30 April 2014

the red bird's haunting song

no one recalls the red bird's haunting song
in dead of winter but it marks the spring
the creature's small and yet its voice is strong

what we discover when we fall among
the hordes who struggle to avoid the sting
(no one recalls the red bird's haunting song

but has a sense that they are drawn along
into the silence) is the sharp high ring
the creature's small and yet its voice is strong

enough to to let  us know that we belong
in this strange place where all our hopes may cling
no one recalls the red bird's haunting song

and yet when choruses turn to a throng
we want so urgently our hearts to fling
the creature's small  and yet its voice is strong

enough for us to know it is not wrong
to feel its force and want ourselves to sing
no one recalls the red bird's haunting song

the creature's small and yet its voice is strong

29 April 2014

each normal plight

whatever happens there is no regret
for tempests that  have shredded new-leaved trees
awakening the youthful from their ease
into a present that is all upset
where each is cast at once deep into debt
not knowing whom to help nor whom to please
frozen in place by the harsh sky's decrees
and driven only to hard fear and fret
still there are signs that we have not been told
all that we need in order to get by
the simple passage of each normal plight
instead we're warned to be urgent and bold
focus inhuman danger in the eye

but not be lured by any trick of light

24 April 2014

when good folk all agree

long toil will end when good folk all agree
on what is just and how the work divides
and on this morning we all wake up free

so many years that each lack harmony
we seemed only to wait for changing tides
long toil will end when good folk all agree

on how we fare and how we stand to see
the ones who move or that which still abides
and on this morning we all wake up free

the music plays with skill and constancy
while one who would have punished simply hides
long toil will end when good folk all agree

on codes of honour sitting by the sea
watch as the last bad soldier changes sides
and on this morning we all wake up free

so now we gather under an old tree
to give our promises and choose our guides
long toil will end when good folk all agree

and on this morning we all wake up free

22 April 2014

the simple magics

when we are lost in rapture at the sight
of the spring flowers at last fully blown
we are then healed down to the very bone
of the last vestiges of winter's blight
so too when we have passed beyond the night
into another domain of the known
where once again we cease to be alone
we can be certain that the world is right
the simple magics are the ones most true
not to feel terror at the change of time
yet to be awed that life returns again
in all those places that the sun makes new
so we rejoice in the slow upward climb

and let our bodies cast away their pain

17 April 2014

entry of the dart

where all the edges reach into the heart
are no clear corners nor a single sign
that time is changing the dividing line
is never crossed yet all are kept apart
by the hard means of some still arcane art
which the most foolish will insist divine
or claim as kindly warm tender benign
although they bleed from entry of the dart
we're far into the strange realm of the blind
where all the rules evil and perverse
and every bullet seems to find its mark
dead centre but the lying human mind
insists reality can't be adverse

that all is light down here deep in the dark

13 April 2014

matters we may know

in all our doings there’s a rule we make
about the bounds beyond which we won’t go
those limits of the matters we may know
or of the facts in which we may partake
like the good flints that sharpen when they flake
or that swift stream with hidden deeper flow
beneath the mountain with the secret glow
all of the places that we can’t forsake
within each heart are truths that none may speak
yet in our song they’re vibrant in their call
to warm the spirit and release the mind
allowing us the harmony to seek
beyond the power of the strong and tall

right into where the force of love must bind

10 April 2014

the seats of honour and the high domain

all of our answers turn out to be true
though journeys start and end in pouring rain
there comes a time to pause and take the view

our knowledge is constrained by what is new
not by the old nor yet by thoughts of gain
all of our answers turn out to be true

since what we've done must constitute a coup
in favour of the honest and the plain
there comes a time to pause and take the view

of all the folk whose minds may yet construe
the simple vision that when we entrain
all of our answers turn out to be true

both to our hearts and to those who are due
the seats of honour and the high domain
there comes a time to pause and take the view

when all is clear and the noon sky full blue
we are redeemed by virtue of our pain
all of our answers turn out to be true

there comes a time to pause and take the view

08 April 2014

all our limbs have bled

in what new name are honours to be read
by those who fall along the weary road
bearing the last and most unwanted load
of fear and horror no unblemished head
do we acknowledge all our limbs have bled
leaking the symbols of a hated code
while it was plain that nothing could corrode
either the cover or the weight of dread
but there's a message in the signal flame
as we who watch may come to understand
far past all bearing yet within our care
are those who know the truth is not a game
that all good matter comes within a hand
but must go free to rise up in the air

04 April 2014

set the message straight

when all is measured time begins to grate
upon the senses then we have to start
a different sort of journey where the part
that makes our human feeling more than freight
is what's required to set the message straight
not only in the realms of work and art
but so the honest signal might depart
from deep inside to past the furthest gate
not every cloud is signal of new rain
or so we learn from waiting as each night
the sigh of wind brings us no fresh relief
from all our suffering and the hard pain
nor are the killer birds disturbed in flight
nor yet the door secured against the thief

03 April 2014

fate may be a liar

here is a dragon that breathes golden fire
burning a message across the dull sky
telling us all that fate may be a liar

although we are the ones who still aspire
to honour in a world where all seems dry
here is a dragon that breathes golden fire

a vision that combines beauty and ire
reminder that some final truth is nigh
telling us all that fate may be a liar

that in the end both pain and joy are higher
than we expect or might ask to supply
here is a dragon that breathes golden fire

a mark of fear but still it is not dire
there's more above than we know to espy
telling us all that fate may be a liar

that is the burden of the early crier
who warns that those who care will come to die
here is a dragon that breathes golden fire

telling us all that fate may be a liar

02 April 2014

their despairing trade

if there are ways to measure all the tale
in years of story how the shapes are made
without an edge of humour being frayed
by passing breeze or rough attacking gale
you'd say that we must in this wise assail
the aged creators of the human braid
for all the crimes of their despairing trade
before we mark their effort with a fail
no truths have been discovered by our kind
without an effort to disturb the soil
uproot the weeds and plant a better seed
so that the newer products of keen mind
emergent in the end from bitter toil
can match the urge exactly to the deed