Winter’s Tale
Out beyond the cold dark glass, I know
Down below the the blanket pall of snow
The dormant grassy substance of the green
Lies buried under scattered leaves unseen
Which fell upon it in its final hour
A gusty multi-coloured autumn shower.
Crisp, black, decaying in the dark they lie
Lost and gone forever from the sky
Which knew them green against it's own deep blue
Like memories their colours faded, given to renew
The earth and more particularly, the grass
That lies unseen
Beyond my cold and darkening window glass.
Here inside the warm nocturnal light, I know
It's odd to look out through the cold glass at the snow
And think beyond all reason
In the middle of this endless ice bound season
How only yesterday it seems we sat
Together holding hands and this and that
And laughed and talked, myself and just another
And told ourselves how we would be true lovers
Vibrant and eternal as the grass
That frozen grey and lifeless matted mass
That lies unseen
Beyond my cold and darkened window glass.
Falling through the waistline of the glass, I know
Running sand that's faster than the driven snow
And every bit as white
Descending with the speed of tropic night
On palms and ocean radiant in the light
And waves that wash the still sand in the moon.
God, only yesterday it felt like it was noon
The current of my time runs far too soon
The lilacs bloom and disappear by June
While all around perennially the grass
Belies the truth that none of this will last
But lie in memory's sandy depths unseen
Inside my cold and heartless hour glass.
Softly curling folded lines of waist, I know
Remind me how my time melts faster than the snow
When caught in early April's vernal sun
As soft winds massage it ‘til its waters run
A squelching damp cold wash about my feet
While raw emerging new worlds smell of peat
Where gritty grimy graying puddles lie
A salty residue of winter folly, as it dies
Enwreathed in clouds of dusty, dead and dry
Decay of fall's riotic colours.
The iron will of winter strong as brass
Is melted and forgotten, transient as grass
And rushing sand still deepens in my darkening hour glass.
Watching as the times slide down the glass, I know
My heart throbs colder than the frozen snow
And wonders that we can't preserve our days
Our hopes and plans, or madcap loves and craze
Or lengthen out the future by some clever means or ways
But lose ourselves and wander in the shadowy smog and haze
Of jaded old ideals and faded dreams.
We saw the way ahead so clearly once, it seems
And loosed our tongues of righteous indignation
For those who groped before us, on ahead
We saw their cloying plastic shells, whose souls were dead
As all our ghostly images now seen
Inside my hard and darkening looking glass.
Images apparent in the glass, I know
Reflect a heat of passion, which could melt the snow
If only it were free to be released.
A sometime soft cherubic face now mapped and creased
Each line a carbon tracing; fires of rage
Have burned across the soul at every age
Whose swallowed pains were locked inside the spirit's cage.
Once soft and vibrant eyes are cold and grey
And narrow more their vision every day
Believing all the world to serve itself
A world where truth and love count less than wealth
Though scarred the face, the spirit's hardy as the grass
And burns with pain and passion, kept unseen
While tears contort the image in my looking glass.s
Outside in the darkened shadow world, I know
From which has vanished every flake of winter's snow
A world awash and softened in a moonlight glow
Casting trees in agony across the lawn
Tortured shadow skeletons who disappear at dawn,
So daily all we lust for fails our grasp
While yesterdays small triumphs slip the clasp
Escaping moonlit memory in the reasoned light of day.
I search for life and meaning, vacant eyes
Meet mine, and staring back into my hollow soul
Assure me that the search, and life, is droll
A godly jest, or fate, which too must pass
And fall away as distant as the grass
Whose greening tints the fading scene
Distorted by the curved edge of my spirit glass.
Somewhere far beyond all forms of glass, I know
All senses drown, a universe beyond the snow
The warmth of souls in ecstasy and grace
The magnet pull of bodies in the race
Of life and love and passion all embraced
A tangled skein of spirits rise and fall
Their waltzing dance of minds a wild ball
The harmony of self each gives the other
Forever, or this moment, they are lovers.
And somewhere on this earth the grass is green . . .
And to that happy thought I raise unseen
The fragrant nectar swirling round my spirit glass.