Rice Christian Geese

Rice-Christian geese
Professing to reverence man
Attentive to hand
That may throw or bestow
Neglecting to graze
Fearful to lose
Least portion of sacred dough
There is none
Faith abandoned
Into the grey go they
In the final moments of day

Spaces

Can anyone claim to understand
The pain in the heart of another man
Hear his clumsy words
But don't presume to know
Because the words he does not use
Are the ones that show ...

Our words tell half a story
When spoken like we mean them
But more by far is understood
From spaces in between them

Be careful what you say
Your intent will find a way
To fill the spaces in between
Revealing what you really mean

Don't protest "I didn't say ..."
When spaces give the game away ...

More By Far By More

Show me that canvass
On which the quarks play
Smaller by far - smaller by far

The infinitesimal may not divide
Itself into infinity
Reduction will eventually
Have driven the fluid away

What shall remain - the frame?
Over which the canvass is?
Upon which the master painted
You, me, this day

I believe that you know
The nature of paint, pigment, hue
Viscosity - brushwork too

But you know not all - answer me
What of the canvas, the frame
The easel on which it stands
The floor

For there is more
More by far by more

Floating

Dark below, above
Sky and water flowing unknowing
At their juncture I - lacking buoyancy
If but I were a mayfly
Surface tension would hold me
It tugs on the hairs on my arms so feebly
Too feebly to be discerned - perhaps
A microscopic bubble or two
When I descend will accompany
When I descend I will try
To meet enemy as if a friend
To 'go gently' into the night
And yet - not yet
There are dregs to expend - there is fight
Stroking the water - maintain
Access to air - and hope
And hope -  that somewhere out there I share
The surface with one that may
Herald arrival of day

Unremarked

Stones upon their faces fallen
While slowly bowing to the East
Inscriptions now as secrets kept
As graves acquire stony lids

Though many years have passed since read
A fallen stone on an earthy bed
Is closure - an honest monument
To the anonymous dead

Archives

Too early you were called away
But I will remember
Everything
Everything
To tell it to you someday

You will ask "What did they say?"
I know you will
I know you will
So I will listen carefully
Note each day painstakingly
So that I may tell you all
On that day
On that day

The Castle in the Clouds - Scene #3 - Polaris

Wind no longer blew upon
The battlements and it was calm
In unfathomed depths of night
Shone brave beacons of star-light

The stars all turned their faces to the North
Looking to Polaris
The guide to those who venture forth
They shook a little starlight free
A film of luminosity
On the top of each cloud shone
As far as any boy could see

The boy stood still
And gasped to view
Cloud-tops silvered
Through and through

'How small you seem
And far away'
Polaris said
In a kindly way

'You think yourself bereft alone
Yet we stars have always known
That one courageous such as you
Would climb upon the cloudy throne

We watch throughout the silver night
And through the golden daytime too
Be assured my precious one
We will ever watch for you'

The boy looked up and floating down
Was a starry cloak of night
In folds of deepest velvet black
Were captured beams of fair starlight

'Wear it well' Polaris said
'Be not afraid to fight
Though in deepest darkness
The cloak - and hope - shall give you light ...'

A new light shone upon the scene
Polaris in mid-sentence froze
Then he bowed and took his leave
As the full moon rose ... to be continued

Wilderness

Yesterday I observed
The wilderness man
He lived very far away
Living off the land

Outside his home all alone
He stood and seemed to say
Tomorrow you will all be gone
But as for me, here I stay

You will be gone, I'll forget you
Television is one-way
And I was never really there
But he is there to this day

And he has no need of me
Nor you nor anyone
But I find that I have need of him
Living in the humdrum

Living in the humdrum
Eating from a plastic dish
Wishing there were someone
To tell me what to wish

Hollywood

Guns firing live ammunition - what for?
There is no war
No wrong - no right
There is no good fight
No artistry - no inspiration
No bright spark of creation
Just focus groups to reassure
The money men - to ensure
Popular assent
Return upon investment

Early Mourning

The westering sun ignites
Catkins high in the treetops
Swells of the land still slumber
In a mauve shadow of night
It is as if I remember
When none was there but the birdsong
Long before greed uprooted the trees
And the dwellings of man cast a blight

The Castle in the Clouds - Scene #2 - Old Man Wind

Far off thunder grumbled
And a low voice rumbled
"What have we here -
What have we found?"
The startled boy span around

Before him wisps of cloud
Coalesced to form
The image of a wizened face
On whirling eddies borne
"I am the wind
And who are you?
How came you here
What would you do?
Though the bravest hearts are few
I spy within a heart that's true!"

'Seek I extinguisher of joy
Seek I Darkness' said the boy
Self-surprised by boldness
And the courage of the brave
In the very face of the Wind
Account of himself he gave
He told of his wind-borne progress
And the Wind was amazed

"I see courage deep within
And the will to show it
In the blackest moment
Do not doubt it - know it!
Reminder now I give to you
That your heart is ever true
If you doubt take it out
Remember that your heart is stout!"

Borne upward on a whisper
Fluttering, quivering
A silver feather all a-glister
In the starlight shimmering
Floating in the air
The boy espied it there
And, thinking of his sister
Deftly caught it
Swiftly brought it
Wearing concentration's frown
Quickly saved it
Safely stored it
Wrapped within his dressing gown

Wind took his leave, there fell a calm
Yet Wind was not completely gone
A whisper of his might remained
A whisper of his voice explained
"Be you bold my little one
For courage in the task to come
Keep close this silver feather
And never mind the weather"   ... to be continued

Epitaph

As the door is closing
I'll not desire it's opening
My naked body wearing
Sufficiency of clothing
My empty hands grasping
At that most precious thing
I shall go not grieving
At that moment's passing
For those that are remaining
Will tire themselves explaining
The purposes of everything
If only they were listening ...

Perceptions of Time & Mortality #6 - In Extremis

Pulsing in the head
Gloominess is rendered bright
By wideness of the pupils
Sucking in the light

Milligrams of mercury
Ascending - muscles tight
Interminable impasse
Fright and flight or fight

Gigabytes per second
Written to the RAM
Confirming - re-confirming
I still am - I still am

Then the sudden dullness
Then the sudden pall
Then the sudden numbness
Feel the hammer fall

Confusion washing in now
On a tide of semi-consciousness
How to know where to begin
When time has lost cohesiveness

And every hour the nurses come
And wake me up again
And check that dripping morphia
Has controlled the pain

Later when I want to know
The brain wont let me in
To read the gigabytes it stored
Stored then hid, deep within

I am granted glimpses
That wake me in a sweat
And let me know that trauma passed
May still posses me yet

Three Busts Two Horses

Beatty's imperious stare
Stares down the sun
Sees wars to be won
In defence of an empire no longer there

Jellicoe seems less eager to go
Campaigning once again
Twelve more years
Fill his face with fears
Perhaps he thinks of the men

Cunningham has seen it all
Wars one and two
The rise and the fall
A rougher bust is his
He has seen what is

To right and left above and beside
George the fourth and the future's pride
From martial glories to a toy
From warriors to golden boy
From certainty of imperium
To doubt regarding what's to come

The Castle in the Clouds - Scene #1 - Darkness

He slipped within
The blanket came up to his chin
Breaths came deeper
The bravest sleeper
With an upstart snore
Within his bed knocked on the door
Of Darkness

A little sister
How he missed her
Since she slept and went before
Since she passed beyond the door
Of Darkness

He stirred - and through the window overheard
Lightning flashing thunder crashing
Filled his head - shook his bed
And on the pane raindrops dinned
Thrown bye the raging of the wind
He gasped - another rage of rain
Rushed then shook the window pane

Beyond the brook the blackest cloud
Beaten by the wind
Upon the hill remained
Upon the hill by wind was chained
And Darkness was within

He ran across the wooden bridge
Above the tumult of the brook
He climbed upon the hill beyond
Without a pause the light forsook
He assailed the blackness
Of the castle in the air
Up lashing raindrop ladders
Up black torrential stairs
Seeking ever seeking
To find Darkness in its lair

Admitted to the cloudy keep
Of the Castle in the Air
He set his foot to climb upon
The blackest spiral stair
Heedless of the moaning void, echoing, dripping
Heedless of the pang of fear, stifling, gripping
He climbed until he found himself
Where breath to breathe is rare
Upon the giddy battlement
Of the Castle in the Air

Far below like a memory
Writ in a story book
Slept a little cottage
With a bridge beside the brook
Peering from the battlement
An eye a face a tear
A sob in lonely solitude
A dark and nameless fear
A yearning to return
To the house beside the brook
A yearning to return
To the bed forsook        ... to be continued

Chequered

Chequered fluttering
Materialised
In the corner of my eye
Rascal you - magpie