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 :)

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 

your coffee

LISTEN TO THIS POEM

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

LISTEN TO THIS POEM

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 

LISTEN TO THIS POEM

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

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

LISTEN TO THIS POEM

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

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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?

LISTEN TO THIS POEM

 

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

LISTEN TO THIS POEM