LOOKING FOR LIFE’S SURPRISES

Originally written – 14.06.1986 and posted – 12.01.12 – Re-posted – 23.12.2019 as part of an Edenbray Retrospective

Looking For Life’s Surprises

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Grey bulging clouds hang like badly drawn curtains

broken by pinholes of lemon-gold laser light

whose beams create this epic set

And on the brow of skyline hill

green, grey and settled

like some armchair patient

Tripping and dancing into view

3 moorland ponies, 2 grey and 1

like silver-foil glinting

whose mane flickers and falls

Then I stood deep in woodland jungle

shielding my eyes as I searched endlessly

for the golden green drummer

whose beak drummed the hollow skins

of tall, ageless oaks

The brilliant sunlight falling and rising

in tiny motions on the rushing surface

of the passing stream which quarrelled

as well as babbled

I yawned and stretched

Where am I and am I really lost

from all gaze that is not heavenly?

Is this relentless pursuit of honesty fair?

And why even standing in dawn wind

and seeing nature unclothe its rarest beauty

Why, lost in the solitude of noon-day revelry

haunted by the strange mystery

of a woodpeckers work?

Why, when quietly musing and fashioning

moving pictures from rough-hewn

syllables and grey-edged words

Why do questions remain?

Was he right who said –

Must discontentment reign?

Or was he deceived by hearts illusions?

The misty dark clouds of reason

dented by life’s sadnesses and trials

– Or can we, like mythology’s phoenix

with feet as burnished bronze

wings charcoal and feather

heart burned and fused

beak gold like sovereigns

Can we lost in life’s metaphor

grope through, firmed by resolve?

to say yes, it has been worthwhile

For a moment, a flutter, a rush,

apple-green and lemon-yellow feather

crimson flash on chest gone

And I wait till again that resonating

distant putter and I am off

in search of a green woodpecker

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writtenbyedenbray14.6.86

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Why do questions remain?

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I think Bob Dylan has said fairly recently that he doesn’t really recognise his early compositions as his own. He feels like someone else wrote them. I concur with his sentiments when reading this piece that I wrote way back in 1986. A very reflective, melancholic and honest insight into both the authors heart and mind, I would say ~ edenbray today

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#PROG-PROSE ~ Progressive Poetry – part of an #Edenbray retrospective – Re-posted today for a new generation!