondering if whether
We will ever be worn again.

What words would Winter whisper,
When the last warm rays
Of sweet Summer sister
Have shone beyond forgone horizons?
His hands clasp blistered,
Embraced by the rhythm of fate.
Love conquers all but his envy is great,

And it grows,

And it blows,

And the Winds are rising,

Giving voice to once silent trees.
Through the maelstrom
Winter watches.
A feeble man on bended knees
Cradles the embers of fire.
Winter froze with desire
While stunned by despair,
That even man could find warmth
While his sky lay frozen and bare.

Every triumph that we forge
And every evil that we lay
Are etched on the quilt of reality
Brought out to the light of day.

There is always a witness,
Even if it's you.
Walls are a sign of something hidden,
Something we wish to be out of view.
But our masonry is shoddy,
Our archers ill prepared.
The walls will fall transparent
As hollow as our flaws that all are aired.

The words that flowed unchecked yet tidal
Lay dammed by life not calm but idle.
Serene is a dream for these words of water
That slipped through the fingers of another man's daughter.
For life plays heavy on liquid minds
Which dwell too long on the swells of time.

Yet when the moon shines true,
Reflected in that greatest hue,
Horizon of the deepest blue
Deep within our minds.
The words torrent, cascade and surge
To purge unworthy from our sight.
Waters rage, fires billow.
Carrying carrion far into the night.

Youth was never about the innocence
Or the ignorance of what lay ahead.
It was never the friendships
Sailing the waves of imagination.
Or releshing the times we were astray and led.

It was certainly never the dreams,
We have those our entire life
Eight hours a day or night
Spent in mind forged make believe.
It was never the plans that were hatched,
Thatched and woven but semi detached
From what it all could mean.

That lack of conscience, the guilt
It all does feed the fire.
And that is youth, a proving ground
Among candles and lanterns, bonfires,
Cities raized to the ground.
Perhaps a grand symphony of light
May, with time and care be made,
The image burned on an iris fades.
Drowned out and forgotten by the
Light of a billion flames.