Poem for B

I wrote this.

Well, sort of.

This is a villanelle ~ which is a poem with a very tight structure and pattern of repeated lines ...
and the repeated lines and the last two here are ripped off from another poem

but I SOOOO wanted to use the last two lines in a poem for my lovely wife that I took them


and wrote the rest myself!


Lie down beside me if it’s good for you.
I’ll give you such a good time, honey,
but I won’t stay if you don’t want me to

Passion grows simply, crystal clear and new.
A pair of joyful lovers, face to face,
Lie down beside me if it’s good for you.

You give yourself freely, I know that’s true
We choose to love and be here every day.
I won’t stay if you don’t want me to.

A bright and careless rapture drapes us two,
Lucky in love and loving our own ways.
Lie down beside me if it’s good for you.

“It’s Cancer!” takes the old and spawns a new.
Our life becomes a strange; a tortured maze.
I won’t stay if you don’t want me to

It grabs my guts and forces out vile spew.
It takes me down to shadows low and base.
Lie down beside me if it’s good for you.

It It It It It It It and me and you,
Yoked in an uneven three-legged race.
I won’t stay if you don’t want me to

Long vigils at my bedside shape your view.
There is no competition for your place,
Lie down beside me if it’s good for you.

As life shifts in an endless ebb and flo,
One thing’s secure in surging time and space:
That I will stay and I am going to
Lie down beside you and be good for you.

Look to This Day

A friend who has been through her own share of medical trauma sent me this sanskrit proverb today ... it's just right!

• Look to this day;
  For it is life,
  The very life of life.
  In its brief course lies all
  The realities and verities of existence,
  The bliss of growth,
  The splendor of action,
  The glory of power -
  For yesterday is but a dream
  And tomorrow is only a vision.
  But today, well lived,
  Makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
  And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
  Look well, therefore, to this day.

Beannacht

Beannacht

("Blessing")

On the day when

the weight deadens

on your shoulders

and you stumble,

may the clay dance

to balance you.

And when your eyes

freeze behind

the grey window

and the ghost of loss

gets in to you,

may a flock of colours,

indigo, red, green,

and azure blue

come to awaken in you

a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays

in the currach of thought

and a stain of ocean

blackens beneath you,

may there come across the waters

a path of yellow moonlight

to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

may the clarity of light be yours,

may the fluency of the ocean be yours,

may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow

wind work these words

of love around you,

an invisible cloak

to mind your life.

~ John O'Donohue ~

One of my friends posted this on a website we both use ...I think it's marvellous ... the steady rhythm of trouble and hope all sent in terms of nature and kindness, as one friend would send to another.

Really a wonderful poem.