Friday, January 28, 2011

You


I'll play to you
Sing for you
Breathe the
uni-verse
in you

I will touch you
with my heartbeats
and caress you
with my sighs

Though my soul crawls
across the gravel
and the dirt
on which it bleeds

Just to see your
eyes twinkle
is soothing balm
upon my open sores

I'll delight you
if you'll let me
I'll adore you
though you turn away

Just be patient
a little longer
your old man
is rising to his feet

Now his demons
are departing
fleeing from
his holy wrath

And tomorrow
when you wake up
touch him with
forgiving eyes

Oh I will sing for you
delight you
caress you
free you from my wrongs

I'll adore you
and devote you
to Orpheus
god of song!



Footnote

I heard somewhere that Billy Joel refuses to put the lyrics of his songs in print with his cds.  He believes that the lyrics of songs do not and should not be spoken outside of their melodies.  (For an idea of what this might mean, think of the lyrics of Hard Day's Night and try just saying rather than singing them)

I wrote these words as lyrics of a song.  The melody and words sort of came together.  I guess I'm trying to suggest a reason why they might feel a bit strange when spoken or read rather than sung :)

Monday, January 24, 2011

How's your coffee?



I'm sorry
what did you say?

Oh, I just wondered
if your coffee was 
alright?

My coffee?
Hardly noticed
Not when there's

all this

so much of

all this

and 

all that

and doing one
means 
missing the rest


And missing 

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The road to anywhere


The road to anywhere
could just as well be
the road to nowhere

Wherever it's taken me
It's always brought me
home


Wednesday, January 5, 2011

But today, she smiled


She couldn't smile
Was it any wonder?
breaking, as she was, into pieces

It wasn't fair
she'd said
Why did he have to go?

What was the point
of being here
without him?

He was the love of her life
she'd said, predictably, 
as,
still suspended in disbelief,
she shook her head

In silence
I watched her and listened
certain I could say nothing
to ease her pain
or cast out the cruel loneliness
that had seized her heart 
threatening to steal 
his place

But today
she smiled
as she threw petals of chrysanthemum
on the sun-drenched river

Smiling with plump memories
and frothy gratitude
for all their years together
and all the years since 


NOTE  I edited this recently so a couple of words may be different to what you hear :)



Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Sun and Lover


As dusk stealthily advances
to swallow the sun

which spits and hisses
and ducks and dives
helplessly

 like a candle flame
dancing frenziedly
on its last drop of wax 

the lover,
burns parting kisses 
on his mistress' breasts

and,
stepping out,
sees 

that the sun 
has also,
 in passionately reluctant departure,
  kissed the sky
ablaze








Monday, January 3, 2011

You do remember, don't you?


You do remember, don't you
the kisses that you scattered
upon my scorching skin
the first summer of our romance?

How autumn,
in her final refrain,
found us lustfully entwined?

And that,
even as winter frosted,
the flames of our longings
burned ever more feverishly?

You do remember
for look how your eyes
search me
 as if retrieving
each of those glorious moments
arousing each one
as the sun does
eager buds
in spring







Sunday, January 2, 2011

Beyond the searching gaze of my eyes


Beyond the searching gaze of my eyes
awaits the calming embrace
of your slow, silken love

I swear I do not know
how such fortune
fell upon me

that when I least expected it
you appeared 

like the warm, comforting glow
of a late autumn afternoon
upon my vacant home

keeping it, thereafter,
sturdy and stable on the outside
trembling with passion 
on the inside

Is it any wonder then
that I love
coming home?

 


Saturday, January 1, 2011

What a day!


What a day!
I ventured out early
with a million things on my mind

Carry-overs from 
a hundred days before
(It could easily have been
ten million)

And when, finally,
I trudged home
weary and wasted
it seemed as if I'd accomplished
little

hardly enough
to get me through 
another day

except
for the fact
that I knew
you'd soon be home too

and somehow
(don't ask me how)
I'd find 
 the will
to do it all again