Voice of steady calm
deeper then deeper still
Distractions tossing pebbles
soft rain upon windowglass
Drawstrings of a satin bag
closing loosening bound escapees
Crumbs dropping in silence
a straw grass collection plate
All those memory hallways
nebula of evermore faded rainbows
Maybe mindfulness intends
less nothing more everything
Freedom for wandering
fragments thought long gone to dust
If you have a bell, ring it
If you’ve a vision, sketch it out
If you’ve a story, speak it
If you’ve an idea, expandexplore don’t doubt
If you’ve a song to sing, sing it
Shine your light
This is your contribution to life
No matter what
No matter who
You alone validate you
A single light in the darkness
Might become two
Mist of waterfalls
Flowers light in the morning sun
Small boats on a lake
Water’s still there is no one
Leave room for sad eyes
Begin with a thought even if it’s a lie or emerged from a morning dream
Think not of anything but the scratch of lead against paper
Are you one of those whose fingers do not know the feel of a pencil
or the echo in an empty room free of all inspired distraction
Go ahead or run behind but hover always in the moment
for it takes just half a breath before it’s already too late
What have you done with all those memories
abandoned behind a bedroom door when you made your last move
Turn down your light or you’ll alarm the wild life
You’ll need them if you ever want to get out of here.
Dimming of the day
walking away from twilight gold
Feel the weight of its cloak
River Lee’s flowing down slow
through Cork town into the Celtic Sea
She’s never looking back
at who she leaves behind
Sheep watch with curiosity ready
for flight should you become dangerous
Talk soft like you place your boots
hoping there’s no bog below to seep in
Green is green
Ocean’s wild
You’re an actor in this epic scene
You alone with your whispers and wonder
Lean into stone window for faerie views
No one but painted sheep to question you
Waves on the sand
carry letters
whisper stories
All we are is motion
balance on the wind
My ordinary took control again
The brilliant other bowed out lame
She made promises with no follow through
But ordinary invoked the wither voice
Babbling into ears deafened by distraught
It doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter
I’m just not so ready as I thought
It was a sunshine kind of day
Full moon already a past significant
I pedalled past all the slackened faces
I took my tears to the leaning garden
I spoke platitudes into summer winds
I lit a white candle
I sat looking at the blank
I set the spin to random play
I slow danced your life into the where away
I looked at your smiling photograph
I thought of stupid things made you laugh
All the early secrets only you know
It’s alright to let it go let it all go
Today I saw a light through cirrus clouds
I waved as it could be your flight
I put two sweaters on this morning
It’s colder now
There’s a bird calling urgent from the cedars
Everything is almost the same as yesterday
I’m holding on to be here now philosophy
Step one two nothing else will do
New rain is falling
I like the sound
You ended every conversation in I love you
I think I might somehow better understand
When time means your meter’s tapping out
You’ve earned the gift of clarity
We sow our seeds
We sort our weeds
We arrive
And we move on
I stand inside this doorway
with patience and my daydream
What thoughts arise between now
and the moment somebody utters when
Look around at all these photographs
none of which I see my reflection in
Seconds pass and in the background
a choir is repeating what John Lennon
said so cogently a long long time ago
And here I stand next to where you might
be standing quiet too asking in one voice
How long (how many lifetimes) until we win
I pencilled a poem
I heard a melody
I like to drum
I like to sing
I sometimes imagine
A poem likes to sing
A song moves to beat
I sang the poem into song
I heard my heart beat
I heard a melody echo back to me
Pencil Notes 