vladimir and the show*

Dear Vladimir you've put me in a rage.
You strut like a peacock but you're stuck in the zoo.
And I used to believe them too
Until I saw the cage.

There is one thing that I know
Though they think they have style with their toy cigarettes
And they think God creates and then He forgets
And they think mocking Him is new intelligence...
There is one thing that I know:
They are just shadowed marionettes,
And I am so tired of their show.
Yes, I am so tired of this show.

Ah Vanitas Vanitatum!
I would be one of them.
I would be one with them.

I have had my doubts.
But the earth still turns and waxes green
And God still moves and makes me clean
And life is more than this dastard scene...
Yes, vanity gave me all her doubts
So shut up your puppets with their strings!
For life finally means something
When your play has been played out.

Dear Vladimir I would be kinder to you
If you weren't ever taught how to unloose the fetter
If you didn't know better,
But you do.

branches and fruit

You have fruit growing out of your head, figs in your heart, apples in your hand.
You are abundant like I've never known, joyfully rooted in a Strongman's land.
You are like shade of green leaf and rubber, your sight is a refreshing scene.
You are like lifeblood bursting forth, producing fruit that is rich and clean.

But I am like a branch in winter, barely holding deathly things.
I cannot bud or fruit or blossom a fraction of what your branches bring.
My heart is like an apple core, my arms are barren, shriveled trees.
I cannot move for I am frozen, unshaking in this winter breeze.

I wonder why some are given more sun and some more wind and rain,
For wherever shoots sprout, they are pregnant and full with a hope that they'll sprout again.
"Abide in Me, abide in Me, as I abide in you,"
These things you whisper longingly to my very favorite tune.
And I am hungry for your fruit, I never taste enough.
For I grow nothing on my own, not even this skin so worn and rough.

on my loyalty to rain*

I love the rain because it quenches my bones. It makes me feel alive.
It falls on a whim to drench me with home from that same foreboding sky.

When it rains, everything is clean. Everybody stops pretending.
You can wipe that silly smile off your face—that frozen sunshine so offending.

Because rain brings winter clarity, and falls with spring-drizzled hope.
It opens my eyes, it washes my face, it wakes me to what I don’t know.

I will never wish for sun as long as I have rain. For sun will creep behind my back
And blind my blinking eyes; sweet rays of golden lies, covering all that I lack.

cradle of my kin

I would be a beggar on the street
If you had not carried me;
My lazy heart rolled fat and heavy,
Startled by each mountain of defeat.

I would lie dry-foaming at the mouth,
Hope drained from my leaky soul;
And every trail I would take
Would lead me further, further south.

I would melt like warming snow in this foreign sun
If you had not whispered love
In waves of stronger mountain air
Holding up my broken wings, lest I come undone.

My home--it travels with me--in a sagging skin,
But you are what I cling to
When I need to be kept safe.
So name me, hold me, keep me, oh cradle of my kin!

a note to my sister

I feel so cool
I'm such a fool
I have an accordion
And I know that you want one
With bellows and buttons and switches and keys
I thought playing would be such a breeze
Well, my dear, the joke's on me,
Because it is quite hard, you see.

music God

Oh God you must be the nearest thing to music,
Or music is most like You,
For nothing else makes me feel so small;
Overshadows my every mood.

And nothing makes me feel so deep
In wordless, piercing groans.
Nothing makes me feel so lost
In universal tones.

I see how the world shakes
Off-beat like a tambourine,
Refusing hope to your face,
Making a scene.

Still it sings and sings,
Full-throated, heart expanded;
All the sighs of the day
Meet in the air, empty handed.

This cosmic sensation overwhelms my core.
It peels back my flesh and I'm left wanting more.
I want to sing You, You are a song.
I sing and discover my home; I belong.

wonderland

I wish, I wish I didn't fall like Alice down the rabbit hole
To feed my curiosity in lusty unreality.

Fantastic play the idols of my dream.
In hungry stupor they make me queen.
They blow my heart like heated glass
And fashion it to please their mass.
But it shatters to pieces like ashes at sea
To a dirge of self-discovery.
Oh let me fall! Oh let me fall! I'll live and die in gravity.
The patterns of my colored mind sustain my illusions, let them be.

Still it's lonely here inside my fears; what ghostly company!
How lost I feel floating down these halls wondering if you'll come to me.
Your songs reach me in this hollow cave, they echo sweet and shrill.
They lie to me--heart in my mouth--appease my naked will.


Oh I wish, I wish I didn't fall
And lose myself inside this dream
For all their grandeur and their spark
Our dreams are never what they seem.
Oh I wish, I wish I didn't fall
Full bloody soul into your hand!
For all my visions bold and fine,
I do not like this wonderland.

to the scarborough buskers *

You fiddle dancers, happy chancers,
Tune your way into my dreams!
Uproarious sound bombards my senses,
Unraveling my tight-stitched seams.

And I was just a passerby, and
Smooth the day dressed as the night
Deceiving me with sticks and strings;
Street-corner wings in sudden flight.

What could I see on the street that day,
Feet tapping to cement and clay?
What could I fear in merry chimes
That moved your whiskey blood to climb?

You bellow with Brittanic sea
And flooding southern melody,
Distract me from a day gone wrong,
Envelope me in zydefolk song.

time

Time is attacking me,
I feel it’s displeasure like an enemy

Always chasing me home at night
After me at morning in the harsh daylight

Yet when I turn to catch a glimpse
It hides its face, I have to wince

I dare not look it in the eye
To see eternity’s measured cry

small

She sits so small on the bank at night
She bathes in all the pale moonlight
Reflecting from the river shine
To wrap her in a frail time

So small she sits, and small she stands
Her figure making shadows dance
She drinks in butterflies and love
She leaps to rhythms from above

Peace fills her in the silver moon
It weaves her in a soft cocoon
She hums a soothing lullaby
And feels so small under the sky

monument street jasmine

The sweet smell of jasmine wafts so fair. I make love with the night air.

My muscles flinch and move and burn. My whole body sways in turn.

Singing crickets climb this mountain. They flood my senses like a fountain.

My lips curl to a soaring smile. They make me want to stay a while.

The black above is shattered bright with fireflies and airplane light.

Not far below the ocean sways, and carries jasmine in its sprays.

And I will carry jasmine, too. Long after this dear night is through.

I’ll fly to you across the seas, wings drenched in its enchanted breeze.

some days *

Yesterday I roamed the earth
Like a traveler gone too long
Like an unfinished song
Like a river without a bank
And I sank

Lastnight I fell asleep
With an ocean in my eye
With a broken-hearted sigh
With a shrinking in my skin
And I gave in

Today I awoke
From my butterfly cocoon
Like a newborn from its womb
Like a turtle from its shell....
And I am well.

أمل

Little girl with broken wings
Walking down a cluttered street;
There's rubbish lying everywhere,
A foul scent hanging in the air.

Little girl I heard the laugh
You stifled as you shuffled past
The cafes filled with evil eyes
That suck the starlight from the skies.

Little girl with veiled hair,
Veiling with it all your cares;
In painted veils of silk and linen,
You join processions of hidden women.

Little girl, you hope and dream
And wish for many lovely things
But you're secure in the ribat,
How can I spare you from your lot?

follow the star, a christmas song

Verse 1
Happy Christmas, wherever you are
Near or far, following the footprints of the star
And it will lead you there
And I will meet you there
Under a shining beam, of hope

A Happy Christmas of treasures untold
Not of frankincense, myrrh or gold
But it will catch your eye
Released in a baby's sigh
In a quiet song, of hope

Chorus:
Follow the star, follow heaven's fire
Follow the star, hear the angels choir
Follow, follow the star...

Verse 2
A Happy Christmas, come one come all
Come and kneel at this lowly manger stall
Come and kiss the King
Cease your wandering
On this silent night, of hope

Bridge:
Follow, follow your starlit path
Follow, follow and don't look back
A Happy Christmas, wherever you are

ode to sicilian mountains

Like death, they were, in purple majesty,
Persistent to waken the life in me;
Burn a flame I would wish to snuff,
Open a secret I would wish to hush.
I shriek inside, the loneliness unsettles me;
Can’t close my eyes, those windows to my heart, revealing me.

Oh, the vastness of God, complex in wonder!
Oh, the power to behold, disturbing glory!
Oh, how lost I feel, swallowed in this splendour.

Like death, they were, in purple majesty,
Persistent to waken the life in me;
Standing before them I feel so exposed.
Desolate for miles, nothing here grows.
I’m glad to be just passing by,
“Don’t want to face God here,” I sigh.

creeping smile *

When I’m quiet and alone
And friendly visions haunt my head
A smile creeps slighly ‘cross my face
It warms me as I lie in bed

It warms my hair, it makes me blush
It sinks within my fluttering chest
It soars on wings across my mouth
It feeds my secret, happy rest

When I am hidden in my thoughts
Swallow’d in my heart’s drowsy pace
A smile like fire in my bones
Courses through bloodstreams to my face

I feel it as I come aware
And conscious happiness escapes
It flies capricious with a sigh
To kiss my face with smiling shapes.