Author: edwinbest1

• Fledgelings

  We come here every morning
  – you and I – almost
  at the same appointed hour
  here in the midst
  of who we think we are
  we disappear

  if only for a moment

  fledgelings on the gutter
  take to flight

  yes – there is only me here now
  tonight

  28/05/2023

  ---

• At first light

  We should live out our lives
  like a horse running free
  at first light

  not head hanging low
  in the mist
  grazing on grass stubs

  the world is a tumbledown house
  at the side of a road
  going nowhere

  I have been all along
  from the start

  free
  without knowing

  10/04/2023

  dawn, freedom, horse, spirituality

  ---

• Salt

  Tonight I take no comfort anywhere
  but in these drab lines,
  which like an undiscovered crime
  I babble to you my comrade,
  my confessor.

  Bless me Father for I have sinned;
  a drowning man who longs for water.

  Salt tastes sweet when you have no sugar.

  31/03/2023

  confession, salt, writing

  ---

• Lighter 

  The old man had lost something
  of inestimable worth,
  more precious than he could ever say.

  Now his burden felt a little lighter,
  a little lighter,
  as he went upon his way.

  31/03/2023

  age, burden, life, spirituality

  ---

• Family portrait

  That man I saw
  sleeping by the sea
  turned out to be a rock formation,
  little group of three

  sleeping by the sea
  sleeping by the sea
  while his woman rocked the baby
  back to sleep
  tenderly

  31/03/2023

  family, portrait, sea

  ---

• We are not strangers

  When birds awake at night
  and dogs cry out
  I call for you

  we are not strangers

  I read about that meeting
  at the well,

  the truth of water

  feeling the level rise
  to promise life

  I reach for you

  as birds cry out at night

  they are not strangers
  either

  31/03/2023

  ---

• Long ago

  And how will I know
  when you have been

  will it be written
  in words I can read

  or written in water
  and will there be tears

  when you have left me
  not to return

  for I am so old now
  and wear out my days

  with scales round my eyes
  like some kind of lizard

  and you only come now
  when I’m asleep

  at the old kitchen table
  brought here with love

  long ago

  30/03/2023

  ---

• Albany

  I’d been traveling,
  I’d been traveling,
  through woods and over fields
  in the neighbourhood of Albany,
  where true things lay concealed.

  The blackbird that came with me,
  in so strange a way pursued me
  had proved the most diverting
  company.

  If I stopped a while to think
  or to take a little drink,
  he’d return to me and urge me
  to continue.

  At other times he’d linger
  this purest of all singers,
  and offer me some melody
  or other;

  each note floating free
  with such delicacy of tone
  that it pierced my heart
  and elevated me,

  but as night began to fall
  I saw the bird no more
  he that picked the secret
  in my soul.

  In Albany one springtime
  long ago.

  28/03/2023

  angel, blackbird, confession, demon, fantasy, madness

  ---

• Without knowing why

  Here I sit
  without knowing why

  gazing up
  at the shimmering leaves

  on the back yard wall
  and wondering how

  I came here at all
  to this sad lovely instant

  because you called

  of course

  because you call

  22/03/2023

  depression, loneliness, love, prayer, spirituality

  ---

• One for Leonard

  Last night I didn’t say my prayers
  but whispered Leonard Cohen songs instead.

  They bathed my heart
  in sorrow’s deepest glow

  until I knew I wasn’t on my own
  and then I slept.

  Tonight I’ll mutter every
  prayer I know

  and one for Leonard

  and if they sang his songs
  in church,

  I’d go

  just once for Leonard.

  13/02/2023

  Leonard Cohen, prayer, Sleep, spirituality

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