October Festivals

Diwali

In your heart

Safe from harm

The light of hope

Shines like a charm

Keep hold of hope

To light the way

And chase doubt

Far away

Samhain

The year draws in

All harvests done

Now count the days

Till Spring is come

In the runes

A fortune fold

And in a song

Tall tales are told

Light the bonfire

For more light

We'll celebrate
Samhain tonight

All Hallows Eve, All Souls & Saints and the Day of the Dead

In the candlelight's translucent air

Full of the angels incense and prayer

Dusk and dawn rub thin

To where, beyond death's veil

All sorrows cease

And love prevails

For one night we'll walk

Footsteps across the floor

A shiver in a silver flame

Echoes of the nevermore

In the moonlight's soft embrace

All phantom spirits, ghouls and wraiths

Dance to their ceaseless song

As lanterns call the enchanted throng

By morning light sharp contrast throws

The passing night into fleeting shadows

All Hallows Eve

All Souls, All Saints

And all the Dead

Are passing now into the night

As we walk in the new daylight

All Hallows Eve

All Souls, All Saints

And all the Dead

Across Lethe sail

All sorrows cease

And love prevails

Coyote

This eye scrapes on ice inside

When's this heart going to let go

In the last hours of our reality

We think we'll all save our humanity

But it's a quick trip and a cheap shot

Not a map for the future
But a graph of all your plots

Out in the wilds the coyote cries

Good riddance and goodbye

This fire burns, a cold riven flame

Kicked into touch like paper in the rain

For a heart beating brightly

A beacon in this pain

When's this heart going to let go

This eye scrapes on ice inside
When's this heart going to let go

Of Norfolk

The whisper of silver leaves under wide skies

In ancient tongues asking me

Where are your dreams now

Wild lass, wild lass

Only wreathed as silver strands in your hair

The willows are calling me

Back to the water lands

Windmills to the sea

Where river and sand flat and blue martins ply

Under the old cobbles

A shore of brick and stone

In memory of a place once we called home

Where are your dreams now

Wild lass, wild lass

Only wreathed as silver strands in your hair

Lost to the pine wind in the wild sea air

All your dreams travelled

A gathering storm

But your heart is a vaulted cathedral where angels sing

And love, ripe red and burnished

Beats to the steady drum

And here is hope, the living prayer, unfurled to the wind

The whisper of silver leaves under wide skies

In ancient tongues asking me

Where are your dreams now

Wild lass, wild lass

And I shout into the returning tide

Of the mud and salt and iron hard bone

Of barrel wood, frayed rope

And shells turned to stone

Of the stained glass and old songs

And cornfields' ripe gold

Where river and sand flat and blue martins ply

Under the old cobbles

A shore of brick and stone

Now memories of a place once we called home

Return

I've listened to your song too many times

Worn a groove in my heart

Where your needles have stung

How do I start

To move on

One day we'll return

One day we'll all learn

To get along

But for now

How do I start

To move on

Road seems to never end

Did I take a wrong turn my friend

Left too much far behind

Returning home isn't on my mind

But then one day we'll return

One day we'll all learn

To get along

And I hear you are becalmed

On an ocean of storms

The labyrinth amazement won

Over the reason to run

From it all

Can we ever return

Can we learn to get along

I've listened to your song too many times

Worn a groove in my heart

Where your needles have stung

How do I start

To move on

One day we'll return

One day we'll all learn

To get along

But for now

How do I start

To move on

Summer Roads

Whispering your secrets to me

As though I can turn the clock

To a new time

Where your hands have worn

The surface smooth

To a blank page

Summer roads

Wind down to the sea

Summer roads

Set us free

All I can do

Is make you see

Summer roads

Find a pebble on the beach

Worn smooth by oceans of time

Grains of sand running

And remember what you ask

When you whisper

For me to change it all in an instant

As though I can delve into the universe

And peel away the geometry

Holding you here

Holding out for a

Blank page

Summer roads

Wind down to the sea

Summer roads

Set us free

All I can do

Is make you see
Summer roads

Torchlight Heart

When did your torchlight heart

Stop burning so bright

And when did your eyes stop finding

Wrong from right

Chequerboard love

One jump ahead

Of my every move

And every moment

I wonder

If you

Can even see

Why you're trying to defeat me

Clouds on the mountain

And rivers flowing full

Ice on the window melting

Where you traced

Your next move

To stay

One jump ahead

And every moment

I wonder

If you

Can even see

Why you're trying to defeat me

When I was always still shining bright

When I was always still shining bright

When did your torchlight heart

Stop burning so bright

And when did your eyes stop finding

Wrong from right

The stars in the sky

Are aligning with me

And I wonder

If you

Can even see

My torchlight heart

Tonight

Arctic Tern

So, this is an oldie, probably from well before 2007 (my immediate archives only go back so far) but sometimes it's good to revisit. Thinking of writing a new set of poems and, in going through my garden photos from 2015, found some of bizarre frost patterns which caught my imagination again. Don't ask me how I connected it to this poem, who knows how those synapses fire. New set will be under the working title, 'Summer Road'.

Arctic Tern

Dry creek runs in my veins

And the drumming blood

Beats in my brain

Can't escape this passing place

If we chance to meet

Offer me grace

Silver grit and oil sticks in the crepe tread

Of my sandals again

Must be a summer road

Can't promise much

But my boat sails

On those oceans we sing

Like the stickers on the orange string

We'll throw our nets and sing

Strange lands unfolding

Scooped up in the wings

Of this Arctic tern

Feathers smooth in the skin

Flying over the ice cradles

Is how she begins

Dry creek runs in my veins

And the dust I bring

Will inflame

And your eyes will cry

With the beat

Flying across the seas

Until only the shadow of my wings

Is the structure of the tide

And I'm singing in your eyes