Come Night
Some days plod forever
Some trip lightly by
Fast or slow I never
Could understand why
Yet each day wends its way
At just its own pace
Until another day
Arrives in its place
I choose the nights between
Them in any case
The lights by which I see
You know what I mean
You and night and I know
Night is and will always be
A flow not fast nor slow
The best time of day to me
Come night until another day
Arrives next morning: come and play
Hypocrisy
Nothing hurts quite like hypocrisy
A furtive thing with a fearful sting
False religion fake democracy
An insidious crime sure to bring
Trouble and woe wherever we go
So all we can do is watch and see
We steer well clear of hypocrisy
Being ourselves and letting it show
By being honest by living free
And never being afraid to grow
Just be yourself and I will be me
Let in and out match and let them know:
We have no need of hypocrisy
Nightmares
A long exhausting night
Of nightmares robbed me of my sight
Now I can only see
Those fearful visions forced on me
And hope and trust and pray
That somehow they will fade away
As the day shines on
Until they have gone
Held at bay by the light of day
Back into the dark whence they came
And may no afterimages remain
No echoes whispering my name
But buried be to never rise again
Full Moon Beckoning
for Franziska
Sunlight is normative
The given state of things
Mere luminosity
Moonlight is formative
When longing lifts soft wings
To soar throughout the night
Sheer numinosity
By which the mermaid sings
And fairy dust shines bright
The light of the full moon
Glows like snow on the ground
Midnight is the high noon
Of magic all around
The hooves of unicorns
Can be heard in the wood
While ghost trains sound sad horns
In passing understood
As hidden things are found
When fairies all take flight
To kiss the velvet sky
I know you understand
The full moon their birthright
The days cannot destroy
The everlasting joy
Of those who never die
Franziska take my hand
Come and let us join them you and I
Decision 2006
Come on an escapade with me and we
Could soar beyond these squawking talking heads
Which make their delusions our destiny
Destroy all day then return to soft beds
Of ease in their disease as we stand by
Helpless hopeless disenfranchised asking "Why?"
In this no-man's-land between strange and strange
I still dream of social evolution
Cherish a chance of political change
And hope for a second revolution
This time of the mind by reason by thought
That we might yet redeem what our blood has bought
Two
How then does one begin
In this ellipticality
A game so hard to win
This riddle of reality?
I think it would be best if I be still
And know that God is and that you are too
I knew this once believe now always will
That I am not alone because of you
Riding this riddle: if one can win I know
We two began by winning long ago
Flight
a sonnet for hope, faith, and love
Having flown one never forgets to fly
A sun once set can rise as the future
Remembered savored triumph dawn again
The might-have-been as might-be as it were
Though this time higher wiser for the pain
Which once we felt at sunset when the gloom
Closed down on us and wrapped around the room
We will yet rise together you and I
I look within my heart and find you there
As you look within yours and find me too
The hope the dream the might-be answered prayer
Spreads wings at dawn's first light for me and you
Having flown one never forgets to fly
We will yet rise together you and I
8 November 2006
My Grandma died five years ago today
And I have struggled ever since to stay
In this home place with the help of some friends
My hair now less whole cloth and more of lace
Having left to God the means with the ends
And more like Grandma every day I know
Whom I shall see again soon face to face
Here I must wait until my time to go
I picked a bird of paradise for her
While still in bud and now it lifts its wings
Arising in memorial full bloom
In mourning fights and flights which never were
A song something like the night raven sings
Echoes in me as Grandma fills the room
These Improbable Wings
May we all find what we are looking for
And may all our beautiful dreams come true
May lions shut their mouths and may mice roar
But whether mouse or lion God bless you
We only get one chance then get no more
To do the best we can in what we do
So it is suicidal to hold back
From scaling every height we can conceive
And if we share our surplus meets our lack
But for this to work we have to believe
That we might do the impossible now
Or at least the most improbable things
Until we make them possible somehow
By rising on these improbable wings
Never Know Until
Having loved my first have I loved my last?
Sometimes I wonder if my time has passed
But I have to believe no matter what
Although time always passes it has not
Left me behind to end my life alone
Just that the future can never be known
So we will never know until we see
If anyone might love their last with me
Success
I have been surprised and delighted to see
Some people write it must be good to be me
Which makes me wonder if this might just be true
So should I do as I say (and as I do
In my poetry at least) and let my heart
Fly free into life nor hold myself apart
As though I were unworthy of happiness?
I if I can do this then THAT will be success
These November Evenings
A red rose and a red maple leaf dry
In close propinquity on Saturday
These November evenings I wonder why
I ever considered going away
From where red roses and maple leaves fall
Why I even went anywhere at all
I will stay and hold tight to things like these
Dry roses autumn leaves and memories
I always wonder about everything
But these November evenings I know why
I belong here as the St. John's bells ring
And roses and leaves and memories dry
Fragments of the Whole
People seem to want to know the future
Perhaps as an antidote to the past
By bringing some balance as a present
With the solution remaining unsure
Whether that or finding out at the last
Is more or less pleasant or unpleasant
I think if I knew it might drive me mad
To know I had to live through all those scenes
Being prepared they might not be so bad
But without surprise it seems each one means
Less for having been tasted once before
Seeing the past and the present so sad
I am afraid to know very much more
So I just muddle through alongside you
And hope we find what we were looking for
Through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole
All the way feeding on fragments of the whole
A Song to the Dust
I watch the sparkle of Orion's belt
On a long night after a lonely day
And feel what we watchers have always felt
How beautiful it is how far away
I think of chance and the cards I am dealt
I think of love and my heart starts to melt
And should I fold my hand or should I play?
Do I risk it all? Do I dare to trust?
And folding my hands I withdraw to pray
That I become the person I would be
Not the mightiest the richest but just
Who I am growing reaching to be free
To do what I am here for what I must
To be no one at all except for me
And leave a song behind me to the dust
It Was Always You
So here we are finding ourselves alone
After all these years unexpectedly
And yet expected because always known
Since this is how it is with you and me
It had to be like this I always knew
That you and I would be alone at last
For those who tell the future from the past
Could always tell that it was always you
My Fall My Rise
Summer came and went with little fanfare
Surprising autumn slid in smilingly
I hardly noticed summer's fall at all
With autumn's rise around me everywhere
Rose petals and red leaves swirl around me
A rise which seems nothing at all like fall
But more like the arrival of the now
The process of becoming which is dawn
I never got to mourn summer somehow
Was too distracted to see it had gone
It was kind of autumn to come like this
Arriving gently on the morning wind
Summer slipped out while I slept with a kiss
Took its bad but left its good memories
And left me here with autumn by surprise
The passages of life are times like these
My fall inscribed on clouds my rise on air
Those moments when I pause and realize
The wheel of time is turning with a sigh
Winter will come then my seasons will end
I fall to earth to rise again and bear
The light which stretches after as before
Life's passages are written in the sky
When spring comes I will celebrate it there
Who am I to ask for anything more?
Do Not Disturb
I feel so fortunate to be alone
Able to do whatsoever I please
Given some relationships I have known
I choose to avoid cheap dramas like these
Call me a sociopath a recluse
Sign me up again for celibacy
What I see of "love" is a poor excuse
For genuine human intimacy
Which even if achieved will not endure
All that is not for me I choose to be
A lifelong bachelor confirmed and sure
Of one I can depend on which is me
So go ahead kids grapple grope and scream
Just do it somewhere else and let me dream
Sweet Bread
Franziska baked some sweet bread shaped like birds
I wish I were with her in Germany
Since all I have to eat here is my words
I think sweet bread would be better for me
Sometimes my words are hardly sweet at all
And sometimes bitter in the chill of fall
But she is far away along the Rhein
Her sweet bread is probably eaten now
So I am stuck with just these words of mine
With which I have to muddle through somehow
Still there is sweet bread which one need not eat
To savor in spirit across the sea
From along the Rhein right along to me
And feeling how I love her I feel sweet
Respect and Solidarity
None of us has any money but
We share what we have no matter what
Through thick and thin times (more thin than thick)
Our cooperation does the trick
As in our daily lives we elect
To practice our mutual respect
By looking after one another
Friend and sister to friend and brother
None of us has any money though
We have what it takes to make a go
Of living together and living well
At Studio Lance where the old bronze bell
Rings for respect and solidarity
When I come to die: ring that bell for me
The Veil Withdrawn
A shadow passed across the moon one night
A cloud within a cloudless winter sky
And when it passed it left a lesser light
As though when it passed it had not passed by
But left a stain between the moon and me
A strain in what I thought reality
A crack in the mask a rip in the hem
Of the veil which falls between "us" and "them"
A shadow passed across the sun one day
A cloud out of a cloudless summer sky
Which though it seemed to take something away
Left something intimate yet lifted high
Resolved to show forgotten is not gone
A glimpse behind the spacetime veil withdrawn
Evolved I know we grow but never die
Who see dusk simultaneous with dawn
Coming Home
The river is drawn to the sea and falls
Gratefully beneath subaquatic walls
With remembered familiarity
Fulfilled in its ultimate destiny
The wanderer comes home to roam no more
The welcoming mother closes the door
And water and water are one to be
Together again elementally
The river is embraced as with the tears
The blood sweat and life of all the world's years
Consider the river the sea and learn
Who came from the womb to the womb return
I am the river and you are the sea
When I come home I pray you welcome me
Sheltering Shadows
Within sheltering shadows waits the light
Until the time comes to dawn the new day
It nestles there in the heart of the night
Until the time comes to come out and play
Then the sun and the moon change their places
One looking forward the other behind
Yin yang opposite-attracted faces
Without which the sky would be cold and blind
When the sun goes to bed the moon rises
Or so it would seem from here on the ground
That they share a bed is no surprise as
All of their doings are done in the round
Until the time comes to come out and play
It nestles there in the heart of the night
Until the time comes to dawn the new day
Within sheltering shadows waits the light
Slugabed
Cold tea from last night still here by my bed
Last night a very long time ago now
I need to make black coffee for my head
But first must move my curled-up cat somehow
He seems to want to sleep permanently
One never shoos Freddie Noodles away
But if I pet him right he might agree
To take the plunge with me into this day
So I will offer kitty treats instead
And maybe a few aspirins for me
That coffee I spoke of followed by tea
For I have been too long a slugabed
Autumn afternoon at Studio Lance
The sun is not patient nor will it wait
A sunny Sunday finds us sleeping in
As earlier each day the hour grows late
Come cat! Let us leap up to join the dance
And let Sunday festivities begin!
+Steven Curtis Lance
Copyright MMVII
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