Will Barber Poems

The Promised Land is anywhere
Good men do not live in fear,
But a liar must take care
Lest the the neighbors idly stare
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The keys and staves demark strait paths
The restless note must travel on;
The note's the beast that carries
The burden of the sound.
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Why is it, do you know, that
Memories of you are silver,
And I stumble onward
Seeking your steep path?
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His last days, he remembered
Ouachita mountain haze
Where he sought his love
In former days:
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I was not taken by the claws of love,
Nor bound upon a bloody rock;
I heard no angels, saw no dove,
No eagle, nothing in that dark.
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On my second trip to Austin State
It was very, very late
I felt great relief, at last
When the police delivered me to my past.
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The universe is a vast river,
The rain is very cold;
There is no reason to persist:
This moment is forever.
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Dew on the desert: idle dreams
Are nourishment enough, in youth;
Years demand deep roots: a man
Will thirst, pursuing idle truths.
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All in the evenings, sweet Emily
Would walk by the water's edge, dreaming
Of a voice that might wake her forever
From such idle revery.
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If I could sing - my heart,
Then, never would be sung.
If I knew my heart,
It never would be shown.
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