Without You

Windswept blowing, raindrops falling

Tracing rivers down the pane
Whispers in the trees are calling
When will you be here again?

Evening closing, darkness deepens
Watching nightfall, warm inside
Echoes of our laughter beckon
When will you be by my side?

Memories tumble, thoughts cascading
As the leaves fall from the trees
Each one full of golden colour
You were once close here with me

Sunlight stretches, warmly rising
Gently reaching through the rain
Warm caresses, reassuring
Time will bring you here again

Imperial
London 88

A Moment of Light

It seemed an endless tunnel

The infinite blackness drawing in
The slightest point of shining light
All around was nothing
In front, behind, to left and right
The black engulfed me, held me fast

Flickering glimmers came from far
Increasing, shining, suddenly gone
Swallowed up in the intensity of darkness

Mt feet rested on empty space
Supported by the density of absence

I tried to move but to no avail
Arms flailing in the thickest sea
Mouth open wide to shout, to scream
The soundless echo was engulfed
As total absence re-echoed about

From infinity it came and stretched
At eternity it had its end
The whole of being was absorbed
Life drawn away in the lifeless void
Pulsating silence broke my senses
Mind reeling in the total blank

My hands reached out to claw at nothing
I drew them back with nothing in my grasp

Suddenly the pulse whizzed past
An instant of light in the deepest dark
A momentary lapse in the maintained gloom

I watched it go with an aching heart
The imprint of the shining start
Etched firmly in my longing mind

Before it came the black was all I knew
Now it had been the darkenss had been changed
The depths had deepened, the dark increased
Even the void was lacking substance

How I yearned for the spark to come again
To lift my spirits with its purest light
To fill my weary mind again
With the substance of its insustantial dream

Gordale Scar

Standing on the ground

My feet on warm earth
I lift my eyes to the craggy hills
Rising above me, towering high
Hiding me here in their cold, cold shadow

Grey skies hover with a fine mist rain
Ice cold falls on the hard grey rock
Tumbling around me the drenching spray
Chilling my heart with its endless water

All around the hills loom high
Closing me in on every side
Guarding, protecting, enclosing my life
Trapping my soul in their endless circle

Scrambling upwards I start to rise
Finding my way in relentless rocks
Slipping, breathless in the chilling flow
Fixing my eyes on the air above

Standing on the ground
My feet on warm earth
I turn my gaze to the valley floor
Spreading below me the rolling downs
Lifiting my heart with their glowing colours

At my feet the cliffs fall, steep
Their heights refelected in their cold bleak faces
Admiring, exalting my beaten foe
Humiliated now by the daring climb


Malham Cove
March 1989

Stolen with a Smile

You came with your smile
Breaking into my world
Opening doors to which I'd thrown away the keys
You touched every part
Reaching into the depths
Taking as yours feelings which I'd never known I'd had


How can you leave me now?
Open and vulnerable
The doors flung wide and my innermost thoughts revealed


How can you just walk away?
Taking with you
The security of the wall you built around my exposed heart


I willingly gave a part of me
Exchanged it for a part of you
So that, as you go, you go in incompleteness
Taking with you the part of me
Leaving without the part of you


Two people joined forever
By that which remains within us
Something given, never taken


For when you pumbed the very depths of my soul
You did not know the depth to which we'd both be touched


Unaware I was of the thief who stole so softly in
Creeping in behind the softest words, the reassuring looks
Taken in so I gave out
And now you're gone
Leaving me also imcomplete


And forever we will remember
The smiles with which we stole each other's hearts