Old times

And yet not you alone
           can break my faith in life
nor will I consume my days
           in backward tracings
of my heart and mind
           Each morning I wake
to the dazzle of the day
           there is a softness a fullness
a freshness in the air
           my love is greater
than the memory of it
           and it is known
by word of mouth
           by gesture of the hand

Last night as silent hues
           covered the evening sky
and the light mellowed
           into dusk and darkness
I recalled our brooding
           blissful days
with undiminished joy
           breathed in
the invulnerable air
           and the certainty
that as life wanes
           love remains

John Lyons

Soft-falling rain

Soft-falling rain
through the night

the birdsong sharp
in the damp air

Those who have
dreams will wake

to fulfil them
those who have none

will linger in their beds
Soft-falling rain

has settled the dust
has refreshed the earth

where the dead lie
biding their time

John Lyons

Revised.

The sweet taste of time

The lucidities of love
           voiced in the unending desire
to touch that body of feelings
           that she embodies
to yield to that state of grace
           in her eager eyes
in her outstretched arms
           into which one enters effortlessly
so as to capture the sweet taste
           of time on her lips

Dawn glow of red sky
           fired by the rising sun
that warms the earth
           with its ardent light
drives lovers into
           each others arms
fills the world with passion
           beyond calibration
combustible love that lives
           for itself within itself
that knowing no other
           admits no retraction

John Lyons

All about the birth

Birth is another name for cosmos
           birth and the process of birth
all of us born from that moment
           when moment came into being
the birth of being
           of space and substance
of time after time
           and perpetual growth
the birth of talents and skills
           and hopes and dreams
of loves and joy
           the pangs of heartbreak
and the pain of despair
           and whether to be
or not to be
           from conception
to conclusion :
           birth. . .

And the purposing
           of all energies
towards higher goals
           towards achievement
and wholeness
           being at one
with the beating heart
           of the creating world

John Lyons

Cosmologies

Think of it this way
as you gaze at the stars
a universe full of dead time
the light observed
from sources long gone

Think of the earth
as it enters the mind
the mind as it enters the earth
and the concept of one
that differs from another

Think of time
as a single stretch
from beginning to end
and the light travelling
through it and through
all things

Time as it passes
through the mind
the mind as it passes
through time
Think of it

And think of love
in the great scheme
of things
as it enters the body
through the mind

the stretch of it
from beginning to end
the ups and the downs
and the happily
ever after

John Lyons