Song to a daughter

When the day turns black

and everything seems darkened with the tar of faint light

Look for me

Even when love fails you

And you are abandoned in a feverish and soulless place

Angels still are to be found

Do not give up hope

For even within the nightmare there is God

For how long we are lost

and how long we must search

and so hard do we strain to hear
music

though our ears are made deaf

though our mouths are made mute

All is prayer, all is prayer

Uncharted is your life

a wilderness of choice

hidden inside a maze of conflict

Harken to the voice you cannot hear

for it is the One who will tell you the truth

even as lies pile around you like the stones of mountains

and your heart has flown in fear from you

You are not lost

You are not lost

I see you as you are

Wonder of wonders

saint of saints

god of gods

nothing can compare

nothing is greater

nothing is as eternal

or as wise

as I understand you to be

For how long we are lost

and how long we must search

and so hard do we strain to hear
music

though our ears are made deaf

though our mouths are made mute

All is prayer, all is prayer

I know who you are

Wonder of wonder

saint of saints

god of gods

nothing is greater

nothing is greater

than you

mr god

He lived a quiet life

washed his socks in the sink

strew his crumbs about like 

everybody else

and tried to keep himself clean

One day

when he was quite finished being a young man

he came upon a book

from which

words poured forth to him

into him

surrounding him

He soon lost it and could never

remember the title

But the words became a part of 

him

And he began to use them

secretly, only

secretly

For the magic in such words was too strong to share among 

the weak and mortal population

though he was no

Akhenaton 

He had never caused a revolution

or caused any of his hands or

those of other to be raised

in either joy or anger

and when he passed out of this world no one noticed he was

gone

or asked after him

He seemed a transparent person

a wonderwall

that no one cared to breach

His name was quickly forgotten by the postman by the dentist by the doctor by his employer

He left no children behind

His job was had been so unimportant that his assistant took it over while he was still performing it as it did not need to be taught and soon the assistant began to think he had always done it alone

While no one would have believed it he wished for this erasal

To be so forgotten would have given him an ultimate happiness 

And so it was easy to forget this man whose tastes were utterly boring

of which there was nothing to remark upon 

Even as he had done in his daily life he did in death

New people came and removed his meager belonging and were surprised to find 

jewels

gold

silver

the mighty and the superficial

the bright and the dull

of all patterns and colours and textures and beauty and repulsion

containing more wealth than Pharaoh himself

He had lived an ordinary space of years 

in an orderly fashion

of unimpressionable effect

Like all who went before

And so many after

He had collected a treasure

Some might say

He’d found some interesting words

that’s all

Those who chanced upon them hid them away for

they knew that it was enough

to raise him to the level 

of a 

small but mighty

god

Jerusalem

Jerusalem

(for Racheal) 

Send me the heroes who have 

lost all their gold

Who knelt to false angels who 

purchased their souls

The ones who have sold their clothes

for the cloth

The ones who melt devils then

wail their loss

And I will trade a million days

for their one thousand nights

Perhaps the dark surrounding them

will make them seek the light 

We'll dance on Rocks between the mounts until we stench the flow 

Of corpses filling heavens they were never meant to know

I offer you these million days

to save one thousand nights

The dark will sooth their wounds

and sleep will take the fight

Even as the harbor burns the ships before the glow

We will sing in places where only rabbis go

and sing them songs 

of sunny days lost and

far ago

Before the day extended to son above and also

son below 

Promise me your thousand nights to my one million days

A thousand nights of peace

is worth double what I pay

As Jesus and Mohammed pray in caves throughout the land

I'll have them up and dancing with nails in their hands

Forgotten woes still sting the wounds

that wail on the wall

Allahakbar cries the morning but no one heeds

the call

Make to me the fair exchange but remember in the light

That days are always shorter and dimmer than the night

And hard the wine and blood will flow

until a dozen ships ago 

A young girl died and closed her eyes and missed her falling star

Still Helen could not want for more; she did not start nor end the war

She died so many years ago

I will pay a million days for her one thousand nights

A thousand nights of love are worth 

a million days of strife

And tell her gently

do not come again

The war and the Eternal City will not end

......

Jerusalem must await

A race of better men

John 800 and thirty-nine

If one of them had understood

if one of them had known

each one of the apostles would

have cast the first stone

They laid him out in honour

They laid him on his bed

decided they would eat his flesh

decided he was dead

But still he lived among them

yet no one knew his name

his eyes were sunken back

and swallowed up in pain

Abraham's children 

10,000 strong that day

inherited the past

then cast it all away

Judas was a preacher who

sat upon his throne

and laughed in merriment

as he stroked his band of gold

and counted all the money

and counted all the heads

And Abraham's children cried over his death

Who do you look to god for who do you understand

who do you believe was truly son of man

Look into the ocean the sea has it's own ways

and the stars need no disciples to send them to their graves

Bereft and lost we seem but are we really free

Can we learn to stand without the guilt that colours all we dream

Abraham's children increased their force of arms

then threw them in the water

and burned them in the sand

the sky will be their dwelling place without the plans of man

And who will walk before us

And who will walk alone

And who will take the prophet's hand

and lead him to his tomb

Daisy Daisy

Come and walk beside me

and keep me company

pretend some one is watching

inside of all our dreams

Please come and stand beside me

follow me to sleep

you think we've found the answers

inside the in-between

Draw yourself a picture

colour it in green

place God inside the garden

and follow me to sleep

I know that you are lonely 

think I have all the letters

your words will ever need

Don't mistake the honour 

of sharing in my sleep

we all hide deep together 

in some one else's dream

Come and walk beside me

we'll walk into the sea

and drown in streams of letters

with no words for company

Please come and stand beside me

I'll swallow all your dreams

it's what you've always wanted

it's where you've always been

No dead can wake the living

No life can death redeem

Let us walk together

into the in-between

Merry Christmas

I tried to get to you for days

but it was too cold

or too late

or not the right time

I spent those days with friends thinking

you would be there

you would be happy to see me

we would laugh about our sisters

maybe have a meal together

I didn’t think about you a lot

it was a busy time of year

and you were busy too 

I thought

When I was close I'd get the call

but it wasn’t from you

it would never be from you 

I thought there was something wrong 

because

the grief was so ordinary 

as ordinary as opening the door

and 

sometimes

I 

still think you 

will

Liar Liar

I wish I could I wish I could

never forgive never forgive

or forget or forget

living without you living without you

pain more pain pain more pain

in my memory in my memory

erase it erase it

easy soft easy soft

no bad dreams no bad dreams

live live

faraway faraway

you tell me you tell me

once once

is enough is enough

but once is impossible but once is impossible

because because

there is then there is then

there is now there is now

two times two times

that never add that never add 

up to up to 

once