This is a different parting
Sure, there were tears, there are travels to be
There is the squeeze and tearing of heartstrings
As the tear rolls down your cheek
But there is something different about this
There is something hopeful beneath the sadness
There is a sense of arrival with the departure
The parting with an old past and coming of a future
A hopeful future,
a future bursting with love and hope
To quash those tears,
to breathe in strength anew.
Oh Canada, O Canada, Ah Canada!
You’ve treated me well
through no decision of your own.
As your Christmas lights twinkle on the streets
And as Christmas jazz rings out on Wave 98.3
I can look back on it all.
Your majestic landscapes embraced me
as I stood in the palm of Their hands
Embraced me tight when I needed it most
As I showed myself how to be
once more content in my own skin;
I know you had something to do with that.
Your splendid concert halls rang and echoed
with Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky and fellow musicians
My heart rings out with life anew.
This was a séjour of all the senses,
of all the emotions.
I will cherish it
I will cherish you for evermore.
Your Christmastime saxophone blares
good tidings for all
As in the palm
of Nature’s hand we stand
O help us coexist
in harmony
May festive jazz ring out
on this blessed planet for evermore.
Four months have I resided in your cradle
and savoured your hospitality
You showed me your troubles
and I unveiled mine
But together we learned from each other:
I saw your beauty
and you saw mine.
Up and down swing the musical notes
The piano sings like thunderstruck
Under the masterful touch of the jazzman
No need for birdsong, listen to the keyboard
And if you listen deeply, you’ll feel it
The shivers of others’ experiences
As they cry out in song
Cries of love and desparation
Reflect on how good it is to feel
To feel humanity in unison
with the guitars, drums and all other
shivermaking sounds
My darling, look how our flowers grow
they’ve had a good year
let them rest now for the winter
to be stronger than ever next year.
Let their roots shatter all doomsaying rocks
let their blossoms urge love to flourish
let their petals take others along the journey
and let the stems hold us all up.
Tired from a long day’s walk
we rest our weary feet
and sit around a table to meet
and cover the missed day’s talk.
The five lads sitting opposite
take out banjo and fiddle alone
playing, singing tunes of evermore
washing away life’s grime and grit.
The young and naïve poet sitting nearby
tries to capture the jovial mood
but his pen’s no match for the fiddle’s shrewd
tunes of times long whizzed by.
The cold warmth of the autumnal indoors
brings us together here across the world
what an amazing life it is, I behold
the Celtic music healing my sores.
As the autumn rain lashes down, beating the windows to a pulp,
The sky a misty navy grey filled with the week’s memories
Of ochre and crimson maple leaves
Of childhood memories and the sweetest dreams
Linked hands with my beloved
We march, hand in hand, towards our future
For it is you who makes these grey days go flashing by.
Hope.
Just one word
Says so much
If only we had more hope
less misery, we say
But that’s not hope
Hope is knowing
Believing!
There are things out there for us
within us
which give us hope.
Hope gives us hope.
Cherish it.
Nurture it.
Don’t forget to hope.
Over the rocky mountains
Shadows of grey on black
Absent are the light fountains
A distant travelling pack
A twinkle of light down below
Shining on my deep desires
Of living in nature’s mellow
Amongst the tree spires
Perhaps these cathedrals of stone
Can quell the mind’s races
Preaching in their grand tone
Of life’s past traces
Perhaps the hush of greenery
And eternal calm of peace
Will wash away the misery
And provide sought truce.
Flying over Canada, over the unseen peaks and valleys
Not knowing what in life I seek,
But write poetry on planes
(Every flight I do)
It’s beyond relieving to rest one’s mind,
To let your mind’s eye rest
To let it breathe deeply
And close and dream
I wonder what dreams this will form
Dreams of my beloved,
Dreams of harsh happenings
Dreams of travelling, of the life to be
I wonder, I wonder what it will all be
I wonder what the peaks of life will bring
Will they be like the unseen peaks below?
Shrouded in the night, veiled by cloud
Oh I look for someone to look to
For guidance, for comfort, for answers
But they are delayed,
perhaps never to arrive.
Instead, I seek answers from my thoughts,
Which plunge into dark mountainous waterfalls
Which I must observe from afar.
New city, by the beach
The crashing of the waves tuned with
Stranded by Van Morrison
An ocean and a continent away
The chatter and laughter of foreign voices
Prickles like sea hedgehogs of far lands