When a young man I so loved you
with heart and soul both bold yet true
The fates have come between us both
though my feelings still speak of you


This was a love without a ring
instead kept by the heart and kiss
That also didn't fall with time
nor with the childish loss of bliss


When love is tethered to the heart
possessed of happy devotion
The passing years will never dull
the height nor depth of that ocean


So it was as it should have been
this love bound only in spirit
Would not be shed of by the grave
nor by those who failed to hear it

Tate
Original version with pictures and music
http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/aristate/515537/

What frail creatures we men are
made from sinew, muscle and pride
Thinking we can conquer the world
for the woman who sits by our side

All is brash, gall and bravado
with such a carefree debonair
Taunting those who test our mettle
intimidating all who dare

A young man thinks himself gifted
to hold sway and folly so near
Injure his pride and you will find
that he becomes someone to fear

A man is nothing without pride
it is the food that feeds his soul
Desired respect of fellows
becomes his sole life’s aim and goal

The handsome woman of his dreams
is she that realizes this flaw
Playing to his strength and weakness
by pretending she never saw

To that woman he grants comfort
strong arms forever hold her tight
Their truth of heart is not broken
whenever she is out of sight

The reason men are unfaithful
they behave only by your side
Has little to do with temper
and everything to do with pride

If you wish for a happy home
a man who's strait forward and true
Just play host to his foolish pride
and he will be loyal to you

Tate

Original with pictures and music is here
http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/aristate/482949/

Of all the faces man puts forth
to hide his dark inner sorrows
Love is the one that matters most
as from the deep soul it borrows

It lives among us everywhere
memories of the gentle breeze
Speaking only truth to the wind
for all the others we're to please

Pen sonnets to your gentle way
sing songs of the cold raging sea
Amid toil from emotions bliss
these feelings, flow, freely from me

We know Fate in all her fury
fear no rage from her painful screams
For whenever the truth be told
she harms us only in our dreams

No one controls the hearts desire
nor whether it be happy or sad
As in each one of ours does beat
torrid seeds both of good and bad

We pine for that one's acceptance
a glint in the young woman’s eye
The sweet smell of her hair caress
as she wistfully saunters by

Those few small things all so precious
create memories cherished gone
Recalling times of loves sweet bliss
loving moments of youth go on

For all these things we know of us
and then a hundred, thousand more
Life will never answer them all
as we open up each new door

Man will always question his fate
search for that brighter inner light
To illuminate his darkness
and scare away the haunting night


Tate

My house shakes from the wind tonight
the Nor-Easter sweeps to and fro
A-whistling down out of the North
from icicled lands bound in snow

The poor I see go back and forth
across the roads of my hometown
As winter storms engulf their souls
like bowling pins to be knocked down

Inside my home the weather's warm
outside a wicked gale does blow
I can't help thinking to myself
of those who have no where to go

I find it hard to rest myself
while brothers walk the lamp lit cold
As bad it must be for the young
it is a nightmare to the old

Tonight I'll brave the surly streets
who can say they know of their role
Perhaps we're here for fortunes sake
to share the warmth with one lost soul


Tate
Original with music and pictures
http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/aristate/486065/

We come into life as innocents
no prejudice upon our soul
Washed clean by a new beginning
not a single debt, nor a toll

We have two choices most of us
codes of fathers we just swallow
Or blaze a path in loneliness
others wonder but don't follow

It is that rare one we may find
who chooses to go his own way
These are the ones we all admire
not for them but us we should pray

Fearless souls unafraid to di
they the ones bucking convention
Who teach us all our life's follies
by adding a new dimension

As life progresses onward
to it's predestined conclusion
We learn then teach the least of us
to see truth not the delusion

Don't fear the ones with their own ways
for they may know what we do not
He who turns toward forgiveness
has discovered what most forgot


Tate

Oh I know what you are thinking
this time everything has changed
He needs you to ease his drinking
can you not see how that's deranged

Your old need to mother the sick
has warped your foolish, kindly, heart
His pain falls on you like a brick
you have known the truth from the start

As you tell yourself he loves you
while pain on you he lavishes
His heart can't take on love a ‘new
and heal from neglect’s ravages

The wounds aren't love he gives to you
it's your shoulder that he cries on
His heart has room for only two
it's to this pain you are now drawn

No man can give what he has not
his heart aching for another
He can't give what he hasn't got
while still crying for the other


Tate

He falters now where once trod firm
I helped him whenever I could
Here was he, whose favor I'd sought
frail body where the man once stood

My spirit soared and loves him still
he had heard my heart’s lonesome cries
When I was the child of few years
while he a man grown old and wise

His was the soul I based mine on
the kind spirit who loved me most
Strength of purpose flowed from his mind
now stands this vision like a ghost

I bear witness as time runs out
where once I advanced in his sight
Both by favor and through merit
his eyes beheld my future bright

In time may we all find our place
helping others achieve their dream
While I could only hope to be
held by someone in such esteem

He's lost none of his true spirit
that still holds to my heart so dear
I will follow where this heart leads
every day of every year


Tate

The original with music and video of Georges wedding from 1957 in  8mm is here
http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/aristate/644192