Rejected Verses 51-60

 51. Now or never

 

Always ask for pardon,
‘Sorry’ works better than ‘please’,
Ask and you will receive
A ‘maybe’.
Do and be damned,
But at least it’s done.
The world divides
Between those who do
And those who ask.

Always look forward
And never look back
Don’t wait for Lot’s wife                                                                
She's gone off track.

The world will belong
To those on song
Join the doers and rushers
Avoid the pen-pushers.

Do it now
Do it quick
Embrace regrets 
For we all did.

Better tears for efforts made
Than regrets for nothing done.

If we wait
For the blessing
From all around
The train will leave us abandoned
Chatting on a deserted platform
Another wasted chat about
What might have been
Had we but the guts
And the single mind.

 

 

 

 

 52. Something

 

There's something beyond us
And something between us
An invisible thread
In the Milky Way
That gathers and scatters
That joins and divides us.

The pattern of God
So near and so reaching
Beyond touching and seeing
At the pit of our being. 

Asleep yet awake
Mute but yet talking
Immobile, still coursing
Each second, each day.

We see him in children
The blind and the aged
In hope and in anguish
Through love and through care.

He's here and he's nowhere
Both now and forever
The gate is marked hope
Past the wall of despair 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                        

 53. Nature’s hymn 

 

The hymn of nature doesn’t summon or command

It simply whispers and suggests

What might have been

What might come to be.

We sadly ditch the image of a bearded god

And heaven being seats around a table

Realizing we must mature beyond 

The cozy images of youth.

To abandon so as to embrace

Something whispered,

Something suggested,

What eye can’t see

What ear can’t hear

In the intimacy of the tiny atom

In the furthest flung galaxies.

The facts that cannot be denied

Or piously explained away

That whatever follows

Will almost certainly be

Not what we expected.

For the eye cannot see nor the ear hear

Except perhaps what honesty

And a penny telescope reveal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 54. No longer 

 

No longer taking for granted the air that we breathe

Or taking for granted the simplest of deeds,

Now we must pause, for time has run out

Last drinks at the bar were finished last night.                                          

 

Now we envy old women, walking with ease

We envy the couple enjoying the moment,

Taking for granted, as they saunter along

Enjoying shared minutes, they move without effort

Quietly enjoying the simplest of things.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 55. Friend

 

You learned to be patient

Long before me, my friend

To step back from the punch

And walk away from the fight

Knowing it’s right

To be slow to throw words

When silence is better instead.

To risk being called weak

When really being strong

Is to do nothing at all.

 

The words that are better unspoken

The fights that are better not fought

Lay down the tongue and the gun

When peace by silence is bought.

Every word shall have its season

Under heaven and here on earth

The secret’s surely knowing

The hour to stage its birth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 56. Most times 

 

Most times things turn out badly

Just as we thought and feared

The miracle has let us down

We’re gripped again by gravity.

 

Whistling softly in the dark

Doesn’t always work

Death and disease will catch us

No matter how we duck.

 

Let’s not argue with the numbers

Let’s be brave and be humble

We cannot change the outcomes

Just our attitude to face them.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                   

 57. Lazy hazy afternoon 

 

Lazy hazy afternoon in late July

When warm winds kiss the sleepy noon

A gentle balm from south Sahara

Lulls the sleepy dogs lying on fresh hay.

 

Soft white clouds parade across the sky

The birds have fallen silent in the noonday sun

And old man nodding off on an old park bench

And time has stopped.

Still.

 

 

 

 

 

58. Morning in Carne 

 

The delicious gentle chill of early morn

The rising sun awakes the birds

Who chatter in the hedgerows

The kitchen smells of early coffee.

 

Innocent early summer hours

Before the world puts on his business suit

When all is fresh and possible

At the leafy altar of a virgin dawn.

 

The sun now rises o’er the Wexford sea

That stretches all the way to France

The sun reflected in the water

Blowing kisses to infinity.

 

A starling and her family chatter

In their nest beneath my gable

Their morning prayer so sweet

As serene as a tall cathedral.

 

The breakfast sun has waxed and risen

It bathes each flower with a golden blessing

The promise of an enchanted noon

A silence broken only by the gulls.

 

 

 

                                                                                                   

 

 

 

 59. A bruised reed 

 

A bruised reed he will not break

A smoldering wick he will not take

Kindness is his playing suit

His love and gentleness will take root.                                                      

 

In this stony heart now moved to tears

It’s just in silence that he hears

And mercy flows in gentle streams

And grace on silver moonbeams.

 

 

 

 

 

 60. School poetry 

 

Such self-importance and self-regard

That clothes a poet’s frame

That gives him voice and lets him claim

Eternal wisdom as from an eternal flame.

 

So humble a man and yet so proud

To have his verse declaimed out loud

To students in a sleepy English class

With drooping eyes and heads half-mast.

 

And yet forgotten lines return

In middle age when least expected

Giving shape and form to rules

An inner casing and a structure

Assembled in misremembered school.