War is Over

Let the herald ring his bell,

Quick to tell the waiting throng

So they may spread the joyful news and

Join him in his merry song.

-       War is over -

 

Now the healing can begin.

Time to mend a broken land,

To find compassion in the wind and

Take your neighbor by the hand.

-       War is over -

 

Fathers pray as mothers weep

In sorrow or in ecstasy

To know their sons shall know no more

The horror of such travesty.

-       War is over -

 

And every soul in every town and

Every village far and near,

For now and for eternity

The three words they most long to hear:

-       War is over -

 

An Angel Sings

Kaleidoscopes and carousels,

Puppy dogs and wishing wells,

Butterflies and white doves on the wing.

Experience, empirical,

Descends from realms ethereal

To hold us every time an angel sings.

 

Winter’s snowflakes gently fall as

Anxious mortals rush to call,

Hoping for the warmer winds of spring.

Dreams of wonder can come true

To turn your sky from gray to blue.

It happens every time an angel sings.

 

Even when the dark clouds cry cold teardrops,

Leaving lost souls longing for the light,

Like a shining beacon on the shoreline

An angel’s voice can make the world glow bright.

 

A broken heart may wonder why

It has to sit alone and cry and

Never know just what tomorrow brings.

But gentle hope is always near and

If you listen close you’ll hear

The joy that lifts you when an angel sings.

 

If you put your hand in mine

Our summer sun will always shine and

Love will greet us as an angel sings.

98.6 And Normal

Normal walks and

         Normal talks and

Sees and hears, tastes and feels.

Normal doesn’t question why or

Ask for more than life reveals.

 

Normal never oversteps or

Dives in depths with quick reactions.

Normal doesn’t dare to dream or

Plan or scheme without distraction.

 

Normal doesn’t theorize or

Seek the prize beyond the moon,

Crouching small among tall trees

Afraid to sing a different tune.

 

Normal takes the easy path,

Avoids the wrath of dissonance,

Seeks the shelter of accord,

Fearful of a rebel’s stance.

 

If normal means to live in dread,

To hide my head so I can’t see the

Prospect of a foreign world,

Then normal I shall never be.

 

Sometimes the Answer is No

Pray for healing,

         Pray for peace,

                  Pray for understanding.

Pray with fervor for His favor,

But pray without demanding.

 

Pray for blessings,

         Pray with thanks,

                  Pray to know God’s grace.

Pray that every heart may know

The warmth of His embrace.

 

Trials and temptations are but

Bitter weeds that all must taste,

But the guidance from a simple prayer

Can quell decisions made in haste.

 

For all may hope and

         All may pray

As surely as the winds may blow,

And every prayer is heard and answered,

Often, “Yes,”

         But sometimes, “No.”

 

Western Movies

Ride me away on another cliché where

The sun settles soft at the end of the day

As the good guys, the bad guys and

         All in between

Paint the tale of an era played out on the screen.

 

With hokum and smoke ‘em and

         Horses and cattle,

Coyotes yappin’ and Injuns to battle,

Six-guns ablazin’ and

Pretty gals cooin’,

Pot-bellied sheriffs who ride to their ruin.

Men in white hats atop swift golden steeds

Chasing bad men in black whose hearts fill with greed.

The furious crush of a cavalry rush

With bugle and banner and sabre held high

Sweep to the rescue from manic marauders as

Victory echoes from their battle cry.

 

I know it was fantasy,

         Nothing quite real,

But I couldn’t escape how it all made me feel.

Saturday mornings, six-guns aflame,

         And I was a cowboy ridin’ the range.

 

Did You Hear the One About…

Old jokes tend to come around again,

Again…

And yet again,

Taking slightly different twists and turns

To find familiar ends,

Hoping for a belly laugh,

A smile

Or maybe just a grin,

Told by strangers in a crowd, or

Shared in secret with a friend.

 

All God’s children love to laugh at

Quips or capers,

         Prank or pun,

Silly little anecdotal memories

Relayed in fun.

Whether to an audience of fifty million,

Or just one,

Lifts a world from darkness

With a candy-coated slice of sun.

Makes a gleeful spirit shout,

“Hey, did you hear the one about…”

 

First Kiss

Sweet bliss…

This first kiss.

Loving hearts may reminisce

The moment spent

         On tender lips

In breathless, anxious ecstasy.

Fulfilling every fantasy of

Joyous, unrepentant youth.

Finding out the humble truth that

There is so much more to this…

         More than just a simple kiss.

A new beginning,

         New direction

Wrapped in guise of sweet confection.

Gentle promise of perfection

Wanting more…

         Forever more,

Never stopping to keep score.

Determined never to dismiss the

Memory of this first kiss.

 

Transitions

Nothing ever stays the same

As time demands her fealty,

For life resides on shifting sands

That, swift, the currents sweep to sea.

And all who dare defy her

To decry her morphed maturity

Are left to weep and wonder why,

But scarce deny reality.

 

Through phase and stage these changes play

To steal the refuge of design

Disrupting comfort in the wake of

Customs to be left behind.

And these transitions, never smooth,

May cause the mighty to opine

While feast awaits the fiddler

As past and present intertwine.

 

To beat the drum,

To cry and wail,

To fight the dragon of reform

Is nothing short of standing still,

Left behind in nature’s storm.

 

Evil

Cloaked in shadows, dark and deep,

Silent stealth as footsteps creep

With measured pace prepared to leap

Upon an unsuspecting fool.

 

This evil, unprepared to wait,

Whose appetite cannot abate with

Meager morsels from a plate where

Conscience bears no mortal rule.

 

This evil with his cunning lies,

The hint of promise in his eyes,

A thousand ways to mesmerize,

Each whispered breath a wicked tool.

 

This evil, never changing course,

Who rides upon a painted horse

With sabre drawn of deadly force

With purpose cold and deftly cruel.

 

And who will rise to face this foe?

To challenge evil’s deadly blow and

Sound the chime so all may know that

Hope may yet survive the duel.

 

Bucket List

Gliding high beyond the clouds,

Plunging deep in silent seas,

Lingering in Paradise

Relaxing with the tropic breeze.

 

Tramp across the continent without

A care to cloud the day,

Soaking in the Muse of every

Songbird chanced along the way.

 

Write a book. Compose a song.

Sing an anthem for the crowd.

Leave a footprint so unique

It will make a nation proud.

 

Travel to a foreign land,

Learn to speak the native tongue,

Ambitious as the day begins,

Humble when the day is done.

 

The list goes on…

         And on…

                  And on…

So much to do,

         So little time.

Scratch off one, another waits.

A valley to cross,

         A mountain to climb.

 

Fortune

Prosperity can be a pilfering pirate

Recklessly raging the seven seas,

Never quite quenching the cavernous craving

That mangles the mindset

         Like bent twisted trees.

 

“More,” cries the cringing crowd.

“Forever more.”

Never enough when there’s more to be mined.

But wealth is rewarded with misery’s mystery

Fraught with the folly that all might unwind.

 

Minions who manage on paltry possessions

Seek solace in prospect mere money can’t bring.

The freedom of fellowship,

Kindness and kinship

Silently soar on unwavering wings.

 

And we who are left to review the reward

May only observe absolute acclamation.

The fortune of love we find for each other is

The greatest of gifts since the dawn of creation.

 

Fear

Fear is a thief who flaunts copious faces,

Creep into places behind bolted doors,

Across creaky floors

         Wearing sheepskin in shadows,

Wading through wallows of

         Flesh-scorching embers.

 

Loss-laden liar of vacant defiance

         Forms an alliance with preconceived notions,

Swallows the potion of promised relief

Until ruin and grief abide side by side

         Lost in a promise that no one remembers.

 

Who is this harbinger

         Living in darkness

Alive with the starkness of blistering scorn?

And who will bring light

         To a quivering night

So fear may be banished

         And hope reborn?

 

Faith

Faith is a pillar that

Stands straight and strong,

Symbol of right in a

World that’s gone wrong.

 

Faith is a pillow of

Feathery down,

Compass of comfort in a

Realm spinning round.

 

Faith can move mountains,

Conquer all seven seas,

Leap to the moon to

Defy gravity.

 

Faith seeks the truth behind

Desperate lies that

Linger in shadows where

Decency dies.

 

Faith is believing

Through sorrow and strife.

Manna from Heaven

Nourishing life.

 

Fate

Life is just a deck of cards

To shuffle and deal, win or lose.

All who choose to play the game

Accept the levy of their fate.

The finite possibilities are unforeseen

Til hands are called and

Kismet floats with subtle kiss

To spin her wheel of destiny.

 

Eight ball rests upon the rail

Or teeters at the pockets edge 

As fools lay wager, skill or luck,

Bank or combination shot.

The level of a steady hand,

The measure of what’s meant to be,

Divinity or providence, the

End results are still the same.

 

And luck is but a fickle mistress

Pleading for just one more chance to

Grab the glory found in fortune

With no thought of consequence,

While Karma lingers near the borders

On her wild horse carousel

And fate the only one who knows

The final chapter of the tale.

 

Saying Goodbye

No one likes to say goodbye

When loved ones part with mournful sigh

And dare to beg the question,

“Why?”

It turns a beating heart to stone.

 

A tear or two to soothe the soul,

But still the story goes untold.

The ending lurking in the cold

Unyielding darkness, all alone.

 

Never seems to go away,

Recurring with each break of day.

A bitter price for hearts to pay,

A chill that settles to the bone.

 

Should be,

        Must be,

                  Will be more.

Someday upon another shore,

Another chance,

        Another door,

Another world where hope is grown in

Gardens lush and free from pain,

We will meet to love again.

 

My First Car

Chevy, vintage 1953.

Only slightly younger than me

When I turned sixteen and

Started to drive, fresh with the

Freedom of being alive.

 

Yellow and white as I recall,

Slow to start, but

Quick to stall.

Automatic transmission they say,

When the gears didn’t slip.

She had her own way.

 

Often in need of a push

Or a jump.

More often than not

A pain in my rump.

No money to spend

Except to buy gas.

Repairs were a luxury taken to task.

 

Driveway decoration

-Belle of the ball -

A tastier memory I can’t recall.

 

A Prayer for Peace

One may hasten to believe that

Prayer is cure for every ill that

Humanity might sore conceive, a

Magic panacea pill.

 

One my listen to the news

With wonder and bewilderment,

Knowing that such travesty

Could never have been heaven-sent.

 

One may walk a pious path

Professing reverence as a creed while

Behind a mask, on bended knee,

Praying only in self-serving need.

 

One may make a passionate plea

For all who stand in desperate need,

Victims of misfortune or

Another hungry mouth to feed.

 

One may pray an end to wars,

May violence forever cease.

If granted an answer to just one prayer,

Let it be a prayer for peace

 

A World Undone

I know that feeling,

The feeling of one.

Adrift on a desert,

A whole world undone,

Praying for shelter from

Cruel midday’s sun,  

No word of comfort

From anyone to

Ease the anguish

Left in the wake of

A melted mind, of

A heart that breaks.

Tossed in the rush of

A fiery lake,

Trapped in the rubble

Left by the quake.

 

If time is the healer

A broken heart needs

Then hasten its passing

Wherever it leads.

More weathered miracles,

More races to run.

Faith finds Her passion

When worlds come undone.