Let It Enfold You
Either peace or happiness,
let it enfold you
when I was a young man
I felt these things were
dumb, unsophisticated.
I had bad blood, a twisted
mind, a precarious
upbringing.
A Goodnight
Go to sleep- though of course you will not-
to tideless waves thundering slantwise against
strong embankments, rattle and swish of spray
dashed thirty feet high, caught by the lake wind,
scattered and strewn broadcast in over the steady
car rails! Sleep, sleep! Gulls' cries in a wind-gust
broken by the wind; calculating wings set above
the field of waves breaking.
Go to sleep to the lunge between foam-crests,
refuse churned in the recoil. Food! Food!
Hurt Hawks
I
The broken pillar of the wing jags from the clotted shoulder,
The wing trails like a banner in defeat,
No more to use the sky forever but live with famine
And pain a few days: cat nor coyote
Will shorten the week of waiting for death, there is game without talons.
He stands under the oak-bush and waits
The Pace Of Life
How very nice it is after working all day,
To come back home and quietly wile away,
Your leisure hours in many pleasant ways,
Easing the pressures of your present days.
Life is a round of lots of things to do,
Demands are made, and we must see them through,
Our brains get muddled and we cannot think,
For our minds are forever teetering on the brink!
Clearances
In Memoriam M.K.H., 1911-1984
She taught me what her uncle once taught her:
How easily the biggest coal block split
If you got the grain and the hammer angled right.
The sound of that relaxed alluring blow
Its co-opted and obliterated echo,
Taught me to hit, taught me to loosen,
While Someone Telephones
Wasted, wasted minutes that couldn't be worse,
minutes of a barbaric condescension.
--Stare out the bathroom window at the fir-trees,
at their dark needles, accretions to no purpose
woodenly crystallized, and where two fireflies
are only lost.
Hear nothing but a train that goes by, must go by, like tension;
nothing. And wait:
maybe even now these minutes' host
emerges, some relaxed uncondescending stranger,
Cool Breeze
Cool breeze and fresh air,
Give comfort and raise hair,
Body relaxed and sound sleep,
Novel ideas and insight to peep,
What a gift from nature,
Fresh impetus with ideas to nurture,
Leaving behind past and think of future,
Fresh page of life with beautiful signature,
Drawing My Own Conclusions
I'd been caught up in the middle, of one of those awful days,
When nothing seems to go right, with glitches and delays.
I was having a rough day at work, and the boss was now irate;
And all I could think about, was sweet tropical island escape!
When she severely berated me, it was so hard not to be mad,
So I drew an awful picture of her, in which she looked quite bad.
With eyes bulging and goofy grin, her hair now stood on end.
The Rainwalkers
An old man whose black face
shines golden-brown as wet pebbles
under the streetlamp, is walking two mongrel dogs of dis-
proportionate size, in the rain,
in the relaxed early-evening avenue.
The small sleek one wants to stop,
docile to the imploring soul of the trashbasket,
but the young tall curly one
wants to walk on; the glistening sidewalkentices him to arcane happenings.
Balin And Balan
Pellam the King, who held and lost with Lot
In that first war, and had his realm restored
But rendered tributary, failed of late
To send his tribute; wherefore Arthur called
His treasurer, one of many years, and spake,
'Go thou with him and him and bring it to us,
Lest we should set one truer on his throne.
Man's word is God in man.'
His Baron said
'We go but harken: there be two strange knights
I Feel Proud
I feel elated and so proud,
Creative work speak so loud,
I accepted it as simple food,
Something to think and deliver the good,
You feel burdened when heavily taxed,
Evening at home with body relaxed,
Solution in sight with problem waxed,
Junior get promotion when senior axed,
Guinevere
Queen Guinevere had fled the court, and sat
There in the holy house at Almesbury
Weeping, none with her save a little maid,
A novice: one low light betwixt them burned
Blurred by the creeping mist, for all abroad,
Beneath a moon unseen albeit at full,
The white mist, like a face-cloth to the face,
Clung to the dead earth, and the land was still.
For hither had she fled, her cause of flight
Young Mother
Her baby was so full of glee,
And through the day
It laughed and babbled on her knee
In happy play.
It pulled her hair all out of curl
With noisy joy;
So peppy she was glad her girl
Was not a boy.
Then as she longed for it to sleep,
A New You.
Close your eyes and gently walk
Down dreamy Memory Lane.
Now stoop to pick and smell the flowers.
Choose just short stays - or stay for hours!
You're happy once again.
You're YOU.
Feel release right through your frame.
Your heart begins to breathe.
With stress gone, grasp this slower pace,
Our Song
a song I never knew
has now become the song I can never forget
it is the song that can cure all
for I sit and listen to that song everyday
its reminds me of all the good
it reminds me of so much
for these lyrics I will never forget
for no matter how bad a day
all I have to do is hit play
and it will all be ok
Little Lion Face
Little lion face
I stopped to pick
among the mass of thick
succulent blooms, the twice
streaked flanges of your silk
sunwheel relaxed in wide
dilation, I brought inside,
placed in a vase.Milk
The Dream Of Wearing Shorts Forever
To go home and wear shorts forever
in the enormous paddocks, in that warm climate,
adding a sweater when winter soaks the grass,
to camp out along the river bends
for good, wearing shorts, with a pocketknife,
a fishing line and matches,
or there where the hills are all down, below the plain,
to sit around in shorts at evening
If You Find A Woman Sexy
If you find a woman sexy
That is because she is brainy
She can charm you with her wit
Your intelligence she can meet
If you find a woman amazing
That is because she is charming
She can get you with her words
Like songs in familiar chords
The White Cliffs
I
I have loved England, dearly and deeply,
Since that first morning, shining and pure,
The white cliffs of Dover I saw rising steeply
Out of the sea that once made her secure.
I had no thought then of husband or lover,
I was a traveller, the guest of a week;
Yet when they pointed 'the white cliffs of Dover',
Startled I found there were tears on my cheek.
I have loved England, and still as a stranger,
Saul
I.
Said Abner, ``At last thou art come! Ere I tell, ere thou speak,
``Kiss my cheek, wish me well!'' Then I wished it, and did kiss his cheek.
And he, ``Since the King, O my friend, for thy countenance sent,
``Neither drunken nor eaten have we; nor until from his tent
``Thou return with the joyful assurance the King liveth yet,
``Shall our lip with the honey be bright, with the water be wet.
``For out of the black mid-tent's silence, a space of three days,
``Not a sound hath escaped to thy servants, of prayer nor of praise,