Woollens hung on bedside chair
Buckets brimming with outer wear
Sticks and bottles, spikes and flasks
Beanies and even balaclava mask.
Promise of adventure lingers still
On the lee of dreams fulfilled
Anxious thoughts evade like mist
Must protect the glare skin kiss.
Nuts and bars, apple for the car
Cosy comforts carry too far
Tunes to take us on the ride
To alpine wonders, step outside.
A source of great strength
A true friend who never betrays
The sleep that nourishes wisdom
More powerful than proving a point
It is golden
A sanctuary for the soul or
An ultimate weapon of power
Whether embraced or imposed
May your silence be filled with bird song and laughter
By this, if a weapon, may it lose its power.
Tell those friends
Their jokes
Don't make me laugh
Those men
With horses for hearts
So deep, deep
Without meaning
They only make me feel...
Lyric poem, An Unguarded Moment, by The Church.
There is no real other
The present begs
For us to attend
Step into the fray
For the one long desired
Arrival of lost love
Never truly comes
The only power
We have to overcome
Step over old mantle
Into eternal horizon
Fake tears fall
From tiny bottle
Until real ones come
I barely remember the wall coming down
Though tender renowned
Perestroika and glasnost
My Minsk pen pal
Whom I nearly visited
If not for that iron curtain
A downed air plane
VHS player was their request
For duty free on the plane
From a 10 year old
Broken wall boundaries
Parenting –
Though missed a trip
To America
With my swim club
Too young, they guffawed
Knotts Berry Farm
Apparently more dangerous than
Newly formed USSR.
We leave
And let leave
All the ones
We ever loved
We cannot keep
So let them sail
Out past horizon
On winds of change
And do the same
Just when I vow to never
Wish nor want anything
Ever again
Tell tears never to fall
Shake fears like raindrops
Head clearing, smiles lift
Clouds part only a bit
Cruising slow over bridge
Home run, day's done
Suddenly hear her name
Simmer
In my ears
Decades saved, not wasted, this house I built
Devoted hands, gainful work, nights and weekends
Searched longingly up and down, high streets and low
Waiting for my heart to jump out, at the sight of her
Saved, invested, scrimped and pawned
Hoping one day, enter new dawn
Window closed, garden bare, I set upon the terrace stair
Knocked and waited, in the rain
Admiring abalone strewn along front wall
Evidence of inhabitants, though no one there
Someone lived inside once, absence inlaid in rainbow pearl
Me and view of quaint corner garden, sandstone steps
Panorama or paranormal, needn't matter
This house, I have built with hearts and hands
Love inhabits and dwells always, echoes in empty rooms
Filled with laughter, stories and poems
My life, I have built, a shelter from storms
Will water soil for one-day blooms.
This morning
I was cleaning up instead
After my well fed children
While they rest their weary head
I didn't cook dinner this evening
It was the children's turn
They argued over whether to have
Snitzel, sausage or lamb
I didn't make the carnival
Athletics, swim, cross country
I had to work that day
That week, all year and couldn't come
I couldn't take a holiday
My leave was all used up
From tending to the snotty noses, headaches, wheeze and coughs.
But every day is fun around here, we laugh and listen and care
But lay a word of criticism to the mothers out there..
Do you dare?
Count the stars of heaven 