Life

Let us go, then

Let us go, then

To where the fresh air chokes on the yellow fog

To where the universe refuses to be disturbed

To where they talk of Michelangelo

To where the coffee spoons measure life

The yellow fog rises to the sky

The yellow fog bends to say goodbye

The yellow fog spreads its wings to fly

The yellow fog, powerless, will soon die

Down this deep blue fjord 

As we watch the rocky coast

We travel on and on

Waiting for the dawn

Down this foreign fjord

With steep islands on both sides

We travel on and on

Hoping for the dawn

This endless, endless fjord

These cruel, crooked coasts

We wander on and on

Careless of the dawn

Let us go then, you and I

To where the day is stretched out tediously like a patient on a table

Like a patient etherized on a table

To where the time is slow, slow, slow

To where the night never comes

To where the bare tree grows lifelessly

To where we will wait, wait, wait

For Godot

We wander on and on

Waiting for the dawn

Hoping for the dawn

Careless of the dawn

Let us go then, Gogo

The door is wide open

I will show you the paths that we must travel

Travel on and on and on and on

For reasons unknown

Certain half-deserted streets

Cheap hotels and sawdust restaurants

And the gloomy October night

Are our little joys

We shall laugh at them, defiant

And the fog

Ah, the fog

We shall scorn how it lingers upon the pools

We shall scorn how it slips by the terrace

We shall scorn how it never rises

How meaningless, the fog!

Only time will tell

Aye, we shall laugh and scorn

Because this is better than the dry, empty days

Where we wait and wait and wait

Where nothing happens 
Nobody comes
Nobody goes

For reasons unknown

No, this is better

Oh, we will dare

Aye, we will dare
We will disturb the universe 

We will barge into the party room

Where nobody comes and nobody goes

Whining of Michelangelo

We will measure our lives with coffee spoons

And we will laugh, delighted

Though we do not know the eyes

Though we do not know the arms

We will see him

Aye, we will see him

We shall not wait any longer for him

But we shall find him

We shall seek him

We shall find him

We shall be a pair of wings
Soaring across the vaults of the majestic skies

We are not Rosencrantz and Guildenstern

They are dead

I am Hamlet, and you are Laertes

True heroes both

We are alive now

And we will be alive after the end of all acts

For we trust in a life stronger than death

No human voices will wake us

For this is no dream

And when we return we will hear silence

Deafening silence

And we will look at once, both of us,

To the bare lifeless tree

And we will see the sudden leaves sprouting on the empty branches

And we will hear, in the silence

An inaudible whisper

'I am life

Visiting this barren tree, your barren lives, 

Bringing hope,

Bringing meaning

I am whom you have sought incessantly

All your lives

I am fulsome life

I am Godot.'

And in a moment we will comprehend

In a moment we will smile through sudden tears

Tears that fall on fertile ground

And we will leave, you and I, to where the sun never sets

Let us go then, you and I, to where the sun never sets.

Listen

Throw your colours to the wind

It doesn't matter anymore

The swirls of crafted artistry that 

Pulse at your masterful fingertips will

Get you nowhere.

Forget the greying, ageing hues

Forget the fading, bending rainbows

Forget the emotion you have recollected

Let the poetry that waits within

The mind to slink out in the same old letters be

Left to itself to slip out unseen

Unheard

Unheard.

Heard melodies are sweet 

But those unheard

Those unheard

Heralding the new day to its fullness is

The joy of a thousand, million birds

Their songs echoing each other's and

Coinciding in one grand chorus of the dawn

Open the eyes of your exuberant thoughts and

See the gentle curve of a smile on the ground waiting

For you to take rein of it, to gallop to seventh heavens

Forget the swirls and the letters and

Listen

Listen to life

Listen to the joyous infinities

Heard melodies are sweet

But those unheard

Those unheard

You thought of sculpting your way into 

The secrets of art

Rest your hammer and chisel and

Stare straight into the gold of the sun

Grab the sun and

Make it your dawn and whisper it out in a 

Tentative symphony

Forget, forget the swirls and the letters

Forget what you remember

Forget your very thoughts

Listen

Listen to life

Listen to a thousand, million whispers of joyous infinities

Heard melodies are sweet

But those unheard are sweeter

For it is sung in silence

And in the silence

You will listen

To life

To the whispers of happy infinities.

A Tale Of Two Birds

It was the best of times,
It was the best of times,
It was the age of wisdom,
It was the age of freedom,
It was the epoch of belief,
It was the epoch of audacity,
It was the season of Light,
It was the season of Flight,
It was the spring of hope,
It was the wing's tightrope,
We had all the skies before us,
We had all the earth below us,
We were all going direct to Heaven,
We were all going direct to new nests,
Nothing could go wrong,
Nothing could go wrong,
Everything was alright,
Everything was alright
I had everything under control,
I had everything under control,
And I was on the top of the world.

                     *

Happy, happy skies

That shine the light of day

So benevolently upon me,

A tiny sparrow!

Aha! I do feel it in my empty bones

That this day is different

Aye, this day shines different!

I feel different!

Today the world is mine to command

It's I who will tell it how to spin!

I fly high above the fluffy floor of the clouds

Not like those other weakling sparrows that ramble o'er the treetops

My wings are stronger,

And I follow the flight of them eagles

Oh, I was meant to be an eagle!

Trick of fate that hatched me in the wrong family

But that doesn't matter

Today is not a day to pout over such trifles

Today we fly,

Putting the world beneath our wings!

Light shines on the sweet layer of clouds

I fly just above it

Above me is the empty blue sky,

A sky emptied of its white cotton jewellery

Winds whistle at me, kindly, of course -

From every side

Below me, through the gaps in my white floor,

I see mankind, sprawled about in flimsy cities and villages

I snort.

If only they could fly like me.

The one-eyed blue face that stares at me, in turn,

From above, never blinks.

I feel so close to that one kind eye of life, the sun

It is just within the reach of my wings

I could reach out if I wanted to, really

If I wanted to...

Oh, that lad Icarus didn't know the first thing about flying

Wings of wax, indeed!

My wings are true,

And when I chose, I will fly towards the one-eyed wonder.

Hm! Where are the eagles, I ask

Where are them who brave the stormy nights to break through to the calmer skies?

Not one of them wanders even below me

All above and all below

It seems to me that I and only I fly

Emptiness is the air about me

Not a feather to be seen in the skies

And -

But what -

Wait

What is this deafening silence that I hear,

This calm before some mighty storm?

My wings flutter, my eyes dart to every side

What is it? What is it?

There is nothing above or below

Am I alone in this fear? 

What is this mighty silence and emptiness?

The clouds scoff at me,

And the sun seems to laugh

And then - silence. A sound of thunder

I gasp - what I see before me is a giant white bird

I mean it - I'm serious!

It's got this huge beak, above it to eyes staring at me

What's really unsettling is that it hasn't a feather - it's all bone

And it's big - as big as ten storm clouds put together

The two wings are shiny and they've each got two big spinning wheels -

And the crazy bird's headed right towards me!!!

I should've stayed in my nest

I should've stayed in my nest, should've, should've aargh!

YIKES! It's right in front of me why is it following me it's got me I'm done for

OUCH. It hits me with its beak. Sure hurts.

Funny, when it bumped into me it seemed like

There were a lot of humans inside it. Hmmm.

What are they doing so high up?

Trying to fly again like that chap with glued-up feathers?!

Sigh. These folks never learn.

Presently, I stop thinking to myself because there's something

That seems a bit more important at hand.

I can't flap my wings.

Seems like I'm gliding downwards 

I check again. Left wing - no answer

Right wing - sleeping. 

The big white bird has done some serious damage

To my aeronautical system -

I can't fly anymore!

Yeoooooww! In the realisation, my brain stops working

And my wings stop flapping

And I'm twirling and whirling down and down

Falling headlong

Aaaaa!

I plummet down the white cloudy floor

The vast green stretches of some part of earth appear before me

I've heard that in the last few moments of your life
Your whole life flashes before you
I see myself as a nestling, crying to my momma for food
In my childhood nest
I see a teenage version of myself arguing
With my dad for permission to get out of the nest
I see myself flying away from home, naively determined to reach the highest heights,
Against the wishes of my parents

And then I stop seeing clips of my life history
And the pretty green pasture that I'm racing onto
Beats the living daylights out of me.
Blank, every thought flies out of my mind
And I'm in a coma or something.
Slowly, I come to my senses, or to what's left of them.
Ouch. That hurt, I think, when I'm able to think again
I look around in a daze,
And it takes sometime to realize that
I'm alive or something

I look around. I'm under a big tree. Green grass towers above me
On my left and right and all around I guess it's the green field
I saw from my previously undignified bird's eye vantage 
I realize that my wings are kind of broken
It'll take time to heal...
In the meantime I guess I'll hop around, explore the town, find places to eat
So for the next few days I do just that.
I make a good old nest, just like the old times
And get a few good pieces of fruit
I don't meet anybird else, though

I have plenty of time to think as I play Robinson Crusoe here, wingwrecked
And I introspect, a lot
I guess it's all my fault that I got in this mess
Was too naively audacious, recklessly optimistic
Should've listened to my parents. Hmmm. Well.
Gotta be more practical and stuff. You know. Prudence and all.
A bird should know where to fly.
The better part of valour is discretion, as they say back at home...
Well, no use moping around, I'll make the best of this -
Heal myself, get my wings, fly high, set the skies on fire again.

Cause I so am gonna get back on the air again.

Memory

I see unmemoried jigsaw bits

Clicked in place together again

In a puzzle of sublime comprehension

In a moment of crystal clear vision

I see thoughts that have been hiding in my mind for centuries.

O Raveloe

Now that winter is come

It seems that spring never was

And never will be again

Spring, awaken from your slumber

Shuffle off the show from your sleeping eyes

Come out from the snow where you hide

Come quickly, lest my golden-haired child stumble

Away from my life into the lives of strangers

Awake, Raveloe!

Listen, I have heard that a bright dawn is risen in your midst

A weaver of sad memories and sweet dreams

Let him see the dawn even if I may not

Take my gold child to where he lives

And let me rest in peace

Light

Eyes burn when they see true light

I see bright morning in Your eyes

And my eyes are afire

Let me be beggar to Your palace,

Where the sky is the roof

And the light is the Sun's 

Then I will whisper that light into my heart of hearts,

And the leaves of my forest will become the flames of new candles.

Death of the Night

It is cold outside

I feel the night shivering in the light

All my fears have fled

There are no nightmares but those that shiver and die.

Who Dares Label Man?

Who dares label man?

Canadian, American, English, French

Italian, African, Japanese, Indian

Chinese, Korean, Russian, Serbian

Who dares raise his voice

To pinpoint a man and say

"This is he."

Black, white, dark, fair - 

What matters the colour

Of the skin of your brother?

Who dares answer?

Have we not heard a thousand, thousand times

That within every man lies the same precious soul?

That coursing within each man's veins is the same red blood?

That behind every pair of human eyes is the same intelligent mind,

Capable of an infinity of thoughts?

Have we not heard?

Have we not heard a thousand times,

A thousand, thousand times those words

And denied entry to those words,

That we are one,

That we are brothers,

That we are equals,

That we are one family of nations?

Each man is capable of the noblest actions

Each man is worthy of the greatest respect

King or beggar -

What does it matter?

Who dares label man?

Who dares answer?

Music Of The Dawn

Listen to the sound of winter’s wind!

Icy as the river it has tamed

The clouds fly o’er in ecstasies of grey

All nature caricature of a tear.

Listen to the quick-hastening storm!

Rumbling like a menacing fire-mount

Jagged white fells earth with splint’ring sound

Existence has donned a weary robe.

Listen to the music of the dawn!

Wrecking light on all that once was dread

The power and the might crush down my fears

I stand strong now for all the night is fled.

Rising from the brilliance of first light

Transfigur’d, I am the Sun, the stars.

Always

This quiet eve

When the sparrows have ceased their songs

When the city has hushed its citizens to restful sleep

When the white sands of the coasts of the afternoon horizons

Are engulfed by the blue seas of the evening

Life stares at me in the eye

Night approaches,

But it is but prologue to an exuberant dawn

Night is a clumsy trick of the eye

The sun is still there

Waiting

Your dawns are inevitable

Your sunrises are permanent

The light will stay still in your skies, child, and dance merrily

When you defy the lies of the sunrises and sunsets

Because there is neither

The sun is always there

Waiting

Beyond the laughing days and tearstained nights

Waiting