Cherry Tree

I have missed the flowering
of the cherry tree
Falling petals rain down on me
A carpet of white and mossy green.

I am soaring high
to the furthest trees
with the kissing bees
and the singing birds
and swooping down
with the lowering sky
to brush the earth
with clouds of skirt.


april 10th 2009

Traffic Jam

1.

And here where the cars meet and wait

and people's eyes greet, and speak their thoughts

I am at the turning point.

The cold air chills me slowly;

I am listening carefully to my companion

Who is everywhere that I am

And sometimes a different form.

2.

Glazed behind the window of my mind

I am watching from the tunnel

where the rain falls

and the earth smells free;

I am watching from the traffic

feeling sky and

seeking calm.

Here and there the birds fly

reminding me

this is temporary.

3.

And all along I know this life

Her tomorrows are no sweeter than today

What she wills is that we will

that sweetness come our way.

feb 1999

J.L.Seagull

To Be
Like Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Is To Fly
Out Of One Moment And Into The Next
At The Speed Of Thought.

Lying in a hospital bed
I dream of the impossible
Surgery veiled my eyes
and left me blind

to the possibilities -
Now I can see again
I can be again;

To Be
One Has To Live On A Prayer
The Speed Of Thought
And You Are There.

jan 1999
Ten years ago to this day I had my second trabeculectomy, a common invasive glaucoma surgery. It was performed as a result of the high, intensive, intravenous doses of steroids that appear to be the first and last all-important treatment for lupus.
Ten years on, I am living free of steroids by personal choice. I still have glaucoma and one of the trabeculectomies has failed, and had to be replaced by a Molteno implant, a very clever device inserted by an even cleverer surgeon (a very attractive Irishman as luck would have it!).
I am still hoping to turn into a bird but the speed of thought has brought me here, to you, and for that I am grateful.

P.O.W.

Yesterday was the promised land
Where the body found strength and the soul danced
There was peace in a moment
Quiet at the breakfast table.

Then the sun bathed itself in twilight
The colours changed
And with the moon the battle resumed.

Here is another morning.

I am unarmed.

The battle has begun.

I never fought, I was simply captured
And now I await my orders
Whilst another day of stolen magic
lies winking in the promise
of tomorrow.

jan 1999

The Magician and the Rose (Illusions)

Find me a rose
and I will sell you a dream
and I will cry you my river
if you listen patiently
Wait by the rainbow
and my secrets are yours;
keep me a promise
and I will share some magic
to learn your ways
for you are the teacher
of truths.

jan 1999

Silver Threads and Golden Pens

Silver threads and golden pens
You never can tell
Just around the corner
there's a spell
waiting to be cast
A web waiting to be woven
around you.

You can be unafraid
but never untouched
Tomorrow you're the storyteller
when it happens to you too.

And there will always be
Silver threads and golden pens
For life will never be quite the same
As you fall and rise
To meet time again.

dec 31 1998

In the Morning

- Nina Simone (1967)

In the morning when the moon is at its rest
You will find me at the time I love the best
Watching rainbows play on sunlight
pools of water, ice-cream cold nights
in the morning
Can't you imagine it?
It's the morning of my life.

In the daytime I will meet you as before
You will find me waiting by the ocean floor
Building castles in the shifting sands
in a world nobody understands
In the morning
is the morning of my life.

In the morning of my life
Minutes take so long to drift away
Please be patient with your life
It's only morning and you've still to live your day.

In the evening I will fly you to the moon
To the top right hand corner of the ceiling in my room
And there we'll stay till the sun shines
Another day
play on clothes lines
And I'll be yawnin'
'Tis the mornin' of my life

Morning of my life.