Some mornings I reckon
it’s gonna be frosty;
nose-tingling hoary,
unsafe to walk on
but today, before a new dawn,
I came out my front door
and the sigh of a zephyr
came up from the earth.
Unusual near winter
that the ground sends a balm,
a hot breath, an out breath,
a generous kiss,
rekindling my centre
to let out his warmth.
Nod a bottle at a brittle glass
and fizzy lemonade arises,
toxicates a nostril,
titillates and fills:
more than ‘satisfactory’,
popping at their birth-point,
bubbles sharp and piquant
instigate a sneeze:
higher than high,
brighter than light,
way beyond planets,
ripple and lap
up to emotion,
quivering lips.
See a smile
of mirth and mischief
when he leads
his laggard brother
in a march
from car to pub and bar;
a glance suggests how
fun will surely follow.
Track in-step
until he opens up
his arms with cheek
and, like a tuning fork,
stands, vibrates and hullabaloos
‘Happy Birth-day toooo you!!!’
Same routine,
up at 5;
forgives himself
for last night’s
misdemeanors.
After all,
it’s only words!
Breakfast mind
plots away
and then comes back
to coffee and a roll.
Through a glass, he sweeps
a gaze at folly â€" every being
and himself - and feels
a sudden thud of peace.
Today I walked past loads of doors
and, do you know, I had an urge
to reach and turn every handle;
see what lurks on the other side.
Something within us loves
hidden rooms, locked;
a key, a push, a creak,
a prisoner running free,
but tonight
when earth turns;
doors will bolt,
locked like clams,
holding tight
onto watery dreams.
We had a chat
about a rat;
yours a giant,
mine - a tyrant.
We made a jigsaw
like a sunset;
an orange (I saw)
you saw red
but only when my fruit
and your new fangled colour
merge do we, in truth,
create an apple’s figure
- and the rat, of course,
was a very helpful chap.
Imagine looking out
from way inside yourself
as a baby, or a boy with
Down’s:
without any crazy
constructs, rules.
This place would seem
unsafe â€" a dream!
And your strategy?
How would you get through
a moment, next few minutes, hours,
when you couldn’t hide,
or run, or surf the web a while?
I’ll tell you what â€" you’d smile!
I jump on a train
but every seat’s full;
I buzz up and down
like an ant in an anthill
looking for my place;
trying, trusting god,
but every gaze avoids
my eyes, my eager face
and, deep inside, I pray,
pacing like a dad.
that I will find a friend
that, if I trust today,
a gap will open, smile;
my heart is thudding still.
At a time he sensed was right
up he stood like a reluctant schoolboy
twisting keys in his right hand pocket,
excruciating as an amateur only
can be, and he started to sing, quietly
and human, a song we’d all heard before
- at least for the chorus â€" and he sang the verses,
growing more confident with our support
and do you suppose nothing else happened
that night as he opened his heart like a rainbow?
A melting of oddness and newness ensued
and the tune that was sung by a small Irish crowd
swelled like a wave from our depth, in a song,
and I filled, overflowed, by the beauty I cried.
If you came this way
along a climbing path
you might sit awhile
with all kinds of human notions
until your mind eventually
slowed, senses awoke,
and took in that mammoth
mountain in front â€" bathed
into sunlight and darting
with swifts.
The wonder of it
could make you kneel and pray,
overwhelmed and tearful,
until nothing arises
and fear itself flies
with a tremulous influx
of Love.
A leaf like a slowly closing hand
drops off
a great mother of a
tree - letting go
(irresistibly
it lets go)
in a shutterdown
of winter’s paler light.
How wonderful like a butterfly
to flutter, tumble, still;
only caught by wind - not knowing
that the lattice bark has started on a spree
with sun and rain and waving snow,
of soundness and repair.
