The Dream Keeper

Okay so today's Tuesday treat... a tribute to Langston Hughes.

"The Dream Keepers"

Dissonant Harmony

Music: Stephen Stills (4 and 20... love the song except for last verse) 

(read poem when music starts)

Dissonant harmony

Lingering strum

Reflective memory

Of a trace

Autumn days

Lasting moon laughs

Her children dance

Her children dream

In the garden

Of silver beams

And by their dreams

Live

Sing

Devoted songs

Etched in heart

Breathe life

Into others

With merely a touch

Of grace

Long gone

But ever present

Rhythmic hand

Passes strings

Provisioned beating

For fractured heart

That played its part

And it will beat again

Love

Supposed to die

But as it never can

Remained

Lost lonely child

Searing search

Desperate dark

Reach for completing hand

For fractured hearts

That played their parts

And they will beat again

Calling life to a shadow

Frozen fast Hiroshima wall

Where a he

And a she

Dropped their masks

Revealing all

Dared

To consecrate

The consumption

By daring

To shout life

In the face

Of the fall

With a simple

Epic, tragic

Passionate, magnificent

Kiss eternal

Yet

Passion frozen

Fighting for life

Refuses cage

Refuses rage

Though it might have the right

But no rights exist

Merely the he

And the she

And

Fractured hearts

Playing parts

While they

beat

still

Tendril Trace II

Music: Sting Come Again
 .

Come again, come again
Simple request
He only held out his hand
He knew that this was

Best… to watch for now
He knew
She feared her wounds
And believed they made her

Less… some think that each wound delivered
Invites a hint of death
But a wise gardener knows
That pruning actually
leads to the

Best… of times, beauty savage
All in her possession
The time is to step forward
No retreat, no

Regression… it’s the here, the now,
I know
that you will find
That days long past
Remain long past
And now’s the best of

Times.. times insistent press
So will she answer my request?
Answer arrives
Eye meet eye
Hidden grin
The storm rekindled

She moved effortlessly,
Elegance embodied.
In a subtle sultry sash
Across the floor.

She is beauty incarnate
Lithe form with sylvan call
Her gentle trace
Her beckoning eyes
Still cause one to

Fall… into a tendril trace upon the mind

"Tell me about the rabbits, George"

Violent Femmes: Blister in the Sun 

“Tell me about the rabbits, George.  Tell me about the rabbits.”

Knowing full well

“My names not George.”

Lunatic Lenny laughs

Grey mane, American build

Best that money can buy

Sunglasses make it

So difficult to see

For he

Or she

If one cared to see

Crude penmanship scratched

Battle of pen and sheet

Name complete

Infantile script

Reveal ‘George’

“See!” proudly exclaimed

As paper proudly showed truth

If only one cared to see

“My names not George”

Whatever

Just tell me about the rabbits

Gallery of rogues

Georgia boys drinking Pepsi

Tommies knocking on the door

Financial savant ‘christians’

Now Toni and Dawn

Search for the missing third

Just as in LIFE

“He likes it!  Mikey likes it!

“All right!”

Maybe

The list goes on

But

“You can always give

Jus' a little more

To the Lawd”

That’s all she wants

Salvation if the price is right

So

The next contestant can

“Come on down!”

Maybe

Sacrifices bleed green

Maybe

One, two, three…

For

It’s all about family

Sheltered smirk

But who grins?

Her marks are all the same

To play this game

Must turn into

Con men grifters

Who liked to paste

Their dirty pictures

Of

Placebo past

For fake futures

All buried

In shallow graves

Only a reach

Away

But who plays who

Images

Of what

They want to be

So desperately

Hoping fiction would hide

Reality

Fiction to hide reality

What a concept

In the dark

Lie to me

Or

To me lie

Which one?

All the same to

Troglodyte acolytes

Just

Tell me about the rabbits George

Words

Peter Gabriel: Blood of Eden

Words

“Tragic”
Her word

“Epic”
Mine

“By the way… you are a great writer!”
Hers

“Raw and eloquent”
Hers

Not mine

“Don’t hold back…”
Hers

“Okay, here we go…”
Mine

“I am in tears… Give me time… All is well… Where do I start?... Be honest!... Avalanche… Now I am the one anxiously waiting… I began to pull away…”
Hers

“Forever separated by the smallest of spaces
Mine

“My world has turned upside down… But you’re not playing the game… My head is spinning. My pulse is racing. My heart is caught…. Captured… Intensity, desire, craving, then heaviness….”
Hers

“I speak only the whispers of my soul.”
Mine

“Whisper to me”
Hers

“What would you have me whisper, for there is nothing that my heart has not already said to you?”
Mine

“From the tips of my toes to the top of my head… I am yours!”
Ours

“And sweet, sweet surrender, is all I have to give”
Hers

“Beauty… power… grace.”
Mine

“You accept me for who I am, flaws and all, you build me back up. …Sometimes you just have to stop, close your eyes, and hold on tight.”
Hers

“You have enchanted me”
Mine

“I need you…”
Hers

In the twilight of an autumn dusk, wor4ds transformed into the most elegant and eloquent language of all. The unspoken dance of the eye, the inflaming embrace. Gentle touch tested. Ravenous in its desire. The two consumed the other as they allowed themselves to be consumed by an eternal flame.

“You, my love, are an incredible person.”
Hers

“None is more incredible than you.”
Mine

“Loss of control… At your complete mercy… you do melt my heart so….”
Hers

“I want to hear what you think.”
Mine

“That is the most flattering thing you could ever say to me… Sorry I have to pull away… Give me some time.”
Hers

“Okay…”
Mine

"…”
Mine

“…”
Mine

Pauses became pages

Of words

Some ornate
Others primal
That all can be melted
Into one
For the one

My word
For her

“Love”

Crisp Autumn night

 Peter Gabriel's Secret World

Car door slammed

Crisp autumn night

Sound reverberated

In the world

Created by two

Desire deferred

Desire denied

Marching to perdition

Or salvation

With each laden step taken

Who was to know?

In the glow

Of lights in view

To welcome the hidden

Crying out

For the hidden

Tension building

Second meeting

Became the first

As one meeting

became two

of the two

for the two

In this secret world

Bearing sole legacy

Desire deferred

Desire denied

The press for life

As

Ripe honey hair

Ached for fingers

Subtle touch

Slow traverse

As

Blue eyes bewitched

Showing traces

Hidden soul

Each move towards

In a greeting farewell

Only built

Tension crying

For release

Desire deferred

Desire denied

The press for life

Very earth anxious

At the pain

Of separation of

souls fused

Anxious lips

Hot from flowing

Beating heart beckoned

Eye lids laden

Heavy with the dust

Frozen with rust

Of behemoth desire

Straining for release

Blinding all

Save fulfillment

The exquisite pain

Of the longing

Desire deferred

Desire denied

But straining point reached

Life must
E-rupt
 

The justice of relapse

The unmitigated mercy

Of an answered cry

Lips became lost

Sweet heat 

Surrounding melt of

Unbridled joy

The pulling caress

Longing for union

Lost in the raging flow

Of the blood of Eden

Intoxicating passion pressed

From vintage grapes

Burning smooth

Desire deferred

Desire denied

The press for life

Crisp autumn night

Car door slammed

The boy and ladybird

One day a young boy entered his backyard to find a beautiful bird sitting on a bench. Carefully he approached. The bird did not fly away.

Being nothing but a boy, the boy spoke to the bird. “Do you mind if I sit next to you?” To his surprise, the magical bird of paradise spoke back. “Not at all,” she said.

Not knowing that you weren’t supposed to be talking with birds, the boy continued, “What is your name?” The bird, glad to have someone to talk to, replied “Well you can call me Ladybird.” “Well, Ladybird,” the boy began as he sat next to Ladybird, “I like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.” “So do I,” replied the bird. “I like sunny days,” said the boy. “So do I,” replied the bird.

“Sometimes at night though,” the boy said looking down, “I get scared.” The bird leaned over and whispered in the boy’s ear, “So do I.”

And the boy felt safe, the boy felt accepted, and the boy was happy.

Boy, oh boy.

As time passed, the boy and the bird continued their backyard conversations. The bird never failed to surprise the boy.  Yes she was beautiful, but more important—and what no one knew—was that Ladybird had a heart that was bigger than the sky. 

She would listen to the boy.  He would eagerly listen to her. 

He made her laugh and she… she made him laugh.   She made him feel alive. 

Some of his friends asked him why he never clipped her wings, to make her stay. “One would never do that to a friend!” The boy would reply. He knew was safe, the bird was accepted, and he believed the bird was happy. So he thought the bird would stay. He was, after all, just a boy.

And the boy felt safe, the boy felt accepted, and the boy was happy.

Boy, oh boy.

But one day the boy entered his backyard to find the beautiful bird had flown away. He was very sad. Being a boy I suppose, he didn’t understand.

And the boy felt unsure, the boy felt fear, and the boy was sad.

Boy, oh boy.

One day however, the boy was in the city. He walked into a pet store and who should he see, but Ladybird.

As she was such a beautiful unusual bird, she was placed on a high perch. He saw that her wings had been clipped. “Ladybird?” the boy said. Ladybird responded by turning away from him.

Not understanding, for he was just a boy, he again said “Ladybird?” Ladybird turned to whisper to the boy, “I can’t talk to you.” The boy, being just a boy, didn’t understand.

“Don’t you still like peanut butter and jelly?” “I do,” came her reply. “Don’t you still like sunny days?” “I do,” again she replied. “Do you still get scared?” Ladybird was quiet. The boy not understanding, for he was just a boy, went on, “Sometimes… at night.” The bird said nothing. At the silence, the boy finished his question, “like… I… do?”

The bird turned its head, looked the boy in his eyes, and softly whispered, “I do.”

Ladybird, not wanting others to hear her, quickly continued, “Take a feather from my tail. Use it to write to me, whenever you have those feelings, and I promise I will read them whenever I get scared, and your words will make me brave.”

And the boy did.

And the boy felt safe, the boy felt accepted, and the boy was happy.

For he was after all,.. just a boy. 

Boy, oh boy.