No need or want is greater still
Than that which lacks the higher will
And deems what others hold by right
Be gained by vile abhorrent might
Or lacking cause with common weal
Unhands by wanton treacherous seal
To break the bonds of brotherhood
And serve thyself o'er greater good

Though all the ways our paths may roam
The goal of every journeys end
Where calls the heart to hearth and home
Through wending weather beaten bends
The welcomed warmth of hearths embrace
Whose comfort cloaked in threadbare wise
No longer wields the power to chase
The moody rain from autumn skies

Who wanted without the knowing
And grew without the sowing
Standing there in awkward stance
Viewing all with eyes askance
Asking without reasoned why
Reaching vain to touch the sky
For in whose hands with futile grip
The beams of sun and moon doth slip
And lips that sing the lullabies
Seldom heard but often cried

We spend our time on wasted days
And cheaply sell our souls for ways
To cheat the forms of our decline
And stretch the skein of borrowed time

On the morrow ships will sail
To roam beyond the hidden veil
And brave the stormy seas to see
If ships holds carry destiny
Yet here we will to seaward keep
The watch that holds our wandering feet
From paths and fields and and trees and thought
Believing in the lies we've bought
Waiting here on well worn quays
To count the line of endless days
We lie and wait and lie some more
That hope awaits on distant shores
And wind borne sails in misty skies
Will answer all to that which lies
Slumbering within our breast
Awaiting lifes first step to test

Once a poem alit did linger
To tarry nigh upon my finger
Then having saying said
Once perched a fleeing fled

On the morrow good enough
If good enough be true
On the morrow time enough
Today the times are few
What once was said
Is said once more
In never ending ques
Till tomorrows become yesterdays
Todays an endless muse

Here Death strode and left its trace
Where laid its hand to mark the place
Bade stony pages stand in waiting
To offer up in silent greeting
Final words for those distressed
Written out on granite stones
Under which in Deaths caress
Lie sedentary bones
Whose dreaming now is not besot
In earthly tasks nor woes begot
For Death to those in quiet repose
Bequeathed lifes last refrain
And eyes and lips forever closed
For evermore abstain
Yet with a dreamers certainty
Now ponder for eternity
The meaning spake in timeless odes
Upon which Deaths surcease bestowed

It occurs, the brilliant light
Pulses once to blight the sight
Backflash lit in memory seared
Fades to fondest wish endeared

No more though I pine, may I rip from breast and thought
This blind obedience to kind that claims all that is naught
What trance belies and thus survives divided from the whole
Ere natures heart must thus depart from customary roles
As fleeting breaths do evanesce in splintered harmony
Bids archeus farewell to dwell in brief obscurity
What balm may stem the march of time, what plea redeems the day
Who dares conspire and thus oppose the gyre of Sedens way

We bide our time upon the cusp
Twixt what may be and surely must
From evenings hush till morning hours
Begging chase through moon lit bowers
Where gleans the will in blissful trance
And leads the way in halting dance
To just beyond what grasp may reach
Where barely recalled memories teach
Tween what is now and might have been
To tease the eye with promised gleam
And silent whispers barely heard
That nary leash the fleeting word
But call to mind the long lost plight
That dreams and hopes in lofty flight
Might grant surcease on windswept wings
With unbought time and unsought things

Reluctantly I sat abusing
Some old and sad familiar musing
That for some reason kept refusing
To lie quietly

A thought that in a moment read
Was understood and put to bed
But now prancing once more round my head
O daring memory

Why must thee wallow on the tongue
Barren tree with fruit unsprung
Tormenting, tempting songs unsung
In endless reverie

So oft times I've thought before
Unquiet spirit I implore
Why dost thou rattle through these doors
Of vain assurety

Must I bear this burden hence
Without knowing why or whence
These troubled thoughts but for a pence
In silent suffering

Early mornin dew dripp'd flower
Rosy Red awaits the hour
Lifts her bloom and greets the day
To sup the misty mornin rays
She fawns upon the golden hue
Swaddled in the mantled blue
Till sunny orb quits daytime skies
To veil its face from longing eyes
So Rosy Red doth nod her bloom
And bide her time in shadowed gloom
To dream the dreams that only may
Wish anew the break of day

In the realm of the heart which served as our guide
For vanities sake we cheated and lied
And all of the signs that lighted our way
Now darkened and silent had lead us astray
In our haste to proclaim that all must belong
We abandoned our will to see right from wrong
So we searched to the west, we searched to the east
Yet ever within did we search there the least
Now between every beat in a darkening hush
Each step of retreat in a frightening rush
And doubts every treason reflected in tears
Did overlay reason with maddening fear
Here Death came a stalking, unheeded, unsought
And sold us the wares we had already bought
So we pelted headlong into welcoming arms
Whose offered embrace was enticingly warm
We took all the things Death offered in spades
And with them adorned our newly dug graves
Of the angels that scry and mark every sin
No stroke may belie nor ever forfend
The promise averred yet never attained
In souls so conferred with indelible stain

I search through leafs of carefree past
In scribbled lines left half undone
For wisdoms sage to point the path
Back to where it first begun
My one last chance to grip the quill
And spin the trials of venture bold
A gift to those that follow still
By spinning folly into gold

Ere break of day and dawns caress
Till sunset lays our cares to rest
We march and toil to gain what's true
With burdens many, respites few
And labor on with hope that may
In some small measure light the way
Of those dear ones in times accord
Who carry close the treasured word
Our presence left in some small part
Indelibly writ upon the heart

I've glimpsed the muse but ever on
Whomever reads the words I've drawn
Can only see the dimmer hues
Of inspirations fete subdued
Reflected in the oft tried guise
And only in what dreams surmise
To catch the softly fleeting knell
Of muses boldly colored spell

Oh dear! Oh dear! What is this?
Something seems to be amiss
Before so sure was I
But now am left to wonder why
For what compelled my short sojourn
Has left me now in but a turn
For in the span from there to here
All thought for naught has disappeared

Regrets' embrace stirs past the hour
Ere long after best forgot
Anguished lamentations auger
Stains the shade of envies plot
Follower of deeds most dour
Bears the pall in every wake
Bids inter the tangled flower
Of passion birthed for envies sake

In better days of better ways we chanced upon the mind
Of great and grand adventure, of great and grand design
To sail the open seas coursing near and far
Uncharted in the ways, unguided by the stars
At the mercy of the wind we vied the stormy seas
To mount the raging crests and weather in the lees
Onward ever onward past reasons reach we strove
To gather to our ******* the sum of wisdoms trove

Who can know and thus foretell the imaginary line
Twixt everlasting doubt and certainty sublime
Once declined counts twice betrayed where constant pressure parts
The ties that bind us each to all from one to many hearts
Passions presence aching seek the solace of the grave
Heavens hand forbade ere reasons' eulogy forgave
Within the vein of separate mind where war these wedded foes of mine
Of hearts desire and reasons doubt besotted, battle locked, in time

Get thee hence! Get thee hence!
Away the riffraff from my fence
Ye've rattled window and rattled doors
Till there's no peace upon the moors
The hallowed folk have fled their graves
To rid themselves these noisome knaves
The tyrants peal rings through my head
Till any room for thought is dead
I'd rid myself this fearsome bane
If I had not a limp and cane
Yet wield do I that wood in vain
For the blighters to abstain
Their laughter loud begins to boil
Not troubled they at all my toil
Surrender I with naught a choice
For it seems I've lost my voice
I must placate them one and all
Returning to them their playball

Hie thee now by warning taught
The path ahead be peril fraught
Each breath taken carried past
Each step taken counted last
To strive against such dangers rife
Tis better chance the falling knife
For what portends from grand emprise
By hazards wroth may be surmised
That loot awaits at ventures end
For those whom Deaths hand doth forfend
But take thee heed and be thee ware
In trust and faith place not a care
For tho the treasure sets ye free
Success breeds many enemies

These angels born of restlessness
Soliloquies of dreams and lace
Dance among the gilded tears
Upon the pages of thy face
Yet from thy lips my heart devours
Rising from that hallowed well
Each and every far flung flower
Tis said from where all passions dwell
No greater glory for my ears
No fonder words are ever spoken
Than these three words for all the years
From a heart but newly woken