I love the Lord I praise the Lord
I do the Lord forgive
I hope I won’t be sorry
For allowing Him to live
I know you like to get me drunk
And laugh at what I say
I’m very happy that you do
I’m thirsty every day
I’m angry with the angel
Who pinched me on the thigh
And made me fall in love
With every woman passing by
I know they are your sisters
Your daughters mothers wives
If I have left a woman out
Then I apologize
It’s fun to run to heaven
When you’re off the beaten track
The Lord is such a monkey when
You’ve got Him on your back
The Lord is such a monkey
He’s such a woman too
Such a place of nothing
Such a face of you
May E crash into your temple
And look out thru’ your eyes
And make you fall in love
With everybody you despise
NEVER MIND
The war was lost
The treaty signed
I was not caught
I crossed the line
I had to leave
My life behind
I had a name
But never mind
Your victory
Was so complete
That some among you
Thought to keep
A record of
Our little truth
The cloth we wove
The tools we used
The games of luck
Our soldiers played
The stones we cut
The songs we made
Our law of peace
Which understands
A husband leads
A wife commands
And all of this
Expressions of
The Sweet Indifference
Some call Love
The Sweet Indifference
Some call Fate
But we had Names
More intimate
Names so deep
and Names so true
They’re lost to me
And dead to you
There is no need
That this survive
There’s truth that lives
And truth that dies
There’s truth that lives
And truth that dies
I don’t know which
So never mind
I could not kill
The way you kill
I could not hate
I tried I failed
No man can see
The vast design
Or who will be
Last of his kind
The story’s told
With facts and lies
You own the world
So never mind
THERE IS A MOMENT
There is a moment in every day when I kneel before the love I have for you. Then I remember that I am still that man. And I know that my life’s work is to be that man, who leans over a white tablet humbled in his constant and signifying love for you. It is eight twenty-seven in the evening. Once again the thought of you has rescued me from the puzzle of my indifference
and the hard wheel
in the chest’s centre
becomes a soft wheel
G-d lies down next to His lamb
so the creature can
gather itself
His Queen is massaged
by a thousand versions
of Her most devoted drone
and there you are
smiling at someone else
in my vision of the lost kitchen
and that is the way
I finish my work
until it starts again
NIGHTINGALE
I built my house beside the wood
So I could hear you singing
And it was sweet and it was good
And love was all beginning
Fare thee well my nightingale
’Twas long ago I found you
Now all your songs of beauty fail
The forest closes ’round you
The sun goes down behind a veil
’Tis now that you would call me
So rest in peace my nightingale
Beneath your branch of holly
Fare thee well my nightingale
I lived but to be near you
Though you are singing somewhere still
I can no longer hear you
THE FAITHLESS WIFE
after the poem by Lorca
The Night of Santiago
And I was passing through
So I took her to the river
As any man would do
She said she was a virgin
That wasn’t what I’d heard
But I’m not the Inquisition
I took her at her word
And yes she lied about it all
Her children and her husband
You were meant to judge the world
Forgive me but I wasn’t
The lights went out behind us
The fireflies undressed
The broken sidewalk ended
I touched her sleeping breasts
They opened to me urgently
Like lilies from the dead
Behind a fine embroidery
Her nipples rose like bread
Her petticoat was starched and loud
And crushed between our legs
It thundered like a living cloud
Beset by razor blades
No silver light to plate their leaves
The trees grew wild and high
A file of dogs patrolled the beach
To keep the night alive
We passed the thorns and berry bush
The reeds and prickly pear
I made a hollow in the earth
To nest her dampened hair
Then I took off my necktie
And she took off her dress
My belt and pistol set aside
We tore away the rest
Her skin was oil and ointments
And brighter than a shell
Your gold and glass appointments
Will never shine so well
Her thighs they slipped away from me
Like schools of startled fish
Though I’ve forgotten half my life
I still remember this
That night I ran the best of roads
Upon a mighty charger
But very soon I’m overthrown
And she’s become the rider
Now as a man I won’t repeat
The things she said aloud
Except for this my lips are sealed
Forever and for now
And soon there’s sand in every kiss
And soon the dawn is ready
And soon the night surrenders
To a daffodil machete
I gave her something pretty
And I waited ’til she laughed
I wasn’t born a gypsy
To make a woman sad
I didn’t fall in love. Of course
It’s never up to you
But she was walking back and forth
And I was passing through
When I took her to the river
In her virginal apparel
When I took her to the river
On the Night of Santiago
And yes she lied about her life
Her children and her husband
You were born to get it right
Forgive me but I wasn’t
The Night of Santiago
And I was passing through
And I took her to the river
As any man would do
TRAVELLING LIGHT #31
I’m travelling light
So Au Revoir
I’ll miss my heart
And my guitar
It’s lovely here
So far away
I couldn’t take
Another day
The songs won’t come
But if they did
I’d go back home
So G-d forbid
I guess I’m just
Somebody who
Has given up
On me and you
I’m not alone
I’ve met a few
Who were travelling
Travelling Light
BACKYARD
Sitting in the garden
With my daughter’s dogs
Looking at the oranges
And the sky above
Flowers with their shadows
Moving two by two
Listening to the traffic
Hearing something new
Then I start to struggle
With a feeble song
Which will overcome me
Many miles from home
WHEN I WENT OUT
When I went out to tell her
The love that can’t be told
She hid in themes of marble
And deep reliefs of gold
When I caught her in the flesh
And floated on her hips
Her bosom was a fishing net
To harvest infant lips
A soft dismissal in her gaze
And
