Of tingles and tangles
And whispers of dreams
Of wishings and hopings
And unfulfilled schemes
Adventures and journeys
Still to unfold
The warmth of a hand
Still reaching to hold
Come tingles and tangles
And your whispering schemes
Take hold of my hand
And I’ll fulfil your dreams.
Thought I’d fall sleep in the garden
But you crashed into my mind, like a train
Where I started out counting the sunbeams
I finished up dancing with pain
Come hither, come thither, come crawling
Come singing, or come wailing a tune
Sit on my shoulder and guide me
While I look for your face in my moon
Please write me forgiveness for failures
Search deep in my soul for to find
But the one thing I beg you to promise
Is to keep your words out of my mind
Oh, to sleep in the sunshine, or in darkness
Breathe peace and feel warmth once again
For if I was seeking out solace
Then my journey was truly in vain.
It’s those who leave fingerprints
Engraved on your soul
Who can pick up your pieces
And make you feel whole.
I feel the giants of my lifetime
As they slowly slip away
I hear their heartbeats, that are footsteps
But they walk in other ways
I feel raindrops, that are drumbeats
With a funeral dirge to play
And my eyes caress the sunrise
An unwrit story, another opera, a new beginning, another day.
It’s easy to think you are drowning
When you simply forget how to swim
It’s hard to see in the distance
When the street lights constantly dim
When the smells and the touches desert you
It doesn’t always mean you are dead
It’s not always that straight is straight forward
Or that red lights are always on red
There is time to take stock and look backwards
Time to light candles for their glow
There are times to go softly and go gently
And times to go quickly and slow.
You’re a river running through me
Darling girl, my darling girl
Is that a twinkle in your smile
As you set your skirts to whirl
Close your eyes to feel the music
As your body moves to sway
Forget your cares and worries
Then dance the songs away
You’re a river running through me
Darling girl, my darling girl
I see the twinkle in your smile
As your skirts begin to whirl.
A pale and easy, gentle night
The piano man slipped into ‘Hallelujah’
That haunting tune I hear it still
Perhaps it means I always will
That special night will stay with me forever
*
You asked the man to play again
That haunting delicate refrain
He smiled and slowly played the keys
That covered us again with ‘Hallelujah’
*
Some woman quiet sang the song
And you and I soft sang along
Beneath the skies of quiet green Madeira
We heard it on the news that day
That Leonard Cohen passed away
But he left us with that night and ‘Hallelujah’
Damned Damocles
Your burnished steel
Whilst it hangs aloft
Then nothings real
I curse your grin
And hate your blade
Such cloud that hangs
O’er all I made
I sit and wait
To hear that call
I hear your voice
The sword doth fall.
The people who touch
I lay there and recalled
From a long ago time
One of those memories that linger
And linger
I was older then I think
The boatman was older still
He looked impossibly old, as he rowed us across the mirrored lake
Mist hung on the water
It looked as though we were rowing through a cloud
But it was warm
Early morning warmth
The boat slipped through the cloud toward an island
Set safely in the midst of the lake
Snug and secure
A ruined castle sat on the island
It looked quite stern as castles can
It looked formidable
And yet time had ruined it.
Our little boat struck the landing
And swayed as we stepped from it
Ripples in the mist
A little path ran from the landing stage to the outer walls
The castle keep stood huge before us
Walls ran hither and thither
So thick they had rooms within them
So wide they had walkways on top
Who were they built to keep out?
Maybe the lake had rampaging fisherfolk
Or violent cod
Who knows?
Where did all the stone come from?
Such a little island
With such a big castle
And so many questions
The people from the boat followed the guide
Into the keep
I followed my instinct into the tower
There was a plaque
It read
‘Mary Queen of Scots imprisoned here’
Then the dates
Which have slipped my memory
But it was a long time ago
An empty barren room
Which proclaimed to be
‘The guards room’
A narrow spiral staircase in one corner led upwards
‘To Mary’s chamber’
At the top of the stairs, on the pillar, where one rested one’s hand
The stone was worn deeply
Smooth
Hollowed
As soon as you touched it you felt it
Was it Mary I felt
I wondered
Or the feel of a thousand souls who had touched the spot before I did
It was Mary
How do I know?
I can’t explain
But her soul had left it’s marker in the stone
And so long after her death
I was touching her
It was one of those moments you carry forever
People do that
Wander into your life and touch you
Or you touch them
And the touch stays with you.
With your crown of thorns
And your bleeding heart
Your paralysis
Was there from the start
With your small town vision
And your shuttered walls
You had closed your windows
And were deaf to the calls
With your broken smile
And your tortured life
You cut through dreams
With savage knife
With darkened vision
In your blackened sky
You had lost your voice
Left only goodbye
So goodbye, adieu, farewell
My friend
There was no beginning
Just simply an end.
