Eye of the Tiger

Its gaze never falters,
Unfailing, whatever the angle.
It doesn’t matter how much I pace my room,
Not once does it look away!
Are its eyes only on me or do they take in everything?
Enough is enough! I am its master!
“Speak! Damn your cursed silence!
Why do you stare at me so?”
Silence.
Defiance wells within me, I stand feet firmly planted
And return stare for stare.
There I am, veteran of a hundred battles,
Confident in my supremacy, arrogant invulnerability.
There I am, prostrate on the ground, weeping,
Pounding my fists on the floor, pitiful fool.
There I am, a desperate little child,
Desperate for love, clinging to shams of affection.
There I am, a heartbroken lover,
Never been loved, all love exhausted.
All the while standing, stare for stare.
What manner of beast are you?

It looks at me still, eyes boring into my head,
Ravaging my soul, this picture,
This tiger above my bed.

Catalysis

A lonely star in a murky sky
Of wisps of never-meant-to-be’s.
A radiant flower in a blasted heath
Where life has all but ceased.
A single dream in an ocean of thoughts
Is hidden beneath the slime.
But a single spark in the awful dark
Has shattered the doom of these.

The star shines brighter than ever before
In a spectacular luminous chorus.
And the flower gives seed to the Tree of Life
Purging the land of death
The dream, a mere drop, engulfs the ocean
And turns it to molten gold.

But what would ever happen to these
If that spark happened to grow cold?

Diminshed Dusks

It’s just another evening.
The birds fly home,
To their little twig and straw nests.
The sun sets in a colourful display,
All crimson, purple and orange.
It bathes the land with an amber glow.
But it’s definitely not a postcard scene you see.
No lush verdant paddy stretching into the horizon.
Nor is it something out a classic western,
With open lands and the lone ranger
Riding away in triumph.
What we have are those dull metal cars,
Bikes and buses. And all the people.
You don’t hear the soft drone of crickets or
The twitter of birds, but the brazen honks
Of a thousand impatient people.
Each unwilling to give way to the other.
Each expecting way for all the others.
They form a metal worm, seemingly endless,
Constantly fed.
It inches along on its course, leaving its
Slimy trail on land and in air.
This is the sunset I see.

Happy Birthday

It was your birthday.
The day everyone who knows you
Remembered you.
The one day every phone call
Would ring with love for you.
That special day when I wasn’t there.

It seems tragic but it really isn’t
Because I see myself next to you.
Whether you’re at a café, a club
Or simply at home.
I reach across the vast insurmountable
Distance and brush that careless speck
Off your shoulders.
I clap hard and look on with shining eyes
As you smile so full of joy at being
The Star.
I hear your voice echo with absolute, divine
Bliss regardless of the words you speak.
And I see you smile back at me,
As I hug you ever so fiercely.






Considering the number of people I know celebrating their birthdays this time of year, I thought this poem was especially apt. =)

A Simple Dance

I took her hand and matched her smile
And led her to the floor.
The music started, my mind went blank
And reality seemed to slow.

She clutched my hand in giddy pain
As the crescendo grew,
While I danced my self made part
On clouds of joy to a never ending tune.

Once and twice we circled the room
Bathed in a golden hue,
My rapturous breath caught in my throat,
As I grew familiar with the tune.
A flourish here, a canter there,
And she keeps in pace.
I lead the dance she follows suit
And all is as it should.

The day rushes past, the night drags on
And time is lost to us.
But in dark or light I fail to see
The room has gone to dust.
Still we dance on a gossamer thread
Above the shards of fate,
With not a misstep for that would be doom
We dance with demonic grace.

The night is done, our time is past
The music draws to a close.
I bid adieu, look in her eyes
And see my fate is lost.

Midnight Musings

When I look upon the blackest night
Darker than despair
I see a silver star agleam
Burning without care.
Dancing, laughing, singing, shrieking.
Revelling in life’s pleasures
Celestial magnificence, glorious worth,
Beauty past all measures.

I, the silent Earth, adrift in the empty void,
Am bleak, desolate and plagued
With ne’er ending toil
All I can do is pray in hope
That that star alights on me
And takes me to new worlds unknown,
My fantasies revealed.

A brand new earth will be born that day,
Green, pristine and pure.
And all the sky will chant in praise
And all the oceans will swirl their waves
And all the birds and all the beasts
Will shout in unison triumph.

But still I will search the endless sky
For that magical star
But will it be found, and found by me,
My sight stretches not that far.

Mirror View

The touch was cold,

Cold as the deepest winter

Where you stand bare,

The cold piercing the depth of your soul

Leaving you vulnerable, brittle,

Endangered by this icy flame

But I could not resist, could not pull away.

Some strange unknown force fixed me,

Hand to hand – right-on-left and left-on-right

What unknown power does this mirror hold, to enthral the soul,

To dull the world in a world of its own?

I stare, the reflection of my confusion,

What barrier is this, thin as a falsetto strain

Yet far far deeper than a moonlit silence?

Mere glass or more than glass? A window

Into your very own eyes,

Where all you see is a stranger you’ve never seen before

But you’ve known your entire life