I chase through the night, trying
to catch up with time
The evil taskmaster
that takes what is mine

With each step I take
the future becomes the past
I am not alone, I see others
all around me

Some I know and
have loved from my past
I see them weaken and stumble
before their time, and fall down in sleep

unable the pace to keep
Oh, but I know the sun will again rise
and though weary from my night of running
I open my eyes to mourn another day

CHRISTMAS BELLS by Ian Thomson

From the towers of Corpus Christi
Beating flat the very air
Starlings flying fast to miss
The peals of bells imprisoned there.

In a new- built stone bell-tower
Clarions join in the fray.
Shoppers searching for the bargains,
Still have time to stand and stare.

Far away in lonely forests
Village kirks send bells to join
Ringing out the Christmas message
Mary has a Baby Boy.

Run!
Flee the binding stifling hugs
that you toss aside
blithely
embracing your new northern namaste
with an insouciant shrug!

What does it matter that
your mother
crushed
life previously unravelling
with you as the leading player
dissolves like wet celluloid?

Her memories merge into
one huge sob
and yet
this irrigation will provide
a fecundity of new adventures.

She's just so infuriated with inactivity
her grief is sodden & bloated
begging to be drowned.

CHIARO=OSCURO

The morning softly brings me to Day
and my Nighttime dreams begin to fade away..
In light's truth I see the years,have ravaged me..
On wings of fire I soon I will fly across a clear blue sky
and all my days of loneliness I will leave behind.

The castle is quiet in my head
All talkers ready for bed
Feeling at peace my horse in the saddle
There're no night terrors for me to battle
Just the sleep in my eyes demanding rest.

A few reads of poetry tonight
And some loving critique, none so light
Is what I planned before lights out
Two bottle of antibiotics without a doubt
Can't do a thing for my infectious plight.

The castle is quiet in my head
All talkers ready for bed
Feeling at peace my horse in the saddle
There're no night terrors for me to battle
Just the sleep in my eyes demanding rest.

A few reads of poetry tonight
And some loving critique, none so light
Is what I planned before lights out
Two bottle of antibiotics without a doubt
Can't do a thing for my infectious plight.

On my own shelf,
So far back no one can see,
The doll with the torn dress
And the ripped seams.

Who bothers with a broken toy
When prettier ones abound?
And the child who used me sits
Newer friends in the round.

If you open my dress,
A small dark stitch you will see,
Where once a little red heart
Beating fast used to be.

I was thrown down, unwanted,
And so I walked away,
Back to my gray shelf,
And sat down in the shade.

you are but just one
amongst millions
who have their lives run

but you are one in a million
who has life's race
so meritoriously won

to cherish you now
mankind has its voyage begun

It's been said,
now...
time and peace
have graceful hands
of passover...

Peace...
Peace...
Peace
drizzles in pieces of dawn
Of ripped ribbons of night

As pensile moments
rip the paternoster
from my breast...
As the enduring face
of Evil affixed
his last patch...

I became the before
the Paynim of infinity...
sitting at the feet
of the Pedagogue
within in the mother...

she whispers a bossa nova
through a sultry pout,
eyes drifting into the distance as if
somewhere else

a sadness floats casually on
samba's bubbling wave

her tender sorrow garners tears,
adoration, and praise

with a simple sigh
and a touch of heartache
she explains the world

"love...love....where art thou
oh, troubled love
elusive love
where art thou, my love, my love"

evasive love fills her days
sensualising dreaminess
essential for the stage