Pleasure
The palate pleasured
by the moist succulent flesh
that lies beneath
the thin taut skin
of the plums
on the plate
John Lyons
Blessings
Blessings
Of all the blessings
I could ever wish for
to see as love sees
would be the greatest
to live as love lives
pure and unadulterated
let all things be themselves
the rose and the unicorn
the leopard and the wolf
but let love be
a brilliant undying flame
never a gesture nor a word
but being in all intensity
what the earth gives
the earth takes away
but not love that surpasses
all understanding
Love holds the heart firm
never loses its grasp
even in the darkest night
or through the coldest winter
and that is the essence
of peace : to see as love sees
in all places at all times
all souls of one mind
John Lyons
Violinist
Violinist
Six years
so they say
before
the student
violinist
learns
to play
the music
rather than
the instrument
in hand
John Lyons
Endless reflection
Endless reflection
I wonder what it is
that shapes the light
into love everlasting :
at times the years
simply drop away
as though nothing
was ever lost
and failure
never known
I have lost count
of all the faces
that have shed
tears in my presence
lost count
of all the roses
and all the thorns
they say that it’s
a learning curve
but what is there
to learn of love
that gathers
instinctively
in the aching heart
If I had all the answers
I would share them with you
but I have only my hands
and my lips
and my words of love
and they are yours for as long
as you desire them
John Lyons
Night
Night
The night brings peace
silence and the promise
of deep sleep :
it brings an end
to the evils of the day
and hope for a better
day to come
and it brings you
with your soft breath
on my face
our bodies huddled
together in the darkness
and it brings the confirmation
of love and the certainty
that whatever the cost
life is always worth living
John Lyons
Digression
Digression
When I was a child
all the talk was of
how to grow the best roses
and what types of soil
make for a better lawn
I remember those roses
with their savage thorns
their soft petals
dripping with morning dew
but nobody told me
anything about the challenges
I would face in later life
I was not a sickly child
and I learned most things
with relative ease
I played out on the streets
my feet dragging home the dust
only when the sun set
Life seemed in those days
to be administered
by perfect hands and reality
was representational
Had someone shown me
a Jackson Pollock
I might have had an inkling
of what was to come
No I am not ill today
or any other day
not even tired
simply perplexed
by the mystery of the stars
scintillating above
an empty ocean
and yet I know exactly
what I need to make
a perfect day and so do you
so why don’t we ?
John Lyons
The drifting mind
The drifting mind
Hard to remember
the time before I knew you
the life the people the things
I had in my life
and the many lives
I lived in before I met you
And there have indeed been many
quite disparate lives
many a full moon and high tide
on distant shores
and I’m aware how
over the years
I’ve travelled back and forth
between my many selves
sometimes visible
at others hiding in plain sight
my heart beating wildly
within this fragile casket of bone
It’s hard to remember a time
when I was ever at such peace
as now since knowing you
I return to the woodlands
where I was born or go down
to the river to watch the gulls
cavorting in the blustery winds
and I try to remember
the time before I knew you
and after a while I desist
and my mind drifts with the river
leisurely out to sea
John Lyons
