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peace settled after battle's edge had been blunted
and there was no wind from north, south, east or west
baby hushed, mama gone and hand raised like a flag
to herald victory's song

People of the Time

Open your mouth to say what?
These days people speak, I speak, too often only to self

Open your ears to hear what?
Indistinct words, lies or a reputation being trashed

Open your eyes to see what?
Flesh lifted on high, daily to be devoured

Open your mind to understand what?
Crashing stocks, life through the lens, the crying of the war torn, died too soon

Open your heart to feel what?
Emptiness that whirls you in its arms in an endless dance

Open your closed door to what?
The entrance of sorrow

Like candles flickering in a remote outpost
We give light only to our imaginations

But sometimes when it is very quiet
You can hear a whisper from the mountain's edge

Open only once - to speak, to hear, to see, to understand, to feel
The other side of fear; which is faith

The sound of the sea

the roar drowns out all other sound
coming from fathoms away towards shore
i am fishing today for what was lost
generations before

The soul cannot stand for too long

Reality tv
Breakfast tv
Celebrity

Free papers
News obsession
Tabloid lying

No good thought
No good word
No good act

No art
No passion
No pain

Memorise the few things that the soul cannot stand for too long
So as to avoid a slow, slow death
Rehearse them every morning whilst looking in the mirror
Because they are easily forgotten and very, very hard to resist

The body cannot stand for too long

Bereavement
Betrayal
A brave face
Torture
Solitary confinement
The flow of water and of memory
Questions unanswered and unseeking
The eye of the storm
Sadness entering the soul
Unending snowfall
Relentless sunshine
Waterless places
Lovelessness
Foodlessness
Homelessness
A diet of carelessness and control
Tiredness and loneliness and bloodshed
A slow heart beat or a fast one
Or Impact
Or dictatorships
Obscenity or obesity
Trivia or tireless complexity
Concrete
The colour grey
Confusion
Negation
No touch
No air
No light
Nonsense
There are many, many things under heaven that a body cannot stand for too long
Start your own list
Publish the findings
Call a summit
Deprivation and excess are crimes against humanity <> perpetual death

Spectacle

This is not the time to come clean
This is not the time to be seen

Come out of the shadows
Lift up your eyes to the hills
A helper comes

This is the time of clouds
The opening of heaven's gate

People are dying
Slower than a fading star

People are living
Faster than a speeding bullet

The Letter D – d

The letter D has it hard
The black sheep of the alphabet fold
A sound like no other to sum up
Life's devastations
Man's deviations
Woman's depressions
My desperate search
No other letter does it like a d
Don't doubt
It'll drag you down
Disaster creeping like the devil himself
Through every open door
Despair, disparage – too many dis' to mention
Too much deception to know a lie
Too much darkness to be able to see
Driven to distraction
So much death, departure
Damage done

The Ravine of Kidron

Strength from above
Pressed on every side
Life blood squeezed out
One drop of a bloody
Tide to flow

One betraying
As footsteps fill the air
Torches, lanterns, weapons
To extinguish
The world’s light

Taken down with a kiss
A sword’s flash
A severed ear
And one final miracle
In the garden of your circle
Breaking

Too Much

The bird's call to each other
The branches are bare
The frosty night governs the land
The birds twitter and then there is silence

The ancient poet said, 'let silence take you to the core of life'
What there can be melted down and remade?
Lies liquised and traded in
Love solidified and given out with the instruction:
'You must end the search for happiness'

Too much to stop
Too much to want to see the signpost pointing away from home
Too much water under the bridge not to be carried along by the past's dark tide
Too much agony, too much destiny
Too much talk to hear the still small centre that hides the reactor that locates the power
...

Centre of the earth
Centre of my soul

There is too much to know

Cool of the Day

I didn’t know where you were,
So suddenly departed from your routine.
Was it always in your mind
To wander so far from our meeting place?
I didn’t know what to do.
How long was I to wait?
What was I to think?
I thought our love was real.
Strolling through leafy garden glades,
Smiling and talking, gazing upon bounty’s home.

Why did you hide when you heard my footsteps
Approaching amid the rustling branches?
The leaves you covered yourself with are withering.
My darling, when the sun goes down
You will not be able to find your way home.
All this beauty now casts a shadow.
I am fading from your memory,
And soon you will no longer know who you are.
Fading light touches my face tonight,
The first of many evenings in alone.

But before you go take these clothes,
Sewn from skins that speak of a sacrifice
Many years from now.
A sign, my dearest love,
Of how I would allow myself to be hunted down.
When you stepped out from behind that tree
I knew I would hang on another
In the cool of a different day,
Through the longest of nights.
But, right now, I don’t want you to be cold.

WINTERVAL

It’s so cold here in Winterval.
Shop lights glow revealing treasures within,
Calling across empty hearts where sorrow hides.
‘There’s more, always more.
Come inside.’

It’s so silent here in Winterval.
Like the little match girl freezing in the last flicker of dawn
We wait to be found.
No star in the night, no chorus of angels,
No word spoken, no not a sound.

It’s so dark here in Winterval.
They took down every sign.
No welcoming inn to rest a while, no sweet wine to savour.
Made like barren women, never to give birth, always to strive,
Like men, forever to journey, but never to arrive.

It’s so sad here in Winterval.
With no reason to give gifts
We lie wrapped in a joyless world, so meek, so mild.
Nothing to remember, no story to tell.
No Christ to worship and adore, just an inner child.

Dictator

Dictator,
Were you a boy who played in trees,
Ran down dusty lanes so as not to be late for tea?

Dictator,
I hide and am hungry.
I dare not run far for a mine may greet me before mother.

Dictator,
You live behind such high gates,
Whilst a slow death march into terror's marsh is our fate.

Dictator,
Did you dream as a boy,
And wake needing a father's hand on your shoulder?

Dictator,
I can no longer remember the features of my father's face.
Your image fills my every waking moment.

Dictator,
I am so small.
Your power is a fast-flowing river full of bodies.

Dictator,
What do you recall tonight,
As the wind blows through the dry grasses?

Dictator,
I wanted to be a doctor,
A ship's captain, an explorer, a pilot...

Dictator,
I wanted to be a teacher, a builder of houses, a writer...
Anything, anything at all, but not, never, ever, a freedom-fighter.

Pure Steel

The flashing blade
Will blind the enemy's eye
For a moment in time

The advantage gained
Sure-footed on the Rock
With a firm grip

Thrust forward the Spirit's sword
The pure steel will not fail
Jesus is Lord

treatise

unmet vows are sworn
into the night sky
they gather towards
one bleeding dawn
so many promises broken
as morning scatters holy wars
wholly yours, wholly mine
hurry away my love
the time dies
rest will not kiss you
see the horizon
and not the demise
beauty still marches
truth stands silently
goodness has vanished
but we remain
mouthing
no more, no more war
some still say it's a just
expression of man's aggression
as his hands drip sores
in the wet garden
the story unfolds
the plot is a forest
in which many are lost
woe-filled worlds collide
the end is an arrow
right through my heart
my love please hide
how will we break
the back of despair
pray and weep with me
for warfare is made
choice is before us
His feet are passing
My man, where are you?
Rest in my shade

dogs of war

dogs of war are fighting on
our hearts full of pity
for kids with no hands to hold
no feet to run and tell
of nasty dreams and screams
who will turn you in?
you curs of the world
you curse us
barking at the broken dawn
we stare into the night
you lick your silver and gold
have your bloody feast
and god knows what is
unleashed

mourning has broken

the night has broken
morning has arrived
black bird has spoken
sound of sunlight
praise for war ending
praise for sun rising
praise for life waking
man receives sight

sweet the rain's falling
sunlit my darling
kisses like dewfall
touching my hand
come and remember
our house of sweetness
sprung in completeness
from the first land

mine is the reasoning
mine is the labour
born of the one type
eden expelled
come and forgive us
come and redeem us
need to recover
hand that we held

The Snowdrop

A tear before falling
Held in fragility
Overcoming the winter
The flower to spring forth first
From the darkness of the earth

A pure promise of spring
Clothed in simplicity
Shivering in the wind
An eldest child longing for many brothers -
For a sudden appearing, a carpet of beauty

From highest heaven He came
Feet planted on rough wood
He died in the deepest of winters
The first born of many brethren
The third day to spring forth

What does this mean?
Praying and pleading
Fallen man upon a frozen earth
So many not seeing the white bud pushing up
Breaking winter’s curse

The first fruits of creation
Asking for others to come and to cover
The earth in beauty beyond all despair
Many brethren, many brethren suddenly appearing
Creation is singing, the melting, the melting’s begun

sequence

the darkened edges

bruised reeds, a smouldering wick
hope springs eternal

hope springs eternal
bruised reeds, a smouldering wick
the darkened edges

underworld return
turning the shadows of night
to glorious light

photo Martin Crep

bratislava

underfoot stone. walls no longer for defending. a castle.
vantage point. an open gate. enemy within.
bells toll for the faithful. bars full. what the young do not yet know.

the past is a deep river. it runs and runs. mighty waters.
the past begot a child. the present. wants to forget.
the future. a vista of many colours now. not only red.

Need

we need to come clean
sit out in the autumn rain
let enough water seep through
to float sunken dreams

we need to find the silver thread
weave it through ideals
loop it around as many as possible
make a human wall

we need to dam the tide of hunger
shore up against future's greed
hear hammer blows of tyranny
scales of justice creaking in the breeze

we need our need
we need to see evil's dark heart
and be cut to the bone
we need to come home