poetry
here in the twilight

Howard Thurman
As I Walked Out One Evening
As I walked out one evening, Walking down Bristol Street, The crowds upon the pavement Were fields of harvest wheat. And down by the brimming river I heard a lover sing Under an arch of the railway: ‘Love has no ending. ‘I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you Till China and Africa meet, And the river jumps over the mountain And the salmon sing in the street, ‘I’ll love you till the ocean Is folded and hung up to dry And the seven stars go squawking Like geese about the sky. ‘The years shall run like rabbits, For in my arms I hold The Flower of the Ages, And the first love of the world.' But all the clocks in the city Began to whirr and chime: ‘O let not Time deceive you, You cannot conquer Time. ‘In the burrows of the Nightmare Where Justice naked is, Time watches from the shadow And coughs when you would kiss. ‘In headaches and in worry Vaguely life leaks away, And Time will have his fancy To-morrow or to-day. ‘Into many a green valley Drifts the appalling snow; Time breaks the threaded dances And the diver’s brilliant bow. ‘O plunge your hands in water, Plunge them in up to the wrist; Stare, stare in the basin And wonder what you’ve missed. ‘The glacier knocks in the cupboard, The desert sighs in the bed, And the crack in the tea-cup opens A lane to the land of the dead. ‘Where the beggars raffle the banknotes And the Giant is enchanting to Jack, And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer, And Jill goes down on her back. ‘O look, look in the mirror, O look in your distress: Life remains a blessing Although you cannot bless. ‘O stand, stand at the window As the tears scald and start; You shall love your crooked neighbour With your crooked heart.' It was late, late in the evening, The lovers they were gone; The clocks had ceased their chiming, And the deep river ran on.
tangled up in blue

I got to get to her somehow
All the people we used to know
They’re an illusion to me now
Some are mathematicians
Some are carpenters’ wives
Don’t know how it all got started
I don’t know what they’re doin’ with their lives
But me, I’m still on the road
Headin’ for another joint
We always did feel the same
We just saw it from a different point of view
Tangled up in blue….. bob dylan
as i careen down this zipline that is life, i am surprised at a couple of things the most. one is that i cannot zip back up the line i have just come across on. somehow when i started this journey it never dawned on me that i might want to go somewhere once i reached the other side. yet on the other side is where i find myself and there is so much more i want to explore.
the other surprising element is that i have changed more deeply than i could have ever imagined and am ready to let go of so much i have held dear. and frankly there are things – people places and things- that i need to let go of even though i may not be quite ready yet.
so let the music play, let the dance begin and we’ll see where the footwork and the practice take us.
ellusion

I’ve been riding a fine line
Between dreamland and consciousness
I’ve been floating all alone
Halfway to shore
I’ve been losing my grip
On all things real
Time passes slowly
Like a melting clock
I’ve been wandering
Across this divide
Wondering not where I will end up,
But wondering what I will escape
Shapes and faces float ahead
The ever present reminder of actuality
Boats are in the distance
There’s safety in them
But my grip slips further
And I can’t hold on
To something that isn’t truly there

Buddha.
I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me…
She showed me her room, isn’t it good, norwegian wood?
She asked me to stay and she told me to sit anywhere,
So I looked around and I noticed there wasn’t a chair.
I sat on a rug, biding my time, drinking her wine
We talked until two and then she said, “It’s time for bed”
She told me she worked in the morning and started to laugh.
I told her I didn’t and crawled off to sleep in the bath
And when I awoke, I was alone, this bird had flown
So I lit a fire, isn’t it good, norwegian wood.