Love how the light

Love how the light
           falls through the leaves
of summer trees
           the chapter and verse
of the spread branches
           once bare now thriving
with fresh life
           the vivid greens set
against the backdrop
           of blue sky

These leaves in time will fall
           to be gathered in piles
before fire or dust
           consumes them all
but for a while birds will nest
           and sweethearts
may stretch out
           beneath their shade
and plan for no end
           to their love

Love how time filters
           through the leaves
how combed and caressed
           its pace is reduced
as all cares
           are brushed away

Love how the light
           and love coalesce
into moments
           of beautiful being
in which transience halts
           with a nod to eternity
I imagine the leaves
           as words strung out
for all the world
           to see and to admire
the dancing lilting leaves that sway
           with the rhythms of life

John Lyons

Daisy chains

The smell of cut grass
           and recently turned earth
takes me back to my childhood
           back to warm summer days
and bright constellations
           white blossom on the hawthorn
and birds nesting in the hedges
           then all the simplicities of life
were laid before me
           in primary colours
in the wisdom of the moment
           I have travelled far and wide
over the years to escape
           a life lived from memory
and yet here I am home again
           within a mile of where I was born

So the seeds grow
           the trees know their shape
just as a bee can navigate
           the various hues around it
and I remain stubbornly
           stringing daisy chains of words
to hang around my neck
           marking my time

John Lyons

A declaration of independence

This then
           is the voice of me
the breath and the wherewithal
           of me
the much-travelled road
           the all seen and done of me
I place flowers in my poetry
           roses above all
and the beauty of her flesh
           that I sing because it is there
to be sung
           to be praised to the heavens
as all truth is
           I have my geography
I wear it under my chin
           I sleep with it at night
I ferry it from place to place
           I am an archipelago of selves
and yet dwell in my oneness
           if there is an energy greater
than the power of love
           please let me know
I would trim my hair
           and polish my shoes
in order to have the pleasure
           but I doubt
I doubt there is anything
           truer or more constant
than love
           no weather can destroy it
no years no times no place
           it is at the very heart
of my life
           it is what palpitates
what glows with its own
           quite special radiation
it is there for all to see
           shamelessly affirmative
it is what poetry
           was made for

John Lyons

A fact

Two decoys
in a pond off
Kensington
High Street
and a live
mallard
charmed out
of the sky by
a man-made
cascade

John Lyons

Brief beyond words

Moon over the bay
           the sea still
the wind still
           the night still
the time I carry
           within me still
my heart beating
           still

John Lyons

The artist

In the grand scheme of things
           we have come far
and yet we are nowhere
           not even the facts of life
are straight
           and we remain
fodder for time :
           unresolved quests
and ambitions
           beyond our station

What is to be expected
           from mere flesh and blood
entrusted with a single mission
           to love and be loved

So often it is all an act
           and death is an over-
simplification
           On the banks
of the primeval river
           he took clay into his hands
shaped it into the form
           of man and woman
breathed life into his creations
           so that they might live forever

John Lyons