The Grand Design - with audio

audio link

The grand design it snow blinds
Great life travels on and unwinds
The powers commanded failing
Exasperations of the future flailing
Nuclear Fires fanning
Quantum leaps spanning
Waves come in with foam
Out roaring again they go
But the staircase seems to get sharper
With each step ever cutting steeper
Ticking tells the fierce lion sleep
His place gives way to timid sheep
Camellias bloom and petals fall
Winged ones fail the ear to call
Appetite like the moon wanes away
Little fears fill the night and day
Morning prayers weakly spoken
Dreams inside the night awaken
Forgotten childhood's loving lost
Longing family feelings past
Mighty steed slows down his pace
Mane grows grey, to pasture race
Garden blooms lie down their bed
Once fecund, now their leaves to shed
Who can tell the wind not to blow
The colder north no frost to show
Sooner stop the world from turning
Better stop the fish from swimming
The breath comes in and turns about
Heart marches on with legs once stout
Climb the way of snowcapped mountain
Flow against the river boatman
Each step is heavier on the path
The knife cuts an ever duller swath
Fuzzy fellows in the trees
Past the point where vision sees
Comes along the misty mind
Shady weeping willow kind
Lazy Political and spiritual reflections
Gone the hard chinese elections
Tired limbs pull on the sleigh
Comforting is the setting day
Little ones now all grown up
Testing lessons, jewels yet rough
Weaker hands fold and pray
More's the cost, Less the pay
Set about in and out
Meaningless to fight and shout
No time to listen less to care
All that's left is love to share.

The Well - with audio

audio link

The hollow self
Came off the shelf      
Hidden away
'Til season and day
Trade their grace
For cold embrace
Unhappy
Is the way
To Good
That has waned
Weak is the arm of
One who is stained
A misshapen heart
Drags down
Thistles and pain
O thirsty soul
'Tis water
That refreshes

Deep down, below
The watercresses
To the beating walls
Of empty caresses
Into the well
To make a splash
Slimy walls make
Sunbeams flash
Can't stay there,
Can't say where,
Damp moss
Is balderdash
Once inside,
The eyes,
They lied,
As the price
Was just too high
To winter in
The unseen water
No matter
What to justify

Then came winding,
The terrible
Sickening
Water snake
Having been denied
Pond or lake
To steal soul and pride
But voices called
Beyond the well
Sighed and cried
In they fell
Like knives,
Hit their mark and
Cut him up alive
That dank sound
Fell silent
In the round
Then quiet
Drew away
And was gone
As something else
Was shown
The water tried
To drink it up,
But filled
With hope
Inside was
The pale
To assail
Dark Jail and
So Catapulted
One assaulted
Sheltered
This floater
With cap
And ken
To the top

The well of that
Which is good
Does not
Run dry
Living water
Lifts high -
To the beloved
Drawing nigh

Coming home
To fire warm
And cheery eyes
Of lives inside
Once again,
Despair,
That wilted orchid
Lies dead
Outside

Shut up the Skies - with audio

 audio link

Where are the mighty men of old
Who shut up the skies so that the rains cannot come
The strong ones who burst the locks and chains
Of gloom in the hidden places
Who will heal the eyes of the feeble
That they may once again look upon fair Helena
What physician can heal the sick at heart
I hide away like Job from the stormy seas
Deep in the belly of the ship
For it comes upon me like the Dark clouds
Without reason or explanation, a howling wind
Slapping at the face of thankfulness
Blotting out the Sun of all that is precious and dear
Where shall one go to get away
What potion is there that will relieve meaningless anguish
Floods and channels without foundation
Whose hollow speeches threaten to carry off our very soul
So I leapt into the jaws of the great sea creature
There I sank ever downward toward my rest
Yet the thing of sadness followed me there
So I wept even while under the shroud of sleep
There did I toil on pillow and shake inside
I came to the surface of the waters many times
Only to drop once again like a struggling stone
The hail fell and the torrent poured
Filling up the earth's mouth till it was sated
Only then did this one rise again well enough
Rehearsing for another day
When Perfect Strength shall set us free
And nary a dark day ever dawn

The Blues and Autumn - with audio

audio link

Autumn came, and with it came the blues
Money trouble arrived with the cold wind
Finances blew away like the turning leaves
My mind and heart became grey with the skies
Mice and traps share my attic space
They conspire with sour stomach and restless shades
To keep me awake at 3 bells
So I take a pepcid and shuffle out of the bedroom
Then down the dark hall to the kitchen
There I have a tea and read the scriptures
These become my blanket and I pray
I pray for life, for family, the sick, government and religious leaders
I pray for people to turn toward G-d and
To remember compassion once again

Sigh, - ...sleep will come again friend
Like magic, the Fall brings back old voices, new fears
The cold doesn't wait for night, it comes by afternoon
It makes me thankful that there is greater reason for hope
Than what my eyes see, my ears hear and my hands can grasp
The feelings puff up my insides and threaten my eyes with tears
Thank God they don't come to fill up my furrowed brow
Like irrigation canals crossing this fallow field
Still that child who longs for the family time and tide of youth
Can find solace in the white and quiet of the biting snow moon
In that place, people and time are slowed -
Down to frozen crystalline stillness

Warmth then can return to inhabit the heart
Like cognac after a winter's embrace or handshake
Perhaps just a smile from a stranger, a kiss from a friend
Or a whiskey poured down the throat whilst fishing on an ice lake
My father's voice comes back to me, now like a flake of falling snow
Always carry a little change in your pocket for the stranger
A little compassion, a little compassion

The past and the present come together in Autumn
Do we cry for the present, are we sentimental about the past?
Or do they come to prepare, to make us mindful of the unseen, pristine,
Glowing diamond ship moving on oceans black?
There to fly the longest journey 'cross silent starlit sky
Sleep will come again my friend, sleep will come
In winter's brightest solitary night
Toward Affection's ultimate day.