Like a Beast

I’m failing, I’m failing

If our whole plight

Is to prove we are far removed from beasts and birds.

I’m failing, I’m failing, ‘cos try as I might

I can’t stop my beastly heart from crying beastly words.

And I’m failing to see

Why I can’t just be like a beast and be free.

If a bird I would flee

To where hurt can’t reach me.

And as a wolf who owns  the creek

I’d cry my defiance
To all those who sleep.

I’d possess the night

And all my heart pleased.

Oh, I fail in the game of proper men,

‘Cos my heart’s just like a beast.

The Stars

The Stars

 

When I was a child
And the night was black and still,
I’d sit for hours and survey
Perched upon a window sill.
The stars aloft would glint and glimmer
Just as jewels in God’s hand.
I’d find myself lost in a beauty
I could scarce understand.

And as the years roll over men
They lose the child like eye
That can see and find the awe
In wonders of earth and sky.
Yet not I...

For when a day has been unkind
Perhaps one that has brought woe
I steal away for a while of time
For I know just where to go.

Oh, I am much bigger now
But some nights I perch there still
And I lose myself in the great display that plays
Out there, beyond my window sill.

When

When

When you can stare fear in its dreadful face
And face it with expected triumph
When you treat your seen enemies with grace
And even extend to showing them love,
When you can leave critics in the foreground
While you press on ahead
Knowing their words are merely stepping stones
For your ground
Not worthy to trouble your head,
When you can recognize fading physical charms
As merely a veil for the greater beauty
When you can use life’s silent alarms
To equip you with strength and with duty,
When after moments of mourning we all traverse,
You can seek out cause again to smile,
When with an aged head you act
In matters of tact,
Yet in guile remain as a child,
When you have the lion-like loins to hold fast by yourself
In matters where conviction demands
Yet as well as your own, seek the good of all else
Knowing solitude, self- interest
Are for fearful hearts and idle hands.
When you live life with eyes wide open, yet a heart the same,
Not left bitter by past foes who’ve hurt you…
Then truly you’ve become a woman, my friend,
And one of great wisdom and virtue.