The sun shines into my lounge:
Golden reflection
Making me feel good.
I glimpse blue skies
Through front and back
Windows.

There is something beyond all this.
Something going on.
I sense an atmosphere,
Smell the aroma of
A universal force:
An energy
Subtle
Surreal.

An all pervading mist
That permeates my life:
A haunting sense
Of spirit.
Something beyond.

We are but tiny chicks,
Covered and warmed
By mother’s wings
Soothed by ethereal music
And songs from heavenly choirs.
Whispers winnowed through those windows
While a hazy sun shines through.

For now I bask
Under the glow
Of that warming orb.
High thin swirling clouds
Tempering the heat.
All is peaceful
And serene today
As life’s long mystery
Drifts on.

Paul Butters

© PB 16\9\2019.

Plucking the sun from the sky
Is not a sunset

Pulling a leaf from a tree
Is not autumn

Pushing me off a cliff
Doesn't mean I'm falling for you

And kissing me
Doesn't mean I love you

the glass dome felt safe
the outside world
couldn't get in.
she could see
that outside world.
she never wanted it
until she noticed
the first crack in the dome.
she sat and watched.
after seeing more cracks,
she touched the dome.
the touches increased in force
until everyone heard
her sharp elbows
pounding on the glass.
she grew stronger
until, finally,
she broke the dome.
she's free now.

When I try to control
people and things
with power
and forceful measures
I experience frustration, sorrow and suffering.

When I accept
the situations Destiny has brought me,
and strive to discover opportunities
to be joyful and happy
within these situations,
and strive to discover opportunities
to improve these situations
to increase my joy and happiness,
then I experience joy and happiness.

I try to defy my mental block,
I scrape my head,
becoming harsher on myself
as I force emotions to be penned
into words.
But all what comes is
incoherent, inadequate,
dots and strokes.

The words are fleeting,
they've lost their meaning.
Out of synch,
out of thought,
out of ink.

Writer's block,
is where I sink.

Music requires conflict
Confrontation
Force

Without the friction between a bow and strings,
A violin would simply be an ornament
An empty wooden box full of untapped potential
Surrounded by dust and dead air

Like electricity jolting through a motionless heart
Without the collision of mallets or sticks with the smooth skin of a drum,
There would be no resulting thunderclap
No rhythmic pulse
No heartbeat
No life
There would just be the steady tone of a flatline
The deafening ring of absence

Without the force of fingers on keys
No sound could be unlocked by a piano
The black and white shards of a scale would not dance up and down in delight
Like a happy puppet connected by strings to the master of its voice

Though appealing,
Passive peace alone will not result
In the ripple of sound waves that travels across an ocean of air
To reach our ears and our hearts
That moves us and molds us
Into more than we once were

The laws of physics
Say that sound can’t come from silence
Not without a catalyst
An equivalent input
Kinetic energy for sound energy
An alchemy of the soul

Music is the echo of our emotion
Our motivation
Without it there is only emptiness