Estranged from midnight
The hour tolls.
Amidst broken thoughts
Scurry soft patters of sleep
Persecuted by demons
Of orphaned moments unlived
Deserted in their nascent innocence
And the hour tolls.
Night measures its stride
While the mind charts terrains
To extend its journey
And accommodate the tortured paths of elusive rest.
And the hour tolls.
Shadows deepen
In imagined frenzy that dusky night
Will divorce their fading charms for a fairer escort.
And the hour tolls.
Dawn's altar solemnizes the union of Night.
A ceremony drowned in deafness
Of grieving shrouds against the Day,
Nursing me to a restless rest
Till, finally, the hour tolls.

Just a hint of clouds clothes the icy summits
As they send down a cool breeze
To proclaim the Spring.
And trees and grass that heavy hearts Behind Winter's doors had sheltered
With flowery smiles bend each way
And greet their mates.
And bow down to me bemused,
As I wend my way among them
Drawing deep breaths of Spring's messenger.

The sound of laughter fills the air
As roadside waterways in merry cadence roll away
Having fed at leisure on the melting snows.
And a sudden flash of white arrests my eye
As a paper boat dances on the water's crest
And sinking in a trough vanishes from sight
And is gone an unknown way.
And looking up I espy its elfin creator
Whose sparkling eyes today cannot perceive
How much his life is to be like that boat's journey.
Riding each crest before a trough its presence reveals.
And at the end no crests, no troughs Just Eternal Peace.

And now the night quietly creeps up upon the world,
And I sit here musing
As the sun in a blaze of glory is going away
But yet, with a golden finger stretched across the skies
Beckons the wayward moon to share the day.
And like a bridal ****** from behind her veil
Casts her lover a fleeting glance,
The heavens with cloudy cover shield the Moon
While I sit here longing for a glimpse of her radiant face.

Go on, my moon, play your games with me,
I shall wait patient till your longing is as great as mine,
And you, blind behind heavy veil, not knowing if your lover is gone or waiting,
Cast aside all pretence and reach out your hand to mine.

There are many who sleep tonight with thoughts of tomorrow
I'll savour again the scent of today.
How we humans in vain endeavour seek our Morrows,
When the Presents are still here to stay.
And how soon we forget that Yesterday was once Tomorrow,
We were looking ahead, it became the Present,
And ere we realized – It quietly slipped away.

Perhaps the morrow at last shall bring
A dream, a hope, a lightened way
And old songs, tone weary, again shall string
The broken chords of another day.

When dark despair, the morning's light eludes,
Days, dusk to dusk, the dawn's betray;
Then illusion's green the winter's blight deludes,
And beholds a Spring's flowering spray.

Muted lips that stifled, soundless stayed
In whispered breaths mouth tomorrow's prayer
And lost Hope that once had endless strayed
Rests at last in eyes that sightless stare.

Heart's heavy, forlorn burdens done
Light airy moods again grace the day
Yester nights foreboding shadows shun
Walk by my side – walk along my way.

I hung that one last moment
Low down that lethal rope
As the noose squeezed away
My last and fleeting hope

I wondered what had happened
Had Blind Justice lost its way
Could not that  gentle Mercy
Stop the dawning of this day

Last night was never ending
Lying numb in darkened space
I heard my daughter's prayer
For the dawn to hide its face

They said that I was guilty
I know I was guilty too
Could  they not see I tried
My wrongdoings to undo

I returned from where I'd fled
Back to the home I'd known
-that home that I had wounded-
For my actions to atone

They say that time is fleeting
One's life with dangers fraught
I cursed the steps I'd taken
That turned my life to naught

I told them what I knew
Of the actions that were taken
By others of faith and family
That left my spirit shaken.

Was I just one of them
Or was I of different mould
Could  not they tell the difference
From all that I had told.

A father and a husband
Counting seconds of his life
Now asks for peace and honor
For his daughter and his wife.

Peaceful slumber closed lids
Shield Dreams.
Jumbled memories, flashes of the future
Create a bewildering kaleidoscope
Of colour in my mind's eye.
And I see myself stark naked
Amidst swirling mists,
Each particle a symbol of past events, of future happenings.
Uncomprehending, incomprehensible.
Unknowing, perturbed by what may be,
Outwardly I sleep,
The epitome of serenity.

I remember now when you and I,
Would try to study through the night,
And of the chocolates I would buy
To bring you a moment's sweet delight.

We'd laugh and talk of everything,
Except what we were there to learn,
And I'd try into that room to bring,
The fires that within me burn.

I'd transform that little room of ours,
To show what we from life could take,
And clothe us in dream laden flowers,
To bring back to you what you'd forsaked.

In lonely moments when I said,
Your love with me will stay forever,
I knew not envious fate's decide,
When and where Love's bonds to sever.

Yet no sadness mars my moments now,
What we have shared will ours remain,
You spoke of parting – in your eyes I saw,
The fires within us burn the same.

Love's gentle embers that once had flared,
I'll let passions breezes fan anew,
While you with Logic's dust have dared,
To colour your morrows in a darker hue.

Grieve not that this world has tried,
To make what you weren't meant to be,
Tho' smiling lips your dreams belied,
The pain was there for me to see.

I think not ever love let me down,
For we dreamers must change each day to night,
Else how can we our Times transform,
Into a moment's fond delight.

I often try someway to find
To tame the rioting in my mind
They’re all gone -those dear to me
None left to listen-none to see

So who’s to know what lies beneath
Unseen where anguished torrents writhe
Born of a choice I made one day
That’s left me alone along my way.

There was a time when I was free
And smiled at whatever I could see
Waiting  for that moment’s call
When deep in love I would fall.

I turned and sudden she was there
The vision that left  me unaware
Of everything and everyone
Radiant as the smiling sun

I lived  each day and each night
Waiting only for her sight
Till the day she took my hand
Said she was going to a distant land

I tried but could not make her stay
She said she had to find her way
It had been nice, the time with me
But now she needed more to see.

Its decades now- but  still I wait
My gaze fixed upon my gate
With a hope that I will see
Her smiling -coming back to me.