I wish I could look into your eyes,
But Aphrodite won't let me;
For a mere mortal must not heavenly pleasures cherish.

I wish your majestic gait could attain the liquidity of a waltz,
And yet, lose not a scintilla of that grandeur,
That made modest a proud admirer.

I wish I could touch the hands I saw in a dream,
Bestowing spring upon the autumn-struck lilacs,
Lying keen, by the empty street.

I wish I could make you hear 'L'amour est un oiseaux rebelle',
That my earnest love for you, on 'festive' eves sings,
To commemorate grief, that days make me oblivious to.

Now! I call upon you!
Come here,
And be the harbinger to my bliss.

Come here, I pray,
And help catch every moment that dies,
Before we even know it existed.

O come here,and let's sing,
'Libiamo, libiamo'
Before death even knows we exist.

Sometimes I am ether.
Sometimes I am aria in full voice,
focussed breath from deep within, no, deeper—
from the centre of creation itself—
my truest self expressed,
I am full to bursting.
Then, transformed again,
as surely as night follows day
I am ether and together we are the breath
of everything, rolling through mighty lungs
in symphony with the stars.
Me, then we,
always breath.

Don't scream "I love you" from the mountaintops,
competing with the babel and clamor of the world.
Whisper it to me in the still silence of the night,
making me strain to hear it,
blocking out the din of the universe to focus on the melody of your voice.
Let me feel it infuse the skin of my neck,
carried by the sweetness of your breath.

The bare pads
of her toes
thumped

across
the photo-faded
tiles

Fingertips
outstretched
at full attention

Precious enough
to catch
the kiss

only
mama's lips
could gift

She walked
away
slowly

taking
great
care

exhibiting
to all who
didn't know

the only thing
she knew to
treasure

-on a local beer at a local pub, or
another good reason to speak out as a poet

An angel in an apron offered me a drink.
"Here comes Eternal Youth," she said,
"it is meant to make you think."

     While I drank, the world billowed like a sail.
     Time went crazy, bladders appeared,
     the world's front peeled off like a veil.

Heroes and gods alike were humbled.
Their faces aged, their bones crumbled,
the wind swept away what remained of them.

     With them they took the light.
     I stumbled in pitch black darkness
     and man, from the deep I cried.

And then, suddenly, I knew:
my voice, that's me, I'm here!
I'm not too young to interfere!

     I shouted and pushed up the curtain,
     reflected light cut through the dark:
     the waving sea, time to embark!

My angel again was in her counsellor's role.
"Now sail in song forever," she spoke,
"raise your voice, save your soul!"

     I peered into the golden waves...
     and found it was this magic potion,
     that turned and turned in its majestic motion.

There is truth in wine but there's soul in beer;
and when it sends you spinning, sing, sing!
sing, so all the world can hear!

-from Venice: a tipsy gentleman
bursts into song for his escort girl

If I only could admire your feet, forever,
I would pray to live on
and live on - pray, forever.

     I know I am not the only one.
     So glad to follow this tranquil lot,
     these fine and happy admirers,
     who bow to pay your offertory.

To join this choir,
these humble connoisseurs
who yield to your glory.

     I stumbled, hit the bottom,
     today lost all that I possessed.
     My head, my mind, my soul -
     so incredibly clear now,
     ready to follow, eager to bow
     for the urge of my heart.

To join this song,
sung in eloquent silence,
turning to the mystery of your feet.

     This moment is eternity,
     far away my petty desires.
     It is perfect time, the only time,
     never started, never ends.

If I only could admire your feet, forever,
I would pray to live on
and live on - pray, forever.

     No sound, no sight, no smell, no taste -
     this channel opened in my heart.
     No boat, no lapping waves,
     no misty vapours shining in the night -
     just the clarity of clarity:
     a foothold for us all.

Once there was a simple song, from which all songs did spring,
It was smooth, soft and sweet - 'Twas a pretty thing.
But the song grew tired - For so long had it sung alone
That bereft of a simple love, it returned to it's single home.
And through the morning forests, and through the far-off seas,
The early things set to waiting for the Song of Autumn Leaves-

And so this song was one day borne, into a waiting world
And captured in the softened form- Of a baby girl.
And this girl would travel the world, blessed with a gift of singing
Praised for her golden voice, revered for her hope and dreaming-
So the forests began to rustle, and the seas soon went to discussing
About this sweet and simple girl, to whom to they turned to trusting
For she was borne to help the healing of a troubled land
Asking nothing in return,to give everything she had
As the years went passing by, she slowly came to think
That no one loved her for her, they only wanted her to sing.
Then she swore to silence, so the forests and seas began to craft
A wooden man with a heart of pearl to help her love and laugh-
Set at the foot of a far-off coast, The wooden man began to look
For the hiding place of the Autumn Song, and as it was it took
Years before he found her, And the winds grew colder on each,
Without her voice to guide him, she was never within his reach.
So he climbed to the top of a mountain, and gazed out to look afar
And spied her lying in a moonlit field, in the Valley of the Falling Star.
So quickly he went to her, and in the valley set to easing her mind
Tickling her with a leafy branch - She laughed for the first time!
And he told her stories, of things he had done and seen
When trying desperately to find her, so that her eyes began to gleam.
And then quite gently, he asked her what was wrong
And smiling so beautifully, she obliged him with a song-
And the song moved him so, that the wooden man began to cry,
And when his sappy tears touched him, the wooden man came alive!
And the joy the two discovered was a thing of natural beauty,
And their love became a legend - It was so soft, sweet and soothing
That it stood in song for ages hence, an example of what could be
When mankind mingles with sound, of when music and nature meet.