And all across life's little way
Strange music drifted through the air
It told us we were all going to die
And the whipporwhill cried on into the night
With an agonized shriek that broke the silence of the night
Like the tearing of the fibers of the mind
Like memories trespassed upon and hopes broken
Like that music which the must and dumb hear not
Like that ghost which stands quietly aside
And watches her temple palace burns to the ground
Like the screaming of women upon destruction
Or the hiding of silvery texts
By dawn's light all was awashed in tremors
And you were my doe-eyed beauty
All bruised and grief-stricken your tears meant less
Than the ivory of the elephant to the lion that devours it
Like concrete on flowers or gall mixed with water
Your tears and frets fell unheeded upon the well of my heart
Until even I wondered why they had fallen unmourned
And I turned and saw you grieving
"Oh dear me, I'm so sorry," you kept repeating
In a high lilting and pretty voice
And the strange music lay dark and made of stone
Unmoved by the pleas of the child you
But maybe tomorrow the cries will go heard
Or is there a reason for unheard cries
Is there a reason for cries that God turns away from
To those love pains which fall on deaf ears
I love a man who loves me not
I pace all day and listen for his voice to sound
But less and less his voice falls upon my path door
And deep is the silence between us
It is deep as the river that flows by here
And the trees that drink up the night air
As we lay under the still white light of the moon
As my Ptolemy cries on into the night
May the moon creep in and find you there
May the door be kept ajar
May all fountains slip forth their mad gushing
May there be an end to all these sorrows
May you get well in the light of the moon
May crickets sing where your footpaths fall
And the little be let out to pasture
May all little things be free to run
May they run along their own happy ways
For in light flecks the little free sparks
That dance along the edges of the fountain
Are some of the prettiest and furthest flying
And some of the most memorable designs
So let little free spirits fly free and run on
Ever skittering into the horizon
It's joy that binds them with eternity
And joy that keeps them going
If their joy is taken they lose everything
And I am sitting by the fountain
Counting the days I have to wander the earth
And not to be forgotten
The enchantment's lying in the bottom
Where the leaves rest under your tea
They spell out a happy ending
And a mending to all your ways
The weaving in and out of life
Is a thing most beautiful and triumphant
Your petticoats make you jump and giggle
So I'll brush your hair in the light of the moon
There is a destroyer on the fringe
A dark and terrible meditator
If he can he will send all creations burning down
A world destroyer in solemn thought
But two lights are bouncing off of the cosmos
They are sending rays of real starlight
Like a brood of chickens I rest here
With the things that I am protecting
Should mountains shudder I'll die here
But you will keep my heart warm
So not to die of despair
An iris growng up through the concrete
A dizzying height of a bird
A message that pierces the canyons
A voice that speaks courageously
A voice that shudders not at hardship
A hand that is steady and guiding
The bird's nest will be safe here
And her shores will sing unsounding
Beyond, the fragments of an island
Are torn from the safe places in her heart
But the winter paradise is safe here
She will not fear for anyone
The faraway lost will never be found
Always it will murmur from the distant shore
Never will I find that thing I ponder
Just turning it over and over in my hands
Like a cool river stone rests in my palm
I will never attain that star
Beginning to lose my purpose with this energy
I have begun to dream new dreams
And here I wait for your call
The mysterious creature that works in the shadows
A sylph, a wisp, an unreal spirit
My agony is lost on the wind
In wind the suffering people live on
You can feel them in the wind
People who released life's chalice and let fall
Their hands from the silvery door
Perhaps my death has been postpond by me
Because I would not let go of my life
The one I protect is safe and sound
He knows this life is haunted
He knows that ghosts are drifting in and out
He knows that we are both cheating death
At night we lay so still and listen
To the peace that dwells about our door
The world is old and heavy now
The world is full of spirits
God's wrath has broken so many flowers
The blue iris seems promising
Suggesting that its light may increase with time
That its light may be enduring
Suggests that there are sunflowers growing nearby
That will prove to weather the apocalypse
The confused earth remnants lie broken
Like the unhealed wound that waits for pain
Like the light that rims the darkest rain clouds
Or the sun going down on a woman who is sewing
Her cathedrals spun to dizzying heights
The remains of her diner lay all over the floor
If her body forsakes her she will lose her life
With a weak and wintery wobbly she walks
Noone comes to call upon her anymore
TThe child has been sent away
If the child had not leapt for joy at the moon
It would not have been forbidden
But this time has a sad countenance
And we must mourn instead
I grieve the thiing that never reaches the shore
Like the hemlines of an old lady's dress
An old lady with the mouth of a tiger
And the heart of an ox who lifts water
The stillness and calm of the holy night
The night at the brink of the world
A pinprick or a feather could have sent the world reeling
To and fro like a drunkard
Or a person who has lost absolutely everything
Even the clothes on his very back
He once had himself a fine home with a view
When suddenly the tempter sprang up all around him
The raging sea was hot with wrath
His little knuckles cold with fright
Oh world that suffering came to this being
Who was without guile nor treachery
What force that destroys has found you here
The force that longs to kill you
Your paths were blessed and in the night
You did not deserve to suffer
Everything is too much a price to lose
Noone deserves to lose everything
Noone deserves to have everything and lose it all
And perhaps I once had things I do not
Yet everything was nothing to me then
And bleak the winter wind that blows
Oh lamb left out in the cold all night
Oh Father God who stretches forth his hand
Wreak not that havoc that I fear to see
Oh let him escapee destruction
Let there be a calm and a peace
A calm and a peace that endures a lifetime
Let there be hope nd a path for us
Oh let it fall softly before us
Like the little slippers of the moon
When she tiptoes through the garden
How light her feet, how softly she falls
How fierce the blazing dragon
How little are the ones that sleep
And unawares lay sleeping
How little that which frightens me
Like a leaf that scratches against my window
Noone can help those who are trapped in homelessness
A cup of cold water cannot really help them
I'll drizzle some honey over your chicken
With the hope that it may bring a smile to your face
Many have not gotten this far
And I've seen such terrible suffering
People crying and shouting without hope
Without hope and without answer
There is a point at which a person becomes a star
When virtue becomes starlike
The point that you reeach when you find your zenith
Is the point that will surely destroy you
The point that you will give your life energy to
The point that you follow into the sun
Nobody knows that desolate way
That leads the homeless to their final doom
Noone knows how to save them
Noone can do anything to stop homelessness
Serving hot mugs of chili and cold drinks
May be the only way to protect them
Maybe suffering will end somehow
Maybe there is something that can be done
All lost when you feel afraid
All lost like the children with nothing
I look at the sun and pray
That things will always be this way
But your fear makes me tired
Maybe someday things will be better
I looked to the sun and recognized it
Like the denizens of time
I recognized the sun like something I loved
And didn't know it was there
High up in the sky a ball of orange
I saw what I had been serving
And paradise like the parting of the sea
You greeted me so warmly
The sun was light where you and I
Are flicking our feet by the water
But you and I will die someday
Yea, it may be sooner than later
Our death, and ord what is a death
Is it as little and unimportant as you say
Or is it the extinguishing of hope itself
Is there a reason for his pain
Is death the thing that I am fighting
Oh, am I fighting death
To conquer that which I hold beautiful
The creature that stands by the shore
Love is the powerfullest emotion
It leads people forth like the scent of flowers
It brings people to their destinies
And throws them into wars
Love may be the reason people fight
It may be something that is merciless
Something that kills and destroys as well as builds
Something that gets people killed
But love, for me, is you standing by the water
A little away from the water
Love is the sad way you look into the distance
Love is my best friend Ptolemy and I
When we brng you heaps of sandwiches
Love is when Ptolem and I makke dinner for you
It is our beautiful expression of love
Like two missionaries from the same faith
Ptolemy and I are going on in our journey
But you are the reason we are suffering together
The reason Ptolemy keeps crying
You are the reason that fish freeze in the winter cold
And the depth of the furthest star
In your life, I find second meaning and purpose
Ihe peace of water
In you, the bark that will carry me home
In you, the reservoirs that may save us
Where is the voice that calls from the distance
The voice that asks me for help
What will I do to give it some hope
In all these suppositions, nothing
Will all things add up to nothing in the end
Are all things done in vain
Are the scruples that we hold really essential, after all
Is there virtue in being civilised
If, when an animal asks you for food
Is it important that you give it
All these traditions and gestures we use
The things that keep us from fighting
Are they really something that will save us
Is being polite that important
If, when I tell you something soft
Is it important to say thank you
Are little frills and dress bonnets
Are they something that we may need
Is our struggle to have dignity together
The thing that will sustain us
All chaos falls about the door
And ships are floating past
Is that which asks of us the thing we should follow
Should we give to those that ask of us
What lambs are there waiting for you
What bunnies flop their ears
Your life the sacred candlelight
The light by which I see
Pilgrim where I found you
Where and what is your dwelling
Can I come and sup with you
When my battle is ebbing
Oh, loss twere better that you were not born
For there is no hope in this sad place
No little shoes to shoe your feet
No one to greet you warmly
No reaching hand to save your life
No bacon and cheese potatoes
If I had my way
I would give bacon and cheese to everyone
In Jesus'Name,
Amen
The lights glow on in the green black night
With the hope of a way out
Ever enduring light travels on
Through the brink of her clear horizons
Where it settles loss is felt
All things lost are coming into being
And when I kiss you a light is triggered
A light that shuddders all mortality
The lights that glow seem indifferent
But they are actually thinking quietly
Lights glow because they have a reason to be there
And your all cohesive sanity
Your sanity is a reason for the crushing of dreams
Your sanity is destroying beautiful things
Love is madness and madness is love
And the lights glow on in the green black night
Lights glow because they come from beyond
With a statement that says "I was here"
Unmoveable and changeless
They exist in a quiet way
The rolling and churning of that which moves
And swells and undulates under her brow
Is actually quite passionate about what it is doing
It sends good energy across her shores
Tumbling and falling down like a bitter pill dissolving
Her hair like a wild ocean dream
The lights glow on in the green black night
And you are my green black night
You are my light and you are my star
But what if that spell is broken
What if that strand is chopped into
Or hacked into oblivion
What if the key is losst forever
Will the secrets within never be disclosed
Or will it take another form
And jump to another spirit
Love is an energy that causes inertia
It powers ships sailing across the sea
By love many impossible things can be accomplished
And many things can survive bitter nights
This rag doll with her petticoats
Is actually a very important one
Her key fits into the lock like an answer
What an important key
But could another key be found
Should this one lose its enthusiasm
Could a key be found to realise
The things that within lay sleeping
The trees glow on in the green black night
And under them is the laws of existence
The principles that one must uphold
The truths that must be protected
A life is a light that eventually goes out
Why do we lose that which was won
Like something reaching for and gaining light
It conquers that which it seeks to understand
Oh God that thinks quietly
But I am praying to energies
The river falls with an energy that is soft
Like the downy white tuft of a thistle
It the thistle crushes, all is gone
And your little craft is lost
But what if I plant a seed in the ground
Or put away for later
Roses bloom with the beauty of the moment
And when theey are gone there is nothing left
What they were, is no more
And waters flow without having a purpose
On and on they flow into the night
With something like an energy
They just exist, like the clean black night
They just go on and on
There is sleeping in the snow a child
The child is a meditation
So if you want to understand, find someone to love
Someone you can pour all your energy into
All loss the brink of time and space
The wars birthing and dying in insurrection
The civilizations rising and falling
The lives as they are softly destroyed
Still all of this remains on
Your hope was doves on my windowsill
Many years spent alone
Long years spent wondering about the meaning of things
And the wreckage of the body
Dumb to that which kills and destroys
Held in check by the powers that be
The great voice shouting, "My Will Be Done"
Yet all I see is energy
I see an unfolding that is eternal
A winding and unfolding that goes on and on
I want to follow it like a way out
Like a rope thrown overboard in a shipwreck
The holy and divine is a symbol
Alone in the universe
I stand learning what is real and what isn't
God has dealt me a sore blow
So I just sit and listen
The waves that blow along her shore
Are reeling me into nonbeing
To see into the reaches of compassion
Alone in the universe
I wonder what is out there
Your doll floating up to me
I looked at it for a long time
In a dumb way that wondered what was to come
Like a hand on the stair at evening
Your hope was that which was never to come
It was that which is real and eternal
This thing called existence is blowing in the wind
Like a leaf holding onto a branch
The thing that comes and goes among us
The Gods of Creation
They are symbols of the great all being
All symbols warring and finding peace
But I find meaning in one small stone
One stone knows you were the reason I had come
It knows that finding you was my destiny
It rolls over sympathetically
The sun rises up on the horizon
Where you are is perhaps where I too will go
I think that is my purpose
And if my purpose is lost then I will have no reason to exist
I will sit and stare at the wall
Many strange patterns have come and gone
They are breaking and rising on the horizon
Long robes and trumpets call across that land
These rocks may hold a secret
If people are sent here for a purpose
Then what is to become of me
An evil energy blows down the sidewalk
And troubles the leaves that shudder
But what will happen when that person is gone
Then surely I will cease to exist
Then my particles should fall apart
Then thoughtless I lose my existence
Surely porcelain dolls have thoughts like this
When the sun is passing along the ceiling
No hope lasts but you