RDN Rondo

So, you are here...

I’ve been waiting

For you to be near

And that - I do not fear.

 

As you may only take

This - that is fleeting;

For I will hold forevermore

The keys that I adore

Will keep you here

In my heart deep – my dear.

 

(written for Joyce July.10.2010)

Worn Loyalties

If I changed my name, would you still find me

If I left the room before you came

Would you still look for me

 

If I refused your advances

Would you insist on stilling me

If I close my eyes to avoid your face

Would you then take my mind

 

If I cursed your presence

Would you leave me behind

Would you have not worn coat of loyalty

If I had not denied your naked existence

Should I slip away to another place

How long will you wait - skulking there

 

Will you let me go tonight

And allow me to pass at my choosing

Or will they find me in time

When I am out of rhyme?

A Recipe for a Good Neighbor

Start with solid Midwestern stock

Add ample amounts of generosity

Stir until the mix is warm and friendly

Add herbs and spices to allow good taste

Then serve at table spread with kindness

And light by candle to soften the gracious glow;

With a final touch - raise and offer a toast;

To family, to friends and neighbors.

Sleep

The false lights were twinkling at the house

Where the disparate friends were good for one

More round before the end call was done

 

And once the last desperate homely mouse

Took a fatal bite of the sweet bait

Before riding away on a ship of hate

 

What is now so wise cannot be rouse

From the dungeons where they keep

Their screams silent not to wake the sleep.

“...The Dying of the Light”

The gentle Lion who now roars

At the fleeting moments – near;

He will soon leave as he lived-

Quietly, but with a resoluteness

That has and will continue to be

A strength for all who know and love

This Lion of a man - with the gentle hands

And that played musically upon our hearts...

 

Roar, Roar, Roar -

away “the dying of the light”.

(Ronald Noffsinger July 9, 2010)

Dancing Under the Night’s Leaves

Sometimes when the long day is almost done

Just before the night creatures come to dance

With all lost souls who are wanting to be one

Then is the time that the failing light gives way

To the darkness; allowing the music of silence

Into the endless night that envelopes the play

Between forces that keep dear hearts in grip

And those that drive unraveled thoughts to flight.

 

Only dawn’s gentle touch will find which one survives

The evening’s ingress whilst morning’s harmony arrives.

 

Rise early and embrace the moment and if leaving

To meet yourself - run for time is believing.

Of the Long Night

Lost into the long night

Falling unto the demons

Who tear away at fragile sight

While dancing upon the weaken floor

Over which despair holds loose - sanity’s door

Until it all collapses into a heap.

 

Waiting the 4 A.M. chimes

To ring awake in dissonant rhymes

And find the remnants of cheap

Wine and bad cigars whetted in sin

And pained with vague memories;

To be stored along with lucid regrets to a bin

Pushed back into the darkest corners

Until penance has redeemed the revelry

Of the long night - Lost.

 

Lost the night

Found a dead mouse -

 

Lost in the lone house

Found a live frog-

 

Lost in the fog

Found the light-

 

Lost the sight

Found the rain-

 

Lost the pain.

Good Morning Sunshine

The dawn was missing today

Hidden behind glowering skies-

And across all four horizons the eyes

Were filled in grays of black

While the grumblings of the nearing storm

Called the woodlands still; as the calm before

And then suddenly the skies wept mightily

Flooding across all the land with tears

Of grief and joy.

Then a blue bird sang it’s note

And the chimes played on a gentle breeze

Whilst your warm face appeared

Through the opening clouds

To say once again, to this lost soul,

Good morning sunshine.

Bell of Benediction

The bell announces itself in sudden presence

then slips away gradually in tonal waves

that allow the light and the dark

to become neither superior

nor inferior to each other

as likewise the mind

and body give way

to each other.

Waiting the Calm

The storms came and ceased him

For it was time to journey away

Through the maelstrom in dim

Light and angry waves of betray.

Hold on Prince - for we shall ware

Of the ship that brings forebear

Unto the rocky shores of dismay

Until the calm brings us close - this way.

The Night Mares

It isn’t the night that I fear

Nor the darkness that is near

For night mares I understand

They dwell in the gray strand

Holding rein between the black

Knight’s square and the Queen’s attack

For dominance of the light

To stimulate a thought’s flight.

Unbreakable

New born infant what will you find

That is unbreakable in this first day.

And then through a lifetime of mainstay

Principles that will test your mind

And that of the mighty oak that holds your swing;

Or the woodland paths where spring

The worlds that are at best forgiving

And at worst, the way of forbidding

Truths and lies that may thus foment

Who and what you will believe.

Young man what have you found

That is unbreakable in this beginning

Year of your first and fruitful yearning

And are you certain that life will bound

Forth, full of strength and with a force

That will alter humanity’s course

Beyond its immediate destruction

And enraptured annihilation

Unabated by its quest for conquest

And of its unrelenting need for greed.

Fearsome man what have you done

That is unbreakable in this place

Where you live without grace

And without rhyme with one

Nor with anything that holds mirth;

As it has become about your worth

And less about those poor and meek

Who must seek shelter or a death in wreak

Amongst a cosmos that holds neither friend

Nor anyone - be they mighty or weak in the end.

Old man what have you lost;

What have you gained that is unbreakable

Besides your word of promise and name

And all disguised in a last testament of shame

Fastened together at all costs…

For the things you have built not to break

Are nothing more than your own mortar of make

Reasons and compromise that now hold no breath;

Soon to whither and waste upon your death.

And that will, in the end, prove that the only sake

That matters will stand, and whisper pray at your wake.