Poems

Thomas

Proud peacemaker,

You know the wild flowers as your sisters,

The great trees as your brothers;

You know the wind carries

The breath of your ancestors.

You know where you belong

In the great mystery.

Forgive us our daily arrogance,

Teach us your wisdom,

Show us the old path

Beneath the concrete,

That we might not self-destruct.

Father and Son

A father may be flawed,

A son resentful.

The struggle to survive

Might bring the two to blows.

A natural parting may occur

As life moves through the phases.

Yet on dark nights,

When all complexity is stripped away,

And words cannot be said,

Still there is love.

Inner Child

It’s part of being human

To have an inner child:

At times I feel inadequate

And hunker down

When illness takes its toll,

When I’ve made a big mistake

Or when a stranger wants a piece of me.

I curl into a foetal ball

In amniotic warmth,

Protected, in my head,

By some imagined god.

Parrot Fish

Is it a parrot or is it a fish?

Look at it from any angle you wish.

Touch it or stroke it, it won’t make a sound

But the eye that is sightless will follow you round.

Portland Belle

She was always there,

Deep in the cold, dark ground,

Waiting for someone to dress her.

150 million years waiting,

Until the chink of chisel woke her.

And now, here she is:

Cool beauty, resting.

Touch her.

She loves warm hands.

Shell-like

Listen to the song of the stone.

It sings a million secrets:

A record of lives spent

Over ages;

The history of the earth

In small verses;

Dissolving slowly,

Feeding the future.

Listen to the song of the stone.

The Crone

You feel the weight of all the years.

This hard old life

Has asked so much of you.

Just now, you bow before great forces.

But, take heart,

For soon the load will lift

And your amazing story will be told.

Together Again

Apart we functioned (just) -

Bored cogs inside a bored machine.

Meeting once again, we coalesce;

The touch of you,

The touch of me,

We’re drawn into the warm

Pool of attraction.

A thrill expands,

It can’t remain confined inside a word.

So a giggle breaks the surface.

This is where I find myself:

Drowning in your arms,

I am, again, alive.

Protest Song

He stands for what he feels is right,

Speaks up to help the suffering fight,

Shouts out, ‘the King is naked, see!’

When all are silent only he

Will sing the protest song out loud,

His glorious spirit won’t be bowed.

Without him we are doomed to crawl,

He is the conscience of us all.

Confession

He bends his knee in supplication.

By this hopeful act

Deferring to a higher power,

Desiring absolution.

But his conscience

Has already tried the man

And found him guilty.

The sentence: life.

Sea-maid

I’ve seen you from afar.

You rest on rocks,

Faceless yet beguiling.

Invitation comes unspoken,

Confident seductress

Sing me closer.

I reach toward your sea-wet skin,

Enchanted by the spell of you,

Inhale the salty smell of you.

We ebb and flow,

The swell of two,

I drown without a care.

Good Morning!

Whatever filled the night hours -

Dreams, lovers, worries -

That first stretch feels so good:

Arms in a primal arch,

Sinews insist

Muscles must move,

Lungs inflate, heart pumps;

Drawing in energy,

Renewing hope,

Reviving consciousness;

Life again is ready

To ride the diurnal cycle.

Repression

Cover up, denigrate,

Push down, dominate,

Hurt and humiliate,

Physically intimidate,

Browbeat, frustrate,

Abuse and asphyxiate,

Tyrannise, subjugate,

Silence, strangulate,

What is man afraid of?

Mary

You are the mother – bearer of life;

Strong in mind and body;

Servant of the child

You must let go;

Whose pain you feel

As your own.

When all is lost,

When no-one cares,

You are there.

Family Tree

In the presence of old trees -

Nature’s perfect priests –

We still our thoughts and listen

For the small voice –

The voice the Buddha heard.

Embraced by strong branches,

Loved by leaves,

We pray for their wisdom.