Sunday, March 3, 2013

The Sailor and the Boat



The Sailor and the Boat

On a cold and wet February morn, In she came, battered, sails all torn.
Her shine was gone, her rudder bashed, It seemed as though her sole was smashed.
But through the wreck the sailor spied, A former glory, once with shoulders wide.
He took a chance, and bought that boat, People laughed, he’s a fool they’d gloat.

He didnt care, he paid no heed, But he wasnt stupid and knew what hed need.
Alot of patience, time and toil, He wouldnt quit, he would stay loyal.
And through the summers long bright days, He kept on smiling while he fought the haze.
For beneath each coat of paint and dirt, He always seemed to hit more hurt.
Another hole, another dent, He began to wonder if hed badly spent.

But as folks forgot and the days drew in, A picture emerged of the good within.
The mast was fixed, and a sail sent high, The crowd drew quiet and stopped there cry.
The bright paint coat and a brand new wheel, Began to make the sailor feel,
Like his choice was good and his hard work paid, He’d be rewarded for the choice he made.
With a brand new boat all shiney and bright, Theyd sail away through the day and night.
Adventures ahead and memories found. This little boat wouldn’t run aground.

And through the work, the sweat and tears, Our little boat never spoke her fears.
For she knew the sailor was the right man, Honest, brave and with a mighty plan,
Who saw the world full of fight and love And would always be watching, close, just above.


Woof


Woof


I am your best friend
But you left me sick, tired and gone.
I could have helped but I would have made a dinner of it
Because you say I am old and cannot learn new tricks.
I am an ugly girl and I fight with cats so I’ve got a bad name.
You like to pull my hair even though I never bit you
And when it rains I get the blame.
If you’re in my house you know you’re in trouble.
Because I am asleep you should let me lie but if you join me,
You won’t wake up with fleas.
But there’s life in me still so I will match you step for step in the midday sun and walk with you through the gates of hell.

You are my best friend
But the more I get to know you, the more I like myself.

Perspective Please


Perspective Please

I’m looking through the bars, from on my heated mat
My eyes can barely open, you’ve let me know I’m just a cat
You left a bowl beside me, but I’m too sick to eat
I’d really like to play with you, but I can’t find my feet.
A lady ran her fingers, like beats along my spine
She laughed how cute my nose was and these big ears of mine.
I forget my mother’s whispers and I haven’t got a name,
And I’m lying in my own mess, too tired to feel the shame.

To be tied into a sack and thrown over a gate
Is to kill or wish me dead. Why would someone feel such hate?
So the next time things go wrong and a partner you should lose,
Know what “dumped” is. And please, spend 2 minutes in my shoes.

The Green Dragon, The Lost Boy and the Flag Beyond the Stars


The Green Dragon, The Lost Boy and the Flag Beyond the Stars
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There was a storm far far beyond the beautiful dark mountains, growing in the air. Lightning crackled. You couldn't see it but you could feel it. Feel its danger. Sometimes it seemed exciting, stupid, but sometimes the destruction it may cause could play on your mind. What if my house got struck by a falling tree? My most valued possession lost forever.

Oh but what if, just maybe that storm never came? Perhaps it might just stay safely behind the cover of the mountains?

Yet then it came and this was no storm we felt, it never was. It came from nowhere one day. One fine and beautiful morning, when the first hint of spring was in the air. A giant, angry, screaming, hissing Green Dragon came and it brought with it the fury and rage and anger that only love and hate and loss can bring. Filled with despair I ran for the cover of my house but it was no use, my house was gone, my protection was lost and inside it everything that i held close. Gone. Never to return.

Only sitting. Nothing else to do, I sat and sat some more. Sometimes my eyes were open and sometimes closed. I wished for anything, nothing really. And for how long did I sit? Sometimes I still sit.

Unknown to me, a tiny bird came one day and in a faraway strange voice told me to get up and follow her. She suggested that the life that had been lost inside my house could not be reclaimed, adventures lay ahead and with them I could learn to start again. Grow to believe again. Grow to live again.

She said who knew if that Dragon might return and with it the darkness that it wrought.

And then the tiny bird flew away one day. I thought she would never return.

I waited hoping. After the very depths of my heart called out for her, she returned with hesitation.  She told me to follow, in life we have free will and if her will brought her to fly away she would and that her gift of flight was the greatest gift of all, never take it for granted - we explored like children on a summers evening, fearless and praying that the days would never end. They never did.

Bright lights, mermaids, spacemen and monsters of the seas. We roared through our adventures, to far off ancient castles and through forests filled with talking trees; we ignored the parasitic mistletoe as it tried to poison our ears. Only happiness fell upon us.

High above me all the time in front, brave and strong, keeping watch of the Green Dragon, the tiny bird protects. With flag held high for only me to see, that she is there when storms gather, when darkness grows. She guards me still.

The Penguin


The Penguin

My birthday in Dublin Zoo.

It’s all too much. The white rhinoceros,
The common shoveller, the Cuban tree-frog.
A whole world and every part of it
A short walk from the tea-room.

Grating buggies, Cornettoes.
A basin of blue concrete
And a Humboldt penguin swimming
In three feet of dirty water.

If only we could slip inside those eyes
And find our way back
To the pack-ice in the Weddell Sea, the churning waves and daring escapes from Leopard seals.

Instead, we move on to the gibbons.